After leaving the Blacksmith Camp, Xiao Ruxun headed straight for the Ministry of War with an experimental gun in his hand. Today was the day Shi Xing had agreed to discuss the details of the conquest of Dongwu Country with Xiao Ruxun. For this reason, Xiao Ruxun headed to the Blacksmith Camp to see if his blacksmiths had made any progress. Unfortunately, the progress was limited, but at least there was progress. The progress of the flintlock was one of the reasons Xiao Ruxun was confident.
When he arrived at the Ministry of War, the guards of the Ministry of War all bowed and greeted him. Compared to the time when he was an Earl, they were much more respectful now. It was probably not only because of his title, but also because of his mission. With this mission, he was a legitimate general who commanded tens of thousands of soldiers. Of course, he was worthy of respect.
After entering the Ministry of War, some familiar officers from the Ministry of War also bowed to Xiao Ruxun. Xiao Ruxun smiled and returned the greeting. Then, he quickly walked into the duty room.
Shi Xing had been waiting for Xiao Ruxun for a while. When he saw Xiao Ruxun, he immediately smiled happily and said, "I've been waiting for Ji Xin for a long time. I feel a little sorry for making Ji Xin run around on official business during this break."
Xiao Ruxun shook his head and said with a smile, "The war is more important. There's no such thing as a break. I also hope that this matter can be finalized as soon as possible. I want to arrange for troops and prepare rations and weapons so that when the time comes, we can march straight into the enemy's lair and not give the people of Dongwu Country a chance to breathe."
Shi Xing nodded and said, "I'm very relieved that Ji Xin understands. In that case, there's no time to lose. Ji Xin previously said that the army will use … Hmm? What is this? Ji Xin, is this a musket? "
Shi Xing's attention was attracted by the experimental gun in Xiao Ruxun's hand. Xiao Ruxun smiled and raised the experimental gun. He said, "This is a sudden idea that I had on the Korean battlefield."
Shi Xing took the experimental gun and looked at it. He was immediately attracted by the gun's mechanism.
"This musket … doesn't have a match? No Fire Door? What … what kind of gun is this? "
Xiao Ruxun pointed at the gun and said, "This was I's sudden idea. In the Korean and Nihon battlefields, I had to avoid strong winds and heavy rain whenever I used guns to fight, so that the gunpowder wouldn't get wet and the wind would blow the gunpowder away. However, if I couldn't avoid it, I could only brace myself and fight. I thought that if I could make a gun that was not afraid of wind and rain, not only would the soldiers love it, but it would also be very beneficial to the war."
"Unafraid of wind and rain? This … would probably be difficult to achieve, right? So, what is Ji Xin's method? "
Shi Xing asked curiously.
"I's method is aimed at the shortcomings of the existing muskets. If we want to fire a musket, we need gunpowder and a match. The most troublesome part is the match. The match can't be too short. If it's too short, it won't be able to support more than two hours of fighting. But it can't be too long either. If it's too long, it'll be troublesome for the soldiers to carry it. Moreover, in strong winds and heavy rain, it'll easily get damp and can't be ignited.
That's the most troublesome part. I thought if we could use other methods to ignite the gunpowder without an open flame. If we can do this, the musket's practicality will be greatly improved. The soldiers in the Northern Region, especially those in Liaodong, won't be able to abandon the musket on the grounds that it's afraid of wind and rain. To be honest, I really think that old firearms such as the three-eyed musket, short musket, bowl musket, and Five Thunders should be completely eliminated and no longer produced. "
Shi Xing looked at the experimental gun in his hand and asked, "Then how does Ji Xin think we can ignite the gunpowder without an open flame?"
Xiao Ruxun took out two flints from his pocket and polished them up and down. With a click, sparks burst out.
"Flints?!"
Shi Xing exclaimed, "So that's how it is. Applying the principle of flints to muskets, using the flints to make the musket ignite by itself! And there's no need for an open flame to ignite it! "
Xiao Ruxun smiled and said, "That's right. I happened to see soldiers using flints to ignite fire in the North Korean camp. Only then did I think that this method could be applied to muskets. Thus, I gathered a group of blacksmiths and began experimenting. They removed the musket's mechanism and created their own mechanism. Using the flints to ignite the musket, they wanted to create this kind of self-igniting musket, which can also be called a flintlock musket."
Shi Xing looked at the experimental gun's mechanism as if he had found a treasure. He said excitedly, "Then Ji Xin, did you succeed? If you succeed, what's the range of this flintlock musket? What's the momentum? Is it better than a musket? "
Xiao Ruxun smiled bitterly and said, "Minister, how could it be that easy? This experimental gun is only made according to this general's idea. If you want to make the flintlock gun ignite on its own, it won't be enough. Look."
Xiao Ruxun took out a polished flints from his pocket and inserted it into the hammer. Then, he moved the flintlock back. Shi Xing heard a slight clicking sound. Then, Xiao Ruxun pulled the trigger. The hammer hit the flintlock's position. The two didn't collide violently and didn't create any sparks.
Shi Xing raised his head in astonishment.
"This … …"
"This is I's current achievement. He can only hit the flintlock and hit the flintlock. However, if he wants to ignite the gunpowder, it's still a bit difficult. Because there isn't a good enough spring iron, even iron that has been tempered thirty or fifty times is useless. This is an iron that has been tempered sixty times. Obviously, it's also useless. I is having his subordinates forge tempered steel to see if it's strong enough."
"If that's the case … … then, at the moment, this flintlock musket can't be used?"
Xiao Ruxun helplessly nodded his head. "More importantly, if only tempered tempered steel or even tempered steel has enough strength to be the raw material for this musket, then once this musket is invented, the cost of making one would be about twenty taels of silver. Not to mention the huge consumption, it's also a very good scrap of steel. The most important thing is the good iron. Minister, why is the quality of our Daming iron so bad?"
With an awkward and helpless expression, Shi Xing put down the experimental musket and sighed. "I can't do anything about this.
This is the responsibility of the Ministry of Works, so it's not good for me to intervene. When I report it to the cabinet, the cabinet can only try to smooth things over. I've also visited the workshop of the Ministry of Works, but those craftsmen are all vague and don't care about other things. They only know how to swing their hammers, as if they have nothing left to live for. If it were me, I'm afraid that I wouldn't want to do anything either. These craftsmen have been like this for generations, and I don't know when it'll end. "
After hearing Shi Xing's words, Xiao Ruxun knew that he couldn't count on the Ministry of Works to make good steel. The idea of presenting it to the imperial court to make blast furnaces was also dispelled.
This wasn't a technical problem, but a system problem. If the system problem wasn't solved, no matter how good the technology was, it would be annihilated. Since ancient times, was there any lack of such things?
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