"Wash yourselves, cleanse yourselves, and take away your wickedness from my eyes. Stop doing evil and learn to do good. Seek justice, deliver the oppressed, avenge the orphans, and defend the widows. Come, and we will argue among ourselves. Though your sins be as scarlet, they will become white with snow. Though they be red as red, they shall be as white as wool. If you are willing to obey, you will eat the good things of the earth. but if they do not listen, they will rebel, and they will be swallowed up by the sword. This is what Jehovah himself said! Amen! ”

Since John Tang came to China, he has never seen a person with such a noble status as Zhu Youzhen. So he seized the opportunity and recited a passage from the Bible. If Zhu Youzhen is interested, he will have the opportunity to preach for this prince. Even if Zhu Youzhen doesn't listen, if he can impress other officials at the same table, it will be a great achievement.

After the recitation, the people at the same table whispered: "What is this foreign monk talking nonsense? Who is Jehovah who is so ashamed to speak? ”

Xu Guangqi saw that John Tang aroused the disgust of his fellow tablemates, so he hurriedly pulled him lightly and said: "This Mr. John Tang is from the West, he is a Jesuit missionary, and he is currently an apprentice in Qintianjian. He was proficient in astronomy and had successfully predicted a lunar eclipse more than a month earlier. ”

Xu Xianchun shook his fat head lightly, and said disapprehantly: "The sun and the moon are eclipsed, the main dynasty is sluggish, and the traitorous ministers are in charge, so the celestial phenomena are a warning." Today, Long Live and Nine Thousand Years Old exerted their might, dismissed Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, and Wei Dazhong from their posts and questioned them, revitalized the dynasty, cleared the clouds and saw the sun, and the warning signs have been removed. Qin Tian is responsible for observing the celestial phenomena, calculating the solar terms, and formulating the calendar, so important to the society, he actually let a foreign monk get in, and the Ministry of Rites can really mess around, hahaha! ”

Tang Ruowang also knew Xu Xianchun's identity, so it was inconvenient to argue with him, so he just smiled and shook his head.

Zhu Youzhen was very interested in this person, and asked: "The name of Mr. was only given after coming to my Ming Dynasty, right?" The West is thousands of miles away, how did Mr. come here? ”

John Tang hurriedly replied respectfully: "The grass people's real name is John? Adam, born in Cologne, studied at the Academy of Rome. In the year 1618 of the Gregorian calendar, that is, in the 46th year of the Wanli Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, the grass people set sail from Lisbon by the decree of His Excellency King Felipe, the co-monarch of the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Portugal, and landed in Macao in the summer of the 47th year of Wanli. After studying Chinese in Macao for several years, he traveled north from Macau at the beginning of this year and arrived in Beijing. ”

Xu Guangqi had already been developed into a Christian believer by John Tong. At this moment, seeing that Zhu Youzhen listened carefully, he also helped: "Mr. Tang came to my Daming not only to preach, he is very knowledgeable, and he is a hundred times more than Guangqi. Guangqi studied under Matteo Ricci, but his mentor had been away from the West for many years. Mr. Tang has just come here and brought a lot of the latest research results. In particular, some guns and cannons, if the imperial court could use them, would be beneficial to the war in Liaodong. ”

John Tang has been in China for several years and knows that Chinese has been immersed in traditional culture since childhood, and the vast majority of people at the level of scholars and doctors who control society only respect the way of Confucius and Mencius. And the small people in the market, whether they believe in Buddhism or Taoism, are also very religious. As for Christianity, which is a foreign product, it is very resistant, and it is extremely difficult to carry out missionary work.

Therefore, since Matteo Ricci, the Jesuits have changed their strategy, no longer directly and forcibly preaching doctrines, but first familiarize themselves with the etiquette of the local people and improve their relationship with the people. Then they offered local officials new gadgets brought from the West, and even bribed them heavily.

This strategy did work well, and subtly, it cultivated China's first batch of Christians, and Xu Guangqi was one of them. However, the officials represented by Xu Guangqi actually valued the advanced technology brought by Western missionaries, and it can be said that the two sides were using each other.

At this time, Tang Ruowang naturally refused to give up the great opportunity to get close to Zhu Youzhen, took out an object from his arms, presented it to Zhu Youzhen with both hands, and said: "It is really an honor for the grass people to meet His Royal Highness King Xin. There is a small gift here, talking about the grass people's respect for His Highness, and please accept it. ”

Zhu Youzhen took it and saw that it was a pistol with exquisite workmanship. This product was also a CS fanatic in his previous life, and he boasted that he was a sand eagle, but he also knew a little about the world's well-known firearms. He saw that this pistol did not have a common magazine in his previous life, but the caliber was not small, 15mm; The barrel is also much longer than the later pistols, and at first glance it looks like an antique-grade pistol.

