The newly built drill press workshops of the Firearms Supervisory Manufacturing Office and the Bingjia Supervisory Manufacturing Office have been completed and are located on the north bank of the Nanhe River. Each of the two supervisory offices has a drilling machine workshop, which does not interfere with each other. Each workshop has dozens of houses, surrounded by tall walls, and guarded by some piers.
Wei Han, the team leader of Wangjiazhuang, recruited more than 300 people from various military households. In addition, Tan Xiaoda and Xu Le also mobilized some craftsmen, and soon the two drilling machine workshops began to put into production.
Now that spring has begun, the Nanhe River has completely thawed, and the water flow in the river is also very urgent. In the upper reaches, Chen Xun recruited civilians to build a simple dam in more than ten days, which can temporarily meet the needs of hydraulic drilling machines. In the future, it will gradually increase Complete this dam.
On this day, Liu Yan, accompanied by Chen Xun, Wei Han, Tan Xiaoda, and Xu Le, came to the banks of the Nanhe River to inspect the two hydraulic drilling machine workshops.
Not far from the river are two large courtyards. On the side facing the river bank, these two courtyards have no courtyard walls, but directly house several hydraulic drilling machines. Surrounded by everyone, Liu Yan entered the courtyard and saw a huge hydraulic drilling machine, a simple machine made of wood and stone. It was placed by the river. Under the influence of the water flow, the stone plate drove the drill bit to slowly rotate forward.
This hydraulic drilling machine looks very simple, but its advantages are obvious. The drill bit will never be tired when drilling pipes, and it can maintain fixed accuracy and quality. Unlike human or animal power operations, deviations occur due to physical strength and energy.
Moreover, when Liu Yan visited the workshop of the Bingjia Supervision Department, he saw that the hydraulic drilling machines had been modified. The position of the drill bit was replaced by an anvil and a fixed hammer. Driven by the water flow, the drilling machine passed through the gear The movable rod drives the hammer to move up and down continuously and strikes the anvil to achieve a stable output, which is used to make the relevant iron parts of the armor.
This can greatly save manpower. After all, the power of machinery will not decay, is greater than manpower, is stable and controllable, and the efficiency is greatly improved.
According to Liu Yan's estimation, the work efficiency of this simple hydraulic drilling machine is at least several times higher than that of human or animal power. One craftsman can also take care of several drilling machines at the same time. If there is an opportunity for improvement in the future, perhaps the efficiency of a hydraulic drilling machine can be increased by more than ten times.
Of course, this kind of hydraulic drilling machine also has shortcomings, that is, the cost is high, and the drill bit often needs to be replaced during operation. According to the introductions of Tan Xiaoda and Xu Le, the cost of this hydraulic drilling machine is one-to-one with the work efficiency, but Liu Yan It seems that this is still worth it. After all, problems that can be solved with money are not problems. For now, efficiency is still the priority.
Compared with the mass production of muskets and armor parts in the future, these costs are affordable for Liu Yan.
And based on Liu Yan's current situation, there is a huge demand for flint-haired bird muskets. The equipment of the New Army officers alone requires more than 3,000 bird muskets. After daily training, a lot of bird muskets will be consumed. Over time, the production of gunshots must be stable and continuous in order to be able to supply.
Nowadays, there is also a shortage of craftsmen in Lingshan Guard. The promotion of machinery will not cause the problem of taking away the jobs of craftsmen. Instead, it will allow these craftsmen to learn new skills, creating a win-win situation.
Looking at this huge hydraulic drilling machine, Liu Yan was filled with admiration, and then asked: "Master Tan, use this drill machine to drill a blunderbuss tube. How many days will it take to drill a blunderbuss tube?"
Tan Xiao made a rough estimate and said: "Sir, in the past, it took nearly a month to drill the blunderbuss tube manually, but with this kind of hydraulic drilling machine, it can be drilled quickly and vigorously day and night, and within a day, it can be drilled. You can drill out two blunderbuss tubes!"
The bird blunderbuss of the Ming Dynasty is usually eight-sided. The body of the blunderbuss is thick at one end and thin at the other. The thicker one is used as the belly of the blunderbuss, and the thinner one is used as the mirror mouth. When the fire blunderbuss is first made, it is still a rough embryo, and the inside of the chamber is rough and uneven. Such a fire system naturally cannot To fight, you need to use a drill bit to drill out the gun barrel. Bore drilling skills are relatively sophisticated and manpower is limited. In the Ming Dynasty, good drill bits and knives were made of fine steel. The steel was considered to be the best hard steel at that time, but in fact the steel properties were different from those of later generations. There is still a big difference between steel materials. It is still difficult to drill the blunderbuss bore with a drill steel. It is understandable that it takes a month to drill it completely.
Moreover, the bore of the musket was not only finished after drilling, but also needed to use four-edged steel bars to scrape the inside of the bore and make screws for the rear door. Therefore, making a musket at that time usually took a long time and required a large number of skilled workers. With the equipment, the output will not be very high yet. Most of the time is spent drilling the bore of the gun tube.
In fact, at that time, Ming craftsmen already widely used a kind of manual drilling machine, which used wood as a frame. A circular stone plate is used as the inertial wheel, which is tied to a leather strip and pulled manually, so that the stone plate drives the drill bit to rotate the drill bore. This type of drilling machine has improved a lot compared to just using human power to drill the gun tube, but it is still very tiring. Now, with Liu Yan's design intervention and the improvement of the drilling machine to hydraulic power, craftsmen such as Tan Xiaoda and Xu Le have become even more powerful.
