The royal workshop became a private workshop, and a eunuch went to deliver the decree that afternoon, and all the craftsmen knew about it. The pen & fun & pavilion www.biquge.info also knew that they were not official craftsmen from now on, but private craftsmen in the royal workshop, which was not a simple transfer of work relationship, but also a transfer of personal dependence.

Many craftsmen are a little worried about this, they used to be royal craftsmen anyway, although their lives were average, but nominally they were still good, after all, they were craftsmen who ate imperial grain. None of them had much ambition, otherwise they wouldn't have run away for so many years. This is like the employees of central enterprises in later generations, who suddenly became employees of private enterprises. The gap can be imagined, not to mention that more people are concerned about whether the promised treatment can be fulfilled.

When the workshop was first established, Wang Tao promised to increase the wages of each of them by half, because he was the person next to the emperor and represented the emperor, and these craftsmen were still willing to believe him. It's only been more than ten days, and the workshop has suddenly become Wang Tao's own, so can the previous promise be fulfilled? After all, in the past, it was to use the emperor's money to raise everyone's salary, but now it has become a salary with your own money, and the feeling of spending other people's money is definitely different from spending your own money.

For a while, the craftsmen of the royal workshop were panicked, and many people didn't have much heart to work, especially those who were engaged in guns, and they didn't know where to go.

Lao Hu was not among them, because he and Lao Liu made the fastest progress, and the gun had been made according to Wang Tao's requirements. They found someone from Jinyiwei to do a target test, and it felt good. He presented the gun to Zhang Quan, although Zhang Quan was busy contacting the honorable military, but he was also very concerned about guns, and he knew that whether Wang Tao could continue to get the emperor's favor in the future, the key was whether he could come up with something new. After getting the gun, he immediately asked the eunuch to inform Wang Tao.

Wang Tao was originally following Wang Tiqian to see a house, but when he heard that the guns had made progress, he couldn't take care of any house, so he returned to the imperial city with Wang Tiqian.

Lao Hu was a cautious person, so he made two sample guns, and when Wang Tao returned to the inner official prison, both guns were placed in front of Wang Tao.

Looking at the guns that are very similar to the shotguns of later generations, Wang Tao is very happy, at least this appearance is very bluffing, and the performance of the specific gun depends on the performance on the shooting range.

A group of more than a dozen people came to the shooting range of the Praetorian Guards, and the test guns were old veterans, who wore armor and protected the exposed parts of their bodies tightly. Even put on leather gloves, although it is now the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the autumn tiger is still very powerful. But to be on the safe side, a little hot is nothing.

The two had already done the test yesterday and were familiar with the gun. They loaded the gunpowder and the projectile separately, compacted them with a throughbar, and then pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

There was a loud bang from the silent shooting range, and a wisp of green smoke came out of the gun, and the grass target 200 paces away directly knocked out half of it.

It was such a simple test that indicated the successful development of the tunnel starting gun.

Wang Tao hurriedly walked towards the grass target, and about one-third of the grass target tied with straw in between was knocked away.

"Congratulations to Master Wang, this tunnel pistol has been successfully developed." When Zhang Quan saw this, he was taken aback, the power of this gun was much greater than that of the arquebus, and he hurriedly said hello to Wang Tao.

"It's not a success, let this scarecrow put on all kinds of armor and try it, and then find a pig to try it." Wang Tao smiled, and then commanded.

After a while, a few little eunuchs came over carrying a few scarecrows with armor on.

After a crackling sound, the group began to test the final results. The scarecrow, who was only wearing cloth clothes, was directly punched a hole. The scarecrow in cotton armor was simply pierced by bullets. The leather armor bullets were embedded in the leather armor, and as for the iron armor, only a small groove was left.

Of course, Wang Tao was not very satisfied with such a result, but Zhang Quan was very surprised when he saw it. In the past, arquebuses could penetrate cloth, and bullets were embedded in human flesh. Some can even only make a small hole in people's skin, and the lethality is really limited.

Two eunuchs brought a pig and tied it to a tree.

