The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 455
The imperial court is busy with disaster relief for Shaanxi. The disaster itself may not be serious this time, but because Zhu Youtang personally supervised it, the entire imperial court has to pay attention to it.

Zhu Youtang also wanted to use this as a model to set down the principles of local disaster relief.

However, Zhang Zhou didn't need to stay in the capital these few days, he went to Xishan himself.

Those who came with him included Zhu Feng, Wang Mingshan, Liu Gui, Jia Laoshui and others, as well as Sun Shangqi from Jinyiwei Qianhu who had arrived early in the morning, and the ten thousand soldiers assigned by Zhu Youtang to Zhang Zhou. Soldiers, 500 of them were separated. Their purpose in Xishan was to assist in "cannon making".

"grown ups."

When Zhang Zhou appeared in front of the Xishan Coal Mine, the surroundings were no longer just a mine.

The huge mine consists of more than a dozen pits, stretching for four or five miles. Together with the surrounding miners and the industries bred by the miners, it has formed a scale no less than that of a small town. Xishan Town", and it can be said that eating, drinking and having fun in the town can be said to be readily available.

Zhang Zhou first looked around from a high place.

Sun Shangqi next to him said: "My lord, the number of garrisons in Xishan is obviously insufficient. If Tatars or bandits come, we can only count on the troops from the Beijing camp to come to cooperate. I told you before that we must I wonder if it is possible to advance the construction of the city wall in Xishan?"

Xishan wants to build a city wall.

In order to ensure that the black mineral veins of Daming here can be guaranteed. After all, Daming has basically used the "honeycomb coal" produced by Xishan in the capital. In addition to the procurement by the government, even big households and ordinary people can already buy it on the market. arrive.

Now it is the twelfth lunar month of winter, and the sales of government-run briquettes are also very good, bringing Zhang Zhou a steady stream of income.

"There is a coal pile area over there. There are a lot of high-quality coal from Shanxi, all of which are transported there, but it is very inconvenient to transport them by horses and horses." It's like a treasure.

After all, there are very few opportunities for Sun Shangqi to make great achievements, but he is in charge of logistics and manufacturing, which can be said to be handy.

Zhang Zhou inspected a circle and felt very satisfied. After all, the coal mines developed by him in Xishan in name are all under his name, and the coal produced is basically realized by him, but Zhang Zhou did not use it for personal use. Instead, it is more used to fill the cannon-making and inner palace of the Ming Dynasty.

It is precisely because Zhang Zhou can continuously create wealth for Zhu Youtang that Zhu Youtang is willing to hand over more mining exploration rights to him, and at the same time let him wear several jobs, even leaving Daming unsuspecting in his job of making firearms. to him.

If it was someone else... the emperor himself would have to murmur.

Give money to mines and return people, and allow you to make cannons and guns, are you afraid of rebellion?
"Very good." Zhang Zhou said, "Take me to see the Artillery Workshop, and by the way, hand over the casting blueprints I drew recently to those craftsmen to see how to forge them."

……

……

Inside the Xishan Artillery Workshop.

The huge furnace is responsible for iron smelting, Xishan is mainly responsible for smelting iron ore in Zhangjiakou and other places, and the iron ore in Yongping Prefecture needs to transport coal to Yongping Prefecture to complete casting.

Because several coal mines and iron mines are not together and are far apart, the transportation capacity is inconvenient in this era, and Zhang Zhou is also considering improvement.

The method used is basically the most respected "steam locomotive" in this era, that is, the manufacture of steam trains. However, because of the huge cost of this matter, and the time required for the research and planning of the route, this is currently only limited to demonstrations. At the stage, Zhang Zhou hadn't even formally raised this matter with Zhu Youtang.

At the entrance of Gongpaofang, there stands a fort, which faces the open area of ​​a deep valley more than ten miles behind the West Mountain, and it is also used as a place for testing artillery.

This time, what was transported to the fort was a cannon that didn't look much different from the previous artillery. It was much lighter than the heavy artillery, but it was still heavier than the previous mother-child artillery.

Sun Shangqi said: "My lord, everything is according to your design. You should have read the drawings and the lines inside. As for the accuracy of the cannonball, it has been as you said, and the error cannot exceed the slightest, but this cannon is very It is heavy, and even with wheels, it takes two horses to move it, and it is extremely inconvenient if you want to cross hills and other places."

"Ah."

Zhang Zhou nodded.

The gun in front of him is the "rifled gun" that Zhang Zhou has been researching and improving recently.

