Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 238 Weapons
Guangzhou City, February 1st, early in the morning, the wind was howling outside the bedroom, but the room was warm inside

Zhu Lang lifted the quilt and stood up. The girl who was sleeping next to him still had a blush on her face. Seeing Zhu Lang getting up, she also got up with sleepy eyes.

Zhu Lang covered the girl with the quilt and patted her head gently.
"It's still early, you can sleep, there's no need to get up"

Hearing this, Wang Yue glanced into the still dim room, listened to the whistling wind outside, grabbed the quilt, and fell asleep again in a daze.

Zhu Lang stood up and called Li Guoyong who was outside the room. After washing up, he put on his cotton jacket and left the room.

As soon as he stepped out of the room, the warmth in the room disappeared. In the early winter morning, the cold wind blew in his face, and Zhu Lang shivered immediately.

It was just dawn, and the sky was still dark blue. Zhu Lang exhaled a breath of white air, did some stretching exercises, and began to jog along the trail of the Governor's Mansion.

Behind Zhu Lang, Li Guoyong followed him yawning, and Li Chengzhi and seven or eight Jinyi guards followed closely behind, jogging in the governor's mansion.

Zhu Lang and a dozen others jogged through the Governor's Mansion. Some maids and eunuchs who had gotten up early saw His Royal Highness the Regent and others passing by, and they all retreated to the side of the aisle and bowed their heads in greeting.
After Zhu Lang and the others ran past, the palace servants continued along the corridor to the various places in the backyard of the kitchen.
If you look closely, you can see that wherever Zhu Lang passes, there are soldiers in military uniforms standing in plain sight or in plain sight, guarding the way.

When Zhu Lang came to this world, he began to work hard to train himself after knowing that he was the future Emperor Yongli.

At first, Zhu Lang worked hard to increase his physical strength so that he could escape from the chaos in the future, but later on, he really just wanted to exercise.

Zhu Lang's daily running exercise also caused some controversy among the ministers of the previous dynasty. When Chen Zizhuang and other cabinet ministers learned that His Highness the Regent was sweating profusely and running around the palace every day, they also made many memorials to His Highness, asking him to pay attention to his dignity and decorum.
Zhu Lang was finally annoyed by the repeated requests from Chen Zizhuang and other cabinet ministers, so one day after the court was dismissed, he forced the cabinet ministers to go out for a run in the name of "the emperor and his ministers go out for a run".

It's a pity that all the cabinet ministers usually travel by car or sedan chair, with people following them. How can they bear this kind of hard work?
The elders had only run halfway across the governor's office when they collapsed to the ground, unable to continue.
After Zhu Lang easily defeated a group of old comrades in their 50s and 60s, he told Chen Zizhuang and other cabinet ministers in a mysterious way that the way he was exercising now was a secret method that the old King of Gui spent hundreds of gold to exchange from an old immortal decades ago. Only the legitimate princes in the King of Gui’s mansion could be taught this method.
His Highness Gui Jianguo, seeing that all the ministers were exhausted from overwork, decided to pass on the secret method of the palace to all the ministers.

The ministers who were originally collapsed on the ground due to exhaustion, saw His Highness the Regent standing in front of them without blushing or breathing heavily, and heard that it was actually the secret of the palace, and it was even related to the immortals and Taoists. As expected, they became very interested and asked His Highness the Regent about the secret health-preserving techniques of the palace.
His Majesty the Regent also taught him all the secrets of the royal palace without reservation.
Zhu Lang, I will teach you how to jog quickly and slowly, and breathe in and out twice, so that you can be strong and climb mountains and valleys as if you were walking on flat ground.

All the ministers frowned when they heard this. This method is so popular that they are out of breath all day long. It is unmannerly and they should not learn it.
Zhu Lang, I will teach you sit-ups and plank support, which will improve your waist strength and endurance. How about

The ministers seemed to be willing to move but still looked hesitant. This method was to lie on one's back with one's head raised up, the posture was indecent, and it was not decent, and they were sweating all over. They didn't want to learn it.

Zhu Lang, I will teach you the Eight-Section Brocade, which will make you have only the form and appearance, but will not increase your strength, let alone strengthen your body. You can only make a good appearance, and you will look like an immortal when you start, which will dazzle people and make them think that you have learned the secret method of immortals and pretend to be a Taoist master in front of others. How about that?

All the ministers were overjoyed. They were willing to learn and wondered how they could repay His Highness for teaching them art.

Zhu Lang, if you are left behind in the battlefield and captured by the rebels, just don't reveal my name.
That afternoon, a group of ministers followed Zhu Lang to learn a set of empty-headed Eight-Section Brocade gymnastics, and then returned to the palace with doubts.
When the ministers returned to their palace, they invited a familiar doctor to come to their palace and practiced this set of Eight Section Brocade.
The doctors heard the names of the moves that seemed to be very professional, and then looked at the old minister who was practicing in front of them. They were also undecided and could only ask again and again where he learned this secret method.
Some ministers refused to tell the truth and only said that they learned it from an old immortal. Some were honest and said that they learned it from the palace.

