The next morning, after breakfast, Li Jinzhong took Zhu Xiaoqi to the War Bureau. As soon as I arrived at the door, I saw the eunuch with palm prints, and the eunuch of the Admiral Armory Arsenal fell to the ground with dozens of people such as management, secretary, director, writing, and supervisor, and said in unison: "Welcome to His Royal Highness." Zhu Xiaoqi glanced at Li Jinzhong and understood that he should have talked about it yesterday. Holding hands in a weak hands: "Everyone, please get up." The crowd didn't dare to say anything. The palm print eunuch stepped forward and introduced himself first: "Slave and maid soldiers and soldiers of the Palm Seal Li Chaoqin, please ask His Royal Highness the Taisun to give instructions." Zhu Xiaoqi said with a smile: "Let's go and see the firearms first." ”

The group came to the gunpowder office. After entering the door, there was a large field, which was filled with cannons and firearms, large and small, and strange shapes. It seems that Li Chaoqin still put some thought into it in order to appease the emperor's grandson.

Zhu Xiaoqi picked up a firecracker, pointed it at a distance, pulled the trigger, dizzy, and did not move. Li Chaoqin hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Your Highness forgives your sins, the slave maid doesn't know that His Highness is now saying that he wants to test the gun, and he didn't light the arquebus, please punish His Highness." ”

Zhu Xiaoqi knew that he was giving himself the stairs, so he smiled and handed him the fire gun in his hand. Li Chaoqin first lit the fire rope with a tinder can, flattened the fire gun, aimed at the target in front of him, and then pulled the trigger, and with a bang, a round hole appeared on the target.

Zhu Xiaoqi clapped his hands and smiled: "Yes, Li Dujian's marksmanship is good!" Li Chaoqin handed the fire gun to the person next to him, bowed down and said, "The slave and maid thanked His Highness for his praise." There are also all kinds of firecrackers here, please enjoy them for Your Highness. ”

Zhu Xiaoqi found that the muskets here were all single-shot arquebuses, and asked, "Why don't you have that thunderbolt?" ”

"Your Highness, the War Bureau only manufactures single-eyed firearms, and the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry only produces three-eyed guns, as for the Thunderbolts, the Ordnance Bureau also does not make them, because the production is troublesome, and the effect is not very good."

"So, Eunuch Li, can these firebolts only be ignited with a fire rope? There is no other method of ignition. ”

Li Chaoqin was dumbfounded, the arquebus, as the name suggests, should of course be ignited with an arquebus, how can there be any other ignition method? But His Royal Highness Taisun said so, there should be another way. He was very clever, and immediately bowed down and said: "The slave only knows this way of ignition, but there are some old people in our war bureau, so it is better to let them tell them if there is another way." ”

After getting permission, he asked someone to call out three old men from a big room, about fifty years old, with weathered faces, Zhu Xiaoqi saw that they all had beards, he became strange, and asked, "Aren't they internal officials?" Li Jinzhong whispered: "No, they are old craftsmen." There are twenty-four yamen in the imperial city, only the ones in charge are the inner servants, and the others are craftsmen. Only then did Zhu Xiaoqi realize that he was wrong.

Li Chaoqin said: "His Royal Highness the Taisun asked if the fire can only be lit with a fire rope, and is there any other way to ignite the fire?" Two of the old men shook their heads, and only one of them knelt down and said, "Last time, I heard that someone in Guangzhou had seen a kind of firearm of the Francophone man, and it can be fired without a fire rope." I just don't know how. Zhu Xiaoqi was overjoyed and stepped forward to help him up, but the old man didn't dare to say anything, so he stood up by himself.

Zhu Xiaoqi asked Li Chaoqin and knew that these three old men were the stewards of the Gunpowder Bureau, that is, the technical guides. He also knows that technological innovation does not happen overnight. He knew about the fact that he would be in power in more than a year, but he knew about it through the Parallel Time and Space Administration No. 1, and now it is very important to make a good technical reserve first. So he asked Li Chaoqin to arrange a room, and after entering the house, he asked the three old men to sit down, but the old men refused, and finally Li Jinzhong got angry and sat down. It's just a little bit against the corner of the stool.

Zhu Xiaoqi said: "I know other ignition methods, which is to hit the flint with steel, and the sparks produced ignite the gunpowder. But how to set up the striking device, Lone is not clear. The three of them are all old men who have been immersed in this for many years, and these things will be left to you. Li Dujian, you select some clever people from the Gunpowder Bureau, divide them into three groups, let the three of them each lead a group, and tell them how to make fire, and let them study how to make it, which group makes it first, and which group makes a fire gun with a high ignition rate, and which group will reward which group. ”

"Then the current arquebus should continue to improve, and the main directions of improvement are these, one is to increase the firing range, the second is to increase the hit ratio, the third is to increase the reloading speed, and the fourth is to reduce the number of parts. In these aspects, as long as there is progress, there are many rewards, and Li Dujian also has rewards, and the rewards come out alone. Also, these things must be kept secret and not spread out. For specific grouping and reward methods, you can write a statement tomorrow and talk about it after reading it. Although some words in Zhu Xiaoqi's words are very fresh, the basic meaning can be heard before and after the combination. Everyone understands that there is a reward.