John Tang said with a smile: "This pistol was worn by the captain of the guard of His Excellency Henry, King of France, and it applied the latest technology, I hope His Highness can like it." ”

Xu Xianchun and the others present here are all military attaches of Jinyiwei, although their official ranks are prominent, and they usually don't need to do it themselves, but they still know a little bit about weapons. Cui Yingyuan looked at Tang Ruowang's new pistol and sneered: "Why doesn't this gun match the arquebus?" If there is no fire rope ignition, how can it be fired? I'm afraid it's just an ornament! ”

Tang Ruowang said confidently: "This gun does not have an arquebus. Did you notice, there is a small flint in the jaws of the hammer. When the trigger was pulled, the flint on the hammer struck the side of the fire door under the action of the spring, and sparks appeared. The spark ignites the projectile, and the projectile ignites the projectile again, and the projectile can be launched. ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen know that he had seen the ancestor in the pistol, the percussive flintlock pistol. He said excitedly, "Mr. Tang, can you demonstrate it?" ”

John Tang gladly accepted the order, took out some round projectiles from his pocket, opened a small box, scooped out a spoonful of black gunpowder powder with a small spoon, and carefully poured it into the barrel from the front of the barrel. Then, the projectile is placed in the muzzle of the gun, and with a special small wooden hammer, the projectile is smashed into the barrel little by little. After that, the firing cartridge was opened from the rear of the pistol and a small amount of gunpowder was poured. The whole process took more than two minutes.

Tang Ruowang immediately handed the pistol to Zhu Youzhen and said, "Your Highness, the ammunition has been loaded, you can test the gun." ”

Zhu You raised the gun in his hand, surrounded by everyone, and pulled the trigger at a thick courtyard wall.

only heard a loud "bang", the smoke suddenly rose, and everyone was startled. When the smoke cleared, he found that Zhu Youzhen was shocked by the huge recoil and sat on the ground, and his face was also blackened, which was simply embarrassing. Since he didn't expect the recoil to be so great, the shot also lost its target, and instead of hitting the target, it hit the high wall and smashed the tiles on it.

Everyone laughed and laughed, and hurriedly helped Zhu Youzhen up. Xu Xianchun and the others just wanted to reprimand Tang Ruowang, but Zhu Youzhen smiled awkwardly: "Good gun!" It's just that the power is greater, and the king is not mentally prepared. ”

After returning to the hall and re-seated, Zhu Youzhen was still full of praise for the pistol. Cui Yingyuan said: "The power of the gun is indeed not small, but it is too troublesome to reload and too long." With this effort, four or five bows and arrows were fired. If it was at close range, before the reload was completed, the person with the gun would have been hacked to death by the sword, and there would be no chance to fire. It can be seen that this gun is flashy and unusable. ”

Tang Ruowang was speechless by this reprimand, so he had to say: "What Master Cui said is true." His Excellency Henry, King of France, was a lover of this gun, but he had been killed by an assassin on a trip a few years earlier. The Assassins did use only swords, and the King's guards simply did not have time to reload. After the death of Lord Henry, the French generals also refused to use such guns, because the sparks fired by flint were small and often could not ignite black powder. ”

Zhu Youzhen approvingly: "Mr. Tang, although this flintlock pistol still has all kinds of shortcomings, it still has a major improvement compared to the arquebus. For an arquebus to fire, the arquebus must first be ignited. If it is windy and rainy, and the fire rope cannot be ignited, the gun becomes a burning stick. And this flintlock pistol, as long as you take care not to let the firing medicine chamber get water, it can also be used in rainy days. ”

Cui Yingyuan also defended: "But Your Highness, this kind of gun, like the arquebus, is too slow to fire is its fatal shortcoming. However, the bow and arrow are not affected by the weather, they can be fired at any time, and the rate of fire is several times that of a musket, and the range is not inferior. The border army was heavily armed with arquebuses, which could engage with Jianlu, and were often inferior to the opponent's strong bows and crossbows, which was the reason. ”

When he said this, everyone agreed. Zhu Youzhen secretly sighed in his heart that these people were blind and could not see the huge potential of firearms. If he could hold a semi-automatic machine gun at this time and slam at these guys, I believe they would never dare to speak out again. It's a pity that this pit daddy's crossing only sent him over naked, but did not bring any modern technology content!

At this time, the banquet officially began, and everyone raised their glasses to toast to Zhu Youzhen. Zhu Youzhen had to deal with it, but fortunately, the alcohol content in this era was not high, and he could still cope with it.

After three rounds of drinking, everyone was not as restrained as just now, and began to guess each other's fists and persuade each other to drink, which was very lively for a while. Zhu Youzhen took advantage of the fact that others were not paying attention, and smiled at the somewhat frustrated Tang Ruowang: "Mr. Tang doesn't have to mind, failure is the mother of success!" I believe that the technology of muskets will become more and more mature, and eventually they will definitely be able to replace cold weapons. ”

Tang Ruowang said in surprise: "Your Highness, your words are really incisive!" Failure is the mother of success, too vivid, too vivid! ”

Zhu Youzhen could only despise himself in his heart, and accidentally, he put the famous American orator Wendell? Phillips' quote was infringed.

But John Tang said distressedly: "But the disadvantage of the slow loading speed of the musket is really difficult to overcome!" ”

Zhu Youjian moved and comforted him: "I see that Mr. Tang just loaded the propellant and the projectile into the barrel of the gun. If you put the propellant and the projectile in a paper tube, can't you put it into the barrel together and save a little time? ”

Tang Ruowang pondered for a moment, then said with great joy: "Your Highness, you are really a genius!" Grass people dare to say that you are the greatest inventor of our time! ”

This thing smiled indifferently, thinking that my brother was just standing on the shoulders of countless predecessors and picking up a ready-made. That said, it's not bad to be a cheap inventor!