"I taught my uncle to assemble and disassemble this gun. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info said, Zhao Guohua taught Bi Maokang to disassemble and assemble the pistol hand-in-hand, worthy of being a firearms expert, and soon Bi Maokang learned to disassemble and assemble the pistol, and the disassembly and assembly were not bad at all.

"Uncle is a fast learner! He is a great expert in firearms! Zhao Guohua said with an admiring smile.

"Hahahaha......" Bi Maokang wrapped the pistol with a smile, and asked for advice on the method of loading the magazine, Zhao Guohua originally didn't want Bi Maokang to take the magazine with him, but he was afraid of upsetting him, so he taught Bi Maokang how to load, and solemnly told him that after the bullet was loaded, he must not open the firing safe. After Bi Maokang smiled and nodded in agreement, he said goodbye to Zhao Guohua, and happily sat in a small sedan chair with a happy face and went to the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry.

Seeing that Bi Maokang went out, Zhao Guohua called Zhang Shun to go out for a stroll, and the Xiu'er girl had to follow when she saw it, Mrs. Bi couldn't resist her daughter, and under Zhao Guohua's persuasion and assurance, she had to agree that Xiu'er would go out shopping with the two.

The Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry of Nanjing is located in a remote place, with high walls and barriers, and there are more than a dozen sergeants standing guard at the door, and a sign of "military aircraft is important, idlers are forbidden to step" is set up at the door.

Weapons, as the name suggests, are military tools, also called weapons, such as drums, firearms, etc. "Zhou Li? Xia Guan? Da Sima": "If the master is in charge of his commands, he will be in charge of the commandments, and the handsome deacon will provoke the lord and weapons. Zheng Xuan's note: "Weapons, the genus of the drum." "The New Tang Dynasty Book? Baiguan Zhi III": "Before the Kaiyuan Dynasty, all weapons were out of the right office. ”

In 1263, the Mongol court ordered the establishment of armament bureaus in all directions to manufacture weapons. In 1268, it was changed to the Ordnance Warden. In 1307, the Yuan Dynasty ordered the establishment of armament bureaus in various provinces, under the jurisdiction of the states and counties of the first bureau, bow bureau, arrow bureau, string bureau, miscellaneous bureau, etc., to manufacture a variety of special weapons.

The Ming Dynasty was the peak period of the development of firearms in ancient China, among which the firearms were outstanding in Zhu Yuanzhang's great cause of the founding of the country, helping Zhu Yuanzhang to lay down half of the country.

As early as the Southern Song Dynasty, Nanjing's firearms manufacturing industry was already very developed. After the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, King Kang Zhao built many important military towns in the south of the Yangtze River to manufacture gunpowder and firearms in order to resist the Jin soldiers, including the Jiankang Mansion in Jiangning. From April of the first year of Kaiqing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1259) to July of the second year of Jingding (1261), in just two years and three months, Jiankang Mansion made a total of 63,754 firearms, including not only bows and gunpowder arrows, crossbow gunpowder arrows, thunderbolt fires, and thistle fires made in the Northern Song Dynasty, as well as iron artillery created in the Southern Song Dynasty, but also the fire canisters.

Firearms made great contributions to Zhu Yuanzhang's fight against the world, so Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to firearms.

After Zhu Yuanzhang established the capital in Nanjing, he set up many institutions in Nanjing to manufacture and preserve firearms. In the thirteenth year of Hongwu (1380), Zhu Yuanzhang set up an ordnance bureau in the Ministry of Industry, specializing in the manufacture of weapons, mainly firearms, and also made royal honor guard weapons and a small number of cold weapons. In 1387, the Ming court ordered all localities to set up ordnance bureaus to manufacture various weapons. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were also regulations on the manufacture of firearms by the Ordnance Bureau: every three years, 3,000 copper guns with bowl mouths, 3,000 copper guns with handles, 90,000 arrows with guns, 3,000 letter cannons, 3,000 basswood horses, 90,000 sandalwood horses, and 3,000 sandalwood delivery guns. The number of productions is quite staggering.

