Father can be an enemy to the country

The two followed His Highness out of the Yamen and came to the north of the Bao Shipyard.

To the north is a large alfalfa field, with a large area enclosed by a fence in the middle.

"This is the place where the Governor's Mansion grows feed, and I am temporarily borrowing it from you." His Highness smiled and said, "Guess what it is used for?"

The two of them rolled their eyes secretly. From a distance, they could hear roaring from inside, which must have been used for sex.

"Yes, this is my king's artillery range!" Lao Liu pointed at the temporary wooden gate and said proudly: "My father has allocated all the cannon-casting craftsmen in the Inner Palace Staff Bureau to me! Now here is It’s the Firearms Bureau of the Municipal Shipping Department!”

"That's right! Your Majesty really supports His Highness!"

"Although the cannon-casting experts from Ouchi have been allocated to the Municipal Shipping Department." Yu Tongyuan and others were very excited. They all knew that the cannons produced by Ouchi were of the best quality.

In fact, the method of casting cannons is the same, but the closer the department is to Boss Zhu, the higher the production quality. He really kills people because something is wrong.

~~

The Firearms Bureau was guarded by Zhu Zhen's Chu King's Army, and his uncle Hu Quan personally served as the director, which shows the importance His Royal Highness the Chu King attached to it.

Artillery came out in the Southern Song Dynasty, developed in the Yuan Dynasty, and reached its first small peak in the troubled times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan army and the peasant army had widely used artillery when attacking cities. Zhu Yuanzhang used forty artillery pieces when he besieged Suzhou.

Moreover, during the Poyang Lake water battle, Zhu Yuanzhang creatively moved artillery onto the ship, causing considerable losses and great shock to Chen Youliang's invincible fleet.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to the development of artillery, regarded firearms as secrets, and did not allow the proliferation of firearm technology.

However, the chaotic times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty were too short-lived, and the main enemies of the unified Ming Dynasty became rogue bandits on the grasslands. No general would dare to carry such heavy artillery deep into the grasslands. Otherwise, the nightmare logistics would bring down the Ming army first without waiting for the Mongols to attack.

The artillery that suddenly lost its demand became as unloved as the former beloved concubine who was relegated to the cold palace. Otherwise, Boss Zhu would not easily agree to Lao Liu's request.

Fortunately, cannon casting has only stopped for a few years, and the craftsmen are still there...

Zhu Zhen summoned more than a hundred cannon-casting masters from the Firearms Bureau and gave them loving encouragement to comfort their neglected hearts. The promise of double wages and generous performance really made the gunsmiths excited again!

"However, my wages are not that easy to get. You have to complete the task with high quality!" Zhu Zhen changed the topic and said loudly: "So you have to ask yourselves first, after all these years of wasting time, how can you cast cannons? Have you lost your skills?"

"No!" The craftsmen said in unison without hesitation: "Your Highness, don't worry, the craftsmanship has not fallen behind at all!"

"Oh? So confident?" Zhu Zhen couldn't help laughing.

"Back to Your Highness." Chief gunsmith Luo Xiang explained loudly: "Although we have not cast cannons in recent years, we have been casting bells. Bronze bells are also cast with mud film, which is exactly the same as the cannon casting technology. The two can be seamlessly switched. of."

"Why are you roaring so loudly?" His Highness King Chu was so shocked that his ears rang.

"The villain tried the cannon back then and almost deafened his ears..." Luo Xiang explained hurriedly and fearfully.

"That's it. Did you just talk about bronze bells and cannons?" Zhu Zhen asked again: "What about the iron cannons?"

"Back to Your Highness," Luo Xiang explained: "Pig iron is brittle and will cause great damage if its chamber is exploded; copper cannons will not hurt anyone even if their chambers are exploded. Moreover, copper cannons are cast with fewer defects and high precision, are easy to make thin, and are much lighter in weight. So our Arms and Staff Bureau only makes bronze cannons, leaving all the iron cannons to the low-level craftsmen in the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry."

