Travel back in time and become Chongzhen, watch me turn the tide

A separate area within the Nanjing Jingying (Beijing Camp) served as the experimental base for the newly established Firearms Bureau. The area was heavily guarded, with numerous tents, many of which were filled with a wide variety of firearms and related research equipment.

When Chongzhen hurried over, Xie Quanfeng was holding a musket steadily in his hand. When he saw Chongzhen coming, a bright smile suddenly broke out on his face, and he said happily: "Your Majesty, let me show you something good!"

"Oh?" Chongzhen saw Xie Quanfeng's beaming, excited expression, and a surge of curiosity surged in his heart. He hurriedly asked, "What is this?"

"This is called a self-generated musket!" Xie Quanfeng said as he carefully handed the musket in his hand to Chongzhen.

"A self-propelled musket? What's the difference between it and a bird gun?" Chongzhen took the self-propelled musket with full of doubts, looked it up and down very carefully, and then asked.

Just by this inspection, Chongzhen keenly noticed that there were significant differences between this bird gun and the standard bird gun equipped by the Ming army. This bird gun did not have the fuse for firing, but instead had a piece of flint.

"Is this a flintlock rifle?" Chongzhen said in surprise and delight, "You actually made one?"

He really had not expected that Xie Quanfeng would be able to successfully develop the flintlock rifle in such a short period of time.

"Your Majesty is indeed a discerning eye. You saw it right away." Xie Quanfeng smiled, his tone filled with admiration and pride. He said, "This is indeed the flintlock rifle that Your Majesty mentioned to me before. However, this is not something I came up with out of thin air. It already exists."

"The flintlock rifle already existed?" Chongzhen said in surprise, with a hint of disbelief in his eyes.

"That's right!" Xie Quanfeng replied with a smile. "When Your Majesty mentioned the flintlock rifle to me earlier, I felt like I had seen this kind of gun somewhere before, so I dove into the sea of ​​books, searching for relevant books with all my strength. Finally, I found it in Bi Maokang's "Illustrated Explanation of Military Equipment." It's called the self-generating fire gun. "Illustrated Explanation of Military Equipment" records that guns are inconvenient to use in wind and rain. All guns must first open the firing port before they can be fired at the enemy. Often, guns are wetted by wind and rain and cannot fire, and some are fired by mistake because they cannot see the stars. You have to modify the trigger to make the flint strike the trigger by itself, causing the powder to ignite spontaneously. Wind and rain cannot wet the gun, so it can be used in an emergency."

"Self-generating fire gun..." Chongzhen nodded slightly. He always thought that the flintlock rifle was first invented in the West, but he didn't expect that it had already existed in the Ming Dynasty. However, for some reason, it had never been widely promoted.

"Chen Wenkai recreated this self-propelled musket by slightly modifying the bird gun based on historical records," Xie Quanfeng said. "This self-propelled musket is more convenient than the bird gun we use, but the cost of production and maintenance is much higher."

"High cost isn't a problem," Chongzhen laughed heartily. "Continue to improve and optimize this self-propelled musket, and achieve mass production within a short period of time. With this self-propelled musket, combined with the previously used paper shell ammunition, my new army will truly possess the strength to fight."

"Your Majesty, we are making intensive progress in improving the self-propelled muskets, and I believe that mass production will be possible soon." Xie Quanfeng said with a smile.

"Where are the cannons?" Chongzhen looked at Xie Quanfeng hopefully and asked anxiously.

"The casting of cannons is primarily limited by a shortage of skilled craftsmen," Xie Quanfeng said after a moment's thought. "While Chen Wenkai is well versed in the principles of the iron-core copper casting method Your Majesty mentioned, he has never personally manufactured one. Currently, there are only three or five skilled artisans, so progress is quite slow."

"Where is the artillery cart?" Chongzhen asked hurriedly, his eyes full of concern.

"The artillery cart is relatively simple. Huang Minggang said that the artillery cart Your Majesty mentioned was already used by Qi Jiguang, the young master Qi, in his Qi Family Army, and now we have successfully made it." Xie Quanfeng said.

"So this kind of technology already existed at that time?" Chongzhen was stunned when he heard this, and his heart was full of surprise.

Since traveling through time, Chongzhen found it increasingly difficult to understand the Ming Dynasty.

He originally thought that those advanced flintlock rifles, artillery carts, etc. must have been developed by later generations, but he did not expect that they already existed in the Ming Dynasty, but had not been widely used.

Ming Dynasty firearms and tactics, while not world-leading, were certainly not outdated. Yet, they were never fully realized in actual combat. That such a brilliant civilization was ultimately overthrown by the relatively backward Qing Dynasty is truly lamentable, and one cannot help but wonder.

"Huang Minggang is still improving the artillery carriage," Xie Quanfeng said with a smile. "Mr. Huang is indeed a descendant of the Mohist school. After his modifications, this artillery carriage can not only freely operate the thousand-jin cannon, but also has a new function for adjusting the carriage's angle. This makes the artillery firing more flexible and varied."

"Oh?" Chongzhen nodded in satisfaction at Xie Quanfeng's words, a relieved smile on his face.

"The falconets and red cannons we have now are basically sufficient, so we're currently working on improving the common problems with these cannons. For example, Your Majesty once said that the biggest problem with the falconets was their poor airtightness. Following Your Majesty's suggestion, we added a copper ring to the muzzle of the sub-gun. After repeated experiments, the effect was remarkable, and we've now deployed this improved falconet." Xie Quanfeng said with a beaming expression, "And with the improvement of black powder, the performance of our cannons has been further enhanced, greatly increasing both their power and range!"

"Yes! Was this also done by Huang Minggang?" Chongzhen asked with a smile.

The falconet is a breech-loading smoothbore iron cannon consisting of a barrel, a breech block, and a sub-cannon. During firing, a gunpowder pellet is pre-loaded into the sub-cannon, which is then placed in the breech block. Aiming is done with the front sight, and the trigger is fired. The thick breech block and rudder at the tail facilitate steerage. Its advantages include rapid firing rate, efficient heat dissipation, high safety, and long barrel life. Its greatest disadvantage is its poor airtightness, resulting in a shorter range. The addition of a copper ring to the sub-cannon allows for its expansion during firing, thereby improving airtightness.

In reality, the falconet was no longer considered an advanced device. As early as the Zhengde reign, the Ming army had 3,800 falconets equipped with front sights and rear sights, and fired shrapnel shells with shell casings. Their effective range reached 500 meters, and when fired from above, they could reach 1,000 meters. Each scattershot shell contained 500 rounds, capable of blocking a 60-meter-wide front, a formidable threat.

"The one who improved the Portuguese cannon was Chen Wenkai. The two people chosen by Your Majesty are truly amazing." Xie Quanfeng praised sincerely.

"Haha, right? The people I choose are naturally not bad." Chongzhen laughed heartily and said, "I haven't had time to meet them recently. What are they doing? I must see them today no matter what."

"Recently, the two of them have been researching something called a flying cannon." Xie Quanfeng thought for a moment and said, "It's said that this cannon was once deployed in large quantities, but later it was discontinued for some reason. Now they are trial-producing it..."

"Oh? Then where are they? Let's go and take a look!" Chongzhen's eyes lit up and he said hurriedly.

"They should be in the laboratory now... I'll go call them over." Xie Quanfeng said.

"Why are you yelling? No need!" Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "Let's go over there. I also want to see the flying cannon they developed..."