The imperial court is busy providing disaster relief to Shaanxi. The disaster itself may not be serious, but because Zhu Youtang personally supervised the operation, the imperial court had to pay attention to it.
Zhu Youtang also wanted to use this as a model to set the principles for local disaster relief.
But Zhang Zhou did not need to stay in the capital these days. He went to Xishan himself.
In addition to Zhu Feng, Wang Mingshan, Liu Gui, Jia Laoshui and others, he was followed by the Qianhu Sun Shangqi of Jin Yiwei who arrived early in the morning, and also Zhu Youtang who had arrived earlier. Five hundred of the 10,000 soldiers allocated to Zhang Zhou were separated. Their purpose in Xishan was to assist in "cannon building."
"Sir."
When Zhang Zhou appeared in front of the Xishan Coal Mine, the surrounding area was no longer just a mine.
The huge mine has more than a dozen pits connected together, stretching for four to five miles. Together with the surrounding miners and the industries that have been generated by the miners, it has formed a scale no less than that of a small city. , here has become the "Xishan Town" of the Ming Dynasty, and it can be said that there is everything you need to eat, drink and have fun in the town.
Zhang Zhou first looked around from a high place.
Sun Shangqi next to him said, "Sir, the number of troops stationed in Xishan is obviously insufficient now. If the Tatars invade or bandits come, we can only count on the Beijing camp to mobilize troops to coordinate. Before I mentioned to you that we are going to build a city wall in Xishan, but I wonder if it is possible to move forward."
A city wall is going to be built in Xishan.
To ensure that the black mineral veins of the Ming Dynasty can be protected here. After all, the Ming Dynasty has basically used the "briquettes" produced in Xishan. In addition to the procurement by the government, even large households and ordinary people All are already available on the market.
Now is the twelfth lunar month of winter, and the sales of government-run briquettes are also very good, bringing a steady stream of income to Zhang Zhou.
"That's a coal dump area. A lot of high-quality coal is shipped from Shanxi. It's just that it's very inconvenient to transport it by horse and cart." Sun Shangqi now mentioned Xishan. All kinds of things above and below can be said to be countless treasures.
After all, Sun Shangqi has very few opportunities to make contributions, but he is responsible for logistics and manufacturing, so he can be said to be very handy.
Zhang Zhou inspected the circle and felt very satisfied. After all, the coal mines developed by him in Xishan were all under his name, and the coal produced was basically liquidated by him. However, Zhang Zhou did not use it in the private field, but filled the Ming Dynasty's cannon-making and internal affairs.
It is precisely because he, Zhang Zhou, can continuously create wealth for Zhu Youtang that Zhu Youtang is willing to hand over more mining exploration rights to him, and at the same time let him wear multiple hats, even taking over the Ming Dynasty. The job of making firearms was given to him unsuspectingly.
If it were anyone else, the emperor himself would probably be embarrassed.
I give money to the mines and return it to the people, and I also allow you to make cannons and firecrackers. I am not afraid of your rebellion.
"That's good." Zhang Zhou said, "Take me to see the cannons." By the way, I gave the casting drawings I drew recently to the craftsmen to see how to forge them."
In Xishan Gong Pao Workshop.
The huge furnace is responsible for smelting iron. Xishan is mainly responsible for the smelting of iron ore in Zhangjiakou and other places, while the iron ore in Yongping Prefecture requires more coal to be transported to Yongping Prefecture to complete casting.
Because several coal mines and iron ore mines are far away from each other, which caused inconvenience in transportation capacity in this era, Zhang Zhou is also considering improvements.
The method used is basically the most respected "steam locomotive" in this era, that is, making a steam train. However, because of the huge cost, and the verification and planning of the route also take time, At present, this is only limited to the demonstration stage. Zhang Zhou has not even formally raised this matter with Zhu Youtang.
At the entrance of Gong Pao Fang, there is a fort, facing the open area of a deep valley more than ten miles long behind Xishan Mountain. This is also a place for testing cannons.
What was transported to the fort this time was a cannon that looked the same as the previous cannon. It was much lighter than the heavy cannon, but it was still heavier than the previous cannon.
Sun Shangqi said, "Sir, everything is according to your design. You should have seen the drawings and the lines inside. As for the accuracy of the cannonball, it is as you said, and the error cannot exceed Not at all, but this cannon is very heavy. Even with wheels, it requires two horses to pull it. It is extremely inconvenient to cross hills and other places."
"Yeah"
Zhang Zhou nodded.
The cannon in front of him is the "rifled cannon" that Zhang Zhou has been researching and improving recently.
In the past, whether it was light artillery, long-range artillery or heavy artillery, they were all smoothbore artillery. The firing distance and accuracy all depended on the initial velocity, and the aiming was only in a general direction, where it landed counted. Well, often the accuracy of shooting can be one mile away, but the error is more than twenty meters.
