Liu Jin followed Zhu Houzhao into the military school.

The arrival of these uninvited guests was not hindered at all, but this does not mean that the military school is lax in defense. This is definitely the place where the security measures in the capital are closest to the imperial palace.

According to Chen Xi's instructions, the warning of the military school is divided into internal and external posts and light and dark posts. With regular patrols, the defense is very tight.

The soldiers who were in charge of guarding the military school were all soldiers who returned from the Xuanfu victory with Hu Lian. They were proud to defend the highest military school in the Ming Dynasty.

When Zhu Houzhao saw that the officers and soldiers on duty were well-trained and energetic, she knew they were elite soldiers at a glance. She nodded repeatedly with gratitude, but at the same time, she was also very curious about why these people seemed to know themselves and saluted him solemnly after meeting them along the way.

"I'm going to see your Majesty."

Just as Zhu Houzhao was thinking about it secretly, Hu Lian appeared and saluted respectfully.

Zhu Houzhao looked at it and asked with a smile: "It turns out it is Hu Qing's family, and here... it seems to be different from before!"

Hu Lian replied with a smile: "Shangshu Chen arranged for people to renovate the place at the end of last year, re-planning the buildings, expanding the campus, and adding classrooms and accommodation places... Starting from the New Year, the school officially implemented a boarding system. Students can only go back one day every ten days, and they must stay in school for study for the rest of the time, and they must not leave food and accommodation!"

"oh."

Zhu Houzhao nodded, "This is good, it is convenient for management, but it is not appropriate for students with family to go home? There should be room for improvement!"

Hu Lian complimented: "Your Majesty is wise... it is better to propose it by Your Majesty and Shangshu Chen to modify the rules and regulations of the military school. Shangshu Chen said that Your Majesty is the real principal of the military school and has the final right to decide here."

"Ha ha!"

Hearing this, Zhu Houzhao was very happy and felt a sense of pride.

Liu Jin was unhappy when he heard the conversation between the king and his ministers. He glanced at Hu Lian and thought to himself: "This guy has never seen him do anything. After only a few days of following the boy named Chen, he flew up to the branch and turned into a phoenix? Humph, let's see how our family dealt with you!"

Zhu Houzhao came to the main courtyard accompanied by Hu Lian. After entering the moon gate, there was a wide training ground in front of him, and a group of soldiers were practicing archery.

"here it is……?"

Zhu Houzhao looked around and asked curiously.

Hu Lian explained: "By your Majesty, this is a small schoolyard for practicing cold weapons, and it is the smallest among the three major schoolyards of our school."

"Um?"

Zhu Houzhao had a trace of confusion on her face, obviously not understanding the word "cold weapons". Liu Jin asked angrily: "To be clear, what cold weapons are you? What are your Shangshu Chen doing? Are the weapons on the battlefield still different from hot and cold?"

Hu Lian smiled and replied, "Eunuch Liu doesn't know anything. Now that the battlefield is facing each other, there will be no more bows and crossbows and swords. In addition to being able to defeat Di Yi these days, the main thing is that the weapons they use are basically muskets and cannons. These weapons will spew out hot flames when they are fired, so Shangshu Chen named them hot weapons to distinguish them from previous weapons!"

Liu Jin flattened his mouth and said unconsciously: "What's the use of doing these many tricks?"

Liu Jin spared no effort to defame, but Zhu Houzhao widened her eyes and felt that Chen Xi had a perfect definition of weapons, which was very technical at first glance.

"Is the training of hot weapons mainly for muskets and cannons?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

"Yes."

Hu Lian replied, "The training of hot weapons is mainly in the second field, that is, the original large school ground, but now it can only rank second among the three training grounds... At present, the school has added a large school ground."

Zhu Houzhao ordered excitedly: "Go and take me to have a look."

Just as he was about to leave, Liu Jin quickly stopped him: "Your Majesty, why should you be anxious? Why not wait for Shangshu Chen to come together? Shangshu Chen is so. He knew that His Majesty came, but he was delaying. Could it be that he wanted to prove that he was busy with work and had no time to connect with the train? He didn't know what he was busy with..."

Hu Lian asked in confusion: "Eunuch Liu's meaning is really puzzling... Your Majesty suddenly arrived, and the Ministry of War did not receive any news in advance. Shangshu Chen is now handling official duties in the school. I also met Your Majesty by accident because I wanted to go to the Huitong Hall to do business."

"Um!?"

