Start: Datang Wanli a lonely city

Chapter 458
When Xie Ergou, an indigenous blacksmith in Kaifeng City, was due to the good effect of the hydraulic forging hammer.

So with fiery vigor, one after another, the embryos of the hundred-steel breastplate were forged out one by one.

He didn't know that in a warehouse not far from him, the three grandfathers, Lang Qing, Lao Tie, and Wu Zu, who had been regarded as masters in his heart, were currently looking depressed.

There is even a posture of putting it on the air, acting like a hob meat.

The main reason is that after more than half a month has passed.

All the netizens who participated in this mission, in addition to Fengrui, A Li, and Zhan Xiang, who are currently in the north, there are also Lao Snake, Li San, Fenghuahui, and Fan Zhu, who are currently preparing to participate in the Luoyang area. outside of the food staff.

All the remaining personnel finally gathered together again tonight.

It's a pity that after these twenty or so people gathered together, they were not planning to have a good meal, or come to a team battle or something.

In fact, it was Hu Biao and others who collectively came to ask Lang Qing, Lao Tie, and Wu Zu to pay for all kinds of equipment and industrial products.

Facing such a group of accountants, it is strange that they can be happy...

With his left hand, he casually picked up a half-body breastplate that had been processed, that is to say, it was fitted with a fixed tendon rope, a layer of cowhide cushion as a cushion, and a silver-gray steel color.

In his right hand, he picked up a helmet with a brim, which was also made of refined steel.

Hu Biao used the breastplate and helmet on both hands, and hit each other vigorously, once, twice, three times, and it took about ten times in a row before he gave up.

In the following time, he took out the butcher's knife at his waist, and slashed at the helmet and breastplate a few times.

When I finally looked at it, I could find that whether it was the armor or the breastplate, although there were some deformations in the two, it was not too serious.

The knife marks on the top are also not too deep, showing a very good quality of both.

In line with the idea of ​​saying something, Hu Biao then turned to the old iron in charge of this work, and after opening his mouth, he praised:
"Old man, 666.

The quality of the armor you produced is very good. The golden man's bows, swords, and other weapons are absolutely impossible to break through. Even weapons like spears can be pierced by a single shot.

Even if it can't prevent blunt weapon blows, the positions that can be defended are limited, and it still provides considerable protection for musketeers.

After all, in front of the musketeers, there are sword and shield players and long gunmen. Considering the flexibility and continuous fighting ability they need to fight, they don't need to wear iron cans.

Such a protective force is enough. "

After hearing the praise from Commander Sipu Street, Lang Qing, Lao Tie and Wu Zu, such a Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, plus two ministers of the Ministry of Industry, all burst into smiles.

The problem is, before their smiling faces lasted for a few seconds, Hu Biao said 'but'.

What the hell!As long as the word 'but' appears in the words of this deadly rush, it is basically not a good thing.

In fact, this is also the case, and what Hu Biao said later gave them a headache: "However, you said that this is the output of this half month.

I took a rough look, and there should be only about two thousand sets.

In other words, your production capacity is only 2 sets in a month, and only more than [-] sets in half a year, which is not enough, far from enough, and the output is still far from the requirement~"

As soon as he heard this, Lao Tie, who was in charge of preparing the armor, wanted to explain.

There is a reason for the current low output. The blacksmiths and apprentices in Kaifeng City have basic smelting and forging personnel, and the total number is only a thousand or so.

Even if the warriors brought nearly one-third of the number of craftsmen to build a large number of soil blast furnaces, their daily steel output has reached an astonishing [-] catties.

And this is the current output due to the unstable supply of raw materials such as iron ore and coal.

With the improvement of mining and transportation in the future, such a steel output can be greatly doubled, or even more.

After all, to put it bluntly, the so-called 1200 jin is only [-] tons, and the monthly output is only [-] tons.

If it were placed in the modern plane, a factory the size of booger would have been forcibly shut down long ago due to problems such as low output and serious pollution.

