Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 287 Yao Yuan's Thoughts
Qi Jiguang invented the Five Thunder Divine Machine after the fight against Japanese pirates. As the Japanese pirates in the south were pacified, the court transferred Qi Jiguang to the northern border, and Qi's army also used it to fight against Mongolia.

During the war with Mongolia, Qi Jiguang invented the chariot formation tactics, and used the tiger squat cannon and the Portuguese cannon in combination to enhance the firepower.

In addition, the use of bird guns is also a supplement to chariot formation tactics, but bird guns are inconvenient to load and often cannot form strong sustained firepower in war. It takes a long time to reload after firing before the next shot can be fired. If this pattern is to be changed, it is necessary to build a special firearms unit and use the three-stage shooting tactics pioneered by Mu Ying in the early Ming Dynasty to maintain the shooting frequency and form a sustained firepower strike.

But this is impossible. Qi's army was built on a system of elite soldiers from the beginning, and it was also a conscription system, which was completely different from the existing military system of the Ming Dynasty court. Not to mention whether the court would allow Qi Jiguang to do so, Qi Jiguang could not afford to support such a pure firearms army without the support of the court.

In order to solve this problem, Qi Jiguang racked his brains and finally recruited skilled craftsmen to create a new firearm based on the existing three-barreled gun, which was the Five Thunder God Machine.

The so-called Five Thunder God Machine is somewhat similar to the Three-Eyed Gun, but there are also great differences. The Three-Eyed Gun, as the name implies, has three holes on one barrel, and can fire three times in a row in a war, which is much stronger than the ordinary fire gun that can fire once.

However, the shooting range and accuracy of the three-barreled gun are not as good as those of the musket, let alone the bird gun. In addition, the three-barreled gun is the main firearm equipment for cavalry combat. It has a simple and bulky structure, and it is impossible to reload it immediately after firing. When cavalry engage in combat, they often use the three-barreled gun to fire at the enemy. After firing, they directly use the heavy three-barreled gun as a hammer to hit people. In the blink of an eye, this thing has changed from a hot weapon to a primitive cold weapon.

The Wu Lei Shen Ji is different. It does not have one barrel with five holes, but five barrels. A musket shooting mode is adopted behind the barrels. In principle, it is equivalent to combining five muskets together, and each barrel has a sight. There is a mechanical connection between the barrels, which can be rotated by hand.

Turn the barrel to the right position, then pull the trigger and the Wu Lei Shen Ji will fire normally. After firing a round, turn the barrel so that the second barrel replaces the first barrel that has fired, and you can fire a second round, and so on...

In this way, the Wu Lei Shen Ji can fire five times in a row. Two people are required to operate it, one is responsible for supporting and rotating the barrel, and the other is responsible for aiming and firing. In this way, continuous firepower can be formed, and only a small number of soldiers can achieve several times the firepower coverage.

Since its completion, the Five Thunder God Machine has made up for the lack of firepower of the Qi family army and played a significant role in the war. Zhu Shenzhu also has this thing, but he did not equip the new army. After all, the Five Thunder God Machine is relatively bulky. Although it can fire continuously, its accuracy is not as good as the bird gun. In addition, Zhu Shenzhu does not have many people at hand now. To operate the artillery, you need a gunner. If you assign more people to operate the Five Thunder God Machine, then he will not be able to handle it with so few people now.

When Zhu Shenzhui first saw the thing Zhao Da took out, he blurted out the name of the Five Thunder Divine Machine, but after taking a closer look, he found that this was different from the Five Thunder Divine Machine he had in mind.

Compared to the Five Thunder Divine Machine he had seen before, the thing Zhao Da took out was much smaller and slightly shorter than a bird gun. The front end had five barrels like the Five Thunder Divine Machine, and at the back was a bulging circular device. At the back was a firing device similar to that of an ordinary musket, including a grab handle and so on. From the appearance, it was equivalent to a smaller version of the Five Thunder Divine Machine.

"Sixth Master, this is not the Five Thunder God Machine. Although it looks similar, it is different. Yao Er gave it a new name, called 'Plum Blossom Spear'."

"Plum Blossom Spear?" Upon hearing the name, Zhu Shenzui immediately became interested and reached out to take a closer look.

The whole gun feels heavy in the hand, much heavier than a bird gun, but much lighter than the Five Thunder Divine Machine.

In this way, the original Wulei Shenji, which relied on two people to operate, can now be shot by one person with this plum blossom gun, which is a good design. In addition, the shape of this plum blossom gun is similar to that of the Wulei Shenji, but the structure has been refined and adjusted, retaining the mode of rotating the barrel like the Wulei Shenji, and then adopting the current device of using yellow powder to fire, so that as long as the reloading is completed, it can shoot five times in a row, which is much stronger than ordinary muskets.

Holding it in his hand and looking at it over and over again, Zhu Shenzui suddenly thought of the role played by the famous comedian Huang in the movie "No Man's Land". The homemade gun with a rotating barrel was particularly similar to the plum blossom gun in his hand.

With a slight movement in his heart, Zhu Shenzhui asked Zhao Da for marbles, gunpowder and yellow powder for firing, and then went to the backyard.

