Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 305 Repeatedly Pulling the Jurchen Man to the Point of Vomiting Blood (Part 2)

Upon receiving Zhu Jue's decree, the elite troops of Hanzhong immediately surged towards Yangcheng, Qinshui, and Gaoping as if they had gone mad.

Knowing full well that there was an ambush in the city, they still recklessly rushed in. Those who rushed in were either pushing carts full of firewood or carrying firewood on their shoulders. When they reached the vicinity of the cannon workshop, they lit the firewood and threw it around indiscriminately, causing fires everywhere. Many of the ambushing rebels were set ablaze, and the scene was in complete chaos.

This gave Gao Yingxiang another headache. The Hanzhong army was fearless and didn't care about holidays. As long as the city gates of Yangcheng, Qinshui, and Gaoping were opened and the people in the city went out to collect firewood, these guys would definitely mix in with the people and rush into the city.

The cannon workshops in Yangcheng, Qinshui, and Gaoping were quickly burned to the ground, and even the gunpowder workshops nearby were blown up. Only the artisans in the city who knew how to make cannons were not killed.

Gao Yingxiang did try to find a solution. At first, he thought of strictly checking the Yellow Pages. Any ordinary people entering or leaving Yangcheng, Qinshui, and Gaoping had to carry the Yellow Pages, and those who were not ordinary people from these three places were not allowed to enter the city.

In the end, it was all for naught. It seemed that the elite troops of Hanzhong Army all had Yellow Pages, but the Yellow Pages could not find any problems with them. Their newly built artillery workshop was still burned down by the reckless arsonists.

Later, he came up with another idea: he sent his bandits to keep an eye on the people leaving the city. Anyone going to chop firewood had to go with them and come back together, with his men following them the whole time, even if they were going out of the city to buy grain.

It was all in vain. His men sent out of the city all ran into trouble; they were either captured or killed. The elite troops of Hanzhong even put on his men's uniforms and led their men into the city in batches!

Countless of their artillery workshops have been burned down, but the craftsmen are still alive and the materials are still there, so they can rebuild artillery workshops and continue to cast cannons.

The Hanzhong army kept burning, so they could only keep rebuilding.

While Gao Yingxiang and the King of Hanzhong were arguing back and forth about the cannon workshop, Zhu Jue was also busy in the capital making cannons.

On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, with the New Year approaching, he brought Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua and others to the cannon workshop in the outer city of the northeast.

At this time, the first batch of more than fifty factory buildings had been renovated and the production of cannons had begun. Bi Maokang, Song Yingxing, Yuan You, and others were already waiting in the factory buildings.

He came to the factory where cannon barrels were processed and cannons were assembled. Inside were huge machines that were over ten feet long and hoist supports that were over ten feet high.

The cannon barrels were no longer moved manually; instead, they were hoisted onto manually pushed railcars and moved back and forth using hoists. Even the machinery used them for loading.

He stood in front of a huge boring machine and examined it carefully for a while, then asked, "Lord Meng, is there any problem processing a cannon weighing a thousand catties now?"

How do you say this?

Bi Maokang thought carefully for a moment before cautiously saying, "Your Majesty, if it were a cannon like the ones we used to make, we could build one now."

However, we cannot yet manufacture new artillery weighing over a thousand kilograms, because new artillery requires machine tool processing. For example, to increase strength, it must be forged on a forging machine, and to increase accuracy, it must be processed on a machine tool and a boring machine.

The machines we manufacture now can only process cannon barrels weighing 500 jin (250 kg). If we want to process cannon barrels weighing over 1000 jin (500 kg), we'll need to build even larger machines.

Does this mean there's a problem with the machine?

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Chang Geng, can a machine that can process cannon barrels weighing over a thousand pounds be manufactured now?"

This is different from shipbuilding. Shipbuilding can be easily scaled up, as a larger ship can accommodate more steam engines and water turbines. But building machines is not something that can be done simply by scaling up.

After thinking carefully, Song Yingxing cautiously said, "Your Majesty, it is no problem for us to simply enlarge the machine by one or two times. The key issue is the power of the steam engine."

