Chapter 553: Young Barracks Hanging Around the World
The low output of guns and artillery has affected the expansion of the regular army. This has always been a long-standing problem faced by the Tang Dynasty. It has been like this since the Huang Zhushan era, and it has never been truly alleviated.
Although the gun production of the Tang Dynasty expanded with the expansion of the Tang Dynasty, more and more craftsmen were collected, and the raw materials became larger and larger. In contrast, the number of the Tang Dynasty's army also became larger and larger.
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This has led to the army's growing gap in guns and artillery.
During the Huangzhushan era, the shortage was dozens of guns. After taking Zhengtai County, the shortage was hundreds of guns. After moving south to Guangxi, the shortage was not dozens or hundreds, but thousands.
This is all based on the current organization of the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty. If Li Xuan's ideal modern army organization were to be followed, and the light infantry all used muskets, the shortage would not be a few thousand, but a good number of soldiers.
Tens of thousands.
Limited by the shortage of guns and artillery, military expansion is extremely difficult.
And this is why Li Xuan is so concerned about the output of the Zhaoqing Arsenal. He doesn't care how big or good the construction is. He only cares about how many muskets and artillery pieces the arsenal can produce in a month.
Hearing Li Xuan's culture, Zhou Kesong immediately replied: "Your Majesty, the Zhaoqing Arsenal is still in the trial production period of a temporary emergency state, and the output is slightly low. I am afraid that it can only produce 350 two-year-old rifles in April.
However, this number will gradually increase. By May, there should be 450, and by June, it should be stable at 500."
"The first three months are a temporary trial production stage. After three months, they will be gradually moved to new factories and various supporting facilities will be gradually built. By then, the output will be further increased. After half a year, the monthly output is expected to be reached.
More than eight hundred!"
The output of guns in the Tang Dynasty was actually not low. As early as the Xingquan Prefecture era, its two major workshops in Zhengtai County and Xingquan Prefecture were able to produce 500 muskets per month. However, at that time, no matter the cost,
Accelerated manufacturing is very uneconomical from a cost control perspective.
Later, as the Tang Dynasty moved south, many workshops were established in Liuzhou Fucheng, which were later integrated into Liuzhou Arsenal, and then Wuzhou Arsenal was also established in Wuzhou.
However, the scale of these two arsenals is not large. To be honest, the scale of these two arsenals combined is not as large as the arsenals in Xingquan Prefecture and Zhengtai County in the past, and the output is about the same.
In addition, a very important point is that with the strategic focus of the Tang Dynasty moving south, all the workshops in Xingquan Prefecture, Zhengtai County and other places have been relocated. Now there are only a small number of ammunition workshops in Xingquan Prefecture, and the gun workshops have been
Work has been completely stopped because the craftsmen have been transferred to Liuzhou, Wuzhou, and Zhaoqing.
Therefore, in the past three or four months, the Tang Dynasty's gun production has not increased much, and even declined for a certain period. It is now April that the total production has exceeded the previous Xingquan
During the government era, there were more than 600 branches.
Among them, Liuzhou Arsenal accounts for the majority, with a monthly output of about 400 tubes, while Wuzhou Arsenal's output is less, with only 200 tubes.
The monthly production of 600 muskets is simply not enough for the Tang Dynasty King's Division to fight and expand the army. Let alone the expansion of the army, according to the current establishment, an infantry regiment will need 700 or 800 rifles. In addition to the infantry regiment, other troops
It is also necessary to equip muskets. In addition to expanding the army, the actual battle losses of the supplementary troops are also a large number.
After every battle, the troops will always lose some muskets due to various reasons. In addition, the troops will also lose muskets during daily training, which requires a continuous supply of new guns for these existing troops.
And this number is also quite large. For example, since the First Infantry Brigade moved south to Guangxi, it has actually added at least 500 muskets. If this number were just a little more, it would be enough to establish a new infantry brigade.
The troops need the guns they need.
If the Zhaoqing Arsenal can be successfully put into production now, even if it is only two to three hundred muskets in the trial production stage, it can greatly alleviate the musket gap of the Tang Dynasty. If it waits until large-scale production in half a year, then one Zhaoqing Arsenal can handle it.
It is equivalent to the combined output of the two arsenals in Liuzhou and Wuzhou.
After hearing the number mentioned by Zhou Kesong, Li Xuan nodded slightly. He was quite satisfied with this number. Although many craftsmen in the Zhaoqing Arsenal were evacuated from Xingquan Prefecture, more of them were still in Guangdong.
It is relatively rare for craftsmen recruited locally to be able to achieve this kind of output under such circumstances.
And he also knows that relying on hand-made muskets, it is very good to be able to produce six to seven hundred muskets a month. Although the Zhaoqing Arsenal is called a factory, it is actually a handicraft industry.
