Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 273: A Strong Enemy Across the Sea

It’s not that he was not satisfied with the flintlock rifle, but that Zhu Changluo was still looking further into the distance.

Matteo Ricci and his people were kept hanging by Zhu Changluo's hope of missionary work. Their current activities are mainly concentrated in Baijiayuan. As for the military industry, they are communicated with through Zhang Jian and Xu Guangqi who are assigned to Baijiayuan in the Taichang Temple, and then connected with the Privy Council and the Military Industry Park.

Zhang Jian is a famous scholar in Guanzhong, and he has also created various city defense equipment at the border. Now that his nephew Wang Zheng is so appreciated by the emperor and is the top scorer in the natural science subject this year, Zhang Jian has quietly shifted his focus from being a famous scholar of science to these engineering equipment.

Zhu Changluo had learned through his communication with Xu Guangqi and others that someone in France had invented a flintlock rifle, so he was received by King Henry IV of France.

This is the benefit of using Matteo Ricci purposefully.

The emperor was interested, so Matteo Ricci and his team had to cater to his interests. On the one hand, the subjects of the Ming Dynasty despised their "remote small countries" because they did not know about the achievements of the dynasties over thousands of years; on the other hand, the emperor wanted to understand, and in the eyes of these missionaries, there was no direct conflict of interest, so there was indeed an exchange of information and technology.

Therefore, flintlock rifles alone are not enough, not to mention that the usable flintlock rifles can only be made by master craftsmen at present. The production capacity and cost make it impossible for them to become a weapon that can be equipped on a large scale by the army in the short term.

So why not tell them some longer-term and better ideas? Maybe they can be inspired to make something new that can be achieved with the current technological level?
During the remaining two days at the Military Industrial Park, Zhu Changluo conducted further research with Zhao Shizhen and others.

The next stage of work in the Military Industrial Park is divided into three key directions, with personnel assigned to each.

One is to assign some of the masters and apprentices with better skills to find ways to continue to improve the current flintlock rifle. The compromise is the barrel and the bullet. Loading is actually breech loading, but the caliber of the bullet is difficult to match with the inner diameter of the barrel.

By using a bullet with a conical head and a concave bottom, the caliber of the bullet can be made slightly smaller. The thermal expansion effect when the ammunition explodes can be used to make the concave spherical edge of the bullet slightly expand, and then grease can be applied around the bullet for lubrication. Perhaps the yield rate can be improved a lot, and the thrust generated by the explosion of the existing configuration of gunpowder can be used more efficiently.

The second direction is to separate those with more flexible minds and start to develop the new configuration drawn by Zhu Changluo, and modify some parts. Among the three difficulties mentioned by Zhu Changluo, spring steel, better steel and parts casting are naturally the research topics of the masters in the military industrial park.

The last direction is the mass production of the Mingwei cannon mentioned by Zhu Changluo.

Due to its larger size, the cannon does not require as high a level of precision as the musket.

The early artillery of the Ming Dynasty was called a bowl-mouthed gun. As the name suggests, the muzzle was relatively large. It was named because it was an open-mouthed cannon that was larger than the gun barrel.

Later, there were slight improvements. The barrel was changed from open to straight, the barrel was lengthened, the wall was thickened, and several hoops were added to prevent the barrel from exploding or cracking.

The miniaturized Tiger Crouching Cannon and the large city defense cannon are only different in caliber, with very few improvements.

Drawing on the Franco-Machine Gun obtained after the Battle of Tuen Mun, the sub-cannon was developed to improve loading efficiency and firing frequency, which was already a great improvement. Currently, the Tianshu Battalion has already used an improved version of this new cannon.

As for the improvements, Zhu Changluo arranged for Yuan Zirang, who also loved music, to consult Zhu Zaiyu about mathematics. Yuan Zirang, who passed the imperial examination in the same year as Xu Guangqi, finally worked out a relatively standardized method for calculating the caliber, charge and firing table for the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Portuguese Cannon, which were already in stable mass production. Although it was still very rough and the degree of standardization of each cannon was not high, it was a step in the right direction.

Another improvement is that the military industrial park directly uses this set of standards to test-fire the cannons with cast trunnions and to be mounted on carriages after they are cast, and then nails iron plates engraved with elevation and range data on the special gun carriage structure, so that gunners can become familiar with each gun more quickly and improve their firing accuracy.

After these achievements, the Mingwei cannon was born.

Different from the Crouching Tiger Cannon and the Muzzle-and-Submachine Gun, the Mingwei Cannon should be the "Red Cannon" that Zhu Changluo is familiar with.

In fact, it should be called the Red Cannon, because it was originally designed by Xu Guangqi during the Tianqi period. He first managed to buy a few cannons from the red-haired devils before imitating them.

Larger caliber, heavier weight.

It looked no different from the previous cannons of the Ming Dynasty. However, after Zhu Changluo arranged for the Changming to contact the coastal maritime trading giants and set up a shipyard in Guangdong, Shen Yikuan and the former Zhejiang officials who participated in it "made amends" by buying five cannons from Malacca through these maritime trading giants and letting the Ming Dynasty's military engineers study them.

With the help of mathematics experts and the Hundred Craftsmen Garden, we quickly figured out why this red cannon was more powerful.

It's not just about the caliber, but also about the proportional relationship between the caliber and the length of the barrel, and how to use the overall molding and the difference in the front and rear calibers of the barrel to counteract the barrel pressure generated by the "large equivalent" gunpowder explosion and ensure the range.

