The firearms range outside Guilin is filled with smoke, and a group of soldiers are shooting targets.
On a high platform dozens of meters away from the soldiers, under a yellow umbrella, Zhu Hengjia held up a telescope to admire. Yu Chaoxiang, the left minister of the Ministry of War, and Chen Xin, the doctor of the Arms and Preparation Department of the Ministry of War, served on the left and right.
The team was waving the command flag and issuing military orders.
"Let's shoot!"
With a "pop" sound, the soldiers raised their firecrackers.
"Load!"
The soldiers took out paper fixed cartridge cases one by one, bit open the tail of the cartridge case with their teeth, opened the fire door, poured the gunpowder in the cartridge case into the gunpowder pool, reset the fire door, and used a purge bar to remove the remaining gunpowder and projectiles. Stuff it into the barrel.
"Shoot!"
The soldiers pulled the trigger, the faucet pressed down to release the spring, and the flint rubbed against the fire door to start a fire.
"Bang! Bah! Bah!"
Ninety steps ahead, sawdust flew across a row of targets.
"Jian Guo, this self-made firecracker has succeeded." Yu Chao said to Zhu Hengjia like a treasure.
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Self-generated fire guns, also called flintlock guns, are not a new thing. As early as the eighth year of Chongzhen, Bi Maokang, a weapons expert of the Ming Dynasty, successfully developed a flintlock gun and recorded it in "Illustrated Description of Weapons", called " "Self-made firecracker".
The self-generating fire gun is actually an improved version of the bird mill. The difference is that the ignition device is changed from a faucet that used a match rope to a flint installed. When the trigger is pulled, the faucet falls and rubs against the installed flint to ignite.
Compared with ordinary bird guns, autonomous fire guns have two advantages: first, they do not require a ignition rope and are not easily affected by wind and rain; second, shooting is more convenient and saves firing time.
Zhu Hengjia was a little confused. Since self-made fire guns were so good, why didn't Emperor Chongzhen promote them?
After some research, I figured it out. It turns out there are three reasons.
The first reason: The Ming Dynasty at that time did not have the ability to produce better quality black powder, which resulted in a low fire rate of self-generated fire guns.
As early as Qi Jiguang's anti-Japanese war, the gunpowder granulation process had already appeared in the Ming Dynasty, which basically eliminated the need for black gunpowder to solidify due to moisture. However, the quality of the gunpowder at that time was indeed not very good, mainly due to problems with the formula. And the self-generated gunpowder had a problem with gunpowder. Particularly picky, unqualified black powder causes the low firing rate of self-generated fire guns.
At the beginning, Zhu Hengjia thought that the gunpowder formula was easy to solve: "monititrate, disulfide, and charcoal." Isn't that what the time-travelers say?
As a result, this was not the case in the test. The main reason was that the purification process was different. The nitrate, sulfur and charcoal in the Ming Dynasty had more impurities. However, this formula was not far different. After repeated experiments, the craftsmen finally figured out the best formula.
The new black powder formula is more powerful. It not only solves the problem of low fire rate of self-generated firecrackers, but also provides more kinetic energy for the same charge, so that the bullet can shoot farther.
By fixing the ammunition, improving the gunpowder formula and the gun tube, the fire rate of the new gun was increased to 80%; the rate of fire was increased to two rounds per minute; the range was increased from 80 steps to 90 steps (Ming Dynasty took one step) As a step, take two feet as a step (one step is about 1.3 meters). These are of great military significance, and it has become possible for firecrackers to replace bows and arrows.
The second reason: lack of high-quality flint.
This is really nothing to worry about. With the spread of mining in Guangdong and Guangxi, the Nandan flint mine in Qingyuan Prefecture, Guangxi has begun mass production, and there is as much flint as you want. What's more, customs has cleared it, and you can buy it from abroad.
The third reason: Emperor Chongzhen was short of silver. The cost of making self-made fire blunderbuss was higher than that of ordinary fire blunderbuss. Large-scale replacement required silver. Emperor Chongzhen was poor and could not afford to replace it.
This is even less of a problem. Who doesn’t know that Prince Jingjiang has a good way of making money? He plunders chieftains, collects grain from both officials and gentry, opens customs, and levies salt tax??
The national treasury is already filled to the brim with money, and it’s really not a big deal to spend a small amount of money to replace it.
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In fighting a war, quality alone is not enough; quantity must also be present. Zhu Hengjia decided to check military production.
