I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 16 Luzon Bronze Cannon

Xu Guangqi was determined after discussing with Yang Lian a few days ago.

In recent days, he has been busy with the tasks assigned to him by Zhu Youxiao.

The military training in Tongzhou has been going on for more than a year.

There was no money or weapons before, but after the cabinet issued a document in the past few days, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry sent people to tell them that the military training instructor and the necessary weapons would be distributed to Tongzhou in the next day.

Xu Guangqi was not in a hurry. He recruited people first and then trained them.It just clarified the recruitment conditions to the people below, with priority given to refugees from Liaodong and good family members.

He had a more urgent thing to do at this time, which was to introduce and cast the Hongyi cannon.

But before doing this, as a doctor from the Ministry of Industry, he was going to take up his post, so he first went to the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry to find out.

When he was ready, he reported to the Ministry of Works on time. Since it was his first day to take up the post at the Ministry of Works, according to the usual practice, the Ministry of Personnel had to send someone to take up the post. However, Xu Guangqi had been an official for more than ten years and was familiar with this.

When you arrive at the Ministry of Industry, you must first go and see Wang Zuo, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry.When the name card was handed in, a clerk soon came out to greet him.

After a brief salute, Wang Zuo said: "I already know the purpose of Zixian (Xu Guangqi's name). Since it is the emperor's order, I will give my full support. If the scribe makes things difficult for you, just tell me. "

"Please understand, the minister, and the subordinates understand." Xu Guangqi resigned since he was doing his best.

Xu Guangqi was appointed as the doctor of the Ministry of Industry and in charge of the director of the Ministry of Industry, Yu Heng.

Under the Ministry of Industry are the Yingzhen, Yuheng, Dushui, and Tuntian Qingli Divisions, and the Ordnance Bureau is under the Yuheng Qingli Division.

He was naturally in charge of the Yu Heng Division.

There are two principals under Yu Hengsi,

One is responsible for the Baoquan Bureau and is responsible for minting coins;
One is responsible for the Ordnance Bureau, which is in charge of the central arms manufacturing in the Ming Dynasty, including firearms and cannons.

After briefly greeting the two chiefs, he followed the chief of the Arms Bureau to the Arms Bureau to check on the situation.

The Ordnance Bureau's courtyard in the Ministry of Industry is not large, with more than ten scribes in it.

Although there are not many employees, there are many departments in charge, including hundreds of large and small workshops, factories, warehouses, etc. The famous Wang Gong Factory is one of them.

Responsible for the production of most weapons, armor, ordnance, and firearms in the capital, and oversees more than [-] craftsmen.

After a brief meeting, Xu Guangqi also knew his main mission and asked them about the artillery production situation.The scribes had already received the news in advance and prepared the materials early.

Currently, there are dozens of types of artillery manufactured by the Ordnance Bureau, but most of them are variants of the Fo Lang machine gun introduced during the Jiajing period. This is a short-barreled cannon equipped with a sight.

"(It is made of) copper, five or six feet long...It has a huge belly and a long neck, and there are holes in the belly. Use five blunderbuss, store the medicine in the belly, and send them to more than a hundred feet."

It uses the size of the artillery caliber as the base to determine the relationship between the bomb weight and the change in the charge. It is easy to load, has a fast firing speed and a long range.

Based on this template, the Franco machine gun was extensively modified and widely used.

However, the Folan cannon has a shortcoming, that is, it is small in size, weak in lethality, and due to imprecise craftsmanship, it is very easy to explode the chamber.

This kind of cannon has been used for nearly a hundred years in the Ming Dynasty.Xu Guangqi naturally knew.

But the Hongyi cannon that he and Zhu Youxiao proposed was another type of cannon, the heaviest of which could weigh several kilograms.

He has also seen its power, but he doesn't know if the Ordnance Bureau can create it now.

"I heard what you said, the Ordnance Bureau mostly builds Folang machine guns, which are smaller in size. Now the war in Liaodong is urgent. I heard what the emperor said. Xiong Jinglue also made suggestions to the emperor many times, requesting the allocation of firearms to help. It fights against the Jurchens. Therefore, the artillery must be refined.

