Chongzhen chat group

Chapter 405
"Your Majesty, I think that all the ministers are right!" Wen Tiren said with a slight smile on his face, "It is not appropriate to place the Copyright Patent Office in any yamen! Therefore, I suggest..."

Hearing this, the six ministers could not help but prick up their ears, staring at Wen Tiren's back, waiting to see what constructive results Shoufu would have.

Seeing Wen Tiren's smile, Emperor Chongzhen obviously had a proper solution, so he couldn't help being a little curious, and nodded to signal Wen Tiren to finish.

"I suggest that the Copyright and Patent Office should be directly under the cabinet!"

As soon as Wen Tiren said this, the six ministers understood that this was a snipe and clam fighting for the fisherman's benefit.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he thought for a while and nodded, "That's fine, how about this, the Copyright and Patent Office will be directly under the cabinet, and the Supervisor of Rituals will also send people to organize this new office together."

"..." This time it was Wen Tiren's turn to be speechless, so the Supervisor of Ceremonies also intervened.

Emperor Chongzhen saw that this matter had almost come to an end, and he still had other things in mind, so he broke up the meeting early and set up a military battle.

This time, he didn't just meet the eunuch in charge of the military battle bureau and tell him to do something.Instead, in the lobby of the military battle bureau, all the craftsmen leaders and experts were sent to meet.

After the salute, Emperor Chongzhen said to the people below: "The new army will soon use artillery, but the cycle of the artillery you cast is too slow, I can't wait. I also asked you to find a way before, but now there is a solution. way?"

"..." All the craftsmen down there kept their mouths shut, this matter was something that could be imagined.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw them like that, he knew there would be no result.At this time, he didn't make trouble, so he nodded to Li Junfeng, the craftsman in charge of the cannon casting, and said, "Let's face up the difficulties and work together to see if we can solve them!"

After being ordered, Li Junfeng had no choice but to reply: "Nowadays, the method of casting cannons is learned from Xiyi. The outer mold and the core are combined and then cast into molten iron. But the outer mold and the core are both made of clay. It can only be used after it is completely dry. But even if it is baked by charcoal fire, it is often dry on the outside and wet on the inside, so it must be dried until the inside is also completely dry. In this way, it will take about two months for the weather to be suitable. As long as there is still a little bit of dryness in the clay mold, moisture will be generated during casting, which often causes the cast cannon to have honeycomb holes, which is a defective product.”

As he talked, Li Junfeng was proficient in his own professional stuff, so he consciously added: "Also, when the molten iron is poured into the mold, the core is often disturbed, so that the barrel of the cannon is not in the middle of the cannon body. The cannon is finished. In this way, one clay mold can only cast one cannon. In addition, it needs to repeat the previous process. Currently, only one qualified cannon can be used for every hundred pieces cast.”

Emperor Chongzhen nodded his head. These are the shortcomings of the clay-cast cannons he knew beforehand. After Li Junfeng finished speaking, he looked at the crowd and asked, "Who has anything to add to the difficulty of casting cannons with this method?"

Another head craftsman, Liang Yulin, saw that the emperor praised Li Junfeng. After hesitating for a while, he said, "Your Majesty, the clay needed for the clay model needs to be very well pounded clay, so it will cost a lot more." Time and manpower!"

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen nodded approvingly, looked at them and asked, "Have you ever thought about why you don't use molds of other materials for casting since the clay mold casting method has so many shortcomings?" ?”

"Your Majesty, Xiyi used such methods to forge cannons!" Li Junfeng, the head craftsman, probably had more conversations with the emperor, and knew the emperor's temperament to some extent, so he played boldly.

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he immediately stared at him and said, "What's wrong with Xiyi using clay molds? Does it mean that other materials must not be used as molds? For example, the iron mold casting method passed down by our ancestors, is it possible?"

"Your Majesty, this is different." Li Junfeng felt that his authority was questioned, and quickly explained, "Iron mold casting is indeed available, and it is convenient and has many benefits, but it is only casting some small utensils such as sickles and hoes. No more!"

"Is it okay to disassemble the cannon into smaller pieces?" Emperor Chongzhen asked immediately as his thoughts were not bound by the times.

Li Junfeng was stunned when he heard that, he had never thought about it.Probably because when he learned the skill of casting cannons from Xiyi, he always used clay molds!
The other famous craftsman, Liang Yulin, seemed to be enlightened, and his eyes lit up and said: "Your Majesty, it might be possible!"

Emperor Chongzhen was very happy when he heard it, and said with a smile: "That's right, let's try it out. Don't be afraid of failure! I believe that technology comes from experiments!"

At this time, Li Junfeng also came back to his senses. Based on his many years of experience, after thinking about it for a while, he was also very surprised, and quickly said: "Your Majesty, maybe it is really possible!"

Emperor Chongzhen laughed when he heard it, and he couldn't help much in terms of specific implementation.Since these experienced craftsmen say that it may be possible, let them just let them do it.

So, he smiled and said, "I will reward anyone who can find out a new and better method of casting artillery. Does Tang Binghong, a mason, know? As long as he can make it, he will be your tomorrow!"

Tang Binghong was only the implementer of the invention of cement, but he has become a hot craftsman today. His status has been improved, not to mention the money, but the respect of others has made these craftsmen envious.At this time, when they heard what the emperor said, they all immediately became energetic, as if they had been beaten with chicken blood.

In the original history, the iron mold casting method was invented by the county magistrate Gong Zhenlin at the end of the Qing Dynasty.Now under the advice of Emperor Chongzhen, a traveler, although there are still some technical difficulties to be overcome by casting cannons with iron molds, these technologies are not a problem for the Chinese people.

For example, the positioning method used between the petals and joints of the iron mold can completely refer to the mortise and tenon positioning process measures of ancient pottery and metal molds.Another example is the split casting of iron molds and the use of double-layer coatings, which are also conventional techniques in traditional casting.

When Emperor Chongzhen left the military battle bureau, he was of course happy in his heart.Contrary to his mood at this time, Zheng Zhilong, a coastal defense guerrilla far away in Fujian, can be said to be extremely depressed at this time.

Ding, who had rushed back from the capital, had just told him about Li Kuiqi, his life-and-death rival, after he was escorted to the capital. Zheng Zhilong was so angry that he dropped a set of his beloved tea set.How many days and nights were planned, how many benefits were exchanged, and the result was like this!
He was depressed when suddenly the imperial decree came, telling him to go to the capital immediately.This made him bewildered, and before he could come up with a result, he heard the report from his subordinates: "Jinyiwei Xiaoqi Liu Jinsheng is visiting!"

(End of this chapter)