On the 4th day of the first lunar month, Cheng Hanbin, ambassador of the Ordnance Bureau, personally led a team to transport 24 cannons that could fire flowering shells that had been secretly developed by the Ordnance Bureau from Zhenjiang to Baimao. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info these cannons will be attached to the artillery regiment of the New Third Army.

Zhou Shixiang tested the power of these flowering shells by the riverside, and it is no exaggeration to say that compared with the iron bullets and lead bullets fired by traditional artillery, the large-scale coverage and damage of the new shells after explosion is definitely a sharp weapon against cavalry.

To a certain extent, the flowering shells are the same as the "no conscience" used by the Taiping Army before, and they are indistinguishable in terms of the range of destruction. The biggest difference between the two is that the unconscionable use distance is only about 150 meters, while the flowering shell can hit about a kilometer. The maximum firing range tested by the Ordnance Bureau was four miles, but the effect was not as good as that of a kilometer, and the shells were easy to deviate from the attack target.

The distance of a kilometer or so is far enough compared to the firecracker. The application of flowering shells will make up for the shortcomings of the Taiping army's weak long-range attack, and the battlefield will form a cannonball to harvest a piece first, and a piece of unconscionable cannon to harvest again, and the last remaining fish that slip through the net will face the repeated attacks of the firecracker. It is conceivable that under such a high-intensity firearm attack, it is impossible for the Qing army, nor any army, to break through the defense line of the Taiping army.

When this tactic matures, the cold weapons currently equipped in the army will also be phased out, so that the Taiping Army will truly transform into a pure firearms army.

However, Zhou Shixiang called this kind of shell "flower", which means that it blooms everywhere, but the people of the Ordnance Bureau call it "Zimu Bomb", which is more acceptable than the name "Flower".

In order to obtain detailed data on submunitions from the battlefield so that the Ordnance Bureau could improve them, Cheng Hanbin organized 15 business elites of the Ordnance Bureau to go north with the army.

Zhou Shixiang handed over this team to Li Kuangming, and clearly told the other party that he, the commander, could die, but these elites of the Ordnance Bureau could not die, not even one of them could be injured.

Qi Jiajun's emphasis on firearms was originally the most important in the Ming army. As a descendant of the Qi family, Li Kuangming naturally admires firearms very much, and he also knows the significance of these craftsmen who developed firearms.

Zhou Shixiang corrected Li Kuangming's concept and told him that these people were not craftsmen, but R&D experts, and they were outstanding talents in the field of Daming firearms. Their significance is by no means under the Jinshi, and it can even be said that the ten champions are not as important as them to the Taiping Army.

Zhou Shixiang was so solemn that Li Kuangming was very shocked, and he specially ordered his military guards to protect them.

In addition to the sub-munitions, Cheng Hanbin also brought 10,000 bodies without conscience, 170,000 catties of medicine, more than 14,000 rounds of various shells, and 1,400 medicine bags specially used for blasting. These account for about sixty percent of the Ordnance Bureau's output this year, although there is still a certain distance from Zhou Shixiang's requirements, but they can barely support the needs of the army. In addition to these ordnance, Cheng Hanbin also brought a fire gun that impressed Zhou Shixiang.

Like the flowering cannonballs, this gun was called the "Son-Mother Gun" by the Ordnance Bureau. However, Zhou Shixiang preferred to call this gun a machine gun, or the prototype of a machine gun.

Unlike the machine guns that have been touched and fought by the Ordnance Bureau, the style of this rod developed by the Ordnance Bureau is relatively simple, and the ignition method is still the fire rope, and the bullets are also iron and lead shots, but it can fire 17 shots in a row. This means that if a soldier is given 100 guns on the battlefield, the actual power is equivalent to 1,700 guns. And there is no need to organize a queue to shoot in turn, and in a short time, the attackers can be swept away with a barrage like a gust of wind.

Zhou Shixiang was simply ecstatic and asked Cheng Hanbin how he came up with the idea of developing this firecracker. Cheng Hanbin said that this kind of firearm was not designed by him, but made by a person named Li Dabiao.

After listening to Cheng Hanbin's introduction to Li Dabiao, Zhou Shixiang couldn't help but sigh that Daming is really full of talents, and there is never a shortage of talents.

Li Dabiao is in his fifties this year and is a native of Jinzhou, eastern Liaoning. His father was a cavalry under Zu Dashou, and later Zu Dashou descended to the Qing Dynasty, and his father became a soldier of the Eight Banners of the Manchu Han Dynasty. After Li Dabiao became an adult, his son inherited his father's business, and also served as a soldier in the Han Eight Banners to eat food, once attacked Sichuan with Haoge, and then fought Guangxi with Kong Youde, after being defeated by Li Dingguo's department, Li Dabiao became a straggler, and later ran to Jiangxi as a bandit. As a result, when the Taiping army attacked Ganzhou, his bandit village was uprooted by the Taiping army, and Li Dabiao, like others, was captured by the Taiping army and became an auxiliary soldier.

Because he was injured by the Ming army of Li Dingguo when he was in Guangxi, and he was too old to do heavy work, Li Dabiao became the subordinate of the Taiping army, and was responsible for burning the fire and burying the stove. Because he is old, he has traveled from south to north and south, and he has seen a lot, so although he is a miscellaneous man, Li Dabiao is also nourished in the army, and from time to time there are officers who come to ask him about the Qing army.

