A large number of wooden boxes containing Hongxing's three-year-old matchlock guns (imitation Spanish light matchlock guns) are being piled on the newly opened Nanjing Pukou Pier. The dock workers used pedal cranes and wheelbarrows to move these boxes onto several ships that were about to be used. Westbound Yangtze River sand barge.

The officers of the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of War and several officers of the Pingxi Fan Army who followed Wu Sangui to Nanjing took notebooks and documents to compare the guns to be shipped. Each box must be opened before being shipped on the ship. Check the box, check the quantity, and check whether the accessories and guns are in good condition. Only after they are correct can you repack the box, affix the seal, and carry it on the ship.

You really can’t be careless at all!

Zhu Cihong and Wu Sangui were now in a corner of the pier, walking around seemingly casually with Chen Keqian, the director of the Ordnance Department. From time to time, they opened a box that had not been sealed and took out the musket inside to play with it a few times.

Chen Keqian saw Zhu Cixiang and Wu Sangui showing satisfied expressions, and quickly added a few sentences: "This batch of muskets sent to Shaanxi are all products of Nanjing Putie, Shanghai Shenyang Iron and Steel, Quanzhou Zhengtie, and the quality is very reliable... ..The three major ironworks have now hired many master craftsmen from the Netherlands to build refining furnaces, forges, 150-300 pound hydraulic hammers, hydraulic drilling machines, hydraulic blowers and variable speed reservoirs, and also introduced their Sheet metal method.

In addition, the Daye Iron Works has now built a large blast furnace with a height of more than one foot. It has opened a ginseng iron furnace specially for the military industry. It uses charcoal to refine the ore and then uses lime to remove the slag. The smelted pig iron is then transported to Nanjing. , Refined in Shanghai, Quanzhou Zhengtie uses Fujian iron... With high-quality pig iron, it is forged and cooked with a water-powered sledgehammer. The wrought iron produced is of excellent quality, and is then used to produce muskets and plate armor. , the yield rate can be greatly improved.”

This Chen Keqian was born into a family of craftsmen in Tianjin Wei - the craftsman household system in the Ming Dynasty collapsed in the middle to late period. The craftsmen no longer served, but instead paid taxes. After paying the taxes, they would run their own business. Those who did well became workshop owners, and those who did poorly became working people. The Chen family of Tianjin Wei Blacksmith was the best among the craftsmen, and they made a fortune by taking advantage of the east wind of the Wanli War to Aid the Dynasty. There are also clans The children of the middle school were selected, and now they not only had money, but also had political protection.

It is said that Chen Keqian's father's generation is already the first-class wealthy family in Tianjin Acropolis. However, their ironmaking skills are not good... They have been in the iron industry for generations and have made a fortune from ironmaking, which does not mean they are iron smelting experts. . This only shows that their shoddy products just meet the needs of the poor Ming Dynasty!

With the little fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty, so many clans, officials, and armies had to pay for food and pay. The officials in charge had to make some money, and how much money was left to buy equipment? Of course, the cheaper the better... .If there are good things, those made in Foshan are good. If they are not good, they are made in Macao. If they are not good enough, they can be imported.

But the problem is that there is no money!

Good ironware had to be smelted with high-quality "ginseng iron" and charcoal, which was very expensive. At that time, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to purchase large quantities of ironware, so Tianjin Ironware Chen, which was good at making crude ironware, came into being.

However, in the two battles of Tianjin Guards, the Chen family of Ironware was completely defeated, and they did not dare to stay in Tianjin anymore, so they had to become "righteous citizens". The eldest son of the Chen family, Chen Keqian, who had already become a scholar, joined the army. , relying on his knowledge of smelting and forging, he became a quartermaster.

Later, he retired from the army and engaged in business, and became the general manager of Nanjing Pudong Railway under the Royal Chamber of Commerce. Under his leadership, Pudong Railway, which had sufficient funds, began to hire a large number of foreign craftsmen and introduce Western iron smelting technology - in fact, he introduced

These technologies, including refining furnaces (that is, steel-frying furnaces), hydraulic machinery, drilling machines, blowers, etc., are all available in China. But they are relatively primitive and there is no big demand. Who will spend money and time to improve them?

Now if you want to improve on your own, you have to spend a lot of time and money to make up for it, which is not as economical as importing it... Anyway, there is no concept of intellectual property protection these days. If you copy it, it is your own!

