The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

The design drawing of a musket is relatively easy, but making the gun, ensuring its functionality, and improving its performance is quite difficult and requires repeated debugging and polishing.

It took four months in total to finally build the first batch of muskets, a total of three.

The musket used a flintlock, and the bullet was changed to a single bullet instead of iron sand according to Min Xi's suggestion. Although iron sand has a large killing area, it lacks lethality. Min Xi wanted to modify this musket to be closer to modern firearms, preferably capable of continuous firing, but it was too early to fire continuously now, so he solved the instantaneous firing problem first.

After the guns were made, Min Xi took them for experiments and asked Yun Ji to test them. Since they were all hand-made, there were slight differences in performance among the three guns, resulting in differences in the range and lethality of each gun. But overall, they were all better than the spring-loaded shotgun. The best one had a range increased by more than ten meters, and the worst one could increase its range by seven or eight meters. In addition, the destructive power of the bullets was much greater.

The most important thing is that they don't need to be ignited separately, you can just pull the trigger to fire. But like the spring-wheel shotgun, there is the problem that the flint cannot ensure the first shot ignition.

This problem needs to be solved slowly by Min Xi and Zhao Shizhen.

Min Xi and Yun Ji invited Feng Hao back home and showed him the musket they had made.

After Feng Hao tried the musket, he said in disbelief: "Is this the gun you made? This is amazing, it's better than a musket."

"Yes. Should these three guns be handed over to the Shenjiying or the Ministry of War?" Min Xi asked.

Feng Hao thought for a moment and said, "Let my father report this to the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War will arrange for someone from the Shenji Camp to contact you."

"Okay!" Although Min Xi was also an official appointed by the imperial court, this was not his job and it was considered as privately casting weapons. If Feng Hao's father Feng Zheng came forward, he would be cleared of the suspicion of privately casting weapons and it could even be said that he instructed them to do it.

When Feng Hao left, he took away three newly cast muskets and the two muskets he had previously lent to Min Xi.

A few days later, the Ministry of War sent people to the Honglu Temple to invite Min Xi and Zhao Shizhen to meet the Minister of War.

The two went to Wenyuan Pavilion, where the Ming Dynasty Cabinet was located. All cabinet ministers worked here, and the Minister of War was one of the cabinet members.

It was the first time for both of them to enter Wenyuan Pavilion. Zhao Shizhen felt a little uneasy: "Brother Quanzhen, we really won't be held accountable, right? Privately casting weapons is a serious crime."

"No, we handed it over voluntarily and we weren't caught." Min Xi was not worried. With the previous experience of donating the ship, he should not be held accountable.

They were led to a room where several people were sitting and talking, but Min Xi didn't recognize any of them. But he guessed that the person sitting at the top was the Minister of War Weng Ji, so Min Xi and Zhao Shizhen hurriedly saluted: "Min Xi (Zhao Shizhen), the subordinate, greets you!"

Everyone in the room stopped talking and turned to look at them.

Weng Ji was playing with the musket they had made. When he saw them coming in, he put down his musket and asked, "You two are working in the Honglu Temple? What are your positions?"

Min Xi said, "I am the chief clerk of the Honglu Temple."

Zhao Shizhen said, "I am the Secretary of the Honglu Temple."

Weng Ji smiled. They were all insignificant officials. "Is the Honglu Temple too idle?"

Min Xi had no idea what he meant, and he didn't beat around the bush. He clasped his fists and said, "Without a visit from an envoy, the Honglu Temple really has nothing to do on weekdays. It just so happens that both me and Lord Zhao like to tinker with some tricks, so we tried to modify the musket."

Weng Ji raised a musket: "You call this a trick?"

A man with a very rough appearance said, "Sir, they really like to tinker with little tricks on weekdays. The bicycle that is popular in the whole capital was invented by them."

While they were busy making muskets, the blacksmith shop that made bicycles was also not idle. They made more than a dozen bicycles and sold them all. Now it was popular among the children of nobles in the capital to ride bicycles all over the city.

Weng Ji looked at Min Xi and said, "It seems that you do have some ideas, but privately casting weapons is a serious crime. Why do you want to privately make muskets?"

Min Xi said hurriedly: "I did not forge the musket privately, but I got the instruction from the commander-in-chief, Mr. Feng."

The rugged-looking man coughed lightly and said, "Sir, I know about this matter."

Only then did Min Xi realize that the man was Feng Hao's father Feng Zheng. He couldn't help but feel a little regretful that he had not gone to meet Feng Zheng earlier, and as a result, he was almost exposed.

Min Xi said: "Sir, I have traveled in Europe for many years and have seen and used European-made muskets. Their muskets are all flintlocks. I heard that our Ming muskets still need to be ignited, so I want to modify our muskets and hope to do my part for the Ming Dynasty."

"You only made three of these?" asked Weng Ji.

"Yes, only these three."

Weng Ji looked at Zhao Shizhen and said, "Master Zhao, what did you do?"

Zhao Shizhen quickly replied: "In reply to your question, I come from Wenzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang Province, where Japanese pirates frequently cause trouble. I have been protected by the Ming Navy since I was a child. I also happened to have some knowledge of muskets, so I developed this musket with Lord Min."

"Okay, you are thoughtful. Our Ministry of War will take these three guns, and you are not to make muskets again." Weng Ji said.

"We will not make muskets anymore." Min Xi agreed hurriedly, "I still have the drawings of the musket and the formula for forging iron. I will present them to you later."

Weng Ji nodded with satisfaction, and then asked: "You have done so much, what reward do you want?"

Min Xi said: "I don't want any reward."

Zhao Shizhen also said: "I dare not!"

Weng Ji said, "It's a waste of your talents to stay in the Honglu Temple. You should come to my Ministry of War. How about this, I transfer you both to the Ministry of War?"

The implication is that they both want to be promoted.

Min Xi said: "Thank you for your kindness, sir. I just want to tinker with more gadgets, so I won't go to the Ministry of War."

Weng Ji didn't expect that he would reject him, so he looked at Zhao Shizhen and said, "Lord Min doesn't think highly of our Ministry of War, so what about Lord Zhao?"

Zhao Shizhen was only a ninth-rank official, so of course he hoped for a smooth career and wanted to continue climbing up if given the chance. But when he heard Min Xi's refusal, he became hesitant.

Min Xi said, "Your Excellency is too kind. I am too stupid to look down on the Ministry of War. I am just a lazy person and I think the Honglu Temple is a good fit for me, so I don't want to move. But Mr. Zhao is good at designing muskets and is more suitable for the Ministry of War. Let him go."

Zhao Shizhen looked at Min Xi, whose eyes were full of encouragement. He nodded slightly and saluted to Weng Ji: "I am willing to go to the Ministry of War."

Weng Ji nodded and said, "Then go to the Arsenal and be the head of it. From now on, the production of muskets will be under your charge."

Zhao Shizhen quickly knelt down and kowtowed: "Thank you, Lord, for the promotion!" The head of the Ministry of War was a sixth-rank official, which meant three promotions in a row for him.

Min Xi was also happy for Zhao Shizhen. This was indeed what Zhao Shizhen deserved. He was originally a famous musket expert. What better place could there be than to let professionals do professional things in professional places? As for himself, in addition to muskets, he also wanted to make steam engines. Going to the Ministry of War was not quite suitable. It would be better for him to stay in the Honglu Temple. He had free time and could do whatever he wanted.