Tenfold increase in five years?
It's very difficult!
Anyway, it wasn't Zhao Huan who did the work, so the tasks were being pushed to the limit.
This will give the Council of State the motivation to act, and will greatly reduce the strategic pressure on Zhao Huan.
Chen Gui brought out a brand new musket, which was identical in appearance to the previous one, with only minor differences.
The rope that ignited the gunpowder was gone, replaced by a polished flint.
Zhao Huan was extremely excited; he felt that the Academy of Sciences was truly amazing.
This progress was completely beyond his expectations.
A guard from the Imperial City Guard came over, took the musket from Chen Gui, and quickly learned how to operate it after Chen Gui explained it to him.
The Imperial Guard held the gun with his left hand and placed his right hand on the trigger.
He aimed at the bullseye and pulled the trigger.
With a bang, the iron shot from the gun barrel was ejected and hit the bullseye.
So he immediately poured in more iron shot.
The only problem was that filling the gun with iron shot was a bit troublesome. It required using a wooden stick to push the iron shot into the chamber and then filling it with black powder.
These are the inconveniences of the original firearms. Once the flintlock musket came out, the soldiers competed not on who was stronger, but on who was faster.
The Imperial Guard awkwardly prepared everything and fired another shot.
Then, the same operation was performed seven or eight more times.
The ministers could see the undisguised smile on the emperor's face; he was truly delighted, so much so that he couldn't contain his joy.
"Good! Excellent! This is exactly what I wanted! Chen Gui, Sima Qi, you are simply treasures of my Great Song Dynasty! With you here, I will surely annihilate the Tanguts in two years!"
Chen Gui was pleased, but humbly said, "It's all thanks to Your Majesty's excellent guidance."
Sima Qi said, "Your Majesty, although we have tried many times without any problems, there is still a problem of self-destruction. This is a problem that I have not yet solved."
Self-destruction?
Zhao Huan was slightly taken aback, then realized that Sima Qi probably meant to say "the chamber explodes."
"Because iron shot and black powder residue may clog the muzzle and cause a self-destruction, it can only fire a maximum of seven times before the residue inside must be cleaned up."
Zhao Huan was well aware that any firearm carried the risk of exploding, especially the most primitive firearms, and this was all within his tolerance range.
As long as we can minimize the probability of barrel explosion, we can simply tell each soldier how to use it when we distribute it to them.
"In addition, due to the rush to complete the work, some parts of this musket are somewhat rough. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."
"It's alright."
"I will improve its workmanship within a month."
"Thank you for your hard work, my dear minister."
"All of this is to share the emperor's burdens."
Zhao Huan's eyes swept over and landed on Han Shizhong. He smiled and said, "Marquis of Valor, what do you think of this?"
Han Shizhong was slightly taken aback, and quickly said, "This item was personally approved by the Emperor. If every soldier of our Great Song Dynasty had one, it would be like adding wings to a tiger!"
Zhao Huan smiled and patted Han Shizhong on the shoulder: "I know that the Marquis of Yongwu has doubts about this thing and said this on purpose to avoid angering me. It's alright. Once the Ordnance Bureau has made a hundred of them, I will equip you with a firearms battalion to use these muskets. You will be the vanguard in the future!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Zhao Huan appeared very pleased. He waved his hand, and the eunuch who had accompanied him brought imperial wine and prepared white jade cups, one for each person, which were carefully filled.
Zhao Huan raised his cup and said, "I believe I am the luckiest emperor in history. Do you, my beloved ministers, know why?"
The ministers shook their heads, indicating they didn't know, and then quietly watched the emperor put on airs.
Zhao Huan continued with a smile, "I believe that I have more talented people around me than any emperor in history."
The emperor drank the wine in one gulp, and so did all the ministers, who were thinking to themselves that the emperor was going to praise them.
"Only you can help me create an era of eternal prosperity!"
"Your Majesty is wise and virtuous; your subjects are willing to go through fire and water for Your Majesty!"
"Good!" Zhao Huan placed the wine cup on the tray in the little eunuch's hand. "Minister Xu, give priority to meeting the needs of the Arsenal for iron."
"Yes, sir!"
"Standard rules".
"Your subject is here!"
Have you ever seen weaving tools?
When the emperor suddenly asked him this question, Chen Gui was completely dumbfounded. How could he, a grown man and a scholar, have ever seen weaving tools?
And why would the emperor suddenly ask such a strange question?
Others were also puzzled.
"Your Majesty, I have never seen any weaving implements."
Zhao Huan continued, "If you haven't seen it, ask Tang Ke how his current Bureau of Arts and Crafts is producing silk and cloth for me in large quantities."
Who among those present wasn't quick-witted?
Those who can stand here are all the true top elites of the Song Dynasty.
They immediately understood what the emperor wanted to expand.
Why can silk be mass-produced?
Because there are tools for producing silk, people only need to receive the tools to mass-produce it.
The emperor's meaning was simple: if the problem of mass production of firearms was to be solved, then the means to produce firearms should be developed in the same way that silk was produced.
In other words, it involves using a set of rules to manufacture each part of the musket.
Although he only understood the concept and had no idea how to create a device to achieve rapid production of firearms, Chen Gui strongly agreed with what the emperor said.
"The Emperor's wisdom is as vast as the sea; I, your subject, have been enlightened!"
“Alright, think it over carefully.” Zhao Huan continued, “I’ll give you another hint. The tools for making the gun body are for making the gun body, and the tools for making the iron shot are for making the iron shot. They should be made separately so that the process can be faster. After they are made, they can be manually combined. That’s how it works.”
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
