The production of firearms is much safer than the gunpowder production in the Gunpowder Department just now. Therefore, Zhong Jinwei, accompanied by Fan Jun, visited the entire firearms manufacturing process on the spot.
Let's start with the raw materials. This time, Fan Jun introduced them himself. He pointed to the different piles of iron materials on the ground and introduced them to Zhong Jinwei: "Master Hou, this is the top-grade wrought iron, and this is the second-grade wrought iron."
Zhong Jinwei said "oh" when he heard it, and then asked Fan Jundao: "How to tell the difference?"
"High-grade wrought iron is obtained by smelting ten kilograms of crude iron into one kilogram of wrought iron; second-grade wrought iron is obtained by smelting ten kilograms of crude iron into five kilograms of wrought iron." Fan Jun introduced.
The difference between the two is still obvious. If you are a skilled blacksmith, you can see it at a glance. Zhong Jinwei is a layman, so he doesn't know.
When Fan Jun saw that Zhong Jinwei didn't ask any more related questions, he pointed to another pile of iron materials and introduced: "Generally, blunderbuss tubes, whether bird blunderbuss or large blunderbuss, are made of this kind of iron material. Ten kilograms of crude iron is smelted into it.
Earned from two or three pounds of wrought iron."
Zhong Jinwei frowned when he heard this. He didn't use the best iron materials to make it. He will talk about this later.
What he didn't know was that Fan Jun only said this in front of the Marquis of Zhongxing. The firearms actually made by the Bingzhan Bureau would be made of these good materials, which are the lowest quality iron materials. Otherwise, there would be so many explosion accidents.
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However, this cannot be entirely blamed on the War and War Bureau, because the raw materials were provided by the Ministry of Industry, and the two departments led to the release of those inferior firearms due to various reasons.
Next they walked to the blacksmith shop, where gun tubes were being made. Fan Jun introduced to Zhong Jinwei: "There are two ways to make gun tubes, one is the casting method, but more often it is another forging method."
Fan Jun pointed to a pile of iron pieces placed next to the blacksmith standing with his hands hanging, and said: "The folang machine and the bird gun are divided into four or eight tile-shaped iron pieces, and they are forged into iron pipes, and then like this
Several sections of iron pipes were then spliced together to form a blunderbuss. This kind of blunderbuss was the most popular blunderbuss in the Ming Dynasty army. It was of good quality and not easy to explode."
Then Fan Jun introduced other processes, such as how thick the gun tube is made according to the size of the caliber, single-layer or double-layer composite making, water inspection of the gun tube, drilling and trimming, etc. Hearing this, Zhong Jinwei became dizzy.
I didn't expect the manufacturing process of this firearm to be so complicated.
During the introduction, Fan Jun seemed to notice some of Zhong Jinwei's ignorance, and felt a little proud of himself. He was even more frothy when he spoke, showing off his superiority without any trace.
Finally, he summarized to Zhong Jinwei: "The manufacturing process of the Folang machine can be divided into ten steps, which are iron-making, plate making, rolling, making the barrel and sub-gun in proportion, joining, thickening the barrel, and assembling.
Charge, fire place, drill bore, trim barrel, install fire door on sub-gun, install rear sight, front sight, and inspect barrel."
After talking about the Folangji, he felt that it was not enough, and summed up the birdgun: "The process of the birdgun can also be divided into ten steps, but it is different from the Folangji."
When Zhong Jinwei heard this, he secretly despised it. You should try to make the process of the blunderbuss and the folan machine the same.
Of course, Fan Jun didn't know what Zhong Jinwei was saying, and still summarized: "The process of a bird gun has the following ten steps: iron making, plate making, reeling, combining the barrel, drilling the bore, trimming the barrel, installing the front sight, the rear sight, and the fire gate.
, inspect the gun tube, install the gun bed, and install the leading trigger and hair rail."
After he said this, he felt that his mouth was a little dry, so he stopped introducing it.
With a smile on his face, Fan Jun said to Zhong Jinwei: "Master Hou, you don't need to understand these things, just listen to them. If you have anything to do, just tell it to an expert in our family, and we will help you deal with it."
"Oh, is that true?" Zhong Jinwei couldn't help but feel funny when he heard this. He suppressed his laughter and asked Fan Jundao.
"Haha, to be honest with the Marquis, our family is considered a master in this industry, otherwise the emperor would not let our family be in charge of this war." When Fan Jun said this, there was a hint of pride on his face.
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"Oh, that's good. I'm not asking too much, I just need to change a few places. I hope Eunuch Fan can make it for me as soon as possible." After Zhong Jinwei finished speaking, he waved to Gu Baichuan behind him and pointed to the list of items listed on the corner.
blunderbuss.
Fan Jun saw that Zhong Jinwei seemed to be well prepared, and when he saw his calm and calm expression, his heart "thumped" for no reason. It seemed that he had been too proud just now and had said all he wanted to say.
If Marquis Zhongxing allowed himself to transform some of his whimsical ideas, then what he just said would be a slap in the face.
Thinking of this, Fan Jun looked at Zhong Jinwei's movements with a little uneasiness.
Zhong Jinwei took the blunderbuss from Gu Baichuan and looked it up and down. The feeling in his hand was different from the blunderbuss he had seen at Lu Xiangsheng's residence before.
He lifted the blunderbuss with his left hand, pointed at the fire door with his right hand and said, "Eunuch Fan, please change this place. Instead of using a match rope, just light the fire yourself and ignite the priming powder to launch."
Fan Jun's face turned pale when he heard this, and he thought that whatever he feared most would come. As expected, Marquis Zhongxing was so whimsical that he started a fire by himself without using a match rope, just in a dream.
Zhong Jinwei ignored him, pointed at the gun head and said: "Here, help me install a gun head. The gun head I want is a special one. I will give you the drawings in a moment. If you can make it at any time,
It's best if it can be disassembled. If it doesn't work, it doesn't matter if you can install it before going to the battlefield and disassemble it after the battlefield."
After Zhong Jinwei finished speaking, he looked at Fan Jun, only to find that he had turned into a bitter face and was looking at him pitifully.
Zhong Jinwei ignored him and asked you to do it. He continued to press: "You know, the emperor is looking forward to the new army I formed day and night to form an army as soon as possible and go into battle to kill the enemy. But if there are no weapons, no matter how hard I practice,
It’s useless. So, I ask Mr. Fan to put more effort into making it as soon as possible. Well, I don’t ask for much, I just want five hundred and fifty sticks first, and I’ll have to talk about it later..."
Zhong Jinwei wanted to continue, but was finally interrupted by Fan Jun: "Master Hou, it's impossible to make something like this!"
When Zhong Jinwei heard this, he said with a slight exaggeration: "Ah, how is it impossible? What the Westerners have already done, how can we, the Ming Dynasty, not be able to do it!"
When Fan Jun heard this, he looked at Zhong Jinwei with disbelief and said suspiciously: "Has Mr. Hou seen it before?"
Zhong Jinwei did not hesitate, nodded and said: "Of course I have seen it. Do you think I lied to you?"
I have seen antiques such as flintlock guns in museums in later generations. Although I didn't see them very clearly, I have seen them at least. Zhong Jinwei's answer does not have any psychological burden at all.
Fan Jun also had poisonous eyes, and he could tell at a glance that Zhong Jinwei was not lying. He was shocked, and immediately restrained his self-righteousness, and bowed to Zhong Jinwei sincerely: "Please also ask Zhongxing Hou to teach us."