"Jianguo, this is the Gunpowder Bureau. It has three warehouses for nitrate, sulfur and charcoal and a drying ground."
"Yeah! Very good!"
"This is the assembly yard of the Ammunition Bureau, where craftsmen prepare medicines." Peng Yao, head of the Firearms Section of the Armament Department, introduced them one by one to Zhu Hengjia.
"Mr. Peng, how many craftsmen are there in the Ammunition Bureau? How much is the monthly output of various types of bullets?"
"Reporting to the Supervisor, the Ammunition Bureau has 300 craftsmen, with a monthly output of 100,000 paper custom-made bullet casings of various types."
Zhu Hengjia was very satisfied when he saw that the ammunition bureau's assembly yard was in good order. However, the monthly output of 100,000 pieces was barely enough now, and it would not be enough after a large-scale replacement.
"You will recruit another 300 people, and the monthly output will be more than 200,000 coins."
"I will obey the Holy Order."
"Jianguo, this is the fire gun bureau. It has a self-generated fire gun field, a three-eyed fire gun field, a turtle-dove foot gun field, and a bird gun field." Peng Yao continued to present treasures.
Zhu Hengjia walked into the self-made fire gun field and saw rows of craftsmen working in line. Some were specialized in drilling gun tubes, some were specialized in door sights, and some were specialized in bolts??
"Peng Qing, can the sizes be unified in this kind of streamlined production?"
"In the supervision of the country, every small piece is marked with a fixed size. There is a quality inspector in each factory. If the size of the craftsman's work is not up to standard, his salary will be deducted."
"That's good. How much is the monthly production of the self-generated fire gun and the three-eyed gun?" The self-generated fire gun and the three-eyed gun are Zhu Hengjia's main weapons. One is equipped with infantry and the other is equipped with cavalry.
"The Self-made Fire Gun Factory has eight hundred craftsmen, with a monthly output of 1,000 guns; the Three-Eyed Gun Factory has 300 craftsmen, with a monthly output of 300 guns."
"The production of self-generated fire muskets is not enough. Please suspend the production of bird muskets and turtle-dove foot muskets first, and concentrate the two craftsmen in the self-generated fire muskets field. In addition, we will recruit more people. I request you to produce two thousand self-generated fire muskets per month. Above."
"Here!"
"Supervisor, this is the rocket bureau. This is the single-soldier rocket 'Swarm of Bees', with an effective range of two hundred steps; this is the multi-soldier rocket 'Hundred Tigers Running Thunder', with an effective range of three hundred steps; this is the 'Fire Dragon Out of Water' used for Water battle."
"Good! Good! Good!" Zhu Hengjia was overjoyed. With these rockets, the Ming army's problem of insufficient mid-range firepower was solved.
He has decided to use firecrackers instead of bows and arrows. However, the range of the new firecrackers is only ninety steps, while the bow and arrow can reach 250 steps. Without bows and arrows, there will be a shooting vacuum between the firecrackers and the artillery. These rockets can To solve this problem well, Zhu Hengjia decided to set up a special rocket battalion among the guards.
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"Jianguo, this is the artillery bureau, which produces Hongyi cannons for sieges, defenses, and naval battles; Fran cannons for field battles and naval battles; and lightweight squatting tiger cannons."
Regarding cannon casting, Zhu Hengjia wanted to give some advice to the craftsmen at first, such as the iron mold casting method. However, in his previous life, he was just a history enthusiast, not a great craftsman, and he really didn’t understand this. He could only reward the craftsmen and let them do it themselves. Developed!
"Peng Qing, how many Hongyi cannons are produced now? How many Franconian cannons are produced per month? How many Huquan cannons are produced?"
"In the supervision of the country, eight Hongyi cannons have been produced so far. The monthly production of Fran cannons is twenty, and the monthly production of Tiger squat cannons is eighty."
Zhu Hengjia nodded. There are 1,500 artillery workers, and the monthly output is only this amount. Cannons are difficult to make!
The Hongyi Cannon is a front-loaded heavy cannon, weighing three thousand kilograms, with a long range (about 1,200 steps) and accurate accuracy. It is mainly used to attack and defend cities and battleships. This kind of cannon is inconvenient to move and is not suitable for field battles. However, It's great for sieges, defenses, and naval battles.
