Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 163: Knowingly and intentionally committing crimes (please ask for monthly tickets at the beginning of the month)

The first-class Boniu Jizong and the third prince Li Heng met outside the Qianqing Palace. Both of them were summoned.

After greeting each other, the two of them did not communicate and stood waiting quietly.

When Qiu Shi'an came out, his eyes did not look at the two of them, but went straight in.

The two entered the Qianqing Palace. Emperor Chenghui stood in front of the huge desk. After the two greeted them, he gave a very direct order: "Three thousand people will be drawn from the Shenji Camp, three thousand people will be drawn from the Jianrui Camp, Niu Jizong will be the commander, and Li will be the leader." Heng is the supervisor of the army. This mission is to go to Liangjiang and follow the instructions of Mr. Sun Ge. Do you understand? "

The two of them responded in unison: "I obey your decree!"

Emperor Chenghui specifically called Li Heng's name: "Do you know what the Supervisory Army does?"

Li Heng replied without hesitation: "Only with eyes and ears, not with mouth."

Emperor Chenghui nodded with satisfaction: "That's a good answer. When marching and fighting, you only need Niu Aiqing. I want you to follow me. I just want to follow and learn. If possible, I can help you with the logistics supply along the way." "

"My son, I remember." The father and son spoke in front of Niu Jizong. Uncle Niu stood with his head lowered, as if he didn't exist.

The descendants of the four princes and eight princes had no chance to get involved in such a huge war to suppress the rebellion in the Western Regions. This time when the troops were mobilized south, Niu Jizong, the first-class uncle, was selected. It was hard to say whether it was a blessing or a curse for Niu Jizong.

"Your Majesty has called for temporary recruitment. This matter must be urgent. I think that the second prince will follow the Shenji Camp by water, and I will lead the Jianrui Camp by land. One person and two riders can arrive there in half a month." Niu Jizong prepared the answer in a short time. , can be said to be proficient in business.

Li Heng was left behind, and Emperor Chenghui told him carefully: "The Shenji Battalion has deployed a thousand gunmen, a thousand chariot soldiers, a thousand artillerymen, and three thousand cavalry from the Jianrui Battalion to coordinate the operations. This is the arrangement. , do you have any opinions?”

I'm a military layman, so it's really hard for me to give random advice. It's better to hire someone who understands military affairs.

Regardless of whether Li Heng understood it or not, Emperor Chenghui just asked.

In the largest firearms workshop under the Yu Heng Division, when Jia Lian looked at the preliminary finished products, he still felt that he had underestimated the exquisite skills of the craftsmen of this era. In order to compete for the top spot, two rifled barrels were placed in front of them in three days.

Li Heng hesitated for a moment before replying: "I don't know how to fight, so I can't understand."

Niu Jizong crossed his hands and said, "No!" This was a bit like a military order.

Emperor Chenghui was satisfied with the arrangement, but he didn't expect that there was no one to compliment him. He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He waved his hand and said: "Go back and prepare." After sending Li Heng away, Emperor Chenghui called Qiu Shi'an and said: "Change clothes and go to Yu Heng Department to see Look at Jia Lian.”

Sun Erwa was so excited that her heart almost jumped out of her chest. She took a step forward and carefully explained: "Before, I made a manual machine tool in private. It can be used for boring and milling. It takes a little effort. If there is no shortage of people, it can be done in one day. Can become."

Jia Lian focused on another important point: "How is the rifling drawn? If it is produced in large quantities, how fast will it be?"

Emperor Chenghui had no follow-up instructions, so Niu Jizong withdrew and mobilized troops to prepare logistics. Because the matter was urgent and he only had one day to prepare, I was afraid he would not be able to sleep tonight. For Niu Jizong, working hard is not a bad thing, but he is afraid that he will not have the chance to lead troops on an expedition.

【I am deaf! ] Qiu Shian repeated the important things three times in his mind.

"Old Zhang, go to Shenji Camp and ask someone to take a look. There is a certain tolerance between the two barrels, and I can't tell the difference."

As the number one master craftsman in the firearms workshop, Sun Erwa's reputation is not domineering at all. For three days, with a team of ten craftsmen, he personally watched every process from building to polishing to rifling. In three days, they only slept for four hours, and they were far behind the other group in terms of speed. Whether they could escape the fate of being a craftsman depends on this trembling.

After explaining Li Heng, Emperor Chenghui turned to ask Niu Jizong: "Does Niu Qing know what to do?"

Jia Lian nodded, picked up a rough-looking vernier caliper, and measured the inner wall. After fixing it, he measured the next barrel. After the measurement, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed: "There is a tolerance, and it's not small."

