A large number of wooden boxes containing Hongxing's three-year-old matchlock guns (imitation Spanish light matchlock guns) are being piled on the newly opened Nanjing Pukou Pier. The dock workers used pedal cranes and wheelbarrows to move these boxes onto several ships that were about to be used. Westbound Yangtze River sand barge.
Officers from the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of War and several officers from the Pingxi Fan Army who followed Wu Sangui to Nanjing took notebooks and documents to compare the guns to be shipped. Before each box is shipped on the ship, it must be unpacked and inspected, the number checked, and the accessories and guns checked to see if they are intact. Only after they are correct can they be repacked, sealed, and moved on the ship.
You really can’t be careless at all!
Zhu Cixiang and Wu Sangui were now in a corner of the pier, walking around seemingly casually with Chen Keqian, the director of the Ordnance Department. From time to time, they opened a box that had not been sealed and took out the musket inside to play with it a few times.
Chen Keqian saw Zhu Cihong and Wu Sangui showing satisfied expressions, and quickly added a few sentences: "This batch of muskets sent to Shaanxi are all products of Nanjing Putie, Shanghai Shenyang Iron and Steel, Quanzhou Zhengtie, and the quality is very reliable... ..The three major ironworks have now hired many master craftsmen from the Netherlands to build refining furnaces, forges, 150-300 pound hydraulic hammers, hydraulic drilling machines, hydraulic blowers and variable speed reservoirs, and also introduced their Sheet metal method.
In addition, the Daye Iron Works has now built a large blast furnace with a height of more than one foot. It has opened a ginseng iron furnace specially for the military industry. It uses charcoal to refine the ore and then uses lime to remove the slag. The smelted pig iron is then transported to Nanjing and Shanghai for refining, and Quanzhou Zhengtie uses Fujian iron... With the high-quality pig iron, it is then forged and cooked with a water-powered sledgehammer, and the wrought iron produced is of excellent quality. If used to produce muskets and plate armor, the yield rate can be greatly improved. "
This Chen Keqian was born into a family of craftsmen in Tianjin Wei - the craftsman household system in the Ming Dynasty collapsed in the middle and late stages of the Ming Dynasty. Craftsmen no longer served in the military, but instead paid taxes. After paying the tax, they started their own business. Those who did well became the workshop owners, and those who did poorly became the working people. The Chen family of Tianjin Wei was one of the best among the craftsmen, and they made a fortune by taking advantage of the Wanli War to Aid the Dynasty. Another member of the clan won the election, and not only did he have money, but he also had political protection.
It is said that Chen Keqian's father's generation was already the first-class wealthy family in Tianjin Acropolis. However, their blacksmithing skills are not very good... They have been in the iron industry for generations and have made a fortune from blacksmithing, which does not mean they are iron smelting experts. This can only show that their shoddy products just meet the needs of the poor Ming Dynasty!
With the limited fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty, so many clans, officials, and armies had to be paid and paid, and the officials in charge had to make some money. How much money would be left to buy equipment? Of course, the cheaper the better... There are good things, and those made in Foshan are good. If they are not good, they are made in Macao. If they are not good enough, they can be imported.
But the problem is that there is no money!
Good iron must be smelted with high-quality "ginseng iron" and charcoal, which is expensive. At that time, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to purchase large quantities of ironware, so Tianjin Ironware Chen, which was good at making crude products, came into being.
However, in the two battles of Tianjin Guards, the Chen family of Ironware was completely defeated, and they did not dare to stay in Tianjin anymore, so they had to become "righteous citizens". The eldest son of the Chen family, Chen Keqian, who had already become a scholar, joined the army. , relying on his knowledge of smelting and forging, he became a quartermaster.
Later, he retired from the army and engaged in business, and became the general manager of Nanjing Pudong Railway under the Royal Chamber of Commerce. Under his leadership, Pudong Railway had sufficient funds and began to hire a large number of foreign craftsmen and introduce Western iron smelting technology - in fact, he introduced These technologies, including refining furnaces (that is, steel-frying furnaces), hydraulic machinery, drilling machines, blowers, etc., are all available in China. But they are relatively primitive and there is no big demand. Who would spend money and time to improve them?
Now if you want to improve yourself, you have to spend a lot of time and money to make up for it, which is not as good as importing it... Anyway, there is no concept of intellectual property protection these days. If you copy it, it is your own!
