In the days that followed, Jia Lian's main energy was devoted to the Shenji Camp and matters related to welcoming the imperial concubine to the royal family.
In the blink of an eye, August came, the third day of the lunar month was Jia Mu’s birthday again.
According to custom, Jia Mu's birthday usually involves a three-day banquet.
This year, because we are busy with wedding arrangements, this is the biggest happy event for the Jia family, and even Jia’s mother’s birthday has to be ranked second.
So Jia's mother took it upon herself to say that on the right day, she would invite all members of the clan, as well as relatives and friends, to come and have fun.
Just the day before Jia Mu's birthday party, Shenji Camp also had good news.
Wu Youquan sent someone to tell Jia Lian that the modification of the flintlock gun was effective and invited him to the launch site to observe the test.
Jia Lian was a little excited when he heard the news, and quickly came to the launch site of the Fire Gun Bureau.
At this time, there were many people around the site, most of whom were officials and craftsmen from the Gun Bureau and Artillery Bureau.
Since ancient times, what is good from above must be followed. Since Jia Lian, the commander-in-chief, took office and showed his unique emphasis on firearms, officials and other personnel in the Shenji Camp inevitably paid more attention to firearms.
.
Some people, seeing the excellent treatment that Wu Youquan and others received, turned around and devoted themselves to the intensive research of firearms with envy.
Wu Youquan and his assistants had already set up a battle array in the field. When they saw Jia Lian approaching, Wu Youquan immediately went forward to report: "To the Marquis, the villain reported to the Marquis about the flint-loaded fire last time."
The gun has been cast.
Moreover, it can really launch!”
Jia Lian was shocked when he heard this: "Show me."
Wu Youquan was ordered to personally fetch the blunderbuss from the table and offer it to Jia Lian with both hands.
Jia Lian took it and took a look. The brand new gun body was double-barreled. The gun body was very heavy to hold, and it looked very lethal.
After checking the barrel and chamber of the gun, Jia Lian smiled and asked, "How is the firing effect?"
"How about I show it to the Marquis in person?"
Jia Lian nodded, and Wu Youquan took the gun and returned to the desk, took a long breath, and then carefully began to load the ammunition.
After all, this was the first public appearance of the flintlock gun in the Wei Dynasty. Jia Lian did not rush it. Instead, he had time to look at the distance from the firing point to the target. It was estimated by visual inspection that it was about two hundred steps.
Two to three hundred steps is not an unusually effective range even for fire cannons of this era.
This is also an advantage of firecrackers over bows and arrows. After all, even a powerful marksman cannot effectively kill the enemy at this distance.
Soon Wu Youquan was ready. He looked back at Jia Lian. At Jia Lian's signal, he became angry and pulled the trigger in front of everyone's attention.
With a loud sound of gold and stone hitting each other, people around looked at each other and asked questions.
"Did it come out?"
"Did it hit?"
The target observers who had been prepared long ago trotted to the target in confusion and checked it repeatedly.
But people with sharp eyes have noticed that the bullet was not fired at all. Others also saw clues from Wu Youquan's expression of excitement to regret.
Jia Lian sighed, obviously the first shot failed.
But he was not too surprised. In the past three months, he had often gone to the forging barracks to participate in the transformation work of Wu Youquan and others. Therefore, he knew clearly that even with his prophet, the technology of the flintlock gun
It is not an easy task to start something from nothing and then reach maturity.
From manual ignition to automatic ignition, this is a leap forward in itself, and it is normal to have difficulties.
"Please give the villain another chance, Lord Marquis. The launch was really successful at the small shooting range behind the barracks. The villain really didn't lie. They can all testify for the villain."
Wu Youquan put down the gun and explained to Jia Lian with some uneasiness. After all, it was Jia Lian who he had invited in such a hurry, but the result was like this, which made him very upset and blamed himself.
Jia Lian waved his hand and said calmly: "I will give you two more chances."
If all three shots fail to fire, it means that the transformation of the flintlock gun has failed.
Hearing Jia Lian's words, Wu Youquan bowed gratefully, then picked up the gun again, carefully recalled the reason for the failure of the launch, finally reloaded the ammunition, raised the gun again, and pressed the trigger with breathless concentration.
"Bang!!"
The loud firing sound sounded again. Those with good hearing and vision can clearly feel that this time the sound is not only clearer than the previous one, but as far as the eye can see, there is a fierce fire in the barrel of the long gun in Wu Youquan's hand.
Flashing.
