Regarding plate armor, Luo Zhixue had some ideas, but they were just small ideas.
But compared to plate armor, he actually pays more attention to the mass production of steel and the processing technology itself.
If steel can be mass-produced, even if it is only the small-scale mass production of modern times, and can be processed on a large scale, then it will be of great use.
Whether it is machinery, military or many other aspects, it can be greatly promoted.
It's just that it is too difficult to directly produce steel on a large scale like modern industrial countries. What is needed behind this is a complete industrial system, which is far less than what Luo Zhixue can do now.
Therefore, Luo Zhixue also focused on some of the steelmaking methods commonly used by people today, such as the steelmaking method used by Blacksmith Song.
Luo Zhixue had seen that they had made steel in Sanshui Village before. Generally, they used wrought iron as the raw material and put pig iron on it. The high temperature caused the pig iron to melt and penetrate into the wrought iron, thereby obtaining crude steel.
The whole operation method is actually quite simple. You can just set up a stove and a bellows.
However, the output of this indigenous method of steelmaking is very low, at least not related to the large-scale mass production of steel that Luo Zhixue had in mind.
Low output also means high prices, making it difficult to promote large-scale use.
Luo Zhixue plans to work with Blacksmith Song later to improve the existing iron-making and steel-making technologies and processes, and strive to further increase steel production capacity and reduce costs.
If the cost is reduced to a certain level, Luo Zhixue would not mind directly using steel produced by traditional methods to create knives, spears, plate armor and other weapons and equipment to equip elite troops.
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After seeing the production of armor, Luo Zhixue led others to the arrow factory and ammunition factory for inspection. There was nothing much to say about the arrow factory. It was the place where arrows were made, and there was no special advanced technology. It was just used. Just some primitive machinery for processing.
These are mainly used to save manpower and are used in processes with high repeatability and low force, such as grinding and drilling.
The ammunition factory mainly produces solid cannonballs, shotshells, and lead bullets. It is also trying to make its own gunpowder. However, the raw materials for self-made gunpowder also need to be purchased from outside, and saltpeter and sulfur are also very expensive. The only thing worth noting is that , Luo Zhixue slightly improved the black powder formula.
Many people in later generations know the black powder formula, which is nothing more than 75% saltpeter, 10% sulfur, and 15% charcoal. You say you don’t know? Don’t you know it now? Recite it a hundred times and keep it in your mind. You will use it when you travel to ancient times in the future.
As for raw material purification, gunpowder granulation and other processes, the Ming Dynasty was actually very finished, and it was almost the same as in Europe at the same time. The only difference was that many of their European counterparts used hydraulic machinery for processing, which improved production efficiency, while the Ming Dynasty's Most craftsmen are still in the labor stage.
If there is a large demand for production in the future, the ammunition factory here in Baoxiangying can also use hydraulic machinery in the gunpowder production process.
There is no technical difficulty, it just depends on the demand. The main thing is that building a complete set of hydraulic machinery for gunpowder production is also time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the cost is not low. If the demand is not too urgent, it is better to do it manually.
And now the gunpowder production here in Baoxiangying is naturally a small workshop among small workshops. There are not many raw materials and not many people who need it. Now it is very good to be able to produce several hundred kilograms of gunpowder a month. What are you going to do? Hydraulic machinery is directly produced manually, and at most it can be done with some auxiliary mechanical tools.
After seeing the production of arrows and ammunition, Luo Zhixue did not stop, but continued to the artillery factory. However, there is nothing interesting to see in the artillery factory now. After all, the production of artillery only lasts for several months, and it is still in production. Mold stage.
Luo Zhixue just went for a walk, emphasized once again that the quantity of gunpowder for casting must be maintained, and then turned back to the musket factory.
The musket factory was the highlight of Luo Zhixue's inspection of the weapons workshop today.
Because according to Luo Zhixue's reform of the infantry, the demand for muskets will be very large in the future, with one infantry post requiring 60 muskets.
If the existing five infantry posts were completely reformed and re-equipped, 300 muskets would be needed.
But now there are only more than fifty muskets seized in the Baoxiang camp, in addition to more than a dozen muskets that were tried to be made in the past few months.
However, these more than ten self-made muskets are mostly used for various tests, and they even have several calibers.
Blacksmith Song still explained in front of Luo Zhixue: "After comparative testing of more than ten muskets we built in the early stage, we finally selected a medium-sized musket for production."
Luo Zhixue was naturally no stranger to this. In fact, he personally decided on the final selection of the musket. One of the most important data was the 18mm caliber.
