, The latest chapter of Han'er Not a Slave!

On the fourth day of the lunar month, the Ordnance Bureau ambassador Cheng Hanbin personally led the team to transport the latest secretly developed 24 cannons that could fire flowering artillery shells from Zhenjiang to Baimao. These cannons will be assigned to the artillery regiment of the New Third Army.

Zhou Shixiang tested the power of these flowering artillery shells by the river. It is no exaggeration to say that compared with the iron and lead shells fired by traditional artillery, the large-scale coverage and killing of new artillery shells after explosion is definitely a powerful tool to deal with cavalry.

To a certain extent, the flowering artillery shells are exactly the same as the "conscienceless" used by the Taiping Army before, and there is no distinction between Bopu in terms of killing range. The biggest difference between the two is that the use distance of the unscience is only about 150 meters, while the flowering artillery shells can shoot about 1,000 meters. The farthest range tested by the Ordnance Bureau is four miles, but the effect is not as good as that of a thousand meters, and the shells are prone to deviate from the attack target.

The distance of about 1,000 meters is far enough compared to the musket. The application of flowering bullets will fill the shortcomings of the Taiping Army's weak long-range attack. On the battlefield, shells will be formed to harvest one piece first, and cannons will be harvested one piece. The last remaining fish that escapes the net will face the turn of attacks from muskets. It can be imagined that under such high-intensity firearm attacks, no matter how the Qing army or any army, it will be impossible for them to break through the Taiping Army's defense line.

When this tactic is mature, the cold weapons currently equipped in the army will be gradually eliminated, thus allowing the Taiping Army to truly convert into a pure firearm army.

However, Zhou Shi called this shell "Blooming Flower", which means blooming everywhere, but people from the Ordnance Bureau called it "mother bullet". Compared with the name "Blooming Flower", the name "mother bullet" is more easily accepted.

In order to obtain detailed data on the mother bullets from the battlefield to facilitate the improvement of the Ordnance Bureau, Cheng Hanbin organized 15 business elites from the Ordnance Bureau to go north with the army.

Zhou Shixiang handed over the team to Li Kuangming and told the other party clearly that he, the commander, could die, but these elites from the ordnance bureau could not die, even if they were injured, they could not.

The Qi family army attached great importance to firearms, which was originally the most important part of the Ming army. As a descendant of the Qi family army, Li Kuangming naturally highly praised firearms and knew the significance of these craftsmen who developed firearms.

Zhou Shixiang corrected Li Kuangming's concept and told him that these people were not craftsmen, but R&D experts, and outstanding talents in the field of Daming Firearms. Their significance lies in the fact that they are not inferior to the Jinshi. It can even be said that the ten top scholars are not as important as the Taiping Army.

Zhou Shixiang was so serious that Li Kuangming was very shocked and he ordered his military guards to protect them specifically.

In addition to the mother bullets, Cheng Hanbin also brought 10,000 consciences, 170,000 kilograms of medicine, more than 14,000 shells of various types, and 1,400 medicine packages specially used for blasting. These account for about 60% of the Ordnance Bureau's output this year. Although it is still a certain distance from Zhou Shixiang's requirements, it can barely support the army's needs for combat. In addition to these Ordnance, Cheng Hanbin also brought a musket that made Zhou Shixiang look at him with admiration.

Like the flowering cannonball, this gun is called the "child-child gun" by people from the Ordnance Bureau. However, Zhou Shixiang was more willing to call this musket a machine gun, or the prototype of a machine gun.

Unlike the machine guns I have touched and fired by myself, the style of this mother gun developed by the Ordnance Bureau is relatively simple, and the ignition method is still a fuse rope, and the bullets are also iron balls and lead balls, but they can fire 17 consecutive times. This means that if soldiers on the battlefield are given 100 mother guns, the actual power is equivalent to 1,700 muskets. There is no need to organize a queue to fire, and in a short time, the attacking party can be swept away with the storm-like barrage.

Zhou Shixiang was simply ecstatic and asked Cheng Hanbin how he came up with the development of this kind of musket. Cheng Hanbin said that this kind of musket was not designed by him, but was created by a man named Li Dabiao.

After hearing Cheng Hanbin's introduction to Li Dabiao, Zhou Shixiang couldn't help but sigh that the Ming Dynasty was full of talents and never lacked talents.

Li Dabiao is in his fifties this year and is from Jinzhou, Liaodong. His father was a cavalry under Zu Dashou's command. Later, Zu Dashou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and his father became a soldier of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty. After Li Dabiao became an adult, his son inherited his father's business and served as a soldier in the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty. He once attacked Sichuan with Haoge, and later fought with Kong Youde to attack Guangxi. After being defeated by Li Dingguo's troops, Li Dabiao became a scattered soldier and later ran to Jiangxi to become a bandit. As a result, when the Taiping Army attacked Ganzhou, the bandit camp where he was located was uprooted by the Taiping Army. Li Dabiao was captured by the Taiping Army like others and became a auxiliary soldier.

Because he was injured by the Ming army of Li Dingguo's troops with a gun while in Guangxi, and when he was old, he could not do heavy work, Li Dabiao became the leader of the Taiping Army, specializing in burning fire and burying stoves. Because he was old and had many experiences, although he was a choreographer, Li Dabiao was very comfortable in the army, and from time to time, there were officers coming to ask him about the Qing army.