In the backyard, he tested firing the plum blossom gun once, and after firing the first shot, he turned the barrel and continued firing. In a short while, he successfully fired all five shots. After the test firing, Zhu Shenzhui felt that because the gun was too heavy, it took a lot of effort to shoot, and the first aim was fine, but the next few shots could only be roughly aimed because of the weight of the gun and the recoil.

But even so, the Plum Blossom Spear surprised Zhu Shenzui greatly. The continuous strikes and stable shooting, even if there were still some problems, was a very good idea for current firearms.

"Where is Yao Yuanren?" Zhu Shenzhui asked Zhao Da directly. Zhao Da replied that he should be on the other side of the workshop, because the Yao brothers were both fireworks craftsmen, and they usually fiddled with gunpowder and other things, which were not convenient to put together with iron, so their location should be farther away from here.

Zhu Shenzhui nodded and asked Zhao Da to go and find Yao Yuan immediately. This plum blossom spear aroused Zhu Shenzhui's great interest, and he wanted to ask Yao Yuan in person how he figured it out.

About an incense stick later, Zhao Da called Yao Yuan over. When he saw Zhu Shenzhui, Yao Yuan went up to him and bowed without saying a word, his face full of gratitude.

As a fireworks craftsman, Zhu Shenzhui gave the Yao brothers an official position just because they successfully made yellow medicine. This was a good thing that the two brothers had never thought of in their lives. A few months ago, Yao Yuan wanted to thank Zhu Shenzhui in person, but who would have thought that Zhu Shenzhui had never come to the workshop. Now that he has finally come after a long wait, how can he not thank him for such a great favor?
Zhu Shenzui helped him up from the ground with a smile, and asked him to sit down with a friendly face. After he sat down, Zhu Shenzui asked about their brothers' recent situation, including their continued research on yellow medicine.

Yao Yuan seemed a little reserved at first, but soon became natural. This was not the first time he had met Zhu Shenzhui. Today was the third time.

In response to Zhu Shenzui's questions, Yao Yuan naturally told Zhu Shenzui everything he knew, but he told Zhu Shenzui that although his brother Yao Liang was still trying to find a way to study yellow medicine and similar things, there had been no progress in recent days, which had disappointed Zhu Shenzui's expectations.

"It doesn't matter. Things are never accomplished in one go. Not to mention this, even fireworks are the same. It takes a long time to develop a new formula, and long-term repetition is even more common. I am very satisfied with the results I have achieved in just these few days. Be patient in experimenting and think of other ways. I think there will be results in the end."

"Sixth Master is right. Thank you for your consideration." Yao Yuan immediately felt relieved and stood up and saluted.

"Have a seat." Waving his hand for him to sit down, Zhu Shenzhui continued to ask the two brothers about their research in recent days. Yao Yuan talked about it and then asked whether to call his eldest brother Yao Liang. Now the two brothers are not researching together, but separately. He only knows the general situation of his eldest brother and is afraid that he can't explain it in detail, so it is more appropriate to let Yao Liang talk about it himself.

In response, Zhu Shenzhui smiled and said that it was not necessary. He told Yao Yuan that he had called him over on the one hand to ask about the situation between the two brothers during these times, and on the other hand to meet Yao Yuan. The purpose of meeting him was not about the preparation of yellow medicine and other gunpowder, but about something else.

Yao Yuan was a little confused when he heard this, but when Zhu Shenzui put his plum blossom spear on the table, Yao Yuan suddenly realized.

"Did you make this?"

"Sixth Master, this was made under the instructions of Master Zhao. I know nothing about blacksmithing. I just gave an idea..." Yao Yuan said modestly.

Nodding, Zhu Shenzhui did not ask about the details, but it was certain that the idea of ​​making this thing came from Yao Yuan. Zhu Shenzhui immediately asked Yao Yuan how he could figure out this thing?
Yao Yuan smiled embarrassedly and told Zhu Shencui that at the beginning he and his elder brother Yao Liang were both thinking about how to further develop yellow medicine, including the blending of other gunpowders, in order to make something better to repay Zhu Shencui's kindness.

But as time went by, Yao Yuan found that no matter how hard he tried, the power and stability of xanthate was only slightly better at best, and it was almost impossible to go further. For this reason, Yao Liang began to think of other ways, intending to use other things to replace the current xanthate formula, so as to achieve or even exceed the effect of xanthate.

But Yao Yuan had different ideas from his elder brother. He felt that instead of continuing to spend effort on this aspect, it might take several years or even longer to produce any results. So he temporarily gave up the research in this area and handed it over to his elder brother. Yao Yuan, who was more flexible in mind and had more ideas on weekdays, focused his attention on the practical application of xanthocyanidin.

At Zhu Shenzhui's request, Zhao Da began to modify the musket to fire with yellow medicine. At this time, Yao Yuan took the initiative to ask Zhao Da to cooperate with the modification, and Zhao Da also needed Yao Yuan's cooperation. After all, he knew much less about yellow medicine than Yao Yuan.

In this way, two different craftsmen started tinkering together. Yao Yuan also took this opportunity to get acquainted with other craftsmen in the workshop and learned a lot from their daily work. Although his hands-on ability in this area was very poor, his mind was very flexible and he had many ideas. He gave Zhao Da a lot of suggestions. It was because of Yao Yuan's assistance that Zhao Da was able to make the new musket so smoothly.

(End of this chapter)