The first wind and rain drifted away

On December 27, the eighth year of Chongzhen, it is the sacrificial stove in the palace, which has lasted for three days, until after the fifteenth day of the first month.

The palace began to hang the door god, the Qianqing Palace set up 16 longevity lamps, the rest of the lamps of 128 sizes, the east and west corridors of the Yongdao in the palace set up the five-color horn lamp, to the third day of the first month of February.

In short, it's a strong festive atmosphere.

Of course, these have nothing to do with Emperor Chongzhen, he has his own things to do.

It's almost the New Year, and ordinary people are idle, but only the leader is the busiest.

What are you busy with?

Anyone who has watched the news broadcast knows that they are busy meeting with special units that do not have holidays.

And these need to be done by Emperor Chongzhen himself, and they cannot be replaced.

Could it be that let Wen and the traitor run to the Beijing camp, let him and the soldiers be alive and active, and want to die?

Not to mention now, even in the future, have you ever seen a prime minister who inspected the army?

Of course, some irrelevant departments, Wen Shoufu of Daming can go, such as those related to people's livelihood. As for the army, Emperor Chongzhen must be present in person.

This is a political principle.

Adhering to the difference between the importance and the severity in his heart, Emperor Chongzhen successively inspected and comforted several teams, but when he was about to go to the Beijing camp, he was disrupted by the rhythm.

Because he received the good news from Bi Maokang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry.

Samples of flintlock pistols have been produced by the Military War Bureau of the Ministry of Industry.

This is indeed good news and a day to celebrate.

On the large school field, there were twenty or thirty people standing sparsely, and Emperor Chongzhen and the production craftsmen were ready to test the gun, and other idle people were excluded.

On a bench, ten samples of flintlock pistols were placed in turn.

Emperor Chongzhen picked up one of them, looked at it carefully, and the more he looked at it, the more he liked it.

In his opinion, this already has the appearance of later generations of guns.

In addition to the fact that Emperor Chongzhen did not know about the function, the craftsmanship of the whole gun was very exquisite, and all the parts were polished very exquisitely.

The back has a wooden handle with a carved pattern, making it look like a work of art.

"Yes, how's it going?"

Emperor Chongzhen knew nothing about firearms, but this did not hinder his enthusiasm.

"Your Majesty, after the War Bureau made the gun, it was tested several times under the supervision of the minister.

At first, there was still a little problem, but after several transformations, now there is no problem at all, and you can fire with medicine, which is very convenient. ”

Bi Maokang stepped forward, smiled and explained to Emperor Chongzhen.

The flintlock pistols made by the two brothers were made with flint ignition.

The gun had a trigger with a spring, which, when pulled up, drove a hammer to strike a piece of flint next to it.

Flint bursts out of the spark, which can ignite the gunpowder in the powder chamber and complete the shooting action.

"Not bad, not bad!"

Emperor Chongzhen is not an expert in weapons, and he will not have the opportunity to touch the gun in later generations, so he can only play haha.

As for the effect, he really didn't know.

However, he felt that it was not easy to make such a product completely by hand without all kinds of machinery.

Hearing Emperor Chongzhen's praise, Bi Maokang felt that all the hard work was worth it, but he bowed down and said solemnly: "The minister does not dare to be greedy for merit, it all depends on the hard work of the craftsman, and there will be a small success." ”

Emperor Chongzhen nodded and agreed.

The craftsmen of the War Bureau are really hard, and they have not rested.

Not to mention that Emperor Chongzhen's expanded troops required a large number of weapons, just preparing for the invasion of Jiannu in the coming year was already doomed to their hard work.

"Bi Aiqing has recruited more people, and the expenses will be allocated by the treasury."

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help in other places, and his only role was to give out the silver.

Fortunately, he didn't feel distressed about spending all this money, and it was all confiscated.

"Emperor Xie!"

The emperor can contribute, and the goal of Bi Ziyan has been achieved.

"Test guns begin."

Emperor Chongzhen commanded in high spirits, whether it was a mule or a horse, pull it out and slip away.

You can spend money, but you have to spend it on the edge. If Bi Ziyan and Bi Shangshu dare to deceive me, then don't blame me for being ruthless.

"Yes!"

In the expectation of Emperor Chongzhen, the special tester of the War Bureau picked up a bullet wrapped in oiled paper, which was filled with gunpowder and projectiles.

At the rear of the barrel, an opening was made, on which there was a movable cover with a self-locking device, similar to the bolt on the rifles of later generations.

By removing the lid, you can fill the barrel with gunpowder and projectiles, and when the lid is closed and locked, the barrel becomes a semi-enclosed space, no different from the front-loading gun.

Since the cartridge with a shell was not used, the gun did not need a shell retractor, nor did it have a device such as a firing pin, and the structure was much simpler.

It seems that he has trained before, and I saw him skillfully pull open the bolt-like cover, load the bullet into it, and then lock the cover, completing the preparation before shooting.

He took his breath, raised his gun, aimed it at the iron steel armor two hundred paces away, and pulled the trigger.

"Touching ......"

With a loud bang, a ball of fire burst out from the muzzle of the gun.

When Emperor Chongzhen rushed to the target position, the heavy iron cuirass on the target position had been pierced by a bullet through a black hole.

"Your Majesty, we have done experiments, this gun can penetrate a layer of iron armor in 200 steps, and leather armor in 300 steps......

