"But you must not underestimate this guy. He is a pragmatist through and through. Just look at the trigger fuse he designed," Lin Shenhe said. Weiss managed to bribe some Spanish officers to steal several shell fuses made by Hale in the name of scrapped products, and asked Haiqi to make a special trip to send these dangerous goods back to Lingao for dismantling and analysis. "The structure is so simple that it does not have any explosion-proof safety mechanism except for a barrier spring. The key is that it does not use any complicated processes and does not require many skilled craftsmen. It is very suitable for the production level of that half-baked factory in Manila. At least it can be compared It fires reliably. Compared with the standard fuse type 1 produced by the Bobu factory, the effective rate tested on medium-hard soil is only 8% lower, which is quite good. As for safety, except for our products, in What kind of grenade fuse in the 17th century required safety considerations?"
The atmosphere in the venue turned solemn again. Li Li, who had been silent for a long time, spoke up: "Based on the data on imported materials, combined with information from other sources, it can be basically concluded that the Philippine authorities currently do not have the ability to produce iron on their own." He found a few photos from the file, "Big Book Information from the museum shows that the early iron smelting industry in the Philippines was closely related to the technology spread by Chinese immigrants. Until the early 20th century, the iron-making blast furnace used locally was the trumpet furnace that had appeared in Fujian in the late Ming Dynasty. However, according to a report from the Manila Station, No similar equipment has been found in Er's factory or elsewhere."
"If the personnel who infiltrated the casting workshop of the Hale Factory saw it correctly," the permit revealed some more pictures, which were sketches made by the Intelligence Bureau based on Ji Meade's description, "the pig iron ingots and scrap iron were unloaded onto the small boats from the port. . Transported directly to the factory dock along the river. The smelting equipment includes a simple earth furnace, and the Chinese workers use the traditional Chinese stir-fried iron method to smelt the wrought iron to feed the forging and rolling plate machines. There are also two for casting special castings Iron furnace. It is very common in Europe today. The core of the foundry is three reverberatory furnaces. According to the description of the Manila station, some may be used to smelt copper, but they are mainly used to smelt iron."
"There is a relatively small reverberatory furnace, and workers are often seen taking out red-hot clay pots and pouring red-hot molten metal from the pot into the slot mold. Intelligence officers witnessed every move of the workers before entering the furnace. The clay jars were filled with weighed iron filings, small broken iron blocks, charcoal particles and cut iron bars, and 12 jars were put into the furnace door each time. We inferred that this was the production of crucible steel. The process seemed to be It is similar to Krupp's method. However, the output is not large. The main function of these reverberatory furnaces is to refine pig iron from different sources and with widely different qualities. Hale's factory cannot produce its own iron, so he attaches great importance to this The process makes sense.”
"Please note. The style of the reverberatory furnace shown in the sketch is basically the same as the unfinished double-chamber reverberatory furnace of the Zheng Group found on Xiamen Island. Hollow iron that can be cooled by running water was even found on the Xiamen foundry site. Casting furnace tuyere. If Hale had used the same tuyere in his Manila plant, his reverberatory furnace should have been designed with a heat exchange chamber to increase production efficiency through hot blast. At least in this foundry. Hale The reverberatory furnace is the most technologically advanced thing of this era. In other words, black technology. As for the others, green sand molds, iron mold castings, etc., they are nothing."
"Isn't this the case that Amaterasu has descended to earth?" Someone asked, "It's okay for this little Japanese to be a weapons expert and a chemical expert, but now he has become a metallurgical expert?"
"We know too little about him. But since he is Japanese and is good at weapons manufacturing, we guess that he may have done more in-depth research on the history of his country's military technology. After all, Japan's military industry in modern times was built from Nirayama and Kagoshima. It started with furnace casting of iron cannons. Judging from some information I have reviewed, some refining reverberatory furnaces in Japan during the late Tokugawa and early Meiji years did indeed use hollow water-cooled tuyeres with similar structures."
"The Philippines is rich in metal minerals. Will this happen?" Wumu said. "In order to confuse us, or for the sake of caution, Hale asked the Spanish Governor to import metals, and on the other hand, in the Philippines In other areas, blast furnaces are set up to smelt iron and copper, and then transport them to factories in Manila for processing. I am not denying the work achievements of Comrade Lando and the Manila Station, but the farthest space they have ventured into is limited to the suburbs of Manila, which inevitably leaves a blank .”
"I agree," Jiangshan said, "I suggest that we immediately dispatch remote resource exploration and cooperate with the Manila Station to investigate important mineral areas in the Philippines, especially the current mineral mining and processing conditions in the Philippines, and be sure to obtain first-hand intelligence. Considering the danger of this mission, I request comrades from the Army, Navy and Special Reconnaissance Team for assistance and support."