Zhu Houzhao began to frown again.

Liu Jin was furious and scolded angrily: "What do you mean? Did you accuse our family of not informing us of the news that His Majesty came to inspect in advance and deliberately letting you not be able to welcome you?"

In Liu Jin's opinion, Hu Lian was simply seeking death. Even Chen Xi didn't dare to expose anything casually, so he actually said it casually.

Hu Lian said: "Maybe it was someone sent by Eunuch Liu who did not bring the news... After Eunuch Liu returned, it would be best to carefully interrogate the person responsible for delivering the news. If the Military Academy learned that Your Majesty was coming, how could he not make a courtesy to greet him? Eunuch Liu said this, which is very suspicious of shirking responsibility."

"you!"

Liu Jin was angry, and if Zhu Houzhao hadn't been by his side, he would have rushed up to fight Hu Lian.

Zhu Houzhao said angrily: "Enough!"

This sound made Hu Lian and Liu Jin shut up obediently.

Zhu Houzhao said: "If you don't prepare, you won't prepare. I don't want to hold any welcome ceremony. I hope that the students here usually look like, don't do that superficial skill... Remember, you must not reveal my identity after entering, just think that I am an ordinary person."

"Yes, your Majesty."

Liu Jin complained in his heart. He was obviously in control of the situation, but he was a bad thing by a little unknown little person like Hu Lian.

Next, Zhu Houzhao was going to see the training of hot weapons. Liu Jin followed behind and glared at Hu Lian viciously from time to time.

In his heart, he was already thinking about how to make Hu Lian unable to afford it.

The schoolyard was soon arrived, and it was obviously larger than the previous one. At this time, dozens of students on the field were lined up to practice musket shooting, and there were a row of targets in the distance in front of them. Obviously, the target shooting training will be carried out next.

Zhu Houzhao was about to move forward, but Hu Lian quickly dissuaded: "Your Majesty, the students are shooting hot weapons, and there may be danger. You can stay here to watch."

Liu Jin shouted loudly: "Do you think Your Majesty is a person who is greedy for life and fears death?"

Zhu Houzhao looked at Liu Jin, frowned slightly at first, as if he was dissatisfied, then looked at Hu Lian and nodded, "Since that's the case, I can just look at it from behind... I don't know how to use muskets, just treat it as an outsider to see the fun!"

Immediately, Zhu Houzhao stood on a built-up soil slope and looked at it curiously.

There were about thirty students on the field, ten people in a row. As the students loaded the bullets, the commanders from afar dropped the flags that fired the guns. As the whistle sounded, the muskets in the hands of ten people in the first row were fired almost at the same time. After the shooting was completed, the people in the first row quickly squatted down and replaced the bullets, the second row continued to shoot, and then the second row squatted down, and the third row continued to shoot.

"Bang bang...bang bang...bang bang!"

The modified flintlock rifle fires very quickly. Since there is no need for fuse ignition, and the introduction of standard bullets, the speed is much faster. It will only take a moment to shoot thirty people.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but cover her ears when she heard the sound.

Liu Jin was also shocked and his face turned pale.

After the musket shooting ended, Liu Jin began to yell: "Oh, this gunshot is so noisy that it is so annoying. What should we do to disturb the emperor's carriage?"

Hu Lian frowned and asked, "Eunuch Liu has been to Xuanfu with the army and participated in the battle against Tatars. These are common things on the battlefield... Has Eunuch Liu never seen the scene of musket fire?"

Liu Jin was speechless when asked. After all, he was hiding in the city in Xuanfu and had never participated in a battle, so he naturally could not contact the front-line soldiers. He quickly glanced at Zhu Houzhao and found that the emperor was curiously looking at the targets that had been smashed, so he felt relieved.

Liu Jin thought to himself: "It's bad, it's bad. The boy named Chen has a successor. No wonder he is fearless. His feelings have cultivated a successor to fight our family... No, our family must not give in. First, suppress the arrogance of the surname Hu before talking about it."

"Our family can't do anything to Shen Zhihou. It should be okay to deal with this guy named Hu, right?"

"Is the shooting done now?" Zhu Houzhao asked with concern.

Hu Lian bowed to Zhu Houzhao and replied: "Yes, Your Majesty, the shooting is very smooth. After three-stage shooting, all the forty targets in the front were penetrated. If the target was replaced by a human, the enemy would have fallen down... The modified musket range was increased to 100 to 200 steps, and the accuracy and lethality were significantly improved."

