More than ten days later, Liu Yan came to the firearms supervision office again.
At this time, all the craftsmen, equipment, and materials supervising the manufacture of firearms had been moved from Dapanbao to Wangjiazhuang. The newly built Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Office occupies a large area, with the size of three courtyards, and each courtyard has its own cross-courtyard. It is at least twice the size of the original one, and is even larger than Liu Yan's Hundred Households Government Hall. Be bigger.
Nowadays, the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Office has undergone several expansions and renovations and has become quite large. Moreover, Tan Xiaoda has indeed added five new animal-drawn lathes, and several more are under construction and will be put into use soon. By then, the output of the Firearms Supervision Manufacturing Department will be greatly increased.
On this day, Liu Yan took Miao Shao, Xu Ming, and Yue Ming to a test firing site in the Firearms Supervision Office. Tan Xiaoda also accompanied him. Just a few dozen steps in front of everyone, there was a wooden Human shaped archery target.
Liu Yan pointed to the human-shaped archery target in front and said to Miao Shao, Xu Ming, and Yue Ming: "The flint-haired bird gun has been successfully developed. Today we will test its power. If there is no problem after the test firing, The Firearms Manufacturing Office can then go into full production."
As soon as he finished speaking, Tan Xiaodong walked over with a shiny black gun. Miao Shao, Xu Ming, and Yue Ming all widened their eyes when they saw this. The bird gun looked like it was made with precision at first glance. It is much stronger than the ordinary bird guns equipped in the Ming army.
"Is this the flint-haired bird gun we made ourselves?"
I saw that the blunderbuss tube made of high-quality wrought iron shone with the unique light of metal. It was black and shiny and extremely charming, and various parts made of fine steel were embellished with it. The gun body of the bird blunderbuss looked shining. In the eyes of Xu Ming and Yue Ming, the whole gun is more attractive than the beautiful woman!
Miao Shao smiled and said: "It looks good, it looks really good. If the whole army is equipped with this, no bandit or bandit can stop a volley of fire!"
Liu Yan nodded with a smile and said: "That's the truth. No matter what kind of powerful enemy it is, in front of such sophisticated firearms, they are just like chickens and dogs!"
Then Liu Yan added: "Of course, the premise is that our own soldiers are also elite. Only when sophisticated firearms are handed into the hands of elite soldiers can they exert their true power."
In fact, the firearms equipped by the Ming army were very advanced in history, and they have developed a variety of firepower outputs. Even at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty still had sophisticated firearms such as Thunder Guns, Lumi Guns, and Divine Machine Cannons. Even if these firearms were used against the Eight-Nation Alliance in the late Qing Dynasty, they would not necessarily be at a disadvantage!
But even with so many sophisticated firearms, they still couldn't stop Li Zicheng's army of bandits, or the strong bows and fast horses of the Manchu Tatars. Why?
It is because of the inhumanity of the soldiers that the army in the late Ming Dynasty, except for a very small number of elite soldiers, has been blocked to the core. Such soldiers, even if they are equipped with automatic rifles, still cannot pacify the world. 33
Liu Yan sighed in his heart, and then said to Tan Xiaoda: "Mr. Tan, try firing a gun, whether it is a mule or a horse, it will come out for a ride!"
Tan Xiaoda chuckled, feeling extremely itchy in his heart. After receiving the order, he walked to the table in front of everyone, skillfully loading, loading, and compacting the powder. Every step was so smooth that the others were surprised. .
Xu Ming looked at Liu Yan in disbelief and said in a low voice: "Will Mr. Tan still shoot? Why didn't I know?"
Liu Yan rolled his eyes at Xu Ming and said in a low voice: "It's rare to see this, but it's strange. Mr. Tan deals with muskets every day, so what's so surprising about being able to fire muskets?"
If there were gunners from the Shenji Battalion of the Ming Army present at this time, they would definitely say that Tan Xiaoda's operation was extremely unfamiliar and useless. Even in Liu Yan's view, Tan Xiaoda's operation was also very substandard. But for a craftsman like Tan Xiaoda, it is good to be able to do it so smoothly.