Scientific research is such a thing, I'm not afraid that I can't do it, I'm just afraid that I can't think of it, and now His Royal Highness Taisun has told all the methods, and it is not difficult to make real things, and it seems that this reward is quite easy to take. So they stood up together and said, "Obey the edict of the grandson." Li Chaoqin was even more excited, and even shouted "dare not to die for the grandson".

Zhu Xiaoqi said again: "In the future, Li Banban will help Gu watch here, if you have any requirements, you can mention it to Li Banban, and Lone only needs the result." Today is April 28th, and three months later, July 28th, I want to see a new type of firearm that can be used. Everyone nodded together and said, "I don't dare to live up to the high expectations of His Royal Highness Taisun." ”

Let's go out of the house together and look at the artillery again. Zhu Xiaoqi asked, "Which is the Hongyi cannon?" ”

"The slave is only a shallow learner, and I haven't heard of the Hongyi cannon. There are only this kind of tiger squat cannon, this kind of bowl mouth cannon, and this kind of Franc machine cannon in the war bureau. Li Chaoqin introduced it to His Royal Highness the Taisun one by one.

I saw that the tiger squatting cannon was about two feet long, with seven iron hoops around the body, and the head of the cannon was erected by two iron claws, and there were iron stumbling. It looks majestic. Yesterday, I saw an introduction to the tiger squat cannon in the "Actual Record of Military Training", the tiger squat cannon weighs 36 pounds, and before firing, the cannon body must be fixed on the ground with a large iron nail, and each launch can be filled with 100 small lead or small stones weighing five yuan, and a large lead bullet or large stone bullet weighing 30 taels is used to press the top, and when the bullets are fired, the big and small bullets fly out together, and the roar is like thunder, and the lethality and radiation range are very large. Especially suitable for field warfare. It's effective against dense enemies, but it's a bit cumbersome to reload and fire, so it's slower.

The Franc cannon was much larger than the Tiger Squat gun, but it turned out to be an iron breech-loading smoothbore gun. Although it was loaded with a gun instead of a cannonball, Zhu Xiaoqi knew that the development direction of the cannon was to change from front-loading guns to rear-loading guns, which could greatly increase the rate of fire. So he asked Li Chaoqin: "The Franc cannon should fire much faster than the Tiger Squat cannon, but are there any shortcomings?" "The Franc cannon was too large for field combat, but it could be used to defend the city. The shells did not shoot far, they were not very powerful, and they were not suitable for siege. "The range is not far, mainly because of the process, and now Zhu Xiaoqi has no fundamental solution, so he can only standardize the production as much as possible. Take your time, you can't become a fat person by eating in one bite. Li Chaoqin was instructed to include the improvement of artillery in tomorrow's Tiaochen.

After coming out of the Firearms Bureau, he looked at the situation of swords, guns, and armor in various parts of the Arms Bureau. Li Chaoqin took out a short sword and presented it in front of Zhu Xiaoqi. Zhu Xiaoqi took it, but when he saw that the sword was about a foot long, he gently pulled it out, and there were patterns on the sword, like a cloud ladder, with more than ten layers. "This is a sword that the slave maid occasionally gets, from Tianzhu. The sharpness is abnormal, the treasure slave does not dare to use it, Taisun Hero, it is the master of this sword. "After that, he took a wooden stick and held it in front of the sword, Zhu Xiaoqi swung it away, he didn't feel any resistance, and he didn't hear any sound, the wooden stick was broken." Good sword, good sword, you have a heart. He waved it a few more times, and became more and more satisfied. This Li Chaoqin is good, I don't know how to do things, at least he is very skillful.

Returning home with a full load, the mood is naturally excellent. Back at his residence, Hakka said that Xu Guangqi had sent someone to deliver something. Li Jinzhong opened the package, and inside was a wooden box with seven or eight sweet potatoes in it and a thin book on the outside. Zhu Xiaoqi said: "Where is the management and planting? ”

"The Siyuan Bureau is in charge of all the vegetables, fruits and planting arts in the palace, and the eunuch with the palm print is Wang Tiqian."

"You give these things to him, and let him cultivate them first according to the method mentioned in Lord Xu's book, and all the harvest must be used for the next seed, cultivate as much as possible, and record the cultivation method. Tell him that there is a reward for doing a good job. Li Jinzhong bowed down and agreed, and went to the Siyuan Bureau with his things.