While Zhao Wen was thinking, the waiter brought the food.

Zhao Wen picked up the chopsticks and ate quickly.

"Everyone, hurry up and eat quickly. I have something to do in Denglai later."

Zhao Wen took the chopsticks and said to everyone.

Zhao Daniu kept stuffing food into his mouth, and said vaguely: "Sir, what can you do in Denglai?"

"Don't worry, hurry up and eat." Zhao Wen scolded in a low voice.

After a while, Zhao Wen put down his chopsticks and called the waiter over.

"How much is the total?" Zhao Wen pointed at the food on the table and asked.

The waiter looked at the food on the table, thought for a while and said, "A total of seven cents of silver."

"Here, here is one tael of silver, no need to look for it." Zhao Wen took out a broken piece of silver from his arms, slapped it on the table, and then led Zhao Daniu and others directly out of the restaurant.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, this restaurant is so expensive." Zhao Daniu smacked his lips and said with a distressed look on his face.

The waiter looked at Zhao Wen and others leaving and couldn't help but said: "These people are really rich."

Zhao Wen took the horse's reins from the boy's hands, got on his horse, asked about the governor's office, and then rode towards the governor's office.

On the way to the governor's office, Zhao Wen bought a few gifts from the shops he passed. After all, he was visiting someone, so it would be unreasonable to go empty-handed.

A quarter of an hour later, Zhao Wen led the people to stop in front of the gate of Governor Denglai.

"Hey, who are you? This is the governor's office. You can't stop here, so hurry up and leave."

As soon as Zhao Wen and others stopped in front of the Yamen, several Yamen servants standing at the door of the Yamen hurried over.

Zhao Daniu is a reckless person. Since he became the commander of Zhao Wen's personal guard camp, who else but Zhao Wen would dare to talk to him like this?

Now when I heard the officer's tone, I immediately became angry.

Zhao Daniu jumped off his horse, glared at the Yamen servant, and said angrily: "What did you say? Tell me again?"

"Da Niu, don't be rude." Zhao Wen jumped off his horse and scolded him hastily.

Zhao Daniu looked at the yamen servant, snorted coldly, turned away, and stopped talking.

Zhao Wen cupped his hands at the Yamen servant with a smile on his face and said, "Is your master here?"

"Who are you? What does it have to do with you whether my master is here or not?" The head of the government servant looked at Zhao Wen with disgust.

Zhao Wen hurriedly took out a five-tael silver ingot from his arms and stuffed it into the hands of the yamen servant.

"It's not a sign of respect." Zhao Wen said with a smile.

As the saying goes, a strong dragon cannot suppress a local snake, and people have to bow their heads under the eaves. Now Zhao Wen was in Denglai, and he still visited Sun Yuanhua, otherwise he would not have given money to a government official.

There is a saying that the power of money is infinite. The attitude of the government servant who was so fierce and evil a moment ago changed instantly after he saw the money.

The chief yamen official weighed the silver ingot and then stuffed it into his arms. With a smile on his face, he said cautiously: "Master Sun is in the yamen, who are you?"

"You don't have to worry about us, just go in and announce that it's a long-time friend who wants to see you." Zhao Wen said with a smile.

"Okay, you wait here, I'll go in and report." The yamen servant said casually, turned around and ran into the yamen.

At this time, Sun Yuanhua was wearing a scarlet robe and was sitting in the waiting room in the back hall of the Yamen, handling government affairs.

"Sir, you have a long-time friend who wants to see you."

The yamen servant knocked on the door of the squad room and said respectfully.

Sun Yuanhua put down his brush and said with a confused look on his face: "Long-time friends? What kind of friends?"

"I don't know, he was the one who asked me to report like this."

When Sun Yuanhua heard what the officer said, his brows knitted together tightly.

Sun Yuanhua rarely interacts with people on weekdays. Apart from dealing with government affairs, he basically studies firearms. He stays in the house all day and rarely goes out to make friends. In this land of Denglai, Sun Yuanhua can almost be said to have no friends.

This sudden arrival of a so-called friend whom he had known for a long time made Sun Yuanhua a little confused.

"Can you see clearly what he looks like?" Sun Yuanhua asked in a low voice.

"She is fair and clean, and looks like a scholar."

Zhao Wen's appearance was that of a standard scholar in this era.

He has red lips and white teeth, starry eyes and sharp eyebrows, and a pair of eyes full of aura. At first glance, one would think that this person is a man who has read poetry and books. Therefore, the description of the Yamen servant is not inappropriate.

"Scholar? This is really strange. Which scholar would come to visit a deviant like me?" Sun Yuanhua underestimated and stood up. He put the hat on the table on his head, opened the door and walked out.

The Ming Dynasty at this time was not like the boar-skin dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty at this time was not as resistant to Western things as the boar-skin dynasty was.

In the Ming Dynasty, many scholars had systematically studied Western science.

For example, Fang Yizhi, one of the four young masters of the Fushe Society in the late Ming Dynasty, wrote a book called "Little Knowledge of Physics" to systematically introduce Western science.

Moreover, Sun Yuanhua’s teacher Xu Guangqi was the first person in China to open his eyes to see the world.