After hearing this, Sun Erwa suddenly looked disappointed and couldn't help but defend herself: "Sir, the deviation of this gun barrel is only half an inch, it's the end." Jia Lian still did not express his position immediately, but looked at the two barrels silently. The caliber of a musket of this era, is it such a large caliber? This must be fifteen millimeters thick, right?

Jia Lian had already gotten over his initial surprise. He picked up a gun barrel and observed it carefully. He was really an amateur, but it didn't mean he was blind. Whether something is good or not, you will definitely feel it when you hold it in your hand. A good product should have an industrial aesthetic, just like the gun barrel in front of you. The outer wall has been polished with sandpaper, and the inner wall has been rifled, but it is still smooth.

Qiu Shi'an hurriedly prepared to change his clothes. Emperor Chenghui was changing his clothes while muttering: "If I don't summon you, you won't ask to see me?"

Emperor Chenghui was also knowledgeable about military affairs and objected: "That's not appropriate. The two armies will act in unison on this trip and move forward by waterway."

Jia Lian greets Secretary Zhang habitually, and he has been using it very smoothly recently. He works really hard.

Hey, I'm under a lot of pressure. Judging from the recent progress, ten thousand taels of silver is too much. It would be good to spend one thousand taels.

At present, this currency is in a state of mixed use of silver and silver coins. The silver coins issued by the Royal Bank are to be used as one tael of silver. The teacher Zhang Ting'en knew this very well, and the one he sent was the purest snowflake silver.

Before Secretary Zhang went to call someone, someone behind him said, "Let me take a look!"

Jia Lian felt it sounded familiar, and when he was about to reply, Qiu Shi'an stood in front of him and shook his head gently. Jia Lian immediately reacted and stepped back to get out of the way.

Emperor Chenghui, who was dressed in plain clothes, came forward, picked up the barrel of the gun and looked at it carefully. After reading it, he put it down and asked: "I have seen this kind of rifled gun. The advantage is that it can shoot accurately, but the disadvantage is that the ammunition is very fast." It's troublesome. I want to hammer it in. It's very troublesome to clean the inner wall. It takes about a hundred rounds to make the gun useless. "The emperor didn't want to reveal his identity. Jia Lian had no choice but to salute covertly and said: "Back to your lord, the advantages of rifled guns with high accuracy and long range cannot be ignored. Since there are shortcomings, just improve them slowly. A soldier on the battlefield has a good weapon in his hand. One more life.”

"Don't talk nonsense, just tell me what you think. I read your improvement report, but I didn't understand part of it."

"The conical bullet is made smaller than the caliber of the barrel, and a cork is added at the back. After the gun is fired, the cork expands under the impact of the gunpowder explosion, which ensures good air tightness. It is shot like this The bullet is in a state of high-speed rotation during flight, so it can fly farther and hit more accurately. The bullet can be made through batch casting to ensure that it is smaller. There is no need to be too strict if there is cork, and the barrel caliber is smaller. The requirements must be strict. This design avoids rifling by lead bullets and greatly increases the service life of the barrel.”

Seeing the rough version of the vernier caliper in Jia Lian's hand, Emperor Chenghui took a look at it unceremoniously and couldn't help but praise: "This is such a coincidence. How can you, a scholar, understand this?"

[I really don’t understand, I just like to watch some messy popular science videos. 】

"How can a man not like these things? I... I just like to guess." Jia Lian found it very difficult.

"That's true. There are very few men who don't like fire guns." Emperor Chenghui agreed with this statement.

Jia Lian can explain the human hunting gene from a scientific perspective, but he dare not say it and cannot say it.

"Let's go and look at the ammunition." Emperor Chenghui became interested. When he was still a prince, he also went to the battlefield and knew the power of muskets. The Taizu of this dynasty built the army based on Qi Jiguang's "New Book of Ji Xiao".

From the perspective of latecomers, the first truly modern army in history was the Qi Army after it was transferred to the north.

Qi Jiguang, who was in the north, continued his undefeated record in the south. He gave full play to the advantages of firearms and combined with the car formation, he defeated the tribes on the grassland so that they did not dare to take the lead easily. Hearing Qi Jiguang's name really made him tremble.

But only a few decades have passed, why did the Ming army stretch their hips?
Let's put it this way, it's not fair to blame anyone. It can only show that in the middle and late dynasties, the monarchs and ministers cooperated and worked together to push the Ming Dynasty towards its demise. In the end, a myth of barbarism's victory over civilization was achieved.

As a result, this nation has been dragging its pigtails for three hundred years. Until Jia Lian traveled through time, the pigtails still remained in the hearts of many people.

