I want to be emperor

Chapter 315 Mass production plan (subscription for the fourth update)
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Yuan Gaofeng from the Ministry of Industry led a group of people to conduct a detailed production demonstration of the two-year-style rifle, split the process of each component, and then worked out a complete set of production line plans.

Yuan Gaofeng held a thick plan book and said to Luo Zhixue: "In the whole two-year-style rifle, the barrel, buttstock, and bayonet are basically the same as the original arquebus, so we plan to continue to use it. The original production line!"

"However, the parts and components of the bolt are completely different from the original matchlock bolt. All parts need to be re-established in the production process, and special molds must be prepared. At the same time, some special equipment needs to be added!"

"The required molds and specialized mechanical equipment have been sent to Hantian Machinery Factory for equipment and production!"

"For the training of workers in each process, I have already asked Hantian Arsenal to prepare in advance!"

"The construction of the entire production line and the training of craftsmen are expected to be initially completed in October!"

After hearing this, Luo Zhixue nodded slightly: "October, three months, not bad!"

To build a new rifle production line, even if it is only the bolt part, it needs to start from scratch. It takes a lot of time to build special molds and equipment, not to mention that it is not the first time after the equipment is built. It can be used, but it has to be repeatedly debugged and modified.

Even if it is a time of war, even if the equipment is very primitive, it is estimated that it will take two months at the earliest.

After the equipment is produced and debugged, the arsenal still needs to complete the process according to the production equipment, such as how to build a part, how many people are needed, how to achieve the fastest efficiency, and how to ensure quality.

These all take time to complete.

In addition to equipment, the training of craftsmen is not easy.

In the manufacture of matchlock guns in the past, except for the barrel, the requirements for other parts of the craftsman were not very high. Later, the arsenal of the Great Chu Empire began to widely use mechanical equipment, especially hydraulic equipment, in the manufacture of barrels.

Using the hydraulic forging machine instead of manpower to repeatedly beat the iron material, the efficiency is higher. At the same time, the force on the forged part is more uniform, and the quality of the forged barrel is even better.

Through the hydraulic drilling machine, the hollow iron pipe that has been forged and formed by the curling method is expanded and polished, which is more efficient and smoother. The inner diameters of the gun barrels are exactly the same, but the error is far smaller than that of artificial ones.

The large-scale use of mechanical equipment, especially hydraulic equipment, is an important reason why the output of matchlock guns in the Great Chu Empire is so large. Of course, the weapons and equipment that benefited from hydraulic equipment include swords, spears, armor and even artillery.

This is especially the case with armor.

It is very troublesome for traditional craftsmen to make armor. It needs repeated forging to forge the iron sheet into shape. After the iron sheet is punched out, it cannot be used directly, and it needs to be edged and drilled.

Drilling is a very labor-intensive process. Manual drilling is very difficult and the efficiency is very low.

But now the arsenal of the Great Chu Empire makes it easy to drill holes in the iron sheets used in armor. It directly drills holes with mechanical equipment, and uses drill bits made of high-hardness stainless steel. It is very simple to drill a hole, that is Fee drill.

On the whole, the production of matchlock guns in the Great Chu Empire has basically entered the assembly line production, and various types of mechanical equipment, mainly hydraulic machinery, have been adopted on a large scale, so the output is so huge that the Ministry of Industry dared to shout out The slogan of making [-] matchlock guns a year.

But when switching to the flintlock, this is more troublesome.

Even if the two-year-style rifle has been considered for mass production, and the components of the core mechanism bolt have been reduced as much as possible, the overall process requirements are still much higher than those of the matchlock gun.

The manufacture of many parts cannot be completed with the current mechanical equipment, and only a combination of mechanical and manual methods can be used.

For the preliminary processing of some core parts with high requirements, mechanical equipment is used, and the finishing is performed manually by skilled craftsmen.

For example, the spring used in the flintlock gun, this thing is to use mechanical equipment for preliminary processing, and then use experienced craftsmen for finishing processing.

And this kind of processing method must require a large number of skilled craftsmen.

The only thing to be thankful for is that even with this model, assembly line production can still be adopted to a certain extent. Only in the core bolt part, it needs to rely on experienced craftsmen for final running-in.

This is mainly because the Great Chu Empire is still relatively sloppy in terms of the tolerance control of parts. Even if the parts that are punched out have been controlled as far as possible, the current flintlock guns require relatively high precision, so directly use If the flow parts are assembled, he often cannot assemble them.

Therefore, in the final assembly process, senior craftsmen are required to perform final processing on several high-precision core components and then assemble them.

