"Boom~"

Before Li Yan and the others could walk to the artillery manufacturing area, they heard a thunderous explosion inside, and then a noise came from inside. This scared Li Yan and others, thinking that something had happened inside, so they all accelerated their pace to the artillery manufacturing area.

However, when Li Yan and the others rushed to the scene, they did not have the kind of death and injury that they had imagined. In front of them was a group of craftsmen, gathering around a big pit to discuss something.

"Xu Wei, what happened just now?" Li Yan saw an acquaintance among the group of dusty people, and roared angrily. The explosion just now was not a normal cannon sound, and there must be an accident.

Hearing Li Yan's voice, a medium-sized guy in the crowd turned his head and saw Li Yan and others, and a solemn expression appeared on his face. He walked forward a few steps and said, "See Your Highness. My subordinates were testing the cannon just now, but there was a problem with this cannon itself, so the first cannon exploded."

The speaker was Xu Wei who Li Yan called just now. Xu Wei was a copper smith in the past, specializing in helping people make various bronze ware. Not only was he skillful, but he also knew the properties of various copper. Later, he was favored by Li Yan and hired him to help develop artillery for a large sum of money, making a lot of contributions to the launch of artillery. He is now responsible for managing the artillery production area.

When Li Yan heard that it was a blowout, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous and immediately asked, "How is it, are there any casualties?"

The cannon explosion is not fun. Not only will the cannon be blown up, but it will also cause casualties if you are not careful. The craftsmen who develop cannons are priceless treasures, and any damage will make Li Yan feel very heartbroken.

"Don't worry, your highness, we all took precautions in advance, and we were all far away, so we just ate a few bites of soil, but no one was injured!" Xu Wei said with a bow. Li Yan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, other craftsmen also reacted and came forward to salute Li Yan. Li Yan laughed and asked them to avoid giving him a favor. Then he told them to pay attention to safety. Finally, he asked about the specific cause of the blow-off accident.

But after hearing this, Xu Wei smiled bitterly, picked up something from the ground and said, "Please look at your highness, this is our test artillery."

Li Yan took a closer look and found that it was a bombed cannon body. When he took the fragments into his hands and looked carefully, he found that the fragments were made of pure steel. This surprised Li Yan: "Xu Wei, have you actually started to develop steel cannons?"

Although Li Yan also knew that most of the artillery in later generations were made of steel, in the Tang Dynasty, he did not expect to be in one step. So at the beginning, he used bronze trial artillery. In comparison, copper had better ductility than steel, and bronze was also strong enough. Compared with steel, it was more suitable for making cannons. The only disadvantage was that the cannon body was a bit bulky and was also expensive. However, there was nothing now. Li Yan only asked to build cannons first, so he still chose to use copper cannons to build cannons at the beginning.

Speaking of which, there is no big problem with the front-mounted slide boring gun that Li Yan wants to build. The only thing to solve is the solidity of the gun body. In addition, the diameter of the inner bore must be consistent and sufficiently smooth. These problems were quickly overcome by the research of craftsmen such as Xu Wei, so the development of the bronze gun has been very smooth, and it can now be put into actual combat.

However, the bronze cannon was not what Li Yan really wanted, so after the successful development of the bronze cannon, Li Yan ordered Xu Wei and other craftsmen to improve the current bronze cannon, while asking them to think about using cheaper and more solid steel to make the cannon, but they did not ask them to do it immediately. Unexpectedly, this time, it was obvious that Xu Wei and the others were already trying to make the cannon.

Seeing that Li Yan saw that he was trying to produce a steel cannon, Xu Wei couldn't help but smile confidently and said, "Your Highness, this is the steel cannon, and this is not the first time it has exploded. However, through so many experiments, the subordinates have already found some tricks. I believe that after a while, it will not be too difficult to create available steel cannons."

"Okay!" After hearing this, Li Yan patted Xu Wei's shoulder excitedly and praised him a few words. Of course, he did not forget the other craftsmen present, encouraging these craftsmen to use their intelligence and talents to think about what others dare not think. As long as the artillery can be improved, he, the King of Qi, will not be stingy with rewards.

These craftsmen also knew Li Yan's generosity, so they were all energetic when they heard his words. Until Li Yan asked them to disperse, these people immediately returned to their posts with great enthusiasm and carefully pondered the existing artillery that could be improved.

