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

Chapter 957 Technology and the Future

Seeing Sun Yuanhua thoughtful, Zhu Shenzui sighed inwardly. Although Sun Yuanhua was a firearms expert of this era, he had never seen modern firearms of later generations. Now his concept of firearms manufacturing is still based on the basic structure of the previous musket and the current plum blossom spear. To put it bluntly, it is a further upgrade of the plum blossom spear.

Is the Plum Blossom Spear useful? Of course it is useful! This was designed by Zhu Shenzhu himself. It uses the structure of the later revolver. In this era, it is much stronger than the single-loading and firing firearms. Moreover, compared with the original three-barrel firearms, the Plum Blossom Spear saves the concept of multiple barrels. For the first time, it uses a single barrel and magazine combination. In addition, the use of mechanical structure is more advanced and convenient.

In addition, the emergence of the percussion cap has completely changed the original mode of loading gunpowder. Although the percussion caps currently used still have many problems, such as difficulty in storage, low success rate of ignition, etc., they are still much more advanced. This weapon has great advantages on the battlefield and is simply incomparable to the previous muskets.

But even so, the Plum Blossom Gun also has its limitations. The first is the inherent deficiency of the revolver design. This type of musket has poor sealing. Because the magazine and the barrel are separated, there will be air leakage during the firing process, and this situation cannot be solved even in later generations.

The design of the revolver is like this. Although it is convenient and stable to use, it still cannot get rid of the inherent shortcomings of the revolver. Due to the sealing problem, no matter how well this kind of firearm is made, its range is limited. For example, the standard plum blossom gun equipped in the new Ming army has a longer range than the three-barreled fire gun, but it is far less than the bird gun of the original Ming army, which can shoot at a maximum range of about 200 meters.

Even though Sun Yuanhua improved the quality of the gun itself and made structural improvements, including rifling the barrel, the maximum range of the new plum blossom gun was only satisfactory. Moreover, Yao Yuan had already made the so-called "six-turn magic gun" and "seven-turn magic gun" based on the original design, but they were not as perfect as Sun Yuanhua's.

In addition, the more bullets are loaded, the larger the magazine structure of the plum blossom gun becomes. Each additional bullet loaded into the magazine will be larger, and its weight and operability will decrease, which is not conducive to actual use on the battlefield. In addition, although the yellow powder used to make the percussion cap is easy to use, the yellow powder still does not deviate from the original gunpowder range, and the performance is not stable. Even if the configuration process is done well, it is limited, and the problem of firing rate still exists. To change this problem, it is not a simple purification that can be achieved. This is a problem of the yellow powder itself.

In the original history, the use of yellow powder was very short-lived and was soon replaced by red powder with better performance. The appearance of red powder was equivalent to the transition from primitive gunpowder to chemical gunpowder, which made it more efficient, safer and more convenient.

However, the use of red powder was not long. The emergence of more advanced primers, such as mercury fulminate, completely changed the situation. It also led to the birth of standard fixed ammunition instead of percussion cap firing, and the design of firearms was further improved, leading to the emergence of various types of firearms.

At present, the Ming Dynasty is still in the stage of using yellow powder, which has only solved the original situation of using black powder to fill and then using a matchlock or flint to ignite the gunpowder for shooting. Now the plum blossom gun uses yellow powder to make the percussion cap, which is a great progress in technology, but this progress is not enough. What Zhu Shenzhu really wants is to be able to make a mercury fulminate primer device for fixed-load bullets. Even if this cannot be achieved, it is acceptable to be able to develop from yellow powder to red powder.

But the progress of science and technology is not so easy, and it is extremely difficult to achieve this with the current scientific and technological situation of the Ming Dynasty. After all, it involves complex chemical knowledge, and the Chinese are not advanced in the study of chemistry, and there has never been a complete system.

Apart from the fact that Taoists had some involvement with chemical experiments during the alchemy process, gunpowder was produced in this way. However, this was just a coincidence of "hitting the jackpot" and did not receive much attention or form a scientific system. Over the past few hundred years, the development of gunpowder in China was extremely slow. Instead, it was introduced to Europe during the Mongols' westward expedition and was valued by Westerners. As a result, it underwent continuous research. In addition, because Westerners already had the so-called "alchemy", the Western world gradually formed the discipline of "chemistry".

In order to solve this problem, Zhu Shenzui not only let the Yao brothers be responsible for this matter, but also put Sun Yuanhua, who was proficient in firearms, in his current position. At the same time, he asked him to look for chemical talents in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, hoping to make progress through continuous research and even trial and error.

Unfortunately, science is not that simple, and such research is almost the same as hitting the jackpot. This is why after the successful development of the Plum Blossom Spear and Yellow Medicine, the ordnance department has not made much progress in the past few years, let alone any outstanding results.

