Outside the Nuan Pavilion on the east side of the central courtyard, the plum blossoms are in full bloom. In the Nuan Pavilion, Gao Cai, who was only in his fifties but had an early onset of brilliance, put down the manuscript in his hand and asked the young man in front of him: "Did you design these yourself?"
That young man was none other than Gao Pragmatic. Although he was under ten years old, he already looked like a young man because of his well-mannered manner.
"Exactly."
Gao Cai was amazed and asked: "What was the result of Qi Yuanjing's trial production?"
Gao pragmatically said: "Qi Zongrong is a military attache after all. Although he is also responsible for training soldiers, the resources that can be mobilized are still somewhat insufficient. Currently, manpower is still being mobilized for research, and few finished products have been released. However, he has already made improvements to gunpowder. According to him, after making it into the small granular form that his nephew mentioned, the efficiency has indeed improved a lot, and although the manufacturing process is a bit more complicated, it only costs some labor and the increase in cost is minimal. He said this Very satisfied.”
Gao Cai was overjoyed and said: "Gunpowder is the foundation of firearms. Since your particles of gunpowder can increase the power of gunpowder, it is indeed great news... Is the manufacturing method what you wrote in this manuscript? If so, I will also do it here. It can be made in small quantities and tested.”
Gao pragmatic smiled and said yes.
Gao Cai was happy for a while and then asked: "What about the idea of setting the charge in the paper shell? What does Qi Yuanjing say?"
Gao pragmatically said: "Qi Zongrong likes this one very much and says it is the most useful for those new recruits."
Gao Cai laughed and said: "Your method is good, but there is also a problem."
"Oh?" Gao Pingshi was a little surprised and asked, "Please give me some advice from my fifth uncle."
"Kraft paper is too expensive. If a large army fights, with your approach, the cost of winning a small battle will be thousands of taels of silver. It is too extravagant." Gao Cai said: "And it's not too big. One thing is, if it rains, what will happen to the kraft paper? You have to make it into oil paper first, soak it in tung oil, and then dry it... This cost is even more expensive."
Gao Jingshi originally didn't think that his fifth uncle, who had no great achievements in history, had any unique insights, but after hearing his words, Gao Jingshi realized that he might have underestimated the ancients.
Spending an extra thousand taels of silver on a small battle may not seem like a big deal, but when you add up, the burden may not be small for a country like Ming Dynasty, where war hardly lasts a day. What's more, Gao Cai also pointed out the biggest trouble with paper-shell fixed charges: waterproofing.
The Chinese are more proficient in waterproofing than Westerners at this time, mainly because China is rich in tung oil - this stuff has been one of China's top export products for a long time. But tung oil, even though China is said to be "rich", is oil after all, and it is not much cheaper. If the paper shells for custom-made medicines need to be soaked and dried in tung oil, the cost will be lost. .
The Ming Dynasty was poor—no, the Ming Dynasty was poor! How can the current imperial court afford this kind of prodigal game? If it was just the Qi Jiajun who did this, there might be a squeeze financially. After all, the Qi Jiajun had always spent money, and Zhang Juzheng was used to it. He would help Qi Jiguang get the money.
However, if only the Qi family can afford it, then the effect of this thing will not meet high pragmatic expectations.
"What Wu Bo said makes sense." Gao Pragmatic frowned and thought hard: "But how to solve it? Do we want to reduce the production cost of kraft paper? I am not very good at papermaking..."
Gao Cai laughed and said: "Don't just think about using paper. Although paper is easy to tear, it can only be used once, which is not economical. If you want to save, you must make it usable for a long time."
"Recycling?" Gao Pragmatic's eyes lit up: "This idea is good, but how to do it?"
Gao Cai smiled and said, "I have two options."
Gao pragmatic was surprised and asked quickly: "Which two methods?" He really didn't expect that this fifth uncle could not only ask questions, but also solve them. How powerful was he?
"To put it bluntly, it's actually very simple." Gao Cai said: "The first way is to use bamboo joints. Bamboo joints are hollow. We can first purchase some bamboo joints of suitable size and place the gunpowder needed for a launch inside the bamboo joints. As for the opening, Whether to use cork stoppers or screw-top stoppers, that’s a minor issue.”
He stretched out his hand and gestured, and continued: "This bamboo joint is not only waterproof, but the small and air-dried bamboo joints are also very light. They can be used to make special belts for soldiers. They can insert gunpowder into the belts one by one and buckle them for war." When the time comes, shoot one section at a time.”
"What a good idea!" Gao Pingshi praised: "This is a really good idea, Uncle Wu. My nephew will write to Mr. Qi when he gets back later and ask him to test it to see the effect."
Gao Cai smiled and said: "If there are few bamboo forests in the local area, it doesn't matter. You can use wooden ones. You can use local materials. We have carpenters all over the world in the Ming Dynasty. Making such small wooden bottles is like an apprenticeship." It’s not a problem.”
This is true. Chinese carpenters have always been great. Zheng He's treasure ship was so huge that it didn't even need a screw. It was solved by the carpenters' superb mortise and tenon technology. It is simply amazing to future generations. In this era where carpenters are everywhere, making small wooden bottles is as easy as drinking water.
Gao Pingshi clapped his hands and smiled and said: "Great, I will send a letter to Mr. Qi for these two methods and ask him to test them."
Gao Cai nodded and suddenly said curiously: "Pragmatically, I have seen your intelligence, Uncle Wu, but there is one thing I don't understand. You seem to be much more interested in firecrackers than artillery. Why is this?" Ordinary people prefer artillery, after all, artillery is more powerful."
After hearing this, Gao Pragmatic couldn't help but smile bitterly and thought to himself: How can I explain it? Tell you, given the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, the development of heavy artillery such as the red cannon is completely crazy?
Gao Pragmatic's consistent point of view is: after the mid-Ming Dynasty, the development path of China's firearms was quite correct. It can be said that it was based on its own needs and making great strides forward along a path with its own characteristics. Mainly reflected in the vigorous development of bomb-type firearms, muskets, light artillery-type firearms, and rocket-type firearms. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, especially after the Apocalypse, the dazzling power of the introduced Hongyi cannons deeply impressed the monarchs and ministers. As a result, the focus of the research and development of firearms by the court and many officials and generals began to tilt too much in the direction of heavy artillery. Especially after Yuan Chonghuan advocated "defense the city with cannons", the imperial court invested most of its funds, manpower and material resources into the research and development and manufacturing of heavy artillery.
As long as the government has sufficient financial resources, there is nothing that cannot be fought. After all, the development of heavy artillery is a matter of time. It is not a bad thing to start earlier. Even Gao Pragmatic decided that if he can preside over the reform in the future and achieve success , we must also vigorously develop heavy artillery.
However, the terrible thing is that the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty were extremely tight at that time. Once too much effort was invested in artillery, it would obviously be unable to develop other firearms.
Therefore, during the more than 20 years from Tianqi to Chongzhen, the development of other light firearms basically came to a standstill. Just as Bi Maokang has explained the manufacturing method of flintlock muskets in "Illustrated Weapons", if flintlock muskets can be manufactured in large quantities and equipped with troops, just like the Folang machine was manufactured during the Jiajing period, and then continuously improved, the Ming army will be able to rapidly improve A good opportunity for combat effectiveness.
But the problem was that at that time, the imperial court had already invested most of its funds in weapons manufacturing, so where could other money come from? Yuan Chonghuan had many problems, and one of them was that he deviated from the correct approach to the development of Daming firearms.
But, how can Gao Wuchen explain it to Gao Cai now?
