Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Youjian was indeed creating heroes for the Chongzhen Dynasty, and his approach was more radical than Shen Yongmao thought.

He regarded the Ming Dynasty at that time as the Southern Ming Dynasty, and cashed in on the Ming Dynasty's credibility in terms of titles to attract talents.

The only difference from the Southern Ming Dynasty was that the Ming Dynasty at this time could still maintain superficial stability, and the value of the title was higher, so there was no need to confer titles of kingship to win over powerful people.

He only needs to create new titles of viscount, baron, and knight to attract talents from all over the world.

At most, he could be granted the title of a duke or marquis, but he also needed to make great achievements like pacifying Liaodong.

Moreover, the owners of these titles needed to establish fiefdoms overseas and relocate the victims of the Ming Dynasty.

It can be said that the current situation of the Ming Dynasty is far better than that of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Youjian is more confident in revitalizing the Ming Dynasty.

Especially after the prototype of the self-priming flintlock musket appeared, he became more confident.

In order to raise funds for the manufacture of muskets, he became tough on the property tax. He felt that even if the country was in chaos, he could still rely on the soldiers loyal to the court to regain control of the country.

There is no need to give in to the gentry who needed to be appeased in the past. First, the Shen family should be attacked, and the local gentry who were waiting and watching should be forced to come to the court.

At the same time, Zhu Youjian had always been very concerned about the progress of the flintlock musket and even went out of the palace to inspect the manufacturing situation.

The Armour and Equipment Bureau was the government office responsible for manufacturing weapons for the inner court. After Zhu Youjian ascended the throne, he established a weapons group on the same level as the Armour and Equipment Bureau, which was responsible for managing the factories and workshops that manufactured military equipment for the inner court and partially operated them on a commercial basis.

The Wanggong Factory and the Armor Factory outside the palace were converted into gunpowder workshops and cold weapon workshops. The task of manufacturing firearms was transferred to the factory outside the Armory.

Today, this is the firearms workshop of the weapons group, responsible for manufacturing firearms for the imperial camp and patrol camp.

It is just outside Bei'anmen, very close to the Imperial Palace.

After the firearms are manufactured, a portion of them will be transported to the palace's firearms bureau and other places for storage together with the gunpowder from the gunpowder workshop as a reserve of weapons for the palace.

Because of his importance to the flintlock musket, Zhu Youjian went to the firearms workshop for an inspection on August 27.

This matter had been notified in advance, and Wang Chengen, the seal holder of the Imperial Household, attached great importance to it.

Not only did they confiscate dangerous items such as gunpowder, but they also thoroughly cleaned the firearms workshop inside and out.

What Zhu Youjian saw when he arrived was a "clean and tidy" workshop.

However, this was only the feeling of Wang Chengen and others. Zhu Youjian looked at the workshop that looked like a residential house and felt that it was very different from what he had expected.

Thinking about the appearance of factories in the future, Zhu Youjian instructed the internal officials who were also accompanying him to hold the seal:
“Didn’t Zhang Wenyu design standard teaching buildings and dormitory buildings?”

"Let him make some minor changes and design a one-story factory building."

“It should be four or five meters high and spacious.”

"When glass becomes cheaper in the future, we will replace it with glass windows to facilitate lighting inside the factory."

Liu Ruoyu nodded repeatedly upon hearing this, and took out a small notebook and wrote with a charcoal pen.

The people around were extremely surprised when they heard this. They never expected that the emperor would actually plan to build a factory specifically for this purpose, and even use glass windows for it.

This is a very precious item. Only a few palaces in the palace, such as the Qianqing Palace and the Yangxin Palace, use it. The others have not been replaced yet.

However, Zhu Youjian knew that as long as there was a breakthrough in technology, the price of glass would not be expensive at all.

The reason why the transparent glass of the Ming Dynasty is very expensive now is that it has just turned to this direction, and it is still being burned as medicinal jade, as a special kind of medicinal jade.

Yaoyu is something that officials below the fourth rank wear as a substitute for real jade. Although it is not as valuable as jade, it can still be considered a luxury item.

Once the firing technology matures, the technology will be lowered.

Especially since Zhu Youjian has now set the price of patchwork glass windows so high, it will surely attract many craftsmen from the court and among the people to study the relevant skills.

After giving this instruction, Zhu Youjian walked into the house and looked at the rammed earth ground which still had some potholes, and couldn't help but frowned.

How to place machines, tables and chairs on such uneven ground, so he instructed:
"The indoor floor must be flat, you can use cement or even floor tiles."

“It should be able to be flushed directly, making it easy to clean. It should also be able to easily place tables, chairs, and machines inside.”