Although there are many people who study Western science, most of them are private scholars. There are still very few scholars who study Western science in the officialdom. In the eyes of people in the officialdom, studying Western science is deviant.

Of course, they only talked about it and would not force them. But they also did not want to get close to them, so Sun Yuanhua had very few friends in the officialdom.

Although the Ming Dynasty had various shortcomings, it was very open academically and ideologically. The Ming Dynasty was not like the Boar Skin Dynasty, which established a literary prison to imprison the thoughts of scholars. In the Ming Dynasty, scholars were still very free to do whatever they wanted.

Sun Yuanhua walked to the Yamen with a puzzled look on his face. He looked at Zhao Wen and others and asked in confusion: "Which one is my long-time friend?"

Zhao Wen stood up, smiled, and cupped his hands to Sun Yuanhua, "May I ask if you are Mr. Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai?"

Sun Yuanhua stroked his beard and said, "That's me. Are you the so-called friend who has known me for a long time?"

"I'm really sorry. This is just a crooked idea that I came up with because I was afraid that you don't want to see me." Zhao Wen hurriedly confessed.

Sun Yuanhua looked at Zhao Wen and said slowly: "What do you want to do with me?"

"It's nothing, I just want to talk to the adults." Zhao Wen said with a smile.

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he immediately snorted, "Humph, my time is very important. Where can I have time to talk to you?"

Sun Yuanhua turned around directly, preparing to leave.

Seeing this, Zhao Wen hurriedly took a step forward and shouted loudly: "May I ask, sir, when you are casting a cannon, have you ever encountered a situation where the cannon bore is full of trachoma bubbles and cracks?"

Cannon casting in this era still used the clay mold casting method. As the name suggests, the clay mold cannon casting method is to make a clay mold in advance and then pour molten iron into it.

This cannon casting method seems simple and convenient, but in fact it has many disadvantages.

The soil used in the clay model cannon casting method must be very fine clay, otherwise the cast cannon will be full of trachoma and rough.

Moreover, after the clay mold is made, it must be dried in the air room without any moisture. Otherwise, the moisture inside will be evaporated by the high temperature during the casting of the cannon, causing the cannon barrel to be heated unevenly.

Once the barrel is heated unevenly, the interior of the barrel may be filled with bubbles, or may be filled with cracks.

Once the above conditions occur in the gun barrel, it means that the gun is useless.

More than half of the cannons that Sun Yuanhua cast a few months ago had these problems.

These problems seem simple, but they are extremely difficult to solve. Sun Yuanhua discovered this problem when he first came into contact with cannon casting. More than ten years have passed, but Sun Yuanhua still has not been able to think of a way to solve this difficulty.

Sun Yuanhua stopped, looked at Zhao Wen, and asked, "Do you know how to cast cannons?"

"I understand, why don't you understand? And I also know how to eliminate trachoma bubble cracks in the barrel." Zhao Wen shouted loudly.

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, his eyes lit up and he said excitedly: "Are you serious?"

"If I dare to lie to you, I won't have sex when I give birth to a son." Zhao Wen swore hastily.

When Sun Yuanhua heard Zhao Wen swear such a strong oath, he nodded and said, "Come in, today I want to see what solutions you can come up with to solve this problem."

Zhao Wen turned around and said to the people behind him: "You just stay here, don't run around, I will follow Mr. Sun in."

After Zhao Wen said that, he left Zhao Daniu and others outside, took the gifts from the horse, and followed Sun Yuanhua into the Yamen.

As soon as he sat down in the hall at the back of the Yamen, several servants brought Zhao Wen a cup of hot tea.

Zhao Wen put the gift on the table, sat on the chair, held the teacup, and sipped it.

Sun Yuanhua took the tea cup, put it directly on the table, and asked impatiently: "You said you can solve the problem of trachoma bubble cracks in the barrel, how do you solve it?"

Zhao Wen smiled slightly and said: "May I ask, Sir, do you use clay molds to make cannons?"

"Isn't this nonsense you are talking about? What else can be used without using Ni Fan?

Not only does the clay-cast cannon take a long time, but the quality is also poor. At least half of the cannons in each batch are useless."

Sun Yuanhua took a long breath and said slowly.

"May I ask, sir, have you ever thought of using an iron mold to cast a cannon?" Zhao Wen put down his tea cup and said slowly.

Sun Yuanhua was stunned and asked: "Tie Fan? Can Tie Fan cast cannons?"

Zhao Wen laughed and said: "Why can't Tie Fan cast cannons? Tie Fan can not only solve the above problems, but also improve the speed of cannon casting and the yield rate of cannons."

"How do you say that?" Sun Yuanhua had never heard of using iron molds to cast cannons, and he was a little confused for a while.

Zhao Wendao: "In the iron cannon casting method, the clay cannon is first divided into four to seven sections according to the size of the iron cannon.

The iron mold clay mold is made according to the number of clay cannon sections. Each clay mold is divided into two parts. The inner surface is rotated with a lathe to make the surface smooth and regular in shape. It is then dried and ready for use. A prefabricated handle is placed in the clay mold during pouring.
To be continued...