Wei Zheng waved his hand, in order to increase his sense of mystery and further improve his prestige in the Tiger and Leopard Army. He answered as calmly as possible under the eyes of admiration.

"There is nothing. Next, I have something that surprises everyone even more... that is to build a musket barrel..."

Looking at the hot eyes full of expectations, Wei Zheng said, "As far as I know, when everyone is building musket barrels, they first turn hard steel into iron sheets, and then roll the iron sheets into barrels through a hard iron rod. After repeating the above movements layer by layer, without making any mistakes, they can create a qualified barrel."

Wang Tiezhong nodded and replied: "General, this method is passed down from generation to generation before our ancestors. We have always used this method to build gun barrels... Could it be that General, you have a better method to build gun barrels..."

Wei Zheng nodded without hesitation and affirmed: "If there is no good method, I dare not boast about yourself in front of you. However, whether this method is useful or not needs your help..."

It takes one or two days to make a piece of pig iron into fine steel.

However, the general standing in front of him can directly convert hundreds of kilograms of pig iron into fine steel in just a few words or a cup of tea.

Wang Tiezhong couldn't imagine whether the method the general mentioned next would surprise him again like "copying steel", and completely change the inherent process of building muskets in his heart.

Therefore, as soon as Wei Zheng finished speaking, Wang Tiezhong asked with anticipation.

"General, what's the solution..."

Wei Zheng shook his head and said with a mysterious look on his face: "I keep the specific method confidential for the time being... You should first use the freshly released steel to make a few things, and you will naturally know it..."

"In addition, I will leave me two blacksmiths, two stonemasons, and ten apprentices to be dispatched by me. I will build a livestock turntable here that is pulled by a slow horse... Can the musket be truly built? The main factor is whether this livestock turntable can be successful."

The so-called animal power turntable means that when two horses pull the stone mill poles to rotate, the rotation speed of the mold located in the center of the stone mill suddenly increases by dozens or even hundreds of times through the connection and transmission of the gears and belts.

In order to ensure that the turntable is rotated at high speed, the entire turntable does not bump and is always in a parallel state.

It took two days to polish and fix it. A huge turntable driven by animal power was completed under the leadership of Wei Zheng and more than a dozen craftsmen behind him.

The iron mold of the musket barrel made by Wang Tiezhong was installed on the turntable, and after a few rounds of trial rotation under the pull of two slow horses, the iron mold that rotated at high speed did not deflect at all under the guidance of the gears and transmission belts.

Now, the only thing to verify is whether the rotation speed of the iron mold is sufficient.

Can we use centrifugal force to throw the iron poured into the iron mold to the peripheral wall of the iron mold?

Is it OK? I'll find out after trying...

After confirming that the stone turntable in front of him would not fail, Wei Zheng decisively ordered: "Master Wang, immediately take the paint I made of clay and brush the entire inner wall of the iron mold, so that it cannot leak at all, and it must be even.

After an hour, after all the paint brushed on the inner wall of the iron mold was dried, a pot of molten steel that had been in preparation was also burned red.

Under Wei Zheng's order, the steel weighing ten kilograms was slowly poured into the iron mold.

"Okay, we don't need to use a slow horse for the first time, we use people... You ten of you work hard together, the speed was slower at the beginning. When I ask you to accelerate, you must ensure the smoothness of the entire rotation process, and you cannot suddenly accelerate or decelerate..."

"Yes, general..." the ten apprentices replied with excitement.

Under the command of a blacksmith, the grinder weighing 200 kilograms began to rotate slowly.

Although the rotation speed of the circular mill disc is very slow, the circular iron mold standing in the center of the stone mill rotates at a high speed of dozens of times the speed driven by gears.

Wei Zheng, who was standing next to the millstone, clearly saw that as the millstone rotated faster and faster, the molten iron in the iron mold began to rotate.

Not only that, a small pit began to slowly appear in the center of the iron mold...

