Only fourteen years old.
The young men and women in Wenhua Hall were also of that age.
Zhu Ci remained silent for a long while before saying, "Send people to burn more things for him. Tell him that the people who killed him will soon be down there to accompany him. If he is still unsatisfied, he can wait a little longer on the road to the Yellow Springs."
Ge Xudong had agreed readily at first, but as he heard the rest, he couldn't help but catch his breath.
The Crown Prince.. he isn't going to cause trouble for the Prince of Qi just to avenge that little eunuch, is he?
It shouldn't be. Since the Prince of Qi has clearly made himself an adversary to the Crown Prince, it is only natural for His Highness to strike back.
Ge Xudong thought of all sorts of excuses, for the rest of the journey, the two of them did not speak again.
Zhu Ci did not want to speak, Ge Xudong, sensing the Crown Prince was in a bad mood, did not dare to speak.
When he returned to the study, he looked at his unfinished new game and thought about the tasks he had to complete next.
Zhu Ci took a deep breath, rubbed his face to refresh himself, asked with excitement, "Has what I requested arrived?"
Ge Xudong bowed and said, "The Ministry of Works has already sent over the list."
After he finished speaking, he went to the nearby bookshelf and took a piece of paper out from a book.
After Zhu Ci took it, he took the paper and glanced at it.
Everything listed above was the firearms currently held in the armory.
Firearms during the Ming Dynasty were already relatively advanced, but they currently only occupy half the realm; as for how many the "Great Ming," which does not even possess half the realm, possesses, it remains unknown.
However, this list only specified the categories; Zhu Ci still did not dare to ask about the specific quantities for the time being.
Even these categories were requested from Zhu Yousong under the pretext of wanting to play games.
The first item listed on the manifest was the matchlock musket, also known as a matchlock gun; this was the only firearm intended for individual soldier equipment.
Next were various types of cannons; famous ones like the Red Barbarian Cannon and the Frankish Cannon were all listed, to Zhu Ci's surprise, there were even rocket-type weapons on the list.
Of course, these rockets were not the same as the rockets launched in later generations; rather, they were a type of projectile firearm.
Compared to matchlock muskets and cannons, there were dozens of different types of rocket-style weapons, creating a dazzling array.
Things like Fire Dragon Emerging from Water, Divine Fire Flying Crow, Sky-Striking Thief-Crushing Heaven-Shaking Thunder, Swarm of Bees, Hundred Tigers Charging Arrows, Eagle Chasing Rabbit Arrows—it was enough to make one's eyes spin.
The most important thing was that they had no other description besides their names, Zhu Ci had never heard of them, so he had no idea what they actually were.
He pointed at the rocket category and asked Ge Xudong, "Do you know what these are?"
Anyway, his current persona was that of a useless Crown Prince, so it was nothing to be surprised about.
Ge Xudong took a glance and said deliberately, "This eunuch only knows a little bit."
Zhu Ci said casually, "Then tell me about it."
He hadn't originally held much hope for these kinds of rockets; after all, the fact that they hadn't been passed down through future generations meant that these things must have been obsolete.
Obsolete weapons were either impractical, too expensive to produce, or impossible to mass-produce; none of these traits were suitable for the present.
He had originally only wanted to see if there was anything here that could be improved for practical use.
Improving the matchlock was not particularly difficult for him, as he was all too familiar with firearms. Improving artillery was no easy feat, given that they were massive objects, so it would be quite good if the Divine Machine Rockets could compensate for this shortcoming.
However, as Ge Xudong introduced the Fire Dragon Emerging from Water, Zhu Ci was completely shocked: Shit, isn't this the predecessor of a second-stage rocket?
Author's Note:
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Zhu Ci: What a pity. I can't tell the Prince of Qi directly that he's being buried with a minor eunuch, otherwise, he'd die in a rage. Evil Kitty wearing a cloak. jpg
Next update tomorrow at 12:00 PM~
Chapter 11
Overall, the Fire Dragon is an amphibious weapon, primarily intended for naval warfare.
