open sea

Chapter 436 Weapons
In the streets and alleys of Guangzhou Prefecture, merchants returning from Xiangshan County talked about the wonders they saw in the South China Sea and Xiangshan.

Nanhai County, Guangzhou Prefecture is the largest home of furnace households in Guangdong and Guangxi. It was an iron smelting distribution center a long time ago. With Foshan Town as the center, the prosperity of iron smelting, textiles, and ceramics has made the local area unprecedentedly prosperous. It has become the leading commercial town in the south of Wuling. One of the four gatherings.

Now Xiangshan and Xinhui are added to this area. The iron and copper mines imported from Nanyang to the mainland by millions of catties every year can't stimulate the local railway industry enough. Instead, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi ordered the influx of iron ore mining in Qiongzhou. Bring greater changes to the Guangzhou government iron industry.

What is amazing is the steam engine, something that should not have appeared in this era.

If it wasn't for the government's strong promotion, no one would use steam engines for another 200 years. For no other reason, manpower has always been sufficient, and there is no shortage of manpower.

The government can control the people who are engaged in maritime affairs, but they cannot restrain the iron households and furnace households. They are born to do this, and their descendants will also do this. There are tens of thousands of iron households and furnace households in Foshan alone, and every household has a family iron furnace , the Guangdong Chief Secretary's [-]th tax and [-] iron tax can collect more than [-] catties of iron and silver in a year. How much demand does it take to change the local production model?

Those that do not exist, Guangguo has been sold to the north, and the production capacity is still excess.

But it’s different if the government enforces it. In Guangdong, the organization that manages iron households and collects taxes is called Iron Factory. Although it doesn’t collect much tax, it has absolute power over furnace households and iron households. It is precisely because of the existence of this organization that Chen Mu can Send a letter to control the iron households in the entire Guangdong.

In fact, he didn't do anything, but introduced the technology of Sugang, and negotiated a price to issue the demand for steel from the Nanyang Military Bureau, so that the furnace owner not only obsessed with ironmaking, but also obsessed with making steel with iron, and made more efforts in the forging of steel. Medium to large scale use of steam engines.

Sugang has simplified and improved the production of Guangang. Of course, this is not the best steel in the industrial age, but it is the best mass-produced steel in Chen Mu's era.

Like a father selling his son, he wished that there would be steam engines everywhere in Guangdong, but in fact, those merchants who had to use steam engines because of power were not so satisfied with this thing.

Is the steam engine magical?magic!
But can the steam engine function as its magical counterpart?hanging!

Apparently hiring hundreds of workers can achieve the same effect, even whether weaving or forging, skilled craftsmen are easier to use than clumsy and stupid steam engines, and the things they make are better. Ten workers, the coal that the steam engine eats in a day can support another twenty workers.

And sometimes one large steam engine is not enough for those big factories, one is needed for weaving, one for jacquard, and a worker in front of the loom.

Originally, only weavers, weaving and jacquard can be done with one loom and manpower, but the clumsy steaming machine can't do it.

At first, the government even asked people to buy steamers, but later found that they couldn’t sell them and simply pushed them forcibly, which made people have to hold their noses and admit it.

Of course, there are also benefits of steaming machines, but people are not used to it yet.

Some forced implementation has resulted in rumbling steam engines everywhere in the Xiangshan Textile Factory. There is an increase in production, but more noise and troubles continue.

But in various iron workshops and stonemasons, the steam engine is much more popular. When it provides power for the new machine tool, the cutting hammer and forging become effortless, just like Chen Mu was as happy when he first used the hydraulic forging hammer.

The prosperity of machine tools made it easier to cut stone. People mixed diamond and iron to make circular saw blades, and small objects were transmitted effortlessly by transmission belts. All of these came from the power provided by the steam engine.

People of insight among merchants and students believe that the steam engine will bring more possibilities to the world in the future.

This possibility became a reality in the Nanyang Military Bureau.

The last time Chen Mu returned to the Nanyang Armament Bureau was last year. He came back this year to motivate the craftsmen and at the same time prepare to send smelting craftsmen to Mindoro Island to open iron kilns.

"The smelting technology of various countries is too poor, and the iron materials smelted from high-quality ores are unusable. In the past, the ores could only be shipped in. This is not a long-term solution. In this way, each ship will be loaded with [-]% less."

