The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 164 Flint and Copper
After watching the guns, Ding Yi went on to see how to make guns.

The gun factory is a bit far from the gun factory, because they were afraid that the test gun would affect their work, so they walked for more than ten minutes, and there was a jungle in the middle for sound insulation.

After passing through the jungle, the first to see a river.

There are newly built factory buildings by the river, and the most conspicuous ones are the six large waterwheels built in the river.

How to build a waterwheel in the middle of the river? The craftsmen thought of many ways and found several rivers.

The river is too shallow, too deep, too wide, and too narrow.

Finally, I found the river in front of me. The depth was okay, but it was a bit narrow. After discussing with Ding Yi, Li Zhongyi and Ding Yi mobilized the people of Liao to dig the river and forcibly dug out the best distance.

Each waterwheel is more than ten meters wide, and the central shaft is made of clam wood, which is extremely hard and can drive the machine tool.

After the waterwheel was completed, the bridge was built with soil on both sides, and the machine tool was placed on the bridge to connect the waterwheel.

Then build a house and protect the machine tool.

Ding Yi looked simple, but he didn't know how much manpower and material resources were spent in front.

If it weren't for the hundreds of craftsmen under his current rule, more than the provincial capital of the Ming Dynasty, it would be so delicate.

Right now, there is no hurry to rush to work. The craftsmen rest as usual every day, and they don’t work after six o’clock in the evening. The daily output of six machine tools is 22-25 gun barrels.

If you work overtime, you can get more.

Ding Yi looked at the machine tool, and was very happy in his heart. He asked Li Zhongyi, and he was digging a river nearby. He dug it out manually, drained the water here, and then built five new machine tools. It will be completed in July and August this year.

Ding Yi nodded. For the time being, he didn't plan to fight a war. In the early stage, he just hoarded food and supplies, exploded soldiers, kept his head down, and focused on development.

I only started to work hard in the mid-term, and played slowly, so I don't need to work overtime right now.

What if he spends two or three years killing all the Houjin soldiers now?
Chongzhen immediately wanted to kill Yuan Chonghuan as if he had chopped him down.

I traveled through time for the people of the Ming Dynasty, not for the Ming Dynasty. Ding Yi has never changed this goal.

He gave himself another good reason to be obsessed, encouraged the craftsmen, and then went to see Zhou Dahu and his wife with Li Zhongyi.

The two were in a house a hundred meters away.

When Ding Yi entered, the two looked up, nodded one after another, and immediately lowered their heads again.

Ding Yi knew that they were concentrating on making things.

He looked intently, there was a pile of fodder on the table, there was a little gunpowder on the fodder, there was a part in Zhou Dahu's hand, and something was clamped in front of it.

He took the part and gave it a hard pull.

Bah, sparks popped out of the parts, heck, the gunpowder was ignited, but it didn't catch fire, the flame flashed by, and the fodder didn't ignite.

Ding Yi was overjoyed, the couple were engaged in flintlock guns.

"This flint is not good, it's too small, and there's not enough sparks." Zhao said in a low voice.

Zhou Dahu nodded, with a serious face: "The quality is not good, it is best to use Japanese ones."

Flint is a siliceous rock, the main rock-forming mineral of many igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, and is mainly produced in the pores of extrusive rocks.

The characteristic of flint is flammable. In ancient times, flint and steel fire sickle were used to strike fire, also known as flint.

There are many such things in Japan. Japan is an island country with many volcanoes, and high-quality flint is abundant there.

The two couples said to Ding Yi at this time: "The flintlock (Ding Yi's name) is similar in structure to the Lumi blunderbuss. There is no major problem with the body of the gun. The most important thing now is that the quality of the flint is not good enough. It is best for adults to buy it. some fine flint from Japan."

Mrs. Zhao nodded: "With Japanese flint, we can make the first flintlock within three months at most."

Of course, the two of them do not guarantee that they will be stronger than the current Lumi gun. They just make a flintlock gun according to Ding Yi's request, and then look at the shortcomings and gradually improve it. If they want to apply it to actual combat, Zhao estimates that there is at least one more time two years.

