Zhu Cihong entered the study as soon as he returned to the outer residence from the palace, and only after a long time did he call Tian Cunshan and said: "Send someone to Shexian County, Anhui Province, and invite Mr. Bi Maokang to see me." I'm going to ask him about the flintlock pistol. Tian Cunshan heard the gun, he didn't know which nerve it touched, he was refreshed, and ran out quickly.

From the time of Chengzu, the Ming Dynasty used firearms and developed firearms tactics in an organized manner, and the Shenji Battalion was set up for this. However, when firearms were first born, just as a steam locomotive could not outrun a horse-drawn carriage, it lagged behind traditional bows and arrows, bed crossbows, and thunderbolts in all aspects. Despite the fact that there are great people like Cheng Zu who can see the future trends, for the vast majority of people, firearms are really unattractive.

Later, Huang Ming shocked Asia, Zheng He went to the West seven times, and made a good momentum, who would dare to come to find the bad luck of the Ming Dynasty? Even the Mongols only plundered the border and went south to herd horses and swallow the country, even if they didn't dare to dream of it.

Although the so-called world is peaceful, forgetting the war will be dangerous. One hundred years after the Ming Dynasty, when he opened the arsenal again, he found that firearms had lagged behind many small states.

First, in the 16th year of Zhengde, Wang Hong, then the deputy envoy of Guangdong Haidao, led his troops to recover Tuen Mun Island in Dongguan County, which was occupied by the Portuguese (Note 1), and defeated the Portuguese fleet, which is known as the "Battle of Tuen Mun". In this first war between China and the West, although the Ming Dynasty was victorious, it was already weaker than the Portuguese from afar in terms of combat effectiveness.

Especially in weapons.

Wang Feng obviously felt that the firing speed of the Furlong cannon was extremely fast, far faster than the front-loading run used by the Ming army, so he sent the captured naval gun to Beijing and asked the imperial court to copy it.

Objectively speaking, the measure of a country's advanced level should never be based on "what it has". Although the Ming Dynasty did not invent the reloading artillery, it was still the strongest in the entire Shijie. As long as you are inspired, you have motivation. The artillery manufactured by the Ming Dynasty, both in quantity and quality, surpassed the Furlong cannon. And in the battle of Wanli Pingwa, Li Rusong of Liaozhen used a large number of artillery and three-eyed guns to blow up the famous Japanese Warring States generals one by one in Korea.

Although Li Rusong found that the Japanese iron cannon had outperformed the arquebus of the Ming Kingdom, he was in the face of a great victory. No particular attention was paid to it. Moreover, at that time, the Ming Kingdom itself created a bird gun based on the Franco machine, and later introduced the Lu Mi gun from the Rumi Kingdom (now Turkey) and installed it in the Shenji Battalion. Therefore, there was not much investment in the flintlock pistol project.

What's more, when Bi Maokang proposed to equip a flintlock pistol with the title of Shangshu of the Nanjing Military Department, it was already eight years after Chongzhen. At that time, Daming's family was almost squandered, and "plus faction" was the main theme of the court, where was the extra money to change clothes in Beijing? What's more, Jingying has decayed to such an extent, even if it has to be dressed. At least 60 percent of the investment still goes into private pockets.

Even if Zhu Cihong no longer understands military affairs, he knows that lighters are more advanced than fire ropes, and there are no future firearms that drag ropes. With such a general trend judgment, it can be said that it is an ironclad thing to get on the horse flintlock pistol.

Although the manufacture of flintlock pistols is the most important thing in building a new army, if you come up, you will have to start a pistol, and the purpose of going out of the palace to prevent the epidemic has become Sima Zhao's heart, and everyone knows it. Earlier, it was not a big problem to let Shen Tingyang go to the south to solicit sponsorship, but the gun factory was set up and started. You have to wait until the time is right to get started.

Now that he has rightly led the Beijing camp, it is possible to go to Luoyang to supervise the army. The timing is partly ripe. If he really wants to be completely mature, it can only wait for him to find the most suitable base for development. Anyway, now it's time to set up the arsenal team first.

Tian Cunshan ran to the door, and His Royal Highness the Prince's second sentence had already chased over: "Prepare, tomorrow I will go to Anmin Factory." ”

Anmin Factory is a place where Emperor Chongzhen took care of the prince "never to go", as if it would explode at any time.

In fact, the Emperor Ming set up a gunpowder bureau from the time of Chengzu. There have never been such frequent accidents as in the late Wanli period and even today.

As a business manager in later generations, Zhu Cihong knows very well where the foci are.

Lack of responsibility.

