The third day of May.
During this period, everything in Dapanbao was prosperous. The construction of forts, farming of military camps, and soap workshop production were all going on at the same time. Chen Xun took several Dunjun soldiers to deliver another goods to Wangjiazhuang. They received 3,650 pieces of soap in exchange for 1,460 taels. In addition to some silver left by Liu Yan, At this time, Liu Yan had more than 1,500 taels in his hands, which was considered to be very wealthy.
Chen Xun placed an order at Wanfu Oil Shop for two hundred kilograms of soybean oil for twenty taels of silver. He also bought a dozen cattle and some farm tools for more than a hundred taels of silver.
Liu Yan also spent some money on building the fort, as well as a series of expenses such as wages for the soap workshop. After calculating more than 1,500 taels, there were still more than 1,300 taels left, so that Liu Yan also Some flesh aches.
Now Liu Yan has promoted Zhang Yi and Wang Bo. Zhang Yi leads people to dig stones in the area of Qianhu Station in front of Xiahe Village, Wang Bo supervises the work inside and outside the camp, Chen Xun is in charge of the military camp, and Wang Yue is in charge. He led several Dunjun troops to take charge of the duties inside and outside the fort, and also served as Liu Yan's followers.
As for Miao Shao and Xu Ming, because they were born in Ye Bu Su, Liu Yan also wanted to form a Ye Bu Su, so he asked them to concentrate on selecting suitable Dunjun and young men in the fort. During this period, as long as If there is nothing special, you can do things cheaply, and the main task is to select people.
Seeing that the affairs inside and outside Dapanbao were on track, and now that he had some funds in his hands, Liu Yan thought about expanding his troops. The twelve piers in the fort were too few. There were dozens of military households, a hundred and dozens of With a population of 100,000 people, it would be necessary to form at least a few dozen troops.
However, there were too many affairs in the fort at this time, and manpower was needed in all aspects, especially in the military camp. At least before the autumn harvest, manpower could no longer be reduced, so Liu Yan considered whether to use the evening time for training , at least set up the human and horse frames first.
"Everything is difficult at the beginning. Let's collect some equipment first. I think I'm going to Wangjiazhuang."
The next day, Liu Yan came to Wangjiazhuang.
In the main hall of Baihu Official Hall, Wang Wenzhen couldn't help sighing when he saw Liu Yan with a smile on his face, and said: "Tell me, why did your brother come to see me? I know that you always come to the Three Treasures Hall for anything. "
"Just what I want."
Liu Yan smiled slightly, clasped his fists and said, "My subordinates came here today to ask me to support me with some swords and weapons. As you know, my new camp has no weapons for self-defense."
Wang Wenzhen stroked the stubble on his chin, pondered for a long time, and then said: "Forget it, I still have some spears and guns in the arsenal of Baihu Guantang, so I'll give them to you at a cheaper price."
Liu Yan has also become accustomed to Wang Wenzhen's style of doing things, that is, never transfer anything that can be sold, and never waste anything that can be paid back, so he smiled and said: "Thank you a lot, brother."
After a while, Liu Yan followed Yue Ming, the officer in charge of the garrison, to the arsenal, where some ordnance was piled. Liu Yan looked around and found that most of them were swords, guns and three-eyed blunderbuss, so Liu Yan asked: "Are there no blunderbuss, bows and arrows? "
Yue Ming shook his head like a rattle, so Liu Yan had no choice but to give up.
Liu Yan thought for a while, it was difficult to train archers, the cost of a bow was not cheap, and the cost-effectiveness of the equipment was too low. The quality of the Ming Dynasty bird guns is also worrying. For the time being, swords, guns and three-eyed guns are not bad.
So Liu Yan picked up a spear and looked at it. He saw that the spear was about one foot long. It had an iron head and was shaped like a duck's bill. It was a typical Ming Dynasty standard spear. However, Liu Yan sighed. Unfortunately, these spears were not well preserved. The heads of the spears were all rusty, and the three-eyed guns were also rusty. Liu Yan even thought that these three-eyed guns would explode if fired. chamber.
Liu Yan sighed, such weapons and quality were really not good enough. In the end, he chose thirty long spears and ten three-eyed blunderbuss. The waist knives were expensive and he gave them up, although he still had a lot of money in his hands. , but the family in the fortress has a big business, and there are too many places to spend money, so it is better to save what can be saved.
In addition to these weapons, Liu Yan also spent forty taels of silver to buy more than three hundred kilograms of pig iron. It was better to make it than buy it, so he might as well make it himself. In the future, the standard equipment under his command must be self-made.