However, in the Northern Song Dynasty, it can be regarded as one-tenth of the output of the peak period.

Although the quantity is not large, it has perfectly solved the most basic raw material problem of the new court of the Song Dynasty.

The crux of the problem is that Kaifeng City and its surrounding areas are plain terrain. Although the water network is relatively dense, there is basically no difference in water flow.

As for hydraulically driven machinery, the only way to rely on the artificial construction of dams is to create a falling water flow that can drive waterwheels.

However, the number of such dams that can be built is limited, and the number of hydraulic equipment has basically reached its peak.

More importantly, they still have a lot of manufacturing plans that have not yet started. Once the planned equipment starts to be manufactured, they will still occupy part of the hydraulic machinery.

At that time, not to mention the increase, it is estimated that even [-] sets of breastplates and helmets per month may not be guaranteed.

As a result, before Lao Tie could open his mouth, a few crisp gunshots came from next to his ears, which immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the warehouse.

It was Lao Hei, Big Yu, Feng Che, and Chen Tang, who were trying to shoot the latest musket made by Lang Qing and the others.

Compared with armor and helmets, this key weapon of the new army is naturally more important.

Immediately, everyone ignored the production of armor and helmets, and swarmed towards the open space outside the warehouse...

Soon after, Hu Biao and others saw it in the open space outside.

The chief instructors of the four recruit battalions, Lao Hei, Dayu, Fengche, and Chen Tang, are currently using muskets of different lengths.

Facing different positions 150 to [-] meters in front of them, they were wearing a piece of fish scale armor or leather armor, and they were constantly loading and firing.

During this process, everyone was pleasantly surprised to see some nice details.

That is, in these muskets, the fixed gunpowder packed in paper tubes has already begun to be used.

It is to use a small paper tube to pack a certain amount of gunpowder. When using it, after tearing the top with your teeth, first pour a little grain of gunpowder into the gunpowder pool as a fire starter.

More gunpowder is poured into the barrel as propellant.

It is not like the Musketeers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, who put gunpowder in a horn, or a bamboo tube, or a gourd.

Often when pretending, as long as there is a slight shake of the hand, there will be more or less.

Also, they can find that there is no such thing as an obstructive matchlock on the trigger of the musket and on the arms of Lao Hei and others.

Immediately, Hu Biao was overwhelmed with surprise, and yelled: "Lang Qing, you kid can do it. In such a short time, you actually tossed out the flintlock gun."

"Small matter, the most complicated part of the flintlock gun is that it involves a problem with the ignition reed; I asked the soldier to build a special pincer boiler, which was easily solved."

Facing Hu Biao's compliment, Lang Qing spoke in a very flat tone.

However, from the smile in his eyes and the subsequent introduction, it shows that he is still proud of this:

"We have preliminarily selected and trial-produced three types of muskets for the new army. If you have no objections, mass production will begin tomorrow.

The first is to plan to equip the most main muskets.

The model is the famous brown bess used by the lobster soldiers of John's family, that is, the 1730-style flintlock.

This kind of musket belongs to the front-loading smoothbore gun with a caliber of 0.75 inches and shoots about 28 grams of lead bullets.

A skilled fighter who has undergone long-term training should be able to fire five or six shots in one minute.

Because we don't have enough brass, some components can only be replaced by steel, so the overall weight of the musket is a bit heavier, about 9 catties.

The maximum range is 230 meters, but everyone knows how accurate the shotgun is, and the bullets fly so far away that they don't know where they are going.

Fortunately, as long as it hits, it can break leather armor within 100 meters and penetrate heavy armor within 70 meters.

In addition, this thing has a bayonet, which is set on the barrel of the gun, not the one that is directly inserted into the barrel; it is also considered that after the opponent rushes to the close, the musketeers can still have some close combat ability.

The second type is that we have made some optimized improvements on the basis of the first brown Beth musket.

Specifically, the caliber has been changed to a smaller 0.5-inch caliber, the barrel has been lengthened by 20 centimeters, and four rifling lines with a depth of 0.08 millimeters have been pulled out of the barrel.

