After inspecting the Shenwei Artillery Factory, Zhu Cixuan went to the Shenji Gun Factory of the General Administration of Military Appliances by the Yangtze River to inspect the work.

This is the most advanced gun factory in the Ming Dynasty and the only arsenal directly affiliated to the Military Industry Research Institute, with the most advanced guns in the world.

According to Zhu Cixuan's understanding, the world's first rotating rear-pull bolt-type rifle (brench gun) was produced here.

The latest breech gun developed by the Academy of Military Sciences has not been officially named, and is tentatively designated as "Wu Shi Rifle", which means that Tianwu was successfully developed in ten years.

According to the rules, the craftsman should be named after whom it should invented. For example, the rifled rifle invented by Sun Heding back then was named "Heding Rifle" by Zhu Cilang and was appointed as the entire Ming army.

However, the research and development results were replaced by the "Wu Shi Rifle". Zhu Cilang was a little puzzled, so he asked Zhao Jinglin, the Minister of Military Weapons, beside him, what was going on.

Zhao Jinglin replied: "Your Majesty, this new type of rifle was not developed by people from the Military Industry Research Institute and various arsenals, but a small arms dealer..."

Zhu Cixuan was surprised: "Oh? Tell me."

Zhao Jinglin received the order and began to tell the tortuous experience of the development of the first breech gun in the Ming Dynasty.

Because the Tianwu New Policy encouraged the development of business, some businessmen who were good at combining policies saw the ambition of Emperor Tianwu and knew that the future foreign wars of the Ming Dynasty were indispensable. Guns, as the main weapon of the army, naturally attracted the attention and investment of merchants.

Over the past ten years, gun manufacturing and watch manufacturing have gradually become emerging industries with rapid development in the Ming Dynasty, and many craftsmen who are proficient in both have emerged.

The Ming Dynasty was full of talents and never lacked bigwigs who stood out. What problem could stump them?

The big guy who invented the breech gun was named Chuan Jianguo. He was born in Yingchuan, the hometown of Dayu. He is the son of a locksmith.

When Chuan Jianguo was young, he worked as a craftsman in a military factory in Fengyang, making hedge rifled guns on assembly lines.

Because of the strong atmosphere of innovation in military factories and the name of the people of Sichuan Jianguo, they had a strong sense of building the Ming Dynasty, so they risked their lives to boldly experiment with several breech guns, but none of them succeeded.

The test of a breech gun is not simple. The gap between the bolt and the barrel will cause excessive gunpowder gas to leak out, which poses great safety hazards. Maybe it will be blown up or something.

Fortunately, the patriotic Comrade Chuan Jianguo was not guilty of any serious crime. His face was a little red by the gunpowder leaking, and his forehead was burned, which became bigger. However, the overall situation was fine, and his facial features were quite normal.

In the end, Chuan Jianguo retired early due to work injuries with tears in his eyes.

The military craftsman system of the Ming Dynasty was very perfect and the welfare was the best in all industries. Fengyang Military Factory did not treat him unfairly and applied for a heavy compensation for him based on his work injury.

In this way, Chuan Jianguo returned to his hometown with a large amount of compensation, and used the money to open a Jianguo musket factory in his hometown in Henan, and continued to work on the job he loved. (It was legal for the people to build muskets in the Ming Dynasty)

While Chuan Jianguo built muskets to sell them to the landlords and wealthy people for self-defense, he continued his unfinished experimental research.

Finally, hard work pays off. In the ninth year of Tianwu, Chuan Jianguo designed a needle-firing gun in his own musket factory!

As the name suggests, a needle-firing gun is a rifle that uses a firing needle to fire the bullet. After pulling the trigger, the long rod-shaped firing needle on the bolt pierces the paper shell, hits the bottom fire, ignites the launching medicine, and shoots the projectile out.

Since Zhu Cixuan proposed research courses such as primer fire, the military industry in the Ming Dynasty has been researching for more than ten years, and technology has been formed. The Military Industry Research Institute has also developed a rifle that fires the primer fire with a firing rate of up to eight or nine rounds per minute.

It’s just that when loading a rifle, it requires a bolt to be retracted and loaded from the front of the barrel. Strictly speaking, it is a bore gun. It has serious air leakage problems, so there is no large-scale loading army, and only some border troops use it.

For example, the cavalry brigade of the Northern Protectorate's Office was equipped with this kind of rifle. With its anti-natural loading speed, they swept the Siberian ice fields and chased the Cossack cavalry of Tsarist Russia.