In addition, the Baoyuan Bureau is also a firearms manufacturing institution, and the Baoyuan Bureau was originally a place to manufacture coins, but in recent years, the Hongwu handguns and bowls unearthed in recent years often have the inscription "made by the Baoyuan Bureau".

In addition to the Ordnance Bureau and the Baoyuan Bureau, the internal government system of the Ming Dynasty also made firearms. Among them, the War Bureau was one of the main weapons manufacturing institutions in the Ming Dynasty. The War Bureau is an organization with a large scale, many craftsmen, complete types of work, and a meticulous division of labor, and has adopted the method of assembly operation to manufacture all kinds of weapons. By the time of Jiajing, there were more than 3,000 craftsmen. The scale of the manufacture and use of firearms at that time can be seen from the following proportions: at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, one out of every ten soldiers used firearms; By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, one out of every three soldiers was in use.

The manufacture of firearms in the Ming Dynasty was a state secret. The control of its manufacture and use is also quite tight. Divine guns and artillery are not allowed to be made without authorization, and the method of manufacturing firearms is strictly forbidden to leak out. The name of the manufacturer and the craftsman must be engraved on the body of the fire gun for verification. If a firearm made by the War Bureau explodes during a performance, it will be returned for remodeling, and the craftsman will be "held accountable". The manufacture of firearms must also be carried out in strict accordance with production standards. For example, the regulations on the gun: the weight of the copper handcuff is 5-10 catties, the bowl mouth is numbered according to the winning word, and the hand-handled copper gun is numbered according to the column.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the weapons manufacturing institutions under the jurisdiction of the local administrative system also manufactured weapons, but most of them could only manufacture cold weapons, except for special needs and those approved by the imperial court, all localities were not allowed to manufacture their own, if there were violators, "in the internal (Beijing) sent to the legal department, in the outside to send the patrol according to the imperial history, from the heavy punishment."

In 1424, the Yongle court of the Ming Dynasty set up an ordnance bureau in Beijing, and so far, the Ming court has set up an ordnance bureau in both Nanjing and Beijing. It began to coexist with the Nanjing Ordnance Bureau and the Military War Bureau, and later the two gradually merged into one. Although the center of gravity of firearms production gradually moved northward, Nanjing remained an important center for firearms manufacturing in the future, which is also evidenced by historical data.

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a light artillery called the Fulang machine was introduced to China, and a Chinese named He Ruchang learned the technique of making the cannon. The Ming Dynasty promoted He Ruchang to the head of Shangyuan County in Yingtianfu (i.e., Nanjing), and asked him to lead the craftsmen who could make it from Guangdong to Nanjing, and began to manufacture Franc cannons. This was the first time that a Franc cannon was manufactured in China. After He Ruchang arrived in Nanjing, he not only imitated the Franc cannon, but also transformed the Franc machine and produced various styles of Franc cannons, which made great contributions to the later artillery research.

In the development of guns in the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing also played a great role in promoting the development of guns. In the book "Military Equipment of China in the Past Dynasties", it is recorded that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Bi Maokang, a household servant in Nanjing, invented a new type of firearm.

In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, Bi Maokang invented a flintlock pistol called a self-generated musket, which gave a big step forward to the development of muskets in China. Prior to this, the guns used in China were all used by the arquebus ignition method, and the use of arquebus ignition had many disadvantages, in the event of wind and rain, the gunpowder in the fire door was either blown away by the wind or wet by the rain, so that it could not be fired, and sometimes it was fired prematurely by mistake before it was aimed.

The percussion flintlock pistol invented by Bi Maokang, after pulling the trigger, the dragon head is pressed down, because the effect of the spring and the flint friction ignite, so that it not only overcomes the obstacles caused by wind and rain to shooting, but also does not need to press the dragon head with his hands, so that the aiming is more accurate, and in various situations, it can be fired at any time. The self-generated firearm improved the arquebus ignition method used in China for more than 200 years to the flint ignition method, which is a great innovation in the history of firearms in China.

