Chapter 272: Crush Them Into the Wheel of History (Happy New Year)

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

Outside the capital of Bianliang, in the Firearms Department, Zeng Gongliang looked at the hundreds of gun targets that were pierced fifty steps away, his eyes full of calmness.

This was the countless times of the test.

In fact, the principle of firearms is known to the Song people, not to mention Zhao Jun, and it is recorded in "Wu Jing Zong Yao".

The fire lance invented by the Southern Song Dynasty is the ancestor of firearms. The thunder of the Northern Song Dynasty is actually the bottom gunpowder. Once triggered, it will splash ceramic fragments through the explosion.

So the Song people understood very early that they could use the power generated by the explosion of gunpowder to push something, and then use the pushed out fragments to hurt people.

But the fire lance was not invented until the Southern Song Dynasty, and the barrel was still bamboo, not the iron firearms of the Ming Dynasty.

It was not because the Song people were not smart enough, but because the materials were not up to standard.

The ironware of the Northern Song Dynasty was crudely made, and even the carefully crafted swords were more fragile than paper when fighting with the enemy. A collision could easily be broken by the weapons of the Western Xia and Liao people.

Therefore, let alone making guns and cannons, even making swords and guns was a bit difficult, and naturally it was impossible to invent guns and cannons.

However, after Zhao Jun came to power, he paid close attention to the quality of ironware. Although he did not use coke to make iron, he could directly overtake others by building a small steel plant in Bianliang to produce better quality steel.

And these steels were first supplied to the Firearms Department.

In this way, the Firearms Department finally abandoned the expensive copperware and began to use steel to make cannons and firearms.

Under the auspices of Zeng Gongliang, he invented the rifled gun, and directly skipped the matchlock gun, using flint. The farthest effective shooting was about 400 meters, but the best range was 180 meters.

For the mold for the gun barrel, the craftsman first used steel to grind out a steel column about 1.2 cm thick, grind out convex corrugated lines on the steel column, then stick insulation clay on it, put the steel column into the sleeve, and finally pour in molten steel.

In this way, you can get a gun barrel with a caliber of about 16 mm and spiral rifling inside. The internal structure is also composed of a flint clip, flint, flint, powder pool, flint spring, spring, barrel, and buttstock.

The overall gun design is not much different from the Ming Dynasty flintlock and the Western flintlock of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The technical content is not very high, and the bullet is a specially designed Minie bullet.

According to multiple tests.

The power of the flintlock is gratifying. It is no problem to deal with cold weapons. Moreover, because of the flint cover, it can be used even in wind and rain, which is much stronger than the matchlock.

But the defects are also obvious. The probability of flint triggering ignition is not very high, only about 60% to 70%. If one thousand people shoot at a time, when they are unlucky, most of them may not be fired, and they have to buckle the flint clip back and fire again.

And the loading speed is slow. An experienced gunner can only shoot 5 to 6 times a minute at most if the flint is successful every time. Under normal circumstances, if the flint fails to ignite, you can only shoot 3 times.

In addition, after about 70 shots, the gunpowder pool must be cleaned. Even though the granular gunpowder invented by Zhao Jun has a high combustion rate, there is still a little gunpowder residue, which can easily clog the barrel.

So in terms of the power of firearms, the flintlock rifle is still not ranked.

However, before the invention of mercury fulminate, the flintlock rifle was already the king of firearms, and it could almost completely replace cold weapons and deal with the cavalry of Xixia and Liao people.

"Report to the commander, the firing rate of this shooting has reached 70%. If the three-stage shooting is enough to cover all the ranges of 100 steps ahead!"

The new commander of the firearms battalion, Yang Wenguang, came to report the situation to Zeng Gongliang.

He now has a thousand musketeers and fifty cannonmen under his command. Now facing the Liao cavalry, he is confident that he will make the other side pay a painful price.

Zeng Gongliang looked deep and nodded slightly, saying: "Well, you did a good job. I will report your contribution to the government."

"Thank you, commander."

Yang Wenguang was overjoyed.

Zeng Gongliang immediately returned to his barracks and began to write a report.

In May, before the development of modern sciences such as chemistry, mechanics, mechanics, and materials science, the research and development of firearms almost reached the peak of feudal society.

Not only flintlock rifles, but also cannons have become more and more advanced after years of research and development, and even shrapnel shells have been invented.

The shells are wrapped with a layer of iron sheet on the outside and gunpowder on the inside. The fuse is very long. After ignition, it is quickly put into the barrel, and then the cannon is ignited to push the burning shells out.

Once it explodes in the crowd, the power caused is very considerable.

However, the actual lethality of shrapnel shells is still not as good as solid bullets, so the current artillery team of the Song Dynasty is still dominated by solid bullets.

