back to ancient times to be emperor

Chapter 60 The idle emperor (recommended for collection)

Lu Chengqi nodded and said, "Yes, if this rifle has the same range as a bow and arrow, 150 steps away, then our Dashun army will be invincible in the world. The advantage of a rifle lies in its lethality. Even if the range is not as good, it cannot be compared with a bow and arrow." .It’s just that the barbarians are quite good at riding and shooting. I, Dashun, don’t have enough horses and can’t keep up with the maneuverability. I’m at a disadvantage in field battles.”

Wang Shao nodded and said: "Infantry against cavalry, the battle damage is more than three times. If the rifle can have a long-range advantage, the cavalry can't get close, so there is nothing to fear."

Lu Chengqi waved his hand and said, "For a charge of a few hundred steps, the cavalry only needs a dozen or so breaths, and no matter how fast the rifle is, it can't shoot much. If you want to kill the enemy in a large area, you need to supplement it with other arms. The kidnapper horse of the Khitan They are powerful and good at interspersing and outflanking. Our Dashun army has poor mobility and can only defend passively. Therefore, the two wings must be equipped with cavalry. Behind the central army, there must be cannons. Pikemen. If you cooperate properly, you won’t be afraid of the Khitan cavalry. But you can’t win all of them. After all, the Khitans have four legs, and our Dashun army can’t catch up with them.”

The two discussed all the way, and returned to Chang'an City, it was getting late.Wang Shao hasn't been home for several months, today Lu Chengqi specially let him take a one-night vacation, after all, he will spend the next six months in the Royal Military Academy.

The success of the Royal Military Academy made Lu Chengqi a little overjoyed. Not only did he transform more than a hundred officers into a group of real soldiers in a few months, but a few of them could become instructors, so even if all the members of the Royal Military Academy went Even if he became an instructor in the Forbidden Army, he was not afraid that no one in the Royal Military Academy would teach Wang Shao.The task Lu Chengqi gave Di Qing was to select good seedlings from the Forbidden Army, send them to the Royal Military Academy for further studies, and then go back to enrich the middle-level officers of the Forbidden Army.

In an army, the real valuables are veterans and qualified middle and low-level officers.Without these two kinds of people, this army would not have much combat effectiveness. After a big battle, the losses would definitely be very serious.

Zhou Zhiruo was already looking forward to Lu Chengqi's return to the Hall of Renming after a day of travelling.Lu Chengqi took her into his arms distressedly, and said softly: "Didn't I say, I'm dealing with state affairs, Zi Tong, you eat first. If you don't eat so late, what should you do if you're starving?"

Zhou Zhiruo said with a happy smile on her face, "The concubine is waiting for His Majesty, and I am very happy."

Lu Chengqi thought in his heart: "In the long run, I'm afraid that the empress will become a boudoir. But the harem is not allowed to interfere in politics, this is my bottom line. However, I can let Zhiruo do something." Immediately said: "Zi Tong, Zhen Seeing you doing nothing every day is not a solution. I have one thing, maybe you can do it, dare to try it?"

Zhou Zhiruo looked at Lu Chengqi with beautiful eyes, surprised and happy, and said, "What can a concubine do?"

When Lu Chengqi mentioned the plan of adopting orphans and establishing a welfare home, Zhou Zhiruo actually agreed without saying a word, saying: "The concubine must put her heart into running the welfare home. If the treasury doesn't support it, the concubine can still raise it from Huangzhuang. With money and silver."

The Huangzhuang under Lu Chengqi's name has always been managed by Zhou Zhiruo.Now Lu Chengqi is vigorously supporting the business and has sold a lot of Huangtian. Now Lu Chengqi doesn't know how much Huangzhuang's income is.Zhou Zhiruo showed Lu Chengqi the Huangzhuang account book, and Lu Chengqi was greatly surprised: "There is an income of 60 yuan in one month, Zitong, are you robbing?"

Zhou Zhiruo said displeasedly: "What did the emperor say? Isn't this the credit of His Majesty? Your Majesty asked his concubines to send people to run teahouses, newspaper offices, wharves, fleets, etc. The majority of the shipping department's annual income is still our fleet. Your Majesty is surprised that the income is too high." Gao, are you talking about courtiers and concubines competing for profit with the people?"