At this time, Wu Youquan was looking down at the black smoke coming out of the barrel of the gun, looking excited.
From the huge recoil of the gun, he knew clearly that the launch was successful! However, he was not too eager to show off. Instead, he winked at the people next to him and asked them to go up and check the target.
There was no need for them to step forward to check. The target guard had already exclaimed loudly: "Hit, hit, hit!!"
Hearing this voice, Wu Youquan dared to turn around and smile at Jia Lian.
Jia Lian also nodded approvingly at him. Although it took the second shot to succeed, the success means that the transformation is in the right direction.
In the future, it will just increase the probability of success.
But with this kind of firearm that does not rely on manual ignition, the firecracker, that is, the musket, has the real possibility of crushing and replacing the bow and arrow on the battlefield!
Soon, officials from the Fire Gun Bureau had someone carry the huge wooden rake over, and Jia Lian personally came forward to inspect it.
The power is very good, and the small and heavy lead bullet has already penetrated three-thirds of the wood. This effect is extremely likely to be fatal even if it hits a soldier wearing ordinary armor.
After re-testing a few rounds and confirming that there was no danger of the gun exploding, Wu Youquan and others asked Jia Lian to test-fire in person.
After some experiments, Jia Lian found that the reason for the failure of the launch was that the flint contained in the rocket was sometimes not fired at all. If the gunpowder could not be ignited, the launch would naturally not be successful. Therefore, Jia Lian asked Wu Youquan to try to change the type of flint.
,Improve the launch mechanism.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Wu Youquan said: "But this kind of flint is the easiest to catch fire in the entire Shenji Camp I have found."
Jia Lian thought for a while and said, "Let's do this. I'll ask someone to go to the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War later to see if they can provide more flint for us to test."
When Wu Youquan heard this, he was surprised and thanked Jia Lian. This was the benefit of having support from above. If he had not had the ability, he would have asked people from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry to help.
At the end of the experiment, Jia Lian, looking at the people gathered around him, announced in public that he would reward Wu You with one hundred taels of silver as promised, and the officials and craftsmen who assisted him in the development also received rewards.
Seeing that because of Jia Lian's appreciation, even the officials began to congratulate and even compliment Wu Youquan. The other craftsmen were very jealous.
Jia Lian promptly announced that all craftsmen in the Shenji Camp who were interested in firearms could apply to work in the Firearms Camp. He also focused on retaining officials and craftsmen from the Artillery Bureau, promising that as long as they could also work on the existing basis,
, he made improvements to various types of artillery, and he was not stingy with praise and rewards.
As soon as these words came out, the people in the artillery bureau were in high spirits.
Especially the officials in charge of the artillery bureau, they knew that since Jia Lian took office as deputy commander, he had made a special trip to the imperial court to apply for special funds in order to improve the development of firearms.
Shenjiying was originally a deserted yamen with little oil and water, but now that Jia Lian is here, there are many people who want to fawn over and reap benefits.
Seeing them like this, Jia Lian smiled and made suggestions, asking them to work more on "flowering bombs".
Explosive bullets are a breakthrough attempt compared to solid bullets that only rely on powerful impact to cause damage after being fired.
It is a cannonball that loads gunpowder into an iron shell, ignites it with a fuse, and explodes the iron shell after landing, causing damage with shrapnel.
This kind of artillery shell existed in the previous dynasty. Of course, it was very crude and had many drawbacks and shortcomings. It was basically abandoned in both the previous dynasty and this dynasty.
Jia Lian naturally knew that the truth was only within the range of the cannon, and a cannon whose shells could fall to the ground and explode was a cannon in the true sense!
However, Jia Lian knew that the transformation of cannons would definitely be much slower than that of fire cannons.
But he is not afraid. When the transformation of cannons is effective, he will have to consider instigating the emperor to establish a new navy.
After inquiring and analyzing, Jia Lian has determined that now is the period when the Age of Discovery is emerging!
Building a powerful naval fleet and competing with the Western powers for the right to speak in the Age of Discovery is the biggest goal set by Jia Lian at the moment.
Regarding this point, he is quite confident. Because, through his research, he found that the weapons and equipment of the West should be more advanced than those of the Wei Dynasty, but they are limited.
Therefore, there is still plenty of time left for him.
Another important point is that the current navy of the Wei Dynasty is exactly the team built by the Rongguo Mansion.
After Taizu established his country, he also built a navy to combat water pirates and pirates.
To build a navy, warships were naturally needed. At that time, it was Rong Guogong who was responsible for supervising the construction of warships and building naval bases for the navy.
