One morning in early July, the wind and sun were beautiful, and the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City was beautiful.

Li Yuntian and Emperor Xuande talked and laughed and came to a small grove, where there was a table in the shade on the edge of the forest, on which was placed an object more than a meter long, with a round slender iron cylinder at one end and a handle similar to a bird's beak at the other end.

"This is an arquebus?" Emperor Xuande came to the table, looked back and forth at the object that was more than a meter long, and asked with interest.

"Your Majesty, this is the arquebus first created by the Academy of Sciences, with a maximum range of two hundred and seventy meters and an effective range of one hundred meters, which is enough to shoot through the heavy cuirass worn by the Xiyi knights, and its performance is higher than that of the arquebus used by Xiyi now." Li Yuntian bowed slightly and replied with a smile.

In addition to artillery, firearms are also a secret research and development project of the Academy of Sciences, of which the arquebus is the main development direction, and the Academy of Sciences has finally created an arquebus that meets Li Yuntian's requirements after five years of hard work.

"An effective range of a hundred meters?" Emperor Xuande showed a look of surprise on his face when he heard this, looking a little incredulous, he knew that "meter" was the unit of measurement used by the Wutang to measure length, and he knew that one hundred meters was more than thirty zhang away, which was a relatively long distance.

The so-called effective range of a gun refers to the fact that the bullet can accurately inflict severe damage on the enemy at this distance, so that it kills, and the maximum range refers to the maximum distance that the bullet can fly, but the accuracy and power have been greatly reduced.

In Europe at the same time, arquebuses had just evolved from muskets, and their firing range was only 100 meters, and their effective firing range was only 30 or 40 meters.

The so-called musket refers to a controlled metal firearm that appeared in Europe in the early 14th century.

It had a simple structure, firing similar to today's firecrackers, with a barrel made of cast copper or wrought iron, a fire gate at the lower end of the barrel that was used to ignite the gunpowder, and a wooden stick or spear called a rudder rod at the end of the barrel, which made it easy for the shooter to hold, aim, and control.

A musket usually requires two people, one for aiming and one for ignition, to load black powder through the muzzle of the gun, insert a projectile such as a stone, iron, copper, or lead bullet, and then fire the gunpowder in the fire door with red-hot wire or charcoal to fire the projectile.

Obviously, it was inconvenient for two people to use a musket, especially for cavalrymen, but although it seems backward today, it produced an incredible power at the time.

For example, the famous black knights of the Holy Roman Empire, which later became known as Germany, were the first armies to be armed with and use small muskets, all of whom carried a musket.

Once, the black knight fought with the French army of the Kingdom of France, which was later known as the French army, hanging the gun around his neck with a rope, holding the gun in his left hand and igniting the fire in his right hand.

Despite the low hit rate, troublesome operation, and low firing efficiency of this musket, the soldiers of the Kingdom of France, armed with spears and swords, had never seen this new weapon capable of breathing fire, and they were so frightened that they scrambled to escape.

During the period when the musket appeared, there were two other muskets similar to him in the world, one was the Ming Dynasty's musket, and the other was the Arab motor gun, both of which were metal tubular firearms.

Because the fire door gun needs to be fired with a hand-held ignition to ignite the fire, so it is very inconvenient to use on the battlefield, so at the end of the fourteenth century, European firearms researchers improved the ignition device to a semi-mechanical ignition device:

A groove was made on the outside or upper part of the butt, in which a serpentine rod was attached, one end of the rod was fixed, the other end formed a trigger, which could be rotated, and a clip was attached to a slow-burning arquebus soaked in potassium nitrate.

As a result, the musket gradually evolved into an arquebus, and its performance was greatly improved.

The Ming Dynasty's arquebus has not taken the initiative to change, and when the arquebus was introduced to the Ming Dynasty, the arquebus was abandoned, and the army began to use the arquebus.

"Can this gun really penetrate the heavy armor of the Xiyi people?" After the initial shock, Emperor Xuande looked at Li Yuntian with some suspicion, knowing that even the best crossbow and bow and arrow of the Ming Dynasty were already difficult to damage leather armor at a distance of more than fifty meters, let alone penetrate heavy armor.

"Your Majesty, the minister can try it." Li Yuntian replied with a smile when he heard this, he knew that Emperor Xuande had a hard time believing this fact.

"Okay, come on, put my steel armor thirty feet away." Emperor Xuande saw Li Yuntian's confident look, so he groaned for a while and said in a deep voice to the attendant on the side.

"Your Majesty, don't dare to shoot your dragon armor, let's change an object." Li Yuntian hurriedly said to Emperor Xuande, Emperor Xuande's armor represents Emperor Xuande, and shooting armor is a big disrespectful crime.

"What are you afraid of, I forgive you for your innocence." Emperor Xuande smiled disapprehantly, "If the projectiles of this arquebus can really shoot through my armor, then I will be rewarded." ”

"Obey." Hearing this, Li Yuntian agreed, although Emperor Xuande favored him, but after all, the two were different monarchs and ministers, so he had to maintain respect for Emperor Xuande at all times.

Soon, several forbidden army guards hurried over with Emperor Xuande's armor and fixed it on a shelf thirty zhang away according to Emperor Xuande's request.

"Your Majesty, in order to avoid disturbing the Holy Driver, please move the Emperor." After picking up the arquebus from the table, Li Yuntian remembered something, bowed slightly to Emperor Xuande on the side, and said in a deep voice.

Although Li Yuntian was full of trust in the performance of the Vulcan spear made by the Wutang Academy of Sciences, which condensed the highest scientific and technological level of the Ming Dynasty, it was a firearm after all, and if this gun blew up and injured Emperor Xuande, then the consequences would be unimaginable.

