Gao Shiming was anxious about the bad news on the east bank of the Yuhe River, but Li Xin, who was in Yang Hewei, was playing with the flintlock pistol sent by Albert. I didn't see that this German was still a talent, and I used to underestimate him.

The polished shiny body of the gun has a pleasing metallic luster, the wooden butt of the gun is also very smooth, and there is no rough feeling when the hand rubs back and forth on it, and the metal parts of the gun body are also smeared with grease and other things, which seems to be used to prevent rust.

Albert saw Li Xin's happy expression and understood that his gun was built to his liking, so he asked tentatively: "How many times do you want to test fire?" ”

Li Xin nodded again and again: "Of course, I have to test shoot and go to the yard." ”

A wooden round gun target more than one person tall was placed on the edge of the courtyard wall, and several concentric red circles were drawn crookedly with red paint, Li Xin loaded the flintlock pistol according to the standard of the arquebus, and then raised the gun to aim and shoot, the action was in one go, extremely beautiful, Albert applauded again and again, and the onlookers also followed suit.

In the commotion, Li Xin's index finger was pressed on the trigger, hooked but did not hook, so he added a force, and the trigger seemed to have a displacement, but obviously this force was not enough to shoot. This time he hooked his index finger down with all his might, and in an instant the flintlock gun exploded, and the body of the gun shook violently, and then he saw that the wooden target was clean and there was no trace of it.

Li Xin took a sip, and his mother was off target. The accuracy of the smoothbore gun was very poor, and he specially made a one-man high target, in order to experience the thrill of shooting, although he could not point where to hit with an arquebus at a distance of ten paces, but it was more than enough to hit the target. The flintlock pistol was directly off target, he was not reconciled, picked up the whole strip and strictly followed the steps to clean the gun body, reload, and fire again. This time he learned to be obedient, and concentrated most of his index finger in order to be able to fire instantly after aiming.

This time it was a hook shot, but it still missed the target, the reason for this was that the resistance of the trigger was too large, because most of the force was concentrated on the fingers, the ability of the arm to produce vibrations when firing the balance of the gun was inevitably reduced, and the muzzle of the gun was naturally raised higher, according to the habit of using the arquebus, it is not surprising that the projectile flew away.

The flintlock pistol failed to fire ten times in a row like the previous arquebus, and on the third time, it was abandoned by Li Xin due to its extremely poor feel.

"It's a lot of work to hook the trigger, and there should be room for further improvement."

This kind of test product obviously could not be equipped with the army, and Li Xin was a little disappointed, and originally pinned his hopes on the flintlock pistol if it could be successfully manufactured, and it would be installed with the arquebus. It's just that now it seems that this idea is still too wishful thinking.

Albert explained: "In order for the flint to shoot enough sparks, it is inevitable to increase the force of the mechanism...... Looking at Li Xin's disappointed expression, his already unfavorable Chinese language was even more unfavorable.

"The flintlock pistol in Xiaguan's hometown is much worse in performance than this one, and sometimes even the trigger is finished, and the sparks produced by the flint are not enough to ignite the gunpowder. The flintlock pistol in the hands of the adults was improved, and one of the Armory Bureau, one of the councillors, although the fingers had to use a lot of force, could ensure that each shot would be fired. ”

"Oh? Which one will do it? ”

Li Xin was greatly surprised, he had such a talent under his eyelids, but he didn't find out.

"It's Gao Shanwei, this person's surname is Tian, and his name is Fuzhen"

Regardless of his name, the important thing is that this person has the skills to improve the flintlock pistol.

"Xia Guan knows that the Lord will definitely be interested in this Lord Tian, and he has already brought him, just outside Yamen."

"Please!"

Soon, this Gaoshan Guard Weapons Bureau Office named Tian Fuzhen was led in by Soap Li, and he was still an old man in a robe. It's just that this robe is too much to look at, the old man is thin, the area of the robe is not large, but there are countless patches everywhere he looks, and he can only be a kind of person who is dressed like this, that is, a scholar.

Scholars regard the imperial examination as the right way, either successively as a state and county herdsman official, or enter the Hanlin Academy to stay in the center, and it is really not easy to give up his body to be a deputy official of this military weapon. Li Xinlai Ming Dynasty has been quite familiar with some mainstream cognitions and habits at this time, so he has the above speculation. But it is not surprising that many scholars in the Ming Dynasty were scientists themselves.

"Tian Fuzhen of the Gaoshan Guard Ordnance Bureau has seen the three guards!"

Tian Fuzhen just bowed down, and he did not report his name and surname, it was obvious that he did not think that he was Li Xin's subordinate. At the same time, Li Xin also noticed that one of his hands was covered with calluses, apparently caused by heavy work.

It is normal for scholars to have shelves, Li Xin did not think it was wrong, but enthusiastically invited him into the house, and asked the servants to serve tea, and then asked when he moistened his throat:

"This flintlock pistol is an improvement of Lord Tian? It's a pity that the trigger is still a little unsatisfactory to use, I wonder if there is room for improvement? ”

Tian Fuzhen is not an old stubborn who eats the old, the reason why he holds the shelf is just out of the instinctive pride of a scholar, and he is unwilling to fold his temperament in front of the martial arts. But Li Xin was so thoughtful and polite, he was a little overwhelmed as before, so this time he rarely smiled.

