Chapter 709 0704 [Thunderbolt]

"Pfft! Bitter."

Zhu Ming squatted beside the melon field and spit out the watermelon he had just eaten.

Zhu Guoxiang chewed and tasted it carefully: "Mine is only a little bitter, but it can be used to quench thirst."

He picked up his son's melon again, took a bite and frowned, saying: "Yours is really bitter. The watermelon seeds are quite big, and can be used to stir-fry melon seeds."

"I miss the crispy, sweet, red-fleshed big watermelons," Zhu Ming said with emotion, "These watermelons in front of me are all white and yellow-fleshed, and they don't taste good at first glance. Let's grow sweet watermelons quickly."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "It's not that easy, you have to rely on luck and wait for the watermelon gene mutation."

Zhu Guoxiang stretched out his hand and called a few officials from the Agricultural Persuasion Bureau: "If you are thirsty, eat these watermelons. If it is too bitter to eat, give it to the livestock. Select the best watermelons with sweet or non-bitter taste and save them for seeds to plant next year."

"Yes!" The agricultural persuasion officials took the order.

The father and son walked along the way, and there was a large tract of sand fruit forest not far from the watermelon field.

This thing is also called Lingo, a species of the genus Malus. When people in the Song Dynasty wrote poems, they often called it Haitang.

As for apples, they were tributed in the Tang Dynasty, and the corresponding Buddhist scriptures at that time were called Pinang fruit. The Song people had never seen apples again, so they could only make far-fetched assumptions and mistakenly thought that Buddha's Eye Fruit was the Pinang fruit in the Buddhist scriptures.

Zhu Ming pointed to the sand apple forest and said: "This fruit is delicious, and it looks like both apples and plums."

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and introduced: "Probably in the Five Dynasties period, it had already differentiated into two types, one is the genus Malus, and the other is the genus Prunus. When you went to the supermarket before, the big red plums were most likely the nai plums differentiated from it."

The experimental fields of the Agricultural Persuasion Department have more and more types of crops.

This sand apple forest is original, and after careful care by the agricultural persuasion officials, the fruits are more and better than before. After it matured last year, except for a very small number of seeds, the rest were used to reward concubines and ministers.

Today's Ming Dynasty officials call the experimental fields of the Agricultural Persuasion Department "Imperial Garden" and are proud to be able to eat the fruits and vegetables in the "Imperial Garden".

Going further ahead is Jinming Lake, which is completely free and open around the Dragon Boat Festival, and the people can still see many lively performances. Now it has to be closed for two months, because the emperor and the prince often bring their wives and children to row boats to cool off.

Arriving at the parking lot of Jinming Lake, Zhu Ming rode on the grandson of the cornucopia and said to his father: "I'm going to the southeast suburbs."

"Okay, remember to go back to Jinming Lake for dinner." Zhu Guoxiang reminded.

Zhu Ming's wives, concubines and children are now in Jinming Lake to escape the summer heat. It is much cooler here than the East Palace.

With a few guards, Zhu Ming galloped all the way and soon arrived at the ordnance test site in the southeast suburbs (the gunpowder factory is also nearby).

This place used to be a mass grave, and anyone could be buried here.

Later, it was made into Louze Garden, an official charity cemetery by Cai Jing. If you want to bury it again, you have to go through the procedures. After all, this is the political achievement of Prime Minister Cai, and everything must be up to standard and beautiful.

Zhu Ming turned over and dismounted, and two administrative officials came to greet him with a bunch of art officers.

Several weapons that have been improved through repeated experiments are placed on the table in the open space.

Zhu Ming first picked up a cloth armor and asked, "How is the effect?"

Peng Xiu, the chief officer of the Ordnance Testing Factory, said, "The cost is almost halved and the time is shorter. It is lighter, more defensive, and not afraid of the rope being cut off. It is also more convenient for daily maintenance. The only disadvantage is that after the cloth is severely damaged, it has to be riveted again."

"Serious damage" here means that the seams cannot be sewn. Otherwise, even if the cloth is cut into a mop, it can still be sewn and patched.