Emperor Xuande knew Li Yuntian's scruples, so he stepped back with a smile, stood in a safe area, and watched with great interest as Li Yuntian operated the arquebus there.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty's firecracker, the biggest change of the arquebus is the addition of a crosshair and a door, in addition, the ignition of the hand is changed to the firing of the bolt, and the handle of the gun is changed from a straight wooden handle inserted in the tail of the firearm to a curved wooden support that supports the barrel.

In this way, when holding a gun to shoot, the tail end of the gun is changed from holding the tail end of the gun with both hands to holding the gun body in front of one hand and holding the handle in the back of the gun with the other, which can hold the gun steadily for aiming, which greatly improves the shooting accuracy.

It can be said that the basic structure and shape of the arquebus are close to modern rifles and are the prototype of modern rifles.

Because the bolt of the arquebus resembles a bird's beak, it is also known as the bird's beak gun, and later it was used to be called the bird gun.

In terms of structure, the arquebus is composed of a barrel, a powder pool, a bolt, a crosshair, a gun handle and other parts, and when used, the pre-ignited arquebus and the bolt are pulled to drive the arquebus to ignite the compacted gunpowder in the gunpowder pool, and the circular lead projectile in the barrel is ejected with the explosive force of gunpowder gas.

Unlike later generations, where the bullet in the chamber of the gun could be activated by simply pulling the trigger, the operation of the arquebus requires specific steps, which is somewhat cumbersome:

The first is to pour the gunpowder, which is poured from the canister into the tube, and each tube can only fire one projectile;

The second is the charge, in which gunpowder is poured from the mouth of the gun into the barrel;

Then there is the pressing fire, which is compacted and pressed with the gunpowder in the chamber with the gun;

This is followed by reloading, taking out the projectile and loading it into the chamber, and then pressing the projectile into the gunpowder with a fight;

Then the gunpowder in the powder jar is poured into the fire door of the medicine room, the medicine room is filled, and the gunpowder in the chamber is connected, and then the fire door cover is closed to prevent moisture;

The next step is to load the fire rope, which is loaded into the faucet clamp of the trigger and prepared for ignition.

After the loading of the fire rope is completed, the pre-launch preparations are completed, and the shooter is in a state of readiness.

When shooting, you need to open the fire door cover, light the fire rope, aim and pull the trigger to fire in a squatting or standing position, and in an emergency, you can also fire directly to the fire door without aiming and firing.

Due to the complexity of the arquebus firing process, it is already a very high efficiency to be able to fire two shots in one minute, and several rows of musketeers need to take turns to shoot and then step back and mount the projectile in preparation for the next fire.

Under the gaze of Emperor Xuande, Li Yuntian completed the preparations for the launch, lit the fire rope and aimed at the armor thirty zhang away.

Soon after, with a muffled thud at the back end of the chamber, the lead bullet in the chamber swished out, followed by a crisp crack at the armor.

Li Yuntian put down the Vulcan Spear in his hand and looked at the armor in the distance with a smile, it was obvious that the crisp sound just now was the sound made when he shot through the armor.

"Quick, show it to me." Emperor Xuande also heard the crisp sound, and his eyebrows suddenly became happy, and he said to the guards of the forbidden army on the side.

Several forbidden army guards hurriedly rushed over, moved the armor along with the shelf, and placed it in front of Emperor Xuande.

"It's amazing, it's definitely not flesh and blood that can fight!" There is a small hole the size of a peanut in the center of the heart goggles made of stainless steel on the chest of the armor, and Emperor Xuande reached out and touched the small hole, and said in shock, which means that with the appearance of firearms such as arquebuses, the role of armor will become less and less.

"Your Majesty, the gun factory of the Academy of Sciences of the Wutang Division can produce 500 arquebuses a month, which is enough for the Shenji Battalion to be equipped with this new gun within half a year." Li Yuntian stepped forward and bowed to Emperor Xuande in a deep voice, and he could see that Emperor Xuande was very satisfied with the effect of the arquebus.

"Zhenwu Hou, you say, what kind of reward do you want?" Emperor Xuande recovered from the shock, nodded when he heard the words, and then asked with a smile, he could have promised to give Li Yuntian a reward just now, how could Chrysostom Yuyan lose his trust.

"Your Majesty, please ask the Emperor to give the arquebus a name." If it were someone else, he would definitely take the opportunity to put forward conditions to Emperor Xuande, but Li Yuntian can be said to be a big family now, and it is no longer rare for Emperor Xuande's reward, and it seems unbearable to ask for a reward, so he smiled slightly and said to Emperor Xuande.

"This gun is very powerful, I will give it the name 'Shenwei General', I hope it can help me to the peace of the Ming Dynasty." Emperor Xuande pondered for a while, looked at the arquebus on the table, and after having it, there was an additional weapon in the Ming army to attack the city.

"Your Majesty, this is the first Shenwei general created by the Academy of Sciences, and the minister thinks it should be dedicated to the emperor." Li Yuntian smiled slightly when he heard this, and said quietly.

"I took it." Emperor Xuande nodded, agreed to come down in one bite, and looked at Li Yuntian with a smile, "Zhenwu Hou, the Wutang Academy of Sciences has made a great contribution this time, and I have decided to take out 10,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury to reward them, and this matter will be arranged by you." ”

As he spoke, Emperor Xuande walked towards the arquebus, and after witnessing the small hole in the armor, he was already a little eager to try the power of this new musket himself.

"Thank you for your grace." Li Yuntian smiled and bowed to Emperor Xuande, and then quickly followed, methodically explaining to Emperor Xuande the use of the arquebus.

The appearance of arquebuses in the history of the Ming army has epoch-making significance, not only unveiling the curtain of the Ming army's loading of muskets, but also promoting the change of the world war from the era of cold weapons to the age of firearms.