Lu Chengqi apologized again and again, and said: "It's because I used the wrong words, Zitong is not to blame. It's just that I don't agree with this statement. If there is no support from me, how can there be so many new things? World business, Nothing is better than following the trend to make profits. Although I know that this newspaper is good and the ocean-going fleet makes money, but no one tries it. What is the use of my words? Why not let Huangzhuang set an example and really make money, then follow the trend people will show up."

Only then did Zhou Zhiruo turn her anger into joy, and said, "Your Majesty has a lot of reasons, and my concubines can't justify you."

Lu Chengqi smiled, held her catkin, and said: "Besides, I use the money I earn for the people of Dashun, and for the orphanages. Fighting for profit has the confidence! It’s just that Zitong suffers, and the orphanage will rely on Zitong to support it in the future.”

Zhou Zhiruo said happily: "Sharing Your Majesty's worries, it's too late for my concubine to be happy!"

Lu Chengqi pondered for a while, then said: "It's the same as the newspaper office. This time, it will not be funded from the household department. It will be directly allocated from my internal treasury to buy land, build houses, and recruit children. I will also make a secret decree. Let the Supervision Department send homeless orphans to welfare institutions."

The two chattered about the orphanage again, and a good night passed in a moment.

Since the establishment of the cabinet system, Lu Chengqi's daily work has been very easy.After approving a few major political affairs, Lu Chengqi didn't have much work anymore. He was a person who couldn't sit still. Thinking of the rifle he was very interested in, he felt itchy in his heart, and ordered: "Come here, leave the palace in low clothes, and drive the army outside the city." Supervisor!"

For the little emperor's arrival every two days, everyone in the military inspector was no stranger to it, but felt that the little emperor attached too much importance to them, and everyone was full of energy.

And the three most powerful military inspectors, Su Song, Shen Kuo, and Tang Xun, are arguing over how to improve the rifle.Seeing Lu Chengqi's arrival, they unanimously asked Lu Chengqi to judge and see whose plan is better.After listening to their narrations and drawings one by one, Lu Chengqi said with a smile: "You don't have to worry about money, why don't you make your own? Learn from each other's strengths, and you can make a good rifle."

When the three of them heard this, they felt that this was the truth, so they stopped arguing.Lu Chengqi was taken by them to see the workshop on how to make gun barrels.I saw that the molten iron smelted from the blast furnace flowed into the prepared steel plate mold. After cooling down a bit, while there was still some heat, it was rolled with an iron rod with a thick back and a thin front. Made it.It’s just that this process is simple to say, but difficult to do. To manufacture ten barrels, only three or four are qualified, and the scrap rate is too high.There is no way, there is no machine tool in this era, so it can only be made by hand, and the yield rate can be about half, which is actually not bad.Those waste products can be smelted into molten iron and rolled again, which is not a waste.

In fact, coke contains a lot of sulfur, but the ancients were really smart. After the first failure of blast furnace steelmaking, Tang Xun searched for more than a month, only to find that placing limestone in the furnace can greatly reduce the sulfur content. , to improve the quality of iron.

In this way, the molten iron smelted in such a local blast furnace finally meets the requirements for mass production of gun barrels.It's just that the scrap rate is still too high, mainly because the quality of these cokes is uneven, and the sulfur content is more or less, which makes the steel too brittle.

After Lu Chengqi heard about it, he told them that they could add aluminum powder to deoxidize it. After the molten iron was formed, put caustic soda in it while it was hot, and only then could qualified steel be stably produced.

Lu Chengqi originally thought that there was no caustic soda in ancient times, but he didn't expect that the ancients already knew how to make caustic soda.Add water with quicklime and then add Glauber's salt to make caustic soda.If you find it troublesome, using plant ash directly is also the fastest and most convenient way to make alkali.

Lu Chengqi didn't understand. The ancients had a very good understanding of chemistry. Why didn't chemistry form a systematic science?
(End of this chapter)