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

"Your Majesty, we are late in coming to your rescue. Please punish us." Shi Kefa was the first to kneel down in front of Chongzhen, with a look of deep guilt on his face.

Li Ruolian, Huang Degong, Li Chengdong, Yan Yingyuan, Li Laiheng and others also rushed over after hearing the news. They followed Shi Kefa and knelt down in unison.

"My dear ministers, please rise quickly," Chongzhen said hurriedly. "Today's incident happened suddenly, and you could not have anticipated it. However, you reacted quickly and arrived on time. I can't even praise you enough, so how can I punish you?"

Chongzhen put on a gentle smile, trying to ease everyone's tension.

"Your Majesty is wise!" Shi Kefa was deeply moved by Chongzhen's words.

Although today's incident happened suddenly, does Shi Kefa really have no responsibility? The emperor was accompanied by only four guards, and the entire military governor's office had only 20 to 30 guards. As a result, when they wanted to rescue Chongzhen, they were stopped and could only watch helplessly as the thieves besieged Chongzhen.

If Chongzhen had died as a result of this accident, he would definitely be the biggest sinner!

What Shi Kefa hadn't expected was Chongzhen's attitude. If this had happened before, not only would his own life be in jeopardy, but he might also have implicated a whole group of people. But now, Chongzhen brushed it off lightly with a single sentence, and even took the responsibility on himself.

He didn't know whether Chongzhen had truly changed his character or was being lenient due to the current situation. However, after this incident, Shi Kefa was resolute in his choice. After all, only under the leadership of such a broad-minded emperor could they possibly win the next three-way struggle!

"Can you find out who wants to assassinate me and why?" Chongzhen didn't want to waste time on these details.

The target of these people today was very clear: they were targeting him. This was extremely strange. Furthermore, judging by the way these assassins attacked, they seemed to be eager for his death, even using military-grade firearms like the Sky-Shaking Bomb. What kind of hatred did this show?

He had only been in Yangzhou City for three days, and no one knew his identity except Shi Kefa and others. Why did these people come to kill him with such a clear goal?

This matter must be made clear, the hidden enemy is the real deadly one!

"The bandit leader committed suicide out of fear of punishment, and the rest of them were just following orders. We can't get anything out of them," Shi Kefa said, shaking his head. His brows were furrowed, and a helpless expression appeared on his face. "But among those we captured, two have special identities, so we haven't dared to torture them yet..."

"Who is it?" Chongzhen asked hurriedly, his eyes revealing anxiety and curiosity.

"One is Wang Cong, the son of the salt merchant Wang family, the one who had a conflict with you before," Shi Kefa said, looking at Chongzhen, observing his reaction.

"The other is the eunuch Qu Shangzhong who came to Yangzhou to select concubines for the current Emperor Hongguang!"

"How did these two get involved?" Chongzhen frowned and said, a puzzled look on his face, "Have they explained why they are with these thieves?"

"These two men haven't said a word since they were captured," Shi Kefa said, shaking his head. "It was the interrogators who recognized them. They have special identities, especially Eunuch Qu..."

"Hmph! As someone close to the Emperor, instead of trying to persuade him, you're aiding and abetting his evil ways, helping him come to Yangzhou City for the beauty pageant. That's not a good thing!" Chongzhen's expression turned cold. "Wang Cong is just the son of a salt merchant. What's so special about him? Tell them, I don't care what means they use, I only want results!"

"Yes!" Shi Kefa responded quickly, "I'll give the order right away."

"Your Majesty, a great event is imminent. Your safety must be guaranteed," Huang Degong said, his eyes filled with worry. "You cannot stay here any longer. You should join our army."

"Hushan, you worry too much. Xianzhi and Liheng have advised me many times before. This time I was careless," Chongzhen said with a smile and waved his hand, "I will pay attention in the future."

This was actually due to the thinking of later generations. Such things would never happen in later times. Even if they encountered a thief or robber, with Zhu Tie around, it would be a small matter. At this point, Chongzhen's heart began to take it seriously, and he decided to strengthen his personal guards.

However, Chongzhen could no longer live here at this time. For safety reasons, under the escort of Yan Yingyuan, Chongzhen temporarily lived in the military camp.

