Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 432 New Toys

As soon as he entered the Daming Dao, there was a breath of freshness rushing towards his face, which lifted the spirits of everyone who had seen too much death and suffering along the way, and their chests were as heavy as a boulder.

The first thing that appeared in front of everyone was the spacious and smooth concrete road... Do you remember?Some things in Nanyang, such as Daming Road, will be produced soon, and the cement road is no exception.Tens of thousands of people are waving hoes and shovels against the scorching sun, leveling the roadbed, and laying a nearly [-] cm thick cement slurry. This cement road is like a giant dragon, crossing mountains and ridges, crossing countless towns, and passing through Daming, Guangning, Shunde, etc. The three prefectures are connected.On both sides of the road are endless wheat fields. The wheat has already eared and produced wheat grains, swaying gently with the wind, which is pleasing to the eye.Along the river, waterwheels are constantly turning, bringing river water ashore to irrigate the fields on both banks. In places that are not easy to irrigate, donkeys are circling around the irrigation well, and a water dragon sprays out from the pump mouth of the screw pump.Alfalfa, sweet potatoes, radishes and other crops are planted in the thin fields that are not suitable for growing delicate crops such as rice and wheat. Every few miles you will see a large horse farm. Those alfalfa, sweet potatoes, radishes and the like Most of the things are used to feed the horses, to make the horses fat and strong.In fact, Hebei has never lacked war horses since ancient times, but in troubled times, which tyrant on one side of the separatist regime does not have some cavalry?As long as you have enough financial and material resources, it is not difficult to collect a large number of war horses.The Tianxiong Army made a fortune in Dengzhou last year. Lu Xiangsheng used this windfall to quickly collect six to seven thousand war horses in Hebei and Mongolia. Equip the assault cavalry battalion that was formed last June—that is, the saber cavalry. If it is too poor, it will be distributed to thousands of households and post offices in various places. Whether it is patrolling or delivering letters, it will always come in handy and will not be wasted. .

Cotton planting in Daming Road is also doing well. Along the way, you can see stretches of cotton fields, and the growth is gratifying. At least [-] to [-] catties of lint can be harvested per mu of cotton field. This harvest is quite good.In addition, there are a large number of factories, such as grain processing factories, textile factories, ordnance factories, soap factories, glass factories, metallurgical factories, cement factories... Large and small factories form large and small industrial areas, absorbing immigrants from other places refugees.To put it bluntly, Daming Road is like a huge reservoir. Most of the refugees who came from Shanxi and the farmers who went bankrupt due to various natural and man-made disasters in Hebei were absorbed by it. In case the reservoir collapsed Yes, the consequences are disastrous.It can be seen that Lu Xiangsheng has managed the three Daming Mansions very well, and it can be said that all industries are prosperous. In this troubled world, such a prosperous scene is really rare in the north.The red lady sighed: "If all the faculties in the world have [-]% of the ability and mind of Mr. Lu, the lives of ordinary people will be much easier."

Yang Menglong rolled his eyes: "Did I do a bad job?"

The red lady snorted: "You did a good job, but unfortunately, more than half of it is due to the prefect Fang Zhifu. Without him working day and night to take care of the big and small affairs, how can Nanyang have such a situation?"

Yang Menglong let out an "uh" and was speechless.

Looking at the rapidly expanding towns, Li Yan admired from the bottom of his heart: "The government is well-organized and the people are harmonious, and all industries are flourishing. It's really a paradise!"

When the group arrived in Daming City, Lu Xiangsheng brought people to welcome him early. He and Yang Menglong hadn't met for more than a year, so they finally met. Naturally, they were very happy. They looked Yang Menglong up and down and smiled: "You It’s not quite the same as before.”

Yang Menglong was very excited: "What's different? Is it more heroic and taller, and the domineering side is leaking?"

Lu Xiangsheng smiled: "No, your face is rounder than before, almost like Grandpa Sun."

The red lady squirted on the spot. Yang Menglong pinched his round baby face and smiled dryly: "I...I've just been a bit greedy in the past few months and gained some weight. I just need to lose some weight." Looking around, "Where is Duke Huan of Cao? Why is he nowhere to be seen?"