Chen Mu walked into Nanyang Guard, looked at the factory building of the Military Weapons Bureau in the distance, and said to Guan Zunban: "I want to select a few capable blacksmiths to go to Nanyang, and also drop by to see how the Military Weapons Bureau is doing now."

After all, Guan Yuangu is getting old, and the Military Weapons Bureau is not a good place to retire. After the cement was made last year, he was sent by Chen Mu to the research room of the Navy Lecture Hall to lead the fifth-rank salary of the Martial Arts Hall. The third-rank salary is provided for the elderly, and now the military bureau is taken over by Guan Zunban, Chen Mu is not at ease.

"As ordered!"

Guan Zun's squad stands behind Commander Huang Dexiang, and Lao Bai has resigned as Commander to become the Commander of the capital. All the former elite soldiers and strong generals have been transferred to Nanyang. Among the qualifications, only the former Qianhu Huang Dexiang is left. After some military exploits, he was pushed to the position of commander.

Nanyang Wei, Sailugong said that he should let his own people act as commanders, not to mention commanders, even the commanders are Huang Zhenqing of Huang Dexiang's clan.

They were followed by the staff of the Military Weapons Bureau, who quickly wrote down Chen Mu's request. Guan Zunban said: "Now Xiangshan has moved to Nanyangwei except for the shipyard. There is a craftsman school affiliated to the Navy Lecture Hall in the Military Weapons Bureau Last year, we recruited a few Baifa, and there are lecturers from the martial arts hall to guide the compilation of books on weekdays."

"The subordinate iron-making department, the steel-making department, the gunpowder department, the bird gun department, the weapons department, the armor department, the casting and artillery department, and the calibration department, each perform their duties."

Guan Zunban introduced to Chen Mu: "The production of military weapons has to be supervised by the three divisions. The iron-making division, the iron division self-inspection, and the inspection division self-inspection. Once Niaojuji accepts it, if there is any problem, it will be the problem of Niaojuji.”

"A piece of iron enters the Guangang Division, engraved with the name of the inspector of the iron smelting division, and when it is refined into steel, it enters the Bird Gun Division, engraved with the name of the inspector of the Guangang Division, and made into a bird gun, enters the inspection department, and engraves the name of the inspector of the Bird Gun Division. The name, when it leaves the factory, the gun barrel will be engraved with a certain section of the bird gun department, a certain section of the inspection department, the date of manufacture and the serial number."

Speaking of this, Guan Zunban said very proudly: "Whoever explodes or damages the body can be held accountable and punished!"

"Each division has a reform department, dedicated to improving the technology of each division. The handsome man also said that this is not a one-day effort, but as long as it is done, there will always be results."

Chen Mu nodded and walked through the forts and walls guarded by the Banner Army, and entered the Weapons Bureau. It was like an important military town. Behind the stone walls, there was a hidden cave.

The roaring steam engine is deafening. There are two conveyor belts connecting the iron smelting department and the Guangang department. A steam engine is dedicated to powering this conveyor belt, and a steady stream of small iron ingots are transported from this conveyor belt, falling into the packaging of pig iron and wrought iron. In the pile box, Guangangsi makes the steel, and the steam forging hammer forges the unevenly distributed solid-liquid iron-steel mixture into steel, and then transports it to the Bird Gun Division and the Armor Division.

On the other side of the Iron Smelting Division, it is facing the Cannon Casting Division, where the iron for casting cannons is sent, and then various specifications of cannons are manufactured.

"How is the production of guns now?"

"Last month, the Bureau of Arms conducted an inventory of bird blunderbuss. It produced 170 flintlock blunderbusses, 29 heavy blunderbusses, and [-] cannons weighing more than five catties. Because new models were used last month, there were few guns produced. This month there will be A little more, but that's how it is for the bird's gun, more than [-] shots a day."

In Weigang, a small boat from Haojing boarded two Xiangshan flag troops, trotted all the way into the guard post, and whispered a few words to commander Huang Dexiang, which made the commander's complexion change drastically when he was shot in the Chen Laihai battle. Chen Mu cupped his hands and said, "Chen Shuai, another barbarian businessman who was selling our people in Fujian and Guangxi was arrested in Haojing, and I went to Haojing to kill him!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)