I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 320 Royal Group Mobilization Continued
"The Mechanical Department can specifically modify the vehicles used by the logistics troops organized by the Channel Department. At the very least, they must replace the wheels with ball bearings. This will improve the transportation efficiency of the logistics troops." Jiang Jianmin from the Mechanical Department said.

Zhu Houxuan nodded repeatedly after listening. This was a very small detail, but the final victory was accumulated by details one by one.

"The Ministry of Health will organize the best surgeons and send them to Xuanfu to temporarily serve as military doctors. They will also be accompanied by a large amount of hemostatic drugs, disinfectant alcohol, suture needles and gauze," said Jiang Jianxing, head of the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Health is the smallest department among all the departments of the Royal Group. Because of his emphasis on health work, Zhu Houxuan directly established a special Ministry of Health.

At this time in the north of the Ming Dynasty, there were probably more than one million workers and their families under the Royal Group, which created a huge demand for medical care. Moreover, the various safety regulations in the factories were not perfect enough, so workers were often injured. This provided a fertile ground for the development of surgery for the Ministry of Health.

In fact, when Zhu Houxuan was in Qizhou, he attached great importance to the development of modern medicine. He provided a lot of resources and established a special school, which enrolled many students every year. Compared with internal medicine, the effects of various surgical operations and treatments are immediate, so the Royal Bank developed rapidly in surgery.

In the era of cold weapons, only a few soldiers died on the battlefield, while a large number of soldiers died from wound infections.

From the perspective of modern medicine, in this era, only two technologies need to be turned on to greatly reduce the mortality rate of injured soldiers.

One is pasteurization, which is to use boiling water to disinfect surgical instruments and gauze.

The second is high-alcohol disinfection. Using high-alcohol to clean wounds can greatly reduce the infection rate of wounds. And it is not difficult for the Royal Group to produce high-alcohol.

Of course, it is still a long way for the Royal Group to develop some kind of anti-inflammatory drug. With these two technologies plus the wound suturing and hemostasis technology, the death rate of injured soldiers will be reduced to a very low level.

This will greatly boost the morale of the army, and the soldiers will be more courageous in fighting!
"It is not necessary to send the best surgeons to Xuanfu. We can keep them in schools and hospitals and let them train more surgical talents," Zhu Houxuan said hesitantly.

Excellent surgeons are treasures wherever they are.

"Your Highness, I think the more outstanding the surgeons are, the more they would like to go to the Xuanfu front." Jiang Jianxing said meaningfully.

Zhu Houxuan was stunned after hearing this, and immediately understood what Jiang Jianxing meant. War would cause a large number of wounded soldiers in the army, and these wounded soldiers were the nutrients for a surgeon to improve. A surgeon with aspirations would definitely not miss this opportunity.

"Then respect their wishes!" Zhu Houxuan said.

"Yes!" Jiang Jianxing said.

"At present, the General Armament Department still has 500 sets of plate armor, blunderbusses, Portuguese cannons, and tiger squat cannons, all of which are ready to be shipped to the front line to equip the border troops. In addition, due to limited production capacity, it is too early to expand production capacity too much in a short period of time. In the next month, each factory can only produce sets of plate armor, blunderbusses, and Portuguese cannons." Wu Liangshan of the General Armament Department said.

"The Ministry of War still has more than 4,000 sets of plate armor, and various cold weapons will also be shipped over there," said Zhu Houxuan. These weapons and equipment were manufactured by the Royal Group for the Ministry of War in the past three years, and some have not yet been distributed.

"Yes!" Wu Liangshan said simply.

"How is the research progress of the flintlock rifle?" Zhu Houxuan suddenly asked. "Currently, the firing rate of the flintlock mechanism of the flintlock rifle is about 60%, but it is rare to reach more than 70%. The Mechanical Protection Department is improving the structural design of the flintlock mechanism. In addition, we are also looking for high-quality flint in Huguang as your highness said." Jiang Jianmin from the Mechanical Department quickly replied.

About 60%
This firing rate is very embarrassing. The firing rate of bird guns is 100%. From the literal data, the flintlock with a firing rate of 100% is faster than the bird gun with a firing rate of %. But in reality, it cannot be calculated like this, especially on the battlefield. Sometimes a bullet is enough to trigger and determine a life. Zhu Houxuan thought silently in his heart.

"Your Highness, do you want the new army to equip themselves with flintlock rifles?" Wu Liangshan saw through Zhu Houxuan's thoughts and asked bluntly.

"I do have this idea." Zhu Houxuan said, touching his chin. New equipment can always improve the combat effectiveness of the army, but judging from the performance of the current flintlock rifles, this new equipment does not seem to be ready for mass production.

"The time is still too tight. We can't produce many flintlock rifles in more than a month," said Wu Liangshan.

Zhu Houxuan nodded silently. He had completely given up the idea of ​​switching to flintlock rifles before the war.

Production and performance are the biggest reasons. Secondly, many of the new army's tactics and formations are based on matchlock guns such as bird guns. The new army's soldiers have developed muscle memory from practicing with matchlock guns. A rash change will make the new army's soldiers unable to adapt, which will affect their combat effectiveness.

This year's events were still too sudden. Zhu Houxuan had always planned many things based on the twelfth year of Zhengde.

Among them was the development of the flintlock rifle. He had originally planned to develop a flintlock rifle with qualified performance before October of the 12th year of Zhengde, then equip the new army, practice new tactics, and finally shine in the Battle of Yingzhou.

Zhu Houxuan had already written the script, but now this happened a year earlier, catching Zhu Houxuan off guard.

However, Zhu Houxuan still didn't want to give up this point of improving his combat power. He quickly thought about what to do in his mind, and he actually thought of something.

"Has the mechanical department of the flintlock pistol ever tried to produce one before?" Zhu Houxuan suddenly asked.

"Flintlock pistol?" Jiang Jianmin repeated doubtfully, "Yes, it was tested. The barrel of the flintlock pistol is short, so the loading speed is faster, but it is only accurate at about ten steps."

"Is it difficult to mass-produce flintlock pistols in the past month?" Zhu Houxuan asked directly.

"Mass production?" Jiang Jianmin thought quickly, "It's difficult. There are not enough gun barrels."

"The barrel is not long enough." Zhu Houxuan pondered for a moment, "The barrel of a flintlock pistol is not long enough. Can we cut off the barrel of a bird gun and make a flintlock pistol?"

"Yes, the barrel of a bird gun can be cut into three parts to make three flintlock pistols, but do we really have to cut it off?" Jiang Jianmin asked.

(End of this chapter)