After using special lead bullets, it is a bit more troublesome to load, and within 1 minute of skilled operation, the highest rate of fire is two rounds.

Fortunately, after such a modification, the range and accuracy are much stronger.

Of course, hand-drawn rifling is a disaster these days, so this improved Brown Bess musket is only planned to be produced in small quantities for use by snipers in the army.

The third type is the short spear that Big Fish is holding now.

Looks familiar, right?That's right.

In fact, this thing is the special pistol used by John's fleet officers back then. It is the short musket that appeared in the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean".

This thing has a shorter barrel and no rifling. After more than 30 meters, there is no need to think about the accuracy and power.

However, within 30 meters, the lethality and accuracy are quite good. It can be regarded as a portable musket for future cavalry units and officers. "

Needless to say, the above three muskets are very suitable for the current new army of the Song Dynasty.

I believe that with Brother Langqing's eighth-level fitter's craftsmanship and his unique hobby of researching this thing when he has nothing to do, more advanced breech-loading guns can also be manufactured.

But taking into account the various current conditions and constraints, it is not worth the candle.

Especially in the following time, after everyone tried to shoot a few shots, they all praised Lang Qing, Lao Tie, Wu Zu and others.

Lao Hei handed over a hand-rolled trumpet cigarette in a flattering manner, and begged Lang Qing:

"Brother, help me change that Lumi gun later, otherwise I have to blow it before firing every time, and I can't fire while lying down. It's really troublesome."

"No problem, the parts are ready-made, and it can be done easily." After hearing the words, Lang Qing easily agreed.

For a while, the three people from the Ministry of Industry were praised by everyone, and it was a scene of rave reviews.

********
It's a pity that in the following time, the three of Lang Qing felt quite uncomfortable;

It was after a burst of compliments, while the windmill was roaring and laughing, he made a rather urgent request: "Hey! Brothers.

I also know that it will take a process to complete the arming of the new army. We can take it slowly, as long as it is all completed before the golden soldiers send out.

But the current training subjects of the new barracks will soon involve the use of muskets.

If this kind of old-fashioned musket wants to shoot fast and accurately, it is inseparable from repeated loading and shooting, so within a week, can you provide us with [-] ordinary brown besses.

In addition, fifty of the improved brown bess and short guns are enough; it also allows rookies to touch the guns in turn and make a move in advance.

Please, I also got a jar of good wine, the kind with tiger penis soaked in it, and someone will send it over later~"

But facing such a request from Fengche and a bribe from Haojiu, the smile on Lang Qing's face froze all of a sudden.

The main reason is still in the production of the barrel of the musket.

As a man with an eighth-level fitter skill, he certainly couldn't let the craftsmen use that kind of iron rod to wrap the red-hot iron material, and beat out a barrel of this backward method little by little.

Using a hydraulic drilling machine, a more efficient method, is his current choice.

But even so, he currently only has six hydraulic drilling machines, and each drilling machine works in two shifts day and night, and can produce sixteen or seventeen barrels in one day.

After all, it is necessary to consider that during the drilling process, the inside of the gun barrel is hot, and it is necessary to stop from time to time, and pour a little rapeseed oil into it to cool and lubricate.

Get rid of some unqualified and defective products, and the output is about [-] barrels a day.

So, it would take him more than a month to deliver [-] muskets in seven days?Let him take his life to do it, it is impossible to do it.

Not to mention, in the whole army plan.

Overall, no less than [-] muskets, such a scary statistic.

Of course, Langqing can also choose to continue to increase the number of hydraulic drilling machines to increase production; but this again involves the limited driving force that waterwheels can provide.

Increasing the number of drilling machines means reducing the number of machines such as hydraulic forging hammers and grinders.

Thinking of this, the three people from the Ministry of Industry, including Lang Qing, just looked at each other, and they could all see each other. Now it is a headache.