Liu Yan returned from Wangjiazhuang with a spear and a three-eyed blunderbuss. He had decided to build a batch of weapons himself. Next was the choice of weapon type. Whether it was from actual combat or his own financial situation, he had to first deal with it. Clear this idea.
In his previous life, Liu Yan had also read Qi Jiguang's new book on chronicles and military training records. He remembered that General Qi once said in the book: axes, axes, hammers, swords, halberds, hooks and sickles can be used by those who are bold and skilled in the arts. It is used to charge the enemy's formation alone, but it cannot be used to teach the soldiers, and it cannot be used as a powerful enemy. As for the palladium, big sticks and thread guns, they were mostly used on horses, so Liu Yan did not consider these weapons for the time being. They were not easy to use and could not afford them.
After some weighing, Liu Yan decided to equip his men with weapons such as waist knives, spears, shields, and firecrackers. The combination of these weapons is not only economical and affordable, but also can be used both long and short for both defense and defense. Coupled with Liu Yan's rigorous training, he will definitely be able to create a strong army that can fight. Liu Yan still has confidence in this.
As a long-range weapon, Liu Yan abandoned bows and arrows and chose fire blunderbuss instead. This was not because bows and arrows were not sharp, but because the cost of manufacturing and purchasing them was too high, and it was too difficult to train qualified archers. It would be difficult to see results within a few years. Liu Yan Yan doesn't have such time, nor the financial resources.
The training of a fire gun player is simple, and a fire gun is relatively cheap. The use of firearms is also the trend of future history. Liu Yan has no reason not to choose a fire gun.
Counting the three-eyed gun in Chen Xun's hand, Liu Yan now has eleven three-eyed guns in his hand, but what he longs for in his heart is to have a bird gun. The effective killing power of the three-eyed gun is only more than twenty steps, so it is used for Cavalry combat is okay, but infantry combat is not enough. The bird gun is much farther away. The effective killing power of a well-made bird gun can reach eighty steps. This will be the main equipment option in the future.
Qi Jiguang once praised the bird gun as the first weapon in battle. It can penetrate armor, hit the target when shooting, and cannot be reached by bows and arrows. Historically, the Qi Army trained bird gunners by setting up a five-foot-tall wooden sign at eighty paces. The birdgunners could hit one out of three shots and hit seven out of ten shots to become skilled in the art.
However, the process of making gunshots is complicated and requires high skills from gunsmiths, so we need to find some good craftsmen. If there are craftsmen who make bird guns in the fort, Liu Yan, the three-eyed gun, will gradually stop using it in the future.
As for the magical weapons such as the Thunder Gun and Lumi Gun in the late Ming Dynasty, Liu Yan also wanted to equip them. However, the production process of these fire guns was complicated and the manufacturing cost was too high. More importantly, the craftsmen who knew how to make these two kinds of fire guns were Very few, comparable to giant pandas, Liu Yan could not achieve mass production and had to give up.
After Liu Yan sorted out the types of future equipment in the past few days, he began to focus on reality. At this time, Liu Yan knew that there was a group of craftsmen in Wangjiazhuang. These people had been making weapons for generations. Some of them must be able to make muskets, so Liu Yan sent Wang Yue there, hoping that Wang Wenzhen could allocate some craftsmen.
Liu Yan prepared weapons to train soldiers. Wang Yue and Chen Xun certainly agreed with both hands. Only Wang Yue was a little confused about Liu Yan's preparation of making blunderbuss, but he didn't say anything. After receiving Liu Yan's task, he went to Wangjiazhuang. And go. After hearing this, Chen Xun was overjoyed and told everyone he met that Liu Yan was discerning and knew the power of firearms. A few days later, Wang Yue came back and brought back six or seven craftsmen, one of whom was the head craftsman. He said that he was proficient in making gunshots.
Two days later, several craftsmen followed Wang Yue to Dapanbao. They saw these people standing in front of Liu Yan. They all had rough hands and feet, and their faces were weathered. Their clothes were all in tatters. As soon as I came down from the journey, I was already so hot that I was sweating profusely.
Liu Yan asked Wang Yue to take a few people to fetch buckets of well water and let them drink water. After they calmed down, Liu Yan invited them into the room to talk.
There is a leader among them, the craftsman, who is the most skilled among them. His name is Tan Xiaoda. He is just thirty years old this year. He is very stout, but his face has a shrewd look. Liu Yan then asked him if he knew how to make a gun.
Tan Xiaodao: "Sir, this is no small boast. When I was in the Lingshan Acropolis Arms Bureau, I was one of the best when it came to making weapons and firecrackers. Even after I arrived at Wangjiazhuang, I still had no skills like this." fall."
