After the first experiment of the new gunpowder was completed, Zhu Cijing did not participate in the subsequent experiments, but directly taught Xu Guangqi the method of making granular gunpowder, asking them to find ways to experiment with the killing distance and range of gunpowder.

After several rounds of experiments, Xu Guangqi and others came to the conclusion:

After the bird gun was used with new gunpowder, the penetration power within thirty-five steps (fifty meters) was doubled and the range was increased by nearly 50%.

After using the new granular gunpowder, the killing distance of the bird gun was directly increased to 60 steps (about 85 meters), and the range reached 150 steps (about 21 meters).

In this way, the bird gun is basically comparable to the longbow in terms of range and killing distance, but the penetration power is slightly worse.

Of course, these are far from enough. To allow gunpowder weapons to perfectly suppress bows and arrows on the battlefield, the range must be longer, the penetration must be stronger, the killing distance must reach at least 150 meters, and the most important rate of fire must keep up. The flint gun has innate defects in the rate of fire, and no matter how much this is improved, it is useless. Only when the flintlock gun is made can this problem be completely solved.

To make a flintlock rifle, you must have a machine tool, and to make a machine tool, you must have a power source, so Zhu Cijing sets the original steam engine as the next goal.

The core of the steam engine is the piston and the crank. It is easy to understand this piston. It is a cylinder that reciprocates linear motion. This crank is a bit complicated. The crank is a set of devices that convert back and forth back and forth back and forth into circular motion. Because most machine tools work in rotation, this crank is an indispensable device in the machine tool.

In fact, the crank device is a bit similar to that of modern people riding bicycles. When a person rides a bicycle, the hip bones are fixed, and the thighs and calves are doing small arc movements. If you carefully observe the knees of a bicycle, you will find that the knees are actually doing straight reciprocating. If you understand from this perspective, it is very simple. The crank has two axes of movement, such as the thighs and calves, and then there is a rotation axis, which is the small axis in the center of the bicycle's sprocket. The entire crank device relies on these three axes to transform the straight reciprocating movement into circular motion.

The question is, there are no bicycles in the Ming Dynasty! What should I do?

Zhu Cijing thought for a long time and finally came up with a simple model, which was a bit similar to the ancient pedal waterwheel, with an additional rotation shaft. That is, two square woods are vertically erected and a round wooden board is pierced with an iron rod in the middle, which is equivalent to the bicycle wheel. Then, tap the iron rod in a U-shaped shape, and then wear a small wooden board about the same size as the foot at the bottom of the u-shaped shape, which is equivalent to the bicycle step. Then tie a saddle directly on the top of the two square woods, which is equivalent to the bicycle seat cushion. Of course, this bicycle cannot be ridden on the road, and the wooden wheels can only rotate between two square woods. This is a bit similar to the dynamic bicycles in later gyms.

As soon as he talked to Song Yingxing about this idea, Song Yingxing immediately understood that it was just a little modification of the waterwheel and it was easy to make it.

And after making it, Song Yingxing tried it, and felt that this was much more useful than the original pedal waterwheel, and it was a good thing worth promoting.

Of course, Zhu Cijing would not design a pedal bike bored. After the bicycle model was completed, he summoned all his confidants to the side hall of the Ganqing Palace for on-site guidance.

Since Song Yingxing can ride this thing, he even saved the riding of others, so he just let Song Yingxing sit on it and step on it slowly, and don't stop.

Then he called Xu Guangqi and others over, pointed to the rotating wooden wheel and pointed to Song Yingxing's knee, and asked them to observe carefully.

This side hall immediately turned into a gym in later generations. Song Yingxing was like a fitness coach, slowly stepping on the "dynamic bicycle" there, and a large number of students next to him were observing carefully.

Zhu Cijing asked them to observe for about a quarter of an hour. Seeing that none of the confidants had a sudden enlightenment, they had to go up and point to Song Yingxing's knee and said to Xu Guangqi: "What would happen if the round rod of the cylinder was connected to this part?"

Xu Guangqi suddenly realized: "Then you don't need to step on it. As long as the heat is turned on, the wooden wheel will keep spinning!"

Zhu Cijing breathed a sigh of relief. The heads of these people were still not elm-wood, and they could still get better after hitting them a few times. Seeing that everyone was in high spirits, Zhu Cijing decided to add some more content. He asked, "Do you know the gear?"

This time Wang Zheng reacted the fastest, and he asked first: "Is it just a round wheel with teeth? I know this."

