Wucheng.

With the arrival of the first month of the lunar year, lights and decorations are hung everywhere, and the atmosphere of the Chinese New Year is gradually taking shape.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang was here too, and as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he had to make a grand ceremony.

However, there are not many Han people here, most of them are passing merchants.

Just hearing that His Majesty had arrived in Wucheng during his southern tour and would celebrate the New Year here, more and more Ming Dynasty merchants rushed here.

For them, wherever His Majesty is, it feels like home.

The life of sea merchants is not as comfortable as imagined. They drift on the sea for a long time and always face countless dangers.

Some of these dangers come from nature, and some come from other businessmen.

Although there are no pirates in the waters near the Ming Dynasty due to the suppression of the Ming Navy, who can care so much about things at sea?

On the vast ocean, even if hundreds of people died, even thousands or tens of thousands of people would not make any sound.

The sea is the best place to destroy a body and cover up all traces. Just throw it into the sea and don't worry about anything. Even if Justice Bao is reborn or Di Renjie appears, they will not be able to find any clues.

Because of the opening of the sea, coupled with the increasingly prosperous industry of the Ming Dynasty, it has also indirectly stimulated the prosperity of the sea.

Merchant ships from all over the world are traveling more frequently, and all coastal countries will participate in this maritime trade. Driven by the huge profits, it has become a veritable Maritime Silk Road.

Compared to doing business, there is no doubt that robbing one's fellow thieves is faster.

Maybe you only need to rob a shopping mall to gain unimaginable wealth.

The merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty were not so easy to rob. Generally speaking, they were equipped with powerful firepower, such as muskets or cannons, and ordinary merchant ships did not even have a chance to get close.

Fortunately, generally speaking, most Ming merchant ships are relatively law-abiding and rarely engage in robbery.

Perhaps it's because they look down on it, or perhaps it's because they are afraid of the laws of the Ming Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, in addition to highly profitable goods such as silk, tea, and porcelain, the most popular matchlock gun was the most profitable of all.

As the army continued to be equipped with muskets, they had already spread throughout the Ming army.

And a large number of arsenals were established in various provinces.

The craftsmanship of the matchlock gun is not complicated. It mainly depends on the conception. Even the granular gunpowder can be achieved after just a few attempts.

The only thing that is a bit technically difficult is probably the fire bomb.

However, as the number of gunpowder craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty increased, it became difficult to keep the technology of fire bombs secret.

These days, the timid will die of starvation, and the bold will die of gluttony.

In the face of huge interests, no law can be restrained.

Some large families have already begun to secretly build gunpowder factories and then sell them to other countries through maritime trade.

Rough workmanship is not a problem, and high price is not a problem either. The matchlock rifles produced by these underground factories have become the most popular goods.

Even though the imperial court had discovered the existence of such contraband and had begun to conduct strict investigations, and even many families were discovered and executed, successors still flocked to it.

The construction of underground factories has also become more secretive.

The locations of these underground factories are often in sparsely populated areas, far away from the Ming Dynasty city, making them very difficult to search.

Some big families even found remote deserted islands on the sea, built gunpowder factories there, and then sold the gunpowder by sea.

This can also avoid being detected at the port to a large extent.

At present, the technology of matchlock guns has begun to spread both in the Southeast Asian region and in more distant countries.

After all, such a single-soldier combat weapon may perform a little worse in large-scale legion wars, but it almost plays a decisive role in small-scale battles.

The most important thing is the cost.

The cost of a matchlock gun is low. Apart from the labor cost, one or two taels of silver can make several of them. Moreover, the underground arsenal will save on materials and will not consider durability at all. As long as it can fire, it doesn't matter.

These matchlock guns would not pass any inspection before leaving the factory, let alone any test firings. Once they were made, they could only be sold.

As for the explosion of the barrel, it has long been commonplace.

Whether you can kill yourself while aiming at the enemy depends on God's mercy.

But generally speaking, at least in the first dozen or so shots, it will be relatively stable. After all, most of them are inferior materials, and it is normal that they cannot withstand the impact.

Such a situation is more in line with the interests of firearms smugglers.

