As the emperor approached the battle, there was a loud cheer and noise within the high walls, and it was not until the accompanying eunuch Wang An went to inform the emperor that he was coming.

When Xiao Wanli led King Lu into the war bureau, he saw a magical scene.

A wooden cart holds a stove, and behind the stove is a boxy wooden box, and the arm of a wooden man next to the box is connected to the wooden chips sticking out of it, and his hands push the irregular wooden chips over and over again and in circles around the outer edge of the wooden box, and white smoke is emitting above his head—the wooden cart is walking forward on its own.

King Lu was following Emperor Wanli to accept the worship of the eunuchs and palace maids, and suddenly saw this wooden cart no more than three feet long walking around by himself, his eyes widened, and then he almost instinctively rushed to Wanli, and the hair that was not tied together at the back of his head exploded, and he protected his brother with his young body, and said urgently: "Come to escort the driver, the wooden spirit!" ”

It's like hell.

Xiao Wanli was very moved by his younger brother protecting himself like this, especially when he saw King Lu's little red robe trembling under his legs.

The eunuchs of the War Bureau were startled, and the eunuch in charge, Zhang Hong, hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Frightened the prince, the slave and maid ask the prince for forgiveness, it is not a wooden spirit, it is just made like this by the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry, but the chimney and the crank connecting rod." ”

King Lu was already stunned, gritted his teeth and opened his arms to still maintain the appearance of protecting his brother, staring at the wooden car with big eyes, and then at the eunuch Zhang Hong, and said firmly: "Impossible!" The wooden man cart was sweating! ”

"It's true that Lord Lu, it's called Lux Boy." Zhang Hong looked at the serious King Lu, looked helplessly at the Wanli Emperor behind him, and then turned his head to point to the corner of the courtyard and said: "Lord Wang, please look, there are two jet boys over there, they are just carved by woodworking, not spirits." ”

Xiao Wanli looked at Zhang Hong's hand, two similar wooden cars were parked under the high wall farther away, the bottom of the car was close to the ground to expose a small half-cut gear, there was no wooden box on the car, only a wide wooden chair, it seemed that the gears should be hidden in the position of the armrest of the wooden chair, and on the wooden chair sat cross-legged wooden man who looked like a boy, with both hands in front of his face and puffed up his cheeks to blow under the chair.

More magical than the Temple of Daojun in Acapulco.

Wanli raised his hand and patted King Lu, and his mouth was light and light, and he said like an ordinary person: "Don't panic, it's just a wooden man, what makes it move is the steam in the boiler." ”

When studying Chen's Tao Te Ching, Xiao Wanli had never felt as proud as he did at this moment, and even often complained about Chen Mu because he only described the concept and did not have too many physical objects, but at this moment, especially when he saw that King Lu was extremely alarmed by this, this made him feel incomparably proud.

Where does it all come from?

Knowledge!

"This is the steam that passed by in the back of electricity, right?"

Xiao Wanli muttered to himself, and then asked: "Zhang Hong, I didn't let the War Bureau do this, who did it?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, this is not what the War Bureau did, Your Majesty went to the year to order the slave and maid to fight the spur in the War Bureau, and the slave and maid went to the Beiyang and Xuanfu Ordnance Bureau, and I knew that the Xuanfu water machine hammer and the Beiyang fire machine hammer were very good at forging the armor, and the spur that Your Majesty wanted to make must be the water fire machine and the lathe."

The Xuanfu water machine refers to the large-scale hydraulic forging workshop when the Xuanfu Ordnance Bureau was first established, and the fire machine is a steam forging hammer.

Zhang Hongdao: "The lighter and lathe are all produced in Guangdong, and the slave maid sent someone to buy it, but I heard that Zhou Sijing, the director of the Jingbei Branch of the Ministry of Industry, has been operating the lighter in recent years, so he went to buy it. ”

"Heh, you have a heart, this car is very clever."

Xiao Wanli laughed, then frowned and said, "But what's the use of this car?" ”

It's no more than three feet long and two feet wide, from Wanli entering the door to the present, it has slowly moved forward for no more than twenty steps, and no one has walked fast, and it seems that no one can take advantage of it.

Wanli pondered that this car could also carry the Siamese guy, but it didn't run as fast as the Siamese guy at all.

"The slave doesn't think it's useful."

