The next day, Liu Yan arrived at the firearms supervision office early in the morning. Tan Xiao was waiting at the door early and specially brought Zhao Xing with him.
When the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Office was first established, there were only a dozen craftsmen such as Tan Xiaoda. After continuous recruitment during this period, as well as the support of Liu Yan and Wang Wenzhen, the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Office now has more than 20 craftsmen. There are more than 40 craftsmen in this household, and there are several pairs of craftsmen, father and son, who work together in Bingjiafang.
In addition, in order to supplement the manpower of the Firearms Supervision Department, Liu Yan specially mobilized more than fifty strong women from Dapanbao to assist. Now there is no shortage of manpower here.
Later, in order to make custom-loaded paper shells, Liu Yan not only selected some old and weak men and women from the craftsmen's households, but also selected some old and weak men and women from the fort to come to help. All in all, including craftsmen and ordinary workers, there are now more than a hundred people working in the Firearms Supervision Department.
Liu Yan, accompanied by Tan Xiaoda and Zhao Xin, began the inspection.
From the gunpowder workshop, armor workshop, and then to the firearms workshop, Liu Yan saw Tan Xiaoda's explanations and introductions along the way. He saw that most of these craftsmen's skills were passed down from father to son, and the rules for recruiting apprentices were also very strict. Those skilled Most of the master craftsmen in the industry have their own separate anvil position for the furnace box. Except for some key parts, most of the instruments are made by their own apprentices, and they are the final check.
Liu Yan has strict requirements for the quality of weapons, which reflects on Tan Xiaoda. He also has extremely high requirements for craftsmen. Every weapon produced has a number. If there is a problem, the craftsman and the steward can be easily traced. . For Tan Xiaoda now, Liu Yan thinks highly of him. Every time he makes a batch of weapons, he has relevant rewards. In Dapanbao, he is considered a high-income person, even Chen Xun, Wang Yue, etc. Several small flag officers were not as well paid as Tan Xiaoda, and he did not want to ruin his reputation.
Liu Yan and others looked inside the Firearms Supervision Office for a while, and saw that there was a lot of tinkling inside. The craftsmen in various workshops were working enthusiastically, and their enthusiasm for labor was very high, which formed a clear contrast with the craftsmen in other wards. Compared.
Liu Yan looked carefully and saw that there were anvils, hammers, pliers, furnace boxes and other equipment in front of each ironworker. Woodworking equipment is simpler, that is, axes, saws, planes, chisels, etc.
Next to the Bingjia Workshop, there is an assembly room for gun guns. After several parts of the gun are made, they are assembled here. Here, there are many simple gun beds and other items, led by Tan Xiaoda Some craftsmen take charge personally. On the other side of the assembly room, there are also the assembly of weapons such as swords, guns, and armor. Due to the low skill content, many old people, the weak and women are already qualified for the job. After the finished product is finished, Tan Xiaoda signs for it and sends it to the warehouse collectively.
Next to the assembly room, there is another large room. Here, all the people are old and weak men and women. Only a few craftsmen are responsible for inspection and supervision.
These workers make match ropes here. Those match ropes are made from hemp ropes or tightly twisted cloth strips, soaked in a certain solution and dried, so that they can burn slowly during combat.
In the newly built courtyard where paper shells are packed, some women carefully weighed the gunpowder and put a certain amount of gunpowder and projectiles inside. Then some people packaged it, each box containing fifty bullets. Everything was so orderly. sequence.
Because the rules formulated by Liu Yan are reasonable and the quality of the products produced is directly related to everyone's reward wages, these craftsmen are working hard. When Liu Yan came in, they didn't even bother to take a look.
"Let's go, I want to see the assembly process of the gun again."
Tan Xiaoda hurriedly led the way: "Commander A, please come this way."
When Liu Yan and others arrived at the firearms workshop, they immediately saw a stout middle-aged man wearing a leather skirt and assembling a gun.
Liu Yan motioned to everyone not to disturb him by talking, and then stood aside and watched with interest.
The man gritted his teeth and screwed a screw into the female thread at the end of the mirror tube. This screw is screwed into the end of the mirror to hold air. If the sergeant wants to clean the inner wall of the tube, the screw can also be screwed out. Then there was a series of operations. The man only spent a stick of incense to assemble a brand new blunderbuss.
When Liu Yan greeted the man with a smile, he looked at the thick black gun in his hand with satisfaction, as if looking at his beloved woman.
Then the man saw that it was Liu Yan who was coming, so he hurriedly came over to salute. Liu Yan also asked the man some questions about the assembly of the gun, but the man also refused to answer them one by one.
After Liu Yan and others inspected the area, he said to Tan Xiaoda: "Okay, now I see that the production in the Firearms Supervision Department is on track. Let's go to the department room to rest for a while and talk about something."
Tan Xiaoda respectfully led Liu Yan to his office room and asked someone to serve tea and water quickly. Zhao Hao also followed and stood respectfully beside Tan Xiaoda.
In fact, Liu Yan came to see Tan Xiaoda today. In addition to checking the production status of the firearms manufacturing department, he also had other ideas, such as making some grenades, landmines, and artillery.
According to the historical data Liu Yan knew, the original version of landmines had been widely used as early as the early Ming Dynasty, which was not surprising at all. During the Jiajing period, Zeng Rui, the governor of the three border areas, created many landmines in Shaanxi, causing the Mongolians in the border areas to suffer a lot. However, the mine requires the use of a steel-wheeled fire device. I wonder if Tan Xiaoda has such talent for making it.
