Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 120 The Ming Dynasty Has Artillery

In December of the 13th year of Hongwu, after pacifying Yunnan, Zhu Yuanzhang rushed home to celebrate the New Year.

There is less than a month left until the New Year. As a person who values ​​family and kinship, reuniting with my family is something I must do.

He left Mu Ying to guard Yunnan while he returned to the capital.

At this time in the imperial palace of Nanjing City, Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He were directing the craftsmen to assemble a children's playground.

During this period, they opened a nursing home and a children's playground in the township, both of which were free and welfare-oriented. They used this as an excuse to buy a lot of medical equipment and children's toys.

The result is that I exhausted myself again.

Happy times are always so short. Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He rode their motorcycles and electric scooters every day and dominated Nanjing city, but after only two days, they had to go back to work.

But it is better to be busy than doing nothing every day. Otherwise, looking at the hundreds of millions of cold dollars in the card, sometimes it would be inappropriate to do nothing.

On December 20th, near the end of the year, it started snowing lightly in Nanjing in the morning.

The patter of snowflakes was floating in the air, mixed with some grains of ice that looked like raindrops or ice, bringing a hint of coolness to this winter.

Zhu Yunfeng was wearing pajamas and riding on a motorcycle, with Zhu Biao holding an umbrella behind him, and the two drove towards Huangzhuang.

The speed is very slow.

Because the inside and outside of Nanjing City, including the Imperial Palace, are paved with stone slabs and there are basically no rammed earth roads, it is not a big deal to see motorcycles turning over everywhere.

But outside the city, the roads are basically rammed earth roads in the fields. Although people often walk on it, Zhu Biao asked the people from the Ministry of Works to make the road to the imperial city smooth to facilitate the entry and exit of carriages.

But it’s not easy to walk.

What's more, in rainy and snowy weather, the tires are prone to slipping.

"boring."

Zhu Yunfeng rode a motorcycle and said lazily: "Every day is boring."

Zhu Biao was surprised and asked, "Weren't we very happy to see you and Ji He wandering around the city every day?"

"It's only fresh for the first two days, but it gets boring after two days."

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head and said, "It's mainly because there aren't many people here. This is the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Our town is more lively than Nanjing."

"That can't be helped, but things should get better next year. I will build houses in the city, relocate people here, and reduce restrictions on business. When business is prosperous, more people will come."

"Come on, Ji He and I are still wandering around the city, trying to see if there are any scoundrels bullying decent women, or if there are any corrupt officials, or local gentry bullies oppressing the people, but in the end we didn't see anything."

"So what are you doing every day?"

"There's nothing. You can only look at the natural beauties. We follow those beauties every day, driving a motorcycle behind them to protect them, but who knows they will run away as fast as they see us. Sigh, Daming is too conservative."

"Is there a possibility that they think you are lechers?"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible. Chi Sang and I look like decent people. How could we be that kind of person?"

"As the saying goes, only a big forest can support all kinds of birds. Now the forest is not big, and this is the emperor's feet, the best place. Most of the people are officials and soldiers' families, and there are not many local people. You should wait until next year when there are more people before you go and do justice."

Zhu Biao's mind was full of future plans, and then he changed the subject and said, "By the way, my father has already arrived in Changsha and will be back in a few days."

"So fast? Changsha is quite far from Nanjing, right?"

"Just take a boat."

"Yes, I almost forgot that we can take the Yangtze River waterway."

Zhu Yunfeng forgot about this.

To go from Nanjing to Kunming, you also take the Yangtze River to Hunan, then take the land route to Guizhou, and finally enter Yunnan from Guizhou.

Historically, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Fu Youde to conquer Yunnan along this route.

However, because the water route from Nanjing to Hunan is against the current and the speed is relatively slow, if Zhu Di wanted to transport arms, it would naturally be faster to take the land route.

The return trip was different.

With smooth sailing, you can reach Nanjing from Hunan via the Xiangjiang River and the Yangtze River in a few days.

Zhu Yuanzhang was an expert in naval warfare. He had fought the Poyang Lake naval battle with Chen Youliang for more than two months, and had been floating on the water the whole time, so he was already familiar with the situation.

"Let's celebrate the New Year in Daming this year."

Zhu Biao asked.

"I don't know. It depends on what my parents think."

Zhu Yunfeng thought about it.

He has already repaid more than 100 million to his father, and he should be able to pay it all off next year.

He also bought land in the town and built a villa.

If my parents come back to celebrate the New Year this year, they don’t have to go back to Zhujiaping to celebrate the New Year. They can just celebrate the New Year in the villa in the town.