"Oh. It seems that's true."

Zhu Houzhao smiled and looked at the target in the distance and said, "Didn't the gun barrel spray that kind of lead balls outward before? How can it be shot out and turned into holes?"

Hu Lian explained excitedly: "This is exactly the breakthrough transformation made by Shangshu Chen to the musket... He clamped a flint on the jaw of the hammer, set up a strike anvil beside the fire transmission hole, and the soldiers shot and pulled the trigger. Under the action of the spring, the flint hit the fire door heavily, sparks emerged, and ignited gunpowder."

"At the same time, Shangshu Chen asked the workshop to make standard bullets, wrapping the projectiles with linen or deer-skin soaked in grease, and loading them into the cavity, which reduces friction, not only speeds up the loading speed of the bullets, but also plays a role in air closure. After these treatments, the fire rate and shooting accuracy of the musket are improved, which is easy to use, and has a low cost, making it easier to produce in large quantities."

"However, in some special times, such as close-range combat, the old-style muskets loaded with shotguns still have practical value. They are equipped to the army at a certain ratio and will not be eliminated for the time being."

Zhu Houzhao was very interested in this and asked, "Then... can I test the gun myself?"

"this……"

Hu Lian was in a very difficult situation. Manipulating muskets in this era is a technical job, and he dared not accept Zhu Houzhao's request casually.

Liu Jin quickly dissuaded: "Your Majesty, as far as I know, the muskets are extremely lethal, but they are very unstable in actual combat. They often explode on their own, seriously endangering the safety of soldiers... Your Majesty is best not to try it easily!"

Zhu Hou looked at Hu Lian and asked, "Is this really the case in Hu Qing's family?"

Hu Lian bowed respectfully and nodded, "Your Majesty, the musket is indeed in danger of explosion, but with the increasing improvement of manufacturing technology, there are few cases of injuring soldiers nowadays."

Hearing this, a look of fear flashed on Zhu Houzhao's face. No matter how brave he is, he is still afraid of death and dare not make fun of his life. After hesitating, he gave up the idea of ​​trying it himself.

The musket training was still going on. Zhu Hou took care of him for about half an hour, and listened to the "crackling" sound, and gradually lost interest.

Seeing that Zhu Houzhao was a little impatient, Liu Jin immediately asked, "Didn't this military school have a schoolyard? It seems to be bigger than this...what is it used for?"

Zhu Houzhao came back to her senses and asked quickly: "Yes, Hu Qing's family, take me to the next schoolyard to see. I want to inspect the entire military school and see how much changes have been."

"Please, your Majesty."

Hu Lian directly took Zhu Houzhao into the last schoolyard, which is also the largest schoolyard in the entire military school. It was dusty here and there were cavalry training.

The person who led the training was Wang Lingzhi. All the students followed him were students. These people were just as skilled at horseback. While they had to complete basic horse racing, they also had to do some relatively complex movements on the horse's back. The direction of the horse was uncertain when charging, so that the entire training ground looked messy.

Zhu Houzhao stood on a high platform with rammed earth and horse-resisting horses in front of him to prevent the horse from losing control and injuring people.

Zhu Houzhao asked, "Why don't you take me to see it up close?"

This time, Liu Jin did not rashly accuse Hu Lian or Shen Xi. He felt that the construction of the military school was very attentive and many details might be intentional. He jumped out to question it just to highlight Shen Xi's intelligence, so he simply handed over the power to ask questions to Zhu Houzhao and Hu Lian answered it.

Hu Lian said: "Your Majesty, in addition to riding training, there are also riding and shooting training in this school ground. There will inevitably be some accidents when horses are fired on muskets. The place we are now in is the viewing platform, which is a large part above the ground. In addition to preventing horses from getting close, due to the distance, it is also ensured that they are not hit by stray bullets."

Zhu Houzhao suddenly realized: "So that's it... It seems that Shen Shangshu is very attentive and has taken into account all aspects of the situation... However, judging from the situation on the field, there should be no riding and shooting training today, right? I will go down and see, it should be fine!"

Liu Jin quickly expressed his loyalty: "Your Majesty, you must be careful. If this continues... it will be too risky."

"What are you afraid of?"

Zhu Houzhao seemed very impatient, "I am very good at riding skills. What's wrong with going down to train with General Xiao Wang and others? Prepare horses for me!"

Hu Lian saluted: "Yes, Your Majesty!"
To be continued...