After all this trouble, the sky was already turning pale. Chongzhen couldn't sleep at this time. He thought of the incident of the thunder, so he asked Yan Yingyuan, Li Laiheng and others to stay and talk.

"Do you know about the thunder bombs used by the thieves today?" Chongzhen asked.

"The thunder bomb has been equipped in the army for a long time. It is mainly used in large-scale battles such as sieges, defenses, and naval battles. However, its safety is relatively low and it is prone to accidental explosions. In addition, the manufacturing process is relatively complicated, the cost is high, and the usage is relatively simple. Therefore, it has not been promoted and used on a large scale in the army." Li Laiheng thought for a while and said. Li Zicheng's army had a lot of these things captured, so he had some understanding of the situation of the thunder bomb.

"It is so..." Chongzhen nodded and fell into deep thought.

In order to write the novel, Zhu Youjian consulted a lot of information on firearms in the Ming Dynasty. He found that the reason why firearms in the Ming Dynasty, whether it was the thunder bomb or the musket, were not more widely used was because of the gunpowder.

Compared with modern gunpowder, today's gunpowder has several major problems.

First, there was the issue of gunpowder formulation. Anyone with a modicum of scientific knowledge would know that the ideal ratio for black powder is 75% saltpeter, 10% sulfur, and 15% charcoal. However, at the time, no one had yet pinpointed this, and the exact proportions relied largely on personal experience. The difficulty in precisely controlling the gunpowder formula led to significant variability in performance between batches. On the battlefield, the firearms used by soldiers could experience varying power and range.

The second area of ​​research and innovation was gunpowder. The traditional theory of monarch, minister, and assistant constrained innovation in gunpowder formulas. Craftsmen often adhered to traditional formula proportions when making gunpowder and were hesitant to try new ones, resulting in slow development of gunpowder technology.

Third, the manufacturing process is crude. Gunpowder's raw materials primarily include saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. The quality of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal varies significantly from source to source, while the purification technology for these raw materials is relatively backward. Saltpeter may contain numerous impurities, affecting the gunpowder's combustion efficiency and stability. The sulfur's purity is also insufficient, impacting the gunpowder's performance. These impurities can cause uneven combustion during gunpowder combustion and even lead to accidental explosions during storage or use.

Finally, there's the issue of poor black powder granulation. Uneven powder particle size leads to inconsistent combustion rates, making the force of the firearm unstable. Furthermore, uneven powder particles can easily create gaps when loading the firearm, affecting the density of the charge. This not only reduces the amount of powder loaded per charge, reducing the firearm's power, but can also cause localized high pressure during combustion, increasing the risk of the firearm exploding.

These problems ultimately manifested as weak firearms and unstable performance. Chongzhen had carefully examined the reason why the final thunder bomb didn't explode today. He discovered that the gunpowder was not only damp, but also had a lot of unknown substances added to it, which ultimately caused it to misfire.

If we want to solve this problem, we must work on the technology of gunpowder.

For Chongzhen, his greatest enemy was the Qing Dynasty. However, compared with the Qing Dynasty, the Ming soldiers were far inferior in horseback archery. If they wanted to defeat the Qing army, they still had to vigorously develop firearms.

Today's thunderbolt did wake up Chongzhen. He should put the improvement of gunpowder on the agenda as soon as possible and improve firearms as soon as possible.

"Are there any skilled firearms craftsmen in the army now?" Chongzhen thought for a moment and asked, his eyes full of anticipation.

"There are quite a few craftsmen in charge of firearms, but not many of them can be called skilled." Yan Yingyuan thought for a while and shook his head.

"I remember that Bi Maokang once wrote a book called 'Illustrated Explanation of Military Equipment'. I wonder how he is doing now?" Chongzhen recalled the information he had compiled at the time, remembered this person, and asked hurriedly, with a hint of excitement and hope in his eyes.

"I have heard of this person before. I remember that he resigned because he refused to go with the eunuchs..." Yan Yingyuan said after thinking for a while.

"Have you heard of Xie Quanfeng?" Chongzhen asked unwillingly.

"Xie Quanfeng? I've heard of him. He's currently serving in Lord Shi's army..." Li Laiheng said from the side.

"Oh?" Chongzhen was overjoyed when he heard this, and slapped the table and said, "That's great, God is really helping me!"