When the doctors heard this, they immediately said that since it was a method passed down from the palace, it must be a true Taoist method and it was absolutely correct.

In the end, the cabinet ministers still couldn't figure out whether His Highness's method of strengthening his body was true or false.
After this round of traveling together, all the ministers knew that His Highness's training method was not an easy task, and it was comparable to the daily training of soldiers in the army.

How could they bear this at their age? In order to avoid such a situation in the future, the cabinet ministers just let it go and stopped caring about it.

Zhu Lang ran around the Governor's Mansion twice as usual, and then started to eat. Breakfast was simple, a bowl of meat porridge, a plate of pickled sweet radish, two eggs, and a few shrimp pancakes.

By the time they finished breakfast, it was already ten o'clock in the morning. After Zhu Lang led his army back to the court, he announced that all the ministers and soldiers who followed him on the expedition would have five days off and would not have to go on duty.

Although Zhu Lang was the regent, he was also a member of the expedition, so he should have a five-day rest. Therefore, if there was no major event during these few days, the ministers on duty in the previous dynasty would not disturb Zhu Lang's rest.
Although he didn't have to deal with court affairs, Zhu Lang had a lot of free time these days. He had something to do almost every day.
Zhu Lang looked at Li Guoyong and asked

“What are your plans for today?”

Upon hearing this, Li Guoyong also replied immediately

"Today, the Eastern Suburbs Cannon Factory of the Military Equipment Bureau said that the clay molds have dried and they are about to start casting cannons, so today's schedule is to go to the Military Equipment Bureau for inspection."

Zhu Lang nodded, and then Li Chengzhi and others began to prepare to leave the city.

Two quarters of an hour later, three or four hundred Jinyiwei surrounded the carriage and drove towards the East City Artillery Factory.
At the Ordnance Bureau's artillery factory, the cold wind was howling, and dozens of artillerymen were waiting at the factory gate.

At this time, the venue was already guarded by Jinyiwei soldiers. When the craftsmen saw the young man in the bright yellow dragon robe getting off the carriage, they immediately knelt on the ground and shouted "Long live the dragon!"
Zhu Lang got off the car and ordered all the craftsmen to stand up. They stood up carefully, but all of them kept their heads down, not daring to look at His Royal Highness the Regent in front of them.
All the craftsmen were wearing black cotton jackets, except for the three in front who were wearing green sixth-rank court robes.

All three of them were middle-aged, with dark complexions, sturdy bodies, and thick knuckles. They did not look like civil servants, but rather like military officers.

The Military Equipment Bureau was newly established. Now, according to the different military equipment they are responsible for, it is briefly divided into three departments. The head of the Heavy Artillery Department is Yang Huiqi, the head of the Battalion Artillery Department is Chen Zhu, and the head of the Fire Gun Department is Zeng Cheng. These three people are Han Chinese masters that Pang Tianshou recruited from the Haojing Artillery Factory. Zhu Lang met with the heads of the three departments, and then, surrounded by the ministers, walked into the artillery factory.

Before Zhu Lang set out to attack Fujian Province, he ordered the establishment of an armoury bureau. After the army set out, Chen Zizhuang ordered the magistrate of Foshan to recruit blacksmiths.

The process of conscription was also very smooth. Foshan had a well-developed iron industry and many blacksmiths with smelting and forging experience. With the imperial decree, two thousand blacksmiths were quickly conscripted and sent to Guangzhou.

However, the magistrate of Foshan County was still not satisfied. After sending away the first batch of blacksmiths, he continued to search for another thousand blacksmiths until the Ministry of War ordered a halt to the collection.

The court and the magistrate of Foshan certainly exceeded their targets, but the price they paid was that the entire Foshan suddenly fell into depression. Many blacksmith shops had cast iron furnaces but could not find craftsmen to make iron tools. However, this was not within the scope of the court's consideration.

A group of blacksmiths were singing and making iron pots in Foshan, but before they knew it, they were taken away by soldiers and sent to Guangzhou.
Most of the blacksmiths in Foshan were conscripted by the imperial court. They opened furnaces and started their own small businesses. Naturally, they were unwilling to make cannons for the imperial court, but they had no choice.
Zhu Lang has issued a strict order to establish the Military Equipment Bureau, and Chen Zizhuang and others also know the importance of firearms after experiencing the Battle of Guangzhou.

The blacksmiths recruited in Foshan this time were not clerks from Foshan. More than a thousand imperial guards rushed directly from Guangzhou to Foshan. With the cooperation of the magistrate of Foshan, they arrested people from every household.
The court's brutal behavior naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the gentry in Foshan. Although some private blacksmiths were confiscated by the court, more of them were ironworkers under the gentry of Foshan. The court's confiscating these craftsmen caused heavy losses to their ironworks.
The gentry were unwilling to admit defeat, so they started to lead others to cause trouble, but this time their trick that always worked was ineffective.
A group of gentry led people to surround the county government office, but before they could cry out for justice, hundreds of armored imperial guards rushed out of the county government office and hacked dozens of the leaders to death. The ground outside the county government office was immediately covered with blood.

