Wang Zunde
Wang Zunde is Wang Zunde, a central figure in this narrative, emerges as a military strategist and industrial entrepreneur deeply invested in modernizing Ming Dynasty defense capabilities. Serving as a former European soldier with hands-on experience in artillery—particularly smoothbores and Armstrong guns—he leverages his expertise to transform the Society’s efforts into large-scale military production. His role spans from leading the casting of cannons at foundries like those in Foshan, where he oversees the establishment of industrial facilities to produce Western-style firearms, to overseeing the construction of distilleries and steelworks for broader technological advancement. As a pragmatic leader, Wang Zunde bridges military innovation with bureaucratic efficiency, navigating political maneuvering—such as proc
Context from Novel
"Chapter 145: Casting Cannons (Part 2) "There's no rush to become arms merchants," Zhang Bailin said. "We can equip the smoothbores ourselves—we have far too many firepower gaps at the moment. The three blockhouses along the Bopu road don't have a single cannon between them. Bairren Fortress has none either. And eventually, we'll need to build native armies. Those forces can use smoothbores for their artillery units, and when the time comes to convert to Armstrong guns, we'll already have trained"
"Chapter 195: Business (Part 2) Over the next few days, under Shen Fan's bustling management, several identical courtyard buildings rose on the wasteland beside Purple Treasure Studio along Huifu Street. High walls, tightly closed gates. Inside stood rows of standardized brick-and-timber factory buildings. The distillery was first to start production. Ming Dynasty distillation technology was mature, with numerous urban and rural distilleries producing all kinds of famous wines and inexpensive cru"
"Chapter 361 - The Foshan Journey (Part 14) "Yes, I believe this presents a good opportunity for the Society to serve the court. I'm an old soldier myself—I fought for over ten years in Europe. I haven't cast cannons, but I've certainly fired them. I know the basic principles of artillery and can offer assistance." "Excellent! And what of the cannon founders? There's no one here who knows how to cast Western cannons." "The Portuguese won't part with their founders—requesting the Superior's interv"
"Chapter 509 - The Yulin Harbor Development Plan "An expansion of this scale for the steel industry—do we have adequate stockpiles?" Wen Desi asked. These were not Great Leap Forward–style backyard furnaces but genuine industrial blast furnaces. By the standards of another timeline, they qualified as outdated, small-capacity facilities slated for restriction or demolition. In the seventeenth century, however, they represented the height of technology. Setting aside refractory materials—that probl"
"Chapter 585 - Cannon Foundry But to let people know the benefits of machinery, they must see it to believe it. The transmigrators couldn't drag everyone to Lingao to witness their industrial capability; the only way was to set up a model on the mainland. Since Li Luoyou wanted to build a gun factory, this was the best prototype. Wu De believed the efficiency demonstrated by these machines in production would have a huge impact on the natives, enough to spark their interest in new technology and"
Appearances
Appears in chapters: 145, 195, 361, 509, 586, 587, 607, 608, 610, 612, 613, 614, 615, 618, 620, 621, 626, 628, 629, 630, 645, 651, 653, 655, 656, 690, 691, 704, 707, 708, 709, 713, 714, 727, 734, 736, 737, 770, 785, 786, 788, 793, 1100, 1727, 1872, 2085, 2086, 2087, 2100, 2102, 2192, 2391, 2523, 2533, 2563, 2653, 2654, 2684, 2687, 2688, 2753, 2755, 2756.