Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Wrought iron cannons cannot be cast directly, not to mention the Song Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty.

The iron cannons cast in the Ming Dynasty either had a pig iron barrel with a hoop, or an inner layer of wrought iron and cast iron outside.

Ju Ming went to the iron smelting yard to squat for two hours every day, studying and trying with the craftsmen, but in the end he could only declare failure.

Just one sentence: The oven temperature is not enough!

Blast furnaces were used to smelt iron in the Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties, and they were improved versions of blast furnaces. However, the furnace temperature was usually around 1,200 degrees, and no matter how hard we tried, it could only reach 1,300 degrees.

If you want to cast wrought iron, you have to continue to increase the furnace temperature.

Ju Ming knew that it could be solved with a hot air stove, but he had no idea how to do it.

Then make the forging cannon first.

There are two ways to forge a cannon -

One is to arrange the iron bars vertically and add iron hoops layer by layer on the outside.

The whole process is similar to hooping a barrel. European iron cannons in the Age of Discovery were basically made of wrought iron hoops in this way. The disadvantage is that the air tightness is extremely poor, and it is easier to explode!

The other type is the forged cannon of the Ming Dynasty in China. Wrought iron is struck tens of thousands of times, directly forged into an iron plate, and then hammered into a quarter or half-curved iron coil. Then the iron roll is forged into a cylinder, the sections of the iron cylinder are cold forged and hammered together, and iron bars are used to fill the gaps.

Although the labor cost of this method of forging the cannon increases, the air tightness is greatly enhanced, making it less likely to explode. Moreover, the required gun hoop is reduced, or even no gun hoop is required, and the weight of the gun body is greatly reduced.

Of course, Ju Ming chose the second method. The process of hammering the iron plate tens of thousands of times can be done first with a water-powered forging hammer and then manually corrected.

The gun body of the Tiger Crouching Cannon is very short, and only one cylinder is needed, without the need for multiple cylinders to be spliced ​​together. Only two semicircles are cold-forged into a cylinder, and a few hoops are added to fix it on the outside.

The turbine was still being made, so Ju Ming asked two blacksmiths to build it by hand.

The first Tiger Crouching Cannon took two blacksmiths more than 30 days to build. This is due to insufficient proficiency and the speed can be gradually increased.

According to records from the Ming Dynasty, it only took ten skilled craftsmen 40 days to forge an ordinary general cannon. The Tiger Crouching Cannon has a very short construction period and can be produced in large quantities.

Ju Ming's ultimate goal in creating the Crouching Tiger Cannon was to train Qi Jiguang's triple formation.

This is a large, multi-arms mixed military formation used in the north.

Its basis is still the mandarin duck formation, but the wolf and shield are no longer needed, and are replaced by muskets and bows. It is also equipped with chariots to defend the cavalry. After contacting the enemy, they first attack with a large number of tiger squatting cannons, and then use muskets and bows to shoot in turn.

There were several waves of long-range firepower, one after another without interruption. The Mongolian cavalry at that time had to collapse before they could reach the vehicle formation.

The infantry are mostly mounted infantry, but if you can't ride mules, you can also ride on them. In addition, there are cavalry units, which highlight the "motorization" and can pursue harvesting and rapid marching.

Qi Jiguang's triple formation did not have any great military exploits, because since its creation, the Mongolian cavalry did not dare to go south. Instead, they went to Northeast Huohuo and let Li Chengliang improve his record. The Mongols would rather kill Li Chengliang than face Qi Jiguang's triple formation.

Now Ju Ming has basically determined the idea of ​​​​making weapons:

Pig iron was used to cast large-caliber iron cannons. Since they were too heavy, most of them were placed on the top of the city for defense, while a few were dragged out to be used as siege cannons.

Wrought iron is used to forge the Crouching Tiger Cannon.

Filled steel is used to create weapons and armor.

The latter two will be equipped with hydraulic forging hammers, effectively saving labor costs.

The next step is to granulate gunpowder, which Zhu Ming plans to do after the spring snow melts.

"Everyone, please drink this cup together!"

On New Year's Eve, the back house of the state government was extremely busy.

