Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 81: Supervising the manufacture of firearms, Wang Guangyang’s new proposal

"You don't have to be like this."

"I actually don't do these two things in the relic."

"I do this kind of thing essentially for my own selfish reasons."

Zhang Cheng stood up from the rosewood chair, felt a little ashamed and helped Wang Guangyang up, and said with a smile.

Wang Guangyang knew what Zhang Cheng meant, so he still said seriously at this time: "Although Mr. Zhang has the purpose of recruiting infants and young people for his own strength, it is easier to use it than just marrying the nobles and subjugating the common people. It is already rare for most heroes in the world!"

"So, Mr. Zhang's current behavior can be regarded as relics saving the people!"

"Because if Mr. Zhang doesn't want to show mercy to the common people, but regards them as ants who can be killed at will, then there is an easier way, such as slaughtering them for food!"

Wang Guangyang's teacher Yu Que was a senior official of the Yuan Dynasty.

He himself also participated in many local government affairs with his teacher, including participating in the encirclement and suppression of the rebels.

Therefore, Wang Guangyang himself saw with his own eyes the behavior of many Yuan Ting officials and rebel troops using people as food.

And precisely because of this.

In the end, Wang Guangyang did not choose to join the Yuan Dynasty as an official, and has only been involved in work beside his teacher as a student and staff member.

Recently, Wang Guangyang even chose to leave his teacher's side and prepare to live in Taiping temporarily.

just now.

Wang Guangyang changed his mind again and chose to come to Chuzhou.

In essence, Wang Guangyang chose to leave Teacher Anqing and did not seek an official position in Yuanting because he was completely disappointed with Yuanting and disappointed that the Yuanting army's methods of dealing with internal problems were no better than those of the rebels who were born at the bottom. , even often not as good as the rebels.

Now, Wang Guangyang said that Zhang Cheng could have chosen the easier route of fighting for hegemony by using people as food, which is indeed true.

After hearing this, Zhang Cheng did not deny it humbly and politely. He just picked up the cattail leaf fans on the table, smiled slightly, and asked Wang Guangyang directly:

"I don't know what exactly I am going to do at the Huaixi Capital Marshal's Mansion in Anqing?"

"Supervise the manufacture of ordnance for the master."

Wang Guangyang replied.

"Great!"

Zhang Cheng immediately clapped his hands with a cattail leaf fan and said this.

Wang Guangyang then asked: "Does Mr. Zhang also want to build ordnance?"

"How can more people survive without making weapons?"

Zhang Cheng then replied with a smile.

"Too!"

Wang Guangyang nodded.

"You come with me."

then.

Zhang Cheng picked up a stack of drawings on the case and took Wang Guangyang to his workshop in Zhizhou Yamen.

At this time, there were six craftsmen working in the workshop, hammering iron and blowing the wind.

These six craftsmen were selected by Zhang Cheng in advance from craftsmen in Chuzhou. They are people with good skills and honest personalities.

Among them, there are three old craftsmen and three young ordinary craftsmen who are apprentices.

Zhang Cheng chose these craftsmen to make the bird muskets and turtledove muskets he wanted in advance according to his instructions.

Zhang Cheng first asked these to make blunderbuss.

The blunderbuss is a type of matchlock gun.

In the field of matchlock guns, the bird gun is a quick-fire matchlock gun, one generation behind the slow-fire matchlock gun.

However, because it is easier to make a gun, the requirements for parts are relatively simple.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng chose to let them build a blunderbuss for him first.

What's more.

In this era, gunshots have become a very modern firearm.

Therefore, if the blunderbuss is to be successfully produced, the rebels will have a considerable technological advantage in firearms.

Zhang Cheng divided the six craftsmen into three teams, and were guarded by his personal soldiers. They were placed under house arrest in three rooms to work, and according to the standards provided by Zhang Cheng, they made different parts of the gun machine.

The treatment for these six craftsmen is one lunch a day and one liter of grain for their families.

This treatment is considered a good treatment in today's era when it is difficult not to starve to death.