Later, the Taiping Army where Li Dabiao was located was ordered to protect the Ordnance Bureau that had moved from Guangdong to Zhenjiang. Because he had had contact with Ming Arms and Firearms craftsmen who were captured by the Qing army in his early years, Li Dabiao was no stranger to the production of firearms. After contacting people from the Ordnance Bureau and making several suggestions, he was favored by Cheng Hanbin, who was looking for firearms and transferred to the Ordnance Bureau to work as a job.

In the past two years, the main job of the Ordnance Bureau was to prepare gunpowder and saltpeter and manufacture flintlock guns. Li Dabiao helped train some newcomers to repair the damaged muskets sent by the army. Over time, the Taiping Army attached great importance to firearms and rewarded the talents for the development of new muskets. Many original craftsmen were promoted to officials. Cheng Hanbin, the ambassador of the Ordnance Bureau, became the second-rank minister of the Ministry of Works, which made Li Dabiao very enthusiastic and felt that he could also make something to be appointed.

Li Dabiao's "invention" came from the three-eyed gun commonly used by the Ming army. After a year of failure, Li Dabiao finally created this mother-child gun that could fire 17 times in a row. After seeing the sample, Cheng Hanbin knew that this was definitely a good thing.

Zhou Shixiang asked Cheng Hanbin to find Li Dabiao, praised Li Dabiao in front of a group of civil and military officials, and awarded him the title of Thousand Households, and ordered him to specialize in developing and improving the mother-child gun. He also put forward some improvement suggestions, such as changing the fuse rope to flint, increasing the capacity of the projectile, shortening the body of the gun, improving the shooting distance and accuracy, etc.

Zhou Shi promised in a blind date that as long as Li Dabiao could improve the mother-child gun and mass production, his official rank would be improved again, and it would not be impossible to even be a marquis. This made Li Dabiao so excited that he could not express his feelings.

After Li Dabiao retreated, Cheng Hanbin reported on the internal sanction of the Ordnance Bureau. It has been found that three people were suspected of leaking secrets and the person had been taken away by the Military Information Department.

Cheng Hanbin apologized to Zhou Shixiang and admitted that he was unknown to the employer, which led to the leakage of military information. Zhou Shixiang shook his head and told him that the leak was not scary, but what was scary was that he didn't know how to leak the secret. In the future, with more and more weapons from the Ordnance Bureau, leaks would become normal. After all, there are not many people in the world who can withstand the temptation of huge benefits. To prevent this from happening, the first is to improve the status of the ordnance R&D personnel, so that they can have a sense of honor, and they must not worry about food and clothing. The second is to strengthen internal prevention and crack down on them together.

After talking about this, Zhou Shixiang ordered people to take a map and pointed to several places to tell Cheng Hanbin that there were large iron ore and copper ore. He organized people from the Ordnance Bureau to survey and map, and then formulated a detailed development plan to report to the Ministry of Industry.

"Don't worry, I'll organize someone to do it when I go back."

Cheng Hanbin's eyes moved away from the map. The last place he saw seemed to be in Taiping Prefecture in Anhui. For some reason, the Grand Marshal marked the three words "Ma'anshan".

"I have already said hello to the Ministry of Works and will cooperate with you with all my strength. After the plan is formulated, the court will do its best to carry out industrial development. Well, by the way, do you have any ideas for the steam engine I told you last time?"

"According to Da Zheng's idea, my subordinates found someone to make two textile machines made of steam power, but one was not successful. Although the other was made, it broke after less than half a stick of incense." Cheng Hanbin said honestly.

Zhou Shixiang waved his hand: "It might be okay. If it breaks, do it again. It will always be successful. Everything is difficult at the beginning. Don't be afraid of spending money. If the money is not enough, just issue a order to go to the warehouse department to collect it. I will give you a clear letter. If you can make the steam engine, I will personally award you the title!"

"Master, subordinate"

Like Li Dabiao before, Cheng Hanbin was also excited and could not express his feelings. There was a Ming Dynasty, but there was never a "craftsman" who was awarded the title.

Just when Cheng Hanbin secretly vowed to get out the steam engine that Da Zheng said, more than a dozen students were saying goodbye to each other at the gate of the Jiangnan Army University in Zhenjiang.

"Brother Luo, Brother Chen, I am not as good as you, so I can't participate in the Northern Expedition. Please kill a few more Tartars for me!" A student named Cheng Lin was a little envious and sad, looking at Luo Lun, Chen Shiqi and other companions who were about to return to the army to participate in the Northern Expedition.

Luo Lun smiled and said, "Brother Lin, the southwest is now under the command of King Jin. I heard that the Third War Zone is responsible for the important task of conquering the northwest of Shaanxi and Gansu. There are many wars to fight in the future. Why do you have to be so depressed?"

"Yes, the people of Manzhou are just struggling to death, and one battle can be decided. At that time, there will be no war in the north, but your third war zone will not worry about war, and there will be more opportunities to make achievements than us."

Chen Shiqi did not comfort Cheng Lin, but the fact is indeed the case. The Third War Zone is a war zone responsible for the northwest region, and the Northwest region has been a place where wars and events have occurred frequently throughout the dynasties. When Cheng Lin went to the Third War Zone, how could there be no war to fight?

"That's true!"

Cheng Lin bowed to his fellow companions who had been together for several months and said, "Everyone, let's part with you. If you can survive in the future, you will meet in Beijing! Take care of me!"

"Okay, meet in Beijing!" Chen Shiqi said with a heavy voice with his fists.

"treasure!"

Amid the sound of "take care", more than a dozen soldiers from the Army University General Zuo went their separate ways. In the future, they will appear on various battlefields in the Ming Dynasty.
Chapter completed!