On May 8, Zhang Kang was transferred to the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, presided over by Fan Zhongyan, and more than ten young generals who had made outstanding contributions in the Song-Xia War and the Song-Liao War, such as Di Qing, Zhang Yu, Zhe Jimin, and Guo Zun, were transferred to form a new army.

The armaments of this new army will no longer be purchased from the original civilians and various official workshops, but from the steel mills in Wu'an County, Hebei.

In addition to the steel mills, Zhao Jun has also ordered the Firearms Department to establish a subordinate state-owned firearms manufacturing company, which will set up a firearms manufacturing workshop in Wu'an, and some craftsmen and workshops in Bianliang will also be moved there one after another.

In the Political System Institute, after the morning court ended, a new round of regular meetings of the Political System Institute began. Zhao Jun still presided over it, and after first talking about the direction of domestic governance this year.

Jia Changchao was the first to ask: "Zhiyuan?"

"Hmm?"

Zhao Jun turned his head and looked at him and said, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with the management of the Yellow River?"

Since the Yellow River management method proposed by Jia Changchao was historically the most reliable, after the sudden death of Han Ju, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, last year, he was transferred from the minister of the Ministry of Education to the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and he was in charge of repairing the Bianhe River with the Tongzhi Political Academy. , Yellow River Project.

At present, he has completed many small projects, and has also successfully dug and built the first distributary river to connect the Yellow River and Yuhe River. The following planning has basically been completed, so he was not on site to supervise.

Jia Changchao asked: "This morning, the official family suddenly wanted to form a new army. I want to ask what's going on?"

"Forming a new army is the normal direction of development. Are there any problems?"

Zhao Jun asked back.

"But shouldn't we communicate with the Constitutional Yuan?"

Lu Yi simply said with some dissatisfaction: "Acting so suddenly leaves us without any defense."

"What kind of defense is needed?"

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "The military power is in the hands of the officials, how dare you point fingers at the officials?"

"Forehead"

Lu Yijian choked for a moment, then said: "Of course not, it's just such a big matter that we all need to discuss it after all."

Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "Actually, it's not a big deal. It's just the upgrade of firearms. In the future, we need to transform the cold weapon era into the firearms era. This is the development of the times, and no one can stop it."

"The Qing Dynasty was lagging behind in the age of firearms. They savagely and stubbornly believed that riding and shooting was their foundation. They no longer committed to development and were stuck in their ways, and were eventually abandoned by the times."

"So grenades and cannons only increase the chance of winning a war. The emergence of muskets is an epoch-making product, making thermal weapons mainstream."

"Right now, this thing has completed all design, manufacturing, and experiments. Within a few years, we have reached the peak level of the Ming Dynasty, which is almost the peak of the non-industrial era. It is completely capable of crushing traditional cavalry."

"But these things must be secret. Once the people of Liao know about it, they will definitely mobilize the whole country to go south. In addition, mass production has just been implemented, and the army has always been controlled by the government. For the time being, a new firearms army will be formed to conduct Secret experiments are also normal. "

He looked around at the crowd and said: "This matter is the highest secret of the Song Dynasty. You must not spread it to outsiders. If we weren't all colleagues in the Constitutional Yuan, I would not tell you this matter so easily."

This argument is obviously very reasonable and logical.

No one thought much about it. Lu Yijian couldn't help but sigh: "The era of firearms has finally come. I'm afraid that many Bianliang weapons and equipment manufacturing workshops will close down in the future."

"There is nothing we can do about it. A grain of sand from the times becomes a huge mountain when it falls on an individual's head."

Zhao Jun said: "However, they can also be converted to civilian use. There will definitely be more and more high-quality steel in the future. In an era without industrialization and mechanization, craftsmen are still needed. This is a challenge for them, but it is also an opportunity. "

"Just like this, will it cause opposition from the government and the opposition?"

Wang Zeng hesitated.

Zhao Jun wondered: "Why do the government and the public oppose it?"

"Because there are many people with interests in it, including your wife's Cao family."

Lu Yijian gave him a meaningful look.

"Cao family?"

Zhao Jun asked in confusion: "What does this have to do with the Cao family?"

Cai Qi said: "The Cao family has three weapons manufacturing workshops in Bianliang, all of which supply more than 20 battalions such as Pengri, Huyi and Masi."

"In the past few years, people from several noble families, including the Li family, the Wang family, the Shi family, the Gao family, and the Liu family, hoped that the imperial court could hand over the grenade production of the Firearms Department to them. I refused."

Song Shou also said: "We also know that gunpowder is a secret and must not be leaked. But with the emergence of gunpowder, ordinary weapons and equipment are obviously no longer needed, which seriously infringes on their interests."

Zhao Jun's brows suddenly wrinkled.

