On this issue, due to Tang Ruowang's status, he has a good understanding of the firearms situation of the Ming army. He can even be called the leading firearms expert in the Ming Dynasty. He naturally has enough say.
"Your Highness, there are many types of firearms in the Ming army at present, including cannons, vehicle cannons, muskets, arrows, instruments, spray cans, cards, ball rollers, miscellaneous weapons, etc. There are dozens of types of firearms, but most of them are useless.
, has no actual combat value, and the quality of the firearms is very low, so the military firearms are not good at the moment."
Although Tang Ruowang was a missionary who had been immersed in Eastern culture for many years and was very familiar with Eastern practices, he did not hide his thoughts in front of Lin Jing and told Lin Jing very sincerely the reality that the Ming army
Firearms nowadays are basically garbage.
Lin Jing had already seen the Shenji Camp of this era when he visited the Beijing camp before. It can be said that the real situation is even worse. The firearms currently used by the Beijing camp are too complicated. The firecrackers alone are divided into
There are several types, including bird guns, turtle dove guns, three-eyed guns, magic guns, etc. It doesn’t matter if the models are different. Even these fire guns of the same model have advantages and disadvantages. Most of them come from sources.
Extremely complex.
In the early Ming Dynasty, firearms production was always the responsibility of the Firearms Bureau, which strictly prohibited local production of firearms. However, as the scope of firearms gradually expanded and their deployment rate in the army gradually increased, the court began to relax some of the bans on firearms production.
, especially during the Chongzhen period, when internal and external troubles approached, local production of firearms was no longer a rare occurrence, but became a common phenomenon.
It is precisely because there are so many different sources and there are no restrictions on standardized technology that the firearms produced in the Ming Dynasty are all different. Even if the models are the same, they are actually very different in use. Some can
During normal use, some guns will blow up after just a few shots. For a long time, soldiers often have a fearful mentality when using firearms, because no one can guarantee whether the gun they get will blow up.
In this extremely harsh environment, the Shenji Battalion naturally has no so-called combat effectiveness. Everyone is afraid of firearms. When loading gunpowder, they will deliberately reduce the amount of gunpowder by half, so that
Although there will be no explosion in the barrel, the power of the projectiles fired is extremely small, and they become soft almost as soon as they fly out.
Lin Jing frowned slightly. He knew the way to solve this problem, which was to implement production lines and standardized operations. Each part was handled by a dedicated person, and a quality control link was introduced. Basically, a rough pass rate could be maintained -
—But the problem is, it’s easy to know, but very difficult to implement this production line.
However, Lin Jing was very confident in the people present, and immediately explained the method to everyone in detail, and then sighed: "The reason why there were different specifications before was because everyone was responsible individually.
I don’t have any idea of collaboration on my own firearms, so if everyone makes a gun, the standards will naturally be different, and the production volume will be very low.”
The three people's eyes suddenly lit up when they heard this, especially Tang Ruowang and Song Yingxing. They were all sensitive to the huge potential contained in this product. At that moment, Tang Ruowang asked: "Your Highness, you are really a genius, but I am very curious.
, how can we ensure that their assembly line can continue to operate smoothly? Especially when some links are very difficult!"
Lin Jing smiled slightly. It was obvious that Tang Ruowang's meaning was very clear, that is, the advantages and disadvantages of the assembly line are very extreme. The advantage is that it can continue to flow and speed up production efficiency, but the disadvantage is that once a link is broken in the middle, then
It affects not just him, but everyone.
"You mean the barrel, right?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
Tang Ruowang said without hesitation, "There are currently thirty-four steps in making a musket, and the barrel alone has twenty-three. It can be said that the barrel is the real reason that restricts the speed of our production of muskets."
Indeed, in this era, it is very difficult to produce a musket. The entire process consumes a lot of labor and cost, and the process is also quite cumbersome.
"A blunderbuss rod costs twenty kilograms of iron and two cents of silver; one hundred and seventy kilograms of charcoal costs five cents and one cent of silver; six steps of refining the embryo and making the plate cost one cent and eight cents of silver; six steps of rolling the drum cost one cent of silver.
One penny is nine cents, and one penny of silver is added for the pincers; seven pieces of silver are used to drill the blunderbuss core for each rod, and two cents of silver are used; when it comes to grinding four pieces, one cent of silver is used.
After completing two tasks, six points of silver were used; eight points of silver were used for inlaying the star, and three points of silver were used for inlaying the gun and moao gang; and three points of silver were used for drilling the fire gate incident.
points; one work of making glutinous rice cakes costs three cents of silver; two work of drilling and repairing connecting rods costs six cents of silver; one work of making wooden pallets costs nine cents of silver; one work of making copper dumpling chains costs one cent of silver and two cents of silver; and the promotion staff
Bamboo poles are used for working materials, one point of silver is used; bamboo armor and iron wires with oil, salt, salt and soybean are used for two points of silver; one pound of steel is used for four points of silver; two pounds of iron for drilling through furnace flutes are used for two points of silver; external lighting is based on the fan-type live bottom
The materials for screws and seals cost three cents of silver; a total of thirty-four pieces were used, and the materials cost two taels and three cents of silver."
According to Tang Ruowang's introduction, following this process, if you want to hand-build a musket, the entire process requires thirty-four steps, including the barrel, including the blanking and plate making, the reel, the drill core, and the grinding, a total of twenty-three steps.
The work occupies a full two-thirds. It can be said that even a mature craftsman would find it difficult to complete it in one month.
Lin Jing pondered: "That's because the way we are producing gun barrels is wrong. If the rolling method is legal, the barrel production can reduce at least two-thirds of the working hours..."
"How to roll it? No, the quality of the barrel produced by this method is very poor, and it is very easy to explode."
It was not Tang Ruowang who objected, but Bo Jue, who had been silent before. He said very seriously: "Actually, many muskets in the capital camp are made of legal-rolled guns. Their quality is so poor that they can't even hold 70% of the medicine."
, use it seven times and it will explode."
Of course Lin Jing understood this truth, but he knew the root cause, and immediately said: "The reason why the rolling method explodes the barrel is not because this method is not possible, but because you want to use this method to deal with the gun.
The material requirements for the pipe will be very high, so what we have to do is not to abandon the rolling method, but to improve the ironmaking process."
"Improve the iron-making process?"
A hint of surprise suddenly appeared on Song Yingxing's face. He was quite accomplished in this area, so he was quite curious about it. If the iron-making process can be further improved, then it seems that he can add some more to his "Tiangong Kaiwu"
content.
Lin Jing nodded slightly and said: "Chang Geng, I have to rely on you this time!" This chapter has been completed!