If a matchlock rifle can still be used for a year or two and is almost as good as the ones made by the government, how can it be sold later?

“I really don’t feel safe.”

Zhu Ying was strolling in Wucheng with a few guards. Almost all the merchants he saw, including their guards, were carrying muskets.

Not just Han people, but also merchants from other countries.

After all, this is not a territory directly under the Ming Dynasty, and there is no law banning guns. Obviously, Zhu Yunwen and Lu did not care so much.

"Although the matchlocks they carry look crude, as demand arises, the better guns will gradually replace the other inferior ones."

"Driven by profit, it won't take long to develop a high-quality matchlock gun."

"There are already more and more arsenals in the Ming Dynasty. As long as you spend enough money, it is not difficult to find good gunpowder craftsmen."

"It seems that the replacement of flintlock rifles is already on the agenda."

Seeing the situation overseas with your own eyes is more eye-catching than simply reading intelligence on paper.

The flintlock rifle had actually already been invented in the Gunpowder Bureau in the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the sealing process requires very high standards, one should not underestimate the folk artists. One should know that in the hammering process, small accessories such as gold and silver jewelry can be made to an extremely delicate level. It is not too difficult to find a few skilled master craftsmen to hand-rub a flintlock.

It’s just that the sealing process has higher technical requirements than that of the matchlock gun. It all depends on the polishing and processing of the master craftsman, and the production speed is as slow as a turtle.

Mainly because the failure rate is very high.

Even for a master craftsman, on average six out of ten flintlock rifles would fail to meet the standards.

Flint is also involved here.

Especially in terms of springs, it is also a delicate manual work. If the elasticity is not enough and the force of the strike is too small, it will be difficult to ignite the flint.

The Ming Dynasty had no stock of high-purity flint. Although it was already looking for and mining it, the output could not be increased all at once.

The flints commonly used for lighting fires on the market today, also known as flints, usually require several or even more than ten hits before they can be successfully fired.

Such flint cannot be used in flintlock rifles at all.

You can't aim at the enemy and then fire five, six, or even ten shots before you can shoot.

In such a comparison, it is really not as stable as the matchlock gun. The hemp rope that burns fuel is extremely cheap and can be made easily.

This is also the key factor that has always restricted the mass production of flintlock rifles.

At present, there are nearly 300 high-quality flintlock rifles in stock in the Ming Dynasty, which is the output in the past two years.

The accuracy and range of the flintlock are unmatched by the matchlock.

However, there is no point in producing more, as there is too little high-purity flint. Moreover, flint itself is a consumable and requires a certain amount of reserve.

There were two teams of one hundred men in this southern tour team, serving as Zhu Ying and Zhu Yuanzhang's personal guards, and they were equipped with flintlock rifles.

Right now, Zhu Ying has a short-barreled flintlock rifle on his waist.

This short-barreled flintlock rifle is a firearm that is beyond the current era and can even be described as a work of art.

The spring and barrel inside are made of fine steel that has been tempered a thousand times.

The gun barrel is polished piece by piece using the same technique used to make gold jewelry.

The wood used on the gun body is expensive golden nanmu, and there are dragon patterns carved on it by the current Ming Dynasty carving master.

The most important thing is that the short-barreled flintlock rifle in Zhu Ying's hand is a real breech-loading rifle.

The biggest technical problem with a breech-loading rifle is striking the primer, which is not a difficult problem.

The key to the problem lies in mercury fulminate, which was not invented until the early 19th century.

Mercury fulminate is a lively little thing that is very sensitive to vibrations and will explode once it is impacted. For example, the "smashing firecrackers" that many children in later generations play with, which are firecrackers that explode when thrown on the ground, contain mercury fulminate.

Zhu Ying was not a great chemist in his previous life, so it was naturally impossible for him to invent something like mercury fulminate now.

But if the percussion cap does not have this thing, it is difficult to fire from the breech.

But if you think about it, it's not completely impossible.

Can be handmade.

The short-barreled flintlock bullet in Zhu Ying's hand is made solely of silver, and has rifling engravings on the outside that fits the inside of the barrel, which can better improve accuracy.

Paper-thin silver is wrapped around granular gunpowder, and at the base of the bullet is a layer of high-precision flint.

