open sea

Chapter 1155

Ding Shiqing was older than Emperor Wanli imagined, and much quieter than he imagined.

Wanli once thought that Han Jin, who had a Chinese character face and a short gown, was Ding Shiqing. It seemed that such a person in the emperor's head was in line with his impression of the name Ding Shiqing in his mind.

Facts have proved that there are people with great courage and insight in the world, but they do not necessarily have to be born brave.

To be honest, Ding Shiqing was quite scared. The whole group was very scared, not just because this was an audience with the emperor.

They had known for a long time that the place where the emperor summoned them would be Tsinghua Garden, but because of the name Tsinghua Garden, the common people thought it would be a royal garden.

In fact, it is indeed royal now, but it is not quite like a garden.

To enter the garden, you have to take a boat across the front lake. On the lake, you have to take a boat that has no sails and emits smoke. Steam engines have spread all over the place, especially in Suzhou and Hangzhou, where there are many handicraftsmen, and they are all weavers. The humming sound of the steam engine hidden in the ship is very familiar.

Waiting for the ship to dock is the real dumbfounding place.

The willow embankment blocks the line of sight, and it is a beautiful view from a distance. When you get off the boat and get closer, you find that the ground is full of trenches dug in seven vertical and eight horizontal directions. The artillery that the son of heaven personally trains the sergeants usually practice is placed randomly on the edge of the trenches. In the distance, there was the continuous sound of the blunderbuss being fired, and from time to time, it was mixed with the sound of the grenade made in the sixth year of Wanli and the explosion of the arrow of the Shenwei mechanism.

Rows of lightly armed patrolling guards with guns on their shoulders walked along the embankment. When they saw the emperor, they did not kneel down and turned to the left neatly. The blunderbusses were ready to go, and the rear team held the blunderbuss in a standing position and slashed in front of them with a coherent 'click', preparing to charge. The captain at the head raised his hand to stop the emperor's line, and then raised his left arm in a downward motion, saying: "Password!"

The emperor put back the hand holding the list with a serious face, and his feet were naturally shoulder-width apart... Don't get me wrong, the password has nothing to do with him, and the queue was finally ordered by Lu Wang, who was on horseback and was confused. Running forward with short legs, he said crisply: "Liutong Feng, password!"

Although the prince is funny, the captain is a professional. Not only did he not smile, but he said very seriously: "Kyushu is consistent."

After finishing speaking, the front team stood up and the rear team returned, with their heads held high, their chins raised and their chins raised, and they said in unison: "Greetings, Your Majesty!"

"Okay, okay, that's the spirit."

Now it was the emperor's turn to go out. Ding Shiqing and others suddenly noticed that their young emperor was smiling a little silly, his eyes were closed, and he waved to the patrolling guards: "Listen to my password, turn right, go forward , Continue patrolling!"

The patrol guards saluted Wanli again, and then left in a row. Wanli then turned his head to Ding Shiqing and the others who were following behind him: "Look at this weapon, Wanli's eight-year-old Tianxia Taiping blunderbuss, isn't the wooden handle beautiful? I have tried it myself, fighting with people with this is no different from holding a short spear. Look at the dragon breastplate, it is called the Dragon Pattern Breastplate, made in the ninth year of Wanli."

"Don't underestimate it. This set of breastplate has three layers inside and outside. The inner armor is made of steel, the outer brass is brazed with dragons, and the material of the middle core armor. I won't tell you. The latest secret design of the Xuanfu Lecture Hall is only three times heavier than before. Half a catty, you won't be able to kill him in five steps with a blunderbuss."

The emperor was purely entertaining himself, and the common people behind him were hardly interested in this thing, and it seemed meaningless to even play tricks.

In fact, there is nothing magical about the core in this set of mother-in-law breastplates. Between the copper dragon and the steel breastplate, there is a layer of mixed armor made of fire cloth and porcelain plates.

Huanhuo cloth is commonly known as asbestos. In the past, it was only found in the Western Regions. Later, minerals were discovered in Sichuan. Because of its high temperature resistance, it is usually used in places that require fire resistance; because steam bureaus, telegraph bureaus, and military bureaus all need further development of materials science. This task was eventually assigned to the three major arms bureaus.

