The two of them followed His Highness out of the Yamen and came to the north of Bao Shipyard.
To the north is a large alfalfa field, with a large area enclosed by a fence in the middle.
"This is the place where the Governor's Mansion grows feed, and I am temporarily borrowing it." His Highness smiled and said, "Guess what it is used for?"
The two of them rolled their eyes secretly. From a distance, they heard roaring from inside, which must have been used for sex.
"Yes, this is my king's artillery range!" Lao Liu pointed to the temporary wooden gate and said proudly: "My father has allocated all the cannon-casting craftsmen in the Inner Court Arms and Staff Department to me! Now here is
It’s the Firearms Bureau of the Municipal Shipping Department!”
"That's it! The Emperor really supports His Highness very much!"
"Although the cannon-casting experts in Ouchi have been transferred to the Municipal Shipping Department." Yu Tongyuan and others were very excited. They all knew that the cannons produced by Ouchi were of the best quality.
In fact, the method of casting cannons is the same, but the closer the department is to Boss Zhu, the higher the production quality. Because if something goes wrong, he really kills people.
~~
The firearms bureau was guarded by Zhu Zhen's Chu King's army, and his uncle Hu Quan personally served as the director, which shows the importance His Highness the Chu King attached to it.
Artillery came out in the Southern Song Dynasty, developed in the Yuan Dynasty, and reached its first small peak in the troubled times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan army and the peasant army had widely used artillery when sieging cities. Zhu Yuanzhang used forty artillery pieces when he besieged Suzhou.
Moreover, in the Poyang Lake water battle, Zhu Yuanzhang creatively moved artillery onto the ship, causing considerable losses and great shock to Chen Youliang's invincible fleet.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the development of artillery, regarded firearms as secrets, and did not allow the proliferation of firearm technology.
However, the chaotic times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty were too short-lived, and the main enemies of the unified Ming Dynasty became bandits on the grasslands. No general dared to carry such heavy artillery deep into the grasslands. That way, he would not have to wait for the Mongols to attack, and the nightmare logistics would delay them first.
Defeat the Ming army.
The artillery that suddenly lost its demand became as unloved as the former favorite concubine who was relegated to the cold palace, otherwise Boss Zhu would not easily agree to Lao Liu's request.
Fortunately, cannon casting was stopped just a few years ago, and the craftsmen are still there...
Zhu Zhen summoned more than a hundred gunsmiths from the Firearms Bureau and gave them loving encouragement to comfort their neglected souls. He also promised double wages and generous performance, which really made the gunsmiths excited again!
"However, my wages are not that easy to get. You have to complete the task with high quality!" Zhu Zhen changed the subject and said loudly: "So you have to ask yourselves first, how can you cast cannons after wasting all these years?
Have you lost your skills?"
"No!" The craftsmen said in unison without hesitation: "Your Highness, don't worry, the craftsmanship has not fallen behind at all!"
"Oh? So confident?" Zhu Zhen couldn't help laughing.
"Back to Your Highness." Chief gunsmith Luo Xiang explained loudly: "Although we have not cast cannons in recent years, we have been casting bells. Bronze bells are also cast with mud film, which is exactly the same as the cannon casting technology. The two can be seamlessly switched.
of."
"Why are you roaring so loudly?" His Highness the King of Chu was so shocked that his ears rang.
"The villain was almost deafened when he tried the cannon..." Luo Xiang explained hurriedly and fearfully.
"That's it. What you just said were bronze bells and cannons, right?" Zhu Zhen asked again: "What about the iron cannons?"
"Back to Your Highness," Luo Xiang explained: "Pig iron is brittle and will cause great damage if the chamber is exploded; copper cannons will not hurt anyone even if the chamber is exploded. Moreover, copper cannons have fewer defects when cast, have high precision, are easy to make thin, and are much lighter in weight.
So our Arms and Staff Bureau only makes bronze cannons, and the iron cannons are left to the inferior craftsmen of the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry."
When he said the last sentence, all the gunsmiths looked proud, as if they were very proud of their status as royal craftsmen.