And I have asked someone to purchase four Hongyi cannons from Macau, and they will be escorted to Beijing in the near future.The Hongyi cannon is huge in size and far more powerful than the Folan cannon. It can hit rocks like powder and can injure dozens of people with one shot.

Therefore, the emperor attached great importance to the Hongyi artillery issue and specially allocated 10 taels from internal funds to pay for the production of Hongyi artillery.

I have issued a military order to the emperor, so I ask you all to help each other. "

Xu Guangqi said this, and the clerks below naturally nodded in agreement and did not dare to refute his face.

But Zong Chengzhi, the director of the Ordnance Bureau, heard Xu Guangqi’s words and thought a little, saying:

"The Hongyi cannons mentioned by the doctor are similar to the large Luzon bronze cannons that I was entrusted by Huang Kezuan, the Minister of Punishment, and Chen Liangbi, the Marquis of Taining, to help cast last year. One of them weighs more than three thousand kilograms. I don't know if they are the same."

"The Big Bronze Cannon of Luzon?" When Xu Guangqi heard this, he realized that he studied Western learning and Luzon knew that it was a large island more than a thousand miles south of Macau and was currently occupied by the Fo Langji people.

As soon as he heard the name, he knew that whether it was true or not, it must be inextricably linked to Hongyi Cannon.

So he quickly asked: "This thing was built last year. Why didn't the court hear about it?"

Zong Chengzhi hurriedly said: "This object was not manufactured in the Ordnance Bureau, but Mr. Huang Kezuan heard that many Fujianese people went to Luzon to make a living, and there were many people who knew how to forge cannons.

Therefore, dozens of people from Fujian who were good at making cannons came to the capital and cast cannons with Marquis Taining in the capital camp. However, since there was not enough manpower, they asked craftsmen with low-level jobs to come and help. "

"What's the effect? ​​How many cannons are there?"

"I heard from the craftsman that about thirty of them were cast. At the beginning of this year, the war in Liaodong was urgent, so six of them were escorted to Liaodong."

After Xu Guangqi heard about it, he thought it was almost the same as the Hongyi cannon. There were many people in Fujian but little land, so many people went to Luzon to seek a living, so it was not unusual to learn the cannon-casting skills of the Hongyi cannon.

This solved Xu Guangqi's urgent need.

Casting the Hongyi cannon is both an opportunity and a challenge.If the casting is successful, Zhu Youxiao will be happy and prosperous, and it will be easy to realize his ambition; if it is not successful, the consequences are needless to say.

So Xu Guangqi also had a headache, and he specifically asked Li Zhizao in Macau to find a master who could cast cannons in Macau and invite him to the capital.

And now there is a master in the capital who can cast Hongyi cannons, and thirty of them have been successfully cast.

Wouldn't it be a matter of course to cast the cannon yourself, and we can cast it without waiting for the Macao cannon caster to be in place?

After making up his mind, he said to Zong Chengzhi,

"Then the cannon-casting master hired by Mr. Huang is still in the capital?

If so, then I will go to Mr. Huang and ask him to help send a cannon-casting master to our Ordnance Bureau to cast the Hongyi cannon. "

Zong Chengzhi recalled:

"Mr. Zhong, Liaodong was afraid that the artillery they transported would be damaged and no one would be able to repair it, so they sent these gunsmiths to Liaodong.

But don’t worry, the master craftsmen in our Ordnance Bureau are already good at their craftsmanship. Last year, they helped make the Luzon Bronze Cannon and learned how to cast it. Now if there is a prototype of the cannon, it will be easy for the master craftsman to make it. "

Xu Guangqi couldn't help but be overjoyed, so he ordered a special organization to be set up to invite these cannon-casting masters together to prepare cannon-casting.

The artillery casting also took shape, and Xu Guangqi felt much better. At the same time, he also asked the Ordnance Bureau to send some weapons and firearms to Tongzhou for military training.

After Dianmao got off work, he declined the banquet hosted by Zong Chengzhi and others. After returning to his home, he immediately reported to Zhu Youxiao on the Luzon Bronze Cannon and requested that the remaining cannons be handed over to the Ordnance Bureau for the purpose of weaponry. A large number of imitations were made.

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(End of this chapter)