The two test gunners didn't care about the pig's screaming, and they raised their guns and fired.

This live experiment is much more intuitive than the scarecrow, the pig has two blood holes in its body, and the pig screams in pain.

"This gun is much more powerful than the previous arquebus." Seeing that Wang Tao was still not satisfied, Zhang Quan opened his mouth and said.

"It's not bad?" Wang Tao asked a little puzzled.

"Of course it's good, although the previous gun can also make wounds on people, but it is definitely not so deep, now this gun is easier to operate than the arquebus, and it is not afraid of wind and rain, of course it is several times stronger than the arquebus." Although Zhang Quan is not a soldier in the army, after all, he has been working for so many years, and he still has some say in the power of guns.

"But this gun has little effect on the armor." Wang Tao said what he was not satisfied with.

"This is already very good, and there are not many Jiannu who can wear armor. Ordinary soldiers wear cloth clothes, and they may wear thicker clothes in winter, but if it is summer, they will definitely have no return. Zhang Quan didn't know what Wang Tao expected in his heart, and said what he knew.

Wang Tao realized that he had fallen into a misunderstanding, he always thought that the ancient soldiers were like the TV series, each wearing armor and wearing heart guards. But in fact, ordinary soldiers do not have this kind of treatment at all, especially the Houjin soldiers, who originally lacked iron weapons, how could they spend such a large amount of money to build armor for soldiers, not to mention iron armor and leather armor, and there are very few who can wear cotton armor, and most of the soldiers are still wearing cloth clothes. What's more, ancient guns could not kill with one hit like modern times, and most of the soldiers who were shot were not killed by guns, but died from wound infections.

Seeing that Wang Tao was still a little unconvinced, Zhang Quan asked people to bring two arquebuses to hit the same target, Wang Tao found that the gap was really big, and the arquebus couldn't even penetrate the pigskin when it hit the pig.

Although Lao Hu and Lao Liu followed Wang Tao to do the test, they could see that Master Wang was not very satisfied with the gun. They couldn't help but smile bitterly in their hearts, and they all saw a trace of frustration on each other's faces.

"You guys did a good job with this gun, now let's go back, I'm going to give you money in front of everyone!" Wang Tao listened to Zhang Quan's explanation, and also knew what he was wrong, of course, he had to fulfill his promise.

When the afternoon was about to get off work, Zhang Quan asked all the craftsmen to get together in a hurry. Wang Tao stood in front of everyone and spoke to everyone.

"Everyone should also know that the emperor gave me the royal workshop, and I also know that many of you are worried about whether what I said before counts. Today I want to tell you that I am a man of my word, and the wages I promised to everyone will not be less, and I will bring the silver! Wang Tao beckoned, and the two little eunuchs came over carrying a small box.

"As I said before, the craftsman who first developed the tunnel pistol was rewarded with five hundred taels of silver. Here are five hundred taels of silver, I will send it to Master Hu and Master Liu in front of everyone! ”

The two little eunuchs opened the box very cooperatively, and the craftsmen looked at the box of white silver, and each stretched his neck, as if he could see the silver back to his own home.

"Master Hu and Master Liu, these silvers are yours. I promise you that if you can make something worthwhile, I will not skimp on rewarding them! Wang Tao greeted Lao Hu and Lao Liu, and then continued to say to everyone.

Lao Hu and Lao Liu looked at the white silver and couldn't help but leave tears, which was equivalent to their salaries for several years, Lao Hu happily knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Wang Tao.

"Thank you Master Wang for the reward!" Lao Hu's voice was even a little choked.

"Brothers, you have all seen that Master Wang is a man of his word, everyone must work hard and serve Master Wang!" Lao Liu is a shrewd man, he turned to the workers and said.

Wang Tao didn't expect that this old Liu still knew how to win people's hearts for himself, and he was happy at the moment, such a person would have to be reused in the future.

"We believe in Master Wang!" The craftsmen shouted.

In this way, the enthusiasm of the craftsmen was mobilized by five hundred taels of silver!