Not only Bai Sheng, Zhang Bor, Li Bao, Deng Chun, Shi Yuangong and others brought their families to Ju Ming's house to celebrate, but even Tu Shen and other senior officials of the iron smelting plant were invited by Ju Ming to come to the Spring Festival party.

Counting everyone's wives and children, there were six tables occupied.

"I would like to drink a glass of wine to you, may everything go well in the coming year!" Shi Yuangong raised his glass and stood up, there was something in his words.

Ju Ming smiled and said, "Everyone is fine with each other."

Qian Chen also came to propose a toast: "After half a lifetime, I can't be as happy as last year. I did a lot of things with the prefect."

Ju Ming said: "Your Majesty has given you six hundred ultimatums. Those who are able will do more work. After spring, I will ask Brother Qian to take them to the south of the Yangtze River to sell them, and buy some sulfur and saltpeter back."

"I promise to live up to my trust!" Qian Chen laughed.

Li Bao also came to toast, and his life was quite comfortable. When there are errands, he works for Ju Ming. When there is no errands, there are many men in the house who can compete with each other in martial arts.

In the midst of the banquet, Zhenghe's seven years have turned over.

AD 1118 is often written as the first year of Chonghe in history books, but people living in this era only know that Youzhenghe existed for eight years.

Because the reign name of Chonghe was suddenly changed at the end of the year when Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty felt that everything was not going well, which means "harmony and harmony". But only three months after the change, the yuan was changed again, and I don’t know the reason.

…

In the first month of the new year, the Liao Kingdom and the Jin Kingdom negotiated peace.

Both sides could no longer fight. There was no other reason than lack of food.

There was great chaos in Liaodong, and bandits were everywhere, and they even plundered people to satisfy their hunger.

The Liao and Jin parties were annihilating the bandits and conducting peace talks at the same time. The Liao Kingdom needs to lick its wounds, and the Jin Kingdom needs to digest its new territory.

The treacherous minister Wang Fu was promoted to Shangshu Zuocheng (deputy prime minister), and Cai Jing felt a lot of pressure.

The snow melted in February, and official documents from the imperial court were issued. Liquor taxes across the country increased sharply, which was called "adding wine money".

The envoy of the Song Dynasty, Ma Zheng, took Gao Yaoshi, a Han native from Liaodong, across the sea by boat to contact the Jin Kingdom.

They encountered Jin soldiers patrolling on the way, and they didn't even dare to say a word. They were so frightened that they fled back to Shandong. They also lied that they had arrived in Suzhou (Jinzhou, Dalian). The Jin Kingdom was unwilling to engage in diplomacy and almost killed them.

Song Huizong was furious and gave Tong Guan full responsibility for the matter.

In March, the imperial examination.

The whole army in Jinzhou was wiped out, and not a single person passed the Jinshi examination.

However, Yangzhou produced another Jinshi, and Ling Guxu passed the third place in the examination.

Li Hanzhang, who had disappeared for three years, also came back to take the imperial examination and passed the fifth place in the examination. According to his place of origin, he was a Huainan scholar and had nothing to do with Hanzhong.

Of course, they didn't know their first place until the roll call came.

"Brother Linggu, congratulations!" Li Hanzhang smiled.

Ling Gu Xu smiled all over his face: "Same joy, same joy."

The two of them were still queuing up in front of the hall, talking about old things in Yangzhou.

Ling Guxu suddenly asked: "I heard that Brother Kezhen went to join the army?"

Li Hanzhang shook his head and sighed: "I have been an officer for more than half a year. It's hard to explain in a word, so I don't mind mentioning it. It's not a formal military position anyway, so I just quit and went home to study hard. This time I finally passed the exam."

Ling Guxu whispered: "Brother Zhen, have you heard that Prince Jia Zhao Kai also participated in the scientific examination this year?"

"Don't say too much." Li Hanzhang reminded quickly.

Whips started blowing in front of the palace, and everyone immediately shut up and lined up to wait.

After a series of procedures, the roll call finally began: "The first person to win the Jinshi in the new science, Zhao Kai from Kaifeng Prefecture!"

The sound came out, and the whole place was dead silent.

More than 700 new scholars all looked ahead stupidly, watching the 17-year-old King Zhao Kai enter the palace.

Seventeen years old, prince, champion.