Later, Li Dabiao's battalion of the Taiping Army was ordered to protect the Ordnance Bureau that moved from Guangdong to Zhenjiang, because in the early years he had contact with the Ming army firearms craftsmen who were captured by the Qing army, so Li Dabiao was no stranger to the production of firearms. After contacting the people of the Ordnance Bureau, and after putting forward a few opinions, he was transferred to the Ordnance Bureau as an errand by Cheng Hanbin, who was looking for firearms talents.

In the past two years, the main work of the Ordnance Bureau was to prepare gunpowder and saltpeter and make flintlock guns, while Li Dabiao helped train some new people to repair the broken guns sent by the army. After a long time, seeing that the Taiping Army attaches great importance to firearms, and rewards the talents who develop new firearms, many of the original craftsmen have been promoted to officials, and Cheng Hanbin, the ambassador of the Ordnance Bureau, has become a waiter of the Ministry of Engineering from the second grade, which makes Li Dabiao very enthusiastic and feels that he can also make something to make an official.

Li Dabiao's "invention" came from the three-eyed gun commonly used by the Ming army, and after a year of failure, Li Dabiao finally came up with this one-child gun that can fire 17 rings in a row. After Cheng Hanbin saw the sample, he knew that it was definitely a good thing.

Zhou Shixiang asked Cheng Hanbin to find Li Dabiao, praised Li Dabiao in front of a group of civil and military officials, and awarded him the official title of a thousand households, and ordered him to specially develop and improve the Zimu gun. And put forward some suggestions for improvement, such as changing the fire rope to flint, increasing the projectile capacity, shortening the gun body, improving the firing distance and accuracy, and so on.

Zhou Shixiang personally promised that as long as Li Dabiao could improve the son and mother gun in place and could mass produce it, then his official rank would be improved again, and it was not impossible for him to even be a marquis. This made Li Dabiao unspeakably excited.

After Li Dabiao stepped down, Cheng Hanbin reported on the internal purge of the Ordnance Bureau, and it has now been ascertained that three people are suspected of leaking secrets, and they have been taken away by the Military Intelligence Department.

Cheng Hanbin pleaded guilty to Zhou Shixiang, and he admitted that he was not knowing who he employed, so that the military information was leaked. Zhou Shixiang shook his head and said to him that it was not terrible to leak secrets, but what was terrible was that he didn't know how to leak secrets. Later, as more and more weapons from the Ordnance Bureau are available, leaks will become the norm, after all, there are not many people in the world who can resist the lure of huge benefits. If we want to prevent this kind of thing from happening, the first thing is to improve the status of ordnance research and development personnel, not only to give them a sense of honor, but also to make them worry-free about food and clothing. The second is to strengthen internal precautions, and if we find that we will strike hard together, we must not tolerate them.

After talking about this matter, Zhou Shixiang ordered someone to take a map, pointed to a few places and told Cheng Hanbin that there were large iron and copper mines there, and he organized people from the Ordnance Bureau to survey and map, and then formulated a detailed development plan and reported it to the Ministry of Industry.

"Don't worry, I'll organize someone to do it when I go back."

Cheng Hanbin's eyes moved away from the map, and the last place he saw seemed to be in the Taiping Mansion in Anhui, where for some reason, Dashuai marked three words "Ma'anshan".

"I have already said hello to the Ministry of Industry, and I will fully cooperate with you. After the plan is formulated, the imperial court will go all out to develop the industry, well, by the way, do you have any ideas about the steam engine I told you last time? ”

"According to the idea of the big marshal, his subordinates found someone to make two textile machines powered by steam, but one was unsuccessful, and although the other was completed, it only ran less than half a column of incense and broke down." Cheng Hanbin said honestly.

Zhou Shixiang waved his hand: "It's okay, if it's broken, you can do it again, it will always succeed." It's hard to get started. Don't be afraid of spending money, if the money is not enough, open a bill to the treasury to receive, I will also give you a letter, if you can make a steam engine, this marshal will personally award you a knight! ”

"Dashuai, subordinates..."

Like Li Dabiao before, Cheng Hanbin was also indescribably excited. In the Ming generation, there has never been a "craftsman" knight.

Just when Cheng Hanbin secretly vowed to get out the steam engine that the marshal said, at the gate of the Jiangnan Army University in Zhenjiang, more than a dozen students were saying goodbye to each other.

"Brother Luo, Brother Chen, my life is not as good as yours, and I can't participate in the Northern Expedition. Please kill a few more Tartars for me! A student named Cheng Lin was a little envious, and a little sad to look at Luo Lun, Chen Shiqi and other companions who were about to return to the army to participate in the Northern Expedition.

Luo Lun said with a smile: "Brother Lin, the southwest is now under the control of the King of Jin, I heard that the third war zone is responsible for the important task of attacking the northwest of Shaanxi and Gansu, and there will be many battles in the future, why should you be so depressed." ”

"Yes, the Manchurians are just dying and struggling, and a war can be decided. At that time, there will be no war in the north, but your third theater will not worry about fighting, and you will have more opportunities to make meritorious contributions than us. ”

Chen Shiqi is not relieved by Cheng Lin, but this is indeed the case. The third theater is the theater in charge of the northwest region, and the northwest has been a place where wars have been frequent throughout the ages. Cheng Lin went to the third war zone, how could there be no battle to fight.

"That's just as well!"

Cheng Lin arched his fist towards the companions who had been with him for several months: "Everyone, let's say goodbye, if we can survive in the future, we will meet in Beijing City!" Everyone! ”

"Okay, see you in Beijing!" Chen Shiqi clenched his fists and said heavily.

"Precious!"

In the sound of "cherishing", more than a dozen students of the Army Academy General Zuoban went to their own places, and in the future, they will appear on the battlefields of Daming.

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