These figures are conservative estimates, and the actual power must be greater than estimated......"

The test was successful, and Bi Maoliang, the director of the War Bureau, said excitedly.

"Good, good, good! A weapon of the nation! If you have merit, you will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver for encouragement! ”

Seeing the actual effect, Emperor Chongzhen was relieved and said loudly to everyone at the scene.

Reward, must be rewarded!

With this sharp weapon, as long as the Ming army is all equipped with flint guns, the military strength will achieve a qualitative leap, and it will no longer be a dream to beat the whole world.

Although, it's not the time yet.

"The Emperor's grace is immense!"

"The Emperor's grace is immense!"

The craftsmen on the scene could no longer be calm, and they all knelt down one by one to thank him, and his tone was choked.

"Flat!"

Emperor Chongzhen asked the craftsman to get up, and then asked the two brothers Bi Maokang with an excited face: "Two Aiqing, how much can the flintlock pistol produce per day?" ”

Emperor Chongzhen, his old man is in a hurry, Jiannu will come next year, if he can get a batch out and kill Jiannu, what a sour thing it should be?

As for the money, Emperor Chongzhen felt that it was not a problem, it was a big deal to take a bigger step and raid more ruthlessly.

Now ask them how much they can produce, Emperor Chongzhen is making a budget.

"Your Majesty, it is currently impossible to achieve mass production, the main reason is that the problem of the barrel cannot be solved, and it is too slow to polish it manually.

At present, according to the speed of the barrel, the War Bureau can only produce ten qualified guns a month, and I am afraid that any more will ......."

Bi Maoliang hurriedly explained.

As soon as Emperor Chongzhen heard this, his face immediately fell.

I asked about Nissan, and I was able to tell me about the monthly birth, which made me unhappy.

Ten sticks a month, only one hundred and twenty sticks a year, is it useful?

In this way, if you want to use this thing to kill Jiannu in the coming year, it will definitely be impossible.

Moreover, although the War Bureau has developed a flintlock pistol produced by the Ming Dynasty, the firing speed of this gun is still too slow.

A well-trained soldier can only shoot four times in one minute, and it takes three-stage shooting combined with the fragmentation of light artillery to form a large firepower.

Compared to bows and arrows, this rate of fire is really slow.

No wonder, although Bi Maokang invented this thing in history, everyone knew that it was good, but the Ministry of War did not adopt it.

It turned out that it was the reality that restricted the development and development of flintlock pistols.

Without a large amount of money, how can Daming afford to play?

Although there are drawbacks, Emperor Chongzhen knows the direction of future development.

Moreover, the penetration of bullets far exceeds that of bows and arrows.

An archer fires at most ten consecutive shots, and after ten shots, he loses his strength and loses his combat capability.

A musketeer, on the other hand, trained for a short period of time, but was able to shoot continuously without stopping.

For this kind of delicate firearm, Emperor Chongzhen knew in his heart that he could not be in a hurry, and he needed these scientific researchers to invent it slowly.

I am not an expert in weapons, nor am I an expert in metallurgy, so I can only rely on smashing.

"The two Aiqing, passing on my will, the War Bureau will set up a gun barrel conquering team from now on, and dispatch the best craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty to develop how to increase the output of gun barrels.

The required expenses will be allocated by the inner treasury until it is successful.

In addition, if you go down to the notice, whoever can develop it will be rewarded with the position of earl, and the participating craftsmen will also be rewarded! ”

It can be seen that Emperor Chongzhen is ruthless.

He didn't believe it, Daming has so many skilled craftsmen and financial support, can't solve the matter of the gun barrel?

What a big deal?

"Command!"

The two brothers Bi Maokang were moved, how determined the emperor is and how high he attaches importance to it, just look at his reward.

The craftsman is knighted, unprecedented!

At least, unheard of in Daming.

"Take me to see the artillery workshop?"

The War Bureau had not only guns, but also cannons, all kinds of artillery.

Since he came, Emperor Chongzhen naturally had to make an inspection.

Bi Maoliang, the manager of the War Bureau, leaned over to receive the order, but did not explain it to Emperor Chongzhen.

In Daming, there are all kinds of artillery, and there is basically no problem with small artillery.

At present, the biggest bottleneck in firearms research is heavy artillery.

The War Bureau has repeatedly had problems in imitating the Hongyi cannon, either the bore is blown up or it is too cumbersome, and there is no progress in production and manufacturing.

The main reason for the inability to manufacture heavy artillery is the poor quality of iron, the low temperature of the smelting furnace, the inability to purify the molten iron, and the presence of many impurities.

The cast cannon is very rough and has many air bubbles, which can easily explode during the performance and injure the shooter.

In response to this problem, the main purpose of the War Bureau is to thicken the tube wall of the artillery, so that the artillery is extremely bulky, and the power of thousands of pounds of giant artillery is not as good as that of Western artillery that is lighter than it.

In addition, for the artillery that has been cast into pores with many bubbles and is easy to burst, the Ming soldiers reduced the amount of gunpowder and reduced the power of the artillery.

"How about finding a way to raise the temperature of the furnace for ironmaking and use iron molds to make artillery?"

Although Emperor Chongzhen didn't understand anything, he still knew.

He found that the War Bureau still applied backward clay mold technology, the castings were rough, and the gun chamber was not processed in depth, so he made suggestions.

The second more is delivered, 6,000 words, old iron, ask for encouragement from the monthly ticket!