Lu Xiangsheng said: "Grandpa Cao? He opened a lead mine, and he is busy mining and smelting all day long. He is very busy."

Yang Menglong felt sorry for him: "Wu Yong is also like this. For several months, he only cared about the business of the leather boot factory and ignored local affairs... Sure enough, an eunuch who doesn't want to make money is not a good eunuch. !"

Cao Huachun burst into tears... I also want to make money, I also want to open a factory and earn tens of thousands of taels of silver a year, why is there such a big gap between the same eunuchs?
It should be said that Cao Huan, a dead eunuch, was quite discerning. The area around Daming Mansion is rich in lead mines, and the proportion of firearms in the Tianxiong Army is increasing. Whether it is training or fighting, the lead mines flying all over the sky The bullets are all white money!The sulfuric acid plant also uses a large amount of lead, and the demand is astonishing. Doing the lead mine business is sure to make a profit.What's rare is that this dead eunuch is more disciplined while making money, and he doesn't dare to take advantage of the common people and disregard human life, because he knows very well that he can comfortably mine and make money here, thanks to Lu Xiangsheng. For the position in his heart, it is easy to change to a more obedient eunuch. It will definitely not be good for Lu Xiangsheng to deliberately break the rules and make it difficult for Lu Xiangsheng.In a sense, he is not a qualified supervisor, but he is barely a helper, at least he will not hinder Lu Xiangsheng, and he is willing to do his best when Lu Xiangsheng needs help, which is relatively rare.Of course, don’t count on him to govern the region. The helper Chongzhen found for Lu Xiangsheng was Fan Jingwen, a native of Wuqiao, Hebei, who was an official. He was a Jinshi during the Wanli period. He was upright and talented. , Govern the Daming Road flourishingly.

Time was short, so Yang Menglong didn't have time to meet Fan Jingwen, after a hasty meal, he pulled Lu Xiangsheng aside, and said mysteriously: "I have something nice, I don't know if you are interested in it? "

Lu Xiangsheng smiled: "I also have something nice to show you."

Yang Menglong was happy: "Where is it? Show me quickly."

Lu Xiangsheng asked someone to bring a new-style musket with considerable weight and handed it to Yang Menglong: "The technicians took a lot of effort to get it out, take a look."

Yang Menglong fiddled with it up and down, and found that the design of this musket was more reasonable. The butt, trigger, and bayonet bracket had all been modified a lot, so it was comfortable to use anyway.Best of all, it has a hammer!He tried to pull the trigger, and there was a crisp impact sound from the gun. He was horrified: "Flintlock gun!?"

Lu Xiangsheng gave him a thumbs up: "Excellent, you can see the key at a glance! Yes, replace the match with a piece of flint. After loading the ammunition, you only need to pull the trigger, and the hammer hits the flint to burst out sparks. The ammunition is detonated and fired, which is very convenient." Pointing to the barrel, "Shi Sheng said that he saw a kind of musket in the Dengzhou Armory. There are threads in the barrel, and the fired bullets fly straighter and farther. Those technicians were very interested, and tried every means to carve threads into the barrel..."

Yang Menglong stuffed his fingers into it, but no, there were really circles of threads inside.He exclaimed in surprise, "Successful?"

Lu Xiangsheng shook his head: "No, this thread processing is too difficult. The technicians exhausted all methods, but they can only carve a section of thread less than one foot near the muzzle... But this is already very remarkable. According to the test, with this After the first thread, the effective firing range of the musket has increased by eight to nine feet, and the accuracy has also been greatly improved. If you use it to shoot a target thirty feet away, at least seven out of ten rounds will hit the target."

