Whether it is a gunpowder problem or a technical problem, we always need to find out. Otherwise, once it misfires on the battlefield, the Shenji Battalion will be finished, and the three major battalions will also have loopholes.
Zhu Yunwen and the sergeant of the Shenji Battalion went to the other courtyard and arranged for someone to set up a fifty-step shooting range. He first ordered the sergeant of the Shenji Battalion to use the gunpowder he brought to fill the blunderbuss, bang bang ten blunderbuss.
Zhu Yunwen walked to the shooting range to investigate. After Xu Huizu looked at it, he shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, although all ten guns hit the board, only five penetrated the board. In other words, only half of the ten guns can kill the enemy."
"Change the gunpowder and start over."
Zhu Yunwen stepped aside and ordered.
The sergeant filled the gunpowder again. This time the gunpowder was new gunpowder made by the Gunpowder Department. Gu Sanshen gave an order and the muskets were fired. There was a dull sound and Zhu Yunwen saw all the boards shaking.
Lu An ran to check and saw that there were holes in the wooden boards, so he reported: "Your Majesty, under ten blunderbuss, all the wooden boards were penetrated. There is no problem with the gunpowder."
Xu Huizu frowned and said, "Is it a matter of the Science and Technology Bureau preparing gunpowder?"
"Wei Guogong, I have been in the Science and Technology Bureau before, and the gunpowder distributed to the Shenji Camp is no different from the gunpowder currently in the Gunpowder Department."
Lu An assured.
Xu Huizu questioned: "There is no difference, why is there such a big gap? Could it be that the power of the gunpowder will be greatly reduced after being left for a few days?"
Lu An checked the gunpowder brought by Xu Huizu, shook his head and said: "The gunpowder has not been affected by moisture. Logically speaking, such a problem should not occur."
Zhu Yunwen reached out, grabbed a handful of gunpowder, dropped it from his palm, and said: "The problem is not the gunpowder, but the transportation. Didn't you notice? The gunpowder taken from the Shenji Camp has more gunpowder on the upper level. The top is made of charcoal ash, the middle is sulfur powder, and the bottom is saltpeter powder. When the sergeant filled it, although there was saltpeter and sulfur, the combination had changed."
The bumps along the way caused the gunpowder in the box to constantly shake. The denser ones sank and the less dense ones floated, causing problems with the proportions. This was the reason why the power of powdered gunpowder was weakened.
"Your Majesty, please mix it evenly before trying the fire gun!"
Xu Huizu requested.
Zhu Yunwen agreed.
Xu Huizu arranged for people to mix the gunpowder thoroughly, and then tried the fire blunderbuss, and the power was indeed increased.
"Your Majesty, the problem is solved!"
Xu Huizu said with a relaxed expression.
Zhu Yunwen shook his head and said seriously: "The problem has not been solved. We can't just shake it for a while before using gunpowder every time, right? The battlefield is changing rapidly. Will the enemy give us this time?"
Xu Huizu was a little embarrassed and said: "But Your Majesty, gunpowder must be transported. If there is transportation, this problem will always exist."
Zhu Yunwen grabbed a handful of gunpowder powder, turned to look at Lu An, smiled slightly, and said, "Can you make a face?"
"He, make noodles?"
Lu An was confused.
The waiter brought water over, Zhu Yun washed his hands, looked at the lake, and said: "There is always this problem in the transportation of powdered gunpowder, so instead of using powdered gunpowder, let's change it to granular gunpowder."
"Granular gunpowder? What is that?"
Lu An was an old man who had studied gunpowder for a long time, and he had never heard of granular gunpowder.
Xu Huizu was also a little confused. He understood Particles and Gunpowder, but he didn’t understand them both together...
Zhu Yunwen walked to the gunpowder workshop and ordered: "Send over the finely ground saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, and then call the instructor to watch together. Also, bring two buckets of cold and warm water."
Lu An didn't know what the emperor was going to do, so he glanced at Xu Huizu, who also expressed his ignorance, spread his hands and followed him.
Lu An arranged for people to prepare everything and send it to the gunpowder workshop in the east.