After Sichuan Jianguo completed the needle-firing design for the rear-loading gun, he contacted the local military as soon as possible, hoping to contribute to the Ming army.

However, the Ming army was used to using pre-installed guns. The reception manager of the Eastern Army Governor's Office felt that this thing was too "non-mainstream" and that the range was far lower than that of Heding Rifle, so he didn't care and chased Chuan Jianguo away with a smile.

Chuan Jianguo was very disappointed. He didn't understand why the military did not believe in him.

Thinking about the hard work of research and development over the past few years, Chuan Jianguo became more and more angry as he thought about it. So he cursed at the officers in front of him with contempt: "You are a group of bad amateur soldiers, and your professional qualities are very embarrassing!"

After cursing, he left with his new weapon on his back and set off directly to Taiping Prefecture Military Industry Research Institute to continue serving the Ming Dynasty.

As a department specializing in the research of firearms, the big guys of the institute realized the superiority of this "non-mainstream" rifle at a glance. So the Military Research Institute immediately acquired the invention and used it as the most advanced secret weapon for secret development.

Sichuan Jianguo's private workshop is naturally not as good as the state-owned regular arsenal of the Jiangnan Military Appliances Administration. The breech rifle he designed has great problems, such as short range and insufficient accuracy.

The effective range of Heding rifle is 900 meters, while the effective range of this rifle of Sichuan Jianguo is only 600 meters.

However, the experts from the Military Industry Research Institute were ecstatic because this rifle overcomes the serious air leakage of the breech gun and can be equipped with the army on a large scale!

The effective range is almost the same. After all, in actual combat on the battlefield, the distance between the two sides is generally within 200 meters. What is the difference between the range of 600 meters and 900 meters?

Safety, simplicity, and the speed of fire are the kingly way to win!

In this way, Sichuan Jianguo made another fortune, continued to expand his Jianguo factory, and also took the opportunity to become one of the first arms dealers in the Ming Dynasty that had close cooperation with national military-industrial enterprises.

Today, Sichuan Jianguo was invited by Shen Machinery Gun Factory and also came to accompany him.

When Zhao Jinglin, the Minister of Military Weapons, introduced the arms merchant Chuan to Zhu Cixuan, Emperor Zhu's face was a little unnatural. He stared at this gentleman, especially with his unique hairstyle.

Due to his last work injury, Chuan Jianguo was burned to his forehead by gunpowder, and a large scar formed on his scalp. In order to cover the scar, he specially changed his hairstyle, combed his hair down, folded his hair in front of him, and finally pressed it with a big hat...

When Chuan Jianguo first saw him, he saw the emperor staring at him again. He seemed very cramped and kept making small moves with his right hand, touching the director of the gun factory beside him, trying to grab his hand to relieve the pressure.

However, it was the first time the factory manager was even more panicked when he saw him. He also made small moves, hitting his hand slightly, signaling Boss Chuan not to make trouble.

Zhu Cixuan looked at it for a while and then felt bored and began to test the performance of this "Wu Shi Rifle".

This breech gun weighed nine and a half kilograms and was 1.4 meters long. After one year of improvement by the Military Research Institute, the rifle invented by Sichuan Jianguo was greatly improved. The bullet was replaced with a paper-shell acorn-shaped lead bullet, and the single shot supply was increased from the initial six rounds per minute to ten rounds per minute to twelve rounds per minute.

During the test, even the inventor of Chuan Jianguo was shocked, and he even suspected that the gun was not developed by himself.

Only when he knew this was the same as the big guys in the research institute, he was at best a person who was just a stolen person...

"Okay! What a gun!"

Zhu Cilang couldn't help but praise.

This breech gun is perfect, with a fire rate of four or five times higher than that of an ordinary front-loading gun!

The only drawback is that the initial speed is too low, the effective range of the test is only 600 meters, and the range and lethality are slightly less than that of the Heding Rifle.

Of course this is not a big problem, and it is not an Olympic shooting competition. With this rate of fire, it is enough to crush the Heduan Rifle.

While excited, Zhu Cilang suddenly said: "The merchant Chuan Jianguo, he valued the country and neglected the family, did not fear difficulties, overcome all obstacles, worked hard to develop, and made a powerful weapon, and gave him a special gift to the Viscount."

"Give me a viscount?"

Chuan Jianguo's expression suddenly became dazed, and his body staggered and almost fell down.

After a while, he reacted and shouted: "I will never regret it when I reach the sea. Jianguo is dedicated to the Ming Dynasty. The people thank God for the kindness of heaven!"

.........
Chapter completed!