When these three words are combined, whoever believes it will be a fool. It’s weird that he didn’t cheat!

It's nonsense for a prince to take part in the imperial examination, but he won the first prize at the age of seventeen and fooled the world's scholars into thinking they were fools?

All the civil and military officials stood in the main hall, looking at their noses and hearts, all pretending to be dead, pretending they didn't know anything.

"Don't leave the No. 1 Scholar, stay with Your Highness." Song Huizong reminded.

The roll call continued: "The second person to become a Jinshi in this department is Wang Ang of Chengdu Prefecture!"

This is Wang Gui's grandnephew, from the Wang family in Sichuan.

Seeing the two of them standing side by side, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty said: "The imperial examination for a prince is already against the rules. If he is elected as the number one scholar, he will be criticized. I have thought twice about it and promoted Wang Ang to be the first Jinshi scholar and demoted Zhao Kai to be the second Jinshi scholar."

After doing this, he was so shameless that he temporarily turned the prince into the second place.

Wang Ang, the number one scholar, was awarded the title of Provincial Secretary, while Zhao Kai, the number two scholar, was not granted an official position.

"The third person to become a Jinshi in this department is Zhang Tao from Raozhou!"

Zhang Tao's father, Zhang Gen, was the transfer envoy of Huainan Road.

This did not cause any controversy, because Zhang Gen had an excellent reputation.

Zhang Gen would soon be demoted by Song Huizong to collect the wine tax for criticizing Hua Shigang. Then he continued to criticize Chang Ping's new laws to harm the people, and was thrown by the emperor to be the deputy envoy of the regiment training, completely turning into a loose official with no power.

The ancestors of the Zhang family also made great contributions to the country.

There were five Zhang Qian brothers, four of whom were admitted to the imperial examination, but Zhang Qian was the only one who was unwilling to take part in the imperial examination. He read various miscellaneous books at home, and discovered the method of smelting copper with gall alum from the "Book of Shennong". After experimenting and improving it, he asked his son to dedicate it to Su Che.

Since then, wet copper smelting technology has been available in the Northern Song Dynasty. More than 15% of the national copper output in the Huizong Dynasty came from the refining of gall alum.

By the time the northern copper mines were lost in the Southern Song Dynasty, 85% of the country's copper output came from copper smelting with gall vitriol.

Moreover, the Zhang family continues to improve the copper smelting method and is a super rich man in Shangrao.

After the roll call, Ling Guxu got an official position and was thrown to Jiangxi to be the principal.

As for Li Hanzhang, he has not been awarded an official title for the time being and must continue to take the examination. His father still has some connections, so he probably won't have any problem passing the examination, at least he won't be waiting in the capital for real shortages.

The new scholars came out from Donghua Gate, and the people in the city watched them, but their expressions were complicated.

Ling Guxu was invited to Li Hanzhang's rented house. When he entered, he said, "This is totally unreasonable. I have never heard that a prince can take the top prize!"

"Don't raise your voice," Li Hanzhang lowered his voice, "This is not something we can discuss."

Although Ling Guxu lowered his voice, he still couldn't hide his anger: "Selecting scholars through the imperial examination is a very important matter in the world. How can we treat it as a child's play? I heard that King Jia is not yet eighteen years old. Can he really win the first place in the exam? According to me From the looks of it, I am afraid that even the Jinshi is not qualified, and there are people leaking questions from beginning to end, and maybe there are people who can help with writing and editing."

Of course Li Hanzhang was also very angry. He had studied hard for so many years and finally passed the Wujia Jinshi examination.

Zhao Kai was lucky. As a prince, he violated the imperial examination rules and won the top prize in no time.

Some people even helped wash the floor, saying that the prince secretly signed up for the exam without telling everyone. Where is this fool?

If the prince takes the exam, he must be stamped by the Kaifeng governor and sent to the Ministry of Rites for review, and the examiner must also verify his identity. How did you bypass these three procedures?

From top to bottom, everyone is helping King Zhao Kai cheat!

Not only Li Hanzhang and Ling Guxu, but also Jinke Jinshi are talking about it. Those scholars who had not passed the Jinshi examination and had not left the capital were even more furious and felt the greatest insult since the founding of the People's Republic of China.