Zhu Yunwen held a blunderbuss, looked at the remaining gunpowder in the medicine room, and said to Lu An: "There are many problems with powdered gunpowder. Look, the gunpowder in this medicine room
The medicine was not fully used up. "
Lu An and Xu Huizu knew about this problem, so during training, the fire gunners not only needed to explore the dosage of the medicine room themselves, but also needed to spend time cleaning the medicine room after the shooting.
Zhu Yunwen looked at the sulfur powder, saltpeter powder, and wood charcoal powder that were delivered, and said to the teachers around him: "Can anyone come out and help me?"
"The villain is willing to serve the Emperor."
Before the other teachers could react, a young teacher in his twenties stepped forward.
"It's not easy to become a teacher at such a young age. Say your name."
Zhu Yunwen looked at the other party and praised him.
"Villain Lu Yuan."
"oh?"
Zhu Yunwen looked at Lu An.
Lu An quickly said: "Your Majesty, this is my nephew. He entered the war bureau at the age of fifteen and has been preparing gunpowder for seven years. He must pass the examination to become a master craftsman."
Zhu Yunwen smiled calmly and said: "It doesn't matter. As long as you have real skills, I won't blame you. Lu Yuan, weigh thirty-seven pounds and five ounces of saltpeter powder, seven pounds and five ounces of wood carbon powder, and five pounds of sulfur powder."
Lu Yuan agreed, took the saltpeter powder into a bag, hung it with a scale hook, and placed the scale weight at thirty-seven kilograms and five taels. If the scale beam tilted up, take out some saltpeter powder. If the scale beam sank, add more saltpeter powder. Some saltpeter powder.
In this way, take out according to the amount.
Zhu Yunwen ordered: "Pour these three items into the urn and stir evenly."
Lu Yuan did as he was told.
Zhu Yunwen stood up and checked the gunpowder mixture. When he saw that it was almost done, he whispered: "Add water."
Lu Yuan looked at Zhu Yunwen in surprise.
Lu An hurriedly came over and said, "Your Majesty, you must not do this. Gunpowder is most afraid of water. Once it gets wet and enters water, it will no longer be usable and the gunpowder will be useless."
Xu Huizu nodded repeatedly and advised from the side: "Adding water will destroy the gunpowder materials, and it cannot be used for fire guns. Please think twice, Your Majesty."
As a military man, Xu Huizu was also very skilled in using firecrackers, so he naturally knew the shortcomings of gunpowder: fear of rain.
When it rains, Shenji camp basically stops cooking.
Whether it is a blunderbuss or an artillery piece, if it is not well protected and rainwater penetrates, the thing in your hand will be like an iron lump, and it will be too heavy to hit someone with.
Zhu Yunwen ignored the two of them and asked Lu Yuan, "Did you hear it clearly?"
Lu Yuan glanced at the gunpowder materials in the urn, turned around, picked up a bucket of water not far away, picked up the water ladle, and when Zhu Yunwen nodded, he started to add water.
"This, this, hey..."
Lu An felt a little distressed.
These materials have been ground by craftsmen over and over again. Now that they are destroyed, it is equivalent to the work of those craftsmen in vain.
Your Majesty, Your Majesty, if you don’t understand gunpowder, don’t give random orders. From the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, I haven’t seen any gunpowder formula containing water...
Lu Yuan added water once, stirred for a while, then added more water and stirred until the gunpowder in the entire urn resembled a ball of mud.
"It's so nice..."
Lu An looked at this scene bitterly and sighed.
Xu Huizu looked away. He really didn't want to see Zhu Yunwen playing with a wooden stick and hitting the mud...
Bang bang bang——
Zhu Yunwen and Lu Yuan crushed the gunpowder mud dozens of times, then found a sieve trough and asked Lu Yuan to squeeze out the mud. As soon as a little bit was squeezed out, Zhu Yunwen took a wooden board and scraped off the mud pellets that had just emerged from the bottom of the sieve.
After collecting a certain amount of gunpowder particles and looking at the irregular particles, Zhu Yunwen ordered people to chop the bamboo, then pour the particles into the bamboo joints, and shake them in circles. When the particles were taken out, they were as round as beads.
"Is this granular gunpowder?"
Lu An and Xu Huizu stared at the round particles of gunpowder in their palms, and couldn't help but look at each other.
