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Zhao Han did not occupy all the iron mines, and allowed the local gentry to continue to operate their mines and iron factories.In order to concentrate blacksmiths on making firecrackers, some simple work can be contracted out to private ironworks.Especially the iron sheet of the cotton armor, there is no technical difficulty at all.

In the past few months, there have been more than 300 sets of cotton armor made by Weaponry.

Cotton armor can resist hacking and bows and arrows, but it has limited effect against stabbing, let alone defending against firecrackers.That thing is actually a set of cotton clothes with iron sheets embedded on the surface, which is much lighter than traditional armor.

At the same time, Tian Younian also gave a suggestion to recruit bamboo craftsmen to weave helmets.

This kind of bamboo helmet can prevent arrows and knives.Although the effect is limited, the advantage is that the cost is low and the manufacturing speed is very fast.If you want to increase the defensiveness, you can also weave a few pieces of iron into it when fabricating.

Zhao Han took the gun and said with a smile, "Come on, follow me to the school grounds outside the city."

Observing while walking, this bird gun is nearly one meter long.The gun barrel is thin at the front and thick at the back, and there is a trigger, which can move the ramie rope by pulling the trigger.

After Zhao Han pulled the trigger a few times, he understood how it worked.

Ramie rope is slow-burning, and its effect is similar to that of incense.With this device, the matchlock gun does not need to be specially ignited, and the gunpowder can be ignited by pulling the trigger.

This kind of bird gun should actually be called the Malacca matchlock gun.

Zhao Han asked curiously, "How is the barrel made?"

Song Yingxing explained: "First build the iron stiles, and then wrap the iron stiles with red-hot steel and beat them continuously. After many times of joining, the tubes can be formed. Then, the square steel cones are penetrated into the tubes and rotated to make the tube walls If it is as smooth as a mirror, there will be no hindrance to the launch of the medicine.”

Gradually approaching the school grounds, Zhao Han couldn't help asking: "It's not easy to blow up, is it?"

Song Yingxing could only say: "Sooner or later, the blunderbuss will explode, but the blunderbuss I made must be hundreds of times better than those made by the imperial court. First of all, it is better to use charcoal to make a furnace fire than coal. Secondly, the barrel of the blunderbuss They are all made of steel, not wrought iron. Of course, if you put too much medicine, it may still explode."

Song Yingxing didn't know how to smelt Sugang, but he knew the Guangnan Guangang method, which is the kind of group steel smelted in Foshan.

"That's so troublesome," said Zhao Han. "Without long-term training, it is difficult for soldiers to get the right amount of medicine. Can you determine the appropriate amount of medicine first, and then wrap it in an oiled paper shell, which can prevent moisture and drench at ordinary times. When fighting, soldiers Hold the paper shell in your hand, tear it apart with your teeth, and then fill the shell with the medicine in the gun?"

"This method is wonderful!" Song Yingxing said happily.

Walking to the gate of the school grounds, Song Yingxing asked again: "There is also a shotgun in Zongzhen, do you need to build it?"

"Is a shotgun different from a shotgun?" Zhao Han didn't understand.

Song Yingxing explained: "The shotgun looks like a long spear, and two people are required to control it. The bird gun is exhausted after a hundred steps (the longest range), but the shotgun can shoot more than two hundred steps."

Zhao Han finally figured it out. The shotgun was the gun used in the Opium War. The barrel of that thing was higher than a human.

"No need," Zhao Han ordered, "only make bird guns, the shotgun is too difficult to operate."

Song Yingxing said: "There is also an enemy of ten thousand people, which is a sharp weapon for defending the city."

Zhao Han asked, "What is the enemy of ten thousand people?"

Song Yingxing described in detail: "Using a hollow clay ball dried in the shade, stuff gunpowder, add poisonous fire, divine fire and the like. After the medicine is safe, surround it with a wooden frame, or use wooden barrels to mold the clay. When the enemy attacks the city, then Light the fuse and throw it down the city, and the enemy's soldiers and horses will be out of luck."

Poison fire, that is, adding arsenic, cinnabar, feces, silver embroidery (residue from refining silver ore) and other things to gunpowder.

Shenhuo, that is, adding cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, borax, magnetic powder, chili powder, etc. to gunpowder.

In other words, the Ming Dynasty fiddled with many exotic firearms.Even as early as when Zhu Di was in distress, landmines had already appeared. Zhu Di's Yan army almost collapsed when they stepped on the mines, and they didn't know how those landmines were detonated.

Zhao Han understood immediately, this thing is a large grenade.

However, the outer shell is made of mud, and wooden strips are used to hold it in fear of the mud being broken.

It is even more insane to use a wooden barrel to hold it. It can no longer be called a grenade, but a bomb the size of a barrel.

