Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1221 Epilogue : Prince Consort Xie's Pistol

After an autumn rain, the temperature dropped.

The weather is clear and crisp in autumn, which is a good time for hunting.

While common people were still struggling to make a living, the wealthy and powerful in the capital were busy hunting.

The Ming Dynasty's royal autumn hunting tradition was once discontinued.

During the period when Emperor Dingtai was reorganizing his army, he resumed autumn hunting activities. Even after the railway from Beijing to Zhangjiakou was completed, he personally led his troops there by train, and then crossed the Yuhu Ridge to Yanzicheng (Zhangbei County) to hunt.

Immediately afterwards, he ordered the entire nation's military to conduct a small exercise once a year and a large exercise every five years.

That is, all major military regions across the country will organize a small-scale military exercise once a year and a large-scale military exercise every five years.

But in the later years of Emperor Dingtai, military exercises began to be sloppy again. When asking for military exercise fees, each one was more active than the other; when military exercises were actually carried out, the scale became smaller and smaller, and most of the garrisons were too lazy to mobilize.

This time, taking advantage of the autumn hunting, the Luoyang Imperial Guards will conduct their annual small military exercise.

As the son-in-law of the emperor, Xie Yan naturally had to participate.

Because the Prince Consort's Commandant was a top-level military official, even if he had no military power, he had to attend such major military events.

"This is a flintlock musket sent by the Ministry of War," Zhu Tangxi pointed to a long box and said, "Does Liu Lang know how to use a musket?"

Xie Yan shook his head: "No. Can I keep this musket forever, or can I only hold it during the autumn hunt?"

Zhu Tangxi explained: "Liu Lang is a second-rank military officer. He can keep no more than five firearms in his private residence. But he is not allowed to possess cannons, bombs, etc., and there are also restrictions on the ammunition he can possess."

Xie Yan happily opened the gun box. What man doesn’t like weapons?
In his previous life, he had only touched a gun during military training in college.

Xie Yan knew little about ancient muskets, but he knew what rifling was. He found that this flintlock already had rifling, and the bullet was long and narrow, with a conical or spherical bullet head at the front and a paper shell wrapped tightly at the back.

"This musket won't explode, right?" Xie Yan couldn't help but ask.

Zhu Tangxi smiled and said, "No."

In the more than 100 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, due to the extremely little internal and external military pressure, the development of firearms was naturally very slow.

Even rifles were popularized when Emperor Dingtai reorganized the army.

Before this, rifled guns had been invented, but from court officials to military officers, no one was too lazy to carry out large-scale replacement. It was enough to use it for now, so why spend so much money to replace it with rifled guns?
There are also fulminate of mercury percussion cap guns.

Fulminate of mercury was created by a Taoist priest who was also a moonlighting chemist. He was half-dead from the explosion on the spot and died of infection a dozen days later.

Emperor Ding Tai also wanted to develop a fulminate of mercury percussion cap rifle at that time, but the risk factor was too high during storage and transportation, and the loading speed was slower than the flintlock rifle, which led to strong resistance from the logistics department to the combat troops.

In recent years, some people have proposed combining the percussion cap with fixed ammunition, but the imperial court has never allocated research funds.

Even if someone researched it at their own expense, the imperial court would not agree to re-equip the army because there were too many interests involved from top to bottom, and even without re-equipping, the army would have enough firepower to crush the enemy.

"Your Highness, Liu Lang is so majestic!" Qingluan's eyes sparkled with little stars.

But Xie Yan changed into a python robe, and it was a special military style. Not only were the sleeves narrowed into arrow sleeves, but he also had to wear wrist guards. A pair of leather boots, also special military boots.

Zhu Tangxi said: "Although we are not really going to go to the battlefield, it is more than enough to serve as the emperor's ceremonial guard."

Both the autumn hunt and the military exercises require the little emperor to show up.

The son-in-law of the emperor is the deputy horseman. When the emperor travels, he rides in the main carriage, and the son-in-law of the emperor is the horseman in charge of the deputy carriage.