There are also hand grenades. With the Ming Dynasty's technology, making fuses should not be a problem. However, the black powder needs to be very powerful to be powerful compared to grenades. A grenade weighing seven or eight pounds cannot be thrown very far and cannot blow up the enemy. There is a high possibility that one of your own people will be killed. The effect in field battles is still somewhat useful in defending the city.
As for the artillery, Liu Yan thought he might as well forget it after thinking about it. Making artillery requires relatively high skills and requires a lot of iron and copper materials. It would be more cost-effective for him to shoot more blunderbuss now and use all the resources where he needs them most. place to go.
So Liu Yan expressed his thoughts. After listening to Liu Yan's words, Tan Xiaoda pondered for a long time and said, "Don't blame me, Commander. My subordinates know this mine. As for the grenade, after listening to Commander's description, It should be the so-called Sky-shaking Thunder. However, I don’t know much about these two firearms, I have only heard of them. If you want to mass-produce them, you will need time to study the technology."
Liu Yan just nodded after hearing this. He was a little impatient now. Not long after Dapanbao was founded, he wanted to develop all kinds of sharp firearms. It seemed that the pace was a bit too big.
So Liu Yan asked about the production of bird guns: "How many bird guns can be made in a month now? How many pairs of armor can be made?"
"Chief Armor, as long as the iron materials can keep up, we will stop making knives, guns and other equipment. With the current production capacity of the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Department, we can make fifty muskets and ten pairs of iron armor every month..."
Now that the manufacturing process of the Firearms Supervision Department has been smoothed out, and the craftsmen there have thoroughly mastered the technology of gun guns, as well as the heavy reward of silver, the output of gun guns has increased a lot, and one craftsman can complete it in about half a month. You can make one to manage it. That's why Tan Xiaoda dared to guarantee this.
However, Liu Yan was a little disappointed after hearing this. Now that Dapanbao has enough manpower, he still wants to finish this period of time and expand the number of Dun soldiers and horses under his command. By then, he will increase the proportion of gunmen and gunmen, and implement all The army was wearing armor, but such output made Liu Yan a little hesitant.
"Can the Firearms Manufacturing Department increase the production of muskets and armor, for example, make two hundred muskets and forty pairs of armor a month?"
Tan Xiaoda felt a little embarrassed when he heard this, and then settled the account for Liu Yan.
Let’s not mention the production capacity problem of the Firearms Manufacturing Office, but let’s talk about the supply of iron materials:
If five pounds of wrought iron is used to produce one pound of fine iron, one blunderbuss requires eight pounds of refined iron, one hundred blunderbuss requires four thousand kilograms of wrought iron, and two hundred blunderbuss requires eight thousand kilograms of wrought iron.
There is also iron armor. A pair of iron armor requires more than thirty kilograms of fine iron. Liu Yan requires forty pairs of iron armor to be made every month, which requires more than six kilograms of wrought iron a month.
Calculated in this way, to make 200 muskets and 40 pieces of iron armor a month, the Firearms Supervision Department needs more than 14,000 kilograms of wrought iron every month, equivalent to more than seven tons of iron.
Such a number would naturally be nothing in later generations, but in the Ming Dynasty at this time, this was an extremely huge number. I'm afraid even the entire Lingshan Guard doesn't have this much iron material pulled down from above every year.
After listening, Liu Yan also frowned. It was really uncomfortable that such problems would arise if he could not control the source of raw materials.
Liu Yan pondered and thought to himself: "It seems that if there is a chance, I will have to find out if there are any iron mines around Dapanbao. When the time comes, build an iron mine and bring Wang Wenzhen in as a cover. It can also solve a lot of problems." question."
Seeing Liu Yan pondering, Tan Xiaoda thought that Liu Yan was not satisfied with his answer, so he said: "Chief Armor, in fact, it is not necessary to use all iron materials to make armor. Cotton armor, leather armor can also be made. It can also protect against blunderbuss and arrows."
Cotton armor can indeed effectively protect firearms. For example, when the Eight Banners soldiers made cotton armor, they soaked cotton and then beat it repeatedly to make very thin cotton sheets. After embellishing multiple such cotton sheets into thick cotton cloth, An iron piece is placed between two layers of cotton cloth, and the inside and outside are fixed with copper nails, and the cotton armor is made. This kind of armor has a very good defense effect against firearms and can also protect against cold in winter.
Compared with iron materials, cotton is also more common in Daming North, and its price is lower than iron. However, Liu Yan considered that there were wars everywhere and the supply of cotton, cloth and other raw materials was equally unstable, and he would also be controlled by others.
If you open an iron smelting plant, it will be easier to control military raw materials. You don't need to worry about the source of raw materials all the time. The same is true for leather armor. Besides, Qing soldiers mostly used bows and arrows. Starting from the north, cotton armor was used, and iron armor had better protection against bows and arrows.
Liu Yan made up his mind to use blunderbuss and armor. He said to Tan Xiao: "Don't worry about the iron materials. I will find a way. You just lead the craftsmen to make the blunderbuss and armor."
Liu Yan has made up his mind to spend a lot of money to purchase iron materials now. He can purchase iron materials at any cost to ensure supply. During this period, Liu Yan will find ways to find iron ore that can be mined.
Seeing what Liu Yan said, Tan Xiaoda had no choice but to accept the order respectfully. After all, as long as the supply of iron materials is sufficient, two hundred blunderbuss and forty pairs of armor a month are not impossible, and it will cost a little at most. It’s just strength.
Finally, Tan Xiaoda looked at Liu Yan again and mentioned the saltpeter matter. Zhao Yan, who had been waiting for a long time, also looked over anxiously.
Liu Yan smiled when he saw this and said, "Okay, now that everything is said and done, let's talk about the saltpeter issue."