It is made entirely of cogon grass; the nodes are shaved thin to form the dragon's belly, wooden dragon heads and tails are attached to the front and back.
The dragon head and tail had no special features, but several Divine Machine Rockets would be installed inside the dragon's belly, two large, inclined rocket tubes would be attached to the underside of its body.
Once the large rocket tubes are ignited, the dragon body is launched forward, capable of flying for about two or three li; as the fuel runs low, the Divine Machine Rockets inside the dragon's belly are automatically ignited.
In addition, there are Divine Fire Flying Crows, which are woven from fine bamboo and reeds, filled with gunpowder, equipped with two small rockets on each side of the crow's body; they are also referred to as Fire-Starters.
Once ignited, the Fire-Starter can shoot the Divine Fire Flying Crow over a hundred zhang away, it will detonate its gunpowder upon reaching its target.
As Ge Xudong explained, Zhu Ci had only one thought in his mind: with so many types of firearms, how on earth did the Great Ming lose to the Manchus?
He could not understand it, so he could only conclude that even the best firearms would eventually encounter commanders capable of using them.
Before, he had thought that if only he had traveled through time a little earlier, at least before the Qing army occupied Beijing, it would have been easier to turn the tables.
Now, facing this long list of firearm names, he suddenly understood that even if he had traveled back to that time, it would still be difficult unless he had traveled back directly as Chongzhen.
After listening with a look of curiosity, Zhu Ci felt somewhat puzzled. "Why have I hardly ever heard of these before? I have only heard of matchlocks and cannons."
In response to Your Highness, these things are not used much," Ge Xudong explained. "Their range is not far enough, their power is not great enough, they are not as portable as matchlocks, their lethality is not as high as cannons, so hardly anyone uses them.
Zhu Ci said subconsciously, "They can be improved."
Ge Xudong shook his head. "Nowadays, the Ministry of Works can barely manufacture matchlocks and cannons; how could they have the extra capacity to improve these useless things? Even the Wanggong Factory has been disbanded; only the Armament Bureau is responsible for these matters now."
The Wanggong Factory was originally in Beijing and was the largest gunpowder manufacturing and storage institution, but now it has all fallen into the hands of the Qing army.
The Southern Ming didn't have a Wanggong Factory to begin with. When the court was established, Zhu Yousong saw that the Wanggong Factory required too much capital, so he simply abolished it, leaving only the Armament Bureau.
As for the Armament Bureau, it specialized in providing weapons for the Jinyi Guard and the twenty-two guards surrounding the Emperor. The Firework Bureau under the Armament Bureau, also known as the Firework Bureau, was also responsible for the production and storage of gunpowder.
However, at present, it was merely simple production without any improvements; after all, without funding from above, no improvements could be made, even the production of simple gunpowder had already come to a halt.
Zhu Ci..
He looked at the blueprints in his hands, the anger in his heart had already risen.
Is the Southern Ming officialdom filled with nothing but useless trash?
Zhu Yousong could just decide to abolish it whenever he pleased?
Did they not know how powerful the Qing army had become after receiving supplies from the Wanggong Factory in Beijing? Did they think they could just leave themselves unarmed and let the enemies drown in the Yangtze River?
However, upon seeing the items on the desk, his anger subsided once more.
Who could he blame? He himself only thought about preserving his own life and didn't even dare to think about anything else; he seemed to have no standing to condemn others.
With an Emperor like this, even staying alive isn't easy, let alone getting anything done?
Of course, with the system of the Great Ming, even if the Emperor is incompetent, it wouldn't be impossible for the Grand Secretariat to be a bit more reliable.
Unfortunately, the Grand Secretariat was also unreliable. While Gao Hongtu and Ma Shiying were loyal to the Great Ming, the two of them were short-sighted and continued to struggle with one another to this day, failing to accomplish a single thing that needed to be done.
Zhu Ci looked at the catalog in his hands and began to contemplate how he could obtain the blueprints.