Each musket needs to be made by craftsmen by hand, without any mechanical assistance at all.
Thinking of this, Li Xuan said: "How are the waterwheels and lathes I mentioned a while ago doing?"
When Zhou Kesong heard this, he looked embarrassed: "Your Majesty, we have built waterwheels and lathes, but now they are not very useful!"
Hearing this, Li Xuan frowned slightly: "Why is it useless?"
If you want to increase the output of industrial products such as guns, you can only play industrialization, and industrialization requires power and equipment. In an era when there were no steam engines, the only power that could be used was waterwheels.
As for machinery, you can only make it yourself.
I didn't have the time or conditions to do this before, but after Zhaoqing settled down and relied on such a Xijiang River, it would be a waste not to engage in water power industry, so Li Xuan asked the people below to build water trucks and lathes.
Whether it is a waterwheel or a lathe, they are actually nothing new. When many craftsmen heard this, they immediately came to their senses. Waterwheels use water to provide power and then drive equipment to move. Thousands of years ago,
Our ancestors had waterwheels.
Lathes, on the other hand, just rotate quickly and then use tools to process. The principle is very simple, so when Li Xuan asked them to do lathe processing, he didn't think it would be too much trouble.
At this time, Zhou Kesong said: "Although we have built the waterwheel and the lathe, the linkage is more troublesome. Moreover, because the water flow is constantly changing, the things provided by the waterwheel are also constantly changing. It is very troublesome to stably transmit it to the lathe.
, In addition, this tool is also a big trouble. The tool we made is barely okay for processing wood, but it is not very useful when trying to process gun barrels!"
Hearing this, Li Xuan also felt helpless. If you ask him to talk about waterwheels and lathes, he will know a rough idea, but he doesn't know the detailed technical details. In addition, this tool problem involves a seemingly inconspicuous,
But a very important subject is raw materials.
Knives made of ordinary cast iron, or even the low-quality steel that is smelted today, are naturally not good. Special steel is needed. At the very least, you have to make a steel that is somewhat acceptable!
Some of the steel that can be mass-produced on a small scale these days, that is, the steel used by the Tang Dynasty to make all-steel waist knives, is not even scrap steel if measured by the quality standards of later generations. The quality is so poor that it makes people feel uncomfortable.
In despair, take a magnifying glass and look, everything is bubbles and holes.
Of course, there are some good steels. For example, the quality of steel made by blacksmiths who have spent countless hours forging it is slightly better. Li Xuan’s sword is made of this kind of steel, but it is worth noting that such steel
The quantity is very few.
In addition, if you look at it by the industrial standards of later generations, it is actually not much better.
If you take a kitchen knife from later generations to ancient times, it will definitely be an artifact among artifacts. Holding a kitchen knife in your hand, you might become a famous kitchen knife hero!
Regarding the problems encountered when trying to use waterwheels and lathes, Li Xuan had no choice but to deal with the knives. The special steel required for the knives was already out of the category of ordinary steel. Li Xuan did not remember the formulas of these special steels in his previous life, and the mechanical
The transmission can be solved, but to be honest, he doesn't need to solve it himself. There are so many craftsmen, and they will always find a way.
Besides, Li Xuan is not necessarily better at playing with these waterwheels than those craftsmen!
"The water wheel cannot be used temporarily. You can use stored energy or manpower!" Li Xuan taught a group of Ministry of Industry officials and craftsmen under him a lesson at this time: "As long as the processing efficiency can be improved, various methods are possible.
, and you don’t have to get on the waterwheel!”
"As for the problem of cutting tools, you should think about it carefully. If the current cutting tools cannot process steel, then wood can be processed. Also, if ordinary steel cannot be used to make cutting tools, then just test it a few times. It was also said in the Imperial College that steel
It’s almost the same as iron, it’s just about the amount of carbon it contains. Since carbon can be added to this steel, other things can naturally be added to it. If you try it a few more times, you’ll get good steel!”
Now Li Xuan wishes he was a science student back then. It's a pity that he is a liberal arts student and he still studied English. When he comes to rebel in this era, knowing English is of no use. He is not as good as studying history and Chinese. If
It would be even better if he majored in physics and chemistry. He could make a nuclear bomb in minutes!
However, Li Xuan also knew that telling these basics to these craftsmen was of little use. In fact, many of these craftsmen were illiterate. Even the Royal Academy of Sciences was of no use. The current Royal Academy of Sciences was just a retirement home.
There is no scientific research power at all. Most of them don't even know what carbon is. To develop new materials and make new tools, they have to rely on the Imperial College of Supervision and the Young Military Camp.
Especially in the Young Military Camp, the scientific research capabilities of the few senior students there are enough to dominate the world!