However, it was a coincidence that it was invented and installed in the breastplate. Jingdezhen sent ceramic sample bricks of various thicknesses and firing processes. The surveyors smashed them one by one with a bird's gun, but they did not pass through an outer layer. The ceramic bricks wrapped in fire cloth, the lead shot smashed the ceramic bricks, but did not penetrate the outer layer of cloth, which is very surprising.

The most surprising thing is that a lot of old researches just didn't recognize what this thing is. It was only after sending a letter to Jingdezhen that they figured it out, and then searched a part of it for experiments. Together, they can indeed play a very good protective role. It only takes two minutes of thick ceramics and the same thickness of asbestos cloth to block the bird gun from shooting 26 steps away.

And within 26 steps, if you wear this alone, you will still be injured by the impact but not fatal. When Emperor Wanli saw this in the experiment report, he rewarded the Xuanfu Military Bureau with 100 taels of silver without saying a word.

Needless to say, this must have been a testing injury.

But after putting on the breastplate and then wearing this, even if it gets closer to three steps, it will only leave a big dent on the breastplate, which cannot reach the body at all.

Similarly, it also has a good defense against bows and arrows, but it is not as good as defensive firearms. After experiments, the researchers of the martial arts hall believe that the arrows are sharp enough to cut asbestos filaments, but the round lead balls cannot cut them all, and they can show their strength The theory passed on to tell the emperor that they are about to experiment with Zimujia.

When the lead shot hits the relatively soft copper Tuanlong decoration, it will first deform and lose part of its force. After penetrating, it will continue to hit the asbestos cloth. Part of the asbestos thread will be broken, but the other part will be wrapped in lead bullets and crushed. The strength of the ceramic plate increases through the cracks, just like swinging a hammer and a spear with the same strength, the spear pierces into the soil but the hammer cannot hit the soil, and the steel breastplate finally offsets all the power.

However, this kind of armor has not yet circulated among the troops. Only the [-] Imperial Forest Army stationed by Wanli in Tsinghua Garden are equipped. The three major military bureaus are still testing and designing more mature materials and shapes.

For example, the Jiangwu Hall in Guangzhou prefecture distributed to Jingdezhen last year an integrated ceramic plate with an outer layer containing asbestos cloth. After the test, it has placed a large number of orders this year.

This year, the Jingyun ship brought back the report of the Beiyang Military Weapons Bureau trying to make the outer shell of the Tuanlong Zimu armor into a pocket shape. It is believed that after being broken, the bullet holes are melted with copper liquid, and a piece of bulletproof sub-plate is re-stuffed. It can be defended again and can reduce repair costs.

At the same time, Beiyang Ordnance Bureau is also working on redesigning the helmet and neck, adding this new material to the forehead and throat.

"Let me tell you, they were all trained by me personally. Even though they haven't fought a war yet, they can do it. They are no worse than the soldiers trained by Chen Mu and Qi Jiguang."

The people looked at each other in blank dismay, what could they say?
Ding Shiqing hesitated to speak, he wanted to ask the emperor why he had to compete with his generals in training.

Perhaps it was because of his straight head, Han Jin had been giggling under strong restraint, and after Ding Shiqing glared at him for several times, he said in a very small voice: "Teacher, the emperor is just like us, and wants to rebel!"

"I thought you would kidnap a few corrupt officials. Why did you save this idiot governor in the end? I see that the list is full of unofficial and unemployed country gentry? I am very dissatisfied."

After entering the main hall of the front yard of Tsinghua Garden, the emperor waved his hands seriously to several people and said: "But it's okay, the people from the Ministry of Punishment haven't come yet, and I'm not in a hurry. Apart from this, there are more important things to ask you to come." The problem of the problem—you said, I want to hear the voices of the people all over the world, just like you this time, if I knew it early, you don’t have to seize the telegraph room.”

"I know you have a reason for this, but it's always bad. Get up, I don't want to blame you."

As soon as the emperor spoke, Ding Shiqing bowed down and made a big salute. As soon as he bowed, all the people behind him bowed down, making Wanli dare not speak, and quickly asked everyone to sit down. Then he sighed and said: "I want to set up A decree, so that people in every place can directly tell me when they encounter difficulties."

(End of this chapter)