Like the Heluo New Army, the Tianxiong Army also uses pointed-headed concave-bottomed bullets. The advantage of this kind of bullet is that it has a very powerful armor-piercing ability. After the bullet hits the human body, it will roll irregularly, or even explode. When it goes in, there is a small hole the size of a thumb, but when it comes out, it is a hole the size of the mouth of a bowl.But the big problem with the pointed and concave bottom bullet is that the bullet is more unstable than the round lead bullet. The round bullet will fly around when it hits 100 meters, and it will fly around the sky when it hits 60 meters at most. It can only fire when it reaches 45 meters or even 30 meters, otherwise it will be useless.This style of play will cause them to suffer heavy casualties under the firepower of Houjin, but once they are pushed within 45 meters by them, the elite of the Eight Banners of Houjin must be defeated.Lu Xiangsheng was saddened by the heavy casualties of the musketeers in every battle. Although soldiers are destined to be used for consumption, every general has the responsibility to minimize casualties on the premise of winning. This is the responsibility of the general.Well now, with rifling, the effective range of muskets has been greatly increased, and the accuracy has improved by leaps and bounds. Presumably, when they face Hou Jin again, the casualties of the musketeers of the Tianxiong Army will no longer be so great.

Yang Menglong asked: "What method do you use to insert the lead bullets into the rifling and rotate along the rifling?"

Lu Xiangsheng took out a lead bullet and handed it to him.

This lead bullet is very soft and can be flattened when pressed hard.Like the pointed concave bottom lead bullet, it is slightly smaller than the caliber of the barrel. It is wrapped in linen cloth soaked in tung oil and can be easily loaded into the gun chamber.The most amazing thing is that a hole the size of a needle eye is dug in the bottom of the concave. When the propellant is fired, the explosive gas enters the small hole, the lead bullet is heated, expands, fits into the rifling just right, and whizzes out at high speed.This is basically the same routine as the Minie gun, but it is obviously not at the same level as the Minie gun: shoot a Minie gun at a two-meter-high wall 400 meters away, eight out of ten bullets can hit, and it Maybe only three or four shots will hit.

However, it is enough to deal with those wild boars!
Lu Xiangsheng said with some distress: "This gun is good, but the misfire rate is too high. If you pull the trigger ten times, only seven times at most will it fire successfully."

Yang Menglong curled his lips.Is this too high?This is already very low, okay?When foreigners first came up with flintlock guns, the misfire rate could be controlled at [-]%, and they would cry out of excitement!"What went wrong?" he asked.

Lu Xiangsheng said: "The technicians said that it is because the spring is not strong enough, and the sparks fired by the firing device are not enough, so it is often difficult to detonate the gunpowder. So they are still studying how to improve the firing device to make it shoot out more and bigger sparks. "

It is common sense that the larger the Mars, the higher the temperature and the easier it will be to detonate explosive charges.The technicians' idea was not wrong, but it was a bit over the top. According to their idea, unless they could get a spring with stronger elasticity, the misfire rate would not be reduced. But they didn't know that they could use a more sensitive launcher. Medicine can make the success rate of firing jump by leaps and bounds, for example...

With an evil smile, Yang Menglong took out a box of yellowed cotton, tore off a piece and stuffed it into the gun barrel.Lu Xiangsheng also tore off a piece, feeling a little wet, a little curious: "What are you doing? Stuffing a ball of wet cotton into it, trying to damage this musket?"

Yang Menglong didn't speak. After stuffing the cotton with a cleaning rod, he stuffed the lead bullets in. Then he raised the gun, aimed at a tree, and pulled the trigger.

With a bang, a slender tongue of flame burst out from the muzzle of the gun, and the buckshot shot out screaming. The body of the unlucky tree shook, a large piece of bark was lifted off, and a large cloud of white sawdust exploded.

Lu Xiangsheng was startled: "This cotton..."

Yang Menglong didn't speak, but tore off another piece and stuffed it in, reloaded, aimed, pulled the trigger, and with a bang, another hole appeared in the tree's body.He continued to reload, aim, and fire. He fired more than a dozen shots in a row, but none of them misfired. As long as there was ammunition in the chamber and he pulled the trigger, a tongue of flame would inevitably burst out, and then it would be the deadly lead. bomb!
Lu Xiangsheng stared at the rapidly shrinking ball of cotton in the box, with ecstasy in his eyes, and he closed the box, desperately preventing that bastard from shooting again.Yang Menglong resentfully put down the flintlock, pointed to the cotton in the box, and said, "This is the new toy I just made, gun cotton!"

(End of this chapter)