Although there are many imperial consorts in the Ming Dynasty now, not many of them are under the age of 40, so young imperial consorts like Xie Yan are needed to support the situation.

After trying it on for a while, Xie Yan took off the dragon robe and went to see the newly renovated laboratory.

The laboratory was converted from two rooms in the Princess Library. The walls are mainly made of bricks and stones, and flammable materials such as wood are used as little as possible.

All the experimental equipment and chemicals purchased from the Chemical Society were delivered this morning.

"This is a crucible, and this is called a test tube..." Xie Yan took out various items and introduced them to the princess while placing them in order. Qingluan, Daiyu, Baochai and others were also listening nearby.

They all have the potential to be Xie Yan's laboratory assistants.

Especially Daiyu, because she is very careful in her work, Xie Yan decided to let her be in charge of managing the laboratory.

Xie Yan said: "These chemicals with names on red paper are relatively dangerous. They must be handled with care to avoid contact with flames and other chemicals. For the next period of time, when I am not in the laboratory, you should not come in by yourselves. Wait until you are familiar with the operation."

Zhu Tangxi smiled and said, "I have done physics experiments myself before, so I will definitely be able to get started with these chemistry experiments quickly."

After cleaning up the laboratory, Xie Yan took everyone away.

The weather is cool today, so he doesn't feel like working and plans to play in the garden.

Well, when the weather was hot, he didn't really feel like working.

The weeping willows by the pond swayed in the wind, and the hems of the princess and her maids' skirts and ribbons were blown up and down by the autumn wind from time to time.

Xie Yan held the princess's hand and strolled in the breeze. The autumn sun was just the right temperature, and he felt that life was enough like this.

After strolling in the garden for a while, the princess suddenly wanted to play shuttlecock.

Everyone quickly moved to the court. Xie Yan was proud of his badminton skills and fought against the princess and Qingluan alone.

"Oh, the wind is getting stronger!" Qingluan suddenly exclaimed.

Zhu Tangxi said, "We have to take the upper hand." Xie Yan had no choice but to change places, fighting one against two in the headwind position, and was beaten badly by the two women.

There was constant laughter on the court. Every time Xie Yan made a fool of himself, the princess and the maids laughed out loud.

"No, I need to take a break."

Xie Yan soon became sweaty and handed the badminton racket to other maids.

Not long after, a maid came over with her male attendant Wang Xing: "Liulang, a telegram from the Cizhou Machinery Factory."

Xie Yan opened the telegram and read it. It said: "The main parts of the ball mill have been cast and will be welded and assembled tomorrow. Will the prince consort come to Cizhou to participate in the test?"

"No need to reply to them," Xie Yan said to Wang Xing.

"Yes!" Wang Xing immediately ran to send a telegram to run errands.

The most primitive version of the ball mill has a very simple structure and can be made by the machinery factory itself.

The real purpose of the next test is to find out the optimal speed of ball mills with different inner diameters when grinding different materials. Then, based on the test results, the gears of the ball mill will be adjusted to make a machine suitable for different scenarios.

Xie Yan provided the design ideas and basic drawings for this thing, and the Cizhou Machinery Factory was responsible for manufacturing, improvement and repeated testing. After applying for the patent, the two parties each held half of the patent rights.

Of course, since the Cizhou Machinery Factory is a state-owned institution and the ball mill is widely used, the Ministry of Industry is planning to buy out the patent.

The government-run cement factories used to build the Zhentai Railway also had to look to Xie Yan to purchase the patent rights. It was unknown how long these cement factories would last, and some of them might close down after the railway was built, so the relevant patents were also bought out in one go.

Zhu Tangxi came over to rest after playing badminton, and Xie Yan casually talked about this matter with her.

"I'm afraid there are more than one or two cement plants built for the Zhentai Railway, and many of them are built in mountainous areas. They will be closed down after the railway is completed," Xie Yan said. "I don't care about it. I can give it to the court to save face. It's mainly ball mills, which can be used in various mines and factories."

