Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 291 There are no miracles that can be achieved overnight.
Zhu Youjian composed himself and then took out the second memorial.

Unwrapping the silk cloth, a faint smell of gunpowder and rust wafted out. On the cover were Sun Yuanhua's characters, sharp and incisive, each stroke brimming with the strength and fortitude of a soldier.

"Your subject, Sun Yuanhua, who is in charge of the military administration of the capital garrison and concurrently in charge of the Military Academy, respectfully submits this report."

This memorial seemed to possess an inherent strength and integrity; the moment it was unfolded, a sense of simplicity and pragmatism unique to soldiers emanated from it.

Sun Yuanhua did not use flowery language or flatter his superiors. Instead, he went straight to the point and reported the "preliminary results of the investigation" of the two key technologies with the rigor of official business.

The first was the "trial production of a rifled gun barrel".

"Your Majesty, we have diligently followed Your Majesty's instructions and worked day and night to improve the technology of firearms. However, we are incompetent. The mechanism for the breech opening and closing that Your Majesty has drawn is ingenious and unparalleled. The difficulty of sealing it tightly and airtightly far exceeds our imagination."

Your Majesty dared not boast of achievements with immature equipment. However, Your Majesty's other statement, "rifling can make the bullet spin and fly farther, doubling its power," resonated like a great bell, enlightening yourselves and the craftsmen of the Military Academy. Therefore, we devoted all our efforts to this endeavor."

"We summoned the most skilled blacksmiths in the capital to forge gun barrels using newly refined coke steel from Song Yingxing. However, drilling holes was easy, but engraving lines was difficult. To make the 'drawing knife,' we consumed dozens of pounds of top-quality steel and damaged countless knives. As a result, the eyesight of our two most skilled craftsmen was severely damaged, and they could no longer perform fine work."

After two months and hundreds of failures, two usable drawing tools were finally obtained. Using a specially made spiral carving tool placed inside the gun barrel, and with the power of a winch and lubrication from whale oil, it was slowly pulled through. This process was repeated more than thirty times until a gun barrel with evenly spaced grooves carved on its inner wall was finally achieved.

"To date, we have produced two qualified rifled gun barrels and modified the old-style muskets to serve as the prototype for the 'Ming-style rifled gun.' This gun... can be called the ancestor of sharp weapons, but it is far from being a usable weapon."

Zhu Youjian's heart sank, not because of the lack of results, but because of Sun Yuanhua's frankness.

He then looked down.

"We hereby submit our report on the actual measurements taken at the firing range." The data in the report was far less astonishing than previously imagined, but it was far more realistic and credible. "Within one hundred paces, the accuracy of this gun is vastly superior to that of ordinary muskets, hitting the chest and abdomen of a human-shaped target seven out of ten times. At one hundred and fifty paces, it can still hit a target as tall as a person, which is already the limit of the range of ordinary muskets. The power has also been increased, and it can penetrate double layers of cotton armor within one hundred paces."

This is a huge step forward!

However, Sun Yuanhua immediately pointed out its fatal flaw.

"However, this gun also has two drawbacks, which I dare not fail to report. First, loading is extremely difficult. In order to achieve air tightness, the bullet must fit closely with the rifling, so each time it is loaded, a ramrod and a mallet are needed to forcefully push the lead bullet into the chamber, which takes a great deal of time."

A skilled musketeer can fire one shot while an ordinary musketeer can fire three. On the battlefield, this is a sure way to die. Secondly, the barrel is extremely prone to contamination. Gunpowder residue easily accumulates in the rifling grooves, and after firing ten or more shots, the bullet becomes difficult to reload, requiring repeated cleaning with a special spiral copper brush, which is very inconvenient.

Sun Yuanhua's conclusion was calm and objective: "In my opinion, the principle of this rifled projectile is indeed correct. However, as long as the slow loading and difficult maintenance are not resolved, this weapon cannot be used in battle. It can only be used as a surprise weapon, for sniping enemy generals, and cannot be a regular weapon for the army. We are trying to cast projectiles with a small front end and a wide rear end, which may solve the loading problem, but we have not yet found a solution."

Zhu Youjian slowly exhaled.

This is reality!
There are no miracles that lead to instant success!

But he was not disappointed; on the contrary, he appreciated Sun Yuanhua's pragmatism even more.

Sun Yuanhua proved the correctness of the principle and also pointed out the difficulties in practice, which in itself is the most valuable report.

