As a time traveler, Zhu Youjian knew very well that the power of firearms was far beyond what cold weapons could match.
It is only a matter of time before firearms completely replace cold weapons.
As the artillery of the king of land warfare, if you want to get this title, you must develop iron cannons!
But in addition to knowing that artillery will be very powerful and have a long range in the future, Zhu Youjian
Apart from the fact that the barrels of future main artillery are all made of iron, I don’t know anything else about them.
This led to the fact that although Zhu Youjian had vigorously developed artillery in recent years, the Ming Dynasty's artillery production technology had also developed accordingly, and he had trained a large number of cannon casting craftsmen for the Ming Dynasty.
But in fact, the progress of Ming Dynasty's artillery research was not fast.
Nowadays, bronze cannons account for 90% of the new artillery built in the Ming Dynasty, while iron cannons account for less than 10%.
It's not that those craftsmen don't want to make iron cannons, it's actually that they have no choice.
Because of material and technology issues, in order for the power of iron cannons to reach that of copper cannons, the barrel must be thickened.
But the result of this is that the iron cannon is heavier and easier to explode.
In this regard, Zhu Youjian, who had already returned mathematics, physics and chemistry to his teacher, could only throw away the money.
But now that we have artillery experts, we can probably save a lot of money (bad smile(›´ω`‹)).
"Your Majesty, based on the intelligence we have in front of us, we feel that the reason why the iron cannon exploded is due to the following reasons.
one. In this era, the understanding of our elements is still in its infancy. There is little understanding of the effect of various elements on steel.
Therefore, in steel smelting, no one realizes the impact of various rare metal elements on the properties of steel. No one knows how bad effects elements such as sulfur and phosphorus have on the properties of steel. Especially in Daming, a country where iron ore contains high levels of sulfur and phosphorus, the high sulfur and phosphorus content makes steel very brittle.
Second, in this era, steel was mostly cast in sand molds, resulting in a lot of pores, trachoma, etc. inside the cast steel. This greatly reduces the toughness of the steel cannon
Three: temperature
Four..."
“The measures we recommend for this are: 1. Improve iron-making methods and reduce the sulfur and phosphorus content in iron.
2. Use iron molds (i.e. iron molds) to cast iron cannons. 3.,,,,. ""
"Iron mold casting, how to fix it?" Zhu Youjian asked curiously.
“(1) First, according to the size of the iron cannon, divide it into 4-7 sections to make a clay cannon.
(2) Make iron mold clay molds according to the number of clay cannon sections. Each clay mold section is divided into two parts. Use a lathe to spin the inner surface to make the surface smooth and regular in shape, and then dry it for later use. A prefabricated handle is placed in the clay mold and is integrated with the iron mold during pouring.
(3) When turning a clay mold into an iron mold, first place the muzzle section upside down on a clay flat plate, fill one of the sections with mud, dry it, cover it with a clay flat plate, tighten the mold, and then pour it. Get a piece of the first section of the iron mold.
Then remove the filling mud and cast another iron mold in the same way. By pouring section by section in this way, a complete set of iron molds can be cast layer by layer.
(4) When using an iron mold to cast an iron cannon, first apply a paint made of fine rice husk ash and fine sand mud mixed with water on the inner surface of the mold, then apply a second layer of paint prepared from very fine coal powder, and then hoop it. Tighten the iron mold, heat it, assemble the clay core, and pour molten iron.
After solidification, immediately take off the iron mold. While the gun body is still red hot, remove the burrs and mud core to obtain the finished product. "
The characteristic of iron molds is that they can be cast in multiple molds, with low cost and less working hours. "One labor is charged for hundreds of labors," and "the savings in craftsmanship are useless";
Reduce the workload of surface cleaning and boring and milling of the inner bore; the mold contains no moisture, has fewer pores, can be stored after use, and is easy to maintain. If there is an emergency in wartime, it can be quickly put into production to meet urgent needs. "
"Okay, this is a good idea. This is a token. With this token, you can mobilize all the manpower and material resources of the Capital Firearms Bureau. You must cast qualified iron cannons as soon as possible."
With the development of the Ming Dynasty, the demand for artillery continued to increase.
Copper has better ductility than iron, the casting process is simpler, the tensile strength is good, and it is not easy to explode, but copper is expensive!
Every bronze cannon means a lot of money.
Moreover, copper is also a commonly used metal for casting currency.
There were not many copper mines in the Ming Dynasty, and there was not enough money to cast them, let alone artillery. Imperial officials have long been dissatisfied with this.
If it weren't for the fact that the naval court had gained enough benefits from the ocean in recent years, and that Zhu Youjian dismissed many officials who suggested reducing artillery, Zhu Youjian would have been annoyed to death by these people.
"I obey your Majesty's orders."
"Okay, go on."
"Come here, send someone to check secretly. If you find out who caused trouble on purpose, report it to me immediately."
Since Zhu Youjian ascended the throne, although the Ming Dynasty has become more powerful.
But this is achieved by stepping on the bodies of those with vested interests.
As representatives of vested interests, the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, although they dared not express their anger towards Zhu Youjian, they were still able to make small moves behind the scenes within the rules.
For example, Zhu You inspected the Firearms Bureau in Beijing and needed 10,000 kilograms of coal. Although the Ministry of Household Affairs did not dare to be short of a kilogram or shoddy goods, it still managed to delay it for a few days.
A few days of support for this, a few days of support for that, in the end it seriously affected the progress of the court.
The issue of iron cannons is related to the fate of the country.
For every extra day of delay, the court would spend more money on copper-cast cannons.
If it were before, Zhu Youjian wouldn't have cared about it, but as immigration further accelerated, the court's expenditures increased.
Zhu Youjian has also thought of many ways to raise money, and has also tested his ideas in different places, but except for the national debt method, the other methods have little effect.
National debt is a creditor-debt relationship formed by a country raising funds from society based on its credit and in accordance with the general principles of bonds.
Because Zhu Youjian's reforms have touched the interests of many wealthy people,
This led to a big gap between the wealthy people of Ming Dynasty and Zhu Youjian.
Many people are afraid that the money they borrow will be like a meat bun beating a dog and will never be returned.
Although ordinary people support Zhu Youjian in their hearts, they have no money.
This resulted in the Ming Dynasty’s national debt being unable to be supported by national credit alone.
In order to ensure that he could borrow money, Zhu Youjian had to add a tax-free strategy as a guarantee!
That is to say, the court borrows money for a period of 10 years. After 10 years, the annual interest is 1%, and it will be paid back in one lump sum after 10 years.
If the court fails to repay it on time, the borrower will be tax-free tenfold.
(That is, 10 taels of silver are lent to the court. After 10 years, the court needs to return 11 taels of silver. If the court does not return it, the tax of 110 taels can be exempted.)
Because there is a tax guarantee, and the court has severely cracked down on illegal private lending in recent years, it has virtually helped the court alleviate the problem of the court's financial constraints.
