The weather is getting colder and it is already snowing in Tokyo. The snowflakes are running around in the wind, stirring together with the black smoke on the chimneys of the Tuya House in Zaojiafang, like smoke ash.

Zan Jurun and a few people walked into a room, put away the umbrella and shook the snowflakes on his robe. He immediately frowned and hid his nose with a handkerchief. A choking burnt smell came to his face with a heat wave!

The house was very noisy, and the noise made my ears "buzz" and it was very uncomfortable.

The Bian River has frozen, and it is the dry season. But the donkey in the basement pulls the huge rotor and makes a "chill" sound of tooth soreness, which drives a whole row of blowers to blow the furnace. The blast furnace with bricks and mud is built outside, which is the main source of heat for the high temperature in the house. In addition, the sound of the blacksmith "ding ding ding gang gang" waving the hammer.

Zan Jurun looked over and saw a few blacksmiths with their upper bodies naked. Huang Cancan's muscles were covered in sweat, waving his hammer to hit him.

Soon, a big man wearing a thin torn linen top came over and was wiping the white dust on his face with a sweat towel. An official in front said, "Report to Zan, he is Xu Sheng."

The big man also bent down and said, "I'll pay homage to Zan to assist in the administration."

Zan Jurun looked him up and down and said, "Do you think you can improve the firearm gun barrel?"

The man who called Xu Sheng answered loudly, otherwise he would not hear it. He said, "I don't know yet. It will be fine if Zan assists will come two days later! I have to wait for the iron yaki to melt. There is no blast furnace in Beiyuan, and there is a Jiafang. I'll come here to try it."

Xu Sheng was a blacksmith in Beiyuan Fire Appliances Floor, so he asked to come to the Bianshui workshop. Only then did Zan Jurun hear what he was doing. Beiyuan Fire Appliances Floor is a workshop dedicated to testing new firearms, which is relatively small; while Bianshui Jiafang has a huge demand for iron materials, so he built a blast furnace with melted iron. Xu Sheng said he wanted a blast furnace, so he came here to test it.

Zan Jurun attaches great importance to this matter.

The royal family set a piece of land in Beiyuan to test the firearms for military weapons supervisors. It costs a lot of money every year. However, after several years of development, it has not made a name for itself...... I have created that "flowering bullet" and actually had to drill the whole stone into the air and shoot it with a catapult cart. It was really useless.

In the past, whether it was the removal method of saltpeter dissolution and filtration, the burning of gunpowder particles faster, or the bronze guns and mortars, it was all the ideas that Guo Shao had personally come up with, and the firearms were just implemented.

Now that the end of the year is approaching, Zan Jurun is going to summarize the achievements of the military weapon supervision office this year... When writing the memorial of Beiyuan Fire Weapons, is it said that "spend money and food is useless, and there is no effect"?

This made Zan Jurun feel very difficult. Fortunately, this craftsman has brought him some expectations recently.

"Can you try it?" asked Zan Jurun.

Xu Sheng hesitated and said loudly: "Anyway, the gun pipe is cast, and the hole must be large and the body must be thick; gunpowder will run away, and it will not be hit far away! It also requires the method of forging and wrapping."

"Wrapped with a cold stick as the core?" Zan Ju Run said, "Hasn't it been tried?"

Xu Sheng said: "Yes, the cooked iron is too soft and it will deform when it is fried; it is slightly hard and crispy, and it will crack when it is fried. But I thought about it and there are two things that are inappropriate, one is that the iron material is not good, and the other is that the gunpowder is not good."

Zan Jurun turned around and said to a accompanying clerk: "Tell me what he said."

"Hey." The clerk quickly took out his pen and ink from his bag to prepare.

Xu Sheng said again: "The gunpowder we use is too strong and burns too fast, which makes it easy to explode the iron pipe; but there is little smoke, and the projectiles cannot rush far in the chamber. The gunpowder will explode, and the lead bullets are not very useful. I re-adjusted the ingredients and added more charcoal.

In addition, the iron forged gun barrels is too cooked and soft, and it is slightly hard and crispy. I have tried many ways to add limestone to improve... But before, I used to cook iron and add limestone powder, and the slag was beaten into the iron material. Now I think of a new way to add it to the iron in the stove!"

Zan Jurun asked: "What's the reason?"

Xu Sheng looked confused: "I don't know that the young family has three generations all blacksmiths, and it depends on experience."

He pointed to the large stove behind him that was hot and said, "After the iron is recast, I repeatedly forged and beat it red, and then used this kind of cooked iron to reforge the gun barrel."

Zan Jurun said, "If you do it, you will be rewarded with 100 cents of money!"

Xu Sheng widened his eyes: "Zhan's regent is a word!"

Zan Jurun said decisively: "As long as you succeed, I will reward you even if I use my salary!"

But it will take at least one month to make this thing into an experiment. Zan Jurun can't wait. More than a month later, it will be next year! He will write a memorial on the collected situation, which is better than writing "I'm in vain and nothing to get."

...On that day, as soon as Guo Shao walked into the Dongdian study, he saw that there were many memorials on the imperial case, most of which were persuading the change of the country's name. He had already classified it, so he threw it aside and refused to give it a reply, and then refused it together.

You have to be fully prepared. If you take the initiative to change the country's name and become the founding emperor, it will be very ugly. Many people must support you and "reluctantly" to do this... Although Guo Shao himself also founded and became the emperor.

Moreover, Guo Shao still has some things he hasn't thought about and can't be too anxious.