Once these were clarified, it would no longer be a problem for the Ming Dynasty to make its own red cannon.

Historically, the large number of homemade red-haired cannons produced in the late Ming Dynasty was not much later, and many of them were later seized by the Jurchens.

Now, this cannon is named Mingwei cannon.

"The Ming cannon can be large or small." After arranging the military industry park, Zhu Changluo communicated with the ministers of the Privy Council, "It is not easy for Baijiayuan to calculate the relationship between the inner diameter of the muzzle and the length of the barrel. With this method of smelting, the power of the Ming cannon can be improved. How to arrange and use it well, both to strengthen the defense of the border town and to be used in field battles, the Privy Council should speed up the arrangement."

Although Li Chengliang regretted that the flintlock rifle could not be mass-produced for the time being, he now thought of the Mingwei cannon he had seen a few days ago, which could fire as far as a mile away and was quite powerful. He immediately said, "If we have a hundred Mingwei cannons, even if they are very heavy, as long as we can find a way to transport them to the front line, destroying cities and strongholds will be a piece of cake!"

"Hasn't the master craftsman figured it out?" Zhu Changluo said with a smile, "Just cast a gun carriage and a pair of wheels. The lighter the better. When you need to transport it, add another pair of wheels to the tail, use more livestock, and after you pull it to the destination, put down the tail and mount it up. How to use it well is up to you." "Manpower for the military industrial park..." Tian Le thought about the storm that was about to come, and after thinking for a while, he said, "I request to recruit some master craftsmen from the border towns and military craftsmen."

Zhu Changluo's smile faded: "Will the border town have anything to say?"

"In the past, the court allowed some border towns to forge weapons because it was not convenient to distribute military equipment. Now that we have the Privy Council Military Preparation Hall, we should have integrated them into one." Tian Le said, "Now the governors of the three western borders, Xuanda, and Liaodong are all conferred by Your Majesty as marquises, so it won't be difficult to suppress them for a while. If you want to do this, you should let some border generals lead the troops in the military affairs you plan."

Zhu Changluo nodded, understanding what he meant.

Liu Jing was promoted to marquis, and the signal was clear. The emperor's inspection of the military industrial park and Zhayangzong's shipyard was also intended to start a war. They would be compensated after taking back the arms manufacturing rights that had been given to them and deducting the part of the arms expenses that should have been allocated to them.

Giving them the opportunity to achieve success is a form of compensation.

Zhu Changluo thought for a moment and said, "If we can successfully draw their attention to the northeast, the burden on the Western Three Borders and Xuanda Border will be much lighter. The Beijing Camp has sent a lot of people to the Tianshu Camp and the Five Military Governor's Office Standard Battalion in recent years, and more will be transferred to the expedition later. Let's take this opportunity to transfer some border generals and border troops to the Beijing Camp. The Privy Council will make the decision on how to coordinate these matters."

"I accept the decree!"

After Tian Le finished speaking, Zhu Changluo looked at Xing Jie again and laughed: "After visiting the military industrial park, let's go to see Zhayang Zong's shipyard. I must solve the problems of the Northern Tartars, the Jurchens, and Korea first. After visiting the shipyard over there, I will tell you in detail why."

Of course Xing Jie still had doubts in his heart.

The performance of the Tianshu Battalion is truly amazing, and more powerful weapons are constantly emerging in the Military Industrial Park.

But overall, this is not enough to transform the Ming Dynasty's military strength.

However, war is dangerous. Even if the Ming Dynasty can take the initiative to plan, it may not be smooth once it starts.

Although the ministers had discussed closely along the way, Xing Jie still felt that it was too difficult for the emperor to solve so many northern border problems in one fell swoop. He did not understand how the gains would outweigh the losses after taking over the icy and snowy northeast and southern desert areas.

After all, it’s poor!
Zhu Changluo noticed his expression.

Normal days are normal days, but when it comes to the preparation stage for war, the important officials of the Privy Council cannot agree on the dangers that the unknown war may bring.

There is no urgent and huge threat at present. Under this background, if we take the initiative to go to war, the civil officials in the Privy Council will have no fewer concerns than other civil officials.

What's more, after winning the war, the areas to be conquered are all barren and cold.

But just as Zhu Changluo thought, he was not only looking at what was near, but also what was far away.

The real strong enemy is still on the other side of the sea. They haven't come yet, but they will come sooner or later.

Whether it is the flintlock rifle or the Mingwei cannon, the technical level is actually the same now.

On land, at home, as long as there are no major internal problems, the Ming Dynasty does not have to be afraid of anyone.

The reason why Zhu Changluo wanted to practice his sword skills against Korea was to take this opportunity to train his naval team.

It's just that Korea is in the northeast. Next door to Korea, there is another hidden danger of the Ming Dynasty, the Jianzhou Jurchens.

What matter doesn’t affect the whole body?

On the way to Tianjin, messengers sent outside the border wall sent back news one after another.

The first two to arrive are the closest.

Since the three guards of Doyan had been under the command of the Kharchin Wanhu for a long time, it was expected that they would no longer obey the orders of the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the actions of the Tianshu Camp seemed more legitimate.

And Nurhaci’s reaction... was unexpected.

Stayed watch, saw my uncle off, feeling tired.

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(End of this chapter)