Zhu Ming picked up the cloth armor to try it on and said to Bai Sheng, "Cut me."

Bai Sheng smiled stiffly: "Your Highness, why don't you let me wear the armor and you can cut it with a knife."

Peng Xiu hurriedly said, "Your Highness, this armor has been repeatedly verified. You can wrap the lamellar armor and cloth armor on a killed fat pig, and then use a knife to cut and stab it carefully to compare."

The cloth armor has a coat on the outside and a large armor plate riveted inside.

It has stronger defense than lamellar armor, lighter weight than lamellar armor, warmer to wear than lamellar armor, and much lower production cost than lamellar armor.

But there is a very big disadvantage. When the government is corrupt, it is easier to cut corners than lamellar armor without being discovered!

In addition, this thing is not convenient to make heavy armor, it is best to make light armor and medium armor.

When changing the large armor plate of lamellar armor last year, Zhu Ming thought about making cloth armor. As long as the smelting level is sufficient, cloth armor is the first choice for explosive soldiers, which can truly achieve good quality and low price, large quantity and full supply.

After cotton is produced in large quantities, of course, cotton armor can also be made, but the cost of cotton armor is much higher.

Zhu Ming asked people to wear a set of cloth armor on the wooden stakes in the parade ground, and ordered several guards to shoot arrows.

A total of more than 30 arrows were shot, most of which were bounced off or hung on the cloth. The defense is indeed very strong.

Zhu Ming looked at another weapon on the table-the thunder bomb!

In history, the earliest record of similar weapons appeared in Taiyuan, Shanxi in the late Jin Shizong period. A hunter named Li Tie stuffed gunpowder into a pottery jar and installed a fuse. The explosion alarmed the foxes and drove them into the net for capture.

Based on this, the Jin people invented a metal bomb called "Iron Cannon". The Southern Song Dynasty also quickly learned it and renamed it "Thunderbolt".

When the Mongolian army attacked Kaifeng, the Jin soldiers used thunderbolts, which once made the Mongolian soldiers dare not approach the city wall.

After destroying the Jin Kingdom, the Mongolians also learned to make bombs.

By the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, bombs had been used in many ways, and there were even records of the use of mines in the Jingnan Campaign.

The ordnance manufacturing officer named Peng Xiu held the spherical bomb in both hands and twisted it hard, easily breaking it into two bowl-shaped structures. The gunpowder inside was wrapped and would not easily fall out.

Zhu Ming took a closer look and found that the joint had a wedge groove and a snap button, which could be quickly opened or closed.

"It is cast from cast iron, so the cost is not very high," Peng Xiu explained. "Including the gunpowder, this thunder bomb weighs four pounds and three ounces."

Zhu Ming said, "How can we throw it? It's too heavy!"

Peng Xiu said, "Throw it down when defending the city. Or, use a cannon cart to throw it out. A few pounds of artillery can be thrown out with a very small Pingyi Cannon (Huihui Cannon). This small and light Pingyi Cannon can be installed on warships, on city walls, or pulled by mules to accompany the army in the field."

Well... okay.

Zhu Ming provided the idea of ​​making thunder bombs, but I'm afraid he didn't explain it clearly.

His plan was to make grenades and then train grenadiers.

However, military workers like Peng Xiu made bombs weighing four or five kilograms, which were specially used for defending the city or being thrown by catapults.

Zhu Ming felt that this idea was not bad and could be used to increase the firepower of the triple formation.

At that time, the Jin cavalry rushed to 120 steps and threw bombs with catapults. When they rushed to 100 steps, they fired another volley with muskets. Then they used tiger squat cannons and wooden cannons to shoot shotgun shells, and cooperated with bows and crossbows. Muskets, bows and crossbows can all be fired twice.

The whole process was more than six levels of long-range firepower, and even eight to ten levels of firepower could be achieved if they were skilled. If they could still rush to the front of the chariot formation, it could only be said that the Jin soldiers were blessed by the gods.

Zhu Ming ordered: "This kind of thunder can be kept, and some lighter ones can be made, and it is best to control it within three kilograms."

"Yes!" Peng Xiu took the order.

