Last time, it was mentioned that Emperor Chongzhen decided to allocate another 500,000 taels of silver to Xu Guangqi for smelting steel and saltpeter, with the purpose of establishing a military industrial system as soon as possible.

"Xu Dashangshu, get up quickly! The emperor has promised to allocate you a huge amount of money! You can rest assured that you can toss it! Ha ha. Zhu Youxiao said when he saw this.

"Uh...... Thank you for your great kindness! Thank you for your encouragement! Long live the emperor, long live, long live! The prince is a thousand years old, a thousand years old! Xu Guangqi kowtowed.

"Alright, alright, get up. You're going to go with me to the front range to check out the effect of the shelling yourself? "Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen said.

"Wechen obeys! Your Majesty, please! Lord Wang, please! Xu Guangqi got up after the order, dusted off the dust on his body and said with a smile: "Please also ask the emperor and the prince to get on the horse, so that you can run faster, after all, this 'rifled cannon' has a long range, if the barrel is lengthened by two feet, it may really be able to hit ten miles away!" ”

"Oh? Really? If so! You Xu Guangqi is my 'first hero of the Ming Dynasty'! Ha ha. Emperor Chongzhen laughed heartily.

In fact, when the history developed to the late Ming Dynasty, the "bottle furnace" used by the folk was larger than the "official furnace", and under normal circumstances, 3,600 catties of iron can be produced in one day and night, and 6,000 catties of iron can be produced per day at the highest time.

At the same time, the technology of Europe in this area was still far behind that of the Ming Dynasty, and the relatively simple triangular wooden bellows were not invented until the 16th century, and the rectangular wooden bellows were not until after that, and the blowers that used pistons to push and compress air were the late 18th century.

During the Ming Dynasty, craftsmen invented the "raw wrought iron tandem smelting process" which greatly improved production efficiency. At the same time, the use of "coal" (coal) to smelt iron has also been popularized to a greater extent, because it is recorded in the book "Tiangong Kaiwu" written at that time, indicating that this technology has been relatively mature.

Song Yingxing said in his book "Heavenly Creations": "Where the furnace uses charcoal for blazing iron, coal ranks seventeen, and charcoal ranks thirteen. "It proves that coal accounted for 70% of the fuel used to make iron at that time, and charcoal accounted for 30%, because the combustion value of coal was larger, and the temperature was higher when burning under the same conditions.

The "earth blast furnace" has also been greatly improved, and the "iron smelting furnace" and the "iron frying furnace" can be used in series. For example, Fang Yizhi said in "Physics Knowledge": "All iron furnaces are made of salt and mud, and they are not fried as pig iron...... When the melt flow, it is left in the square pond, sprinkled with dry marl and stirred with a willow stick, then it is familiar. ”

This iron-smelting technology reduces the "re-melting" process during the "frying wrought iron", shortens the time of "frying wrought iron", and reduces the production cost, which is an important achievement in the history of ancient iron smelting. In addition, the "Su Steel" smelting method invented during the Ming Dynasty is a new development of the "steel filling and smelting" technology since the Tang and Song dynasties.

In later generations, Zhou Zhihong, a "smelting expert", once said: "There is no similar invention of Suzhou steel smelting method in foreign countries, and it is obviously a creative invention in ancient China...... The whole process is suitable for the metallurgical principle of modern industry, and a method of "iron oxidation" is created without a crucible, but it can separate the slag and iron and become a relatively pure tool steel. This is the crystallization of the wisdom of advanced steelmakers in ancient China! "This will always be worthy of admiration for posterity!

In addition, the "pig iron mouth" technology is also a unique creation in the Ming Dynasty, because Yang Kuan said in the "History of the Development of Ancient Chinese Iron Smelting Technology": "It is more worthy of attention that the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty widely used the method of "pig iron mouthing" when forging the blades of tools and weapons, so that the blades have the surface layer of steel structure. "This method can greatly enhance the hardness and toughness of the weapon, making the sword level extremely sharp, and it is not easy to brittle and break.

The use of "pig iron leaching" technology can make the original "wrought iron" or "low carbon steel" as the body of the production tool surface to generate a certain thickness of "rubbing layer", including "carburizing layer" and "pig iron cladding layer", and to achieve the surface hard, and the internal flexibility and wear-resistant and durable requirements, resulting in a qualitative leap.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, craftsmen used the method of "pig iron pouring and irrigation" to clamp a number of wrought iron flakes, which was a further step than the "wrought iron bars" method that used "pig iron pouring and coiling" before the Southern Song Dynasty. In the late Ming Dynasty, the "Sugang smelting method" ...... Another step forward, which has made a big difference in improving the performance of production tools.

In the book "Research on Social Transformation in the Late Ming Dynasty", it is said: "The steelmaking technology of the Ming Dynasty was far ahead in the world at that time. In Europe, it was not until the 18th century that the method of putting wrought iron and pig iron in crucibles was invented to make steel. It can be seen that Xu Guangqi and others are confident that they can make good steel.

