Chapter 320: Looking for a Gun (Part 1)
Hardwood stock, typical flintlock bolt, semi-closed rear chamber, front-loading, the gun body is about 1.3 meters long, plus a 20-centimeter-long bayonet, the total length is about 1.5 meters, and the overall weight is around 4.5 kilograms.
The bullets are still lead bullets, but they have been improved to paper shell packaging, and the amount of ignition gunpowder and firing gunpowder has been distributed in advance, which greatly increases the loading speed.
Ordinary soldiers could fire about twice a minute, while skilled musketeers could increase this to three or even four times a minute.
The effective killing range is over 250 meters, and the accurate range is about 80 meters.
If it were put in the 18th century, this would just be a standard flintlock smoothbore rifle, nothing special about it.
But now it is the early fifteenth century!
So there is no doubt that this is a powerful weapon that is ahead of its time!
Looking at the more than 200 flintlock rifles in the warehouse, Sun Shaozong felt like he had opened the door to a new world - once they were put into service on a large scale, the military strength of the Great Zhou would undoubtedly reach a new level!
By then, not to mention sweeping across the world, it will be no problem to subdue the four barbarians.
After carefully placing the rifle back on the shelf, Sun Shaozong suddenly turned around and said, "Tell me about the circumstances before and after the incident, as well as your speculations about the case. Tell me everything that is related to the case!"
Being stared at by Sun Shaozong with scorching eyes, the Gunpowder Bureau Supervisor Zhu Shan and the Shenjiying Captain Lu Yuan were both puzzled - how come Lord Sun had such a stern look on his face just now, why did he suddenly become so fanatical after taking a few glances at the new muskets?
But how could they know the excitement and ecstasy that Sun Shaozong, a time traveler, felt when he saw the 18th century flintlock rifles being mass-produced in China in the early 15th century?
Such a precious national treasure must not be allowed to be lost outside!
If Sun Shaozong was just forcing the issue before, now he is full of motivation and wants to get the two muskets back immediately!
Although Zhu Shan and Lu Yuan were a little puzzled, since the imperial envoy had already spoken, the two of them could only tell the whole story.
After the new type of musket was successfully imitated, Emperor Guangde was very satisfied. He personally named it "Megatron" and rewarded the entire gunpowder bureau generously.
Since the emperor takes it so seriously, how can others be careless?
Therefore, after the "Megatron-style musket" began small-scale mass production, it has been stored in the most heavily guarded Tianzi No. 1 warehouse - and in this Tianzi No. 1 warehouse, only four people in the entire gunpowder bureau can enter and exit freely.
Three of them were naturally Zhu Shan, Lu Yuan, and Luo Jing who was blocked outside the door.
As for the fourth person, it was Du Ning, the deputy supervisor of the Gunpowder Bureau. Du Ning was also responsible for the daily storage and inspection of the warehouse.
In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, Deputy Supervisor Du would go to the Tianzihao warehouse every morning, noon and evening to conduct a careful inventory, without interruption regardless of wind or rain.
Yesterday evening, Du Ning went to the warehouse to take inventory as usual, but this time he took unexpectedly long. He didn't come out of the warehouse until the hour of Hai (nine o'clock in the evening).
The officers and soldiers guarding the warehouse felt strange and did not dare to enter and leave the Tianzihao warehouse at will, so they reported the matter to Lu Yuan.
After hearing this, Lu Yuan naturally did not dare to delay and hurried to the warehouse to check what was going on. Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the door, he found Du Ning lying in a pool of blood with a bayonet stuck in his heart, and two of the Megatron muskets on the shelf were missing!
The senior officials of the Gunpowder Bureau naturally did not dare to conceal such a big event. After a brief discussion, they sent someone to Beijing to report overnight, which led to what happened today.
After hearing the general story, Sun Shaozong asked several questions in succession: "Is there any other way to enter and exit the Tianzihao warehouse? When Deputy Supervisor Du came in, was there anyone else following him? Are the officers and soldiers guarding the Tianzihao warehouse reliable?"
