Borrow the day to change the day

"Your Majesty, Tie Fan Zhu Cannon is done, it's done!" Fan Jun repeated excitedly.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't react when he heard it, but Zhong Jinwei stood up from his seat with a "whoosh" and asked in surprise: "Really?"

"It's true, just now was the time when the Tie Fan Zhu Cannon peeled off the shell, and our family wanted to report the result to His Majesty as soon as possible, so we came a step late."

Although Fan Jun answered Zhong Jinwei, he explained to Emperor Chongzhen why he was late.

After finishing speaking, he turned to Emperor Chongzhen and said, "Your Majesty, this iron cast cannon is more than a hundred times stronger than the clay cast cannon. Congratulations to Your Majesty."

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't sit still, and immediately ordered: "Show me, I want to go and have a look."

Upon hearing this, Fan Jun straightened up straight, then bowed to lead the way.

All the bigwigs on the observation platform ignored the comparison exercise of the flintlock and left in a hurry.This made the soldiers of the new army and the craftsmen in charge of shooting the guns look at each other, but because they did not receive the order, they could only stand still.

When Emperor Chongzhen came to the cannon casting workshop, the craftsmen knelt down to greet him.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't pay attention to them, and under Fan Jun's attentive guidance, he came to the scene where Tie Fan cast the cannon.

I saw a brand-new French machine placed in a conspicuous place, and beside it were molds made of subway petals.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at it for a while, but didn't see anything special, so he asked, "What do you mean when you said that this is a hundred times stronger than a clay molded cannon?"

When Fan Jun heard this, he quickly explained: "Your Majesty, the first advantage of this iron cast cannon is that the construction period is short. It only takes a few days to make a cannon, which is dozens of times faster than the clay mold cast cannon."

When Zhong Jinwei heard this advantage, he couldn't help laughing. He was worried about the artillery of the new army, and this solved the problem.

"The second advantage is that an iron mold can be used repeatedly, so that the cannons produced are basically the same, which not only saves raw materials, but also facilitates later corrections."

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he took a look at Zhong Jinwei and thought, isn't this the standard part required by Master Zhong!

"The third advantage is that the quality of the artillery has been significantly improved. Iron molded cannons no longer have the honeycomb problem encountered by mud molded cannons, which also avoids the practice of mud casting cannons having to thicken the gun wall to prevent explosions. , the weight of the gun will be greatly reduced."

Liang Tingdong, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, could not help but be surprised and happy when he heard this benefit.One of the biggest disadvantages of artillery is that it is too heavy. It is really good to reduce the weight now.

"The fourth advantage is saving money. Compared with clay mold casting cannons, the cost saving is more than several times."

Emperor Chongzhen, who had already smiled, looked at Shoufu Wen Tiren when he heard this, and smiled at each other.The artillery produced by this iron fan casting cannon is of good quality and saves money. It is really perfect!

Emperor Chongzhen's interest suddenly became very high, and he immediately praised Fan Jun and said: "Not bad, not bad, it's really good that the military battle is in your hands. What about the craftsman, let him tell me about the method of casting the cannon with the iron model."

Fan Jun was delighted to hear it, and wanted to speak for himself, but Emperor Chongzhen called the roll call, so he had to call the craftsman who was kneeling beside him.

Only then did Emperor Chongzhen realize that the craftsmen had knelt on the ground and hadn't gotten up, so he immediately ordered them to lie down.

All the craftsmen thanked En with joy and got up, and then stood to the side, and the middle-aged craftsman who pioneered iron casting cannons explained the method to Emperor Chongzhen.

To put it simply, it is divided into sections according to the length of the gun body, using iron as the mold, and each section of the iron mold is divided into two lobes.

When casting the cannon, the two petals of each section are closed and fastened with iron hoops, and then the sections are joined according to the bamboo shoots to make it into the shape of a cannon.

Then brush the paint made of fine rice husk ash and fine sand mud with water on the inner surface of the iron mold, and after it is completely dry, brush the second layer of paint prepared by ultrafine coal powder.

Then it can be heated, matched with the gun core, poured into molten iron and started casting.After the molten iron solidifies, immediately peel off each iron mold according to the joints, exposing the gun body.

While the cannon body was still completely red, the burrs were removed with iron brushes and hammers, the mud core was removed, and the unevenness of the cannon body was trimmed to become a cannon.

Every time the middle-aged craftsman explained a step, he pointed out the corresponding molds, tools, and site to Emperor Chongzhen.

It's easy to say, and it's not complicated to do.Everyone present basically understood the process of Tie Fan casting cannons.

After Emperor Chongzhen listened, he smiled and said to the craftsman: "It's rare that you have the courage to respond to Zhongxing Hou's proposal and come up with this idea. This iron cast cannon has made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty, so I will call you Boss Gun Pao!" In recognition."

Originally Zhong Jinwei promised to let this craftsman enter the Ordnance Research Institute, he was already very excited.As a result, now Emperor Chongzhen Jinkou Yuyan, directly made him an earl.

The craftsman couldn't help but stand there stupidly, thinking that he was dreaming.

Fan Jun listened, and couldn't help feeling a little jealous.At this time, seeing the craftsman standing there stupidly, he couldn't help shouting: "Thank you, Your Majesty."

The craftsman just woke up like a dream at this time, and fell to his knees with a "plop", speechless, just kowtowed repeatedly to show his gratitude.

When the craftsmen nearby heard this, they really wanted to bang their heads against the wall.Why didn't he come up with this idea in the first place?I often do it, but I never thought of applying this method to artillery casting.

At first, Zhong Jinwei was a little worried that others would object to rewarding such a heavy reward to a craftsman, so he turned his head to look at the two civil servants.

But Wen Tiren and Liang Tingdong were both stroking their long beards and looking at the craftsman with a smile.

They didn't have any objection to Emperor Chongzhen's decision, they just lamented the good luck of this craftsman.

What Zhong Jinwei didn't know was that in the history of later generations, Song Yingxing mentioned in the preface of "Heavenly Creation of Things" that all the people in Ming Dynasty, including the officials in office, wanted to make a name for themselves in firearms so that they could soar into the sky. .

If he had seen this in his later life, he would not be worried.

Emperor Chongzhen then announced a heavy reward of 100 taels of silver to each craftsman who participated in the casting of iron cannons, which made those craftsmen feel a little better.

After sealing it, Emperor Chongzhen said to Fan Jun: "This method is classified as a first-class secret, and there must be no disclosure."

"The servant obeys the order." Fan Jun quickly bowed and replied.

"Let's see if there is room for improvement in this iron cast cannon. I looked at the flintlock gun today, and I will also look at the iron cast cannon someday." Emperor Chongzhen ordered again.

After finishing speaking, Emperor Chongzhen ordered to drive to the practice field.But just as he turned around, he remembered something, turned around and said to Fan Jun: "As for how to improve, you'd better ask Zhongxinghou more. If it wasn't for him this time, you wouldn't have the ability to do this."

Uncle Gunner looked at Zhongxing Hou gratefully, and then knelt down to kowtow to Zhong Jinwei.

Fan Jun also said gratefully on the side: "Your Majesty is wise, if it weren't for Marquis Zhongxing this time, the slaves and their subordinates would never have imagined that there would be Tie Fan casting cannons."

Zhong Jinwei saw that they were kneeling and thanking after Emperor Chongzhen said a word, so he glanced at Emperor Chongzhen and found that he was looking at him with a smile on his face, so he shrugged helplessly.

We are living Lei Feng, and we never leave a name for doing good deeds.How embarrassing to say it so bluntly!