Because of the accuracy error, when the Tatar cavalry encounters the Ming artillery array, they now basically use a dispersed formation to prevent the Ming artillery from being fully covered as much as possible.
But if you replace it with a rifled gun, after the accuracy is improved, the farthest range can even reach ten miles away, and the accuracy can ensure an error of about ten meters, making the artillery's range and aiming a qualitative leap. Of course, the rifled gun developed for the first time is still far from such accuracy. It can only be said that further improvement is needed.
"Bang"
Hit out with one shot.
There was no explosion.
There have been six or seven tests before, and the biggest problem with the rifled gun is probably jamming.
It was only after the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty had perfected their skills in making smoothbore cannons that they were qualified to talk about improving rifled cannons. This test cannon is not considered the first cannon. It can only be said that it was supervised by Zhang Zhou personally. The first shot.
"The range of the target area is six and a half miles"
As the personnel responsible for observing the upper part of the valley in the distance sent signals such as semaphores, Sun Shangqi reported the results.
The target area is just a one-hundred-meter-square ground area, and aiming and other things are done byProfessional gunners do it.
One mile of the Ming Dynasty is not 500 meters, but only more than 400 meters. The range is six and a half miles, which is probably only equivalent to the range of 2670 meters, but this is already better than the previous best. The latest heavy artillery, that is, the Hongyi cannon, has a range of more than a mile, but its weight is much lighter, and its accuracy has made a qualitative leap.
When Zhu Feng heard Sun Shangqi’s result report, he looked very excited and said, “Brother Zhang, this gun doesn’t look so heavy, why does it have such a long range?”
Sun Shangqi He smiled and said, "Mr. Anbian may not know that this new cannon has rifling added to it. Before the cannon is ejected from the chamber, it will rotate along the rifling inside. When it comes out, it can go faster and hit where you point it. The materials used are not the same." There will be more, but it is very difficult to make. Just such a cannon is much more time-consuming than casting a powerful long-range cannon."
Zhu Feng said, "It's awesome, but before. In Ningxia, I led troops to fight the Tatars with artillery, but they didn't fight head-on with us. No matter how far we fought, I was afraid they wouldn't get anywhere."
Sun Shangqi is still here. In the midst of pride, who would have thought that Zhu Feng here seemed to be a lunatic, praising him at first and then trying to undermine him.
This is very annoying.
But Sun Shangqi didn’t dare to say anything yet.
Zhang Zhou said with an indifferent expression, "Is it because this artillery has certain drawbacks when fighting cavalry? Why don't you study it? In the past, when you had no artillery, you dared to lead four thousand soldiers to fight the Tatars." "Forty thousand soldiers and horses are fighting around"
Zhu Feng thought, let alone four thousand versus forty thousand in the past, even if it was four thousand versus four thousand, it was almost like courting death.
When the Ming Dynasty fought on the frontier in the past, it either defended or carried out sneak attacks. Only Wang Yue could do this, and it was not said that he could achieve great feats every time. , more of a pull.
Zhang Zhou said, "The Ming Dynasty needed both elite soldiers and powerful generals, as well as new weapons to remain invincible on the battlefield. If all weapons cannot keep pace with the times, then the Tatars People will soon study all our tactics. Next time we enter the grassland, maybe the right time and the right place will not take advantage of us."
"Yes"
Zhu Feng also had to put away his previous arrogance of "I am a witness and I have the right to speak." He followed Zhang Zhou to the rifled cannon that had just fired the shells.
Immediately, Zhu Feng was very interested in the new cannonballs sent by the artillery. "This cannonball is completely different from before. How come it is long?"
The cannonballs before the Ming Dynasty were basically Round, this is for ease of launch.
The tradition of big iron balls has not changed because of the emergence of several new artillery pieces developed by Zhang Zhou.
But with the emergence of rifled guns, round projectiles are no longer standard.
Zhang Zhoudao said, "The back part is mainly responsible for pushing. The fuse is still used now. In the future, it can be improved to use flint or even percussion powder. These all need to be studied. The artillery will become more and more advanced, and the artillery will become more and more advanced.", don’t think that you understand everything just because you have personally led the Shenji Battalion and fought with the Tatars for a few days. In the future, when you serve as an instructor in the Yanwu Hall, you must also understand how to keep pace with the times. ”
“If you can’t learn more knowledge yourself, how can you teach it to others?”
Zhu Feng lowered his head in shame and said, “I know”
Zhang Zhouyi raised his hand and said, "Fire a few more times to see what the damage ratio of this gun is. At least twenty shots must be fired, and damage should be maintained at one hundred times. If this is not possible, the accuracy must be improved. ”
Zhang Zhou knew that after the emergence of rifled cannons, the difficulty of artillery maintenance would be greatly increased.