Zhu Yunwen arranged for someone to spread out the gunpowder particles to dry, took a look at the nice sun, and asked Lu An: "Have you learned it? The rest of the gunpowder is
The medicinal mud will be handed over to you. "
Lu An had a vague feeling that it could be done, but he couldn't believe it. He stepped forward and held down the gunpowder mud. Lu Yuan saw Lu An grinning and bent down to scrape off the gunpowder mud.
Zhu Yunwen sat, his face not relaxed, but more solemn.
The emergence of granular gunpowder will establish the Ming Dynasty's advantage over firearms, but Zhu Yunwen is not sure how long this advantage will last.
More than 140 years ago, the Mongols' "Eldest Son Expedition to the West" exposed medieval Europe to the power of firearms. After the third Western Expedition, Hulagu, the fifth brother of Kublai Khan, completely brought firearms to Europe.
And a key figure in passing firearms to Europe was Guo Kan!
Guo Kan created an era, an era of artillery expeditions.
Under Guo Kan's artillery troops, the Mongols captured more than 700 castles and left behind the reputation of "General of the East".
But it was also from that time that Hulagu established the Ilkhanate, and firearm technology was completely spread to the west. The people of the West took over the Chinese firearms, continued to study them, and more powerful firearms appeared!
Western firearms surpassed those of the East, and a key figure was Guo Kan.
Guo Ziyi would never have imagined that the mountains and rivers he once fought so hard to protect would be shattered by his descendants.
Of course, the fate of the country is by no means caused by the old Guo family, but it is undeniable that after more than a hundred years of development, the level of Western firearms cannot be underestimated.
Including the Hundred Years' War between England and France that has been fighting, not only swords and guns, but also firearms, such as fire guns.
Zhu Yunwen knew that the Ming Dynasty had lagged behind in the field of firearms. If viewed from a historical perspective, the Ming Dynasty's firearms had always lagged behind the West. This is an indisputable fact.
Including the Franco machine guns and Hongyi cannons that entered the Ming Dynasty in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, they were all made in the West and imported.
Zhu Yunwen gritted his teeth secretly and thought:
Now that I have come to the Ming Dynasty, it is only the Ming Dynasty that bullies others. No matter what you are, Tatar, Oara, Japan, Spain, Portugal, even if there is another Eight-Nation Alliance, who wants to bully the Ming Dynasty and kill the people of the Ming Dynasty, what will you do? The door given to you can only be the door of hell!
"Your Majesty, it has been dried."
Lu Yuan took some dry granular gunpowder and gave it to Zhu Yunwen.
Zhu Yunwen retracted his thoughts and looked at the sky. It was almost dusk, so he stood up and said, "Let's try it. The target is set a hundred steps away."
Lu Yuan's eyes lit up, it seemed that the emperor was very confident.
Lu An was even more active, arranging a shooting range, measuring the range, and distributing gunpowder particles to the sergeants of the Shenji Battalion.
The sergeant was a little confused looking at the gunpowder he had never seen before, but he had to obey the orders of the emperor and Xu Huizu, so he filled the powder chamber with granular gunpowder and then filled it with iron.
Xu Huizu watched nervously, the match rope had been lit, and the squeaking sound could be heard clearly.
Zhu Yunwen squinted his eyes slightly and stared at the target in the distance. After a series of "bang bang bang" sounds, the wooden board a hundred steps away was penetrated, swayed suddenly, and hit the wall in the distance without losing force. .
Xu Huizu took a deep breath, his eyes shining brightly.
This killing distance is at least a hundred steps, or even more!
Lu An stared at this scene blankly, in disbelief, and murmured at the corner of his mouth: "It turns out that this is the real gunpowder. I have always been wrong, wrong..."
"Try again!"
Xu Huizu gritted his teeth and shouted.
The ten cannons started to smoke again, and the wooden board in the distance was already tilting!
Xu Huizu pushed aside a sergeant and picked up the firegun himself. After filling it, he lit the match rope and pointed it at the wooden board in the distance. After a bang, the iron rod flew out.
The wooden board fell down weakly like a person whose heart was shot through.
"Your Majesty, granular gunpowder is extremely powerful and is a divine weapon for destroying enemies! Please change the powdered gunpowder to granular gunpowder and use it widely in the Shenji Camp!"
Xu Huizu walked towards Zhu Yunwen, bowed on one knee, and solemnly asked for orders.