Zhu Shenzhu was also helpless about this situation. After all, the Ming Dynasty was inherently deficient in this regard. If this situation could be changed, the Ming Dynasty would have to produce a chemical genius, but where was it so easy to produce a chemical genius? The advancement of science and technology requires soil, and the Ming Dynasty currently lacked such soil. All scholars took the imperial examination as their ultimate goal. Which scholar would give up the imperial examination to study something so illusory and uncertain about the future?
After sending Sun Yuanhua away, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but ponder. It was already the middle of the seventeenth century, more than 150 years since the so-called "great geographical discoveries" or the "Age of Exploration". In fact, the prelude to this era should have started in the Ming Dynasty. Zheng He's treasure ships sailed to the West seven times, which shocked countries around the world and eventually followed Zheng He's footsteps from land to sea.

Unfortunately, although the Ming Dynasty made a start, it could not continue. The Zheng He fleet that shocked the world was like a flash in the pan. After Emperor Xuanzong, Zheng He's fleet disappeared from the ocean, and the Ming Dynasty's conquest of the world came to an end. After that, the Ming Dynasty adopted a national policy of no longer going out to sea. As time went by, the world gradually forgot about the once formidable fleet, while Westerners began their new era of conquering the ocean and exploring the world.

In the following 100 years, except for the opening of the Ming Dynasty during the Longqing reign, the Ming Dynasty gradually lost touch with the outside world and was gradually caught up by the Westerners. Now it is the end of the Age of Exploration. European countries have benefited a lot from the great geographical discoveries. Not only have they successively occupied the rich and vast new continents, but also because of this, there have been violent military and cultural collisions and other changes, which have led to the continuous emergence and development of modern science and laid the foundation for the later modern era.

In contrast, the Ming Dynasty had already fallen behind, even though the so-called "sprouts of capitalism" appeared in the south. Due to its inability to cope with the limitations of the world and major changes, as well as the constant emergence of internal contradictions, the Ming Dynasty hesitated and lost the best opportunity.

According to the original historical process, when the Qing Dynasty entered the country and replaced it, this situation became more serious. The Qing Dynasty was more conservative and arrogant than the Ming Dynasty. In the next hundred years, it was self-admiring and intoxicated in the beautiful dream of the Celestial Empire, without knowing that the world was no longer what it used to be. This is also the reason why the Qing Dynasty was eventually opened by Western artillery, and then there was nearly a hundred years of humiliation.

It is not that the Ming Dynasty has no chance at the moment. China has been ahead of the world for thousands of years, and it is a fact that the Ming Dynasty is still ahead of the West in many aspects. But the gap between the leading countries and the West is much smaller now than before. If it does not change, it will eventually be surpassed by the other side as in the original history, and it will fall behind from being advanced.

Falling behind means being beaten. This is what great men said and it is also a cruel fact. So this situation must be changed, and taking steps towards the world is what the Ming Dynasty must do. In fact, Zhu Shenzhui has already done it before. For example, the current maritime trade in Shandong is one of them. He uses maritime trade to establish the Shandong Navy, and the scale of the Shandong Navy will become larger and larger in the future. Zhu Shenzhui plans to rebuild the Ming Dynasty's ocean-going fleet and reproduce the glory of Zheng He's fleet.

In addition, he had been asked to contact Europe through Johann Adam Schall von Bell, and intended to establish connections with European countries. This was not only to contain Tsarist Russia, but also to start normal exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and Western countries and obtain information and resources from the West, including the necessary talents.

One can learn from others' experience, and the wisdom of our ancestors never deceives us. The Ming Dynasty was not the Qing Dynasty, and it would not do something similar to the Qing Dynasty's self-protection.

A few days later, Zhu Shenzhu summoned Johann Adam Schall von Bell and asked him directly about the progress of his contacts with Europe.

Johann Adam Schall von Bell told Zhu Shenzhu that after he learned that the Ming court was interested in developing normal diplomacy with European countries, he asked someone to send a letter to Rome mentioning this matter. He also asked his friends in the Vatican to contact the royal families of European countries. However, because the Ming Dynasty was too far away from Europe, it would take at least one to two years to travel back and forth by boat even if everything went smoothly. In addition, Schall von Bell was not clear about the attitude of Europe in the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the war in Europe that had lasted for nearly 30 years had not yet ended, and European countries were still fighting each other. He was not sure what the specific outcome would be.

Zhu Shenzui expressed his understanding of this, but he also told Johann Adam Schall von Bell to keep a close eye on the matter, especially the situation on the European royal side must be clarified as soon as possible. It would be best if both sides could have exchanges and formal diplomatic contacts.

Zhu Shenzui wanted to get more information about the current world through his understanding of Europe. He also took into account the threat of Tsarist Russia to the north. In addition, he wanted to obtain advanced knowledge and corresponding talents from Europe to change the current Ming Dynasty. In order to encourage Johann Adam Schall von Bell to work harder, Zhu Shenzui also stated that if the Roman Catholic Church could do this for the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty could even allow Johann Adam Schall von Bell to expand the scope of his missionary work in the Ming Dynasty. This made Johann Adam Schall von Bell overjoyed and he immediately said that he would definitely accomplish this for His Majesty.

(End of this chapter)