mtl008 Chapter 99 Napoleon Cannons and the Red Barbarian Cannons (Part 1)
Chapter 99 Napoleon Cannons and the Red Barbarian Cannons (Part 1)
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In Liu Ye's vision, the new county town would be divided into residential and commercial areas with a rational layout. It would also include necessary municipal facilities such as sewers and public toilets, and the roads would be paved with cement. He certainly didn't want the new town's streets to be uneven and full of potholes, with severe flooding on rainy days and people urinating and defecating indiscriminately in alley corners.
Li Fu replied, "Yes, sir. Do we need to reissue the house deeds and land deeds for the newly built house?"
"It must be redone. The house deeds and land deeds must all be stamped with the county government's official seal." Liu Ye actually wanted to overturn all the old deeds, but the people would definitely still believe the house deeds and land deeds registered with the government. So he decided to use them for the time being. After all, he had actual control over the land. He was just using the government's name for a while.
After giving important instructions on the new city's planning, Liu Ye was about to head back to see his newly built estate when a commotion arose behind him. Someone shouted, "Where's Liu Ye? Tell him to come see me!"
Yan Guang and the others were extremely surprised. In Lingao, someone actually dared to call Liu Ye by his name? Liu Ye, however, realized what was happening, slapped his forehead, and said with a wry smile, "Oh no, I forgot there's this esteemed person on the ship..."
On this return trip from Dengzhou to Lingao, he also brought back Sun Yuanhua, the former governor of Dengzhou and Laizhou, and a group of Portuguese. The Portuguese were alright; as long as they could escape Dengzhou and the rebels' slaughter, they were willing to go anywhere. However, Sun Yuanhua insisted he was returning to the capital. It was just that the old man rarely traveled by sea, and upon boarding, he was nauseous and had no time to pay attention to which direction the ship was heading. Furthermore, the Yuanhang was traveling too fast, and when they arrived at Bofu Port, he thought they were resupplying near Aoshanwei or Lingshanwei in Shandong.
After Liu Ye and the others disembarked, they were so excited that they momentarily forgot about Sun Yuanhua. He followed the Portuguese and disembarked in a daze, looking at the strange buildings on the dock, not knowing where he was. He asked around and found out that he had been taken to Qiongzhou Prefecture. He was furious and wanted to find Liu Ye to get an explanation.
After making a scene, Sun Yuanhua met Liu Ye and his face turned grim: "As early as when we left Dengzhou, I could tell you were no ordinary person. Your guards are even more formidable than the government troops. You deceived me so thoroughly before; you are truly a cunning and scheming person. You...you tell me quickly, why did you bring this old man to this remote place far from the emperor's reach?"
Liu Ye smiled and said, "Lord Sun, please don't be angry. Let me explain slowly. Actually, I haven't been able to contact Li Jiucheng and the others at all, but I know that even if Li Jiucheng agrees to let you return to the capital, you will only face death. I couldn't bear to see you walk into your own death, so I tricked you into coming here..."
"Nonsense! By fleeing like this, I've confirmed the crime of colluding with the rebels, and my reputation will be completely ruined by you..."
After Liu Ye had finished his scathing rebuke, he calmly said, "Sir, if you truly wish to preserve your honor and return to the capital to die, I will not stop you; I can arrange for a ship to escort you. However, since you have come to Lingao, why not visit my cannon-casting factory? That way, your trip won't have been in vain!"
"..." Sun Yuanhua's attention was drawn back after being interrupted. "...You mean, the kind of Hongyi cannon that you introduced to me back then?"
“That’s right.” Liu Ye pulled Liang Xiaoming over and introduced him, “This is the extraordinary person I told you about. Iron smelting and cannon casting are all thanks to him.”
Before his trip to Dengzhou, Liang Xiaoming's steel mill already possessed advanced iron-making technology for the time, but it was hampered by a lack of gray cast iron, lacking only coking coal. After receiving qualified bituminous coal, Liang Xiaoming immediately began refining it into coking coal, replacing charcoal. Reaching sufficient furnace temperature, and after several experiments and the failure of a few furnaces, he finally obtained the gray cast iron he had longed for. Before he set off for Shandong with Lin San, the arsenal had already begun casting larger caliber cannons from the gray cast iron; a prototype of the 12-pound Napoleon cannon had been produced, awaiting only Liu Ye's approval for mass production.
Liang Xiaoming wasn't very knowledgeable about history, but he knew of Sun Yuanhua and greatly respected this historical figure who valued Western technology. On the ship, to maintain secrecy, he hadn't had much contact with Sun Yuanhua, but now that he had revealed his identity, he stepped forward to greet him: "Greetings, Lord Sun."
Upon hearing that the extraordinary person who could smelt iron from coal and cast cannons was right before his eyes, Sun Yuanhua disregarded his reputation for a moment, grabbed Liang Xiaoming's hand, and excitedly asked, "I heard that you can use smoldering coal to smelt hard but not brittle pig iron, and the cannons cast from it are exceptionally sturdy and will not explode?"
"Yes. This type of pig iron is called gray cast iron because its cross-section looks dark gray. This type of pig iron is easy to cut, and the cannons made from it are smooth and flat, not easy to leak air, much more powerful, and can shoot farther. More importantly, cannons made from this type of pig iron are not as brittle as those made from ordinary pig iron. They can fire dozens or even hundreds of shots without bursting the barrel..." Liang Xiaoming tried to explain in simple terms.
"So that's how it is! It's truly a divine skill!" Sun Yuanhua exclaimed in admiration.
He dedicated his life to studying Western artillery technology. Although he didn't know terms like "air tightness" and "clearance," he understood the vast difference between a finely crafted and poorly made cannon barrel. The tighter the connection between the cannonball and the barrel, the greater the force of the gunpowder propelling the cannonball, and the farther the cannon could shoot. Conversely, if the gap between the cannonball and the barrel was too large, most of the thrust generated by the burning gunpowder would be wasted, naturally resulting in a shorter range. This alone was astonishing, and coupled with its advantage of being less prone to barrel explosion, such a cannon could truly be called a "divine weapon."
Since the matter had been brought up, in order to appease Sun Yuanhua, Liu Ye accompanied him to visit the arsenal, and Wu Duowang and others also went along.
The arsenal had long since demolished its original simple wooden huts and replaced them all with bamboo-reinforced concrete buildings. The cannon-casting workshop was exceptionally spacious, reminding Liu Ye of the factory workshops of the 1970s and 80s.
Liang Xiaoming readily took on the role of commentator, pointing to a cannon barrel being polished and saying, "This is a 12-pound Napoleon cannon. It has the same caliber as a 12-pound mountain howitzer, but the barrel is more than twice as long, at 1.6 meters, and much heavier, weighing about 55 kilograms. Its effective range can reach about 15 meters..."
Sun Yuanhua was completely confused. He asked Xia Tiannan in a low voice, "What are these kilograms and rice?"
Liu Ye coughed and reminded him, "Mingzi, don't use metric units. When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
Liang Xiaoming realized what he was saying and corrected himself: "This cannon is... 5 feet long, weighs... about 1,100 jin, and can fire about 3 li away..." He wasn't very clear on the conversion ratio between the length and weight of the Ming Dynasty and the modern metric system, so he could only give a rough estimate.