Outside the Nuan Pavilion on the east side of the central courtyard, the plum blossoms were in full bloom. Inside the Nuan Pavilion, Gao Cai, who was only in his fifties but had an early onset of brilliance, put down the manuscript in his hand and asked the young man in front of him: "Did you design these yourself?"
That young man is Gao Pragmatic. Although he is under ten years old, he already looks like a young man because of his well-mannered manner.
"Exactly."
Gao Cai was amazed and asked: "What was the result of Qi Yuanjing's trial production?"
Gao pragmatically said: "Qi Zongrong is a military attache after all. Although he is also responsible for training soldiers, the resources that can be mobilized are still somewhat insufficient. Currently, manpower is still being mobilized for research, and few finished products have been released. However, he has already made improvements to gunpowder.
According to him, after making it into the small granular form that his nephew mentioned, the efficiency has indeed improved a lot, and although the manufacturing process is a bit more complicated, it only costs some labor and the increase in cost is minimal. He said this
Very satisfied.”
Gao Cai was overjoyed and said: "Gunpowder is the foundation of firearms. Since your particles of gunpowder can increase the power of gunpowder, it is indeed great news... Is the manufacturing method the same as what is written in your manuscript? If so, I will also introduce it here.
It can be made in small quantities and tested."
Gao pragmatic smiled and said yes.
Gao Cai was happy for a while, and then asked: "What about the idea of defining the paper shell as a fixed charge? What does Qi Yuanjing say?"
Gao pragmatically said: "Qi Zongrong particularly likes this one and says it is the most useful for those new recruits."
Gao Cai laughed and said: "Your method is good, but it also has some problems."
"Oh?" Gao Pingshi was a little surprised and asked, "Please give me some advice, Uncle Five."
"Kraft paper is too expensive. If a large army fights with your method, the cost of the kraft paper alone will cost thousands of taels of silver. It's too extravagant." Gao Cai said: "And it's not too big.
One thing is, if it rains, what will happen to the kraft paper? You have to make it into oil paper first, soak it in tung oil, and then dry it... This cost is even more expensive."
Gao pragmatism originally didn't think that his fifth uncle, who had not done much in history, had any unique insights, but after hearing his words, Gao pragmatism realized that he might have underestimated the ancients.
Spending an extra thousand taels of silver on a small battle may not seem like a big deal, but when you add up, the burden may not be small for a country like Ming Dynasty, which hardly goes through a day without fighting. What's more, Gao Cai also pointed out
The biggest trouble with paper shells for fixed charges: waterproofing.
The Chinese are more proficient in waterproofing than Westerners at this time, mainly because China is rich in tung oil - this stuff has been one of China's top export products for a long time. But tung oil, even if
China is said to be "rich", but after all, it is oil and it is not much cheaper. If the paper shells of the paper shells for custom-made explosives need to be soaked and dried in tung oil, the cost will be lost.
The Ming Dynasty was poor - no, the Ming Dynasty court was poor! How can the current court afford this kind of prodigal play? If only the Qi Jiajun did this, there might be a squeeze financially. After all, the Qi Jiajun has always been a ruthless spender, and Zhang Juzheng
Already accustomed to it, he would help Qi Jiguang get the money.
However, if only the Qi family can afford it, then the effect of this thing will not meet high pragmatic expectations.
"What Wu Bo said makes sense." Gao Pragmatic frowned and thought hard: "But how to solve it? Should we reduce the production cost of kraft paper? I am not very good at papermaking..."
Gao Cai laughed and said: "Don't just think about using paper. Although paper is easy to tear, it can only be used once, which is not economical. If you want to save, you must make it usable for a long time."
"Recycling?" Gao Pragmatic's eyes lit up: "This idea is good, but how to do it?"
Gao Cai smiled and said, "I have two options."
Gao pragmatic was surprised and asked quickly: "Which two methods?" He really didn't expect that this fifth uncle could not only ask questions, but also solve them. How powerful was he?
"To put it bluntly, it's actually very simple." Gao Cai said: "The first way is to use bamboo joints. Bamboo joints are hollow. We can first purchase some bamboo joints of suitable size and place the gunpowder needed for a launch inside the bamboo joints. As for the opening,
Whether to use cork stoppers or screw-cap stoppers is a small matter."
He stretched out his hand and gestured, and continued: "This bamboo joint is not only waterproof, but the dried small bamboo joints are also very light. They can be used to make special belts for soldiers. They can insert gunpowder into the belts one by one and buckle them. For war,
When shooting, use one section at a time.”
"What a good idea!" Gao Pingshi praised: "This is a really good idea, Uncle Wu. My nephew will write to Mr. Qi when he gets back later and ask him to test it to see the effect."
Gao Cai smiled and said: "If there are few bamboo forests in the local area, it doesn't matter. You can also use wooden ones. The specific wood to be used can be obtained locally. We have carpenters all over the world in the Ming Dynasty. Making such small wooden bottles is like an apprenticeship."
It’s not a problem.”
This is true. Chinese carpentry has always been great. Zheng He's treasure ship was so huge that it didn't even need a screw. It was solved by the carpenter's superb mortise and tenon technology. It is simply amazing to future generations. This kind of carpentry is everywhere in the streets.
In this era, making small wooden bottles was as easy as drinking water.
Gao Pingshi clapped his hands and smiled and said: "Great, I will send a letter to Mr. Qi for these two methods and ask him to test them."
Gao Cai nodded and suddenly said curiously: "Pragmatically, I have seen your intelligence, Uncle Wu, but there is one thing I don't understand. You seem to be much more interested in firecrackers than artillery. Why is this?"
Ordinary people prefer artillery, after all, artillery is more powerful."
After hearing this, Gao Pragmatic couldn't help but smile bitterly and thought to himself: How can I explain it? Tell you, given the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, the development of heavy artillery like the red cannon is completely crazy?
Gao Pragmatic's consistent view is that after the mid-Ming Dynasty, China's firearms development path was quite correct. It can be said that it made great strides forward along a path with its own characteristics based on its own needs. This is mainly reflected in bomb-type firearms, muskets,
Light artillery-type firearms and rocket-type firearms developed vigorously. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, especially after the Apocalypse, the dazzling power of the introduced Hongyi cannon deeply impressed the monarchs and ministers, which led to the imperial court and many officials and generals to
The focus of research and development began to tilt too much in the direction of heavy artillery. Especially after Yuan Chonghuan advocated "to strengthen the city, use cannons", the imperial court invested most of its funds, manpower and material resources into the research and development and manufacturing of heavy artillery.
As long as the government has sufficient financial resources, there is nothing that cannot be achieved. After all, the development of heavy artillery is a matter of time. It is not a bad thing to start earlier. Even Gao Pragmatic decided that if he could preside over the reform in the future and achieve success
, we must also vigorously develop heavy artillery.
However, the terrible thing is that the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty were extremely tight at that time. Once too much effort was invested in artillery, it would obviously be unable to develop other firearms.
Therefore, during the more than 20 years from Tianqi to Chongzhen, the development of other light firearms basically stagnated. For example, Bi Maokang has explained the manufacturing method of flintlock guns in "Illustrated Weaponry".
Just like the machine, manufacturing flintlock guns in large quantities and equipping the troops, and then continuously improving them, was a good opportunity to quickly increase the combat effectiveness of the Ming army.
But the problem was that at that time, the imperial court had already invested most of its funds in the manufacture of weapons, so where could other money come from? Yuan Chonghuan had many problems, and one of them was that he deviated from the correct idea of developing Ming firearms.
But, how can Gao Wuchen explain it to Gao Cai now?