(In the original work, when Jia Lian’s nanny Zhao talked about Taizu’s southern tour, she mentioned that when she first remembered, Jia’s family was in the Suyang area, “supervising the construction of sea boats and repairing seawalls”, and it was extended accordingly.)
It can be said that the foundation of the Wei navy was laid by Rong Guogong.
As the grandson of Duke Rong, it is naturally easier for him to intervene in the navy's affairs than others.
But no matter what, this matter still has a long way to go.
When he returned home, Jia Yunhou was waiting for him at the gate of Dongkuayuan.
Jia Yun was a rare descendant of the Jia family who received Jia Lian's attention. Jia Lian initially asked him to work as an errand boy in the Military and Horse Department, which was equivalent to his working secretary.
There is no way, although this guy is clever, he is not good at writing or martial arts, so he can only do some common things.
Later, when the scholar-gong, no, now it should be said that everyone is a minister, after Gu Danfeng, the third son of the Gu family, took up the post of "master" in the Army and Horses Division, Jia Yun's role in the Army and Horses Division became smaller, and then Jia Lian recalled Jia Yun to help
He assists in family affairs.
Now more than a year has passed, and the young boy he was back then is now barely mature.
It happened that this year Jia Lian had the idea of starting a business, so he thought of letting this guy try it.
Firstly, this boy is young and energetic, and secondly, compared with Sun Zairen, the shopkeeper of Juxian Tower, he is a descendant of the Jia family and is responsible for managing the property under the Jia family's name, so it seems reasonable.
"Second uncle, the matter of the grain store has been settled, and the He family finally agreed to sell their He's grain store, including tens of thousands of stones of grain in stock, to us for a price of thirty thousand taels." As soon as we met.
, Jia Yun stepped forward to help Jia Lian, and said with a cheerful smile.
Although Jia Lian didn't like his flattering appearance very much, he also knew that everyone has his own way of survival. At least this kid had a very upright mind. In this way, his tact can be said to be his advantage.
"Thirty thousand taels, the price is a bit low. But you used your status as the Jia family to threaten you?"
Since returning from the Xue family's night party, Jia Lian has asked people to start expanding the scale of Juxian Tower, building a winery, and setting up a grain store.
The first two things needed to be done slowly, but when it came to setting up a grain store, Jia Lian decided to take Baochai's suggestion and buy the entire grain store, no matter how big or small, which would save him time and effort.
This He's Food Store was the best option given to him by the people below after inquiring about it.
Jia Yun knew that Jia Lian was usually easy to talk to, but when it came to serious matters, he was as strict as running an army, so when he heard this, he quickly explained: "Second uncle is unjust, how dare we.
Originally, we went to find them after we found out that the He family had problems with their cash flow.
The scale of their grain store is not that big to begin with, and their business is not as good as the other big ones in Beijing. It was only because we came to them that they dared to ask for such a high price.
Later, seeing that we were not easy to fool, we slowly relented. Of course, this was also thanks to the help of the two shopkeepers from the Xue family. Otherwise, we would not have known the secrets, and we would have easily suffered a loss.
But the He family has said that the 30,000 taels of silver must be paid in cash in one go, and then they will assist us in all handover management."
When Jia Lian heard this, he said directly: "Promise them."
As far as Jia Lian is concerned, he is neither short of cash flow nor afraid of the He family daring to cheat, so he naturally does not need to think as much as ordinary businessmen.
Jia Yun also felt that there was no problem, and then asked Jia Lian: "When a new grain store is established, it must have a name. Should it be named directly after the family like other companies, and be called 'Jia's Grain Store'?"
Jia Lian thought for a moment and shook his head.
Although the imperial dynasty did not prohibit nobles from doing business, the vast majority of nobles maintained their own status and would not participate in business, at least not personally.
Therefore, there is no need for them to let the grain store walk around under the name of "Jia". It seems too arrogant, unfair to other businessmen, and a bit bullying.
"Let's call it 'Huifeng Grain Store'. There is plenty in the world, so we gather it together to benefit people's livelihood."
Jia Lian casually picked up a name, and Jia Yun immediately shouted: "Okay, Second Uncle is a great name. It sounds easy to listen to and has a good meaning. Later, we will have people make this sentence of Second Uncle into a plaque."
, use it as the signboard of our food store!"
Jia Lian didn't even bother to look at this toady again, and turned around to walk home. After thinking about it, he backed out and headed towards Ningguo Mansion.