If you are not completely sure whether it will work or not, piloting it first is a good idea.
The pilot failed and the losses suffered were limited.
The pilot was successful and expanded from point to point.
Different eras, different backgrounds, different conditions, Gu Zhengchen can be considered as crossing the river by feeling the stones. After all, the meat consumption market in Ming Dynasty is limited. Whether it can accommodate an industry with hundreds of pigs, thousands of pigs or even tens of thousands of pigs is a huge problem.
Although Jurong is close to Jinling, there are local farmers in Jinling. To put it bluntly, Lao Zhu is a big pig farmer, because the palace needs meat, and the Ming Dynasty did not have refrigerators or large icehouses. He wanted the royal family's pigs. If people can eat fresh meat, they can only feed it.
Regardless of whether it is purchased from outside or raised by Taichang Temple itself, in short, there cannot be less pigs. Not to mention how much pork is eaten, it is a sacrifice. How can it be done without pork? Besides, there were so many sacrifices in the Ming Dynasty that some ministers did not have to go to the streets to buy meat. After the sacrifice, the emperor divided the sacrificed pork, and some officials received more than ten or twenty kilograms of meat.
Take Liu Ji for example. This guy did not participate in the sacrifice and even received the pork from the sacrifice. As a result, he was scolded by Lao Zhu.
How to seize the Jinling pork market is something that will happen later. What Gu Zhengchen has to consider now is to get the people of Southern Zhou to accept and participate in the breeding, and to build Southern Zhou into a pilot village. With the abundance of three meals a day, Come set the benchmark!
The matter of persuading the people was left to the district chiefs and old people of Southern Zhou. As for whether they could convince everyone, it was not important. What was important was that they communicated first and reported back the people's problems and difficulties.
Jurong Guard Camp.
A wooden tower was built on Minghe Mountain. It is not appropriate to call it a tower, it is more like a long square.
After receiving the news from the craftsman, Xie Afo, the smelting director, walked to Hua Xiaoshun and reported: "The lead has been melted into water. Do you want to start manufacturing?"
Hua Xiaoshun straightened up and solemnly said: "Let's get started."
"start!"
Xie Afo shouted at the top of his lungs.
Several craftsmen got busy, pushing or pulling with iron hooks, tilting the boiler slightly forward, and the smelting lead water began to flow out of the slot, slowly flowing down the paved channel, and the liquid entered the tower. When it reaches the top, it enters a cavity, and the liquid begins to accumulate. After filling the cavity, it begins to flow toward the surrounding branches. These branches are like wooden branches, leaning to the side.
When the liquid enters the bottom of the branch, it slowly rotates along the curve, and finally enters a hole that is slightly smaller than a soybean. Because of the slow flow rate, when the liquid reaches this point, it can form beads.
The liquid condensed into beads began to drip, forming a circle in mid-air under gravity.
Plop.
The lead liquid fell into the bottom pond, and a plume of white smoke suddenly appeared, and then settled on the smooth stones at the bottom of the pond.
Shen Ming'er looked at the lead beads dripping like raindrops. He raised his head and followed the tower to the mountains. He felt that it was very spectacular.
For this tower, the craftsmen put a lot of effort into it. Some craftsmen suggested that towers were not needed for suspended dripping, but the Smelting Department and the Manufacturing Department agreed that in the future, the production of lead bullets would probably need to be carried out every day in order to accumulate a large amount of lead bullets.
Without a tower, it would naturally not be able to adapt to rainy, snowy, windy and other weather conditions. In winter, it was also necessary to consider increasing the temperature to ensure the flow of liquids, which was inseparable from the tower. This is why craftsmen were used to build the tower.
Xu Azhu stood by the pond and carefully stretched out his hand to test the temperature. Seeing that the temperature was not very high, he shook his head at the craftsman who was about to add cold water.
After half an hour, there were no more lead beads dripping from the tower, and Hua Xiaoshun ordered his men to ring the bell on the top of the mountain.
The bell sounded.
Shen Ming'er waved his hand, and Xu Azhu led the craftsmen to pick up the nets and surround the pond. Some craftsmen even went directly into the pond to fish out the lead beads that had sunk to the bottom of the pond.
Xu Azhu quickly handed the lead beads from the net to Shen Minger.
Shen Ming'er stretched out his hand and grabbed a handful of beads. Looking at the round lead beads, a smile appeared on his face: "It's done!"
"It's done!"
Xu Azhu was very excited.
Shen Ming'er squeezed the lead beads and led Xu Azhu and others to find Tao Chengdao and Liu Ju. After the two checked, they wrote down the document and signed it, and then sent someone to Zhao Hailou, who sent someone to inform Gu Zhengchen. .
Gu Zhengchen was still contemplating the development path of Jurong and drawing a blueprint for Jurong. When he heard that the Yuanhuo Bureau had made progress, he put down what he was doing and rode there with Zhang Pei.
The lead beads have been manufactured, let's conduct another firecracker test.
Granular gunpowder, lead bullets, muskets, and fifty-foot targets.
In the first round of testing, twenty lead bullets were fired, fourteen penetrated and six missed the target.
Second round of testing…
This time, the test was conducted for a full fifty rounds, and the results were quite satisfactory.
Tao Chengdao pointed to the test result document and said happily: "In this way, it is easy to penetrate the cavalry leather armor within fifty steps. Fifty attempts, as long as it is hit, there will be no penetration."
"With granular gunpowder and lead bullets, the killing distance of firecrackers has been greatly increased."
