Chapter 92

Chapter 93: Standardization

The gun fired with a 'bang,' a wisp of smoke rising before Zhao Cheng's eyes. The bullet whistled out of the barrel and struck the wooden board set up ahead. He didn't check the impact point but instead inspected the gun, finding no issues. The cartridge was relatively intact, so he immediately pulled the guard ring, loaded another bullet, pulled back the hammer, and fired again. This kind of testing was very troublesome. Zhao Cheng repeatedly stood up, loaded, and fired. By the time he finished a magazine, he was already sweating.

"It seems that this amount of powder won't damage the gun!" After firing sixty low-charge bullets and inspecting the gun, Zhao Cheng made his judgment. He then switched to bullets with one-third more powder and continued the test. Currently, he had no good solution for the gas leakage in the barrel, so he could only increase the power by appropriately increasing the powder charge.

After clearing the barrel and several more rounds of shooting, the gun was still functioning normally, though the barrel was scorching hot. Next, Zhao Cheng tested the gun's power and range. He sized up the large courtyard and measured the distance, which was about eighty steps, or one hundred meters. He placed five one-inch thick, five-foot square wooden boards in a row at one end, adjusted the gun stand, aimed, and re-secured the gun before starting to shoot.

After several rounds, the gun showed no malfunctions, which gave Zhao Cheng great confidence. This time, he didn't hide but stood openly in front of the gun stand and fired two magazines, twelve bullets in total, before checking the target. The results were good: ten bullets hit the target, with the bullet holes spread within a three-foot range, relatively evenly. The bullets that hit the target penetrated the first three wooden boards, and the fourth board had six bullet holes. He deduced that the bullet's trajectory changed after passing through several boards. The fifth board still had three bullet holes, and the other bullet heads were embedded in it, indicating that the gun's effective range was no problem within one hundred meters and that it had considerable power at this distance.

Through the tests, the gun's long-range accuracy was unsatisfactory, but if concentrated fire was used, it would still be very effective against group targets. Zhao Cheng considered whether he could add a few rifling grooves to the barrel. While spiral grooves were impossible, adding a few straight grooves shouldn't be too difficult, which would improve both accuracy and range.

Next, he planned to conduct a destructive test to determine the gun's maximum tolerance. Seeing that the high-charge bullets he had made were still unused, Zhao Cheng loaded them into five magazines and began shooting. However, after only about twenty shots, the gun jammed, and the stand started to crack, and the trigger wouldn't move. He had to stop. He sighed, realizing that with this amount of powder, not only might the gun not withstand it, but if the gun weren't fixed to the stand, the shooter might also struggle to handle it, possibly even fracturing their shoulder blade. But he couldn't provide a stand for every gun.

Zhao Cheng set aside the damaged gun and took out two newly assembled guns for testing. With magazines, the gun's rate of fire was very fast. He estimated that he could fire fifteen bullets per minute, even without training. He believed that with systematic and long-term training, there would be room for improvement.

Both guns malfunctioned after about two hundred shots, one with the feeding system and the other with the firing mechanism. By this time, Zhao Cheng was exhausted and had no energy to analyze the causes of the malfunctions. He decided to study them in detail later. He barely tidied up the site, cleaned up all the spent cartridges, and stored the wooden boards in a room before calling the two attendants outside.

"Second Master?" The two attendants had been waiting in the sun for half a day, listening to the 'thunder' and were already impatient but dared not leave. Hearing Zhao Cheng's call, they quickly entered, ready to receive instructions.

"Hey, why aren't you speaking?" Zhao Cheng, having packed up the box, turned around and saw that the attendants seemed not to have heard him.

"Second Master, we... we responded!" The two attendants looked at each other in confusion and said, startled to see the prince's face. "Second Master, what happened to your face?" They saw that Zhao Cheng's face was black, as if he had just come out of a stove.

"Why aren't you speaking?" Zhao Cheng was even more puzzled, thinking they had been struck dumb. He asked loudly.

"Second Master, your face!" The attendants, still unsure, mustered the courage to point at the prince's face and raised their voices.

"What's wrong with my face? Can't you speak louder? You sound like women!" Zhao Cheng still didn't understand but guessed something from their gestures.

The two attendants were stunned by Zhao Cheng's words. The prince's hearing was usually as sharp as a dog's, able to recognize anyone passing by the door. Why was he deaf today? "Second Master, what's wrong? Can't you hear us?" One attendant leaned close to Zhao Cheng's ear and shouted.