Zhu Shan said hurriedly: "The Tianzi warehouse is usually a place to store important items. Just in case, a special 'underground listening' is set up to prevent someone from digging a tunnel to sneak in, so there will definitely be no other entrances and exits!"
The so-called "underground listening" is actually to bury water tanks underground to monitor the sound of tunnel digging. It is usually used in city defense battles to prevent surprise attacks.
Since this Tianzi warehouse even uses "underground eavesdropping", it is obviously very well protected.
Lu Yuan followed up by saying, "Due to regulations, Lord Du always goes in alone to check and inspect, and there has been no exception over the years."
After a pause, he said with some uncertainty: "As for those soldiers guarding the Tianzi warehouse, whether there are any problems or not, I really... I really can't be sure."
"Not sure?"
Sun Shaozong's face suddenly darkened, and he questioned with dissatisfaction: "You are the highest-ranking military officer here. All these guard duty and night patrol duties are assigned by you. How dare you say 'I'm not sure'?"
“This…this, this, this…”
The fat on Lu Yuan's body trembled a few times, and finally he stamped his feet and said, "At this point, I can no longer hide it, so I'll just say it straight - in fact, after this incident, the people we privately suspect the most are the remnants of Prince Yizhong!"
The remnants of Prince Yoshitada?
How does this have anything to do with Prince Yizhong?
Seeing Sun Shaozong's puzzled expression, Lu Yuan hurriedly said, "Your Excellency may not know that from the time when the Emperor Taishang first conquered Goryeo until the summer of the third year of Guangde, the Military Equipment Bureau was actually always in the hands of Prince Yizhong."
"And this gunpowder bureau is what it is today because of Prince Yizhong's efforts."
"At that time, Prince Yizhong was very good at manipulating others and won over a group of confidants..."
It turned out that the defeat in the expedition against Goryeo was caused not only by the light troops advancing recklessly and falling into the enemy's ambush, but also by the poor quality of the army's equipment, which was even far inferior to that used by the Goryeo people, which was also one of the reasons for the defeat.
Therefore, Prince Yoshitada, who had the aura of a crown prince at the time, volunteered to be in charge of the Military Equipment Bureau and launched drastic reforms.
In the following eight years, he not only led the improvement of many manufacturing processes and unified and refined the measurement units, but also "invented" the assembly line operation, which led to a qualitative transformation of the entire Ordnance Institution during his control.
The spring steel used in new firearms today is one of the important results of smelting using the new technology at that time.
It was precisely because of these achievements that Prince Yoshitada enjoyed unparalleled prestige in the Military Equipment Bureau at the time, and he gained many confidants, both openly and secretly.
Although the Military Equipment Bureau had carried out a purge when he was imprisoned two years ago, in order to ensure the normal operation of the Military Equipment Bureau, it was not a good idea to catch all of them at once, so there must be some fish that slipped through the net.
Lü Yuan finally said helplessly: "Since the Shenji Battalion is closely tied to the Gunpowder Bureau, many people have been bewitched by it. Therefore, I cannot guarantee that these officers and soldiers will be fine."
Tsk~
Prince Yizhong really did a lot of great things. No wonder even after being imprisoned for more than a year, there were still so many loyal warriors who wanted to rescue him.
In comparison, as a time traveler, I seem to be a little bit...
Shaking his head slightly, putting aside the inexplicable sense of shame, Sun Shaozong asked again: "Among the officials of the Gunpowder Bureau today, are there any who were promoted when Prince Yi Zhong was in power?"
“I think there won’t be any more.”
Zhu Shan and Lu Yuan shook their heads at the same time. Zhu Shan further added, "In fact, since the summer of the third year of Guangde, the officials in the gunpowder bureau have been gradually replaced. After Prince Yi Zhong was imprisoned, the original old people were almost uprooted."
"A group of low-level clerks remained, and there were not many changes in the craftsmen, but they were not allowed to get close to the Tianzihao warehouse."
Sun Shaozong asked a few more questions and felt that there was not much information that could be obtained. So he asked Lu Yuan to "bring out" Du Ning's body and restore it to its original appearance as much as possible so as to conduct a more detailed investigation of the scene.
