Today's Baiye City is no longer the Baiye City of the past, or it is no longer the Baiye City where people went to the city and all industries were depressed during the period from Wanli to the Apocalypse.

Today's Baiye City has not only strengthened and rebuilt the tall city walls, but also divided the city into blocks inside and outside the city, and built one after another factories that are mainly based on steel smelting or gun casting.

In each factory, there are many factories and dense population.

In and around the entire Baiye City, there are more than 100,000 workers and craftsmen who belong to the major mines, smelters and guns and artillery factories of the Ministry of Industry, that is, those who eat the bowl of rice of steel smelting or gun casting.

In that year, after Emperor Chongzhen ordered the re-establishment of the Ministry of Baiyecheng Iron Works, Li Banghua, who was the secretary of the Ministry of Industry at that time, personally sat in Baiye City, recruited miners, selected craftsmen, built workshops, and compiled mining camps.

After Li Banghua was promoted to Minister of Military Aircraft and went to the northwest region to supervise the war, Bi Maokang was ordered to replace him as the new secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and Baiyecheng also ushered in new development opportunities.

Under the leadership of Bi Maokang, the new Ministry of Industry Shangshu, who attaches more importance to the production of firearms, Baiye City, which is directly managed by the Ministry of Industry, on the one hand, relies on the great attention and heavy investment of Emperor Chongzhen, and on the other hand, with the superior coal and iron ore and metallurgical resources in this area, it has not only become the largest iron and steel smelting town in the north of the Ming Dynasty, but also quickly became another important town of the Ming Dynasty's new armament manufacturing industry outside Tongzhou.

This time, Emperor Chongzhen's decision to visit Baiye City in person to inspect the Third Gun Factory of the Armament Institute had already reached Baiye City.

Bi Maokang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, the officials of the Military Armament Institute, and the officials of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Mining and Metallurgical Officials who are stationed in Baiye City have also been waiting for many days.

At noon on the 10th day of the third month of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Bi Maokang, Sun Yuanhua and others finally appeared in their field of vision.

This time, Emperor Chongzhen accepted the advice of Sun Chengzong, Nan Juyi and other accompanying ministers, and when the imperial driver arrived outside the east gate of Baiye City, he did not get out of the car in the tsunami-like sound of the mountains inside and outside Baiye City, but pushed open the window of the royal carriage, and briefly met with Bi Maokang, Sun Yuanhua and other officials on the carriage.

Just when Emperor Chongzhen received the officials waiting outside the east gate of Baiye City, according to the previous scheduled arrangement of the Military Aircraft Department, Nan Juyi, the secretary of the military department, took over the defense of Baiye City on the spot with the men and horses of Jinyi Wei and Yulinwei.

Subsequently, accompanied by the Minister of Military Aircraft, Sun Chengzong, the Minister of Military Aircraft, and the officials of Baiye City, the men and horses of the Shenji Battalion and Tiance Guard, escorted the emperor's car and galloped straight into Baiye City, and went straight to the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry of Baiye City.

This work department is the temporary residence of Emperor Chongzhen during his visit to Baiye City.

At the beginning, after Emperor Chongzhen expressed his intention to visit Baiye City one day, the Military Aircraft Department and the Ministry of Industry both asked for an edict to build a special residence for the emperor during his stay in Baiye City, following the precedent of the emperor's inspection of the first town camp of the Guards.

As soon as this idea was proposed, it was quickly vetoed by Emperor Chongzhen.

It's just a matter of a few days, so where is it possible to build a dwelling?

After learning that the Ministry of Industry had set up a special branch in Baiye City to oversee all affairs inside and outside Baiye City, Emperor Chongzhen immediately decided to live in the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry during his stay in Baiye City.

At noon on the same day, Emperor Chongzhen formally summoned Bi Maokang, Sun Yuanhua and others in the Yamen of the Ministry of Work in the east gate of Baiye City, which was cleaned up and almost spotless.

"The imitation of the rifled gun assigned by His Majesty before, the ministers are fortunate to live up to their orders, and it has been trial-built by the Third Gun Factory in Baiye City!

"The rifling used by the ministers, as His Majesty said that day, is a straight line, but the number of rifling is twice as large as that of the rifled gun offered by the Dutch Red Maofan, and eight straight lines are taken!

"This musket, the minister has personally tested, in terms of its range, accuracy, compared with the current Guards and other departments equipped with a type of flintlock smoothbore gun has been greatly improved, even compared to the Dutch red hair fan dedicated rifled gun is also better!

"This flintlock straight engraved rifled gun can pierce through the iron armor within one hundred and eighty steps, and the cotton armor of the Eastern Captives within two hundred steps, and as for the leather armor worn by the ordinary Northern Cavalry, it is not a problem to be two hundred steps away!