The Fran cannon is a breech-loaded smoothbore cannon, a large one weighing about one thousand kilograms. Compared with the Hongyi cannon, it has a shorter range (about eight hundred steps) and poor accuracy (due to the lack of rifling in the barrel), but it weighs more It is light, can be carried on a gun cart, and has high maneuverability. The most important thing is that it is a breech-loaded cannon with a fast rate of fire. It can fire three rounds after one round of the Hongyi cannon.
The Tiger Crouching Cannon is an ancient mortar. It has a short range (about 400 steps) and is very light. It does not require a gun carriage during war and can be carried by soldiers on its back.
"Peng Qing, you must try every means to build more Franco machine guns and Tiger squat guns." The Franco machine guns and Tiger squat guns are highly maneuverable and are the main battle artillery of the Ming army.
Peng Yao responded quickly.
“Supervising the country, this is the Tank Bureau. It mainly produces three types of tanks: one is a large sidecar equipped with a Franco machine gun, which is one foot three feet long, nine feet wide and seven feet five inches high; There is a Victory vehicle loaded with rockets; there is also a two-wheeled car that can be loaded with artillery shells or sundries."
After inspecting the firearms department, Zhu Hengjia was full of praise for Peng Yao, and he was very happy.
??
Hearing that Zhu Hengjia was coming, Chen Jiamo, the head of the Bingjia Division, got up early and directed his subordinates to clean each bureau spotlessly.
Let’s look at the archery game first.
In terms of materials, bows and arrows can be divided into single bows and compound bows; according to the principle of archery, they can be divided into straight-draw bows and recurve bows.
Although Zhu Hengjia is already using fire blunderbuss to eliminate bows and arrows, this requires a process and is still in production.
Let’s look at the weapons bureau.
"Jianguo, the craftsmen are casting knives. The key to the skill of casting knives is quenching," Chen Jiamo said.
Zhu Hengjia became interested, picked up a made knife, asked his subordinates to take a bamboo tube, took a few copper coins and put them in the bamboo tube. With one stroke of the knife, the copper coins and bamboo tube were cut off with one swing.
"What a knife! What a knife! Are every knife so sharp?"
"Undergraduate craftsmen have exquisite skills, and every knife is a good knife," Chen Jiamo boasted. The real situation is that he knew that Zhu Hengjia came to inspect and put the best knives outside.
"Okay! Thank you for your hard work!" Zhu Hengjia praised.
"Jianguo, this is making guns, mainly divided into cavalry and rifles."
"Hmm!"
"This is making a shield. It is mainly made of wood, rattan, and bamboo, and is covered with rawhide."
"This is the armor-making field"
"A? This is an important weapon in the army. I should take a good look at it." Zhu Hengjia thought.
When we walked to the armor-making field, two thousand craftsmen were sweating profusely.
There were many types of armor in the Ming Dynasty. For helmets, there were chain mail helmets, gold-painted phoenix-wing helmets, eight-petal brass Ming iron helmets, six-petal helmets, red-topped iron helmets, green ramie-lined helmets, etc. Armor included willow leaf armor, waist-length armor Armor, fish scale armor, dragging armor, round collar armor, mandarin duck war coat (cotton armor), etc.
Taking various factors into account, Zhu Hengjia decided: the helmet should be made of eight-petal brass Ming iron helmet, which is effective in resisting bows and arrows; the armor should be made of cotton armor, which is an improved version of the Yuanyang war coat, with a thick outer layer. Cotton cloth, lined with iron mesh wood chips, and an officer's cotton armor also has a layer of silk. The advantage of using cotton armor is that it can be mass-produced quickly and has higher protection against birdshot than iron armor.
"Chen Qing, how much cotton armor does Bingjia Division produce per month?"
"The monthly production is more than 3,000 sets."
"Well, you only need to produce the cotton armor for the soldiers, and the mandarin ducks and war armors for the guards can be handed over to private production." Using military industry to stimulate the economy is a new idea for time travellers.
"I have contacted three workshops to produce the mandarin duck war tassels worn by the guards."
"Well, okay!"
??
After inspecting the firearms department and armor department, we came to the war horse department.
Although war horses are not produced in the south, there are still Yunnan horses, various kinds of horses, donkeys, and mules used for transportation. War horses do not necessarily need to be raised in the war horse department.
Of course, there are also war horses, all of which are bought from other places or even foreign countries. A horse farm is set up in Guilin to raise them.
Zhu Hengjia asked Zhou Zhongxiao, the head of the war horse department: "Qing Zhou, how many war horses are there at Guilin Racecourse?"