In the past, whether it was light artillery, long-range artillery, or heavy artillery, they were all smoothbore artillery. In terms of firing distance and accuracy, they all depended on their initial velocity, and aiming was only a general direction. If it can be more than one mile away, the error is more than 20 meters.

Because of the accuracy error, when the Tatar cavalry encountered the artillery formation of the Ming Dynasty, they basically used scattered formations to prevent the artillery of the Ming Dynasty from fully covering them as much as possible.

But if it is replaced with a rifled gun, after the accuracy is improved, the range can even reach ten miles away, and the accuracy can ensure that the error is around ten meters, which makes the gun's range and aiming a qualitative leap...Of course, it is the first research out now. The current rifled gun is far from reaching such accuracy, and it can only be said that further improvement is needed.

"boom!"

One shot out.

It didn't explode.

There have been six or seven tests before, and the biggest problem with the rifled gun is probably the jamming.

It was also after the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty had become purely skilled in making smoothbore guns that they were qualified to talk about improving the rifled guns. This test gun is not the first shot, it can only be said that it was the first shot supervised by Zhang Zhou himself.

"Hit the target area! The range is six and a half miles!"

As the personnel responsible for observing the upper part of the valley in the distance sent semaphores and other signals, Sun Shangji reported the results.

The target area is just a 100-meter-square ground area, and things like aiming are done by professional gunners.

One mile in Daming is not 500 meters, but only more than 400 meters. The range is six and a half miles, which is roughly equivalent to a range of 700 meters. It is more than a mile farther, but the weight is much lighter, and the accuracy has achieved a qualitative leap.

Zhu Feng was very excited when he heard Sun Shangqi's report, "Brother Zhang, this cannon doesn't seem to be that heavy, why does it have such a long range?"

Sun Shangqi smiled and said: "Marquis An Bian may not know that this new cannon has rifling added, and before the cannon is fired, it will rotate along the rifling inside, and the speed can be faster when it goes out, and it can be fired wherever you point. The materials will not be more, but it is very difficult to manufacture, just such a cannon, the time it takes is much more complicated than casting a Shenweiyuan cannon."

Zhu Feng said: "It's powerful, but in Ningxia before, I led troops to fight the Tartars with artillery, and they didn't fight us head-on. No matter how far we fight, I'm afraid they won't hit the target."

Sun Shangqi is still proud, who would have thought that Zhu Feng here is like a psychopath, first admiring him, and then tearing himself down.

This is very annoying.

But Sun Shangqi still didn't dare to say anything.

Zhang Zhou said with a nonchalant expression on his face: "Could it be that this artillery has certain disadvantages when fighting cavalry, so you don't study it? When you didn't have a artillery, you dared to bring [-] soldiers to fight the [-] soldiers and horses of the Tartars." deal with?"

Zhu Feng thought about it, not to mention four thousand against forty thousand before, even if it was four thousand against four thousand... that would be almost courting death.

In the past, when Daming fought on the frontier, he would either play defense or sneak attack...Only Wang Yue could do such a frontal large-scale battle. pull.

Zhang Zhoudao: "The Ming Dynasty must have elite soldiers and new weapons in order to be invincible on the battlefield. If all weapons cannot keep pace with the times, the Tatars will soon lose We have thoroughly studied our tactics, and the next time we enter the grassland, maybe the right time, place and people will not take advantage of us."

"Ah."

Zhu Feng also had to put away the previous arrogance of "I am the one who witnessed it and I have the right to speak", and followed Zhang Zhou obediently to the rifled gun that had just fired the shell.

Immediately Zhu Feng was very interested in the new cannonball sent by the artillery: "This cannonball is completely different from before. Why is it long?"

The cannonballs before the Ming Dynasty were basically round, which was for the convenience of firing.

The tradition of big iron balls has not been changed because of several new artillery pieces researched by Zhang Zhou.

But with the advent of rifled guns, round projectiles were no longer standard.

Zhang Zhoudao: "The latter is mainly responsible for the promotion. Now the lead wire is used. In the future, it can be improved to use flint, or even use percussion powder. These need to be studied. The artillery will become more and more advanced. Know the truth, don't think that you have brought it yourself. In the Shenji Camp, after fighting the Tatars for a few days, I thought I understood everything, and when you become an instructor in the Martial Arts Academy in the future, you must also understand how to keep pace with the times."

"If you can't learn more yourself, how can you teach others?"

Zhu Feng bowed her head in shame and said, "Understood!"

Zhang Yiyi raised his hand and said: "Fire a few more times to see how the damage ratio of this gun is. At least [-] guns must be fired, and damage should be maintained at [-] times. If it can't be done, you have to Improved accuracy."

