The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

Li Lu is currently serving as a military commander under Yang Zhen.

This man was a staunch supporter of Yang Zhen in history. In the third month of spring in the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign, he was beheaded along with Yang Zhen outside Songshan City.

Coincidentally, Yang Zhen knows this bit of history, because there are very few historical records about him, and Li Lu is one of the people who was recorded at the same time.

It now appears that Zhang Degui and others under Yang Zhen's command likely died in the first encounter with the Manchu cavalry, which is why they were not captured and therefore left no trace.

"Excellent! Commander Li's return is perfectly timed!"

Yang Zhen looked at Li Lu, who was walking briskly towards him, and said with a smile, "Commander Li, you've worked hard! I hope this Lu Mi Gun lives up to its name and is worthy of everyone's hard work today!"

After Yang Zhen finished speaking, he took the musket, which was wrapped in layers of oilcloth, from Li Lu's hand, feeling somewhat uneasy.

He had seen almost all the individual firearms used by the government troops in Ningyuan City. Many of them were legendary in later generations, but now they seemed to be nothing more than empty boasts, like the difference between a seller's advertisement and a buyer's actual product.

This made him feel conflicted about the legendary Lumi Cannon. He hoped it was indeed a firearm similar to those used by Westerners in the late Ming Dynasty, as the legends suggested, but at the same time he was very worried and afraid that the legends about the "Lumi Cannon" were just that—legends.

Yang Zhen carefully peeled off the layers of oilcloth covering the outside, revealing a reddish-brown "gun bed" soaked in oil stains.

I don't know what kind of wood this "gun bed" is made of; it has fine grain and feels quite heavy.

Upon seeing the hardwood musket, Yang Zhen's heart pounded. Just from what he saw, the Lumi musket was no ordinary firearm.

At least the design of this hardwood "gun bed" is a generation ahead of any kind of divine gun, musket, three-eyed gun, or four-eyed iron gun.

While Yang Zhen was overjoyed, he was also a little impatient and quickly removed all the tarpaulins covering the "gun body". What came into view was the legendary stock, barrel, and trigger.

The stock of the "Rumi Gun" is a so-called "curved" type, which means it can be rested on the chest and shoulder area for support.

In terms of its basic shape, it was already similar to the stock of the old-style "Hanyang-made" rifle in later generations.

Upon closer inspection, Yang Zhen discovered that although the stock of this "Rumi Gun" was tightly connected to its hardwood "gun bed," there were gaps at the connection point, indicating that it could be moved.

Yang Zhen remained suspicious and looked up at Li Lu. Li Lu quickly said, "Sir! The Lu Mi musket has a hidden blade at the foot of the frame. In battle, if the enemy gets close, you can remove the stock and turn it into a horse-slaying sword!"

After saying this, Li Lu saw that Yang Zhen still didn't understand, so he took the Lumi gun from Yang Zhen's hand, searched around on the butt of the gun, found a rivet, picked up a sharp stone from the ground, and hit one end of the rivet hard. A square rivet about two inches long fell off with a sound.

Immediately afterwards, Li Lu patted the butt of the gun and then pulled it down forcefully. The butt of the gun then fell off the foot of the "gun bed," revealing a sickle-shaped blade about seven or eight inches long.

Li Lu's demonstration left Yang Zhen speechless. He had never imagined that the "curved" stock of the "Lumi Gun," which was over a foot long, would contain such a complex design.

"What kind of ridiculous design is this?! A gunstock is a gunstock; if it's a musket, why bother with a saber-like blade?! It's such a waste of steel, all show and no substance!"

While muttering to himself, Yang Zhen took the "Lumi Gun" from Li Lu's hand, fastened the stock, inserted the rivets, and reinstalled it. Then he went to check the ignition rail, trigger, and touch hole.

The breechblock and mechanism of the "Lumi Gun" are both inside the "gun bed," and the breechblock is not visible from the outside. The entire structure is quite ingenious.

Yang Zhen imitated the way he did during target practice in military training in later generations. He placed the butt of the rifle in his shoulder socket, pulled the trigger, and heard a crisp "click" as the iron head struck the flintlock. It then bounced up immediately and returned to normal.

Although several decades have passed, the Lumi musket, manufactured under the supervision of the imperial court in the mid-Wanli period, is still usable, which shows the broad vision and strong national power of the Ming Dynasty at that time.

Then, Yang Zhen turned the gun upside down to look at the barrel, and sure enough, it was a design with two "barrels" stacked on top of each other.