It's just that they soon knew, where are they now?More troubles are yet to come.

In the ensuing time, a kind of netizens opened their mouths one after another according to the work they were currently in charge of, making more requests ring in their ears, which was completely like a reminder.

Fengche, after wiping away tears that did not exist, pleaded:

"Brother, I'm not saying that Brown Beth is a bad thing; the problem is that this kind of volley firepower is okay for infantry charges, but it can't handle cavalry at all.

So, our cannon?
The long-range 'Red General' heavy artillery, the short-range Huzun cannon, the Francophone and other small cannons; I thought about it, it would take [-] guns to form a batch of firepower, which is enough for the recruits. use~"

Afterwards, Chen Tang quickly followed up: "That's right, Fengche is right.

So the infantry's heavy firepower, such as grenades and mines, should be produced as soon as possible?
Even if time is limited, there is no time to study the style of pulling the hair, and it is better to throw it out after being ignited, isn't it? "

Even the imperial concubine, the only female netizen in the Kaifeng area.

While shaking Lang Qing's arm, he said delicately, "Brother, Brother Lang Qing, when will you be able to burn out glass and make products like mirrors?

In addition, when will soap, perfume, shampoo, these products be available.

We must know that according to reliable sources, the first batch of wealthy merchants in the Jiangnan area have already escorted a batch of grain; my plan to get some cloth and money depends entirely on these products.

I still have two pairs of 'Pear Family' socks that I haven't worn, do you want to see..."

"Come on, don't be polite, you can just kill the three of us~"

This is the reaction made by the three people from the Ministry of Industry, including Lang Qing, who looked at each other at the request of everyone.

Lying straight on the ground, he started yelling at Hu Biao and others.

It's completely like they want to show off and make hob meat.

But it seems that they can't be blamed, even if they know that the requirements of the above people are more reasonable; musket loading is trivial, and it must be trained many times to develop muscle instincts to ensure the rate of fire.

Jin Bing's iron Buddha heavy cavalry, a large number of light cavalry, etc., but they can't stand it with just platooning guns.

It is indeed necessary to cooperate with artillery, mines, grenades, etc. to form batches of firepower, so that they can be destroyed when they rush to the front of the formation.

Otherwise, it will be very troublesome and cause heavy casualties after rushing close.

The imperial concubine's request is also very reasonable.

Don't look at Kaifeng City now, they have more than [-] netizens who have mastered modern knowledge, but the distribution of military, government affairs and other aspects is also a carrot to occupy several pits, and it is not easy for everyone.

Like the noble concubine, she received different jobs in the Commerce Department of the Ministry of Households and the Imperial City Department.

The latter is in the Imperial City Division that Yu Hanfeng is in charge of, not to mention the intelligence work involved.

In the former Department of Commerce, the imperial concubine needs to find a way to obtain dozens of urgently needed materials such as money, grain, oil, war horses, various large animals, cloth, and copper for the new Song Dynasty court.

The key is that in today's Kaifeng city, except for some population, there is nothing left and nothing left to eat.

If you want to get so many things from outside, you can only rely on some high-value products; the handicrafts brought by Hu Biao and the others alone are not enough to sell.

Fortunately, most of them are veterans who have read Internet articles for many years. Of course, they know that products such as glass, which are not high-tech, but can be sought after by the ancients, are all good things that cost a lot of money.

I'm afraid it's a palm-sized mirror, and it's a conscience price if it sells for a hundred guan.

At that time, merchants from all over the Song Dynasty will first transport all kinds of materials, and then bring these high-value products back, won't the market come alive?
It's just that no matter how simple the thing is and if you know the principle, you have to lead people to test it several times before you can make a barely suitable product.

But with so many things going on all at once, even splitting the three of them in half would be too busy.

For a while, Langqing and the other three lay on the ground, facing these life-threatening ghosts in front of them, they were extremely exhausted physically and mentally.

Even the 'Tiger Whip Wine' and 'Socks from the Pear Family' are no longer attractive...

(End of this chapter)