Ever since the news about the train spread in the Dibao, the Scientific Research Department has attracted huge attention.

Especially envoys from other countries, as well as many big businessmen, all came up with the idea of ​​​​training.

Because this thing is really useful and very important to every country.

And the reason why those maritime merchants are also interested is because if they get the secret recipe of the train, they will definitely be able to sell it for a sky-high price.

For many countries, in addition to wealth, they are even willing to exchange high-ranking officials, generous salaries, and hereditary nobility in exchange.

Therefore, many people have come up with the idea of ​​taking a train.

In the palace.

Song Zhong is reporting.

"Your Highness, since the train was published in the Di Di newspaper, many spies have begun to want to attack the Scientific Research Department. This month alone, twenty-seven spies have been arrested, of which twenty are from other countries and seven are from our Ming Dynasty. Now

He has been imprisoned in the sky prison for interrogation."

"According to the confession, four of them didn't know who the contact person was. They were just doing this for money. Someone was willing to pay half a million yuan in exchange for the secret train recipe. This caused a huge shock in the entire world and the black market, and many people were eager to give it a try.

"

"There are three more people who are officials from the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty. They work for Beiyuan."

Zhu Ying heard this and said with a smile: "I really look down on the Scientific Research Department, so I took out five hundred thousand treasure notes."

"The imperial government's monthly allocation to the Department of Scientific Research is rarely less than ten million. This five hundred thousand is not enough for even two days."

"In the civil and military districts of the Manchu Dynasty, there are still some rat droppings, eating the official food of the Ming Dynasty, and thinking about the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. These people must be severely punished, and their crimes will be increased."

Song Zhong said quickly: "I understand that these treacherous villains really do not deserve to be sons of human beings. They do not care about the grace of the saints and have their hearts set on foreigners. They are a shame to us Han people."

Zhu Ying nodded, and then said with a smile but not a smile: "The Jinyiwei matter was handled well, but I heard that someone impeached you to avenge you and arrested some of your enemies."

"This impeachment document is about to be put on grandpa's desk."

Song Zhong was startled and quickly knelt down and said: "Please be more careful, Grandson, I am absolutely not doing anything to avenge my private life. Everyone arrested by Jin Yiwei is the person who deserves to be arrested."

Zhu Yingdao: "Behead first and report later. It is indeed authorized by the imperial power. I heard rumors outside that my Jin Yiwei does not need evidence to arrest people. Is this true?"

Cold sweat broke out on Song Zhong's back. After a slight hesitation, he said: "Reporting to Your Highness, this is indeed the case. It is the minister's dereliction of duty and poor discipline that caused some subordinates to talk nonsense and ask Your Majesty to punish them."

Zhu Ying calmly said: "In the future, when Jin Yiwei arrests people, they still have to pay attention to some evidence. It is not a good thing to act arbitrarily without evidence."

"Jinyiwei's reputation is already bad. If you do this again, the officials will react violently, and you will suffer the consequences."

Jin Yiwei is a sword, and Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Ying are the sword holders.

Occasionally, you still need to knock it, otherwise the knife will deflect the will of the knife owner.

"I sincerely follow the teachings of my great grandson." Song Zhong finally breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly kowtowed to express his gratitude.

For the Jin Yiwei, especially the governors like Song Zhong, they had overwhelming power, but all their power came from the imperial charter.

Regardless of whether it is your majesty or your great grandson, all it takes is one word, or one day you just don't like it, and you can easily take away everything they have.

The reputation of the Jinyiwei can be said to be the indignation of both men and gods. If the imperial power does not protect them, they will be like a lost dog.

However, it is also because of this mechanism and situation that no matter how arrogant and domineering the Jinyiwei are, they are loyal to the imperial power.

"I've given you an errand. I need someone I can trust to handle it," Zhu Ying said.

Song Zhong kowtowed: "Please give me your instructions."

Zhu Yingdao: "The Scientific Research Department has produced a batch of new muskets. These guns are completely different from ordinary matchlock guns. They are flintlock guns."

"The information from Tubo has not come over yet, but according to the current situation in Beiyuan, it will definitely be uncomfortable for Wei Guogong."

"I borrowed 100,000 cavalry from Bei Yuan before, but now I have become an enemy. Once the situation changes, Duke Wei will be in danger."

"A few days ago, I sent an order to Jiubian and dispatched 20,000 cavalry to the Western Regions to encircle and suppress the Timur cavalry that was plundering there."

"I need you to secretly go to the Western Regions with the newly developed flintlock guns developed by the Scientific Research Department, and hand these flintlock guns to the Nine-Border Han Cavalry."