In fact, the Portuguese also copied Foshan's iron smelting technology, and also copied China's low-cost hard sail technology. When the Ottomans attacked Constantinople, they also invited the Christian Hungarian cannon master Urban to cast it.

The Urban cannon!

Of course, even if the most advanced hydraulic hammers, hydraulic drilling machines and other processes are introduced, it is still impossible to use the assembly line method to produce gun barrels and plate armor - because the hydraulic hammers imported from Europe are only heavy in weight and have adjustable speed (

There are variable speed gears and variable speed reservoirs), but they still cannot replace experienced craftsmen for forging.

This kind of hydraulic hammer is actually a tool used to repeatedly forge wrought iron to improve its quality, output, and change its shape. However, it can only hammer out medium-thick wrought iron plates, not thin plates, nor can it be used to pound through

Steel plates processed by the "Su Gang Method" - the power of the hydraulic hammer is too great, and the impact point is not easy to control. It will smash the relatively hard and brittle steel plates!

However, with low-cost and high-quality wrought iron medium-thick plates and high-efficiency hydraulic drilling machines, the efficiency of processing gun barrels and plate armor has been greatly improved. The assembly line cannot do this, but mass production has become possible.

The three major ironworks, plus several medium-sized ironworks in Foshan, can produce a total of 6,000 Hongxing three-year-style muskets per month. Plus the output of a number of small factories, they can operate at full capacity for a month.

12,000 high-quality Hongxing three-year-old models can be produced.

In addition, there are many crudely made Hongxing three-year-old muskets. There is no way to estimate the specific production volume.

However, the output of plate armor is still relatively low. This needs to be customized, otherwise it will not be worn! However, the output of simple breastplates and iron helmets is easy to increase. It is nothing more than finding more people to bang hammers. The Ming Dynasty has many people!

Therefore, by the fifth year of Hongxing's reign, the Ming Dynasty's military output was enough to supply hundreds of thousands of Ming troops for rigorous training and combat needs. There was also spare capacity to supply vassal armies such as Pingxi Town and Shuofang Town.

"Uncle Chang," Zhu Cixiang handed the musket to Wu Sangui and said with a smile, "This time I will give you 10,000 muskets made in the third year of Hongxing... which is the amount received by the Ministry of War in one month (there are also 2,000

They were sold to the relatively wealthy feudal towns such as Dongning Army, Jinghaijun, and Jinou Army), and they are all given to you!

You have plenty of horses to defeat the Western Army, and now you have muskets, so you should also form thousands of musketry cavalry! Phalanx soldiers are also needed, so build 20 battalions of them first... I will give you 30 3-pound cannons first, build 10

A half company (meaning half a company), half is assigned to the cavalry, and the other half follows the infantry."

Wu Sangui was overjoyed when he heard this and asked: "Your Majesty, do you want me to send troops from Shaanxi to attack the laborers in Henan Prefecture?"

Among the three vassals of Zhongzhou in the Qing Dynasty, Azig's son Lao Qin was undoubtedly the most powerful and the most stubborn!

His Ama Azig and a bunch of brothers and sisters are now controlled by Duduo. If he dares to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, it will be a tragedy!

Moreover, Duduo treated him well, allowing him to seize the throne and replenishing him with a batch of equipment.

"No need." Zhu Cixi waved his hand, "You are the military governor of Pingxi and the governor of Anxi... You have only one mission, and that is Pingxi! You will be given the responsibility to deal with both the Yeerqiang Khanate and the Khoshuote Khanate.

In addition, you must also pay attention to the Beiting Army... The guns and cannons I gave you will also be given to Beiting! If Batur Hutaiji dares to rely on the sharp guns at hand, you will be ruthless

Teach him a lesson!"

Wu Sangui was not afraid of the Mongols, so he smiled and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, these Oara people are no match for us!"

Zhu Cihong nodded: "The hometown of Anxi is already sparsely populated, and after being ravaged by Batur Hutaiji, the population is even smaller... You need to organize more thousands of households to pacify the Western Army and move to Anxi."

, the expenses will be paid by the imperial court! The Anxi army will calculate them separately, and the losses of each thousand households will be subsidized by the court within 20 years after they move to Anxi. A thousand households with sufficient personnel can subsidize up to 6,000 taels of silver a year for 20 years.
Chapter completed!