Therefore, these six craftsmen worked very hard, not daring to be sloppy and afraid of losing this opportunity to earn so much food.

It wasn't until Zhang Cheng brought Wang Guangyang here that the six craftsmen stopped what they were doing and smiled at Zhang Cheng.

As soon as Zhang Chengze arrived, he asked Zhan Tiesan, a craftsman responsible for making lead bullets and assembling blunderbuss: "How many blunderbuss have been made?"

"It's been three shots."

Zhan Tiesan replied.

Zhang Cheng nodded after hearing this, then went into the room and picked up a gun to observe carefully.

After Wang Guangyang followed Zhang Cheng, he found that the six craftsmen were placed under house arrest in rooms with large windows by the sword-wielding sergeant. The craftsmen in each room were obviously doing different jobs.

Wang Guangyang could guess that Zhang Cheng separated these craftsmen to supervise the construction in order to prevent these craftsmen from knowing all the skills of the entire fire gun manufacturing process, and the house arrest was probably to prevent them from having the opportunity to communicate with each other.

Therefore, Wang Guangyang had to admit in his heart that Zhang Cheng was too careful in asking the craftsmen to make the fire guns.

However, since the actual combat value of fire guns in this era is not that great, many fire guns are only loaded with wood, gravel and iron pieces. When you hear the sound, they do not have much lethality. Their main purpose is to defend the city. Many fire guns are used to defend the city. It was rarely used for field battles. Even the large-scale development of the fire gate gun was only achieved in the early Ming Dynasty when large-scale field battles with Mongolian cavalry were needed. At that time, there were only magical machines that specialized in operating firearms. The camp appears.

Therefore, fire guns in this era were not considered very important, and Wang Guangyang did not understand why Zhang Cheng was so careful in making a fire gun.

However, Wang Guangyang feels that Zhang Cheng's concept of confidentiality is good. If it is used to supervise the production of various powerful crossbows with high lethality, it can avoid the possibility of various excellent crossbows being leaked. Wang Guangyang also took a serious look at the gun in Zhang Cheng's hand.

He discovered that the firecracker in Zhang Cheng's hand was different from the firecrackers he had seen. Not only was the barrel longer, but the key point was that there was a gun that was shaped like a bird's beak at the back, and there was a length of match rope on the gun. , and there is a moving hook under the bolt.

"The fire gun is equipped with a match rope. I guess it means that the front is not lit and the back is lit with a match rope to ignite the gunpowder?"

Wang Guangyang asked therefore.

Zhang Cheng smiled slightly and then nodded.

He knew that the principle of firearms such as blunderbuss was not difficult. Anyone who saw it could understand the principle with a little thought. Therefore, it was not surprising that Wang Guangyang could understand it.

However, Zhang Cheng still asked Wang Guangyang: "Do you think that if an ordinary civilian could see this gun, would he be able to quickly learn how to operate it?"

Wang Guangyang said: "This is natural! It should be no more difficult than a fire gun without a match rope, and it is much lighter. There is no point in letting Minzhuang learn this. To defend the stronghold and protect the family, it is better to use the bow directly. "

"Try the power and you'll know if it's worth it."

Zhang Cheng asked Zhan Tiesan to use the gun to hit an osmanthus tree at the end of the yard to show him.

Wang Guangyang said: "The sweet-scented osmanthus tree is fifty steps away from here, so is it too far to use it for testing guns?"

boom!
  Not long after, Zhan Tiesan moved the trigger, and after a gunshot, rain of osmanthus flowers fell one after another in the diffuse smoke.

Wang Guangyang was dumbfounded when he saw this.

Is there such a magical weapon in this world? !
  Zhang Cheng frowned and said, "The accuracy is still not high enough!"

"Isn't that high?"

"This is hard to see in a fire gun!"

Wang Guangyang glanced at Zhang Cheng in astonishment and thought to himself: "Do you Chuzhou rebels have more powerful guns?"