"A few more people will start to speed up the rotation speed of the stone mill..." Wei Zheng, who had a lit eyes, ordered decisively.

As the millstone rotates faster and faster, the small pit located in the red steel begins to become deeper and deeper.

Of course, more and more red molten steel began to be thrown out due to centrifugal force and attached to the inner wall of the iron mold with a layer of paint.

The faster the rotation speed of the iron mold, the more the molten steel thrown out due to centrifugal force, becomes...

Soon, the entire inner wall of the iron mold was covered with a thick layer of steel. A small hole located in the middle of the steel mold also turned into a deep hole until the stone slab at the bottom of the iron mold.

"It's connected... the barrel is finally connected..." Wei Zheng subconsciously exclaimed.

Then, he shouted loudly at the more than a dozen apprentices who were still accelerating in front of him.

"Just continue to push the millstone at this speed, don't stop..."

Under the action of strong centrifugal force, the molten steel attached to the inner wall of the iron mold becomes more and more uniform, and even the limited bubbles interspersed in the middle of the molten steel are thrown out.

When the color of the steel in the iron mold turns from red to darken and begins to slowly solidify, at least it will not fall off on the inner wall of the iron mold, or even deform after it is deformed, Wei Zheng's serious order sounds again.

"Stop...stop pushing the millstone..."

"You guys, take off the iron mold with tools immediately and install the iron mold on the fixed position of the stamping machine. Relying on manpower, while the steel has not completely hardened, press the built steel bar into the iron mold barrel, and use the steel bar to squeeze the inside of the barrel evenly..."

The simple stamping machine located next to the turntable was also made by Wei Zheng with the assistance of more than a dozen craftsmen in the past two days with the help of him.

Two straight smooth iron rods are twenty centimeters apart and are fixed side by side on a simple wooden machine tool to act as horizontal tracks.

A slider made of hardwood is inserted on two steel rods. A solid cowhide rope is fixed at both ends of the slider, and the slider is pulled by pulling the two cowhide ropes.

The halo steel rod made of barrel caliber is fixed on this slider made of hardwood.

The wooden machine tool directly opposite the smooth steel rod is used to fix the iron mold that still has not yet been hardened.

After the iron mold still emitted bursts of heat was fixed to the simple stamping machine, the two turntables tied with cowhide ropes quickly turned under the action of several apprentices.

As the cowhide pull rope became tighter and tighter, the smooth steel rod fixed on the hardwood slider began to slowly press into the barrel hole in the iron mold.

Because the barrel was still in a semi-softened state at this moment, just four apprentices used force at the same time, and all the smooth steel rods as long as two feet were pressed into the iron mold.

After all the important processes were completed, Wei Zheng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and shouted at the people in front of him with their eyes shining.

"Pull out the steel rod immediately... After the barrel in the iron mold is completely hardened, remove it immediately. Because there is a layer of paint between the iron mold and the barrel, as long as you tap it with an iron hammer, you can easily remove it, and then polish the surface of the barrel to remove the coating stuck to the surface of the barrel, and remove the excess material at both ends of the barrel..."

In just one hour, under the continuous polishing of two blacksmiths, the barrel of the gun emitted a cold light on the surface was sent to Wei Zheng.

Looking at the barrel of the gun in his hand, Wang Tiezhong seemed to see his own child, his eyes shining.

He reported excitedly to Wei Zheng: "General, the quality of this and the barrel is definitely something I have never seen before. If you use this and barrel to make a mesh rope gun, while ensuring that the barrel is not damaged, the loading volume of the musket can be increased by at least 30%. If the loading volume of the musket increases, the range will also increase by more than 30%, and there is no need to worry about the blow-off..."

Wei Zheng's eyes lit up and he said to himself: "The range increases by 30%, which means that this lead bullet shot from the barrel can shoot the Tartar cavalry in iron armor from two hundred meters away..."

"Yes, General..." Wang Tiezhong affirmed loudly.
Chapter completed!