If you want to surpass the Lumi gun, it is estimated that it will take about three years.

The generals around Ding Yi heard that this thing would take three years, so what a fart it is, it is better to use the Lumi gun.

Ding Yi immediately said, don't worry, I can wait for five years, take your time, don't worry.

Zhou Dahu and Zhao Shi should be the strongest and best professor-level firearms experts in this era.

They said that they could surpass the Lumi blunderbuss in three years, and they would definitely surpass the Lumi blunderbuss by then. Just thinking about its power made me excited.

What is three years, five years can wait.

Seeing that Ding Yi was not in a hurry, Zhou Dahu was naturally more happy.

He and his wife have worked hard for several months, and finally achieved results, and now they are short of flint.

At that time, both Bi Maokang and Zhao's father felt that the flint was not good, and the firing rate of the self-generated blunderbuss was not high.

In history, the Ming court later produced self-generating guns, which was the same problem, so it was left alone, and was not equipped with the most advanced firearms of this era.

Ding Yi and Ruan Wenyan looked at each other, Ruan Wenyan said: "It seems that Japan must go."

Ding Yi's heart moved: "What else do we need? Japan has it?"

"Copper." Ruan Wenyan laughed.

After listening to Ruan Wenyan's explanation, Ding Yi understood.

Ruan Wenyan often does business, so she knows that a copper coin is popular in the Ming Dynasty, called Kuan Yong Tong Bao.

Kanei Tongbao is a kind of copper coin with the largest casting volume, the longest casting period and the most editions in Japanese history, and it is also one of the largest foreign coins flowing into my country.

It was first cast in the third year of Emperor Mizuo Kanei (108) of Japan's 1626th generation, and began to be cast in large quantities in 1636.At that time, money furnaces all over Japan were cast, and they were still in use until the early Meiji years. They were in circulation for more than 240 years, and were later abolished due to the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Kuanyongtong treasure money has been continuously flowing into my country during the long-term Sino-Japanese trade and exchanges, and has been found all over the country. It was not until the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty that the Qing government decided to ban Japanese copper coins from being sold in the country. use.

There are two main reasons why foreign copper coins can be used in the Ming Dynasty.

One is that the Ming Dynasty implemented a parallel system of banknotes, silver, and copper coins, but the casting of copper coins was seriously insufficient. Among the seventeen emperors of the Ming Dynasty, only nine emperors had minted coins (such as Ming Xuanzong in the decades since Xuande). never minted).Therefore, the old copper coins of the Tang and Song Dynasties were allowed to flow in, which provided conditions for the circulation of privately minted money among the people and Japanese imitation money flowing into China.

It is incredible to think about it now, the copper coins of the Tang and Song dynasties can still be used in the Ming Dynasty?

This was the social reality at that time, and the Ming Dynasty was really short of copper.

The second reason is the germination of capitalism in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the social wealth increased rapidly, and the copper coins made privately were not enough.What should I do then?Then use "foreign exchange", the "foreign exchange" here refers to the imitation copper coins in Japan at that time.

After all, in the eyes of many people, isn't a copper coin just a circle with a hole in the middle, and it doesn't matter what words are written on it, as long as it can be used.So in the late Ming Dynasty, Kuanyong Tongbao, which circulated in Japan, traveled across the ocean to Daming by sea.

However, the common people of Ming Dynasty generally have a low level of education, and most of them can't read at all, so they don't know what characters are written on it.

The Japanese are also quite happy to use Kanyong Tongbao in Daming, and can exchange various materials they urgently need, such as their favorite raw silk, silk fabrics, sugar, ceramics, etc.

This period was the period when Daihatsu mined copper mines in Japan and cast Kuan Yongtongbao and sold it to the Ming Dynasty.

So there were a lot of copper mines in Japan during this period.

On the way back, Ding Yi and Ruan Wenyan began to plan when they would go to Japan.

According to Ding Yi's idea, there will be big changes in Phi Island before the end, and when the changes in Phi Island stabilize, he will go to Japan immediately.

Or, Ruan Siqing can be sent there first when he comes back from Fuzhou.

Flintlocks and field artillery are both his future development directions.

(End of this chapter)