"Ah?!" Zhao Cheng finally heard, realizing something was wrong. He dug his ears, looked at the anxious attendants, and thought for a moment. He immediately understood that the gunshots had deafened him. "Don't worry, the gunshots have deafened me, but I'll be fine in a while!" He shouted, fearing they wouldn't hear him.

"Oh!" The attendants breathed a sigh of relief and nodded vigorously, indicating they understood. They then shouted, "Prince, why is your face so black? Are you hurt?"

"Smoke!" Zhao Cheng said irritably. The black powder smoke was so thick that not only was his face black, but his mouth and nose were probably black too!

In the following days, Zhao Cheng continued testing and improving the gun. He shortened the barrel and changed its shape to a hexagonal form, which simplified the manufacturing process and increased the barrel's strength. More importantly, it reduced one welding step, making the barrel easier to produce and improving the yield. He also extended the stock slightly to accommodate a longer magazine. Based on actual wear, he replaced some components with better materials to reduce the failure rate.

After three months of hard work, Zhao Cheng finally standardized the gun. The entire gun was 3.5 Song feet long, weighed ten Song pounds, had a .45 Song inch caliber, four straight rifling grooves, a full magazine capacity of ten bullets, an effective range of 150 steps, and could shoot accurately within 100 meters. It still had lethal power at 200 steps, capable of penetrating common leather armor, though it lacked accuracy. After firing fifty bullets, the barrel needed cleaning, and after 500 shots, the wear-prone parts needed replacement.

Next, he needed to solve the production problem. He designated a separate area in the workshop, enclosed it, and established a new workshop—the Gun Workshop. Although it was still under the workshop's name, it was directly managed by Zhao Cheng. For confidentiality, he selected sixty skilled and trustworthy craftsmen from the workshop, signed long-term contracts with them, and offered generous compensation.

He divided these craftsmen into several groups, each responsible for producing a specific component. There were no blueprints, only a sample, and each craftsman had to strictly replicate the sample. The sample was kept by two attendants appointed by Zhao Cheng, who would bring it out when needed and store it away afterward. Qualified and semi-finished products were registered daily and sealed at the end of the shift, while defective products were immediately destroyed to prevent leaks. This way, even if someone ran away, they could only take the secret of one component, not the entire design. All the finished components were sent to the palace, where Zhao Cheng personally assembled and inspected them. Fortunately, the production volume was still small; otherwise, this task would have been overwhelming.

The production formula for the ammunition was kept even more confidential. This was Zhao Cheng's last line of defense. Even if the gun's design leaked, without the bullet formula, the gun would be useless. He assigned the task of producing bullets to the fireworks workshop, but the explosives and primer were pre-mixed. The craftsmen only needed to assemble the components, and they had no idea what they were making, treating the bullets as a new type of firework.

After one month of production, Zhao Cheng checked the accounts and found that only fifteen guns had been produced. He roughly calculated that the cost of each gun was around 100 guan. This was partly due to the high initial production costs, the high wages, and the craftsmen's unfamiliarity with the process, but it was also related to the high defect rate. The current production volume was far from Zhao Cheng's goal of fifty guns per month. He believed the only solution was to hire more skilled craftsmen, using a human sea strategy, which would mean more expenses.

Cai Jing had been reappointed as chancellor for the third time, and it had been half a year. He continuously implemented 'new policies,' not only reforming the salt and tea laws but also vigorously enforcing the land survey law, restoring various heavy taxes and levies from the past, even reviving some taxes from previous dynasties. His cronies played a significant role. The thirty-odd trusted lieutenants who were dismissed with him were now reinstated, grateful to their 'boss.' They directed the officials of the three provinces and six departments and the local party members to enforce the policies rigorously. The problem of policy implementation was resolved, and everything returned to the way it was two years ago. The unfortunate Prime Minister Zhang lacked a capable team to execute his policies, so his good policies failed to take effect, and he left the capital in disgrace.

Regardless of the time, officials always loved reforms because as long as the system remained unchanged, they lost the resources to enrich themselves. Now, with the opportunity to restore various heavy taxes and levies, who would want to miss this heaven-sent chance? Local officials and clerks all showed their skills, plundering and extorting, and everyone profited. The unfortunate ones were always the lower classes, the poor farmers and well-off households, who suffered. As soon as the crops were harvested, the tax collectors would arrive with whips, demanding payment. The officials in the yamen used brutal methods, inventing new and extreme ways to extract taxes.