The Akito were no strangers to gunpowder. Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, gunpowder has moved from the Danke's secret chamber to the battlefield. By the time Taizu conquered the world, Mu Ying had maturely formulated the firearm tactics of taking turns to discharge guns. By the time of Qi Jiguang, gunpowder had been granulated. The formula is also very close to the optimal ratio. Qi Jiajun's firearms armament rate was nearly 50 percent, and there were no accidents with gunpowder explosions.

It is precisely because of Wen Tian and Wu Huan in the late Wanli period that the chiefs of various yamen can only be officials and will not do things, and they even use shovels to dig up clumped gunpowder, what is this not looking for death?

After Zhu Cihong put Liu Ruoyu's nephew in charge of the Anmin Factory, there was no safety accident because the time was still short. However, what is the cowardly Liu Wei, who can't even read a word, is doing, Zhu Cihong hasn't bothered to ask. He was going to inspect the Anmin Factory this time, mainly to see what the production capacity of the gunpowder factory was, and whether the towns could produce 350,000 catties of gunpowder at every turn. By the way, I also have to review Xiao Tugeng's musketeer training.

As the only unit that is not stationed in the East Palace Outer Mansion, the training of musketeers is reported every five days, because it is mainly Jishu training, so the assessment methods are also a little lacking, which makes Zhu Cihong feel bottomless.

The news of the prince's inspection of the Anmin factory soon spread.

It's not that Tian Cunshan has a big mouth, it's really not easy for the prince to go out. Although Zhu Cihong has removed the people who serve sweets, snacks, drinking water and toilets, according to the needs of the ancestral system, the ceremonial guard canopy, axe, sword, fork, sword and halberd are ...... None of them should be missing, so unless you have a private visit with Weifu, you can't hide it from anyone.

Not to mention that this was Liu Ruoyu's errand, the prince suddenly asked Tian Cunshan to do it, which made people feel that this was some kind of signal.

In fact, Zhu Cihong just happened to be by Tian Cunshan's side and ordered casually, and he didn't think so much.

The prince can not think about it, but Liu Ruoyu will never dare not think about it. He already knew that the Ministry of Judge Advocate General was covered by the crown prince in some financial matters, and he had secretly calculated their expenses, and sure enough, he found a black hole. This black hole is so big that Wu Changchun definitely does not dare to swallow it privately, and the prince has absolutely no reason to shield this military judge who was born in the white service of the Soldiers and Horses.

The only explanation is that the crown prince secretly raised a group of people.

Most of them are the eyes and ears of Jinyi Weidong Factory.

Liu Ruoyu's heart tightened, but there was no difference on his face. He quickly finished the matter at hand, returned to the dormitory and changed into civilian clothes, and quietly mixed in the backyard miscellaneous servants and left the East Palace Outer Mansion.

Coming out of the outer residence, Liu Ruoyu rushed all the way to the Anmin Factory.

Liu Wei used the one hundred taels of silver given by Liu Ruoyu to buy a three-entry house near Anmin Factory. Because everyone in Beijing knows that Anmin Factory is a powder keg that can explode at any time, the nearby houses are very cheap, and a total of only 30 taels of silver is taken down.

Living here saves a lot of time commuting to and from work every day and takes care of the factory more. Sometimes Liu Wei has to go to check the night post, but anyone who catches illegal gambling money and drinking will be severely punished.

When Liu Ruoyu arrived at his house, Liu Wei was about to have dinner, and when he saw his uncle visiting in civilian clothes, he was startled: "Uncle, are you here?" His lips were furrowed, and he didn't say the second half of the sentence after all: "Have you lost your errand again?" ”

Liu Ruoyu nodded: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will personally inspect the Anmin Factory tomorrow, do you know?" ”

That's it!

Hearing that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was going to come to Anmin Factory in person, Wei Luo was naturally a little excited, but compared to the previous idea of his uncle losing his errand, this is nothing. Liu Wei finally settled down and said with a smile: "I thought it was a big deal, hey, Your Highness will come if you want to come." ”

Liu Ruoyu sat on the main seat and flew over: "How could His Highness inspect the Anmin Factory for no reason?" And let Tian Cunshan prepare instead of looking for me? Most of the time someone said bad things about you behind your back, and the prince wanted me to avoid suspicion! ”

People are only troubled because they are smart, and a wooden person like Liu Wei would never have imagined that there would be such twists and turns. Liu Wei was slightly stunned, and said weakly: "Uncle, my nephew did offend some people before. (To be continued......)

PS: Note 1: Tuen Mun in the Ming Dynasty refers to most of the coastal areas of the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong from Nanshan District in the north to Hong Kong in the south, including Qianhai Bay, Deep Bay, Lingdingyang, etc., which is under the jurisdiction of Dongguan County, Guangdong.