Since Zhu Cijing ascended the throne, the court has been peaceful, and the eunuch party is no longer so unscrupulous. The Donglin Party has temporarily stopped and no longer entangled with the eunuch party under the hint of Sun Chengzong. Everything seems so beautiful, giving people a feeling that the prosperity is about to begin.

Is this the truth? Of course not.

The eunuchs simply no longer blatantly eliminate dissidents and harm loyal people, form cliques and make private interests, and they will do whatever they want to do.

The Donglin Party was not really overturned. He just gritted his teeth and hid in the dark. Just waiting for Sun Chengzong to give his order, they would rush up to compete with the eunuch party at all costs.

The living standards of ordinary people have not improved at all. As long as there are drought and flood disasters, a large area will still starve to death.

The threat to the Later Jin Dynasty in the north is still there, but the Ningjin defense line is too difficult to chew. They have no choice but to annex the Mongolian tribes and strengthen themselves. Once they develop, the Ming Dynasty will be in danger.

Zhu Cijiu did not relax due to the apparent tranquility and peace. After initially establishing the team, he immediately began to establish a military system.

As mentioned earlier, the military system is actually a system of industrialization of science and technology. The entire system is divided into four parts: research and development, experiment, production and improvement.

With military system mission rewards, R&D is naturally not a big problem. Zhu Cijiu just needs to guide them, and the direction is absolutely impossible.

The research and development was completed, and then the experiment was conducted. Judging from the current situation of black gunpowder weapons in the Ming Dynasty, they did not have the experiment at all. Without experiments, they would not know the advantages and disadvantages. The weapons they made naturally cannot withstand the test of actual combat.

To establish the experiment from scratch, we naturally cannot use a set of modern experimental methods to let them do it directly. In that case, the experimenter will not know why they want to experiment, and naturally the experiment will not have any effect.

To achieve results in experiments, we must guide their thinking and let them find ways to experiment on their own.

The first experiment Zhu Cijing was preparing to conduct was the power test of black gunpowder. Although the cylinder mechanism of the steam engine was not complicated, it did not have modern processing levels in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, mechanical processing was basically done by hand. It was not a matter of one or two days to make a qualified cylinder. This black gunpowder is different. The powders of the three materials are ready-made, and you can just change the ratio.

After the morning court that day, Zhu Cijing summoned the team members to the side hall of Qianqing Palace and organized a seminar, with the main topic being black gunpowder.

Zhu Cijiu always pays attention to maintaining the emperor's majesty in front of outsiders. There is no need to be in front of his confidants. After everyone visited, he would give him all the seats and tea. He also specifically told them not to have any scruples and say whatever they should say. If they are afraid of their hands, the seminar will not be held.

After everyone sat down, Zhu Cijing first asked: "Who do you know how gunpowder is matched now?"

The people below basically know this problem. Everyone gave in a little humble manner, but in the end Xu Guangqi spoke: "Master, the gunpowder is now divided into 60% saltpeter, 20% sulfur, and 20% charcoal."

Zhu Cijing continued to ask: "Have you ever tried changing the dosage of three things?"

Everyone was embarrassed and sat there, and no one thought about changing the ratio of gunpowder.

Sun Yuanhua is the most familiar to gunpowder among these people. He asked carefully: "Master, why do you need to change the dosage? This is the recipe passed down by the older generation, there is no problem."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Cijiong encouraged, "Yeah, I asked well, why do you need to change the formula if you don't have any questions? Have you ever thought about what gunpowder is mainly used for?"

Perhaps Zhu Cijing's approachable influenced everyone, Bi Maokang took the initiative to answer: "Of course, it is used in guns and cannons, to fire bullets and artillery shells."

This is exactly what Zhu Cijiu wants. He guided him with the flow: "Since you are firing bullets and shells, the farther you shoot, the better, and the greater the power, the better. Can we change the formula and try it?"

When everyone heard this, they thought about it and showed a hesitant expression. After all, the formula of gunpowder has been circulating for so long, and it should be the best formula. Not only is it time-consuming and labor-intensive to modify it, but it may not necessarily be able to change gunpowder that is better than the current formula. Is this necessary?

Seeing everyone's expressions, Zhu Cijing knew that they were idle and didn't want to try it. As a scientific researcher, how can you do not have the habit of doing experiments? You can do everything you think of and use it when you make it, and ignore it if it is practical but don't care about it. How can you make progress in this way?

It seems that it is not possible to guide it in a way that can be explained in detail. He said directly: "I have a recipe here, take 7464 taels of saltpeter, 1185 taels of sulfur, and 1351 taels of charcoal and 10,000 taels of synthetic gunpowder. You can make it first, and then let's try it together."

When everyone heard this, they thought about it again and continued to show a hesitant expression. Zhu Cijing was puzzled. There was no formula, so why are they hesitating?