The people who besieged the county government office had never expected such a scene. When they saw the blood all over the ground, they immediately collapsed and fled.
After that, Yang Keguan, the commander of the imperial army, directly declared a curfew, and a group of soldiers went up to patrol and suppress the protests. At this point, the gentry in Foshan finally became silent and dared not cause trouble again.

The gentry who ran the ironworks saw that they were no longer strong enough, so they mobilized their connections and petitioned the court, accusing the imperial guards of causing chaos and arresting people at random.
However, they did not expect that after they submitted the impeachment memorial to the court, the ministers of the cabinet and the ministerial level in the court were all silent, and no one responded at all.

Chen Zizhuang was straightforward and directly informed Yang Keguan, who was leading the army in Foshan, about the several ironworks that had filed petitions to cause trouble.

After Yang Keguan received the news, he arrested all the ironworkers.
The rest of the ironworks saw that the court was silent, and then they realized that the court was serious, and finally stopped.
This is the advantage of this era. As long as there are soldiers and the righteousness of the court, as long as the central government of the court is determined, even if it is forced, the gentry and the people in the society can only accept it.
If the king wants his subjects to die, they must die. Now I am just conscripting a few craftsmen from your family. What does that mean?

Under the joint will of the imperial guards and court officials, within just a few months, the Armory, which originally had nothing, had 3,000 blacksmiths and 500 to 600 masons.

At the gun range of the Military Equipment Bureau, there were nearly a hundred square wooden platforms erected, and in the center of the wooden platforms stood a number of cylindrical clay cannon models.
In February, the weather was still cold, but at this time, the artillery range was not very cold, but rather felt a little warm.

Zhu Lang and others stood in front of a square platform. A group of blacksmiths were standing on the platform, pouring red-hot molten iron into the top of the cylindrical cannon mold. Waves of white mist rose from the top of the cannon mold and quickly dissipated in the winter air.
Zhu Lang stood at a distance from the square platform, watching the red-hot molten iron pouring into the cannon mold. Yang Huiqi, the head of the Heavy Artillery Department, also stood to one side, bent over, and spoke carefully.

"This winter is cold and rainy, the weather is very good. After receiving the order from the court to cast cannons, I worked day and night to make a total of 100 clay cannon molds. After drying in the shade and testing, I found a total of 75 cannon molds that can be used. All we need to do is pour molten iron into them and wait for them to cool before we can cast cannons."

The mainstream method of casting cannons at this time was to use clay molds to make cannon molds, with a clay cannon core added in the middle. After drying in the shade, the cannon mold would become a complete cannon mold.
After the gun mold is dry, pour molten iron into the gun mold. The molten iron stays between the gun core and the gun mold to cool and solidify, and the gun is cast.
The clay mold must be completely dried in the shade before casting. In the hot and rainy summer, the clay mold takes longer to dry in the shade, so craftsmen often choose to cast cannons in winter.
After Yang Huiqi finished speaking, he led Zhu Lang, Li Chengzhi and others to another wooden platform.

Yang Huiqi waved his hand, and more than a dozen craftsmen walked to the center of the wooden platform, picked up hammers and smashed the clay cannon mold in the center of the wooden platform.

As the outer clay mold was broken, the dark barrel was revealed.
Zhu Lang walked to the wooden platform and looked at the newly cast 3,000-jin heavy cannon. He saw that the black iron barrel was full of tiny holes.

Yang Huiqi saw Zhu Lang frowning and quickly spoke up

"Because the cannon mold is made of mud, there are often sand holes on the newly cast iron cannon. After the new cannon is cast, it needs to be polished to remove the sand holes. After polishing, it becomes an ordinary cannon. These sand holes do not affect the use of the cannon."

After Yang Huiqi finished speaking, he took Zhu Lang to another wooden platform.

A canopy has been built on the wooden platform, and in the middle of the platform is no longer a rough clay cannon model, but a smooth black iron cannon.
Zhu Lang touched the heavy barrel of the gun and felt a cool sensation. Zhu Lang looked at the cannon standing on the wooden platform and asked:

"After polishing, is this cannon considered finished? This cannon may be directly delivered to the army for use."

"The cannon was polished yesterday. As long as we fill the cannon with gunpowder and test it, and if there are no cracks in the barrel, it will be considered a usable cannon and can be sent to the army for use."

The method of testing the quality of artillery in this era was also simple and crude. Gunpowder was directly stuffed into the barrel of the artillery and then ignited directly. If the gunpowder exploded and the barrel remained intact without any cracks, it was considered a qualified and usable artillery.

When Zhu Lang heard this, he asked again

"Probability of success"

"For a cannon this heavy, weighing thousands of pounds, with my experience at the artillery factory, I can probably make at least one or two out of ten, or at most three or four."

Yang Huiqi's heart tightened, but he still answered truthfully.

Zhu Lang frowned when he heard this. The Heavy Artillery Department had a total of 1,000 blacksmiths. After two or three months of hard work, they finally got 75 cannon models.
If we follow the success rate Yang Huiqi said, then we can only build 30 cannons per season at most. How can this be enough?

(End of this chapter)