In the past, the gunners of the Shenji Battalion in the Ming Dynasty were mostly rude men. , and in the future, we should change to the "academic" direction. We no longer need those who are rich and powerful to be gunners. We should find some people with a certain cultural background who can at least learn what a parabola is, how to aim, and various elevation angles. The resulting changes in firing range, etc.
When Zhang Zhou went to Xishan to inspect the rifled cannon,
Zhu Youtang seemed bored in the palace. He originally planned to go find Zhang Zhou. After chatting, I was told that Zhang Zhou had gone out of the city to Xishan.
"Bing Kuan is the same, what are you busy with every day?" Zhu Youtang will miss Zhang Zhou if he can't see him for a while. p>
With Zhang Zhou, they are simply soulmates. It seems that only Zhang Zhou can know his inner thoughts and can help him realize the heroic Tao military strategy that he once dared not even dream of.
Li Rong said, "Your Majesty, Dongchang has also sent people to accompany Mr. Zhang. It is said that they want to inspect the new cannon. ”
Zhu Youtang asked curiously, “Didn’t Bingkuan tell me before that the focus of improvement in the future should be on the muskets, not the artillery?”
Li Rong laughed. "The former Jinyiwei Qianhu Sun Shangqi has reported that the new cannon has a longer range, can hit six or seven miles away, and can be extremely accurate. From now on, even if the thief hasn't appeared in front of us, we will We can destroy them."
"That would be quite interesting."
Zhu Youtang smiled and said, "Same goes for Bingkuan. Why don't you ask me to join you for such a good thing? "Go"
Li Rongdao "Maybe it's because the cannon has just come out and needs a lot of testing, so its safety cannot be guaranteed. When it can be cast in large quantities in the future, your Majesty can naturally inspect it in person." "
"Alas"
Zhu Youtang already wanted to meet Zhang Zhou, but now that Li Rong was "covetous", he became even more restless.
"By the way, Prince, are you doing well with your recent studies?" Zhu Youtang can't find anything to do now.
Except for an earthquake in Shaanxi in the next year, there will be no major events. The summary that needs to be done is here. It has been completed a year ago, and many yamen in the court are still in the process of rest. The daily court meetings are just routine. It will not be until the end of the first year, with the beginning of spring plowing, that the court meetings will have some substantive content. < /p>
Of course the Tatars need to give face.
If it goes like usual, even during the Chinese New Year, the Tatars will not stop and will bring all kinds of troubles to the court.
It is precisely because of Zhang Zhou, Wang Shouren and others who have decided on border military affairs and other matters that the Tatars no longer invade the border as often as in the past few years, so the emperor has a Spring Festival holiday.
Li Rong said, "The prince is fine."
In fact, Li Rong didn't know how Zhu Houzhao's recent studies were.
The minister still has a few days to rest, but Zhu Youtang has very high requirements for Zhu Houzhao. In addition, Zhu Houzhao ran away on his own for several months before. In order to let his son catch up with his studies, Zhu Youtang, After the New Year, only the first day of the Lunar New Year allowed Zhu Houzhao to rest for a day, and then the daily lectures in the East Palace never stopped.
Zhu Youtang sighed, "This prince is too naughty. But fortunately, I still have Bingkuan, so forget about my shortcomings and forget about him. Has Bingkuan had any problems with Yanwu recently?" "What suggestions does the Tang make?"
Li Rong took out a handwritten list from his arms and said, "Your Majesty, this is what I went to see Mr. Zhang before. Instead of mentioning some generals who can be promoted in the future, he went with After the old slave came back, he remembered all the people he mentioned."
"Really?"
Zhu Youtang glanced at Li Rong.
The look in his eyes seemed to say, you are quite a thief. You went to chat with Zhang Zhou, but it turned out that you were just trying to trick Zhang Zhou into saying who could use it, and you did it in such a sneaky way
When Zhu Youtang read the list, he sighed, "There are not many surprises."
Li Rong said, "Your Majesty, you see, there are still some, such as Weining Hou Wang Chun, such as the eldest son of the British Duke Zhang Rui, for example, Zhu Lin, the elder brother of Duke Chengguo, and Wang Shi, the younger brother of Marquis Weining, who is also related by marriage to Mr. Zhang."
"Yes."
p>Zhu Youtang smiled and nodded when he saw this.
They all seemed to be close friends with Zhang Zhou, which meant a bit of "nepotism", but Zhu Youtang seemed to like this tone.
The closer I am to the person, the more I like to use it.
Because I can use it easily, I feel at ease. Please remember to bookmark, the latest and fastest website is free to read without anti-theft