"The Cao family supplies more than twenty battalions, which is the production of weapons and equipment for more than 10,000 people. A set of weapons and equipment for the Forbidden Army can range from twenty to thirty strings to hundreds of strings. Can you guess how much profit is involved? If so How much would they lose if they were completely replaced with firearms?”

Lu Yijian looked at him and couldn't help but smile.

During the early Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin prohibited local production of weapons and equipment, moved a large number of craftsmen to Bianliang, established an arms supervisor, and established an official weapons manufacturing system.

This move can, on the one hand, concentrate the industrial scale and create an upstream and downstream structural system for the entire weapons and equipment manufacturing; on the other hand, it can also weaken local weapons manufacturing, achieving the "strong trunks and weak branches" strategy originally set by Zhao Kuangyin.

However, as time went by, problems such as poor quality, low efficiency, and chaotic management of the weapons and equipment produced by the government became prominent, making the imperial army unwilling to use these weapons and simply purchased them from the private sector.

Moreover, the private sector has gradually liberalized the production of weapons, and even some banned weapons can be produced privately.

The main operators among them are the powerful and generals. They recruit a large number of skilled craftsmen from the official weapons workshops, set up private weapons workshops, and gradually become the weapons suppliers to the imperial court.

To some extent, this can be considered a beneficial reform.

After all, in the past, the income of craftsmen in government-run workshops was constant, and the supervision system was poor, which made many craftsmen perfunctory and lost the motivation to make good weapons.

After privatization, in order to seize the market, Bianliang's large number of private manufacturing workshops must improve product quality.

However, by the mid-Northern Song Dynasty during the reign of Song Renzong, as the imperial court's arms supply was slowly occupied by these private enterprises, the cake stabilized, their capitalist features were exposed, and the quality of their products began to decline seriously.

During the Song-Xia war, there was even a phenomenon that the Song army's swords could not cut through the Xixia people's armor, but the Xixia people's swords could easily cut off the Song army's weapons and pierce their armor.

As a result, Tian Kuang, who was a judge in Xia Song's tent at that time, was very shocked and said, "Today's thieves' armor is all cold-forged. It is hard, smooth and shiny, and cannot be penetrated without a powerful crossbow."

The matter was reported to the imperial court, which had no choice but to open the warehouse and send the armor from the Zhao Kuangyin period to the northwest. Because the armor in the early Song Dynasty was of higher quality, it could still be used after replacing the leather ropes that had been corroded by time.

From here we can see that in the eighty-year history from the Zhao Kuangyin period to the Zhao Zhen period, the armaments industry in the Northern Song Dynasty went through four stages: first state-owned, then state-owned, then privately owned, and then privately owned.

This situation lasted until the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty. After seeing that his own weapons were in pieces, Zhao Gou gave the army the green light and allowed military generals to build their own armor and weapons. This barely allowed the Song army's weapons and equipment to compete with the Jin army.

But at least it is still in a private state. The 800,000-strong Forbidden Army is composed of 1,927 battalions of Diansi, Masu, and Busu. Each battalion should have a full strength of 500 people, and the shortage is probably at least 200,000.

Let's not talk about the salary of 200,000 people. The weapons and equipment of these 800,000 people are divided up by Jiangmen Xungui's weapons manufacturing workshop, and the interests involved may reach tens of millions.

This means that Zhao Jun has already touched the cakes of the generals and nobles before he even started the disarmament.

No wonder Lu Yijian showed such an expression.

He really wanted to cut himself first with this knife. Although he had nothing to do with himself, his wife's family was involved.

Thinking of this, Zhao Jun couldn't help but realize the seriousness of the problem, his face became serious, and he said: "I have not investigated the manufacturing situation of Song Army's weapons and equipment. It seems that I really need to find out more."

"If we really want to completely change cold weapons into firearms in the future, vested interests from all walks of life will inevitably oppose it. How do you plan to face this situation?"

Lu Yijian asked again.

"Learn with reason and move with emotion."

Zhao Jun sighed: "Don't say that I won't give them a chance. This is the general trend, and you should understand it. If they are stubborn and don't work, I can only use cyanide and reason."

"Does it make any difference in reverse?"

Everyone was puzzled.

"The difference is very big. The cyanide is used to understand, and this cyanide is poison; the reason is used to move, and this principle is physics!"

Zhao Jun gestured with his right hand and said fiercely: "If they are unwilling to follow the general trend of the country, it means that they cannot keep up with the progress of history, and it is time to be eliminated."

In an instant.

Everyone felt a deep cold unconsciously.

future.

If those with vested interests really want to oppose the wheel of history, they may be crushed into the rolling torrent.

Of course, the protagonist doesn't just start killing. He must have strategies and methods, and he can't be so brainless. Only real diehards will suffer, so don't even think about killing more than 100,000 people. It's not because Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to consolidate the imperial power, so it's really unnecessary.

Finally, I wish everyone a happy New Year.