Zhang Hongfu said with a smile: "But the director of the Ministry of Industry Zhou seems to be extremely obsessed with this matter, he said that better boilers and ingenuity can make the fire engine more powerful, and then the fire locomotive can be better than the horse-drawn carriage, can pull very heavy things, and then can bring the plough to plough the land, can bring the sickle to harvest wheat, and said that he can carry the flag army to charge the battle!" ”

Saying that, Zhang Hong was afraid that his words would make the emperor have a bad opinion of Zhou Sijing, so he hurriedly added: "Although it is wishful thinking, a better fire machine can make the three major weapons bureaus create better weapons for His Majesty. ”

Delusional?

Xiao Wanli shook his head, he didn't think there was anything wishful thinking, now the car can carry the Siamese guy, as long as it is bigger, it can be loaded with a person and a gun, so why can't you take more people to fight and bring heavier farm tools to plow the land in the future?

The little emperor muttered something that only he could understand: "As long as the steam engine can send out a pond of force, ploughing land is not a problem, if it can send out a lot of force, it will definitely be able to march and fight!" ”

After that, the little emperor waved his hand and said: "This matter has to be done by the Jingbei Branch of the Ministry of Industry, and you are doing a new type of spur, last time you said that the old bird spur is not easy to install a new type of spur, and a new machine is needed, how about doing it?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the Huangzhuang on the bank of the Yongding River has made a new gun bed, and the new gun thorn is not easy to make, but there is a finished product, and Your Majesty is invited to enter the military battle bureau to watch."

Xiao Wanli was satisfied, and the two small hands hidden in the big sleeves were put back to his waist, and he walked into the yamen of the Military War Bureau with his head held high and walked into the yamen of the military war bureau in two steps-without Zhang Juzheng beside him, he had always walked like this.

It didn't take long for a Xueliang short knife to be presented to the emperor's palm, the handle of the knife was inscribed with a spur in the sixth year of Wanli, and the twenty-four Yamen soldiers made a spur, and the back also had a numbered Tianyi, and the knife had the same six-sided round hole as the mouth of the bird's gun, and there was a long card slot at the end of the knife and two round buckles on both sides.

Zhang Hong bowed slightly on the emperor's side and reported: "The knife is one foot and two inches long, the blade is nine inches and six minutes, and the handle is two inches and four minutes long, made of steel, pig iron, wrought iron and wood chips, weighing one catty and one tael, and the price of materials is one or two or seven cents of silver." ”

Wanli raised his eyebrows, his hands were small, and the proportion of the bayonet in his hand was just like the proportion of a sergeant holding a waist knife, and it was heavy in his hand, which was a little heavier than the spur in the past, but the cost was a little too high.

The cost of a Yanling knife that weighs more than two catties is only seven cents of silver, and you dare to ask for one or two cents of silver for a thorn that is half smaller?

"Why is it so expensive, it's harder to make than ordinary swords?"

"Back to Your Majesty, there is no difference between the stab and the waist knife, it is nothing more than the use of stabbing and chopping, only the tenon is stuck on the bird's gun, if it is directly stuffed into it, it is easier, but if you want to be stable, the slashing and stabbing can not be bent, broken, and not hurt the pipe, it is much more difficult."

"This is not the most difficult, the most difficult is the specifications, standards, craftsmen have been careful again and again, there will still be some defective products that are not suitable, such as with the bird gun to create more difficult, the bird gun itself has a slight difference in the thickness of the pipe, although most of them can be fitted, but there will always be something that can't fit in."

"If it is not suitable for many uses, the cost of the knife will be much higher."

Wanli clapped his hands, pondering that if this was the case, he would be able to accept the cost...... The clan had just given him enough silver to make 100,000 stalks, and he asked Zhang Hong, "How much can the War Bureau make?" ”

"The Huangzhuang on the bank of the Yongding River can make 300 combined knives in a month."

Emperor Wanli was dissatisfied, he shook his head and said: "This is not good, I want to inform the Beiyang, Xuanfu, and Guangzhou Ordnance Bureaus of this shape and specifications, and let them build it together with the War Bureau, to see who can build better and more, I can promise the Beiyang soldiers that they will use new spurs this year!" ”

"You're going to make a thorn and add another line to it." The little emperor pointed to the inscription on the blade and said proudly: "In the sixth year of Wanli, the war bureau was made, the name of the craftsman, and - Zhu Yijun supervised!" ”