"Furthermore, we have already recognized the talents of Hale. What needs to be clarified now is the purpose for which he worked so hard for the Spanish colonial authorities. Is his attitude towards us friendly, or whether he intends to be hostile, and if so The latter, how to eliminate him and the adverse effects he brings. In order to solve this matter, Comrade Lando needs to actively contact him. This also carries certain risks and requires everyone's assistance. We must start to formulate various plans and do Be prepared for everything from peaceful contact to all-out war."
On the shoreline of one of the numerous uninhabited islands in Manila Bay, a light lit up in the morning fog. Flashing rhythmically.
As the lights flickered, a light two-masted ship was gradually revealed in the dense sea fog on the sea. It patrolled cautiously along the coastline, keeping a distance from the coast, and the masts of the ship also lit up flickeringly. Got the light signal.
After several rounds of back and forth with the lights on the shore, the rudder of the Guangzhou ship was moved, and the bow changed direction and headed towards the island.
The reefs on the coast of the island are rugged, and the dense forests and grass almost extend to the rocks. The coastline is barren. In this small bay with no human habitation at all, there is a wooden trestle. Judging from the decay of the wood stubble and the density of barnacles attached to it, the trestle was recently built.
Although weeds have grown vigorously on the compacted gravel ground, it can still be seen that the ground along the coast of the trestle has been leveled.
Guangzhou cautiously approached the pier. On the bow and stern of the ship, several strong men wearing bamboo hats and black clothes were holding Japanese iron cannons, bows and arrows, and lit match ropes, carefully guarding the surroundings.
Everything on the sea and on the island was silent, only the sound of waves crashing against the rocks echoed. The Guangzhou ship gradually approached the trestle. As the sailor on the bow threw out the cable, a whistle came from the shore, breaking the silence. Several thin Malay sailors ran out of the forest, caught the cable thrown from the bow of the ship, and quickly fixed it on the ship's piling. The two parties exchanged a few words in Minnan dialect, and the springboard was quickly set up.
Marcos appears on the trestle. Express welcome to oncoming guests.
The two parties were not polite on the trestle, and Marcos took the visitor directly to a hut in the jungle.
Hale was already waiting for Zheng Zhifeng's arrival in the shed.
He was not dressed like an "old sea dog" like the last time he saw Zheng Zhifeng. Instead, he was wearing a monk-like black robe. Other than that, he was no different from when he met Zheng Zhifeng in Xiaoliuqiu.
In contrast, Zheng Zhifeng's past graceful and graceful temperament of a handsome nobleman has disappeared. His face is haggard, and he looks exhausted mentally and physically.
I didn't expect him to be so haggard! Hale was secretly surprised and couldn't help but feel secretly sorry.
When Anping fell, Hale was the first person in Manila to get the news. The destruction of Anping-Xiamen and the death of Zheng Zhilong were a devastating blow to the Zheng Group, and it was nothing more than a sap for Hale. He originally hoped that the Zheng Group would act as a stable supplier of Chinese goods, and then use the firearms they desperately needed to draw financial resources to upgrade his factory. At the same time, he would improve the Zheng family's equipment to enhance their combat effectiveness and contain the Australians. action. Hale originally counted on the Zheng Group to drag the Australians into an endless war of attrition along the coast of China, leaving them no time to look south.
However, the Australian attack on Xiamen-Anping completely shattered his plan. Although the Zheng family was not completely wiped out and the territory along the coast of Fujian was not damaged, the Zheng family group had been disintegrated invisibly, and the remaining people were scattered and powerful. It's not as good as before - no Anhai ship was even sent to Manila back then. The spies he sent to the coast of China and Japan reported that the Anhai ships sent by the remnants of the Zheng family to Japan suffered serious losses in Japan: some Ming merchants crossed the sea first in the winter when non-Chinese merchant ships arrived, and took an unknown route. , shipped a large amount of Chinese goods. Not only that, it is said that a large amount of goods were also transferred from North Korea. As a result, when Anhai Ship arrived, it was discovered that all Chinese goods were abundant and the market prices were low. Anhai Ship had to sell the goods at a reduced price. Not only that, the spies also reported that although the Anhai ships owned by various forces of the Zheng family quickly recovered to a considerable number, many of them were rushed to build using the same wood from that year and were of very poor quality. They were typical one-off trading ships. .
What worries Hale the most is that the current split of the Zheng Group has severely weakened their strength, making them even more insignificant at the overall strategic level. The split also made the Zheng Group unable to resist the erosion of other forces: the Liu Xiang Group, which was compressed to the Chaoshan area, was ready to move with the support of the Dutch, who bargained among the various Zheng Groups in an attempt to obtain maximum benefits. The Australians turned a blind eye to the changes in Weitou Bay, but they swallowed up the business that the Zheng Group had worked hard to build in Tainan for many years. (To be continued...)