It must not be thrown far, and can only be used to defend the city.

Zhao Han asked: "Can you use ceramics to make the shell? The mountains under my control are full of white clay, so I can fire ceramics. Make some small ten-thousand enemies, which can also be thrown in field battles. The fragments of ceramic explosions can also kill the enemy."

"This method is feasible." Song Yingxing nodded.

I don't know if the European missionaries saw the grenadiers using ceramic bombs, and would think that Zhao Han was violent.

How expensive porcelain is in Europe!

When they came to the barracks, the officers immediately came to see him, and Zhao Han asked them to go to drill the army immediately.

Walking to the shooting range where the archers are trained, Zhao Han opened the gunpowder bag and found that it was actually granulated black gunpowder inside. He couldn't help but ask, "Why is this medicine in black granule?"

"Gunpowder for guns and cannons are all of this kind." Song Yingxing replied.

Black granule gunpowder was born in the late Tang Dynasty and was made by Taoist alchemy.

But it was really used in actual combat on a large scale since the Yuan Dynasty.The Yuan Dynasty bronze cannon unearthed in Wuwei in later generations contained granular gunpowder.In the mines unearthed in Hohhot at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, remnants of granular black powder were also found.

Zhao Han became even more amazed, and asked, "Is this all the gunpowder made by the imperial court?"

Song Yingxing sighed: "Many of the gunpowder distributed to officers and soldiers by the imperial court are unusable, and the generals have to pay for the gunpowder themselves."

According to Xu Guangqi's account, due to the poor quality of gunpowder and the poor manufacture of bird guns, the firearms troops of the Ming army sometimes could not even penetrate the heavy armor of the Tartars.

Zhao Shixin, governor of the Beijing camp, also said: "The gunpowder made by crafty craftsmen is extremely poor, and they are prevaricated. When the generals of the army receive the gunpowder, they sell it cheaply to buy good medicine."

Are craftsmen really cunning?

Not also!

Officials deduct the cost of making gunpowder in various ways, and no matter how good a craftsman is, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice.

It's really not that the technology of the Ming Dynasty is not good, but that the government is completely corrupt.

Zhao Han retreated fifty steps away, and asked Song Yingxing how to reload the ammunition, and then aimed at the target in front of him.

"boom!"

The smoke dissipated, and the target remained the same.

I don't know where the bullet went.

The onlookers were a little embarrassed and embarrassed to laugh.

Song Yingxing said: "It's normal for someone who is new to the bird's gun to miss the target."

After reloading the ammunition, Zhao Han walked forward with a smile, walked to a distance of thirty steps, and pulled the trigger again to fire the gun.

"boom!"

This time it actually hit the edge of the target.

Everyone shouted for the shot, and Song Yingxing was also surprised: "The second bullet can hit it, Zongzhen is also very talented."

Asshole fired the second bullet. Before Zhao Han crossed, he was considered a small shooting expert in the company, and he was fed with countless ammunition.

But Zhao Han was quite surprised that a musket like a bird gun could achieve such accuracy.

Mainly due to the very long barrel, which is almost one meter.

Of course, the firecracker presented by Song Yingxing is a strictly crafted boutique.If we increase manpower and increase production, even if the quality control is stricter, the overall quality will drop a lot.

This kind of blunderbuss still has to fire a row of guns, and it is difficult to achieve results by shooting individually.

Zhao Han said with a smile: "This bird gun is not bad, it will belong to me from now on."

Now the senior generals in the army, the ones with the strictest rules and the best discipline are the troops trained by Li Zheng.

Zhao Han decided to let Li Zhengtong lead the firearms battalion. There are only a few dozen firearms for the time being, and there will be hundreds of them in a year.

"Is there still a shortage of gunpowder raw materials?" Zhao Han asked.

Song Yingxing replied: "Saltpeter must be purchased from Ningdu County, and there is no shortage of other raw materials."

Ningdu County is adjacent to the southeast of Yongfeng County. Merchants who sell saltpeter can transport the goods to Xingguo County to take a small road, and then transport the goods to Ji'an along the Ganjiang River.

There is also a more convenient route, all the way to Ganzhou, and then from Ganzhou to Ji'an.

However, Ganzhou is tightly guarded and is not allowed to transport strategic materials such as saltpeter.

Zhao Han urged: "Hurry up to build firecrackers. Craftsmen who do well and quickly can be promoted and rewarded for reuse. If there are craftsmen who can improve their craftsmanship, they will also be rewarded!"

Chapter 187 [Happy Gathering]

Mrs. Lou brought people from Jingxingyuan, including Fei Rumei, Zhao Zhenfang, Yingchun, Dongfu, etc., as well as Fei Chun's parents and younger brother (three years old).