He pointed to the uneven, messily arranged work platform and said:
"In the future, the specifications of these workbenches must be determined and they should be arranged as neatly as possible."

“Each process must be broken down and completed in different workrooms.”

"For example, for the manufacture of gun barrels, a gun barrel workshop can be set up, and all the craftsmen who make gun barrels can be concentrated in the corresponding workshop."

"A skilled craftsman will be the person in charge of the workshop. Regular meetings will be held to discuss improving the craftsmanship." "Those who can come up with effective methods can be promoted to a higher level or even be granted a title of nobility."

"The same is true for the manufacture of gun stocks, bayonets, flintlocks, etc. They can even be manufactured in different workshops and finally assembled."

Wang Chengen glanced at Lu Xiang who was also accompanying him, and said to the emperor with a smile:

"The Emperor mentioned this method to Lu Gong for making arrow-shaped bullets."

"Now that arrow-shaped bullets have been manufactured using this method, Engineer Lu is also planning to use them in firearms."

"It's just that the firearm has many parts and is difficult to assemble. It's not yet fully completed and will take some time."

Zhu Youjian nodded in appreciation and recognized the efforts of Lu Xiang and others.

After asking about the difficulties encountered in assembly, he said:

"The reason why it can't be assembled is mostly because the precision is not enough and the specifications are not uniform enough."

"Where are the measuring tools you use? Show them to me."

Immediately, a young eunuch came over and brought the craftsman's ruler.

Zhu Youjian saw a ruler and a measuring tape, both with a minimum accuracy of one millimeter, and immediately pointed at the ruler and said:
"You can add measuring claws to the ruler to hold objects for measurement."

“主尺下面还能加上副尺，可以是9毫米分成10份，也可以是19毫米分成20份、49毫米分成50份。”

"In this way, there will be deviations of 0.10 mm, 0.05 mm, and 0.02 mm between the secondary scale lines and the main scale lines. By aligning the scale lines, objects can be measured accurately."

Introduce to them the principle of vernier calipers of later generations.

This measuring tool, which can achieve a maximum accuracy of 0.02 mm, is more than enough to regulate the manufacturing of firearms parts and achieve standardization of firearms manufacturing, in Zhu Youjian's opinion.

Even the manufacture of machines such as steam engines would benefit from this.

However, Wang Chengen and others did not understand this.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Youjian drew a sketch and asked carpenters such as Lu Xiang to make a model with wood.

These skilled craftsmen quickly produced vernier calipers according to Zhu Youjian's instructions.

Even based on the emperor's suggestion, a micrometer, also known as a micrometer screw, was invented - it uses the rotation of a thread to accurately measure objects.

After mastering the measurement method, Lu Xiang looked at the vernier caliper and micrometer model in his hand and said excitedly:

"With this, the various parts will fit more closely together."

"I will definitely determine the standard size of each component as soon as possible so that we can divide the work and assemble it."

Fu Jue was also very happy and thought that the accuracy of telescopes, artillery mirrors and other lenses could be further improved.

He even suggested making calipers with fixed distances so that parts that did not meet the requirements could be directly removed.

Zhu Youjian was not optimistic about this, because if the precision requirement was too high, the scrap rate might be very high. He said to these people:
"Different parts have different precision requirements, as long as they are used together, they can be used together."

"The current manufacturing process is not up to the task, so we don't need to require complete interchangeability, as long as they can be assembled."

"For example, some parts are slightly larger than the standard size, and some parts are slightly smaller than the standard size, but they can be assembled just right."

"These parts can be grouped together to achieve group assembly."

"Of course, the weapons used by the soldiers of the imperial camp and the sharpshooters must be as seamless and completely interchangeable as possible. We cannot allow poor quality weapons to fall into their hands."

The assembly methods commonly used in later generations, such as interchangeability, selection and matching, and repair, were introduced to Lu Xiang and others.

This made Lu Xiang's eyes brighter, because one of the reasons why the cost of arrow-shaped bullets cannot be reduced is that the precision requirements for the arrowheads and wooden supports are too high, and they often need to be repaired by highly skilled craftsmen, using the repair method mentioned by the emperor.

Armourers in the army are equipped with files because they often have to repair parts when repairing firearms. These people are actually doing the work of fitters and need to be proficient in related skills.

If the group selection method is used instead, the number of parts that need to be repaired will be greatly reduced, and the requirements for ordnance personnel will also be reduced.

The manufacturing cost and scope of use of firearms will take a leap forward.

The precision of a finely processed musket will also be higher.

Lu Xiang has already thought about making some perfectly made fire guns to provide to the emperor for hunting. (End of this chapter)