Emperor Zhengde of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 65 Fulfilling the Mission
Qi Jingtong was very curious about the artillery used by the Francopters. He boarded the captured Francopter warships, and the surrendered Francopters were all tied up.

They all knelt on the deck, and Da Ming's axemen behind them stared angrily, as if they were ready to chop off their heads all the time.

But Qi Jingtong ignored the group of captives after boarding the Franji warship, but went straight to the forts, and began to check the Franji artillery on these forts.

These Franco cannons are composed of a mother gun and a child gun. The mother gun has a slender body and a small caliber.

There are gun lugs on both sides of the blunderbuss, which can support the gun body and adjust the shooting height by looking down, which is why their accuracy is very high.

The child guns are similar to small fire guns. Each mother gun is equipped with six child guns, which can be pre-loaded with ammunition. During battle, they can be loaded into the mother gun in turn for firing, thus saving the time for loading ammunition.

The Ming cannon is to load the cannon, and then fill the shells. The speed is slow, and the interval is long. It is almost necessary to fill once after firing a cannon.

Qi Jingtong discovered that the advantage of this Franco cannon is that it can directly prepare twelve rounds of ammunition at a time, enter the cannon chamber in turn, and shoot from a long distance.

Looking at these Franco cannons, he was secretly happy. Couldn't the strengths of these cannons be fully used in the improvement of my Daming's firearms?

His Majesty ordered him to train a strong Ming navy within a year. With such advanced weapons, wouldn't it be possible to rule the world?
Qi Jingtong returned in triumph. Behind him were six Franco aircraft warships and artillery, as well as nearly [-] Franco aircraft prisoners of war.

He returned to the naval headquarters and began to write a memorial to the court.

For many days.

The craftsmen of the Academy of Sciences worked day and night to improve the new firearms.

When Li Suide appeared in the Academy of Sciences, bursts of noise came from the workshop.

Bang bang bang!
When Li Suide heard this, he was shocked and said, "What happened?"

Not long after, several craftsmen dared to come out of the room in a hurry.

Although the craftsmen seem to be lucky day and night, soaking in the room almost all day and night, the whole person looks like black charcoal, but after running out, showing rows of white teeth, they found that they are still alive .

Moreover, all of them had smiles on their faces.

"My lord, my lord, it's a success! It's a success!"

When Li Suide heard this, his face showed joy, and he asked, "Has the experiment been successful?"

The craftsmen nodded heavily and took out an ammunition similar to the bullets of later generations.

"My lord, we were inspired by the shape of the previous cannonball, and thought that we might be able to change the shape of the ammunition, but we didn't expect that the change was successful. We didn't expect it to have such a powerful range and power."

"This is the new style of small bullet we developed!"

"Just now, when we installed the ammunition, although there was a little accident, overall our test was successful."

"In order to allow our bullets to better fit the barrel, we have also improved the inside of the barrel."

With that said, the craftsmen took out their own shooting drawings and handed them to Li Suide.

Li Suide reached out to take the map and looked for himself.

"My lord, according to the literature and art of the speed of bullet filling mentioned a few days ago, we have also taken it into consideration. For this reason, we have set up a mother chamber inside the gun chamber."

"After one bullet is fired, pull here, and another spare bullet will also be fired, and then the bullet that came out just now can be filled with bullets, which saves a lot of time."

Li Suide was overjoyed when he heard that, and his frown gradually widened, "Okay, okay, you really didn't disappoint me, nor did you disappoint Your Majesty."

"Immediately follow your thoughts and make this kind of firearm immediately!"

"As ordered!"

For this reason, Li Suide accompanied the craftsmen to start developing new firearms. For three days, he stayed with the craftsmen, even eating and lodging together.

In the future, he must live up to His Majesty's trust, and more importantly, in order to stop those people's mouths, for this, he must succeed in this matter.

Finally, on the third day, excited cheers arose throughout the Academy of Sciences.

Although it was late at night, these craftsmen had dark circles under their eyes like pandas, but they still stood up.

It was their last effort, but it worked.

At this time, Li Suide tightly held the still warm firecracker, and said excitedly: "I will immediately enter the palace to face the saint, and report the good news to Your Majesty!"

He carefully put the firearm into the box, and immediately, he didn't even sit in the sedan chair, but rode directly to the Forbidden City on horseback.

Inside the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the Forbidden City,
The candles were brightly lit, reflecting every corner of the hall.

Zhu Houzhao sat on the dragon chair and looked through a sealed envelope sent by Dongchang.

These days, a secret letter came from the terrifying general, and Zhu Houzhao sent it to Cao Zhengchun to secretly investigate everything in the capital.

Instead, news came from the post station that the terrifying General Ling Luoshi rashly came to Beijing with [-] personal guards to report on his duties, and it was expected to arrive in the capital in no more than four days.

When Zhu Houzhao was flipping through the memorial, the eunuch came over and said respectfully to Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, Li Suide, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, asked to see you, saying that he has something important to report."

Zhu Houzhao raised his head, it's so late, what can the Ministry of Industry do?
"Announce him in!"

"According to the order!"

At this time, Zhu Houzhao looked excited. He faintly felt a hint of joy from the eunuch who served nearby. The Minister of the Ministry of Industry might bring him good news.

Not long after the servant eunuch left, Li Suide, Minister of Industry, walked quickly to the store with a wooden box in his hand, and Natou bowed and said, "I have fulfilled my mission. The new firecracker has been successfully developed. Please take a look at it, Your Majesty."

Zhu Houzhao got up suddenly when he heard the words, and said in a somewhat excited tone, "Quick, submit it!"

"Follow the order!".

Li Suide took the wooden box, walked quickly to Zhu Houzhao's side, and opened the wooden box respectfully.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the firearm in it, his eyes lit up.

This firearm is about one foot two long. Compared with the previous firearm, this firearm is now much more advanced.
If people of later generations can say it, the gun that Zhu Houzhao is currently holding is called a double-barreled shotgun.

It's just that there is only one muzzle of this gun, but there is an extra tube on the body of the firecracker.

"Li Aiqing, tell me what's the use of this?"

Li Suide said seriously: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the purpose of this pipe is to facilitate the filling of bullets and buy time for the soldiers when they are fighting."

"Each of these guns contains about [-]% of the ammunition, which can be used alternately to ensure the continuous design of ammunition."

"Oh!"

Zhu Houzhao looked happy. According to Li Suide, this was very similar to the magazine invented by later generations.

"What is the shooting range of this firecracker?"

Li Suide said truthfully: "Reporting to Your Majesty, within fifteen feet you can penetrate the armor of armored soldiers and shoot them, and within twenty feet you can shoot and kill enemies at will!"

Li Suide talked about the advantages and disadvantages of his new firearm, even so, he couldn't hide his inner excitement at all.

You must know that the power of this firecracker has far exceeded the power of all previous firecrackers, and, in terms of range, it is much higher than before.

The most important thing is that the filling time of bullets is fast, which buys time for the soldiers, which is the most valuable.

(End of this chapter)