After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he attached great importance to the development of "gunpowder weapons", because the folk proverb "Maitreya came to the world, and the Ming King was born" made Zhu Yuanzhang overconfident, thinking that he could jump from the bottom of the society to the "poor monk" and "called Huazi" to become the "emperor of the world", it is no accident, and he must master the most powerful power!

And "firearms weapons" are undoubtedly the most "mysterious" and "convincing" things, so they allocate funds every year to vigorously develop "gunpowder weapons" technology.

At that time, the Mongols were driven to the grassland by Zhu Yuanzhang's troops, and there were few people in the whole world who were his opponents, so he quickly pacified the world, so that the social economy began to recover and prosper, and everything was in ruins. During this period, the iron and steel smelting industry made progress, the handicraft industry developed, and foreign exchanges expanded.

However, with the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates repeatedly invaded the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty, and the most used in the war with them was "firearms", so Zhu Yuanzhang had to make great efforts to develop "firearms", so it greatly promoted the development of the military industry and created good conditions for the progress of "firearms" technology.

To make "firearms", "gunpowder" is certainly indispensable. The Ming Dynasty had a very rich variety of "gunpowder", with 90 varieties and actual formulas of "military gunpowder". Compared with the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Ming Dynasty had a more reasonable configuration of gunpowder components, improved quality, and reached a higher level of combustion performance and explosive power.

It can be seen from the military books and historical books of the Ming Dynasty that the craftsmen at that time had a great improvement in their understanding of the "gunpowder formula" and the preparation technology compared with the previous dynasties. In particular, the "Armament Chronicle and Firearms Law" records in detail the recipes of various types of "gunpowder" such as explosive gunpowder and jet gunpowder.

There are hundreds of "gunpowder formulas" recorded in the "Records of Soldiers: Characteristics of Gunpowder Medicine", which shows that the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty have mastered the combination law of gunpowder. Mao Yuanyi's "Wu Bei Zhi - Gunpowder Fu", Tang Shunzhi's "Wu Bian - Fire", Jiao Miao's "Fire Attack and Strategy" and other military classics all pointed out that gunpowder has the characteristics of "nitrate vertical and sulfur horizontal", and the performance and function of different varieties of "gunpowder" have been studied very clearly. This is the reason why Xu Guangqi has the confidence to improve "gunpowder".

He Rubin pointed out in "Records of Soldiers": "Those who are straight are the main attackers, nine nitrates and one sulfur; The crit of the sexual offender, seven nitrate and three sulfur. This shows that the craftsmen at that time were very good at using the characteristics of gunpowder to find the best solution for the configuration of gunpowder, and tried to maximize the attack effectiveness of gunpowder and firearms. Therefore, the gunpowder manufacturing technology of the Ming Dynasty was improved, and the quality of gunpowder was significantly improved compared with the Song and Yuan dynasties.

The development of history to the Ming Dynasty has further increased the types of "gunpowder weapons", and a variety of "firearms" varieties have been initially formed. For example, "handcuffs" are "guns", which include both "single-barreled guns" and "multi-barreled guns", as well as "long guns" and "short guns". "Single-barreled guns" are divided into "invincible guns", "fast guns", "lianzi guns", "sword guns", "thousands of miles guns", etc.; "Multi-barreled guns" range from double-barreled, three-barreled, four-barreled, to dozens of barrels. As for the large-caliber "bowl mouth gun", it is equivalent to a cannon.

Another example is "artillery", which can be divided into "light artillery" and "heavy artillery". "Light artillery" is divided into "Tiger Squat Cannon", "Whirlwind Cannon", "Flying Cannon", etc.; "Heavy artillery" is divided into "General Cannon", "Weiyuan Cannon", "Attack Cannon", "Thousand Thunder Cannon", "Extermination Cannon, etc.", "Fulong Machine Cannon", "Hongyi Cannon" and so on.

"Rocket" is divided into "single-launch rocket" and "multi-launch rocket", of which "single-launch rocket" is divided into "large-barrel rocket" and "post-gunpowder arrow"; "Multiple rockets" are divided into "magic arrows", "fire crossbow meteor arrows", "seven-barrel arrows", "hundreds of tigers rushing arrows" and so on. In the Battle of the Siege, "rockets" can inflict heavy casualties on the enemy.

There are also many varieties of explosive firearms, which can be divided into "10,000 enemies", "slow artillery", "mines", "mines", etc. Not only that, even the earliest "time bomb" had been successfully developed, which was called the "slow artillery method" by the "Shenji Battalion" of the Ming army at that time, and "the firing line was not launched until one or two o'clock", and it already had great lethality.

Later, during the Jiajing period, the "Franc machine" and "arquebus" introduced by the European Portuguese also promoted the progress of the "domestic firearms manufacturing industry" in the Ming Dynasty and led to the improvement of the research and development level of "guns". The government of the Ming Dynasty made great efforts to imitate advanced Western firearms and to improve traditional manufacturing processes, so that the scientific and technological content of various firearms was greatly increased, the varieties were enriched, and the army's equipment was also updated.