Watching Jia Lian and others leave, Sun Erwa couldn't hide her disappointment. Wasn't Mr. Jia satisfied?
How can two barrels be the same size?

When making it, use the same iron rod as a mold and the same drill bit for smooth inner walls. One or two drill bits are fine. If there are too many drill bits, there will be wear and tear. Do you have to change the drill bits? How can we make drill bits the same size?
Sun Erwa, with a fire burning in her heart, chased after him unwillingly. He wanted to ask the truth.

"Master Jia, I have something to ask." There was no color change on Sun Erwa's dark face, but you could tell from his expression that he was very nervous at the moment, and his face and neck were red, just because of his skin color. come out.

Qiu Shian's face turned green at the side. This craftsman was so brave. He followed up quietly. Do you want to rebel?
Your Majesty insists on traveling in a light and simple manner, without a single guard around you, and cares about the future without thinking about the future. It is really difficult for me.

Jia Lian didn't think so much, he was still focused on work. Stopped and turned back: "Excuse me!"

"Sir, are there really two identical gun barrels?" Sun Erwa asked bravely.

Jia Lian showed a surprised expression and replied very matter-of-factly: "How is it possible? You can't find two identical leaves on the same tree. The twin brothers can find different places. From a craftsmanship point of view, I want to make the two To ensure that the caliber of each gun barrel is the same, first of all, you need to have measurement tools, and secondly, you need to make a fuss about the equipment and tools, but you want the tolerance to be within an acceptable range. Take the gun barrel as an example, where the tolerance is not large. "The bullets are universal."

Regarding the current industry, Jia Lian did not have particularly strict requirements. He could just make a hole between the bullet and the barrel with a purge bar and it could be used universally. Seeing Sun Erwa's expression, Jia Lian added: "You have done a good job. I will ask for credit for you later and guarantee you a ninth-grade official. If you can do better, I will have more confidence to speak for you." Enough."

Jia Lian left after saying that. Sun Erwa was so surprised that she was dumbfounded.

Emperor Chenghui was in front and Jia Lian was behind. As the two of them walked forward slowly, Emperor Chenghui said: "You can accept his official position now. You haven't seen the finished products of the other group."

“I don’t know how well the other group did, but Sun Erwa was able to build two usable gun barrels in three days, and also made a homemade machine tool. In my opinion, this is enough for him to be an official. Experts are still responsible for craftsmanship and technical matters. Civil servants are mostly from a background of studying classics and history, and in the workshop, it is most taboo for laymen to guide experts. "

Emperor Chenghui smiled silently after hearing this and couldn't help teasing Jia Lian: "What, you still want the court to open an engineering major?"

Jia Lian didn't seem to hear the joke and answered simply: "Not only is it necessary, but science is also required."

Emperor Chenghui didn't understand and asked, "What is science?"

"As the name implies, science is a discipline that studies basic principles. Taking water as an example, it has a freezing state, a liquid state, and a gas state. What's the mystery? Suppose a category is temperature, and then set the temperature to zero when water freezes. It can evaporate into gas at 100 degrees. The whole process can be regarded as the basic theory of water. When water is boiled, the lid of the kettle will be pushed. If there is no spout and only the lid, the thrust of the water vapor is concentrated. At this point, can you do something with this power? After hearing about the steam engine in the West, I thought of this. In short, many truths are waiting to be discovered in life and summarized for others to use. So, the powerful ships and guns of the West have crossed thousands of miles of ocean and arrived on the coast of the Great Zhou Dynasty. They are still powered by sails. Sooner or later, they will come with steam ships. "

Emperor Chenghui was completely silent. He slowed down and walked forward for a while before saying: "The rifled gun was purchased by the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi from the Westerners and presented to me. He did not think highly of the gun and only said It’s for my appreciation and enjoyment.”

After hearing this, Jia Lian immediately responded: "No wonder the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. This gun has a range of up to 300 steps and can still kill. Once there are too many, if someone really uses this weapon to assassinate the king, I am afraid that the Governor will be implicated, so even if he knows The potential is huge, I dare not say.”

"That's nonsense. The continuous cannon can hit one mile, the general's cannon can hit four miles, and the Hongyi cannon can hit farther."

Emperor Chenghui didn't really mean to argue, he really felt that the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi thought too much.

Jia Lian was different. After all, he looked at the problem from the perspective of a minister, and continued to explain: "If a moso bamboo is hollowed out, it is not a problem to put a rifled gun. Carrying a moso bamboo to go out is not the same as carrying a continuous cannon. Same. It’s not a matter of range, but whether it’s easy to carry and conceal.”

Emperor Chenghui was silent for a moment before he stopped and asked: "You know the truth, why do you still want to make a rifled gun?"

(End of this chapter)