It’s just that he doesn’t get along well with his parents and they may not even call each other once a month.

So the New Year is almost here, and I don’t know whether they will come back home to celebrate the New Year this year.

"If they don't come back, let's go to Daming."

"Ah."

“This year is another bumper year.”

Wherever Zhu Biao's eyes reached.

The motorcycle drove into the imperial manor cautiously.

Looking towards the imperial farm, the endless plain was filled with straw.

These straws will be burned in the early spring of next year. Firstly, they can be used as wood ash and inorganic organic fertilizer. Secondly, they can save time and labor and prevent pests.

Although it will cause a certain amount of air pollution, in this day and age, the pollution caused by straw is negligible.

Therefore, there is no need to demand a ban on straw burning as in later generations.

In previous years, the amount of rice harvested from farmland was small, and the amount of straw was also small, far from being as spectacular as it is today.

This is enough to prove that the grain production in the Ming Dynasty has increased by leaps and bounds.

“We still have to have our own fertilizer factory.”

Zhu Yunfeng looked over and said, "Your grain production has exploded this year. If people have enough food to eat, they will definitely be willing to have children, and the population will also explode. The grain output must keep pace with the population growth rate."

"Well, but I also know that making fertilizers is not an easy thing. You should first open a fertilizer factory in your town, and then slowly find a way to transition to Daming."

Zhu Biao nodded and said, "Next year's main task is to start building the industrial foundation. What are your plans for the electric arc furnace?"

"Isn't this steel mill still working on it? It will be ready next year. Let's solve the electricity problem first."

Zhu Yunfeng said.

Their town has rich iron ore and coal resources, after all, it is backed by the Snow Peak Mountains.

However, mining is not easy. In addition, the promotion of environmental protection in recent years has reduced ore mining and steel production, resulting in only reserves but no related industries.

Zhu Yunfeng also made various investments and did ideological work in the county. Eventually, the county reported to the higher authorities and approved the mining license. He was finally able to open a steel plant on his own.

He planned to use the town's abundant coal and iron ore resources to produce steel in the form of a hydroelectric power station and a thermal power station, and then process and manufacture the steel and transfer it to Ming Dynasty.

In this way, he would be able to bring electric arc furnace steelmaking technology and thermal power generation technology to the Ming Dynasty, directly skipping the steam engine era and entering the electrification era.

But the prerequisite is that his steel plant can be built smoothly.

But it's almost done. Construction will start in the first half of next year, so a large amount of related machinery can be shipped over.

The only trouble is that I have to be exhausted again.

Zhu Yunfeng felt that he still had to renovate his house, at least by demolishing the wall between the kitchen and the utility room, and then building a slope from the back warehouse directly to the cellar.

This way it can be transported later using a forklift.

Otherwise, every time we move things, we have to rely on manpower. Hundreds of kilograms of parts have to be delivered and assembled, which is really exhausting.

Two people were talking.

The motorcycles have already entered the arsenal.

In a distant workshop, Zhu Di had already taught some craftsmen how to use the machines, and they were making AKs and bullets.

They currently only make AK and 7.62 bullets.

Because Zhu Di had not yet conducted research on bolt-action rifles and the various components had not been stamped out, he could only use ready-made molds.

After Zhu Di comes back, you need to tap into the technology tree of the bolt-action rifle before you can make old-style rifles.

The chemistry laboratory is bustling with activity.

Physically, it's in full swing.

A chemistry apprentice we recruited two days ago had an explosion. Fortunately, the dose was small, otherwise the laboratory would have been destroyed.

Since the Ming Dynasty had no concept of chemistry, the chemistry-related talents they looked for turned out to be Taoists.

no way.

Taoist priests who make elixirs can really be considered technical personnel in related industries.

After all, gunpowder was invented by Taoists.

The place Zhu Biao was going to today was the parade ground, because the workshop had made some steel gun barrels using various machines.

Zhu Di's AK fired more than ten magazines in a row. If it was replaced with steel from other countries, the barrel might not be able to withstand it, and the rifling might even have problems.

But their steel is made in China and is all high-strength synthetic steel.

In this case, the quality was guaranteed. The original firearms manufacturing department of the Ming Dynasty was the Military Equipment Bureau under the Ministry of Industry. The craftsmen of the Military Equipment Bureau were directly called in to build cannons with modern steel.

In fact, current cannons are mainly imitations of the Shenchuang Chariot Cannon and the Dajiangjun Cannon from the early Ming Dynasty.