The hydraulic drilling machine in front of Liu Yan is an improved version of this manual drilling machine. The drilling speed has been rapidly increased to two drills per day. This improvement in efficiency can be said to be very significant.
At this time, Liu Yan walked around the hydraulic drilling machine a few times. Can this simple machine drill and manage two pipes in one day?
Liu Yan suddenly stopped and said to Tan Xiaoda and Xu Le: "Okay, Mr. Tan and Mr. Xu did a good job in building these hydraulic drilling machines so quickly. I have decided to vigorously promote and build this kind of hydraulic drilling machine in Lingshanwei. , used to make muskets. Initially, we will build 200 hydraulic drilling machines. You two will discuss them separately, allocate them according to your needs, and organize the manpower to build them as soon as possible. "
Everyone took a breath, there are two hundred hydraulic drilling machines, Master Cheng has such a big appetite. As a result, the dam upstream will definitely not be able to meet the demand. It seems that the dam will continue to be rebuilt, or at least heightened and reinforced, to make the water flow in the lower reaches of the Nanhe River more rapid and powerful.
Chen Xun thought for a moment and stepped forward and said: "Sir, if we want to build two hundred hydraulic drilling machines, it will cost a lot of money and food. Besides, judging from the current production capacity of these hydraulic drilling machines, they can also meet the needs of our army. "
Liu Yan said: "You don't have to worry about money and food. Let Director Tan and Director Xu draw up a budget for the related money and food expenses. They will allocate it after approval. As for the issue of production capacity, although it is enough for the time being, blunderbuss are consumables. , Daily live ammunition shooting will also consume the life of the bird musket, so it is necessary to increase the production of bird muskets and store more." 33
There is one more thing Liu Yan did not explain, that is, in the future, when Lingshan Guard's smelting technology becomes more mature, Liu Yan will develop bayonets. With flintlock muskets, fixed-load ammunition, and bayonets, Liu Yan can eliminate the military Long gunners, and even the entire military is equipped with firearms. By then, the demand for flintlock bird muskets will surge.
Therefore, it is necessary to make prerequisite preparations now. There must be a certain amount of flint-haired bird guns in the Lingshan Guard's arsenal.
In the past, craftsmen at the Firearms Manufacturing Department could make about 1,100 flint-haired bird muskets and more than 1,200 pieces of armor in a month.
Now with this kind of hydraulic drilling machine, the production capacity of the Firearms Supervision Manufacturing Department and the Armor Supervision Manufacturing Department has increased a lot. If Lingshanwei builds another 200 hydraulic drilling machines, plus the ten hydraulic drilling machines that have been built now, and one craftsman takes care of five drilling machines, there will be 210 hydraulic drilling machines, and only 42 craftsmen will be needed to look after the rest. The craftsmen can free up their hands to make other parts of the gun.
Not only that, a hydraulic drilling machine can drill 60 blunderbuss tubes a month. All 210 hydraulic drilling machines have been built. Even if half the quantity is used to manufacture blunderbuss tubes, 6,300 mirror tubes can be drilled in a month. Using less manpower, the production efficiency of Lingshanwei craftsmen is six times higher than in the past. Times as much!
This kind of production capacity can be called "terrifying" in today's Ming Dynasty.
With such an obvious technical advantage, although the cost of this hydraulic drilling machine is relatively high, it is still very worthwhile for Liu Yan. He comes from a later generation and is well aware of the advantages of mechanical power over manual power. Given the opportunity to use and improve it, why not use it?
The matter was decided in this way. Not only that, Xu Le had been here these days and even studied how to use hydraulic hammer to forge armor, and he had certain research results. Xu Le also modified the hydraulic drilling machine used to make armor.
So Liu Yan, surrounded by everyone, came to the workshop of the Bingjia Supervision Department. Xu Le showed Liu Yan a strange machine, which was obviously different from the hydraulic drilling machine he had just seen.
Although this machine also uses water power, no matter how Liu Yan looks at it, it looks like a water-powered rice pounding machine he has seen. In fact, Xu Le's source of inspiration was the hydraulic rice pounding machine used by the people in the Ming Dynasty at this time.
At first, the hydraulic rice pounding machinery appeared as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties. The principle is very simple. One end of the long water pipe is connected to the inside of the stone, and the other end is connected to a square water tank. Then bamboo is used as a water pipe to introduce the water into the water tank. When the water tank is filled with water, the weight of the water causes the box to sink, and the water element at the other end is lifted up. When the water in the box is poured out, the box becomes lighter and rises upward. The water element at the other end will fall down and pound the rice heavily. In this way, no manpower is needed at all, and it is very convenient.
Xu Le borrowed the idea of a hydraulic rice pounder, but only improved some parts. The technology is not mature yet. When it is perfected one day, it will be used for hammering armor parts.
After seeing these hydraulic machines, Liu Yan was quite excited. The scientific and technological power under his rule had finally accumulated to a certain extent. As time goes by, when the opportunity matures, will the Ming Dynasty's industrial revolution be born under his rule?
Liu Yan happily praised everyone, and Xu Le clasped his fists and said: "Sir, I would like to ask if eighty of the two hundred hydraulic drilling machines can be specially manufactured to make this kind of improved model. I can In the shortest possible time, these hydraulic drilling machines will be perfected.”
"Okay, let's do it."
Liu Yan then ordered that the craftsmen in the Firearms Supervision Department and the Armor Supervision Department be given an extra month's wages as a reward.
Tan Xiaoda, Xu Le and other craftsmen cheered for joy. Even Wei Han and Chen Xun were rewarded, and everyone was happy.
Some people died, but not completely...
