On our wedding night, my wife acted strangely.

Chapter 377 Times have changed, how should you deal with this shot?

The next morning, Mimi was still asleep, like a quiet kitten.

Lin Yi's biological clock started acting up again; many times he wanted to sleep in, but he just couldn't fall asleep.

There's nothing I can do; if you can't sleep, don't force it. Wait until you're sleepy.

So Lin Yi gently pulled his arm out without waking Mi Mi.

Actually, this action was unnecessary, because she is very sleepy and once she falls asleep, she won't wake up even if there is thunder.

At this moment, however, Mi Mi had a glistening drool on her lips, a slight smile on her face, and was probably having a sweet dream.

Lin Yi bent down and gently kissed her forehead, then got up, dressed, and walked out of the main room.

The cold air on a winter morning rushes into your lungs, instantly waking you up.

Lin Yi figured the girls probably weren't up yet, so he didn't ask anyone to wake them and walked out of Tingsong Courtyard on his own.

When I arrived at the study, Lin An was already waiting, and Qiangzi also brought over breakfast.

"Good morning, Your Highness."

"Hmm." Lin Yi took the hot tea from Lin An and took a sip. Then, watching Qiangzi set out the breakfast, he said to Lin An, "I'm going to the entertainment center today. You don't need to come with me. Just have Qiangzi prepare the horse."

Lin An nodded: "Yes, Your Highness, there is one more thing. Yesterday, General Yue Nan came to deliver a message saying that the shifts at the four gates of the palace have all been set up, and the 5,000 Shenji Battalion soldiers are working in three shifts, and they are currently operating normally. Of the more than 2,800 Imperial Guards, 1,200 are willing to stay as laborers, while the rest are children of high-ranking officials and have all been sent home."

"OK."

Lin Yi asked a few more questions, which Lin An answered one by one.

Then the two went out, and Lin Yi sat down to eat alone.

......

There weren't many pedestrians on Chang'an Avenue in winter, and it was still very early. Most of the shops were not open yet, with only a few early-rising steamed bun shops steaming.

An old man selling tofu pudding was squatting on the ground, holding a copper ladle in his hand. He saw a black horse pass by, glanced up at it, and then lowered his head to continue stirring his soy milk.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Lin Yi arrived at Hero Entertainment City.

This place is now the liveliest spot in the capital. It's nothing special during the day, but at night it's brightly lit and bustling with people coming and going, like a market.

However, it was still early, and the main gate was closed. Only the side gate was ajar, and two gatekeepers were rubbing their hands and stamping their feet.

Seeing Lin Yi riding over, the two were startled and quickly bowed and stepped forward.

"Your Highness!"

"Hmm, where is Manager Su?"

"Your Highness, Manager Su arrived early this morning and is downstairs!"

Lin Yi dismounted and tossed the reins to Qiangzi.

"You wait outside."

"Yes."

Lin Yi entered through the side door and passed through the casino area in the front hall.

The gamblers at this time are all those who stayed here the night before, their eyes red as they shout "big" and "small".

Most of the remaining gambling tables were covered with cloths, chairs were stacked together against the wall, and several handymen were sweeping and wiping the tables.

After passing through the corridor of the bathing area, I arrived at the innermost iron door with a brass lock, and a person was standing next to it.

He was a manager under Su Meier, surnamed Zhou, in his thirties, and very thin.

"Your Highness! Miss Su is waiting for you inside."

"Hmm." Manager Zhou took out his key, unlocked the door, and pulled it open.

Inside the door is a stone staircase leading down.

Behind the stone steps was a large basement, with two layers of blue bricks on all four sides, with a layer of cotton felt sandwiched in between for soundproofing.

This place used to be the cellar of the Hero Casino, used to store wine and miscellaneous items. Su Meier converted it into a workshop.

Several oil lamps were lit in the basement, making it brightly lit.

The dozen or so craftsmen were divided into three groups, each squatting in front of their own worktables, busy with their tasks.

They were polishing iron pipes, shaving wood, and two others were melting something together next to a small furnace.

The air was filled with the smell of iron filings and rosin.

Su Meier stood next to the innermost workbench, wearing a plain blue narrow-sleeved shirt, her hair held up with a wooden hairpin, her face clean and tidy without any powder or lipstick.

Seeing Lin Yi come down, she turned around and bowed slightly.

"The prince has arrived."

"Hmm." Lin Yi walked over and glanced around. "Not bad. When were these done?"

"It started last month. I looked at the blueprints and instructions that Your Highness gave me many times. I found the best blacksmiths and carpenters to make the parts separately. Each person only made their own part. I don't know what the whole thing is."

Lin Yi nodded.

That's right, we must do a good job of keeping things confidential.

"And what about the final assembly?"