Seeing Zhu Hengjia asking himself, Zhou Zhongxiao perked up: "Reporting to the Supervisor, there are currently 8,000 war horses in Guilin Racecourse, including 7,000 Mongolian horses, 800 Hequ horses, and the ones you bought at a high price from the food merchant. Two hundred Arabian horses".
Mentioning this, Zhu Hengjia blushed. When he saw that these Arabian horses were larger than Mongolian horses (Mongolian horses weighed 260 to 370 kilograms, and Arabian horses weighed more than 500 kilograms), he felt hot and bought them for himself at three times the price. War horse breeding.
Who knows that these Arabian horses look big, but they can't run fast and their endurance is not as good as that of Mongolian horses. The only advantage is that they can carry heavy loads and are suitable for plowing land and serving as transportation tools.
The problem is that there is no shortage of war horses, but there is no shortage of draft horses. There are cattle for farming and mules for transportation, which can endure hardship and are easy to raise!
When he thought that he had paid three times the high price, Zhu Hengjia felt itchy with hatred, "These profiteers!"
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After encouraging Zhou Zhongxiao, Zhu Hengjia came to the Ship Department.
He didn't take a break and directly asked Li Wenhan, the head of the Ship Department: "Li Qing, how is the construction of the military port now? In addition, how many warships have been built by the Ship Department?"
Li Wenhan did not dare to neglect: "The construction of the four seaports of Zhenjianguo, Hepu, Danzhou, Dianbai and Xing'an has been completed. In terms of warships, our company has purchased a hundred net shuttle ships and one eagle ship from major shipyards. One hundred ships, one hundred sand ships, fifty mother and daughter ships, fifty fire dragon ships, fifty red dragon ships, thirty Cangshan ships, thirty wheel boats, thirty Haicang ships, and thirty centipede ships , twenty No. 2 Fu Ships, and ten No. 1 Fu Ships. In addition, in accordance with the edict of the Supervisor, eight imitated Western three-masted sailing ships and two four-masted large ships were imitated."
After hearing this, Zhu Hengjia chuckled to himself. These data sounded scary. There were hundreds of ships, but in fact, most of them were mosquito ships. There were only thirty or forty large and medium-sized ships.
The Ming Dynasty was a bit good at building warships. It liked to use private power and purchase from private shipyards. It was a good job at first, but later it turned into a bad government. In order to save money, the court set the price at a low price, and the shipyard owners wanted to avoid building warships. Not yet. I often built ships for the imperial court, forcing the shipyard owner to go bankrupt.
Zhu Hengjia is a good supervisor. In order to share the interests of the sea with the shipyard owners, hello, me, everyone, he changed the pricing system to a bargaining system. How much a ship costs is discussed by everyone. If you have money to earn, ship The shipyard owners are naturally happy, and the quality of the warships has also improved a lot. Knowing that the Supervisory State is eager to build a navy, some shipyard owners even directly renovate old ships used in maritime trade at home, renovate them and sell them to the Supervisory State as warships. They are really a family. Yeah!
"Well, you not only want to imitate the Western Yi warships, but also use the advantages of the Yi ships in the construction of our Ming warships." Zhu Hengjia encouraged Li Wenhan.
"Here!"
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The last stop of the inspection was the Munitions Section. When we arrived at the Yamen Gate, Zhao Yonghe, the head of the Munitions Section, had been waiting for a long time.
"Qing Zhao, how much military rations are there in Guilin Warehouse?"
"Reporting to the Supervisory State, there are currently ten guard warehouses in Guilin, storing one million dan of military grain."
Zhu Hengjia occupied the three Annan prefectures and actively purchased grain from the Mo family in Gaoping, the Ruan family in Annan, the Zheng family in Annan, Champa, Siam and other countries, so the military rations were sufficient.
"Hmm. How are you preparing your unlined clothes, military quilts, military boots, water bottles, felt blankets, etc.?"
"According to the decree of the Supervisor, all these things are handed over to private production. I have placed orders for dozens of workshops. At present, we have purchased single clothes, 100,000 sets of military quilts, 80,000 pairs of military boots, 100,000 kettles, and felts.
Sixty thousand blankets; and various types of military supplies."
"Very good! You will send someone to check the quality carefully, and Gu will also send the Qing army censor to check. Leave it to private production, and the quality cannot be reduced. Whoever dares to disgrace Gu's soldiers will be killed by Gu." Zhu Hengjia said fiercely
Say.
This chapter has been completed!