On our wedding night, my wife acted strangely.

Lin Yi put down the musket, the white smoke still lingering, making one's throat itch.

He turned to the side and coughed twice, then held the gun up to his face to examine it closely.

The barrel joint was slightly hot, and there was a thin layer of gunpowder residue on the copper ferrule.

"Let's go check out the target."

The two walked along the passageway and came to the wooden target.

The oil lamp was blown askew by the gust of air, and Su Meier reached out to pick it up and shine it on.

The lead bullet was embedded in the wooden board, leaving a round, deep pit, about half an inch into the wood.

Lin Yi put his finger into the crater and felt around.

The crater wasn't very big, and the edges curled inwards, indicating that the lead bullet penetrated at a certain speed, but the force wasn't strong enough.

If it hits a person, wearing cotton armor is fine, but wearing chainmail is risky.

However, this is a distance of twenty steps, which is considered passing.

Lin Yi straightened up and pried the lead bullet out of the wooden board and placed it in his palm.

The lead bullet was deformed in the eye, and the front end was flattened into the shape of a mushroom head.

He asked Su Meier, "How's the accuracy?"

Su Meier said, "I've tried a few shots before. Within twenty paces, about half of them hit the torso of the human-shaped target, while the other half went far away. Beyond thirty paces, there's not much accuracy; it's all about where you hit it."

Smoothbore guns, without the aid of rifling, are inherently difficult to be accurate.

Lin Yi tucked the deformed lead bullet into his sleeve.

"Alright, let's go back and check the gun barrel."

The two returned to their work station.

Su Meier brought the oil lamp closer, and Lin Yi picked up the lance and inserted it into the muzzle, scraping it against the barrel wall a couple of times. When he pulled it out, the lance tip was covered with black ash and some fine iron filings.

He rubbed the iron filings in his palm, then looked up and asked Su Meier, "How many shots has this gun fired so far?"

"Thirty shots," Su Meier said. "We started testing it the day before yesterday, firing ten shots each day, with several hours in between to let the barrel cool down."

Lin Yi inserted the lanyard back in.

This time it reached all the way in, gently scraping the innermost part of the barrel. When it was pulled out, there were several shallow marks on the head.

There were signs of burning on the bore wall.

It started to erode after thirty shots; the steel isn't hard enough.

However, to be fair, given the current level of iron smelting in the workshops, achieving this level is already quite impressive.

The Industrial Revolution was a process of gaining results over time; it couldn't be rushed.

Lin Yi put the rinsing rod back on the shelf and wiped his hands with a handkerchief: "The steel isn't hard enough, but it'll be sufficient for now."

"What does Your Highness intend to do?"

Currently, the loading speed of muskets is too slow. From pouring gunpowder to loading the bullet to pressing the percussion cap, the whole process takes at least half a minute.

What does half a minute mean on the battlefield? If it's a cavalry charge, they can cover more than a hundred paces in half a minute.

Therefore, this thing cannot be used as a single soldier's weapon; it must be used in groups.

The three rows fire in rotation. After the first row finishes firing, they retreat to reload, and then the second row moves forward to fire, and so on.

"Let's make five hundred of them first."

Su Meier's mouth formed an "O" shape. "Five hundred? That many?"

"Yes, follow this standard. Use the best steel from the workshop for the gun barrels. If it's not hard enough, make it thicker. It's better to be heavier than to have the barrel explode and hurt our own people."

"But five hundred is far too many..." Su Meier did some mental calculations. "Gun barrels are the hardest to make. A craftsman can only polish one a day at most, and even that might not be up to standard. I only have eight blacksmiths here. If we work at full capacity..."

Lin Yi was determined to stop the musket team and didn't stop Su Meier from explaining.

"If you don't have enough manpower, you can transfer people from the workshop, but remember, the people you transfer over will only do the rough processing of the gun barrels. You still have to personally supervise the final grinding and assembly."

"Sigh, Your Highness is treating me like a donkey." Su Meier pouted, her face full of reluctance.

Lin Yi smiled and kissed her on the lips: "Be good. The hardship we're going through now is for a happier future. As long as the country is unified and there's no more North-South division, we can finally have a good rest."

"Yes, yes, yes! My great dreamer! It's easy for you to say that when you're not the one suffering." Su Meier rolled her eyes, but she was clearly no longer so resistant.

While the Great Zhou Dynasty appears to be unified, the south is actually being split up by the four major families. The people are being exploited, the court is in debt, and the people are living in misery.

If this chaos could be ended sooner, Su Meier could also achieve lasting fame.

As for the world in Lin Yi's dream, Su Meier knew she would never see it in her lifetime.

Only in dreams.

Lin Yi put his arm around her waist, thought for a moment, and then added, "You need to find a way to speed up the fire cap project; it's useless if the mercury fulminate production can't keep up."

Su Meier nodded: "The Taoist priest said that the production could be doubled, but more mercury and nitric acid would be needed. Mercury is easy to obtain; there are several pharmacies in the capital that can supply it. Nitric acid is more troublesome; it has to be refined from saltpeter, which takes time."

"I'll have Lin An figure out the saltpeter issue. Just tell me how much you need."

"it is good."

Lin Yi put the musket back into the wooden box and closed the lid.

Although this thing is crude, it is already an epoch-making weapon in the Great Zhou era.

As long as there are enough of them and they are well-trained, a volley of five hundred muskets can defeat any kind of iron cavalry.

This thing is different from the Eight-Ox Crossbow. Although the latter is also very powerful, siege towers are very expensive to manufacture, so they are not as suitable as firearms.

……

The air in the basement suddenly became stuffy, and the smell of gunpowder mixed with rosin made people dizzy.

Lin Yi looked up at the ventilation opening above his head and found that the opening was too small, and natural ventilation alone was not enough.

If this continues, everyone here will inevitably suffer from lead poisoning.

"Let the craftsmen disperse; they don't need to work today."

Su Meier gave an instruction to Steward Zhou.

The craftsmen put down their work and left the basement in twos and threes.

After everyone had left, Lin Yi leaned back against the worktable, crossed his legs, and spread out a piece of paper next to the lead bullet barrel.

The breakdown diagram of the musket was drawn by Su Meier.

Lin Yi asked, "Do you have any thoughts on the candidate selection?"

Su Meier stood opposite him: "Your Highness, are you referring to the recruitment of musketeers?"

"Um."

Five hundred guns require five hundred men, and they must be able to fight, not just any ordinary laborers.

Because muskets are complicated to operate and require specific loading techniques, the person at the front of the line must not be afraid of death, and the people in the back must not be flustered.

Lin Yi said, "I've thought about it, and we can select a group from those eliminated from the special forces. When Zhao Dongqing was selected, more than 500 people went in, and now there are 400 left, which means more than 100 people were eliminated. It's not that these people are not physically fit, but that they do not meet the extreme requirements of the special forces in certain individual indicators. But they are more than qualified for the musketeer team."

Su Meier nodded and said, "Indeed, this group of people is obedient and has undergone high-intensity training, so it is indeed much faster than starting from scratch."

"Yes, pick 100 people from here first, and select the remaining 400 from the Shenji Battalion. The standards don't need to be too high; as long as they are brave, have steady hands, and aren't afraid of making noise, they'll be fine."

"Not afraid of making a noise? What do you mean?"

"This gun is so loud that if someone who hasn't experienced it before hears it for the first time, nine times out of ten they'll flinch. So when selecting people, we have to fire a shot first to let them hear it, and whoever can stand still will be kept."

Su Meier chuckled: "Hehehe, Your Highness's selection method is quite direct."

"Whether it's direct or not, as long as it works."