"I understand. Bronze cannons have many advantages over iron cannons." Zhu Zhen nodded and asked: "But bronze cannons are also much more expensive than iron cannons, right?"
"That's..." The gunsmiths suddenly lost their arrogance.
The country was severely short of copper, and Boss Zhu had to print banknotes to replace copper coins. How could there be any spare copper to make cannons for them? So now the Ming army uses iron cannons cast by the Ministry of Industry.
"As for iron cannons, we generally know how to make them," Luo Xiang panicked, fearing that His Highness would lose interest in making cannons. He quickly put down his arrogance and said, "We can also learn, and we can also make them."
"Yeah, I don't have any skills." The craftsmen also agreed.
It’s not that they have a special liking for cannon casting. It’s that there is too little demand for a niche product like copper bells. Moreover, it is a super durable product. A bell cast in a temple can last for hundreds of years. The craftsmen have too little work to open the pot!
"Who do you think I am? Can I use inferior goods?" Zhu Zhen waved his hand and said in a rough voice: "If you want to make it, let's make the best one! Isn't it just copper? If you have money, you still have to worry.
No copper!"
"Yes, yes, we are too short-sighted and dare to underestimate His Highness's financial resources!" Luo Xiang and others quickly admitted their mistake happily.
"What your Highness means is that using money to buy copper does not mean melting money into copper. Don't think nonsense, let alone talk nonsense." Teacher Luo on the side reminded me in a deep voice.
Because the imperial court strictly prohibits the melting of copper coins, talking nonsense will cause trouble for His Highness. Although His Highness already has a lot of lice, he will not bite them.
Teacher Luo did give Lao Liu a heads up and whispered to him: "Change the donation task of Suzhou's big households from copper coins to copper ingots."
As for how the wealthy households obtain copper ingots, it has nothing to do with His Highness.
"Yes..." The corner of Luo Guanzhong's mouth twitched, and he felt a little sympathetic to those big dog owners. This sixth man is really good at pulling wool, and he did it repeatedly, until he was bald...
~~
After meeting with the craftsmen and visiting the simple gun-casting workshop, Zhu Zhen and his party went to the largest gun-testing ground.
More than a dozen cast bronze cannons have been placed. The sound of the cannons that Yu Tongyuan and others heard before were made by Luo Xiang and his colleagues during the final debugging.
Zhu Zhen saw at a glance that these bronze cannons can be roughly divided into two types. One type has a thick and short body with a muzzle like a sea bowl. Luo Xiang introduced that this is called a 'bowl mouth cannon'.
The other type has a long and slender cannon body with a muzzle like a tea cup, which is called a "zhankou cannon".
Luo Xiang asked His Highness to retreat to a safe distance and ordered people to demonstrate the two types of artillery respectively. Amidst the thunderous roar, the characteristics of the two types of artillery were clearly displayed in front of His Highness King Chu.
The ballistic trajectory of the bowl-mouthed cannon is curved, so it uses a projectile similar to that of a mortar, and it can fire large-caliber shells. It is a powerful siege weapon.
The cannon's shells are small and have straight trajectories, so they can be fired flatly, making them more suitable for field battles.
As for the power, everyone knows the unspoken rules of the artillery field. The special effects will definitely be full and the audience will enjoy it...
After the demonstration, Luo Xiang politely asked His Highness, "Any other instructions?"
"Shoot the bowl-mouth cannon horizontally and see." His Highness really had instructions.
"If you shoot horizontally, the range is not good enough..." Luo Xiang said sarcastically.
"Shoot." King Chu said calmly.
"Yes." Luo Xiang had no choice but to order the cannon to be flattened and fired one cannon. The effective range was less than a hundred feet.
The King of Chu ordered the wooden board used as a target to be moved to a distance of fifty feet, so that the cannon could hit it accurately only when fired flatly. However, the power was so shocking that the wooden board was shattered with one shot.
"That's it!" Yu Tongyuan and Yu Tongyuan, who had always been expressionless, finally showed signs of joy.