In fact, the Portuguese were also copying Foshan's iron smelting technology and also copying China's low-cost hard sail technology. When the Ottomans attacked Constantinople, they also invited the Christian Hungarian cannon master Urban to cast the Urban cannon!
Of course, even if the most advanced hydraulic hammers, hydraulic drilling machines and other processes are introduced, it is still impossible to use the assembly line method to produce gun barrels and plate armor - because the hydraulic hammers introduced from Europe are only heavy in weight and have adjustable speed ( There are variable speed gears and variable speed reservoirs), but they still cannot replace the forging by an experienced craftsman.
This kind of hydraulic hammer is actually a tool used to repeatedly forge wrought iron to improve its quality and output and change its shape. However, it can only hammer out medium-thick wrought iron plates, but cannot be used to beat thin plates, let alone steel plates processed by the "Suzhou Steel Method" - the power of the hydraulic hammer is too great, and the impact point is not easy to control. The relatively hard and brittle steel plate was smashed!
However, with low-cost and high-quality wrought iron medium-thick plates and high-efficiency hydraulic drilling machines, the efficiency of processing gun barrels and plate armor has improved a lot. The assembly line cannot do it, but mass production has become possible.
The three major ironworks, plus several medium-sized ironworks in Foshan, can produce a total of 6,000 Hongxing three-year-style muskets per month. Plus the output of a number of small factories, they can operate at full capacity for a month. 12,000 high-quality Hongxing three-year-olds can be produced.
In addition, there are many crudely made Hongxing three-year-old muskets. There is no way to calculate the specific production volume.
However, the output of plate armor is still relatively low. This needs to be customized, otherwise it will not fit you! However, the production of simple breastplates and iron helmets is easy to increase. It is nothing more than finding more people to bang hammers. There are so many people in the Ming Dynasty!
Therefore, by the fifth year of Hongxing, the Ming Dynasty's military output was enough to supply the Ming army with hundreds of thousands of people for rigorous training and combat needs. And there is still enough energy left to supply the vassal armies such as Pingxi Town and Shuofang Town.
"Uncle Chang," Zhu Cixiang handed the musket to Wu Sangui and said with a smile, "This time I will give you 10,000 muskets made in the third year of Hongxing... which is the amount received by the Ministry of War in one month (there are also 2,000 They were sold to the relatively wealthy feudal towns such as Dongning Army, Jinghaijun, and Jinou Army), and they are all given to you!
You defeated the Western Army with plenty of horses, and now that you have muskets, you should also form thousands of musketry cavalry! Phalanx soldiers are also needed. Build 20 battalions of them first...30 3-pounder cannons will be given to you first. Build 10 half companies (meaning half a company), half of them will be allocated to the cavalry, and half will follow the infantry. . "
Wu Sangui was overjoyed when he heard this and asked: "Your Majesty, do you want me to send troops from Shaanxi to attack the laborers in Henan Prefecture?"
Among the three vassals of Zhongzhou in the Qing Dynasty, Azig's son Lao Qin was undoubtedly the most powerful and the most stubborn!
His Ama Azig and a bunch of brothers and sisters are now controlled by Duduo. If he dares to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, it will be a tragedy!
Moreover, Duduo treated him well, allowing him to seize the throne and replenishing him with a batch of equipment.
"No need." Zhu Cixi waved his hand, "You are the governor of Pingxi and the governor of Anxi... You have only one mission, and that is Pingxi! The Yeerqiang Khanate and the Kashote Khanate are all left to you to deal with.
In addition, you must also pay attention to the Beiting Army... The guns and cannons I gave you will also be given to Beiting! If Batur Hutaiji dares to rely on the sharp guns at hand, you should teach him a lesson! "
Wu Sangui was not afraid of the Mongols. He smiled and said, "Your Majesty, don't worry, these Oara people are no match for us!"
Zhu Cihong nodded: "The hometown of Anxi is already sparsely populated. After being ravaged by Batur Hutaiji, the population will be even smaller... You need to organize more Thousand Households of the Pingxi Army to move to Anxi." , the expenses will be paid by the court! The Anxi army will calculate them separately, and the losses of each thousand households will be subsidized by the court within 20 years after they move to Anxi. A thousand households with sufficient personnel can subsidize up to 6,000 taels of silver a year. For 20 years After that, the subsidy will be halved forever."