Secondly, it was the "birth of the prototype of the timed explosion bomb".

"Your Majesty once said that cannonballs are not necessarily solid. They could be cast as hollow shells, filled with high-explosive powder, and detonated by a fuse. When we first heard this, we all thought it was inconceivable. However, since it is an imperial decree, we dare not fail to give it our best effort."

"At the beginning of the trial production, disasters occurred frequently. Due to uneven thickness of the shell wall or improper gunpowder ratio, there were five instances of barrel explosions. Two of the most outstanding gun-casting craftsmen and three gunpowder-making craftsmen died as a result..."

Upon seeing this, Zhu Youjian's eyes dimmed again, and his knuckles turned white from the force.
"However, his comrades wiped away their blood and tears, without uttering a single complaint, only saying, 'To die for the country, to die for His Majesty, is a worthy death.' After hundreds of experiments adjusting the molten iron ratio and the thickness of the mold, they finally obtained a qualified thin-walled cast iron cartridge case."

"The difficulty of setting the fuse is even greater than that of setting the shell casing. We, your humble servants, followed your orders and made fuses with gunpowder in different proportions. We then inserted them into dry bamboo or wooden tubes and repeatedly tested their burning speed. Finally, we came up with a method that allows us to control the time of the shell's explosion after it lands by adjusting the length and tightness of the fuse."

The experimental scenarios described in the report are fraught with chaos and uncertainty:
"On the training ground, over a hundred straw men were erected to form an infantry formation. One bullet was fired, and its trajectory was as usual. After landing, it did not bounce, but remained silent for about three to five breaths before exploding with a loud bang! The sound was like a deep thunderclap, and black smoke billowed out."

After the smoke cleared, within a ten-step radius, shrapnel and gravel scattered everywhere, and many straw figures were damaged. However, the timing of the explosions was not always precise; they could be too fast or too slow. As for Your Majesty's technique of 'airburst,' which causes cannonballs to explode above the enemy lines, we, your humble servants, are too dull-witted to even attempt it, despite our best efforts. We dare not even think of it.”

Zhu Youjian put down the memorial and turned his gaze to the two items wrapped in silk in the wooden box.

He reached out and untied the two pieces. One was an experimental lead bullet with a slightly pointed front and a groove at the rear. The other was a short gun barrel that had been sawed open, and the rough but firmly present rifling lines on the inner wall could be clearly seen.

He picked up the broken gun barrel and examined it carefully against the light in the hall.

This cold metal, these difficult scratches—it's not a perfect weapon, but it's a good start!
Finally, he took out Song Yingxing's memorial.

This memorial was the thinnest, the paper was the roughest, and it even had a faint smell of coal ash.

But it was this memorial that stirred Zhu Youjian's emotions the most, because he knew that it was the foundation upon which all the hope of the previous two memorials rested!
Song Yingxing's writing style is just like his personality: simple and unadorned, consisting entirely of facts and data.

Firstly, it was due to the "successful coke-to-steelmaking process".

"By imperial decree, I established an experimental workshop for the Gezhi Science Institute next to the Mentougou Coal Mine in western Beijing. Following Your Majesty's instruction to 'isolate from air and dry distill into charcoal,' my craftsmen and I built an earthen kiln using loess and bricks, sealed the coal inside, heated it from the outside, and deprived it of oxygen. Initially, the kiln workers were skeptical, thinking this method was nonsense. However, after several days, when the kiln was opened, we obtained a substance that was black in color, light in weight, porous and hard, and produced a metallic sound when struck. This is the 'coke' Your Majesty spoke of."

"Subsequently, we modified the old-style blast furnace, increased the furnace height, and followed Your Majesty's idea of ​​'hot air'. Although we were unable to manufacture iron pipes for preheating air ducts, we tried to bring the blower vents as close as possible to the furnace outlet to achieve hot air."

When coke was used instead of charcoal in the blast furnace, the flames were indeed different from before; their color was bluish-white, and even from a distance, they appeared scorching! The molten iron that came out was clear and bright like a mirror, far superior to that produced by charcoal. Initially, the master furnace master was terrified upon seeing this flame, thinking it was "ghost fire," and dared not approach it. I personally went to test it, and only then did he calm everyone down.”

"This molten iron was then refined using the steel-making process. I dared to take a piece of the finished product and test it against the finest hundred-refined steel sword sent by the Armory. With a single strike, the sword snapped in two, and the steel I refined did not show the slightest curl on its blade!"

