The two followed His Highness out of the yamen and came to the north of the treasure shipyard.

To the north is a large alfalfa field, which has been fenced off in the middle.

"This is the place where the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion grows fodder, and it is temporarily borrowed by this king." His Highness smiled and said, "Guess what it's for?" ”

The two of them secretly rolled their eyes, and from a long distance they heard a roar from inside from time to time, which must have been used to shoot artillery.

"That's right, this is the king's artillery range!" The sixth pointed to the temporary wooden gate, and said triumphantly: "The old father and the emperor have allocated all the cannon casting craftsmen of the Inner Court Staff Bureau to this king!" Now this is the Municipal Bureau of Firearms! ”

"That's it! The emperor really supports His Royal Highness! ”

"Although I have assigned Ouchi's cannon casting master to the Ichibo Division." Yu Tongyuan and the others were very excited, and they all knew that the cannon produced by Ouchi was of the best quality.

In fact, the method of casting cannons is the same, but the closer the department to Boss Zhu, the higher the production quality. Because something went wrong, he really killed people.

~~

The guard of the firearms bureau is Zhu Zhen's Chu Wangjun, and his uncle Hu Quan personally serves as the director, which shows the importance of His Royal Highness the King of Chu.

Artillery came out in the Southern Song Dynasty, developed through the Yuan Dynasty, and reached its first small peak in the troubled times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan and peasant armies had already used artillery in the siege of the city, and Zhu Yuanzhang used forty artillery pieces during the siege of Suzhou.

Moreover, in the water battle of Poyang Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang also creatively carried the artillery onto the ship, causing a lot of losses and great shock to Chen Youliang's invincible armada.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang attaches great importance to the development of artillery, and regards firearms as a secret and does not allow the spread of firearms technology.

However, the chaotic times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty were too short-lived, and the main enemy of the unified Ming Dynasty became the rogue on the grassland. No general would dare to go deep into the steppe with such heavy artillery, so that without waiting for the Mongols to fight, the nightmarish logistics would drag down the Ming army first.

The artillery that suddenly lost its needs became unpopular like the former favorite concubine who was beaten into the cold palace, otherwise Boss Zhu would not easily agree to the request of the sixth child.

Fortunately, it has only been a few years since the cannon was stopped, and the craftsmen are still ......

Zhu Zhen summoned more than 100 cannon casting masters from the Firearms Bureau and gave them loving encouragement to comfort their neglected hearts. and promised to double the salary and rich performance, which really made the gunsmiths enthusiastic again!

"However, this king's salary is not so easy to get, you have to complete the task with high quality!" Zhu Zhen changed his words and said loudly: "So you have to ask yourself first, have you lost the craft of casting cannons after all these years of wastement?" ”

"Nope!" The craftsmen said in unison without hesitation: "Your Highness, rest assured, the craftsmanship has not fallen at all!" ”

"Oh? So confident? Zhu Zhen couldn't help laughing.

"Back to Your Highness." Luo Xiang, the chief gunsmith, explained loudly: "Although we have not cast cannons over the years, we have been casting bells. The bronze bell is also cast with clay film, which is exactly the same as the casting technique, and the two can be switched seamlessly. ”

"Why are you yelling so loudly?" His Royal Highness the King of Chu was shocked by him and his ears rang.

"The villain almost deafened his ears when he tried the gun......," Luo Xiang explained in a hurry.

"That's right. You were talking about the bronze bell and the bronze cannon, right? Zhu Zhen asked again: "What about the iron cannon?" ”

"Back to Your Highness," Luo Xiang explained, "pig iron is brittle, and it hurts greatly after exploding; Even if the copper cannon is blown up, it will not hurt anyone. Moreover, the copper cannon is cast with few defects, high precision, easy to make thin, and much lighter, so our Staff Bureau only makes copper cannons, and the iron cannons are left to those inferior craftsmen of the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry to make. ”

When he said this last sentence, all the gunsmiths were proud, as if they were proud of their status as royal craftsmen.