When he said the last sentence, all the gunsmiths looked proud, as if they were very proud of their status as royal craftsmen.

"I understand. Bronze cannons have many advantages over iron cannons." Zhu Zhen nodded and asked, "But bronze cannons are also much more expensive than iron cannons, right?"

"That's..." The gunsmiths immediately lost their arrogance.

The country was severely short of copper, and Boss Zhu had to print money to replace copper coins. How could there be any spare copper for them to make cannons? Therefore, the Ming army now uses iron cannons cast by the Ministry of Industry.

"As for iron cannons, we generally know how to make them," Luo Xiang panicked, fearing that His Highness would lose interest in making cannons. He quickly put down his arrogance and said, "We can also learn, and we can also make."

"Yeah, there's nothing special about it." The craftsmen also agreed.

It's not that they have a soft spot for cannon casting. But there is too little demand for niche products like copper bells. Moreover, it is a super durable product. A bell cast in a temple can last for hundreds of years. The craftsmen have too little time to lift the pot!

"Who do you think I am? Can I use inferior goods?" Zhu Zhen waved his hand and said in a rough voice: "If you want to make it, let's make the best one! Isn't it just copper? If you have money, you still have to worry. No copper!”

"Yes, yes, we are too short-sighted and dare to underestimate His Highness's financial resources!" Luo Xiang and others quickly admitted their mistake happily.

"What your Highness means is that using money to buy copper does not mean melting money into copper. Don't think nonsense, let alone talk nonsense." Teacher Luo on the side reminded me in a deep voice.

Because the imperial court strictly prohibits the melting of copper coins, talking nonsense will cause trouble for His Highness. Although His Highness already has the attitude of not biting lice when there are too many.

Teacher Luo did give Lao Liu a heads up and whispered to him: "Change the donation task of Suzhou's big households from copper coins to copper ingots."

As for how the wealthy households obtain copper ingots, it has nothing to do with His Highness.

"Yes..." The corner of Luo Guanzhong's mouth twitched, and he felt a little sympathetic to those big dogs. This sixth man is really good at pulling out wool, and he does it repeatedly, until he is bald...

~~

After meeting with the craftsmen and visiting the simple gun-casting workshop, Zhu Zhen and his party came to the largest gun-testing ground.

More than a dozen cast bronze cannons have been placed. The sound of the cannons that Yu Tongyuan and others heard before was caused by Luo Xiang and his team's final adjustments.

Zhu Zhen saw at a glance that these bronze cannons can be roughly divided into two types. One type has a thick and short body with a muzzle like a sea bowl. Luo Xiang introduced that this is called a 'bowl mouth cannon'.

The other type has a long and slender cannon body with a muzzle like a tea cup, which is called a "zhankou cannon".

Luo Xiang asked His Highness to retreat to a safe distance and ordered people to demonstrate the two types of artillery respectively. In the thundering roar, the characteristics of the two artillery were clearly displayed in front of His Highness King Chu.

The ballistic trajectory of the bowl-mouthed cannon is curved, so it uses a projectile similar to that of a mortar, and it can fire large-caliber shells. It is a powerful siege weapon.

The cannon's shells are small and have straight trajectories. They can be fired flatly and are more suitable for field battles.

As for the power, everyone knows the unspoken rules of the artillery field. The special effects must be full and the audience will enjoy watching...

After the demonstration, Luo Xiang politely asked His Highness, "Any further instructions?"

"Shoot the bowl-mouth cannon horizontally and see." His Highness really had instructions.

"If you shoot horizontally, the range is not good enough..." Luo Xiang said sarcastically.

"Shoot." King Chu said calmly.

"Yes." Luo Xiang had no choice but to order the cannon to be flattened and fired one shot. The effective range was less than a hundred feet.

The King of Chu ordered the wooden plank used as a target to be moved to a distance of fifty feet. Only when the cannon was fired flatly could it hit the target accurately. However, the power was so amazing that the wooden plank was shattered with one shot.

"That's it!" Yu Tongyuan and Yu Tongyuan, who had always been expressionless, finally showed signs of joy.