Of course, there is also Fei Yinghuan's youngest son, Fei Rugao who is only two years old.

The excuse for their trip was to move to Fujian and live with Fei Yinghuan, who was an official abroad.

"Is that Nanchang City? The city walls are so high!" Fei Rumei was 15 years old, she looked very similar to her sister, but her personality was more outgoing and lively.

No wonder Fei Rumei was amazed, the city wall of Nanchang was 9.3 meters high and 6.7 meters thick.Not counting the compound soil and stone foundations, there is a city wall as deep as 3.5 meters underground—you can’t even dig a tunnel to get in.

In order to enhance the defense, the city gates were reduced to seven, and each gate was built with a urn, and each urn had a thousand-jin gate.

As for the moat, it is 35 meters wide and 5 meters deep.

If you want to attack the city, first fill in the moat, which is already a big project.

If there is no internal response, it is impossible to break through Nanchang City!

Zhao Zhenfang ran out and said, "Second Sister, Mother tells you not to run around, go back to the cabin quickly."

Fei Rumei said: "I didn't run around, I just came out to see what's strange."

"Go in quickly." Zhao Zhenfang said.

Fei Rumei curled her lips, turned around and went back to the cabin, and took another look at Nanchang City with nostalgia.

Zhao Zhenfang followed and said with a smile, "Mother, the second sister is back."

"Don't walk around here, go out after Nanchang." Lou urged.

"Why?" Fei Rumei was rather curious.

Lou did not want to explain, but said, "You will know in a few days."

Zhao Zhenfang asked: "Mother, I heard that there are rebels in Ji'an Mansion, aren't we afraid of being robbed by rebels when we pass by Ji'an Mansion?"

"Not afraid." Lou's smile was weird.

Today's Zhao Zhenfang is very affectionate with Lou Shi, and she already treats Lou Shi like her own mother.

Just because Lou Shi himself treated her well, when the news of Zhao Han's incident came back, he treated her even more kindly.Even in private, Jing Xingyuan's domestic slaves called Zhao Zhenfang "Miss Three".

Zhao Zhenfang opened the porthole and silently watched the scenery on the shore.

She couldn't wait. She heard that her brother was also in Fujian, so she could finally be reunited with him.

Encountering the Chaoguan in front, after queuing up to pay the money, the big ship finally passed through smoothly, and Lou felt relieved.

Next is Zhao Han's territory!

Li Maofang, the governor of Jiangxi, has been recalled to Beijing, but the banknotes he set up privately are still there, and Ding Kuichu, the governor of the left, is very happy to collect the money.

Zhu Xieyuan, the new governor of Jiangxi and the governor of the five southern provinces, is still in Guizhou, and it is estimated that he has not received any news.

But, Zhu Guoxun, the commander-in-chief of Jiangxi, has already taken up his post, and went straight to Jiujiang by boat to take over the navy from Jiangzhou Bingbei.

Zhu Guoxun used to fight naval battles in Fujian, accumulating military merits by fighting pirates, and was promoted to deputy commander in chief because of his participation in the destruction of Liu Xiang.He naturally knows how to fight in water, and he looks down on the inland navy, thinking that defeating Zhao Han's navy is easy.

At this moment, while he was practicing in Poyang Lake, he sent someone to contact Zheng Zhilong, hoping to buy some artillery to equip the ship.

The officers, soldiers and rebels in Jiangxi are upgrading their weapons and equipment!

When the boat docked at Fengcheng Wharf, Lou sent people ashore to buy food, and at the same time called Fei Lin and Ling.

"Ma'am!" Fei Lin and his wife saluted respectfully.

Lou smiled and said, "Sit down."

"Mrs. Xie." The couple sat down carefully.

Lou asked, "Do you know where this trip is going?"

Ling replied, "Go to Fujian."

Lou shook his head: "Go to Ji'an."

"Ji'an is the territory of the rebels." Fei Lin said in surprise.

The name of Luling Bandit Zhao has long spread throughout Jiangxi.What's more, the prefect of Guangxin was defeated and killed, and only a few hundred of the more than 4000 Xiangyong fled back. The mention of Zhao thief on the Qianshan Mountain turned pale.

Mrs. Lou smiled and said, "The thief Zhao from Luling is Brother Han."

"Han...Brother Han!" The couple were startled from ear to ear, staring at Lou with wide eyes.

Lou said again: "Your son is a senior official under Brother Han, who helps Brother Han manage money and food."

The couple didn't feel joy, but they were so shocked that they went limp, as if half of the sky had fallen.

They are house slaves, even if they are ambitious, they are not too greedy for money, and they will be the big stewards of Ehu Fei's family from now on.Ling's family was even more tamed and submissive, and she had long since extinguished her desire to be a wife, and would never call herself "Mrs. Ling".