Some things cannot necessarily be replicated even if one knows their design and operating principles. The dimensions of each part of a Divine Machine Rocket, how much gunpowder is contained within, how long the fuse should be—all of these are conclusions that can only be reached through a series of studies and experiments.
Zhu Ci had neither the time nor the conditions to conduct experiments. He had to make excuses just to see how many types of firearms the Great Ming currently possessed, he didn't even know the total number of firearms in existence. How could he possibly have the opportunity to conduct experiments?
Correspondingly, wanting the blueprints was actually very risky. What would one want the blueprints for? To replicate them? To harbor treasonous intentions?
I feel as though I am being held back in everything I do.
Should I find a way to get rid of this foolish emperor?
This idea circled through Zhu Ci's mind before he immediately suppressed it.
Unless there were people both inside and outside the palace helping him, regicide would not be such an easy task.
Everyone knows that regicide results in the execution of one's entire extended family; no one would do such a thing unless they were pushed to their absolute limit.
However, given Zhu Yousong's style, it might not be many years before the palace maids and eunuchs want to kill him; not only does this dead Emperor indulge in both men and women, but he also strikes with extreme brutality.
Several times when Zhu Ci went over to play, he saw people carrying corpses out.
Every time he saw him, he could not help but feel his heart fill with murderous intent.
Never mind, forget about that for now. At present, Ma Shiying remains very "loyal" to Zhu Yousong, while Gao Hongtu wants to replace the Emperor. However, since his current influence is inferior to that of the Grand Secretary, it will be difficult for him to achieve anything—unless he can make these two believe that he is even more useless and easier to control than Zhu Yousong, otherwise, it will be as difficult as climbing to heaven.
To get the blueprints, one must have contact with the Ministry of Works.
Zhu Ci sat there contemplating for a long while, feeling that it was time to change the way the game was played.
After all, Zhu Yousong was gradually beginning to find the existing games tedious.
Games are all the same, following the same old patterns, especially since Zhu Ci had to exercise restraint and avoid playing games that could actually kill someone. It was like dancing in shackles; by now, there wasn't much novelty left, having played them so much in the past, he naturally found them uninteresting.
If Zhu Ci wanted to increase favorability, he would have to try a different way of playing.
The board games that didn't involve killing or destruction had become somewhat repetitive, so it would be better to organize some live-action games. Zhu Yousong wanted to see something thrilling; he planned to have people strap blood bags to themselves so that every strike would draw blood without costing any lives.
This way, he could openly target the Ministry of Works.
Thinking of this, Zhu Ci immediately began designing a real-life combat game.
Given the current technical conditions, it would be best if the venue were a bit smaller and the atmosphere a bit more intense and lively, then he would have to let Zhu Yousong personally take command.
Zhu Yousong saw Zhu Ci's new game and his eyes instantly lit up: "Good, good, good, this is excellent."
Zhu Ci knew he would like it; after all, who doesn't have a dream of conquering the battlefield?
Especially since the Qing army occupies the North, does Zhu Yousong not wish to reclaim his lost territories?
It is just that he is cowardly and lacks courage.
Now that there was a place for him to play and indulge in his beautiful dreams, it was naturally for the best.
Zhu Ci said softly, "Father Imperial, I'm afraid this game cannot be played within the palace; we will also need to find a place to construct it."
Zhu Yousong waved his hand and said, "Have the Construction Bureau select a few locations and report them."
Zhu Ci recalled in his mind that the Construction Bureau was subordinate to the Ministry of Works and was one of its four subordinate bureaus.
However, in his memory, the Construction Bureau should be specifically responsible for national-level architecture, such as palaces, imperial tombs, ancestral temples, official residences, city walls. Having them handle this.. seemed a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Just as Zhu Ci was thinking this, Ma Shiying spoke up, "Your Majesty, the Construction Bureau is currently responsible for the repairs of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. For such a minor matter, it would be better to let the Internal Procuratorate handle it."
The Internal Procuratorate?