In order to achieve a better ignition effect, this layer of flint flakes will be soaked in grease for more than ten hours before being added to the bottom of the silver bullet.

There is a thin needle at the firing point of the gun barrel.

When struck, the ignited flint will carry sparks through the fine needle to the bottom of the silver bullet and ignite it.

These precision parts are all carefully polished by craftsmen with extremely exquisite skills.

Just for one silver bullet, even if there are no errors in the process, it will take at least half a month to make it.

The main reason is that the failure rate of flint flakes is too high, probably less than one in ten.

After all, high-precision flint can ignite if you’re not careful.

The short-barreled flintlock rifle in Zhu Ying's hand is actually not much different from the pistols of later generations.

But even so, the lifespan of this gun is very limited.

It is estimated that after firing dozens of shots, the internal structure will change, which may lead to the possibility of barrel explosion.

Because it involves the construction of precision parts, without the high-precision processing of later generations, it can only be replaced by gold or silver, which will also be more prone to deformation.

Once there is a problem with air tightness, the chamber will naturally explode.

But for Zhu Ying now, it is completely enough.

There was a special leather bag around Zhu Ying's waist, which contained special silver bullets wrapped in oil paper.

Although it needs to be reloaded after each shot just like the sniper rifles of later generations, it is an invincible weapon for self-defense.

This is the direction of future gun development, which is at least two hundred years ahead of current firearms.

When shopping in Wucheng, you can really feel like you are in two different worlds.

One is a businessman.

Most of the conversations between these people are conducted in Chinese. Even foreign businessmen who speak Chinese awkwardly and unclearly still speak Chinese.

This is because for all maritime merchants, the most profitable trading place is Ming Dynasty.

No matter how difficult it is to learn, you have to calm down and study it. It is easy to be sold out or have misunderstandings through translation.

Secondly, after the Ming Dynasty opened its seas, merchants engaged in maritime trade emerged as numerous as bamboo shoots after a spring rain, which also led to the fact that the largest number of people in maritime trade were from the Ming Dynasty.

This makes Chinese more popular.

For any businessman who wants to engage in maritime trade, no matter which country he is from, the first step is to learn Chinese.

Otherwise, even if we arrive in the Ming Dynasty, we would be blind if we cannot communicate.

Apart from merchants, there are local indigenous people in Wucheng.

These people could not understand Chinese at all because Zhu Yunwen did not open any Chinese schools. Except for a few nobles who had the financial resources to study, 90% of them could only speak Divination.

And because of the influence of Indian culture, the high-caste Cham people do not even communicate in Cham, but in Sanskrit.

As a result, it was difficult for the lower-class people to communicate with the nobles or the outside world.

Cham language has no written heritage, but Sanskrit has its own script.

These people can't even read, let alone pass on their culture.

The scriptures and laws of Champa were all written in Sanskrit, which completely isolated ordinary people.

"What a great opportunity! Why can't you grasp it?"

Zhu Ying was somewhat thankful that he had come to see it himself, otherwise it would have been difficult to understand the local customs and practices through some information.

These people were abandoned by the nobles, and they could be easily lured into the Ming Dynasty's ranks without much effort.

Plus with the current trend of learning Chinese, it is easy for them to accept it.

By now, Zhu Ying also understood why neither Zhu Yunwen nor the Lu family opened a Chinese school.

This was probably due to resistance from the Zan nobles in Wucheng.

These nobles naturally did not want the untouchables to have the right to learn knowledge, so they would naturally try every possible means, even if it meant giving up their own interests, to affect Zhu Yunwen and the Lu family.

There is no Chinese school here, but there is a private school.

The nobles would rather spend more money to hire Han Chinese as teachers to teach Chinese studies than to study with low-caste untouchables.

From Zhu Yunwen's perspective, it seems that this method can also further consolidate his rule.

After all, in Wucheng, apart from the 50,000 elite soldiers brought by Zhu Yunwen, there were almost no Han people.

For the time being, they can only rely on the existing aristocratic ruling system in Wucheng.

However, these are not in the interests of Zhu Ying, let alone the interests of the Ming Dynasty.