After a while, Tan Xiao finished filling the stool, and then stood about forty steps away from the target and picked up the blunderbuss.
With the black gun barrel, the precise sight of the mountain, and the distant target at three points and one line, Tan Xiaoda held his breath and pulled the trigger.
"boom!"
A clear roar suddenly sounded, and a burst of fire suddenly appeared from the gun tube. The lead bullet hit the archery target with lightning speed, and immediately sent sawdust flying everywhere, and the target was made of hardwood. A hole was left in the target, and the huge force even made several cracks in the arrow target.
At this time, Miao Shao, Xu Ming, and Yue Ming, as well as the craftsmen around them, were stunned. Many of them had seen firearms such as bowl-mouth blunderbuss and three-eyed blunderbuss equipped by the army open fire, but Far less powerful than this flint-haired bird gun!
Miao Shao said excitedly: "If this hit someone, there would be no chance of survival!"
Yue Ming also said excitedly: "Sir, this gun is really a magical weapon!"
Liu Yan was also a little surprised. This kind of power was probably much stronger than the captured blunderbuss. It should be the result of the fine workmanship of Tan Xiaoda and others.
"good!"
Liu Yan walked up to Tan Xiaoda with a smile. At this time, Tan Xiaoda also laughed and handed the blunderbuss to Liu Yan with both hands.
Liu Yan stroked the bird musket and said to everyone: "When this flint-haired bird musket is mass-produced, hundreds of bird muskets from hundreds of households in Wangjiazhuang will each have a shot in their hands, and they will line up and fire in volleys. Any enemy will be overwhelmed." hit!"
"What about the cavalry?"
At this time Xu Ming said: "What if it is the Mongols or the cavalry of the slaves?"
Liu Yan hesitated for a moment and asked Tan Xiaoda, "Mr. Tan, how far can this blunderbuss go?"
"It was about forty steps just now. Judging from the power of lead bullets, the maximum range of this exquisite bird gun should be about eighty steps. At a distance of about forty steps, it should be able to break the enemy's armor!"
Liu Yan nodded, and then said to Xu Ming: "This distance can already cause heavy casualties to the enemy's cavalry. The rest depends on you, the flag officer of the cavalry post."
Xu Ming smiled confidently, obviously knowing a lot about himself and his brothers.
At this time, Miao Shao said: "Sir, what if the enemy has a large number of archers? The range of a walking bow is almost the same."
Liu Yan said with a smile: "If we fight against the enemy's archers, our soldiers may not die if they are shot by a bow and arrow, but if the enemy is shot by a blunderbuss, they will escape death or be crippled! Moreover, training a How long does it take to be an archer? How long does it take to make a bow? No one can't train for a year and a half. And how long does it take to make a musket? A month at most! And a musket player only needs to train for a few days. You can go into battle and fire!”
After hearing this, everyone suddenly realized, Yue Ming even said with some excitement: "The time required to build a bird gun and train a bird gun shooter is far less than that of an archer! Within a certain period of time, the enemy's archers will die. One, but our Wangjiazhuang can continuously train qualified gunners!"
As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at Liu Yan in surprise and said to themselves, "It seems that your Excellency has already thought of this!"
After that, everyone came to the reception room of the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Office. Liu Yan said to Tan Xiaoda: "Master Tan, now the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Office will divide the entire manufacturing process of flint-haired bird muskets into gun tube manufacturing and gun body manufacturing." , the three major steps of assembling the entire gun, instead of one blacksmith being responsible for the production of the entire gun as in the past, which can greatly improve production efficiency. At the same time, each craftsman must have his own unique number, and when he creates the gun Each gun part has its own serial number printed on it, and once there is a quality problem with a certain part, the relevant craftsman must be found based on the serial number and punished!”
Liu Yan didn't want his men to be equipped with "iron firecrackers" like those in the late Ming Dynasty, so he had to ensure the quality of the cannons!