Next, Li Yan was accompanied by Xu Wei and roughly visited the production process of artillery. However, the current artillery production is all bronze, so there is also a bronze production factory here, which contains 300 craftsmen, and all the bronze produced is used to produce bronze artillery.

Li Yan was actually not interested in these production processes and other things. What he needed most was the result of these processes. So after walking around the artillery production area, he immediately took everyone to the rear of Pili Island. There was a very confidential army stationed here. There were not many people, only 1,500 people, of which 1,000 were musketeers, and the remaining 500 were artillerymen. The constant roar on Pili Island was made by these people.

Li Yan and his group passed through a valley and soon arrived at a relatively flat highland. It was divided into two pieces, and a relatively flat area was built into a schoolyard. Teams of musketeers stood on the schoolyard and were practicing shooting. They saw that these soldiers were in a row in three rows. After the soldiers in front aimed at the target in front and fired a shot, they immediately retreated and seized the time to clean the barrel, load gunpowder and projectiles. At this time, the second row stepped forward and shot again, taking turns to go down one after another. The flying bullets formed a constant barrage, fully exerting the power of the musket.

In another larger area, five hundred artillery soldiers were operating bronze cannons, firing one after another at a distance to the mountains. Although the power of solid bombs is not great, each shell will hit the rocks on the mountain and splash it in all directions after each shell lands. If it is used to attack the city, as long as it does not encounter a strong city like Chang'an, it will probably have a good effect.

However, Li Yan also discovered the disadvantage of the cannon, that is, the firing rate is too slow. After one shot is fired, the cannon body must be cooled down immediately, and then the cannon barrel is cleaned, the recharge, ignition and other steps are as fast as two minutes. In other words, the firing rate of the cannon is at most two minutes. But there is nothing to do about this. After all, this is a common problem with front-loading cannons. As for rear-loading cannons, Li Yan probably won’t have to think about it in the past few decades.

In addition, the range of this kind of bronze cannon is very close, and it can usually reach two miles. Of course, if you are not afraid of explosions and set more gunpowder in it, the range can be increased, but it depends on your luck. If you don’t make it a good sound, the shells will not be fired, and you will hang up first.

As for Li Yan's arrival, someone immediately stepped forward to greet him. He saw that the man was tall and thin, wearing a strange military uniform, with a dark complexion, and a burnt beard under his jaw. He looked old-fashioned. He knew he was the kind of serious person at a glance.

"My minister Liu Rengui, see Your Highness!" This tall and thin man was Liu Rengui. When Li Yan transferred him from a small county magistrate to the Qi Palace, he then entrusted him with important tasks. He had long taken over this late-achieving typical example, and he was also a loyal person. Therefore, Li Yan also let Liu Rengui manage such important things as muskets and artillery for the time being.

Speaking of which, Liu Rengui is a rare talent and can do everything he does very well. Li Yan asked him to promote the salt drying method. As a result, in just one year, countless salt drying fields have appeared in Dengzhou, and the annual salt production accounts for almost one-third of the national salt production. However, with the promotion of the salt drying method, many salt drying fields have appeared in other places, so the proportion of salt in Dengzhou has decreased.

However, Liu Rengui is not only an administrative talent, but also a versatile talent in civil and military affairs. He can not only be literary, but also martial. He brought out the hot weapons unit of 1,500 people in front of him. According to some valuable experience proposed by Li Yan, he made him completely build this unit into a firearm elite soldier. If he fought with the same number of people, he would probably never be able to compare with them.

"Rengui, prepare the venue, I will fire a few shots in person!" Li Yan looked at Yifan, who was extremely curious around him, and ordered Liu Rengui with a smile. Although he had been here a few times before, he couldn't find time because of too many things. In addition, the muskets were indeed not safe at the beginning, so until now, Li Yan had not really shot the muskets he made.

"Please please here with your highness!" Liu Rengui was a stern person. He didn't talk nonsense when he heard Li Yan's orders, and immediately led them to the far left of the school ground, which was a separate shooting range, and next to the shooting range was a small warehouse.

"Your Highness, there are some different muskets in this warehouse, all of which were trial-made by craftsmen from the former island. Some of them have poor performance, and some are better than those used by sergeants now. Unfortunately, the cost is too expensive, so it cannot be promoted in large quantities. You can go in and choose a pair of ones." Liu Rengui opened the door and pointed to the muskets on the shelf inside and said.
Chapter completed!