Guns actually started to appear during the Yuan Dynasty.
It was said that when the Northern Yuan cavalry attacked West Asia and Europe, they accidentally saw a country using this kind of firearm. However, at that time, this kind of weapon had a very short range and was very unstable.
Later, the Northern Yuan army began to study this weapon. They combined it with the Song Dynasty's musket and improved it, creating a musket that could severely injure enemies from a hundred meters away.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the uprising armies were suppressed by the Yuan army and were often unable to defeat them.
It was because the Yuan army was equipped with advanced firearms.
It was only after the uprising army had seized the Yuan people's firearms that the battle started to take a turn.
At that time, very few people studied firearms.
However, Emperor Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, had foresight that surpassed everyone else. He had long seen the superiority of firearms.
By purchasing and seizing the handguns of the Yuan people, he got his craftsmen to improve them and became the first person to use handguns to perfection.
After some improvements, the muskets in Zhu Yuanzhang's army not only had a long range and sufficient firepower, but they could also change ammunition very quickly. After the Yuan army finished shooting one set, Zhu Yuanzhang had already changed two sets.
Zhu Yuanzhang also made some adjustments to his tactics.
During the battle with the Yuan army's handguns, after one row of handguns fired in unison, another row of handguns slowly came up to fire in unison.
Zhu Yuanzhang directly attacked in two rows. One row squatted below and the other stood above. The two rows fired at the same time.
After that, the next group of two volleys came up again.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang paid more attention to the study of firearms.
Not only did they develop handguns for individual combat, but they also manufactured large handguns, small cannons installed on ships and city towers, and large handguns and large cannons to fire spherical shells.
The Ming army could be said to have the most advanced weapons in the world.
In addition, he had also nurtured Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Li Wenzhong, Deng Yu, Tang He, and other famous generals who had experienced hundreds of battles.
The Great Ming Dynasty had ushered in its strongest period in terms of military power.
This was all thanks to Emperor Hongwu's foresight.
Throughout history, Zhu Yuanzhang's military talent did not lose to any famous general!
Even Han Xin, who was good at commanding large armies in battle.
Zhu Yuanzhang wasn't wrong either.
Basically, every battle of the Ming army was personally planned by Zhu Yuanzhang.
The generals only needed to execute it, and the results proved Zhu Yuanzhang's foresight.
The Great Ming army chased the Tartars from the south to the north, forcing Northern Yuan to the north of the desert and restoring the glory of the Great Han.
Every battle was closely related to Zhu Yuanzhang's meticulous planning.
Zhu Yuanzhang was a great military commander.
When such a person saw the blueprint of the musket drawn by Zhu Zhen, he immediately knew that this divine item would bring about a subversive change in future wars.
Its effect would be a milestone.
Therefore, one could imagine how shocked Zhu Yuanzhang was!
The Great Ming Army God Xu Da naturally had good eyesight and could tell at a glance that the musket spear was extraordinary.
The muskets that the Ming army was equipped with now required one to hold a musket to light the fire. They could not aim and had poor shooting accuracy!
The shooting range was only about thirty steps.
The loading speed was slow.
If it was against a cavalry, it could only be used once.
However, if it was the musket on the blueprint, because it did not need to be ignited, it could be aimed with both hands, which greatly increased the accuracy.
In addition, the longer the gun barrel, the longer the effective range. The effective range was at least 50 steps.
Most importantly, the musket reloaded faster, which allowed it to be used multiple times in a battle.
Thus, he could fight against ten enemies at once.
Such a weapon could be called a divine weapon.
It was not an exaggeration to say that the musket was equivalent to a million soldiers!
"Sixth Brother, you invented this musket yourself?”Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Zhen with a burning gaze, as if he was looking at a rare treasure.
Zhu Zhen had already expected his father's reaction. He smiled faintly and said,""I read a lot of military books, and there was a lot of knowledge about firearms, so I tried to improve it.”
Of course, these words were all nonsense.
As a transmigrator, Zhu Zhen had long known about firearms.
If it wasn't for the fact that the current technological level couldn't keep up and many parts couldn't be made, Zhu Zhen would have long wanted to make a more advanced flintlock.
Even for the musket, the barrel was stuck for a long time.
Zhu Yuanzhang continued to ask the most critical question, which was also the question he was most concerned about."Since you can draw the blueprint of the musket, can you make it?”
Zhu Zhen thought about it and nodded solemnly." It can be made."”
Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed." Really? That's great. I'll immediately order the Ministry of Works and the Military Equipment Bureau to mass produce them.”
"But as you can see, the barrel of the musket must be made of refined iron."”
"The crude iron we use now can only be refined into one jin of refined iron by ten jin.”
Zhu Yuanzhang's face stiffened. He knew what Zhu Zhen meant.
Ten catties of crude iron could only be refined into one catty of refined iron. To make such a matchlock gun, the crude iron needed was at least a hundred catties.
In addition to gunpowder, ammunition, fire rope, and so on.
The manufacturing cost of a musket was simply too high!
With Da Ming's current iron production, wanting to mass produce was simply impossible.
Moreover, the world had just settled down. Not to mention mining and smelting iron, many commoners did not even have enough to eat or wear warm clothes!
"The world has just settled down, and sufficient food is to encourage farming.”
Zhu Yuanzhang had no choice but to vigorously promote the opening up of wasteland throughout the country. The scale of civilian and military villages was considerable.
Settlement included moving areas with less land and more people to areas with less land and recruiting refugees and prisoners to cultivate.
The country provided the immigrants with cattle and seeds, and exempted them from land tax for three years. After that, they would only pay one bucket per mu.
The military camp was cultivated by the military households of the Wei Office, and each household was given 18 mu to 50 mu of land.
The troops stationed in the border areas were divided into three parts for guarding and seven parts for farming. The troops stationed in the interior were divided into two parts for guarding and eight parts for farming. The cattle, seeds, and farm tools were provided by the state. The grain they paid was used to supply military rations and officers 'salaries.
Even so, after years of war, all kinds of provisions and supplies were still very scarce.
It was even more difficult to forge iron on a large scale.
Right now, Zhu Yuanzhang's main focus was still resting with the people and developing production.
In addition, he had to think of a way to govern the country.
Laws and regulations, selection of talents to manage the place, and so on.
Other than that, the drought in the northwest, the Yellow River flood, and all kinds of natural and man-made disasters also needed to be dealt with.
There were also the Northern Yuan invasion of the border, southwest, southeast rebellion.
These were all important matters that needed to be dealt with urgently.
Only Zhu Yuanzhang, as the ruler of a country, could understand the difficulties of the newly established Great Ming Dynasty!
In such a difficult situation, the civil and military officials in the court were still fighting for power. There were also many local officials who took bribes and perverted the law, and many local gentry bullied the people.
There were also many pedantic scholars who picked on their noses and faces all day long, especially staring at the words and actions of the emperor, making irresponsible remarks and pointing fingers.
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