Zhu Ming went to inspect the gunpowder factory again. The reason why it was placed in the suburbs was that he was afraid of a big explosion one day.

At first, the Zhu family father and son started their army in Hanzhong, which happened to be the most important saltpeter producing area in northern China.

Now, the Zhu family father and son temporarily set up their capital in Kaifeng, and the counties of Kaifeng Prefecture happened to be the top saltpeter producing areas in China!

If saltpeter is not in short supply, then gunpowder is naturally in short supply.

What really matters is to strictly manage the process of gunpowder production, otherwise the gunpowder formula will become a decoration.

During the Opium War, Qing army generals in different places adopted completely different gunpowder ratios. The fundamental reason was that the gunpowder production was shoddy.

For example, saltpeter was qualified after being repeatedly purified three times by native methods, while Qing Dynasty craftsmen often only purified it once or twice.

Responsible Qing army generals must infer the quality of the raw saltpeter they obtained based on the actual power of the gunpowder in their hands, and then let the craftsmen under them adjust the ratio of saltpeter in the gunpowder accordingly (often by increasing the percentage of saltpeter).

How fucking tiring it must be to fight like this!

After inspecting the gunpowder factory, Zhu Ming felt very satisfied. Considering that cutting corners would cost their heads, the craftsmen were still very serious and responsible.

He asked the Ordnance Experimental Factory to send people to Cizhou and Xuzhou respectively to bring the production methods of cloth armor and thunder bombs.

Now the whole army has a very high armor rate. There is no rush for cloth armor for the time being, but thunder bombs must be made quickly.

The shell of this thing is cast from pig iron, and the quality of steel is not important. It can be mass-produced quickly and at a low price.

After it is made, the thunder bombs produced in Cizhou are transported to Zhang Guangdao nearby.

The thunder bombs produced in Xuzhou are shipped to Li Bao, Zhe Yanzhi, Yelu Yudu and others in Haizhou. They actually need thunder bombs the most, because there are not many troops across the sea, but they may face a large-scale attack by the Jin army at any time.

Li Bao, the Lord Li, naturally got the new weapon first.

Wanyan Zongwang's 10,000 elite troops were still on their way to Banghai Road, and Li Bao got the first batch of 800 thunder bombs, which were transported with military rations.

"How to use this thing?" Li Bao was holding a bomb weighing more than four kilograms, and he was a little skeptical about the real power of this thing.

The technician who followed the bomb smiled and said, "Mr. Li can have someone try it."

Outside Haibin County.

Many straw men were erected in a wasteland, and the thunder bomb was placed in the center.

Li Bao was standing more than ten steps away, and the technician reminded him, "Mr. Li needs to retreat a little further."

"How far?" Li Bao asked.

The man said, "It's better to retreat twenty steps to prevent broken iron pieces from flying."

Including the brothers Daming Zhen and Daming Yi who surrendered the city, they also brought their personal soldiers to watch the excitement.

I saw a soldier light the fuse, quickly ran to the big pit dug a few meters away, and then suddenly jumped into the deep pit to avoid it.

"Boom!"

A huge roar sounded, which was really deafening.

As the smoke gradually dissipated, Li Bao personally approached to check. Within a radius of one and a half meters, all the straw men were knocked down and shattered. Within a radius of three meters, the straw men were shaken crooked, and many fell down.

And within a radius of more than ten meters, or even further, there were pieces of pig iron everywhere.

This amount of gunpowder was really enough!

The record in "History of Jin" was even more exaggerated: "When the gunpowder exploded, the sound was like thunder, and the heat reached more than half an acre. People and cowhide were all shattered without a trace, and armor and iron were all penetrated..."

Da Mingyi looked at the explosion site and was glad that he had joined the Ming Dynasty, otherwise what would he do if he encountered this thing?

He turned his head to look at Damingzhen and found that his brother was standing there, staring at the scorched earth on the ground with his eyes wide open.

"We must win, the Ming Dynasty must win!" Damingyi was excited and shouted suddenly, and the soldiers around him also shouted loudly.

The thunder bomb has not been actually used on the battlefield, but it has already boosted the morale of the Ming soldiers!