"The minister selects iron ore from Longyan with a relatively high grade, which can be smelted into high-quality pig iron, and then the liquid pig iron is poured into the wrought iron, so that it can be smelted several times to become steel."

"The sabers in my court are different from those in the army, and the court sabers are different from the local swords, but the manufacturing methods are basically the same, they all use wrought iron as the back of the knife and steel as the blade."

"After refining the steel, he quenched it with animal urine and grease to obtain high-quality steel, and using this high-quality steel as a blade can not only save production, but also strengthen the combat capability of our Ming army."

Zhu Di nodded and said, "You think it is reasonable, even if you have high-quality steel, it is not realistic to replace all the swords with high-quality steel, and it is indeed a fast and labor-saving way to use only high-quality steel for blades."

As he spoke, Zhu Di paced back and forth in the factory, as if he didn't care about the extremely high temperature in the factory at this time.

Even the guards with knives who followed them, standing in the factory until now, were sweating profusely, soaking wet, and panting for breath.

Yu Qian didn't know when he had heard the news and rushed over, and after watching it for a long time, he was very surprised to see Zhu Di's comfortable appearance, and then he also realized the changes that this technology would bring, and said:

"Your Majesty, the swords of my court are different now, they are all kind."

"For example, the nine-sided cavalry wears lancets, the local catch is the oxtail knife, the generals are mainly Yanling knives, and the military waist knives of the officers of the Central Plains Guard, these sabers can be strengthened with high-quality steel."

"In the early years of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu issued an edict to ban iron smelting everywhere due to the excessive inventory of iron smelting in the country, so that the people could mine and smelt themselves, and the annual loss course was taken from two out of every thirty points."

"Since then, six or seven of China's iron mines are privately owned, and the only thing that has remained unchanged is the price of ironware since the Hongwu period.

"Compared with the Song Dynasty, an iron pot is enough to cost one or two silver, and the iron smelting output of our dynasty can be said to be very rich, since there is already a quenching method of high-quality steel, the minister thinks that it should be faster than the people."

"Judging from the amount of iron smelted in this dynasty, it is enough to replace the official army with new swords, guns and armor without affecting the price of civilian iron."

Zhu Di nodded and said, "I naturally know this, but what does it mean to be quick to the people?"

"Your Majesty can learn from Emperor Taizu's practice, and teach the method of quenching to private iron mines in various places by the Tiangong Bureau, and give them certain benefits, so that they can help the imperial court quench high-quality steel."

"The high-quality steel obtained is then purchased at the expense of the local foundry, and after making new weapons and armor, it is sent to the guard post, and then the old weapons and armor of the guard post are recalled and dissolved, and reused."

Yu Qian said, feeling that this was really a great thing for Da Ming, and he also seemed impatient, and said, "Your Majesty, the minister is willing to take full authority to handle this matter and contact private iron mines in various places for the imperial court."

"Okay, with Yu Aiqing taking over, I'm much more relieved." Zhu Di didn't hesitate, nodded and finished speaking, and was about to leave, but Zheng Xu behind him said:

"Your Majesty, the minister still has something to do!"

When Zhu Di turned around with a puzzled expression, Zheng Xu took out a fire gun and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, please see, what is the difference between this gun?"

….

Zhu Di took a look and said, "I have used a lot of firecrackers, and your firecrackers are nothing special in appearance, they look like a single-barreled firecracker, but since you asked, is there anything special to tell me?"

"Your Majesty, please try it at the test range!" Zheng Xu was very confident, with a smile on his face.

Zhu Di looked at him like this, and he also felt itchy in his heart, even if he brought people to the Beijing suburb test launch site affiliated to the Tiangong Bureau, he habitually raised it and wanted to shoot.

Yu Qian stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, let's come here."

Zhu Di turned to look at Yu Qian, but said, "It's okay, this gun has been tested by the Heavenly Works Bureau, it must be stable, and I believe that the craftsmen of the Heavenly Works Bureau will not fight uncertain battles like me."

Zheng Xu didn't speak all the time, and he had a craftsman who followed him very closely, and he was even more nervous when he saw that the emperor was going to test the firing in person.

Zheng Xu quietly turned around and gave the craftsman a reassuring look.

Immediately, he stepped forward and said, "What is Your Majesty hesitating about?"

Only then did Zhu Di notice the difference, frowning and said, "Your gun, I look at it at a glance and it is roughly the same as the previous handcuff, but when I wanted to test fire, I found that it was very different."

As he spoke, Zhu Di turned the gun to his side.

"What is this?"

Zheng Xu stepped forward to take the firecracker, and then returned it after the demonstration, and said, "This is a fire machine, Your Majesty can first place gunpowder in the medicine room, there is a fire door above the medicine room, just light the fire twist."

Zhu Di nodded, and released the fire gun in the order in his impression.

Hearing a "bang", seven poison-coated medicine arrows shot at the straw man in front of him, and after a round, two arrows were lost on the straw man.

Zhu Di was a little disappointed, among the many firearms he had used, this was nothing special.

But it's right to think about it, it's only a few months since the establishment of the Tiangong Bureau, how can it be possible to create a fire gun that is more powerful than the divine gun of the Shenji Battalion?

Zhu Di sighed, and was about to turn around and hand over the fire gun to the craftsman of the Heavenly Works Bureau, but he heard Zheng Xu suddenly shouting behind him, "Your Majesty, press the fire door again!"

"What?" Zhu Di was stunned.

"Your Majesty, press it again, and you can press the fire door twice!" Zheng Xu shouted.

Zhu Di was a little surprised, now Daming has no firearms that can be fired continuously, not to mention that this is just a single-barreled firearm, he didn't believe it at all, but he still pressed it twice with a skeptical attitude.

Next, an unbelievable scene happened, this fire gun actually fired two more rounds in succession!

The second round was densely packed with thirty or forty solid projectiles, and the third round was a series of attacks mixed with several gunpowder arrows and dozens of projectiles.

The straw man in front of him wearing Mongolian leather armor was now full of holes, and more than a dozen medicine arrows and countless projectiles densely penetrated the armor and smashed on his body.

If this is a Warat cavalry who is really wearing this suit of armor, I am afraid that he will die if he can't survive the second round!

Zhu Di's eyes widened, looking at the unsightly single-barreled firearm in his hand, and said, "It's a hundred and fifty steps here, how powerful is this gun?"

Zheng Xu laughed, took the warm fire gun from Zhu Di's hand, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, this gun can maintain its current power within 300 steps of horizontal shooting, and if it is fired from the top or down, it can maintain its power within 500 steps at most!"

"If it exceeds this number of steps, the minister can't guarantee it."

Zhu Di nodded heartily, turned over the fire gun, looked at the small square on the side of the fire gun, and said with a smile: "I know, it's the credit of this little thing, what is it called fire off-line."

Zheng Xu nodded, casually pulled out a person, knelt down together, and said, "Your Majesty, this gun was invented by a strange person recruited by my Tiangong Bureau from Yingzhou, Shanxi, called Shi Ao!"

"The people of Shanxi Yingzhou have teachers who are quite resourceful and can make firecrackers. There is a fire on the handle of the gun, and three guns can be released in an instant, and the first gun can be put into seven arrows; the second gun released thirty or forty iron marbles; The third gun arrow is used with the projectile. Each gun can fight 300 paces away, and there are two knives behind the gun, which can cut people and horses. Beg for promotion, edict for testing." - "Ming Yingzong

Transcript》

Rising stones