With the arrival of the first lunar month, lanterns and colorful decorations began to appear everywhere, gradually giving rise to a Chinese New Year atmosphere.
After all, Zhu Yuanzhang is here too. As the Ming Emperor, of course he has to make things grand.
However, there are not many Han people here, most of them are businessmen passing by.
Just hearing that His Majesty visited Wucheng on his southern tour and would celebrate the New Year here, more and more Ming businessmen rushed here.
For them, wherever His Majesty is, they will feel like home.
Maritime merchants are not as comfortable as they imagined. They have been drifting on the sea for a long time and always face countless dangers.
Some of these dangers come from nature, and some come from other businessmen.
Although in the sea area near the Ming Dynasty, due to the suppression of the Ming Dynasty navy, there are no pirates or the like, but who can control so many things at sea.
On the boundless sea, let alone hundreds of people dead, even if there are tens of thousands of people dead, there will be no sound.
The sea is the best place to destroy corpses and eliminate traces. Once they are thrown towards the sea, there is no need to worry about anything. Even if Bao Qingtian is reborn or Di Renjie appears, it is impossible to find any clues.
Because of the opening of the sea and the increasing prosperity of Ming Dynasty's industry, it also stimulated the prosperity of the sea in disguise.
Merchant ships from all over the world are communicating more closely, and all coastal countries will be involved in this maritime trade. The huge benefits have driven it, and it has become a veritable Maritime Silk Road.
Compared with doing business, there is no doubt that it is faster to cheat and take advantage of others.
Maybe just by robbing a shopping mall, you will get unimaginable wealth.
The merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty are not that easy to rob. Generally speaking, they are equipped with powerful firepower, matchlocks or artillery. Ordinary merchant ships have no chance of getting close.
Fortunately, generally speaking, most merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty are relatively well-behaved and rarely engage in robbery.
Maybe it's because he doesn't like it, maybe it's because he's afraid of the Ming Dynasty's laws.
In the Ming Dynasty, in addition to silk, tea, porcelain and other high-profit goods, the most popular matchlock gun is also a huge profit among huge profits.
With the continuous equipment in the army, matchlocks have completely spread in the Ming army.
And a large number of arsenals were established in various provinces.
The craftsmanship of the matchlock gun is not complicated, mainly in terms of imagination. Even with granular gunpowder, it only takes a few attempts to achieve it.
The only thing that is a bit technically difficult is probably the fire bomb.
However, as the number of gunpowder craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty increased, it became difficult for the technology of fire bombs to be kept secret without being leaked.
These days, the timid will be starved to death and the bold will be starved to death.
In the face of huge interests, no law can be bound.
Some large families have secretly begun to build gunpowder factories and then sell them to other countries through maritime trade.
Rough workmanship is not a problem, nor is high price. The matchlock guns produced by these underground factories have become the most popular goods.
Even though the imperial court has discovered the existence of such contraband and started to conduct strict investigations, and even many families were discovered and their entire families were executed, the successors still flocked to it.
The construction of underground factories has also become more secretive.
The locations of these underground factories are often in inaccessible places, far away from the Ming Dynasty City, and the search is very difficult.
Some big families even found gunpowder factories on remote desert islands at sea, and then sold them by sea.
In this way, it can also be avoided to a large extent from being detected at the port.
At present, the technology of matchlocks is beginning to spread whether in the Southeast Asian region or in more distant countries.
After all, such a personal combat artifact may perform poorly in large-scale legion wars, but in small-scale battles, it almost plays a decisive role.
The most important thing is the cost.
The cost of making matchlock guns is low. Putting aside the labor force, you can make several of them for just one tael of silver. Moreover, the underground arsenal will also save on materials, not considering durability at all. As long as it can fire, it doesn't matter.
These matchlock guns will not pass inspection before leaving the factory, let alone any test firings. Once they are made, they can only be sold.
It has long been common for barrel explosions to occur.
Whether you kill yourself when aiming at the enemy depends on God's mercy.
But generally speaking, at least for the first dozen rounds, it will be relatively stable. After all, most of them are made of inferior materials, and it is normal for them to be unable to withstand it.
This situation is more in line with the interests of firearms smugglers.