"Understood. The bronze cannon has many advantages over the iron cannon. Zhu Zhen nodded, and asked again: "But the copper cannon is also much more expensive than the iron cannon, right?" ”

"That's ......" the gunsmiths lost their arrogance.

The country is seriously short of copper, and Boss Zhu has to print money instead of copper coins, how can there be more copper to make artillery for them? So now the Ming army is an iron cannon cast by the Ministry of Labor.

"If you want to make an iron cannon, we generally know how to make it," Luo Xiang panicked, lest His Highness lose interest in making cannons. Hurriedly put down the shelf and said, "We can also learn, we can also build." ”

"yes, there's no way to do it." The craftsmen also chimed in.

It's not that they have a soft spot for cannon casting. It is a niche product such as copper bells, and the demand is too small. And it is also a super durable product, the temple can use a bell for hundreds of years, and the craftsmen have too little work to open the pot!

"What do you think of this king? Can I use inferior goods? Zhu Zhen waved his hand and said in a rough voice: "If you want to make us, we will make the best!" Isn't it copper? If you have money, you don't have to worry about copper! ”

"Yes, yes, our eyes are too shallow, and we dare to underestimate His Highness's financial resources!" Luo Xiang and the others hurriedly admitted their mistakes happily.

"Your Highness means that you use money to buy copper, not to melt money for copper, don't think about it, let alone talk nonsense." Teacher Luo on the side reminded the family in a deep voice.

Because the imperial court strictly forbids the melting of copper coins, talking nonsense will cause trouble for His Highness. Although His Highness already has a lot of lice and does not bite.

Teacher Luo did give the sixth child a wake-up call, and whispered to him: "Change the donation task of the big households in Suzhou from copper coins to copper ingots." ”

As for how the big families get the copper ingots, it has nothing to do with His Highness.

"Yes......" The corners of Luo Guanzhong's mouth twitched, and he was a little sympathetic to those big dogs. This sixth child can really pick wool, and he picks it repeatedly, and he pulls it into the bald......

~~

After meeting with the craftsmen and visiting the simple cannon casting workshop, Zhu Zhen and his entourage came to the test site with the largest area.

More than a dozen cast copper cannons have been placed, and the sound of the cannons heard by Yu Tongyuan and others before was sent out by Luo Xiang and them for the final debugging.

Zhu Zhen at a glance, these copper cannons can be roughly divided into two kinds, one kind of cannon body is thick and short, the muzzle of the cannon is like a sea bowl, Luo Xiang said that this is called 'bowl mouth cannon'.

The other has a slender body and a muzzle like a teacup, which is called a 'mouth cannon'.

Luo Xiang asked His Highness to retreat to a safe distance and ordered people to display the two types of artillery respectively. In the earth-shattering roar, the characteristics of the two types of artillery were clearly displayed in front of His Royal Highness the King of Chu.

The ballistic trajectory of the bowl mouth cannon is curved, so it uses a mortar projectile, and can fire large-caliber shells, which is a siege weapon.

The cannonball has a small shell, a straight trajectory, and can be fired horizontally, which is more suitable for field combat.

As for the power, everyone who understands the unspoken rules of the artillery field understands it, and the special effects must be full, so that the audience can enjoy watching it......

After the demonstration, Luo Xiang politely asked His Highness, what else do you have to say?

"Shoot the bowl cannon flat." Your Highness really has instructions.

"If you shoot flat, the range is not enough to see......" Luo Xiang said.

"Shoot." King Chu said lightly.

"Yes." Luo Xiang reluctantly ordered the bowl mouth cannon to be leveled, and the effective range was less than 100 zhang.

The king of Chu ordered that the wooden plank used as a target be moved to a distance of fifty zhang, and the bowl cannon could be accurately fired, but the power was amazing, and the wooden board was broken with one shot.

"That's it!" Yu Tongyuan, who had been expressionless, finally showed joy.

(End of chapter)