Tan Xiaoda also wrote down Liu Yan's requests one by one, for fear of missing any point.
Liu Yan continued: "Mr. Tan, if the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Department does its best to make flint-haired bird muskets, how many can it be made per month?"
Tan Xiaoda pondered for a while and then said: "Now the Firearms Supervision Department needs to mobilize some people to start making powder and lead bullets. There should be more than a hundred people who can be used to make flintlock bird muskets, but the gun tubes There are only 80 craftsmen in our country, so we can probably shoot 100 to 120 blunderbuss per month."
Liu Yan shook his head and said, "No! The output is too small!"
"This is already the fastest speed."
Liu Yan said: "In this way, the Firearms Supervision Department will allocate some reliable craftsmen, and all of them will be used to make flint-haired bird muskets."
"In addition, the simple animal-drawn lathe for polishing gun tubes must continue to be built. The Firearms Manufacturing Office must increase the production of flintlock gun tubes to 500 guns per month in the shortest possible time!"
"Five hundred strokes a month!"
At this time, Tan Xiaoda's eyes widened and he jumped up from his chair and said: "Sir, even if we continue to build lathes, it is impossible to build five hundred flint-haired bird muskets in a month! This is impossible! "
Liu Yan said with a smile: "Nothing is difficult in the world, only those who are willing to do it! Mr. Tan, if the firearms supervision department is short of people, each craftsman can find an apprentice in Baihu Institute. If there is a shortage of money and materials, Mr. Yue Banner can give full support . But, I only want the output, the output that guarantees quality!”
Tan Xiaoda said helplessly: "But what can I do?"
"I have!"
Liu Yan smiled and said: "I have a way!"
Everyone was also frightened by the huge output required by Liu Yan. They all sympathized with Tan Xiaoda and believed that Tan Xiaoda could not complete this task.
And Tan Xiaoda believes that the most important thing at the moment is to transform the original matchlock bird guns. The current bird gun production of the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Department can already meet the demand. Unless Liu Yan wants to expand the army again, but with the current Wangjiazhuang population base, is this possible?
At this time, everyone was very curious when they heard that Liu Yan had a way to increase the output of the firearms manufacturing department in a short period of time, and they all looked over.
Tan Xiaoda couldn't wait to ask more questions.
Liu Yan said: "Mr. Tan, tell the craftsmen at the Firearms Manufacturing Department that from today on, in addition to their monthly money, I will reward the craftsmen with one or two for every flintlock gun of qualified quality they make. , Give the apprentice five cents of silver! However, if anyone uses a crude gun to rush the work, then I will not only fine him ten times the cost, but also send him to the salt drying field to do hard work! "
"Moreover, if the monthly output of a craftsman's apprentice exceeds that of the master for three consecutive months, no matter how many years the apprentice has just studied, he can be promoted to a craftsman and enjoy craftsman-level treatment."
"If a craftsman's monthly output is exceeded by his apprentices, he will be fined a symbolic amount!"
Tan Xiaoda was surprised when he heard this, lowered his head and thought for a while, then his face turned rosy and said: "This is a good idea, sir! If this happens, I am afraid that the craftsmen and the craftsmen of the Firearms Manufacturing Department will Apprentices have to work day and night to make flint-haired bird muskets. Everyone is chasing each other and working overtime. With the help of animal-drawn lathes, it may be possible to make five hundred flint-haired bird muskets in one month. of!"
"certainly!"
Liu Yan said with a smile: "In addition, one thing that needs to be paid attention to is that all flint-haired bird guns made by the Firearms Supervision Department must ensure that the dimensions of each part are uniform, especially the caliber of the gun tube, and the errors must be strictly controlled. All parts of the flintlock bird gun must be interchangeable, otherwise it will be regarded as a shoddy waste product!"
Tan Xiaoda couldn't help frowning when he heard this, and said in a deep voice: "This is very difficult. What size should be used?"
Some people died, but not completely...