If a matchlock gun can still be used for a year and a half and is almost as good as one made by the government, then how can the subsequent ones be sold?
"There is really no sense of security."
Zhu Ying took a few guards for a walk in Wucheng. Almost all the merchants he saw, including their guards, were carrying matchlock guns.
Not just Han people, but also businessmen from other countries.
After all, this was not a territory directly under the Ming Dynasty, and there was no law prohibiting guns. Obviously, Zhu Yunwen and Lu didn't care so much.
"Although the matchlocks they carry look crude, as demand arises, good guns will gradually eliminate other defective products."
"Driven by interests, it will not take long to develop high-quality matchlock guns."
"At present, there are more and more arsenals in the Ming Dynasty. As long as you spend enough money, it is not difficult to find good gunpowder craftsmen."
"Looking at the replacement of flintlock guns, it is already on the agenda."
Seeing the situation overseas with your own eyes is more eye-catching than simply reading information on paper.
Flintlock muskets were actually manufactured in the Gunpowder Department of the Ming Dynasty capital.
Although the sealing process is very demanding, don’t underestimate folk artists. You must know that in the beating process, small accessories such as gold and silver jewelry can be made to an extremely meticulous level. Find a few skilled craftsmen.
Master, it's not too difficult to rub a flintlock gun by hand.
It's just that the sealing process has higher technical requirements than that of a matchlock gun. It relies entirely on the polishing and processing of master craftsmen, and the production speed is as fast as a turtle.
The main reason is that the failure rate is very high.
Even if you are a master craftsman, on average six out of ten flintlock guns will be unqualified.
Flint is also involved here.
Especially in terms of elasticity, it is also a delicate manual work. If the elasticity is not enough and the hitting force is too small, it will be difficult for the flint to ignite.
The Ming Dynasty has no inventory of high-purity flint at all. Although it is now looking for and mining it, the production cannot be increased at once.
Nowadays, flint, which is commonly used to light fires on the market, usually requires several, or even more than ten, attempts to successfully nod.
There is absolutely no way such flint can be applied to flintlock guns.
You can't aim at the enemy and then have to fire five or six shots, or even ten shots before shooting.
In this comparison, it is really not as stable as a matchlock gun. The fuel-burning hemp rope is extremely cheap and can be made casually.
This is also a key factor that has always limited the mass production of flintlock guns.
Currently, there are nearly 300 high-quality flintlock guns in stock in the Ming Dynasty, which is the output in almost two years.
The accuracy and range of the flintlock gun are unmatched by the matchlock gun.
However, there is no point in making more. There are too few high-purity flints. Moreover, the flint itself is a consumable and requires a certain amount of reserves.
Among the troops on this southern tour, there were two centurions. As the personal guards of Zhu Ying and Zhu Yuanzhang, they were equipped with flintlock rifles.
There is also a short-barreled flintlock gun on Zhu Ying's waist.
This short-barreled flintlock gun is already a firearm that is beyond the current era. It can even be described as a work of art.
The bullets and barrel inside are made of fine steel that has been tempered for thousands of times.
The barrel of the gun is ground finely using the same process as gold jewelry.
The wood on the gun body is made of expensive golden nanmu, and there are dragon patterns carved on it by the current Ming Dynasty carving masters.
The most important thing is that the short-barreled flintlock gun in Zhu Ying's hand is a serious breech-loading gun.
The biggest craftsmanship problem with breech-loading guns is the flash cap strike, which is not a problem.
The key to the problem lies in mercury fulminate, which was invented in the early 19th century.
Mercury fulminate is a lively little thing that is very sensitive to vibrations. It explodes when it is impacted. It is like the "cracker" played by many children in later generations. It is a firecracker that goes off as soon as it is thrown on the ground. There is mercury fulminate in it.
This thing.
Zhu Ying was not a great chemist in his previous life, so it was naturally impossible for him to say that he could invent mercury fulminate now.
But if the flash cap does not have this thing, it will be difficult to fire the breech.
But thinking about it, it’s not completely impossible.
Can be made by hand.
The short-barreled flintlock bullets in Zhu Ying's hand are made of silver alone, and have rifling carvings on the outside that fit the inside of the barrel, which can better improve accuracy.
