Under the expectant and apprehensive gaze of the craftsmen around him, Yang Zhenping held the musket in his hand, pulled the mechanism above according to Zhu Siyuan's instructions, made the flint machine in place, and then pulled the trigger with his index finger, and heard a crisp gunshot.

With Yang Zhen's extraordinary eyesight, it was easy to find the projectile that was excited out with all his strength from the flames spewed out from the muzzle, only to see that it crossed a graceful arc in the air, and accurately hit the wooden target a few feet away, which was the limit of the range of those arquebuses before.

Yang Zhen's eyes lit up for a while, and he quickly pulled away the fire cap, and with a shake, half of the burnt black paper shell fell. Seeing this, Zhu Siyuan on the side hurriedly handed over another bullet, and after Yang Zhen quickly loaded it, he shot out another shot.

In the blink of an eye, he fired five shots, each of which hit the target, causing the craftsmen around him to be silent for a while, and then cheering loudly, and their faces were full of excitement.

These people have all made muskets before, and they have also test-fired, and they know very well that Yang Zhen fired five shots in a row just now, and it was only enough for those arquebuses to shoot two shots before. And now it is actually three times faster, although it may be that Yang Zhen's marksmanship is accurate, but its accuracy is far beyond any previous musket. This sense of pride naturally made the craftsmen excited and difficult to hold onto.

"Well, you didn't disappoint me." After Yang Zhen put down the gun, he also praised it. This gun was nothing to him, but it was a qualitative leap compared to the backward breech arquebuses of the past, and he believed that as long as he continued on this path, he would be able to build muskets that were closer to those of later generations.

However, after seeing the projectiles on the target that seemed to be very messily distributed, Yang Zhen still shook his head slightly. Even with his own marksmanship, he can only keep the projectile from missing the target, which shows how low the accuracy of the musket is today.

This, in fact, he had already expected, so there would be such an unsatisfactory result, just because there was no rifling in the barrel at this time, which made the projectile very unstable due to various gravity and friction after it came out of the muzzle. It is only when there is rifling in the barrel that the projectile keeps rotating rapidly to move forward stably when it is fired out of the muzzle, that it really has the effect of pointing and hitting which.

But it's going to take a longer process. Perhaps, at Yang Zhen's request, these skilled craftsmen can really rely on their skills to hand out the rifling of the barrel, but after all, they can only supply a few specific muskets, and they can't be popularized at all. At least until the advent of real industrialization, this kind of cross-era idea will be difficult to become a reality.

Thinking of this, Yang Zhen looked at Zhu Siyuan again: "Do you think this musket can be made in large quantities?" ”

......After exchanging glances with each other, Zhu Siyuan said: "If the imperial court can allocate enough silver, and there are more skilled craftsmen, the small one is confident that he will be able to make a batch of muskets of the same quality in a period of time." But ......"

"But what? What's the difficulty? Yang Zhen hurriedly asked again.

"But this musket is still secondary, and the real difficulty is still in these projectiles. The dozens of projectiles here took a lot of time to build, and it took a lot of time just to weigh the gunpowder, and to assemble them, it would take a while for a single bullet alone. And just now, Du Du You only fired five shots in a row in the blink of an eye......" At the end of the words, Zhu Siyuan had stopped, and Yang Zhen also understood what he wanted to say.

Yes, compared to muskets, bullets are a consumable that is the key to limiting this improvement. In later generations, because of the mature industrial system, the manufacture of large machines, and the existence of lathes, bullets were no longer a problem. But now, relying on pure hand-made production, the consumption of this bullet is a huge problem for producers.

But soon, Yang Zhen still adjusted his mentality, and said with a faint smile: "As long as you find out the way, things can always be done." He was thinking of the assembly line of later generations, which may be the only way to increase bullet production today, and as for the better machines, he could not provide them.

But fortunately, now that Daming's external enemies have been eliminated, and the internal troubles have not yet appeared, he still has time to think about improving all this.

Zhu Siyuan seemed to be worried that Yang Zhen was to blame, so he said again: "Dudu, since this musket can be used, the little one thinks that the artillery can also be improved according to this principle. ”

"You're saying you already have some idea of breech guns?" Sure enough, Yang Zhen was overjoyed when he heard this.

"Exactly, in fact, we've been trying to make improvements for the past two days."

"Very good, you just have to do it, if you can really make the breech cannon, this official will definitely ask His Majesty for an order and give you an official title." Yang Zhen hurriedly made a wish.

Although guns and cannons have the same principles, there are also obvious differences. Artillery is much more powerful than a gun, but it can't fire like a gun, so the need for shells is much less than that of muskets. Moreover, the Ming army often did defending the city, and with this kind of artillery that fired faster and more powerful than before, defending the city naturally became twice the result with half the effort. This is what makes Yang Zhen even more happy.