When he ascended the throne, he did not have the title of a hero. Now he has to consider the founding of the country... Moreover, the current military power system of the imperial guards is suitable for frequent large-scale war situations, but it is not conducive to ensuring the security of imperial power. This is an unquestionable fact.

In history, Zhao Kuangyin released military power with a cup of wine, but also saw the risks. Guo Shao also wanted to follow the same trick. He denied this approach because his military philosophy was completely different from Zhao Kuangyin... And according to that method, the court now does not have that much money to "redeem" the military power of the generals.

Guo Shao decided to wait a little longer.

At this moment, a memorial from the Military Arts Supervision came into Guo Shao's eyes. Most of his other memorials were sent to the ministers of the Political Affairs Hall and the Privy Council for handling at the discretion, but they were very interested in the memorials of the Military Arts Supervision... The ancient literati did not attach much importance to technology, but Guo Shao's ideas were different after all.

In the memorial written by Zan Jurun, it mentioned a craftsman named Xu Sheng's attempt to improve the musket barrels.

Guo Shao was very involved in seeing it, and only thought it made sense... In my impression, the fire gun seemed to be not Huang Cancan's copper cast, but it was really an iron pipe! It was only after trying to use iron pipes many times before, but he had created the fire gun that looked inappropriate.

As for the principle of adding lime powder to iron material?

Guo Shao thought about it for a long time but couldn't understand it. He picked up the pen and drew some chemical equations on paper. Unfortunately, his chemistry knowledge was limited to middle school and he forgot most of it! If he studied metallurgy, he might be able to figure it out now, but unfortunately it was not. Guo Shao also had half a pot of water, and he had only a little understanding of many things.

Fortunately, he worked as a blacksmith for his livelihood before, and he still has some understanding of the craftsmanship at this time.

He could not understand the craftsman's craftsman's craftsmanship principle, guessing that iron ore contains too much sulfur or any impurities affect the strength of the metal, and the added materials can remove impurities?

No matter what, we must encourage craftsmen who can innovate! When Guo Shao picked up his pen, he remembered that Zan Jurun was in this study.

Guo Shao raised his head and said, "Zhan assisted the government."

Zan Jurun hurriedly got up and walked over and bowed, "I'm here."

Guo Shao returned the memorial to him: "If this Xu Sheng can really be made into an iron gun barrel, tell him that he will receive a heavy reward! I will pick up a house in Tokyo, and allocate a piece of official land in Kaifeng Prefecture, and give him another 1,000 guan of money."

Zan Ju Run was surprised, after all, he was just a little craftsman.

However, Guo Shao has always been generous with what he cares about, and pondered for a moment and said, "Find a vacancy in the Military Equipment Supervisor and increase his official position."

Zan Jurun couldn't help but say, "This person is a craftsman, I'm afraid he doesn't even know a lot of big words."

Guo Shao said: "This matter is of great effect. If Xu Sheng can make contributions, even a craftsman can bear heavy rewards. I also want him to be a demonstration. Those who are talented are not just good at writing."

Zan Jurun had no choice but to worship, "Your Majesty is wise."

After a moment, Guo Shao accidentally found a very interesting memorial on the imperial case: written by Fan Zhi.

He actually persuaded Guo Shao to find the country and become emperor! Because there were too many people who advised him, the memorials were classified and Guo Shao almost didn't notice it... Fortunately, Fan Zhi's memorial was placed at the top, so it was easy to see. It was probably because of the memorials of several cabinets who paid great attention to Fan Zhi's memorials and did it on purpose.

In my heart, Guo Shao personally doesn’t like Fan Zhi very much!

He stood up and walked outside the screen. All four cabinet officials stood up. Guo Shao turned to look at them and asked, "What do you think is how to restore Fan Zhiguan?"

Several people looked at each other, Zuo You clasped his fists and said, "Before the Northern Expedition, Duke Fan strongly opposed it and said shamelessly that Your Majesty could not win. Now that your Majesty has returned to the court, he is very tolerant of Duke Fan, which is the heart of the East China Sea."

In fact, Fan Zhi disobeyed Guo Shao at the beginning, and opposed Fu Jinzhan's rule and caused a lot of bad things. But Zuo You didn't mention it.

Moreover, Zuo You advocated the resumption of Fan Zhi's official position, and the reason why he said it was not as he said... the most critical reason was not easy to put it in a clear way!

Fan Zhi's identity is very special. He was an old minister during the late emperor and had never been accepted as a confidant by Guo Shao. At this moment, many old ministers in the previous dynasty would have waited and watched... After all, the emperor was the emperor and the ministers of the previous dynasty! If Fan Zhi was fine, the person who was jumping around in the opposite direction, would the old ministers and officials in the previous dynasty still worry about their own position and interests?

Since they are all officials and not foreign races have entered the Central Plains, as long as their own interests can be guaranteed, Guo Shao puts himself in his shoes: assuming he is such an official, he will definitely be an official, and he does not want to oppose the emperor's founding of the country and becoming emperor.

As for what reason Zuo You said was not important, his attitude was the most important. It is estimated that Zuo You and others also saw this.

Sure enough, Huang Binglian and the other three also said one after another: "Your Majesty is generous, and the world is in love. I believe that the talent of Prime Minister Fan is very fortunate to be forgiven by Your Majesty."

Guo Shao was also very straightforward in his work. When he heard that the four of them had the same attitude as him, he turned around and said, "Come on, come to Fan's mansion to send an order and ask him to go to the Political Affairs Hall tomorrow. He will do whatever he used to do now."
Chapter completed!