Zhang Zhou knew that after the appearance of the rifled gun, the difficulty of maintaining the gun would increase significantly.

In the past, the gunners of the Shenji Battalion in Ming Dynasty were mostly rough men, but in the future they should change to the direction of "academic school". There is no need for those who are high-ranking and rough people to be gunners. Learn what a parabola is, how to aim, and the range changes brought about by various elevation angles, etc...

……

……

Just when Zhang Zhou went to Xishan to inspect the rifled guns.

Zhu Youtang looked bored in the palace. He planned to talk to Zhang Zhou, but was told that Zhang Zhou had gone out of the city to Xishan.

"That's true for Bingkuan, what are you busy with every day?" Zhu Youtang now misses Zhang Zhou when he doesn't see him for a while.

With Zhang Zhou, they are soul mates. It seems that only Zhang Zhou can know his inner thoughts and help him realize the grand strategy and military strategy that he never even dared to dream of.

Li Rongdao: "Your Majesty, Dongchang also sent people to go with Mr. Zhang, it is said that they want to inspect the new guns."

Zhu Youtang asked curiously: "Didn't Bingkuan tell me before that the focus of improvement in the future should be on firecrackers, not cannons?"

Li Rong said with a smile: "Sun Shangqi, the former Jinyiwei Qianhu, has reported that the new cannon has a longer range, can hit six or seven miles away, and can be extremely accurate. In the future, it is true that the thief has not yet appeared Before our eyes, we can destroy them!"

"That would be fun!"

Zhu Youtang smiled, "So is Bingkuan, such a good thing, why don't you ask me to go with you?"

Li Rongdao: "Perhaps it's because the cannon has just come out and still needs a lot of testing, so the safety cannot be guaranteed. When it can be cast in large quantities in the future, His Majesty will naturally be able to inspect it in person."

"Ugh!"

Zhu Youtang already wanted to meet Zhang Zhou very much, but being "greedy" by Li Rong made him even more restless.

"By the way, Prince... Are your studies going well?" Zhu Youtang couldn't find anything to do now.

Except for an earthquake in Shaanxi after the next year, it was actually nothing major. The summary that should be done was completed years ago. At the end of the first month, with the beginning of spring plowing, the court meeting will have some substantive content.

Of course, the Tatars have to give face.

If it is like usual, even if it is a big Chinese New Year, the Tatars will not stop, and they will bring all kinds of bad things to the court.

It was precisely because of Zhang Zhou, Wang Shouren and others that the frontier military affairs and other matters were settled down, and the Tatars no longer violated the border as often as in the past few years, which gave the emperor a Spring Festival holiday.

Li Rong said: "The prince is fine."

In fact, Li Rong didn't know how Zhu Houzhao's recent studies were.

The minister still has a few days to rest, but Zhu Youtang has very high demands on Zhu Houzhao. In addition, Zhu Houzhao sneaked out for a few months before. In order to let his son catch up with the progress of schoolwork, Zhu Youtang only has the first day of the new year. On that day, Zhu Houzhao was allowed to rest for a day, and then the daily lectures in the East Palace did not stop.

Zhu Youtang sighed: "This prince...is too stubborn. Fortunately, there is Bingkuan, so even if there is something wrong with me... Forget it, let's not mention him! Has Bingkuan recently had a confrontation with the Martial Arts Hall? What suggestion do you make?"

Li Rong took out a handwritten list from his arms and said: "Your Majesty, this is the old slave who went to Mr. Zhang before. Instead of mentioning some generals who can be promoted in the future, the people he mentioned to the old slave. Slaves have memorized it."

"is it?"

Zhu Youtang glanced at Li Rong.

That look seemed to be saying, you're a bitch, go gossip with Zhang Zhou, but it's just for clichés?Zhang Zhou said who can use it, and still use you so sneakily?
After Zhu Youtang read the list, he said with emotion: "There are not too many surprises."

Li Rongdao: "Look, Your Majesty, there are still some, such as Wei Ning Hou Wang Chun, such as Zhang Rui, the eldest son of the British government, and the elder brother of An Bianhou... Cheng Guogong's son Zhu Lin... for example, Wei Ning Hou His younger brother, Wang Shi, who is also related to Mr. Zhang."

"Ah."

Seeing this, Zhu Youtang smiled and nodded.

It seems that they are all people who have a close relationship with Zhang Zhou, a bit of "nepotism", but Zhu Youtang seems to like this tune.

The closer the person is, the more I like to use it.

Because I use it smoothly, I can rest assured.

(End of this chapter)