The machines that process 500-pound cannon barrels now use the largest steam engines. If we want to process cannon barrels weighing over 1,000 pounds, we would have to build even larger steam engines.

Building a larger steam engine isn't simply a matter of scaling up; we also need to build more and larger machines to process the steam engines, which probably can't be done in a day or two, or even a month or two.

Oh, so you need to build a bigger steam engine, right?
Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue replied without hesitation, "Then you should quickly organize manpower to build a larger steam engine. Our development cannot stagnate. As long as there is a need, we must find a way to build even the largest steam engine."

Uh, you think this is just a matter of one sentence?

Song Yingxing cautiously said, "Your Majesty, I have also considered building a larger steam engine. The problem is that it requires too many manpower and materials, and it takes too much time. Another problem is the factory buildings. Your Majesty, if we want to build a larger steam engine, we will definitely need to build new factories, and not just one or two, but at least dozens."

"Your Majesty, there simply isn't enough space in the capital, nor are there any existing factories that can be converted. If we include factories, the investment would be at least several million taels of silver, and the process would take even longer."

The location for building the factory is indeed a big problem.

When he was developing the capital, he didn't think that far ahead. He just wanted to develop what he could first, and he didn't really consider the problems that would follow.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue slowly nodded and said, "Yes, you have considered everything very thoroughly."

Money is not a problem. Let alone a few million taels, even if it costs tens of millions of taels, it is not a problem as long as a larger steam engine can be built.

As for the location of the factory, that's not a big problem. If all else fails, I can order the construction of a new city specifically for the research and development of steam engines.

In short, we cannot stop our development, especially the core of the steam engine. We must continue to research and develop it and constantly improve its power.

First, build the equipment for manufacturing large steam engines and test it. If there are no problems, we will immediately build a new factory and begin mass production of large steam engines.

That's good, since none of these are problems.

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing nodded enthusiastically and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

He seemed rather eager to develop a larger steam engine.

Bi Maokang, however, was somewhat puzzled.

He thought for a moment before cautiously asking, "Your Majesty, shall we continue to renovate this factory? And shall we continue to mass-produce these 500-pound cannons?"

So, you're already preparing cannons weighing 1,000 jin (500 kg), is it really necessary to make so many more cannons weighing 500 jin (250 kg)?
Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue slowly nodded and said, "We still need to mass-produce these 500-jin cannons. We can't just sit and wait for technological development. These 500-jin cannons can already establish an advantage through sheer quantity, so let's produce more 500-jin cannons and use this to establish an advantage first."

As for the 1,000-jin cannon, we'll talk about that after Chang Geng develops the large steam engine. Then we can build the steam engine factory and the cannon factory together.

Oh, so we still need to mass-produce 500-pound cannons, right?
Upon hearing this, Bi Maokang nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

This is the role of an emperor or a CEO; to put it bluntly, it's about driving a dynasty or a company forward.

It turns out that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were thinking all sorts of things. Apart from the Hongwu Emperor and the Yongle Emperor, who promoted the development of the Ming Dynasty to a certain extent, the other dozen or so emperors were stagnating or even regressing!

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty were truly baffling. In modern terms, they thought they were just bosses, but when it came to doing things, they were no different from or even worse than ordinary workers. Some were lazy and shirked their duties, some were just going through the motions, some were daydreaming and not doing their jobs, and some were indulging in extravagance and squandering their wealth.

Anyway, they have no idea about development in their minds, and they don't know what they're thinking about all day long.

Perhaps this is partly due to the deliberate guidance of civil officials, but the emperor's ability to govern is also a major issue.

To put it bluntly, anyone who could make a huge dynasty go backward, constantly regress, until it perished, can only be described as mediocre and utterly incompetent!

Zhu Jue would never be mediocre. Whether it was a company or a dynasty, he would do everything he could to make it grow and prosper.

If it were any other emperor of the Ming Dynasty, they probably wouldn't have even given a second glance to the issue of rebels building cannons.

He immediately realized the importance of artillery and promptly began to promote its development.

(End of this chapter)