"I personally pieced it together right here on this table, and I am the only one who has seen the whole thing from beginning to end."

Lin Yi walked to the worktable and looked at the wooden box.

The box lid was open, and a brand-new musket lay on the black cloth.

Lin Yi picked it up and found it a bit heavy, so he turned it over to take a look.

The gun barrel is made of high-quality steel and the surface is polished very smoothly, but if you look closely, there are still a few forging marks that have not been completely removed.

The stock is made of walnut wood with a fine grain, and the grip area is polished for a comfortable feel.

The joint between the barrel and the stock is secured with a copper hoop, which is tightened very tightly.

He raised the gun and looked inside through the muzzle.

It has no rifling on the inner wall of the barrel, making it a smoothbore gun.

The blueprints Lin Yi gave Su Meier were for a smoothbore musket, because with the current level of iron smelting, it was impossible to make a qualified rifling.

It's already quite an achievement to achieve this level of precision in gun barrels.

He laid the gun flat and checked the position of the touch valve.

The fire cap is pressed against the fire door and held in place by a spring clip.

The trigger is connected to an iron rod, at the end of which is a hammer. When the trigger is pulled, the hammer strikes the percussion cap, which ignites the gunpowder and propels the lead bullet out.

The firing mechanism was a bit cruder than he had expected, but the principle was correct.

"What kind of fire cap did you use?"

Su Meier took out a small iron box from the drawer under the table, opened the lid, and inside were more than thirty copper-cased fire caps.

"I used mercury fulminate as a catalyst, as written on Your Highness's blueprints. However, mercury fulminate is hard to come by, so I found a Taoist priest who knows alchemy. He has mercury, and he prepared a small amount, but it was enough."

Lin Yi picked up a cap of flammable liquid, examined it, and nodded, asking, "How is the stability of mercury fulminate?"

"So far there haven't been any problems, but I had someone try it, and it doesn't work very well after getting damp."

this is normal.

Mercury fulminate is susceptible to moisture and must be stored wrapped in oiled paper.

"Where's the gunpowder?"

Su Meier took out another cloth bag, untied the rope to show him, and inside were black, fine-grained gunpowder.

Lin Yi pinched a little bit, rubbed it in his palm, and then brought it close to his nose to smell it.

It has a strong nitrate smell and a sulfur smell as well. The particles are basically uniform in size, so it seems that it has been granulated.

As expected of Su Meier, she is truly intelligent.

Who made this batch of gunpowder?

"It's that same Taoist priest. He used to refine elixirs in Zhongnan Mountain, but later he came down the mountain and opened a small shop in the capital selling medicinal herbs. I spent five hundred taels of silver to invite him here, and now he lives in the courtyard behind the entertainment center, doing just this one thing every day."

"What about lead bullets?"

Su Meier pointed to a wooden bucket in the corner, which contained hundreds of round lead bullets, each about the size of a thumb.

Lin Yi walked over, picked up one, and weighed it in his hand.

"The size is okay, but it's not perfectly round. Did you use a mold to cast it?"

"Yes, they were cast one by one using metal molds."

"The precision of the mold needs to be improved; the rounder the lead bullet, the more accurate it will be when fired."

"Okay." Su Meier nodded and noted it down.

Lin Yi put the lead bullets back into the bucket and patted the lead powder off his hands.

"Okay, let's take him out and try."

Su Meier raised an eyebrow and glanced at the end of the basement: "No need to go out, there's a target position down there."

After saying that, she led Lin Yi inside, turned a corner past a brick wall, and behind it was a narrow passageway, about twenty steps long.

At the end of the passageway stood a thick wooden plank, and in front of the plank were sandbags piled up to half a person's height.

"I had this dug out specifically for testing the gun," Su Meier said. "It's covered with blue bricks and cotton felt, so it can't be heard from outside."

Lin Yi nodded.

He trusted Su Meier's arrangements; otherwise, he wouldn't have entrusted such an important matter to her.

He walked to the workbench and began loading the gun, first pouring a certain amount of gunpowder into the muzzle and measuring it with a measuring cylinder.

Then insert a piece of oiled paper as a stopper, and then insert a lead bullet.

Pick up the ramrod and insert it into the muzzle to compact the bullet and gunpowder, then finally attach the percussion cap to the touch hole.

He didn't do the filling process quickly; he checked almost every step.

Su Meier stood to the side, remaining silent throughout.

She had never seen Lin Yi do such a thing before.

Those hands, usually used to hold knives or teacups, were surprisingly adept at these delicate tasks, each step precise and skillful.

Loading complete.

Lin Yi raised the musket and aimed it through the simple sight at the end of the barrel at the wooden target twenty paces away.

Take a deep breath.

Pull the trigger.

With a click, the hammer came crashing down.

boom--!