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, "rockets" included both gunpowder arrows fired with bows and crossbows, as well as rocket arrows propelled by gunpowder gas recoil. The tubular firearms of the Ming Dynasty have become closer and closer to modern guns, especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, which often engaged foreign enemies, so that the performance of firearms has been greatly improved.

Some types of firearms have been modified not only to fire in bursts, but also to have an aiming function and a device that can effectively prevent recoil. Explosive firearms have also developed by leaps and bounds, forming multiple categories such as water and land. The Ming Dynasty had relatively weak research on incendiary firearms, but many new varieties also emerged.

In the military books of the Ming Dynasty, there are many treatises on firearms and gunpowder, and there are more than 10 kinds of treatises that have been handed down to later generations. In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, internal and external troubles intensified, and even the manufacturing technology of "firearms" was surpassed by the West. As a result, the government of the Ming Dynasty began to openly and even introduce a large number of Western cannons, such as "Fur Lang Ji" and "Hongyi Cannon". At that time, some works on firearms were also translated directly from the West, which was only an imitation of Western scientific and technological theories.

These writings can hardly be called perfect, as the people of the time summed up: "The laws and regulations in them are all true Western traditions, but they are related to military aircraft, and many of them are meticulous, and those who do not express them in detail do not have the grand view of the technology." At that time, Western missionaries such as Matteo Ricci, John Tong, and Nan Huairen all left works on "artillery-making technology". With the efforts of domestic scholars of ancient gunpowder research, firearms works of different varieties and themes have emerged one after another.

These treatises either studied the manufacture and use of "firearms", discussed the operation and training of "firearms", or summarized tactics and formations, which greatly changed the face of "military science" in the Ming Dynasty. Among the theoretical works on the manufacture and use of firearms in the Ming Dynasty, the influential monographs include "Fire Dragon Artifact Formation", "Fire Attack Strategy", "Artifact Spectrum", "Western Law Divine Machine", etc., all of which specifically discuss how to manufacture "firearms" and use them to equip and train the army on a large scale.

In addition, such works as "Martial Arts Edition," "New Book of Discipline and Effectiveness," "Actual Record of Military Training," "Records of Military Preparation," "Daming Huidian," "Records of Soldiers," and "Compilation of Charts for the Preparation of the Sea" have also systematically expounded the principles of the manufacture and use of firearms from different angles.

The "Fire Dragon Artifact Formation" has a relatively detailed record of the method of using "firearms" to launch attacks, the manufacture of "firearms", and the preparation of "gunpowder". "The Essentials of Fire Attack" was written by Jiao Miao based on the technology taught by Tang Ruowang, which recorded the technological achievements of "firearms" in the Ming Dynasty and absorbed a large number of advanced achievements in Western artillery-making technology. The author called the collection "the gist of famous books, the secret biography of teachers and friends, and the occasional result of painstaking efforts", which was very influential at the time.

The "Artifact Spectrum" is also a "firearms" monograph, which has a detailed record of the manufacture and use of "arquebuses", and reflects the "individual firearms" in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. level of development and use. "The Divine Machine of Western Law" is an early monograph by Ming Dynasty intellectuals to comprehensively introduce "Western firearms technology", reflecting the situation of learning and introducing advanced Western science and technology in the late Ming Dynasty, and it is also the source of inspiration for Xu Guangqi and his Western assistants to dare to challenge "rifled guns" and "rifled guns".

In addition, some comprehensive military books of the Ming Dynasty also paid attention to "firearms". For example, the author of "The New Book of Discipline and Effectiveness" and "The Actual Record of Military Training" is Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese general, who has a relatively detailed record of the new "firearms" such as "tiger squat artillery" and "landmines" created during the Jiajing period.

The "Compilation of Naval Charts" focuses on the naval weapons and methods used by the Ming army; The "Records of Soldiers" records the Ming Dynasty's absorption and borrowing of Western countries' artillery manufacturing and use methods. These accumulations have become the confidence of the stubborn old man Xu Guangqi who dared to face difficulties head-on and repeatedly asked the emperor for military training.

The military science masterpiece "Wubei Zhi", which is known as the ancient military encyclopedia, has 16 volumes to record more than 180 kinds of firearms, which not only records the shape and structure of various types of firearms, briefly explains their use, but also has a comprehensive and detailed record of the achievements of the development of ancient firearms.

…………………………………………

Haha, thank you for your attention, collection, recommendation, subscription and review of this book! As an author, I am very happy and honored to provide readers with a novel that meets the needs of the general public. As the saying goes, "Life is short, but the tip of the pen is slender." "Therefore, the road to cultivation is long, where to find immortality? There is nowhere to go for troubles, and read the people in the book!

This story is pure fiction, if there are similarities, it is a coincidence! Friends, the part-time job is hard, the time is urgent, the creation is not easy, like the collection, by the way, forward, want to know the plot? Next time I break it down!