Zhu Youjian's gaze fell on the last item in the box—a three-inch-long, jet-black dagger.

He reached out and took it; it was extremely heavy. He casually ran his hand across the hardwood leg of the imperial desk, and with a soft "swoosh" sound, as if a hot knife had sliced ​​through butter, a scratch appeared, and wood chips flew everywhere.

This is the color and sound of the future!
The second piece of progress reported by Song Yingxing shocked Zhu Youjian to the core.

Secondly, it is a successful verification of the "division of labor and standardization" workshop.

"When I first heard Your Majesty's concepts of 'division of labor' and 'standardization,' I also felt that they went against the tradition of master-apprentice inheritance and craftsmanship that has existed in China for thousands of years. However, Your Majesty's command is as solid as a mountain, and I dare not disobey."

"Within the academy, I have established a small workshop and recruited fifty craftsmen to manufacture only the 'dragon head' of the musket. I have divided these fifty men into five groups. Group A is responsible for cutting steel bars; Group B is responsible for polishing the shape; Group C is responsible for drilling holes; Group D is responsible for measuring and manufacturing small parts such as springs and mechanisms; and Group E is responsible for assembly. We will use the vernier calipers, which Your Majesty has personally bestowed and can measure to the millimeter, as the absolute standard. Anything that does not meet the dimensions will be discarded."

"At the beginning of the experiment, there was great resistance. Many master craftsmen, who had been proficient in all the crafts in their lives, felt that they were being underutilized and complained when they were only asked to drill holes or polish day after day. I could only persuade them by reason and emotion, and by offering them double the usual wages, so that this method could be implemented."

"After a month of experimentation, the results have astonished me! The number of qualified dragon heads produced by these fifty people is more than three times the total wartime output of the previous fifty craftsmen! Moreover, because the sizes are uniform, any part can be perfectly replaced with another dragon head. Damaged dragon heads do not need to be scrapped; only the damaged parts need to be replaced!"

At the end of his memorial, Song Yingxing concluded with an overjoyed tone:
"Your Majesty! I have finally understood the true meaning of the word 'order' that Your Majesty spoke of! This method may seem to turn people into mere links in an object, devoid of life, but in reality, it twists the power of everyone into one, and the force it exerts is so great!"
The wonder of this method lies not in the skill of any individual, but in a completely new production "method"! If this method could be applied to all workshops across the land, producing military equipment, agricultural tools, and even everyday items, then the national strength of our Great Ming Dynasty would be immeasurable! This is truly "the wonder of nature!"

Zhu Youjian neatly stacked the three memorials and put them back on the table.

He stood tall and remained silent for a long time.

He was not discouraged by the setbacks in Sun Yuanhua's weapons development, nor was he anxious because Xu Guangqi's breeding program still needed time.

On the contrary, what Zhu Youjian felt was an unparalleled sense of security and exhilaration.

"Good, good, good!"

Zhu Youjian uttered three powerful "good"s in succession!

What we need is never an empty castle built overnight, but a solid foundation that can grow and iterate on its own!

The seed has sprouted, the method has been verified, and order has been established!

The failures and difficulties mentioned in Sun Yuanhua's memorial were more reassuring to him than a flawless report of victory!

Because it's real, it points the way forward!

Zhu Youjian walked slowly to the window. The afterglow of the setting sun was shining in from the direction of Xihua Gate, casting a very long shadow of him.

At this moment, the loneliness in his eyes had vanished, and a composed and sharp demeanor, as if he had mastered a strategy, once again appeared on his face.

With high yields of potatoes and sweet potatoes, there was a more solid material foundation for resettling migrants to the border and for providing disaster relief!

With the prototypes of rifled guns and exploding bullets, even though they were not perfect, we could see the hope of restraining the Jurchen cavalry and future wars!

With the emergence of coke steel and standardized production, this is the real trump card!

It means cheap and high-quality steel, it means military equipment that can be mass-produced and maintained, and it means a revolution in the productivity of the entire Ming Dynasty!

This is the foundation that supports everything!

The powerful clans and gentry of the old era, those Donglin gentlemen who spouted benevolence and morality, would probably have scoffed at these as mere tricks and vulgarities, degrading arts that corrupt people's hearts.

But what he saw was the dawn of a brand new era.

Zhu Youjian gazed at the magnificent sunset on the horizon, a cold smile playing on his lips. The sunset was so beautiful, yet it also heralded the coming of night.

"Your twilight has arrived!"

(End of this chapter)