Zhu Tangxi asked, "How much do you plan to sell it for?"

Xie Yan laughed and said, "I want to sell it for one million strings of cash, but the Ministry of Industry will definitely think that I'm asking for too much."

"One million strings of cash?" Zhu Tangxi asked in surprise. Even she thought it was a huge sum of money.

Xie Yan said: "One million guan is only for selling half of the patent. After all, the other half of the patent is in the hands of the Cizhou Machinery Factory."

Zhu Tangxi said: "It's too expensive, the court will never agree to it."

"Then bid three hundred thousand strings of cash. My bottom price is one hundred and fifty thousand strings of cash." Xie Yan also tended to sell the patent of the ball mill to the imperial court.

Because it is too troublesome to negotiate patents with partners one by one, especially the patent profit sharing is even more troublesome.

At this time, inventors basically did not engage in patent sharing, because it was easy for merchants to cheat and default on their debts. If they wanted to make money through patents, the most common way was to sell outright licenses in different regions.

For example, I choose a high-quality partner in Hebei Province and sell them the right to use the patent in Hebei Province at one time. I will not be responsible for the rest. If someone infringes on my rights in Hebei Province, it has nothing to do with me.

It is more practical to negotiate with each province one by one than to keep the patent completely in one's own hands.

What's worse, several provinces are discussing cooperation.

Zhu Tangxi said: "If you bid 300,000 guan, I estimate that the final price would be around 200,000 guan. This is a lot of money. I didn't expect the ball mill to be so valuable."

"When I said I wanted to make money to support my sister, I wasn't lying, right?" Xie Yan said with a smile.

Zhu Tangxi felt sweet in her heart: "I knew Liu Lang wouldn't lie."

In fact, if Xie Yan was not a royal consort, or if he did not have a high status in the academic world, his invention patent would most likely have been ruined.

Patent laws rarely truly protect the interests of inventors, but more often they are tools of the court or capitalists!
The next day.

Xie Yan and the princess packed up and arrived outside the imperial city early.

Empress Dowager Ye is the regent empress dowager, so she naturally has to participate in the autumn hunting exercises, and Zhu Tangxi has to accompany her as a princess.

Of course, Xie Yan was the little emperor's follower.

He was wearing a military-style dragon robe, and the silver saddle and harness he used when welcoming the bride were also equipped on the horse today. There was also a gun bag hanging on the side of the silver saddle, which was used to store the musket issued to him by the Ministry of War.

There were six princes-in-law accompanying him.

Including Xie Yan, two were the little emperor's uncles, and four were the little emperor's brothers-in-law (half-sisters).

The prince consort, who is too old, did not attend today.

Shortly after dawn, the little emperor and Empress Dowager Ye drove out of the palace.

Zhu Tangxi's carriage followed closely behind Empress Dowager Ye's carriage.

Xie Yan and five other princes-in-law followed the little emperor's carriage, and there were also many nobles of other surnames who did not bring any troops with them.

Following the shout from the anthem officer, Xie Yan jumped onto his horse and followed the carriage forward slowly.

Not only did he have a musket stuck on the side of his saddle, but he also had a sword hanging from his waist.

On both sides of the street, many Luoyang citizens came to watch the fun, and people cheered and celebrated the autumn hunt.

Xie Yan was also very excited, as it was his first time hunting in his life.

By the way, learn how to use the ancient flintlock rifle.

(Thanks to the book friend for reminding me that steel with too many impurities cannot be forged.)
(At present, the converters in the Ming Dynasty are of poor quality, and most of the steel produced is low-quality. Only some iron mines in Xuzhou and Zunhua, because of their high-quality ore, can produce converter steel that can be used for railway construction. Now a large amount of scrap steel has been accumulated, and it is urgent to invent an open-hearth furnace to digest it.)
(End of this chapter)