When Song Zhong heard this, he said without any hesitation: "I will definitely complete the tasks assigned by His Highness."

Zhu Ying looked at Song Zhong's expression of desperation and said with a smile: "It's not that exaggerated. I have already passed the message to the station. You just need to move forward secretly."

After listening to these words, Song Zhong realized that it was not His Highness who wanted to punish, but that there was indeed something important.

If the eight hundred miles were required to be expedited, Song Zhong would have lost half his life on this trip.

After all, he doesn't have the ability to sleep on horseback like the Mongols.

Immediately, Song Zhong kowtowed: "Thank you, Your Highness, for your kindness."

Zhu Ying nodded: "Go ahead and set off early tomorrow morning."

"I will obey the order."

The current Scientific Research Department has achieved considerable development in many aspects.

This is attributed to Huang Guan, who, under the name of James, has actually been working in the Ministry of Works.

You must know that the main responsibility of James Mansion is to help the prince make plans.

But Zhu Ying doesn't need this now. He rarely interferes too much in government affairs. Except for the general direction, government affairs are basically left to the ministers of each ministry to resolve by themselves. Only when something goes wrong will he be held accountable.

This makes the ministers very helpless now. Such decentralization of power is really rare in the history of dynasties.

Usually only a foolish king would do this.

But now that the Ming Dynasty is so rich and powerful, who can say anything?

Zhu Ying has always wanted to make a real flintlock gun. If he can make it, it will be a real battlefield weapon.

The current difficulty lies in the spring steel and the mercury fulminate in the primer.

However, the quality of steel now, after being forged with steam sledgehammers, is already of quite high quality.

Zhu Ying couldn't tell the specific extent of the reason. The Scientific Research Department called it Thousand Forging Steel. Without a steam hammer, it couldn't be made by manpower.

However, after brainstorming, the breech-loading flintlock gun was actually created.

The problem of chamber pressure is not a big one, and the thousand-forged steel can withstand it.

The solution to air tightness is to use spiral sealing and twisting the spiral.

At first glance, it seems that the breech-loading flintlock gun came out immediately.

But it's actually pretty bad.

Because this type of flintlock gun is roughly similar to the flintlock gun Zhu Ying imagined.

No matter in terms of accuracy, range, or strength, there has been a huge improvement.

The most important thing is loading and shooting becomes more convenient.

The only problem is that after about a dozen rounds, no more than twenty at most, the breech-loaded flintlock gun becomes useless.

Without mercury fulminate, it can only be ignited by gunpowder, and the residue left by the gunpowder can easily cause the spiral patterns on the steel to get stuck.

Therefore, it needs to be cleaned after about three or five rounds.

After more than ten rounds, the threads will be deformed due to chamber pressure.

It's like saying that the breech-loaded flintlock gun is useless.

It must be processed and repaired again before it can be used.

When Zhu Ying saw this situation, he ordered the Scientific Research Department to secretly manufacture 5,000 of these almost disposable breech-loading flintlock guns.

When an order is issued, no matter how absurd it is, you can only do it.

This time, Zhu Ying wanted Song Zhong to transport the five thousand breech-loading flintlock muskets.

In the opinion of others, these breech-loading flintlock muskets are first of all expensive to make because they require a large amount of thousand-forged steel.

The cost of one or two thousand forged steel is equivalent to one or two taels of gold.

This is no different from using gold to build it. Maybe the cost will be lower if it is actually made of gold.

Who can see such extravagance and waste without shaking their heads?

Five thousand breech-loaded flintlock muskets can only fight one war. Basically, after the war, these guns will be useless.

Even if it is recycled and re-repaired, it will cost a lot of money to come and go, plus re-forging.

To put it simply, use these breech-loaded flintlock guns to fight, regardless of whether you win or not, the starting discount is about 800,000 Guanbao.

Equivalent to eighty thousand taels of gold.

Who can afford this?

The cavalry pension is as high as this breech-loaded flintlock rifle.

But only Zhu Ying knew that the power of the rear-mounted flintlock gun would only be revealed on the battlefield. It was already extremely close to the guns of later generations. No matter how many shortcomings it had, it could not cover up its own advantages.

Sometimes, the importance of a battle cannot be compared with hundreds of thousands or even millions of coins.

The envoys from the Northern Yuan Dynasty came to the capital of the Ming Dynasty, but they could not even see Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Ying in person.

They came to protest, but this matter was obviously not negotiable, so Zhu Ying didn't bother to meet them.
To be continued...