Zhu Cijing continued to guide and said, "Well, let me ask you, make two gears of size, the teeth are the same size as the teeth, the small wheels are seventeen teeth, and the large wheels are one hundred and seventy teeth, and use the large wheels to drive the small wheels. So, how many times will the small wheels rotate in one round?"

All such simple questions were asked. Do we have a bad mind? Wang Zheng replied awkwardly: "Of course it's ten circles."

Seeing that the effect was almost done, Zhu Cijing ordered: "Xu Guangqi, you cooperate with Bi Maokang to make this set of things. This thing is curved, so let's call him crank. Wang Zheng, you are responsible for making two wooden gears, the small ones are seventeen teeth and the large ones are one hundred and eighty teeth. The teeth of the large and small gears must be the same size. Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing quickly make the copper jar. Everyone works harder and make everything within three days. We will do the experiment in three days."

............

Although Xu Guangqi and others didn't understand what Zhu Cijiu wanted to do, it could be seen from his tone that everyone was not far from success.

This little emperor was a god who came down to earth. He casually said the formula of gunpowder and increased the power of gunpowder by 50%. After preparing for so long this time, it would naturally be a better thing. Everyone was looking forward to it, so after they returned, they were all very energetic, worked overtime, and forgot to eat and sleep, and finally made everything within three days.

On the fourth day, after the morning court, Zhu Cijing and his confidants gathered together again and began a new experiment.

The first thing to experiment was the cylinder. Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing made some minor improvements. A kettle was connected to the upper and lower openings of the cylinder separately. A copper tube was connected to the spout, which was directly fixed to the upper and lower openings. In this way, just one person would just remove and press the lid of the pot.

Removing the kettle lid at the lower entrance of China Unicom, pressing the kettle lid at the upper entrance of China Unicom, the cylinder rod immediately descends, lifting the kettle lid at the upper entrance of China Unicom, pressing the kettle lid at the lower entrance of China Unicom, the cylinder rod rises immediately, and both hands take turns to lift and press, the cylinder rod moves up and down there, the faster the movement of both hands, the faster the cylinder rod moves.

Seeing that they could use their brains to make improvements, Zhu Cijing nodded, praised him for a few words, and then asked them to connect the cylinder rod to the crankshaft device.

These people had already discussed it, so the connecting parts were made on both sides, and soon the cylinder and the crankshaft device were connected together.

Without Zhu Cijiu's greeting, Song Yingxing immediately began to take turns to remove and press the lid of the kettle. As expected, the faster the movement of both hands, the faster the rotation shaft in the middle of the crankshaft would turn. Zhu Cijiu took a look at how he could turn thirty times in one minute.

This speed is already at its limit compared to manual tools, but is this enough? It's not enough, far from enough.

Zhu Cijing asked them to connect the large gear to the rotation shaft of the crankshaft device, then lean the pinion on the large gear, and then penetrate the shaft in the middle of the pinion, and use a wooden frame to fix the position.

This is amazing. With Song Yingxing's movements, the pinion's speed reached a terrifying three hundred revolutions per minute when it was the highest. In the Ming Dynasty, where pure manual work, this speed was just like a myth!

Although the noise is very loud and the rotation is not stable enough, this is just a rough model, and formal things are definitely better than this. Everyone looked at the rotating pinion with excitement on their faces. At such a fast speed, wouldn’t it be scary to drill holes?

They used to drill holes with hand-drawn ropes, and three people had to drill a barrel of a half meter long for a day. Now with this thing, just fix a drill bit on the shaft of the pinion, and a person can drill ten or even twenty ones a day!

Without Zhu Cijiu's guidance, they already knew the function of this set of things. Xu Guangqi excitedly pointed to the pinion and said, "Master, can you drill a hole by adding a drill bit here?"

Zhu Cijing nodded with relief and said, "Yes, it can be used for drilling, so call it a drilling machine, and it can be made into other things. You can make the drilling machine first."

Then, he pointed to the cylinder and said, "No need to stand and lift it up and press it. Add a smaller cylinder next to the two holes and install a small slider. When you go up, you can just block the upper air hole and the lower air hole is through. When you go down, you can just block the lower air hole and the upper air hole is through. Then connect a round rod to the slider. The protruding rod is connected to the rotating crankshaft, and the connection is also turned to the opposite of the bend next to it. In this way, as long as the hot air is sent in, it will keep moving by itself."

When everyone heard this, they were shocked again. This thing can still be moved by itself!

They thought for a long time and found that according to Zhu Cijiong's intention, the round rod could really stretch back and forth by itself, as long as the heat was kept supplying it in.
Chapter completed!