"The little ones must do their best to make breech cannons for the court and the governor as soon as possible." Zhu Siyuan and others hurriedly said. If they can really gain office because of this, not only themselves, but also their ancestors and descendants will also be honored.

Yang Zhen then gave a long time of encouragement, then took the breech gun, and some remaining bullets, and turned to leave. If he wanted these people to build breech guns faster, he would have to invest more financial and material resources, which now needed to be funded by the imperial court.

This is not to say that he Yang Dudu is short of money now, but because firearms are very important after all, he can't always hide and fiddle with them alone, and it's time to make it public. And if you want the court to pay, you must have the nod of the Son of Heaven. In this way, Yang Zhen had to let Wanli see how powerful this gun was.

He planned to bring this gun in when he entered the palace to greet him in the past two days, so that the Son of Heaven could see it for a long time.

When Yang Zhen returned to his public hall and continued to fiddle with the musket in his hand, a personal attendant walked to the door with a little strangeness: "Dudu, Uncle Yongnian is outside asking to see you." ”

It's no wonder that this one looks a little weird, even Yang Zhen was stunned for a while after hearing this. He didn't expect that someone would really find the Suppression Division for that matter. But soon, he laughed again, in fact, this matter is easy to understand, Yongnian Bo Wang Wei had also served as the commander of the Jinyi Guard before, compared to those others, he was the least afraid of dealing with the Jinyi Guard.

Thinking of this, Yang Zhen nodded: "Go and invite people in." As he spoke, he put down his gun and walked out of the hall door.

If it was before, Yang Zhen had not been named the Marquis of Changping, and since Wang Wei was here, he should rush to the door to greet him. But now, in terms of identity, Yang Zhen is still above this uncle, and being able to go out of the hall to greet him is already enough to give the other party.

Sure enough, seeing Yang Zhen come out, Wang Wei also showed a satisfied smile on his face, hurriedly took two steps forward, and arched his hand: "Wang came uninvited, I hope it didn't disturb Yang Houye." ”

Wang Guozhang's words were serious, but he was deeply disturbed. What do you command, just send someone to spread the word, and you will come to the door in the future, why bother you to run this for yourself? Yang Zhen also replied modestly.

After a few polite words, the two of them had already entered Yang Zhen's public hall, and the guests and hosts were seated separately. Then he talked for a while, and Yang Zhen turned the topic to the front: "I don't know if Wang Guozhang suddenly came to my Zhenfu Division today, what important things do you need to help?" ”

"Hey, it's not the matter that I asked Yang Hou Ye for help before......" Although Wang Wei was a little unhappy in his heart, he couldn't see the slightest bit on his face, and said with a helpless smile: "Those Qingliu officials have bitten us recently, but they are really tight, and many people will be pointed at their backbones and talk about it endlessly......

"Well, I did want to go over and plead with the Son of Heaven, but my identity is here, it's really hard to speak." Seeing that the other party was so eager, Yang Zhen couldn't respond in vain, so he could only put his difficulties on the table.

"We naturally understand the difficulties of Marquis Yang, but among the officials of the Manchu Dynasty, your words are the most acceptable to Your Majesty, and you are also the one who knows Your Majesty best......," Wang Wei said again as if pleading.

This made Yang Zhen not know how to refuse. He has a good relationship with these people, but he has a lot of disagreements with those Qingliu in the court, if he starts from his heart, he is still more willing to stand on Wang Wei's side. However, after all, this is not a personal grudge, but a measure related to the future of Daming, and it is not easy for him to make a decision based on his own preferences.

In fact, to put it bluntly, Yang Zhen couldn't find an urgent reason for himself to go against those officials, after all, cutting Lu Mi or something didn't hurt him personally.

Wang Wei naturally understood Yang Zhen's thoughts, and seeing him reply like this, he knew that he could only show that killer feature. So after Yang Zhen refused again, he took out something and pushed it in front of Yang Zhen: "Lord Yang, it's not too late for you to read this bullet before making a decision." This was sent into the palace by someone yesterday, and it was copied out by the people inside, and there will never be a fake. ”

"But what?" Yang Zhen glanced at the other party a little strangely, and quickly picked up the manuscript and looked at it. Although this matter is a little unruly, when it comes to their status, they don't care too much.

And under this look, Yang Zhen's brows quickly wrinkled, and his expression showed a little annoyance: "How can this be reasonable!" ”

Seeing him like this, Wang Wei was overjoyed, knowing that the opportunity to persuade Yang Zhen had come to him!

It's actually a thousand chapters。。。。。。 I really didn't expect it。。。。。。。 So I took the opportunity to brazenly beg for a ticket。。。。。。