"It's just that this musket, after repeated tests by the Armament Institute, has a slightly inferior loading rate than an unrifled flintlock smoothbore gun!

"And the reason why the ministers take the rifling of the straight Yin carving is also because of this! The spiral rifling proposed by His Majesty at that time, and the ministers also made the Third Gun Factory trial production, and the casting was already difficult, and the loading was especially difficult! And after it is fired, it is even more difficult to clean the chamber of the gun!

"It is because the ministers and others all think that if the imperial court wants to finalize mass production and equip the towns of the Guards in large quantities, it is still the best choice to directly engrave eight yin lines!

"Moreover, in the opinion of the ministers, this rifled musket can be equipped with the Guards infantry, and the musket equipped with the cavalry seems to be still based on the unrifled smoothbore gun!"

Sun Yuanhua took advantage of Emperor Chongzhen's dinner to quickly make a brief report on the basic situation of the rifled gun imitation, and the meaning was also very clear:

First, the linear rifled gun engraved with eight Yin lines in the chamber is the best one in terms of range, accuracy and rate of fire among the several linear rifled guns they tried to build.

Second, rifled guns are troublesome to load and have a slower rate of fire than smoothbore guns, making them unsuitable for cavalry use.

After hearing Sun Yuanhua finish saying this, Emperor Chongzhen just nodded at him, indicating that he knew, and then looked at Bi Maokang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry.

Seeing this, Bi Maokang continued Sun Yuanhua's words and said: "After Your Majesty previously assigned the matter of imitating rifled muskets, the minister discussed with Lord Sun that since the Dutch Hongmao Fan has made rifled guns, it may not be possible to make rifled guns!"

"The musket is called a small gun, and the artillery is called a big gun, and its principle must be the same! Since the ministers were ordered to imitate rifled guns, they simply set up a project with the rifled guns!

"This matter has been reported to the Military Aircraft Department, and His Majesty has approved it! Today, His Majesty came to Baiye City in person to test the rifled musket, and the minister dared to ask His Majesty to watch the newly cast rifled Hongyi cannon test firing drill of the gun factory! ”

After Bi Maokang said this, Emperor Chongzhen also nodded at him and did not speak.

As early as before Emperor Chongzhen arrived in Baiye City, he had already learned about these situations since the rifled guns and rifled guns were imitated from several reports from the Ministry of Industry and the Armament Institute.

At this time, I came to Baiye City, sat in the yamen of the Ministry of Engineering, which was in charge of the internal and external affairs of Baiye City, and listened to Bi Maokang and Sun Yuanhua's recital while eating a simple but exquisite lunch, and my mood was very relaxed and happy.

After more than eight months of hard work, whether it is a rifled gun or a rifled gun, several models have been trial-produced and tested.

Now that they can take it out and let Emperor Chongzhen finalize the mass production, of course, they are the best one they have decided after repeated selection.

In the final analysis, this time Emperor Chongzhen left Beijing to go to Dagukou and came to Baiye City, but he was not as uncertain as the imperial driver came to Juyongguan in person before.

This time, everything was determined, Emperor Chongzhen didn't have to come over, and the reason why he came here was to fully express his attention to these new things.

Regarding the comparison between rifled guns and smoothbore guns, and even between rifled guns and smoothbore guns, now this Emperor Chongzhen, although he is not an expert in firearms or artillery, knows better than Sun Yuanhua, Bi Maokang and others.

Because, he knows the general trend of rifled guns and smoothbore guns, rifled guns and smoothbore guns in the future.

Just when Sun Yuanhua and Bi Maokang finished their simple recital, Emperor Chongzhen solved the simple and exquisite lunch prepared for him by the Ministry of Works, and then took a sip of tea from the tea bowl, rinsed his mouth, spit it into the spittoon prepared by the attendants around him in advance, and then said to everyone:

"Excellent! The Ministry of Engineering is very good, and the Armament Institute is also very good! You are very attentive to the affairs assigned by me, and you can draw inferences from one another, from imitation rifled guns to imitation rifled guns, which shows that you are very attentive! I'm very happy with that! ”

After Emperor Chongzhen said this, Bi Maokang, Sun Yuanhua and the accompanying ministers bowed down and saluted together, all of whom were called Long Live Shengming.

When everyone in the second hall of the Yamen of the Ministry of Work quieted down, Emperor Chongzhen smiled and continued:

"However, hearing is false, seeing is believing, and there is an old saying that it is better to hear than to see!

"What about the rifled guns and rifled guns imitated by the Third Gun Factory in Baiye City, are they as Bi Aiqing and Sun Aiqing said, and I want you to accompany me to see for yourself!"