"Although the accuracy of this fire gun is not high enough, it is no problem to use it for shooting. You are also very good at making it. You will be rewarded according to the rules. You must make more firearms. After you make more, I will still be able to There is a reward.”

Zhang Cheng then spoke to Zhan Tiesan and other craftsmen.

Zhan Tiesan and other craftsmen were all smiling and grateful to Zhang Cheng.

And then.

Zhang Cheng took Wang Guangyang and left here.

And on the way out, Zhang Cheng said to Wang Guangyang: "Now it seems that the firecrackers I planned to make can be made by the craftsmen here. The next step is to train them, make more of these firecrackers, and let some of them Regarding the research and development of craftsmen, since I have been responsible for supervising the production of weapons, why not first give me your opinion on my making of fire guns?"

Wang Guangyang replied: "I don't understand the specifics of how to make guns. At most, I only know a few methods of supervising manufacturing."

"That's what I'm asking for."

Zhang Cheng replied with a smile.

Wang Guangyang said: "In that case, may I ask how much reward Mr. Zhang plans to give to these craftsmen who make such guns?"

"Twenty shi of grain per household."

Zhang Cheng replied.

Wang Guangyang was startled after hearing this.

Then, Zhang Cheng said with excitement: "I also plan to set up a reward system, group the three types of craftsmen responsible for making this gun, let them compete in each group, and set up a monthly best award for them, which group will Those who make the most fire blunderbuss or have the highest passing rate in each month will be rewarded with two stones of food."

At this moment, Wang Guangyang suddenly bowed to Zhang Cheng.

Zhang Cheng was quite surprised, thinking that Wang Guangyang was impressed by his management philosophy, so he asked with a smile: "Why do you need to bow again?"

"Mr. Zhang not only treats ordinary people as human beings, but also treats craftsmen as human beings. He also treats them as polite people!"

"So I have to admire you and pay my respects again."

"I, Wang, have never seen a person with such a Bodhisattva heart in the world!"

Wang Guangyang replied with a serious expression.

Zhang Cheng felt very strange after hearing this and asked, "How do you mean this?"

Wang Guangyang said: "If I were to supervise their construction, I would not give any reward! As long as they have enough to eat and their families don't starve to death."

"But according to your method, how can you make them make more firearms and try to make the firearms very high-quality and not easy to explode?"

Zhang Cheng asked at this time.

Wang Guangyang replied: "I will also stipulate that whoever has the most unqualified firearms and the least well-made firearms will be beheaded directly!"

"what?"

Zhang Cheng's mouth suddenly opened wide enough to fit an egg in, and then he chuckled and asked, "So, you don't agree with my method?"

Wang Guangyang replied truthfully: "I really don't agree. Although Mr. Zhang is kind-hearted, such a high reward is indeed not conducive to supervision."

"Why?"

"Is this still high? Even if a craftsman family is the best every month, it will only be rewarded with more than twenty stone grains."

Zhang Cheng was a little shocked and dissatisfied.

Wang Guangyang said: "But with these more than twenty stones of grain, we can buy property and open a shop in this chaotic era when land and shops are not as expensive as grain!"

"So, since you can buy an industry with more than 20 shi of grain, then if a craftsman family really gets a reward of more than 20 shi of grain through hard work, will he still be willing to continue to work so hard every day to forge iron and make guns?"

"Isn't it easier to accumulate wealth by buying land and hiring people to farm the land or buying and selling shops? Especially in Chuzhou City, which is now under great control, buying property is even more worthwhile."

"In fact, if this craftsman who has received more than twenty stone grain rewards is more courageous, he can directly lend money, or ask Qiang Sihaoyou to help him lend money and earn interest. No matter what, it is better than hammering iron and making guns every day."

After Wang Guangyang said this, Zhang Cheng fell silent and just stood under the eaves of the corridor, lost in thought.

"You mean, I treat them too much as human beings, so it's detrimental to the current equipment manufacturing and industrial development?"

After a while, Zhang Cheng took the initiative to ask Wang Guangyang.

(End of this chapter)