"A gentleman doesn't plunder the beauty of others, and the flintlock pistol that adults say should mean an automatic musket, right? To tell the truth, this is the invention of Bi Maokang in the same year. ”

Same? The people admitted to the same list of the imperial examination are called the same year as each other, is this Tian Fuzhen still a jinshi? Li Xin couldn't suppress his curiosity, so he got to the bottom of it. The old man Tian Fuzhen did not shy away from it, and generously gave Li Xin his origin to Li Xin in the same year that he invented the spontaneous musket.

It turned out that Tian Fuzhen and Bi Maokang were both Jinshi in the twenty-first year of Wanli, and the two had a friendship of the same year, and they were both officials in Nanjing after six years of revitalization. At that time, Bi Maokang served as the right attendant of the Sanpin Nanjing Household Department, and Tian Fuzhen served as the Sipin General Political Senate in Nanjing, and the two of them had a lot of intersections. It was also during this period that Tian Fuzhen learned about it from Bi Maokang.

But soon after, Bi Maokang resigned and returned to his hometown, and Tian Fuzhen was convicted of what he said in the book, and was demoted to the border, so he became the head of the Ordnance Bureau of Gao Shanwei.

Such a bumpy experience can't help but make people sigh, and Li Xin really admires the person who can still hold on in the face of adversity, and his senses have also improved.

"The shortcomings of the automatic musket Brother Meng Hou have also mentioned in the manuscript, and the method of improvement is also a few words, but he has never tried it, Tian went back and immediately started to try it, and then reported it to the general soldier when the results are known."

After thinking for a moment, Tian Fuzhen said very seriously.

"This is very good, if Tian Daren has any difficulties, just raise them, Li Xin will do his best to support them."

Li Xin was also unambiguous, and immediately proposed that he could solve the difficulties for him. Who knew that Tian Fuzhen still looked like he was not salty or light, and he bowed down again.

"Lord Xie cares, it's all right!"

Lord Tian was holding the shelf, and Li Xin would not serve the shelf for him, so he immediately sent two servants from the Weisi Yamen to him.

"Don't shirk Lord Tian, these two ** should be Tian Daren's assistants, when one person can't do it."

Tong Guò Tian Fuzhen has a pair of calloused hands, Li Xin can also judge that this person is more often hands-on, and sending two people to take care of him can also save him a lot of worries.

Li Xin can only do this kind of process, if the courtesy is more serious, Tian Fuzhen feels that he has no merit, I am afraid it will make him ugly, after all, from the orthodox point of view, the skills of craftsmen are all small skills that are not in the stream, and only reciting poetry is what a scholar should do. Tian Fuzhen really did not refuse, and thanked him and retired.

There is no need to hide it so much for Albert, Westerners value practical benefits, and Li Xin directly asked people to withdraw one hundred taels of silver and hand it over to him, which can be regarded as a reward for his dedication. This flattered Albert, and his mouth was full of beautiful words, almost praising Li Xin to the sky.

In this way, the idea of a large number of flintlock pistols was put on hold, and arquebuses had to take the lead. Under the personal supervision of Li Xin, the iron factory did not wait for the relocation progress of Chaoyang Fort, but started construction first, and iron smelting was not a problem, the problem was that there were not enough experienced ironworkers. Previously, Li Xin listened to Albert's advice and recruited heavily from the victims in various places. After a few days, there were as many as three or four hundred applicants.

As for how to select qualified ironworkers from these people, it was not Li Xin's business, and everything was handed over to Albert. In fact, even if Li Xin wanted to worry about it, there was no time.

Gao Shiming sent three urgent bulletins in a row, the resettlement station on the east bank of the Yuhe River showed signs of plague, and showed a trend of spreading, hundreds of people have fallen in one day, if you don't hurry up and find a way, so many people live together, the population is very dense, and it has entered the spring of March, if you don't know if you can't do it, the plague will have to break out again.

As the word suggests, prevention comes first, and of course prevention is more important than cure. In fact, there is little point in treatment, there is no effective medicine in this era, and the infected person can only resign himself to fate. Therefore, the role of prevention is highlighted, that is, the complete isolation of healthy people from infected people.

It seems that this period of neglect of the emphasis on plague prevention and control has led to a sudden deterioration of the shape that has been controlled.

Li Xin didn't dare to stay, so he immediately took Shi Datuo and led a picket team of more than 100 people to the resettlement station on the east bank of the Yuhe River in Datong Fucheng. Before dinner that day, the group arrived on the east bank of the Yuhe River, the construction site was still in full swing, and the enthusiasm of the people to build their new homes was very high, after all, the government promised them a stable future, and they also had the motivation to work hard for it. But they don't know that an undercurrent of death is surging, how many people can see that stable future?