This also means that it is difficult to exchange core parts for muskets produced in this way, at most some non-core parts can be exchanged.

This will inevitably lead to troubles in subsequent maintenance.

But this is also impossible. If you want to maintain performance, maintain production capacity, and ensure the interchangeability of parts, this is too advanced for the current industrial level of the Great Chu Empire.

And this semi-mechanical and semi-manual production method requires a very large number of skilled craftsmen.

Hantian Arsenal needs to train a large number of craftsmen in advance for the production of new rifles. They are not ordinary skilled workers, but senior craftsmen who can finish machining and complete assembly in the final process.

For this reason, the Ministry of Industry has planned to transfer [-] artisans from various factories to supplement Hantian Factory.

It is worth mentioning that among the 200 skilled craftsmen, the Changsha Arsenal provided more than [-] people!
This is because when Yang Sichang organized the Changsha gun workshop, he searched for skilled craftsmen from almost the entire southern Chu area. After the Chu army accepted the gun workshop, they naturally accepted hundreds of skilled craftsmen.

Now that the Ministry of Industry wants to recruit skilled craftsmen to produce firearms, it simply recruits manpower from here.

After Yuan Gaofeng reported the preparations for the production line, he said to Luo Zhixue: "It is estimated that we will start small-scale trial production in November, and try mass production in December. We are expected to reach the design level in January next year. Production capacity. And the designed production capacity is [-] pieces per year!"

"After the official start of production, because a large number of equipment and craftsmen are crowded by the new rifle production line, starting from November this year, we will gradually reduce the production of the first-year-style matchlock guns, and wait until January next year. If there is an accident, then the production of the first-year-style matchlock guns will be completely discontinued."

"After our repeated calculations, the price of the two-year musket is based on the military's first batch of 14 orders. This batch of orders can be made by Hantian Factory for [-] taels of silver."

"Only when this price is reached, can Hantian Arsenal support the construction and operation of a new rifle production line, otherwise, we can only inject additional capital into the factory!"
Luo Zhixue said: "14 taels, this price is okay, as for the additional capital injection, there is no need, since you are already financially independent, then you will be responsible for your own profits and losses!"

Luo Zhixue has been promoting the financial independence of the factories under the Ministry of Industry and being responsible for their own profits and losses, so as to avoid the idea that the management of each factory will have to eat from the big pot and muddle along.

"Looking back, please tell me that the production of the two-year-style rifle will be the top priority in the production of muskets in the future. It is necessary to make preparations for the production of the new rifle and follow-up production."

"However, although the production of matchlock guns will be discontinued next year if there is no accident, the production of matchlock guns cannot be stopped before then. Not only can it not be dropped, but the pace of production needs to be accelerated to produce more matchlock guns within six months."
"Now that the eastward advance is imminent, the Seventh Division and the Eighth Division are still not full of members, and the four mixed regiments are still short of guns, and there will be a lot of losses in the follow-up operations. All these require a large number of first-year matchlock guns supplementary."

Luo Zhixue knew very well that although flintlock guns have been produced now, it will take some time for flintlock guns to completely replace the current matchlock guns and spears and become the main weapon of the army.

The production line of the two-year-style rifle will be completed in October, and the running-in trial production is estimated to take another one or two months. The real large-scale production is estimated to be next year.

Before that, the Chu army still needed to rely on matchlock guns to fight, so it was very necessary to continue to replenish matchlock guns for the Seventh Division, Eighth Division, and the four mixed regiments.

At the same time, Luo Zhixue also considered it, so the flintlock guns have been mass-produced, but it will take some time to form combat effectiveness.

This is not simply to replace the existing troops with muskets. While changing the muskets, changes in organization and tactics are also required.

During this process, a large number of spearmen have to change their outfits and retrain as musketeers.

Although the whole process of changing equipment is easier than directly forming a new army, it is not easy to go there. After a few months of training, it will not be able to form combat effectiveness at all.

With this time, it was enough for Luo Zhixue to directly recruit recruits to form a new army of pure flintlocks.

At the same time, the production capacity of flintlock guns in the early stage was limited. The current production line is estimated to be only [-] flintlock guns a year, supporting the equipment of five divisions, and it is not even enough to refit the existing main force.

Not to mention that the Chu army is still in the midst of rapid military expansion.

Therefore, in the early stage, Luo Zhixue was more inclined to let the existing troops continue to be equipped with matchlock guns, while the subsequent newly produced flintlock guns were directly used to equip the newly formed main force.

Even Luo Zhixue had already figured out the designation of the first batch of main troops equipped with flintlock guns: the Second Guards Division.

(End of this chapter)