The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 209 My Rifle Gun is Good
Yue Wenxuan secretly complained in his heart. He told Madam Gong Er five days in advance that he would come to meet these blacksmiths because he wanted to use these few days to customize new figures. However, he did not expect that these five days would become the preparation time for "preparing to welcome the leaders."

It seems that everyone in this firearms workshop has spent time training on the ceremony of welcoming the leader.

Fortunately, they haven't yet gathered a group of children to sing, dance and present flowers. If they really did that, it would be really ridiculous.

Damn it, this trend must be stopped and strangled in the bud!

Yue Wenxuan waved his hand and said, "I don't blame you this time, but don't do it next time. From now on, no matter which leader comes, you are not allowed to do these things. Cleaning up is fine, and it's not excessive to tidy up the appearance, but rehearsing uniform slogans and formations is a waste of manpower and resources."

Craftsman: “…”

Well, I wanted to please the True Lord, but I ended up getting hurt. I won’t dare to do that again in the future.

Yue Wenxuan stopped criticizing, fearing that he would scare the craftsman to death. After hearing what he said before, it was estimated that no department would dare to do this again in the future.

He waved at Li Tiezhu's team of craftsmen and said, "I heard from Madam Gong Er that you guys are the ones who have learned the skills the best. Have you already graduated?"

The craftsmen's faces immediately lit up as they said happily, "Yes! Master Xianjiang has allowed us to start our apprenticeship. We have now completely mastered the technique of making bird cannons."

"Very good!" Yue Wenxuan: "Then next, I will send a new immortal craftsman to teach you new techniques."

Several craftsmen: “???”

Yue Wenxuan reached behind his back and pulled Caspar Korner out, saying to him, "Go around the firearms workshop, take a look at the equipment and the muskets, then show us your rifling skills and teach them to the craftsmen."

He spoke Chinese, but the Austrian plastic man could understand him.

Yue Wenxuan gave orders to the plastic man, no matter what language he used, or even just a thought, the plastic man would receive the order and execute it.

However, the Austrian plastic man could only understand Yue Wenxuan's Chinese, not the Chinese spoken by others. He also couldn't speak Chinese. When he opened his mouth, he spoke in German: "gehorche deinem Befehl."

The craftsmen were all puzzled. Was this Hu man an immortal craftsman? What was going on?
Caspar Korner quickly walked into the firearms workshop, looked left and right, examined the various tools and furnaces, and soon an expression of surprise appeared on his face.

The reason is simple: Caspar Körner was active around 1500.

However, the technology used in this blacksmith shop is from the end of the Ming Dynasty, around 1600.

Although the Ming Dynasty lagged far behind Europe in firearms design, it was not behind the West of the same period in pig iron smelting and forging technology, and was even superior to many small Western countries.

To put it simply, in 1600, the Ming Dynasty's smelting and forging technology was not behind that of most European countries in 1600. So the Ming Dynasty in 1600 was naturally stronger than Europe in 1500.

Caspar Körner uttered a long, incomprehensible string of words with a tut-tut sound.

The craftsmen are confused...

The plastic man translator Yue Wenxuan had prepared in advance jumped out: "He said that the furnaces here are excellent, the tools are also excellent, and there is technology that fascinates him. He likes it here."

Yue Wenxuan waved his hand and said, "Give him a bird gun."

The craftsman quickly took out a newly made bird gun and handed it to Caspar Korner.

Caspar Korner looked at the musket carefully, turning it around and muttering to himself from time to time.

Translation: "He said it was a matchlock gun and he was very familiar with this design." The earliest record of the bird gun, which was commonly used in the late Ming Dynasty, was in 1523, when the Ming army seized the Portuguese bird guns during the Battle of Xige Bay in Xinhui, Guangdong. The invention of this type of fire gun was decades earlier in Europe.

So Caspar Körner, a musket expert around 1500, was no stranger to this design.

He put the barrel of the gun to his eyes, looked inside, and immediately laughed.

Translation: "He said that this was a smoothbore musket and was not as accurate as the rifled musket he had made. He also said that anyone who disagreed could challenge him to a duel."

Yue Wenxuan smiled. This guy wanted to compete as soon as he opened his mouth. It seemed that the setting that he was only a few years old was taking effect.

Historically, the rifled gun invented by Caspar Körner was not recognized because the mainstream weapon in Europe at that time was still the smoothbore gun. Many people who were used to using smoothbore guns were very dissatisfied and said that rifles were useless.

So Kaspar Korner had no choice but to accept the challenge of the "old forces", compete with them, and defeat them one by one.

A pastor named Hermann Moritz went so far as to declare that rifled muskets were more accurate than smoothbore muskets because the gods were powerless against rotating objects and that rifles were the property of demons and devils. At the time, Europe was as superstitious as we are here. People believed in spirits more than science, and they bought into Moritz's nonsense, viewing rifles as weapons against non-Christians and demons.

As late as 1547, the Church still hated the rifle.

Archbishop Mainz organized a strange competition. On one side were the church's gunmen, all of whom used smoothbore rifles and silver bullets with crosses engraved on them and sprinkled with holy water.

On the other side were the riflemen.

Shooting from both sides...

As a result, the church's silver bullet shooters missed a single shot, but the riflemen hit their targets one by one.

The reason is very simple. The cross engraved on the bullet destroys the balance of the bullet, and it is sprinkled with holy water for lubrication. It would be strange if it could hit the target.

After losing, the archbishop was very angry and started to cheat. He unilaterally declared that the rifled gun was a weapon of the devil and it should be confiscated and destroyed. Anyone found making a rifled gun would be burned at the stake.

From these short stories, we can see how difficult the situation was for Caspar Körner after he invented the rifle. He was facing the malice of the entire world.

So this guy only has this little personality...

He shouted at the craftsmen around him in a hostile tone.

Translation: "He said that the rifle he invented is very useful, definitely better than the smoothbore musket. Everyone present should trust him and not listen to the church. If anyone disagrees, you can have a friendly scientific competition, but please don't use the church's theories to attack him. He is not a messenger of the devil, and the rifle is not a devil's weapon. It is just a technology, not magic!"

Craftsmen: “???”

Yue Wenxuan smiled secretly in his heart: Well, the scientific development in Europe has actually been severely held back by conservative forces. Just like some people here, they regard advanced science and technology as "strange and cunning skills, not worth mentioning, as long as we have the bows, arrows and spears left by our ancestors, it will be enough."

This kind of thing happened not only in ancient times, but also in modern times.

How many people criticized the electronic rearview mirror?
How many people criticized the HUD head-up display?

The conservatives only see the shortcomings of electronic rearview mirrors and HUDs, but ignore their advantages. They are very similar to those who think that "as long as we have the bows and spears left by our ancestors, it will be enough."

(End of this chapter)