The military camps and classrooms in the base area are under construction and will be completed before the autumn harvest.
There will be a large auditorium that can accommodate six to seven hundred people for public classes, performances, and meetings.
Huang Yi's schedule is full, so he feels that the days are passing quickly.
With more than 5,000 people and 4,000 large animals busy all day long, the base area is simply changing with each passing day.
The steel-making soil blast furnace using air temperature technology has been completed, and the cement plant, no, it can only be called a cement kiln, is ready for production.
As for what grade the cement can reach in future generations, leave it alone, as long as it is close to the strength of ordinary Portland cement.
Huang Yi had known before that the area north of the Zhangjiakou Great Wall was rich in mineral resources, including coal, iron, lead, copper, silver, tungsten, gold, refractory clay, limestone, dolomite, silica, asbestos, graphite, quartz stone, etc.
The largest reserves are, of course, anthracite and bituminous coal, which are said to possibly exceed 200 million tons, and hematite reserves are also large, exceeding 80 million tons.
All in all, it can be said that this place is full of mineral deposits, and the resources have the conditions to develop early industry. This is one of the main reasons why Huang Yi decided to choose to establish a foothold here.
Of course, with the production scale of the Ming Dynasty, tens of millions of tons of mineral deposits are a joke. A few thousand tons is enough to keep the craftsmen in the base busy.
In order to save manpower, Lan Jinkui, Qi Dashan and others did not explore new deposits. Instead, they found several mines that had been mined before and by whom.
The base area currently only operates a self-sufficient production model, sending more than 300 young men to dig coal and iron ore for sufficient use.
Blacksmiths have gradually begun to use the steel produced in the base area to make Lumi guns and bird guns.
This month's output can reach 20 guns, and Lan Jinkui stated that he will definitely be able to complete 25 Lumi guns next month.
The production model of component subdivision has begun to be implemented, and the number of craftsmen who can carry out standardized production according to drawings is increasing.
The most time-consuming and labor-intensive part is still the making of the barrel. A drill press using animal power is already being manufactured and should be put into production by the end of the year.
Huang Yi finally used two rifled barrels to assemble a unique minigun.
In fact, two of them are assembled, but the firing device and sight are unique, and it is estimated that they will not be able to be copied within dozens or hundreds of years.
Therefore, the second minigun lacking these two things is just a semi-finished product.
After the rifling of the finished product is smoothed, the firing device can be removed and the semi-finished product can be assembled.
During this period of time, Zhang Dong worked hard to practice loading and shooting the Rumi gun, which was very effective. He has already achieved 80% accuracy when shooting humanoid targets at fifty paces.
The Rumi gun is just a musket and cannot achieve precise shooting. A score of 89% out of 10 is already considered a good shooting talent.
Huang Yi was too busy to practice reloading, so he put Zhang Dong in charge.
Zhang Dong is now a governor who is dissatisfied with the general banner. He manages thirty-six soldiers. These are not cavalry, but musketeers, and they are all practicing Rumi guns.
In the future, these musketeers will have to be trained into infantry that can move on horseback.
The prairie is so vast that if the troops cannot move quickly, they will lose the initiative. Therefore, in the future, Huang Yi's infantry will only be unable to charge into the formation on horseback. When marching on horseback, the speed cannot be slower than the cavalry.
Among the thirty-six musketeers managed and led by Zhang Dong were Bao Zhide and He Shiyuan, who had served as slaves for seven or eight years.
Because they had common experiences and were fellow villagers, Zhang Dong got along best with Bao Zhide and He Shiyuan, and he always took them to accompany Huang Yi for shooting tests.
Although the riding skills of the three of them are not as good as those of the Mongolian knights, they are similar. They may not be good at riding combat, but the horse riding is not strenuous at all.
Completing the minigun does not mean that you can snipe the enemy. You have to adjust the center of sight through at least dozens of shots, and adjust the error between the scope scale, the center of sight, and the bullseye.
This is a delicate job, and of course Huang Yi did it himself.
After spending half a month getting familiar with and adapting to this unique mini gun, Huang Yi was able to achieve a score of no less than eight rings in about 300 steps.
If you are shooting at a target within 200 steps, you can basically achieve more than ninety-five rings in ten shots.
Huang Yi also asked Zhang Dong to try using a minigun to aim at a target of 200 steps and fire ten shots. He found that he hit the target every time and actually achieved a good score of 83 rings.
Therefore, Huang Yi encouraged him to use firearms, saying that as long as he could reload skillfully and improve his hit rate, he would be more useful on the battlefield than an archer using a rifle.
In the past, Zhang Dong had somewhat inferior self-esteem.
That's because he was born with low strength. Even though he trained hard, he couldn't defeat his fellow comrades in sparring with spears, swords and shields, and his results were often at the bottom.
Archery is even more difficult for him, because he cannot draw a strong bow and cannot shoot arrows like Huang Dazhi, Huang Dayong, Huang Dapeng, and Bi Daxi.
Now he's fine. Since he started practicing Rumi Gun, his scores have often been among the best, much better than those of Huang Dazhi and Huang Dayong who were also practicing shooting with matchlocks.
All officers must be familiar with firearms and be good at using firearms. This is Huang Yi's basic requirement.
So even Bi Daxi, whose archery skills can be described as being able to shoot through a tree with a hundred steps, is practicing using the Lumi gun.
They also often discuss the comparison between bows and arrows and muskets, and come to the conclusion that it is easy to learn to shoot a gun, as long as you are a normal person, and there is basically no need for restrictions.
But a sharp archer like Bi Daxi can easily kill ten musketeers without being hit by musketeers on the battlefield.
And a musketeer certainly cannot kill ten archers in a row.
In the end, they got into a fight over the word "shoot to kill". Zhang Dong, who was a professional user of firearms, emphasized that even if he shot with a bow and arrow, he might not be able to kill, and they narrowly escaped death by being hit with a fire blunderbuss.
Zhang Dong had long known the power of muskets and knew that as long as the enemy received a lead bullet, even if he was hit in the arm, the chance of survival would be slim.
There is basically no cure for wound infection these days. If you are hit by an arrow, just wash it with water and bandage it with some golden sore medicine. If you are lucky, you will not die.
But being hit by lead bullets is completely different. Clean water cannot disinfect the wound at all. The injured after infection will not die immediately, but will die slowly in pain.
Zhang Dong once saw Jian Nu, who was injured by a Ming army's musket, die of suppuration from the wound.
In the past, he only knew that the Ming army's cannon shot was slow, could not shoot far, and had no accuracy. After fighting against Jiannu, it was no match for Jiannu's bows and arrows.
After seeing Huang Yi's unique mini gun during this period, I was shocked and inexplicable.
This kind of musket can shoot almost as far as a cannon. It is almost impossible to guard against the leader of the slave establishment by taking advantage of the opportunity.
If hundreds of these muskets can be produced in the base area, who else in the world can compete with them?