Bi Maokang sat in a sedan chair and came to a place not far from the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, lifted the sedan curtain and got off the sedan chair, and walked towards the gate of the Ordnance Bureau.

"I've seen Master Bi." A burly officer of Baihu who led the team hurriedly walked over and bowed his hand.

Bi Maokang said with a smile: "Yang Baihu, you are leading the team on duty today!" I haven't seen you several times, and the old man thinks you've been promoted. ”

"Alas, the boss is laughing, a poor soldier, no money and no power, if you want to be promoted, don't think about it in this life......" Yang Baihu said with a wry smile.

After being silent for a while, Bi Maokang asked, "Yang Baihu, is your father's illness better?" ”

"Thank you for your concern for your father, without the prescription and silver that the adult gave, the father of the lowly father might have ...... The kindness of adults will never be forgotten......" said, Yang Baihu gave Bi Maokang a big gift again.

Bi Maokang sighed and said, "General Yang, I know your ability, guarding the door in this place of the Ordnance Bureau, it is indeed too wronged by you. ”

This Yang Baihu is named Yang Xiong, 36 years old, a native of Jingzhou, originally a commander of the Shenji Battalion of the Beijing Division, capable of writing and martial arts, proficient in firearms tactics, and upright, because he was not used to seeing corruption in the army, he was disliked by his superiors, and under the pretext of teaching firearms, he was sent from the Beijing Shenji Battalion to Nanjing, and when he arrived in Nanjing, he was made a small mistake by the new boss, reduced to 100 households, and sent to the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry to see the gate.

After the two talked for a while, Yang Xiong saw that Bi Maokang was carrying a small bag in his hand, so he joked curiously: "Lord Bi hasn't eaten breakfast yet, so he brought breakfast to the Ordnance Bureau to eat?" ”

"General Yang laughed, the old man is not so unbearable, there is a new type of handcuff in this bag." Bi Maokang said with a smile.

"A new style of handcuffs? But Master Bi has newly researched it. Yang Xiong asked curiously and in surprise.

Bi Maokang shook his head and said ashamedly: "The old man has no ability to make such a handcuff, this handcuff was brought back by an overseas friend of the old man, and this thing is extremely exquisite, so I borrowed it and invited all my colleagues in the Ordnance Bureau to take a look at it and see if I can imitate it?" ”

"Overseas handcuffs? I wonder if adults can let the lowly position be seen? Yang Xiong is a fan of firearms, and when he heard that there was such a strange firearm, he couldn't help but be curious, so he asked to see it.

Looking at his hopeful face, Bi Maokang smiled childishly and said, "Okay, let General Yang see it first." After speaking, he opened his baggage, took out a Type 64 pistol, and handed it to Yang Xiong along with bullets.

Yang Xiong cautiously took the pistol, looked at it over and over for a while, and then raised his head and asked, "Lord Bi, this gun is indeed exquisite, how does this gun hold gunpowder?" This shiny yellow cone looks like a gun, but how does it fit into the tube? ”

Bi Maokang didn't answer, took the pistol and bullets with a smile, pulled the bolt, loaded it with a "click", and then said, "This is ready to fire." ”

"It's that simple? Why don't you see the gunpowder? Yang Xiong asked in surprise.

"The gunpowder and the gun of this handcuff are one, all in that yellow copper shell. And this gun can also be fired continuously. Bi Maokang smiled, pretentiously relieved.

Yang Xiong was dumbfounded when he heard it, he took the pistol again, and sighed in admiration: "This thing is so exquisite, it is simply ingenious, once this gun is imitated, it will be the blessing of my Ming soldiers!" ”

"Yes, the old man thinks the same way, that's why he took this gun to the Ordnance Bureau." Bi Maokang said. After chatting a few more words, Bi Maokang said goodbye to Yang Xiong and entered the Ordnance Bureau. As soon as I entered the door, I saw Wang Gui, the ambassador of the Ordnance Bureau, and several firearms craftsmen Du Decai and Wei Sanxi, and Yang Hong talking.