Liu Ju sighed.
Shen Ming Er repeatedly agreed: "In this way, the threat of fire blunderbuss to the cavalry..."
"Threat, there is no threat to the cavalry."
Gu Zhengchen interrupted Shen Minger's words and said seriously: "Test a hundred-step target."
"One hundred steps?"
Liu Ju, Tao Chengdao and others were surprised.
This is no small span.
Gu Zhengchen looked at everyone and said seriously: "I have said that the purpose of the Far Fire Bureau is to serve the war and seek to defeat the cavalry with foot. There is no threat to the cavalry at a distance of fifty steps. The cavalry can run at a high speed. How fast, you should know that at such a distance, the Fire Gun Soldiers only have one chance to take action!"
"In order for the fire gun soldiers to cause continuous damage, pose a threat to the cavalry, and stifle the cavalry's momentum, they need to kill them within a hundred steps at least. Only in this way can the fire gun soldiers have a second chance to take action. .”
What is the concept of fifty steps?
For a war horse running at high speed, fifty steps may only take three or four breaths. Using later generations of units, it only takes seven to twelve seconds!
In such a short period of time, it is impossible for the fire gun soldiers to complete the preparations for recharging gunpowder and lead bullets to attack again.
Killing in a hundred steps is the most basic threshold that must be crossed for the improvement of firearms.
If you can't make it, you have failed.
The hundred-step target test was quickly prepared, but the results were not very satisfactory.
Although the 100-step target also has the performance of piercing leather armor, in twenty rounds of testing, armor penetration only occurred three times, and the number of lead bullets that can penetrate armor is very limited, with no more than three lead bullets.
"It's not feasible to penetrate armor with a hundred steps."
Cui Yu was a little frustrated.
Tao Chengdao shook his head slightly, inspiring everyone's confidence: "These tests just prove that it is feasible to penetrate armor with a hundred steps, but it is still a little short of it. It only needs to be improved in some places, and it will be successful!"
Gu Zhengchen looked at Tao Chengdao, his original serious expression turned away, replaced by a soft smile: "It has been less than three months since the Yuanhuo Bureau has officially been in operation, and you have already achieved such amazing results. Before that, who would have thought A firegun can pierce armor with a hundred steps, right? Although the current progress is still far from the target, you have made amazing progress to greatly increase the power of firearms."
"As Manager Tao said, this test proves that it is feasible to penetrate armor with a hundred steps. As long as we continue to optimize gunpowder and improve firearms, we will definitely be able to penetrate armor with a hundred steps! A hundred steps of armor penetration is nothing. In the future, you will still be able to penetrate armor with a hundred steps." We will build a 150-step armor-piercing firearm! Use your wisdom to test and improve every link and detail, and don’t be afraid of failure!"
Confidence and belief are important.
It is impossible for Gu Zhengchen to punish the craftsmen to the extreme for not meeting expectations. The road to success is never straight, but tortuous, winding, and spiraling. If you encounter a little setback or a turn, it is no big deal.
The progress of the craftsmen is obvious. Their experimental thinking has made great progress, and they have even begun to explore for the optimal solution, thinking and analyzing the mechanism of gunpowder.
Cultivating the team and training craftsmen is as important as achieving breakthrough results.
There is nothing easy to manage in Jurongwei, but Gu Zhengchen made a request. If he wants to be a hundred households, he must be literate and able to write.
This rule, Zhao Hailou, Wang Liang and others, can say that they learned a little bit from the scribes in Jinling, but for those sergeants who are eager to climb up, as well as the thousands of households now, it is simply a life-threatening rule.
But there is no way, if you are not literate, you will not be able to read military books. If you don't read military books, it will be difficult for you to grow into an outstanding general. Geniuses like Chang Yuchun who are illiterate and can win battles are very rare.
The sergeants of the Jurong Guard are very hard-working. They train during the day and almost lose half their lives. They can't do it unless they train hard. If they lose in the competition, it's okay to be embarrassed once, but if they are embarrassed many times, no matter how thick-skinned they are, they can't bear it.
Now, when I am exhausted, I still have to sit in the classroom, look at the words on a huge blackboard, and then follow the scribe to read word by word.
Gu Zhengchen didn't care about the sergeants' hard work, which couldn't kill them, but without culture, knowledge, brains, and lack of coordination and organization, it might kill them on the battlefield.
County governance is the big task at hand.
Gu Zhengchen returned to the county government and continued to plan a way out of poverty in Jurong.
Breeding is an idea, as is melons and fruits, but Gu Zhengchen is not sure whether melons and fruits can increase the income of the people.
Farmers can send live pigs, live chickens, etc. to Jinling. As long as they don't starve to death, they can always be sold after three to five days. But melons and fruits are different. It is impossible to send this thing to Jinling with the tree. If it cannot be sold in a short period of time, it will probably spoil.
After careful consideration, Gu Zhengchen still did not add fruits that were too seasonal, and finally added a third item in addition to agriculture and breeding:
The collection and planting industry focuses on the collection and planting of medicinal materials.
Jurong itself has a lot of medicinal materials, but many medicinal materials have not been picked out in the mountains. In addition, the quantity is small and idle, so the value is often low and the value is not shown.
The geographical environment and climatic conditions here are suitable for planting honeysuckle, peony, astragalus, skullcap, cnidium, dangshen and other medicinal herbs, especially honeysuckle, which can be harvested three or four times a year. As an industry, it may be a way out.