The Shenchong Car Cannon weighs about 3-4 kilograms, and its maximum range is 2-4 kilometers. The Dajiangjun Cannon weighs - kilograms, and its range is generally within - kilometers.

It’s not that we don’t want to make higher precision cannons, but there are only a few of them. For now, we are mainly making guns, and we will only do so when we have more equipment in the future.

After all, the cannon can be rubbed by hand, but the parts of the gun are too delicate and difficult to rub by hand, so this is the only arrangement for now.

When Zhu Yunfeng and Zhu Biao slowly drove their motorcycles into the parade ground, the parade ground commander trotted over in the snow, bowed and said, "Your Highness the Crown Prince, Your Highness the King of Wu."

"Ah."

Zhu Biao pressed Zhu Yunfeng's shoulder, got off the motorcycle, and asked, "How's the cannon going?"

"We have already done."

The commander brought them to the parade ground.

I saw ten steel cannons placed on the parade ground, clamped by wooden wheeled carts and supported by a bipod in front, with the muzzles pointing in the direction of the small hill in the distance.

The shape of the steel cannon is actually similar to the ancient iron cannon we have seen. The barrel is a thick steel pipe, which is divided into three structures: the vent, the propellant chamber, and the barrel.

The principle is similar to shooting.

That is, fill the black powder into the propellant chamber from the back of the barrel, then insert the fuse from the vent, and finally insert the solid bullet from the barrel.

The fuse is lit, and the black powder inside is ignited. The black powder burns and explodes in the propellant chamber, creating thrust that shoots the shell out, causing damage to the enemy.

Zhu Yunfeng also got off the motorcycle, took the umbrella from Zhu Biao, held it like a secretary, walked to Zhu Biao, and looked at him curiously, "Can we fire in the rain?"

"Forehead"

The commander had never really thought about this question, and a hesitant expression appeared on his face.

Seeing him like this, I knew it wasn't going to work.

But this is normal, because whether it is a cannon, a gun, or a matchlock gun, there is basically nothing to protect against rain.

The British army was defeated at Sanyuanli during the First Opium War because rainy weather prevented the firing of guns and artillery.

Therefore, whether it was the era of cold weapons or the later era of black gunpowder, there was no way to guard against bad weather.

of course.

It's just a little snow today, a little bit of snow and sand, which doesn't affect the overall situation.

Seeing this, Zhu Yunfeng said, "It's okay. I will find some cannon designs that can adapt to various weather conditions and ask the craftsmen to build them. You can fire them for us first."

"Yes."

The commander hurried to the side of the artillery group and shouted, "Ready!"

There are two people around each cannon, one to insert the shells, and the other to load the gunpowder, fuse and ignite it.

Following the commander's order, twenty people quickly started working with clear division of labor. Within just a few seconds, they loaded the gunpowder and shells.

"emission!"

The commander shouted.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!"

Ten huge noises resounded through the sky, and ten shells drew a gorgeous parabola in the sky and landed on the distant hills.

Under the acceleration of gravity, ten craters were quickly created.

There could have been ricochets. There were records of ricochets in the black powder period. After a shell hit the ground, its acceleration did not decrease, and it ricocheted and continued to shuttle through the crowd, killing many people.

But wasn't there a little snow these past two days? The ground was a little damp, which softened the soil and offset the kinetic energy of the shells, so there was no ricochet.

"what do you think?"

After watching the artillery firing demonstration, Zhu Biao asked Zhu Yunfeng.

"That's it."

Zhu Yunfeng felt that there was nothing interesting.

He was someone who had seen the power of real cannons on the battlefield on the Internet. One shot would make a hole in the ground. The lethality of this solid bullet was indeed not that great.

Zhu Biao was very satisfied and said with a smile: "Don't compare your strength with ours. Even artillery like this is very powerful."

"Well, solid bullets won't work. If they don't hit anyone, they're useless. We still need some powerful explosive bullets."

Zhu Yunfeng thought for a moment and said, "Let's start with the research and development of artillery. Just equip a small amount of this artillery for siege, and get some nitrocellulose to increase the power and range. Rifles will be enough for the front battlefield, and we can build large artillery later."

"Okay."

Zhu Biao nodded.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has basically no rivals, there is no point in making old black powder cannons, so it is better to engage in research and development.

Although the output of nitrocellulose is very low, and more of it will be used for bullets in the future, it does not mean that some of it cannot be used for testing artillery shells. After all, when fighting Japan in the future, the ship still needs to prepare naval guns to bombard Kyoto.

(End of this chapter)