I was the emperor in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 242 Deterrence
The pitch-black projectile came out of the chamber with a spin, and shot directly at the wooden target dozens of steps away.

A crackling sound.

The two-finger-thick plank was instantly pierced through.

Seeing this scene, no matter whether it was the two Dukes Zhu Yong or the two frontier generals Zhu Rong, they were instantly stunned by what they saw.

"My God, what did I see, such a thick board was... pierced through."

"It's not true, is it? When did the firecracker hit so far and become so powerful, His Majesty must be playing tricks on us, it must be..."

Seeing their shocked appearance, Li Tian was even more proud.

Pretending to be unsatisfied, he said,

"This target is still too close. Let me put it a hundred steps away, and the target will be doubled in thickness."

After finishing speaking, he said to Liu Baohe,

"Don't stop, shoot continuously until the barrel gets too hot to hold!"

Liu Baohe didn't say anything superfluous.

As if learning without a teacher, quickly clear the hall and refill it.

Since the target was placed farther away this time, he waited for about three to five seconds before firing decisively.

Without even looking at the results, I started to clear and fill the hall again.

As the matchlock continued to burn, he fired more than seven or eight times in a row before stopping.

At this time, only three and a half minutes had passed, less than four minutes.

After the little eunuch laboriously carried back the target more than 100 steps away.

Everyone was stunned when they saw the thumb-sized holes on the top.

Zhu Yong stepped forward to caress those small holes even more excitedly.

Staring straight at the matchlock gun in Liu Baohe's hand, he murmured,

"This is real, not fake. This firecracker can actually hit so far, and its power even penetrates two layers of wood..."

How far is a hundred steps.

The ancients defined five feet as one step, and one foot is calculated as thirty centimeters, which is 1.5 meters, and one hundred steps is 150 meters.

This is already the limit distance of ordinary archers, but the lethality of bows and arrows flying so far is already so weak that it can be ignored.

But the firecracker in Liu Baohe's hand was still so lethal at this distance, how could they not be shocked.

And he just fired nearly eight times in about 3 minutes, averaging nearly three times a minute.

This rate of fire almost overturned their cognition.

Even if ordinary people run as hard as they can, it takes at least seventeen, eight, or even twenty seconds to run 150 meters.

But on the battlefield, most of the soldiers charging ahead were wearing heavy armor, and the ground was uneven and the battle situation was complicated. It was impossible to run so fast. To make a discount, 150 meters was considered 30 seconds.

If all gunners have Liu Baohe's rate of fire, 30 seconds is enough for them to fire more than twice.

With such speed and such armor-piercing ability, on the battlefield, who else would dare to charge head-on.

Li Tian took the matchlock gun in Liu Baohe's hand, and while rubbing it carefully, he asked the generals around him,
"Several generals, what do you think of this new firecracker I got?"

Zhang Fu and the others had complex expressions, and hesitated for a long time without saying anything.

They still don't understand Li Tian's intentions at this time, and they are not good at expressing their opinions.

In the end, Zhu Rong stuck his neck and said,
"Although this thing is powerful, its range is far more accurate than the previous firecrackers,...it must be costly and time-consuming..."

His words were not finished, but the meaning was clear enough.

Li Tian laughed out loud, turned to Liu Baohe and asked,

"Liu Baohe, tell them about how much money this thing will cost and how long it will take to make one."

"Returning to Your Majesty, except for about four catties of refined iron, which is more valuable, the rest are relatively common materials.

Counting the salary of the craftsman, the price of this kind of loss is about 15 taels of silver.

It only took three days for the servants and twenty craftsmen to make ten poles! "

Zhu Rong exclaimed,
"What? How is this possible? Such a sharp weapon only costs 15 taels!"

Even Zhang Fu said solemnly,

"Your Majesty, don't be ridiculous, this thing really only took three days to make?"

In their expectation, it would take time and effort to build such treasures that far surpassed the original firecrackers, at least one or two hundred taels.

But I never thought that it was only 15 taels of silver, and it only took three days.

Seeing them so surprised, Li Tian almost couldn't help laughing.

15 taels of silver in three days is just the result of the lack of skill of the craftsmen.

If he adopts the assembly line method in the future and adopts more advanced forging technology, no matter the time or cost, it must be able to reduce a lot.

Ignore their shocked looks.

Li Tian said lightly again,

"I plan to build a new army that will use this new type of firecracker. A few generals will tell you how powerful this army is."

A few people unconsciously came to mind that on the battlefield, thousands of these firecrackers were still more than 100 steps away from the enemy.

The scene where the fire is fired instantly, and the enemy seems to be falling down like wheat.

"Where is this war? Is this simply a massacre!"

At that time, Zhu Di spent millions of taels of silver to build a Shenji camp with more than [-] firearms.

With the power of the firearms at that time, the Shenji Battalion had no chance to go to the battlefield at all.

The purpose of his existence is only a deterrent effect, nothing more.

But the new army that Li Tian wants to build this time is not comparable to the Shenji Battalion.

Thinking of the terrifying rate of fire and power, thinking of the scene of overwhelming projectiles flying past his scalp.

Whether it was Zhu Yong and Zhang Fu, the two princes of the state, or Zhu Rong and Wu Kezhong, the two active frontier generals, not only their backs were soaked.

Once such an army has really formed a scale, with the current strength of the Ming army, it is absolutely impossible to defeat it without an absolute force advantage of more than five times or six times.

This is just fighting on flat ground. If these 5000 people are used to defend the city, even if it is ten times or twenty times the strength, it is estimated that they will not be able to take it down.

Several people understood in their hearts that once Li Tian really possessed such a heavenly soldier, there would be no one in the whole world who dared to contend with it.

At least a few of them are absolutely incapable of arousing any resistance.

A new type of firecracker only needs 15 taels of silver, and 75 pieces are only [-] taels.

No matter how poor the Ming court was, it was impossible that they couldn't even get a mere 10 taels of silver.

Facing such an army, facing Li Tian who is about to use such an army, apart from completely surrendering, the few people can no longer raise any desire to resist.

"Your Majesty, I wish you this artifact. Long live Daming, long live Your Majesty!"

(End of this chapter)