Liu Yan looked at his face as if he was remembering, with an expression of pride and hatred. He was originally in Lingshan Acropolis, how could he end up here in Wangjiazhuang? But this was not what Liu Yan cared about. He just casually asked him some knowledge about making muskets.
Tan Xiaoda answered one by one: "Sir, the best way to make a musket is six kilograms, but it consumes a lot of iron. Forty kilograms of rough iron. In the end, only seven or eight kilograms of refined iron can be made. It is very expensive. Small."
According to Tan Xiaoda's estimate, plus the price of iron, charcoal, craftsmen's wages, food, and other expenses, the cost of a blunderbuss is three to five taels, not counting the matching gunpowder and Projectiles, it can be seen that the cost of equipping firearms is not a small sum.
Liu Yan nodded. He had read relevant records in history. Tan Xiaoda's estimate was similar to his. He was an honest person.
However, Liu Yan only cared about the quality of the blunderbuss. Historically, many Ming armies used bird blunderbuss to explode the chambers, which caused the sergeants to be afraid of using blunderbuss. Liu Yan could not take the lives of his men as a joke.
In response to Liu Yan's concerns, Tan Xiaoda said: "Your Majesty, the reason why the bird blunderbuss exploded was because of insufficient materials or because the craftsmen were making tricks and the thickness was uneven, especially in the welding of the blunderbuss tubes. , many craftsmen have insufficient skills, resulting in the gun being blown out. However, the bird gun made by the small ones naturally does not have these problems. As long as the adults can provide sufficient materials, the small ones can make excellent fire guns for the adults. "
Liu Yan nodded. Of course, he could not trust Tan Xiao based on his one-sided words. Historically, the Ming Dynasty actually had very strict quality requirements for gunfire. Regardless of the Ministry of Industry or the Ordnance Bureau of various local health stations, the weapons they produced It must be noted that a certain department, a certain health department, a certain institute, a certain year, and a certain season were created, and a book must be made afterwards for reference at any time.
However, even with so many strict regulations, the quality of the Ming Dynasty's weapons is obvious to all. It can be seen that without strict execution, no matter how optimized and strict the regulations are, it is just a blank sheet of paper and has no practical significance.
Of course, the reason why the quality of the Ming Dynasty's weapons was low was also related to the corruption in the officialdom and the poor craftsmanship system. Of course, Liu Yan did not need to mention this.
Liu Yan said: "Tan Carpenter, what you said is the best, but we must also set a rule: from now on, you will stay in the fort, and your monthly food wages will not be less than yours. From now on, every time you make a If the gun is qualified, I will give you extra rewards. If the gun is unqualified, your corresponding monthly rations will be deducted to compensate for material consumption. If any damage is caused to the sergeants, I will also punish you. How?
Tan Xiaoda gritted his teeth and said loudly: "Okay, let's do what you say."
Before Tan Xiaoda came to Jingbian Fort, he had heard Wang Yue raving about this place, saying that as long as he arrived at Jingbian Fort, he would definitely have enough food and clothing every day, and he would be well fed every day. Now, the craftsmen like them are suffering from hunger and cold every day in Wangjiazhuang. It is not easy to find a place to eat in Nianjing. Tan Xiaoda believes that his skills will convince Liu Yan.
The matter was settled in this way. From now on, Tan Xiao and others will stay in Jingbian Fort. Liu Yan suddenly remembered something and said: "By the way, Mr. Tan, except for the blunderbuss set off by the match rope, do you know how to do it?" Make that kind of revolving fire gun or strike fire gun?"
Liu Yan gave a rough description of the two types of muskets he was talking about. He was talking about the rotating flintlock gun and the percussion-type flintlock gun in history. It would be great if they could do it in one step.
The revolving flintlock gun appeared in the mid-to-late 16th century. It used a gear spring to rub flint to create a fire and ignite the gunpowder. The percussion-type flintlock gun appeared in the early to mid-17th century. The hammer struck the flint to ignite the fire. It became very popular in the next few hundred years. Liu Yan naturally wanted to have such a weapon.
Tan Xiaoda furrowed his brows and thought for a long time. Although he wondered how Liu Yan could think of such a gun, he finally shook his head and said, "I'm ashamed. I really don't know what firearms you mentioned. I need to think carefully about it." That’s it.”
Liu Yan nodded. Wangjiazhuang is a small place after all, and it is impossible for there to be such advanced firearms talents. He is just impatient. We can discuss this later.
Then Tan Xiaoda and others were arranged to stay. Liu Yan gave them three rooms and also selected a place for them as a weapons workshop, which was not far from the soap workshop. Tan Xiaoda and others went happily, looking at the newly built fort curiously along the way.
