The first test of the new mesh gun failed, and this result really disappointed Yang Cong, but he was not discouraged because he was confident of solving the problems that arose.

The next morning, he summoned all his civil servants, military generals and craftsmen to the conference room and discussed again.

After everyone arrived, he smiled confidently and said, "Everyone, I believe everyone already knows that the test of the new type of mesh gun failed, but it doesn't matter. There is a saying that failure is the mother of success. As long as we are not knocked down by failure and continue moving forward, we will succeed one day."

Failure is the mother of success?

This sentence was a bit too abstract, and everyone was stunned when they heard this.

Seeing this, Yang Cong patiently explained: "Everyone has heard of the story of Dayu controlling the flood. Gun stole the Xilan of the Heavenly Emperor to block the flood. He failed. The Emperor of Heaven ordered Zhurong to kill Gun, but Gun died of three years old and did not rot. He cut him off the Wu sword, so he gave birth to Yu. Dayu summarized Gun's experience and lessons, and after hard and unyielding struggle, he used the method of diversion to control the flood and achieved success. Gun failed, Gun gave birth to Yu, and Yu succeeded, so failure is the mother of success."

His explanation was more intuitive, and everyone finally understood the meaning of this sentence.

Failure is the mother of success. The more you chew and reminisce about this sentence, the more you can understand the profound meaning. Yes, many things cannot be successful at once. If you give up once you fail, you will never be able to succeed. Only by not striving for difficulties and moving forward bravely can you achieve success one after another.

Seeing that everyone's faces showed a sudden look, Yang Cong continued: "Have you ever thought about why muskets have been developing for more than two hundred years? You should know that there were muskets before our Ming Dynasty began. Why can't muskets replace bows and crossbows, or even swords, guns, swords and halberds become the protagonists on the battlefield?"

This time, everyone was confused again.

To be honest, no one has ever considered this issue, because the technological development in this period is basically passive, not active. In other words, if there is no urgent need or if there is a genius figure, people will basically not take the initiative to consider the development of technology.

Yang Cong seemed to know everyone's psychology. He then gave an example: "Everyone should know that there was no paper before the Han Dynasty, and everything was basically written in bamboo slips. Therefore, there were very few scholars at that time because books were too rare at that time. After Cai Lun in the Han Dynasty invented the papermaking technique, paper gradually became popular. Are there more and more scholars? Everyone imagined that making paper and splitting bamboo slips was many times more difficult. Didn't Cai Lun succeed? So, we must have confidence, do you know? There is nothing difficult in the world, I am afraid that as long as we have confidence, there is nothing that cannot be done."

How difficult is this papermaking technique? Even at this moment, few people present know how paper was made. However, Cai Lun was able to come up with papermaking technique. What does this mean?

This means that as long as you want, you can succeed, and if you don’t want, you can never succeed!

At this time, almost everyone present showed a thoughtful expression, and everyone seemed to be thinking about how to succeed.

Yang Cong wanted this effect. He then concluded: "Everyone should know that the reason why muskets cannot replace crossbows is mainly because of the rate of fire. In terms of range and lethality, muskets are better than crossbows. Moreover, we can also find ways to make muskets have a longer range and stronger lethality. The most important point is that muskets are easy to use. No matter whether you have the strength or not, whether you are young or old, you can basically use muskets as long as you practice a little. However, there are restrictions on using crossbows. If you don't have the strength, whoever makes the crossbows move, so as long as the fire rate of muskets is increased, it will replace crossbows and become the protagonist of the battlefield. The Tartars are still using crossbows now, that is, as long as we increase the speed of muskets, the Tartar cavalry will definitely be wiped out."

Everyone was happy to hear this. Yes, as long as the fire rate of the musket is up, the Tartars are just a dish, because the range and lethality of the crossbow cannot be compared with the musket.

The previous paragraph actually has nothing to do with what is discussed today. Yang Cong just wanted to strengthen everyone's confidence through this passage. Then, he went straight to the topic and said: "I thought about it for a long time after I went back yesterday. To solve the problem of musket explosion, we must increase the wall thickness of the musket barrel, add threads to the front and rear barrels, and connect them with threads. In this way, the front and back cannot be disconnected, and the musket will not be able to explode."

Everyone knows this principle, but increasing the wall thickness means that the barrel in front cannot be rolled out with thin iron sheet. It must be cast into a whole and drilled out the hole in the middle with a drill bit. That guy is three or four feet long, so it is so troublesome to drill!

Everyone pondered for a while, and Wang Xuan finally couldn't help but speak, "Sir, the barrel in front is different from the barrel in the back. The barrel in front is too long and it's too difficult to drill. If it is changed to castings, the official feels that it will probably be difficult to make one one a day."

Yang Cong naturally thought of this question. He asked calmly: "Sir, haven't I said to use gears to accelerate? Moreover, we can build more gears. If one set doesn't work, there will be ten sets, and if ten sets are not available, there will be one hundred sets. Wouldn't this output be increased?"

When Wang Xuan heard this, he couldn't help but look weird. Indeed, as long as he adds manpower and tools, this problem is not a problem.

Most people don’t think about this, because increasing hands and tools will cost money. Everyone is accustomed to thinking about saving money, but ordinary people will think about spending money.

But Yang Cong is just rich, can you compare with him?

Wang Xuan shook his head helplessly and reminded him: "Sir, there is another problem we have to consider, that is, the problem of drill bits. The barrel is iron and the drill bits are also iron. It takes a lot of effort to drill, because the drill bits need to be ground after a few strokes. Even if the gears are used to accelerate, this problem is inevitable."

Yang Cong really ignored this problem, because there were tool steel and high-speed steel in later generations, which had much higher hardness than ordinary steel. Processing steel parts was like cutting tofu, so it was naturally not a big deal. The problem was that there was no tool steel or high-speed steel at all!

This problem seems to have returned to the beginning. The industrial foundation of this era is almost zero. Not only does there be no processing equipment, but many common materials in later generations also do not have them at this time.

So, how to solve this problem?

Start developing tool steel and high-speed steel now?
Chapter completed!