This double-barreled gun is fixed in the groove of the wooden "gun bed" from beginning to end, with iron rings on top, making it exceptionally sturdy and reliable.

Below the "gun bed" there is also a "stud stick", which is a stick specifically used to clean the gun barrel and tamp the gunpowder and bullets.

Looking at the front opening, the diameter is not large.

Yang Zhen took his index finger to try, but couldn't insert it. He switched to his ring finger, and it went in smoothly. The inner wall of the gun barrel was smooth and free of sand. Of course, there were no rifling marks on the inner wall either.

"Come on! I've loaded it with gunpowder, let me give it a try!"

Yang Zhen quickly finished reading the legendary Lumi Gun and was basically satisfied. He had found a prototype of a firearm that could be processed and improved in this era. Now it was just a matter of seeing how far it could go.

As Yang Zhen spoke, he handed the "Lumi Gun" to Li Lu.

Li Lu took it, retrieved the powder canister for ordinary bird guns, quickly filled it with gunpowder, tore off a piece of oilcloth, wrapped it around the bullet, rolled it into a ball, stuffed it in, and then tamped it down with a club.

They then ordered someone to bring a fire rope, lit it, and clamped it to the iron dragon head.

Finally, he carefully poured some gunpowder powder into the slot at the touch gate and handed it to Yang Zhen.

Yang Zhen had personally tested several firearms, including the arquebus, which was relatively common in the Ming army. These were the cheap but poor-quality matchlock guns, so he already knew the process.

He immediately took the "Lumi Gun," ordered everyone around to move aside, and aimed at a shield covered with thick cowhide that was erected a hundred paces away.

Yang Zhen pulled the trigger hard, and the match cord clamped to the iron head ignited the gunpowder in the touch hole slot. A cloud of smoke with sparks rose up, followed by a loud "bang." Yang Zhen felt as if he had been hit hard in the shoulder, and he almost stumbled.

At the same time, a cloud of white smoke suddenly appeared before his eyes, and the pungent gunpowder smoke made Yang Zhen cough.

After Yang Zhen finished firing the "Lumi Gun", his personal guards ran over to check the target. After a while, the guards who had run away came running back excitedly, dragging their thick cowhide and wooden shields.

"Hit! Commander Xie hit!"

A moment later, the guard returned to Yang Zhen and the others, leaning on his shield. Pointing to a walnut-sized crater on the upper edge of the shield, he exclaimed excitedly, "Gentlemen, look! Here, there's a crater. It wasn't here before, right here!"

Yang Zhen approached and saw that the old cowhide covering the shield was torn, but although the shield plate opposite had a slight bulge, it had not been completely pierced.

He dug his finger in and poked it; the bullet fell out from behind the shield, already deformed.

"I once heard people say that the Lumi gun could fire at 180 paces and injure people even from 180 paces away, but now it seems that's quite an exaggeration!"

After saying this, Yang Zhen felt a mix of emotions. Just then, an idea suddenly struck him, and he asked Li Lu, "How much gunpowder did you load? How heavy are the projectiles?"

Seeing that Yang Zhen was still not entirely satisfied with the performance of the "Lumi Gun," Li Lu quickly said, "Sir! I have never used the Lumi Gun before and do not know how much powder it uses or how heavy the bullets are! To prevent it from exploding, I loaded it according to the proportions of the muskets in the camp, using four qian of powder and three qian of lead bullets!"

"I see!"

Hearing Li Lu's words, Yang Zhen felt a little better.

It seems that further testing is needed to determine how much gunpowder and how heavy the projectiles should be used to maximize the effectiveness of the "Rumi Gun".

Looking at the "Lumi Gun" that was nearly two meters long and weighed about ten kilograms, Yang Zhen finally felt a little more confident.

However, just as he was about to continue testing the dosage and bullets of the "Lumi Gun", the sound of horses' hooves came from outside the training ground, and Yang Zhen and the people around him hurriedly turned around to look.

A moment later, a group of men arrived at the gate of the drill ground at breakneck speed. The man at the head of the group called out, "Is Lord Yang Zhen here? The Commander-in-Chief has ordered that Commander Yang Xiezhen follow us to the Governor's residence for a meeting immediately!"

All the officers, both high and low, who were in the training ground with Yang Zhen testing firearms, looked at Yang Zhen upon hearing this.

"It's finally here! What was bound to happen, finally happened!"

Yang Zhen muttered to himself, but didn't say anything. He simply clasped his hands in a respectful gesture to his entourage and then turned and walked out of the training ground.