Paper-thin silver is wrapped with gunpowder particles, and the bottom of the bullet is wrapped with a layer of high-precision flint.
In order to better achieve the ignition effect, this layer of flint flakes will be soaked in grease for more than ten hours before being added to the bottom of the silver bullet.
There is a thin needle at the firing point of the barrel.
When struck, the ignited flint will carry sparks and be transferred from the fine needle to the bottom of the silver bullet to ignite it.
These precision parts are finely crafted by craftsmen with very exquisite skills.
Just a silver bullet, even if there is no process error, will take at least more than half a month to make.
The main reason is that the failure rate of flint flakes is too high, probably not even one tenth.
After all, high-precision flint can ignite if you are not careful.
The short-barreled flintlock gun in Zhu Ying's hand now is actually not much different from the pistols of later generations.
But even so, the lifespan of this gun is very limited.
It is estimated that after dozens of shots are fired, the internal structure will change, leading to the possibility of a chamber explosion.
Because it involves the structure of precision parts, there is no high-precision processing in later generations, so they can only be replaced by gold or silver, and deformation will be easier.
Once there is a problem with the air tightness, the chamber will explode.
But for Zhu Ying now, it is completely enough.
On Zhu Ying's waist, there is a special leather bag, which contains special silver bullets wrapped in oil paper.
Although like the sniper rifles of later generations, it needs to be reloaded every time it fires, but as a self-defense weapon, it is simply an invincible weapon.
This is the direction of future firearms development, which is at least two hundred years ahead of current firearms.
When shopping in Wucheng, you can really feel two worlds.
One is a businessman.
Most of the conversations between these people were in Chinese. Even foreign businessmen, who spoke Chinese very awkwardly and couldn't pronounce words clearly, still used Chinese.
This is because for all maritime merchants, the most profitable trading place was the Ming Dynasty.
No matter how difficult it is to learn, you still have to put your mind into it. Translation can easily lead to being sold or causing errors in understanding.
Secondly, after the Ming Dynasty opened the sea, merchants engaged in maritime trade were as dense as bamboo shoots after a rain. This also resulted in the largest number of people in maritime trade being the Ming Dynasty people.
This makes Chinese more popular.
For any businessman who wants to engage in maritime trade, no matter which country he is from, the first step is to learn Chinese.
Otherwise, even if you arrive in the Ming Dynasty, you will be blind if you can't communicate.
In addition to businessmen, the people in Wucheng are also local indigenous people.
These common people could not understand Chinese at all, because Zhu Yunwen did not open a Chinese school. Except for a few nobles who had the financial resources to study, 90% of them only knew Chinese.
And because of the influence of Indian culture, high-caste Cham people do not even communicate in Cham language, but use Sanskrit.
As a result, it is difficult for the people at the bottom to communicate with the nobles or the outside world.
Zhiyu has no written heritage, only Sanskrit has Sanskrit.
It is impossible for these people to even be literate, let alone inherit their culture.
The Champa Kingdom's classic texts, announcements and laws are all in Sanskrit, which is equivalent to completely isolating ordinary people.
"What a great opportunity, why can't I seize it?"
Zhu Ying was a little lucky, but fortunately she came to see it, otherwise it would be difficult to understand these customs through some information.
These common people were abandoned by the nobles, and they could easily be won over to the Ming Dynasty without much effort.
Coupled with the current trend of learning Chinese, it is easy for them to accept it.
Now, Zhu Ying also understands why Zhu Yunwen and Lu did not open a Chinese school.
This was probably due to resistance from the occupying nobles in Wucheng.
These nobles naturally do not want the untouchables to have the right to learn knowledge, so they will naturally try their best to give up their interests, which will affect Zhu Yunwen and the Lu family.
There is no Chinese school here, but there are private schools.
The nobles would rather spend a higher price to hire Han Chinese as teachers to teach Chinese studies than have low-caste untouchables as classmates.
From Zhu Yunwen's perspective, it seems that this method can also strengthen his own rule.
After all, in Wucheng, apart from the 50,000 elite soldiers brought over by Zhu Yunwen, there were almost no Han people.
For the time being, we can only rely on the original aristocratic ruling system in Wucheng.
But these are not in Zhu Ying's interests, let alone Daming's interests.