It was Sun Yuanhua who raised everyone’s questions: “Your Majesty, how can you try this? We haven’t tried it before!”

Zhu Cijiu was speechless. He even asked him such a simple question. He had seen many weapons tests in his previous life. Combined with the conditions of the Ming Dynasty, he thought about it casually and came up with an idea.

He said angrily: "Isn't this simple? Take a thick wooden board and stand fifty steps away. Take ten parts of new and old gunpowder, use the same gun to hit the wooden board. Then look at the depth of the bullets and you will know that the gunpowder is powerful."

When everyone heard this, they suddenly realized that they had all the new formula and experimental methods, so they naturally no longer hesitated. Anyway, this thing is all powder, so if it doesn't work, then follow the old formula and add it in.

After Zhu Cijing announced the end of the meeting, several people from the Ministry of Works ran to the gunpowder factory to supervise the work and made it in the morning.

In the afternoon, Zhu Cijiu organized the first gunpowder power experiment in history in the Ming Dynasty. For confidentiality, the experiment was arranged to be held in a small square between the Qianqing Palace and the Kunning Palace. The people involved in the experiment were his confidants and more than 20 eunuchs under Cao Huachun.

Sun Yuanhua took a few bird guns from the arsenal, and Song Yingxing brought a can of new and old gunpowder, and Bi Maokang, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Works, came on the field to test the gun himself.

If this was seen by the scholars of the Donglin Party, it would probably cause a stir. A group of officials from six ministries did not study the sages and ran to the palace to play with guns! The emperor did not review the memorials, and went here to accompany them crazy! This strange and lustful skill really hurts people. It is so gentle to sweep the floor, so gentle to sweep the floor!

Zhu Cijiu naturally couldn't let the Donglin Party members discover that those present could be said to be his hardcore confidants.

Bi Maokang is worthy of being the first person to invent the flintlock rifle in the Ming Dynasty. He is very familiar with the colloid gun and fills the medicine and loads the bullets in one go. After he is finished preparing, Sun Yuanhua next to him lit the flint directly with the fire.

After a while, with a bang, a smog of smoke rose, and a small black pit appeared on the thick wooden board leaning against the railing fifty meters away.

After the shooting, Bi Maokang took out the tools and began to clean the barrel, while Wang Zheng and Song Yingxing ran to the thick wooden board to measure the depth of the crater.

Zhu Cijiu secretly took a few seconds aside. Alas, the rate of fire can be shot in one minute. It takes at least three minutes to clean and cool the barrel, otherwise there will be a risk of explosion!

This standard bird gun equipped by the Ming army has a range of 150 meters, an effective killing distance of 50 meters, and two bullets are fired in five minutes. This effect is really not as good as using a bow and arrow directly.

Of course, Zhu Cijing was not discouraged. He wanted to make the latest flintlock rifle, and following the bird gun was not the same concept. Although he is still in the stage of research and development testing and talent training, and is still far from real mass production, he believes that as long as it is made, it will definitely save the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Cijiu was silently planning the Ming Dynasty's military industry path in his mind, while Wang Zheng and Song Yingxing had already measured the depth of the crater. Since it was an experiment, it must be recorded. Zhu Cijiu completely instilled modern experimental methods into these confidants, so as soon as the data was reported there, the recorder began. Xu Guangqi, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites and the Grand Secretary of the Dongge, was the recorder.

He sat in front of a small table next to Zhu Cijiu and started recording experimental data under Zhu Cijiu's guidance. He looked up and saw the first gunpowder experiment. There were a simple table below, with three columns and eleven rows. The first column reads the first to the tenth time. The first row of the second and third columns reads the old gunpowder test results and the new gunpowder test results respectively. The following ten rows are the experimental data.

After Xu Guangqi finished recording, Bi Maokang started filling medicine and recharge again, and this time he used new gunpowder.

After a while, Bi Maokang finished loading and Sun Yuanhua lit the fuse.

With a bang, the sound of this time was obviously greater than before, and the recoil was significantly greater. Bi Maokang almost caught the bird gun!

With a bang, the bullet was embedded directly into the thick wooden board, and its power was at least 50% greater!

The confidants were stunned. Unexpectedly, the power of the new gunpowder was so much greater. They looked at Zhu Cijiong like a god. All this was really amazing!

In fact, there is no need to experiment anymore. This new gunpowder is definitely much better than the old gunpowder.

However, Zhu Cijiu asked them to continue to complete the test. Scientific experiments must be rigorous and the planned experimental plan must be meticulously completed. The experimental data obtained in this way are real and comprehensive. It is not that Zhu Cijiu is bored and wants to spend some time. This is a question of concept. Only those who are rigorous and almost rigid can make the best products. There are many examples of this in later generations, such as Germany... (I will not talk about it here if I may violate the great master of river crabs.)
Chapter completed!