The Ming army used different calibers of bird guns these days. The small ones were only eight or nine millimeters, and the large ones were about thirteen millimeters. In addition, there were some large bird guns, which were heavy matchlock guns with tripods, and the caliber was about nineteen. millimeters or so.
After preliminary comparative tests, Luo Zhixue believed that although the caliber was too small, although it had a high muzzle velocity and could shoot far, the musketeers fired within a hundred meters, so a musket that could shoot hundreds of meters was meaningless.
And those heavy matchlock guns with longer barrels are not of much significance to the Baoxiang camp. If you have the time to play heavy matchlock guns, you might as well just push a few 200-pound light cannons over, and they will all fall on the opposite side with one blast. Next piece...
In the end, Luo Zhixue chose an 18mm matchlock gun. It was not a heavy matchlock gun with a long barrel, but was about the same size as an individual blunderbuss, just with a larger caliber.
After all, if the size and weight are acceptable, it is naturally better to have a larger caliber, so that the armor-breaking ability within the effective range will be stronger.
This kind of musket can penetrate all kinds of armor in East Asia within a hundred meters, regardless of whether it is European plate armor, East Asian piercing armor, fish scale armor, cloth armor or cotton armor, as long as it is not too abnormal, Armor that is so thick that a soldier cannot wear it will always make a hole every time, and there will still be another hole if you drill it again...
During the actual test, within 100 meters, this kind of musket directly penetrated a piece of steel armor made by Baoxiang Camp using its own indigenous steel material. The protective ability of this steel piece was much stronger than that of various iron armors, but Still can't bear it!
Luo Zhixue still attached great importance to this new matchlock gun. In order to mass produce it as soon as possible, Luo Zhixue gave the gun factory almost unlimited support.
The limited supply of iron materials was limited, and water hammers were used first. Excellent craftsmen were directly transferred there. In addition, a group of young people were recruited to work. No wages were paid, and there were a lot of young people rushing to work when they were given food.
He also personally designed a large number of auxiliary mechanical equipment with Blacksmith Song and Carpenter Huang. He also divided the various processes of making matchlock guns and arranged for different people to be responsible for different processes.
In order to ensure that the parts manufactured by division of labor can be used universally, a set of strict unified measurement standards and tools were personally formulated.
It can be said that the things used in other branches of the weapons workshop were originally made by Luo Zhixue to build matchlock guns.
This is especially true for various auxiliary mechanical equipment. These lathes, boring machines, etc., which are mainly made of wood and iron and only have the most basic processing capabilities, are actually designed specifically for making guns.
The reason why the production of other ordnance and weapons can also be used is purely a free ride.
The production of muskets, which cost Luo Zhixue a lot of energy, went through the trials, tests, design tools, and design process stages during the Sanshui Village period.
Eventually the first dedicated musket factory was established in Songshan Village.
Luo Zhixue looked at the dozens of different types of primitive mechanical equipment inside, and then at the dozens of craftsmen and ordinary people working busy inside, and he couldn't help but smile slightly.
He spent a lot of effort to build this musket factory, and now it has finally begun to take shape.
Now all he has to do is wait!
Blacksmith Song also saw the joy on Luo Zhixue's face, and immediately stepped forward and said: "General, we have now begun to try to use the assembly line method you mentioned to divide labor to build muskets."
"Although the craftsmen are not very skilled now and the construction speed is relatively slow, it is still much better than the old method we used to build."
"Furthermore, this method has much lower requirements for craftsmen. You don't need to learn all the processes from beginning to end. You only need to specialize in one of the processes. Even if you are not a craftsman, but an ordinary civilian, you can do it after a short period of training. competent."
Luo Zhixue nodded slightly: "The flow method is certainly good, but you must pay great attention to ensure the error and measure it uniformly."
There is nothing unusual about the assembly line itself, but it splits many processes into one, allowing workers to specialize in one of them, thereby improving their proficiency and efficiency.
But there is also a big problem here, and that is error.
If the error is too large, the parts created in separate processes cannot be assembled...
Therefore, for today's so-called assembly line production, splitting the process is not a problem. The key is to control errors. Otherwise, it will be easy to produce a large number of parts that cannot be assembled. Therefore, unified measurement is very important.
Blacksmith Song said: "General, don't worry. You have raised this issue before. I am keeping an eye on it. All the rulers used in the factory are replicas of the ones I originally used. There will be no delay." Yes."
It doesn't matter whether the measurement standard is the metric system or the traditional municipal system, but a unified standard must be formed to ensure that a certain length measured by all rulers is consistent.
You can’t make this one longer and that one shorter!
Luo Zhixue said: "That's good, Master Song. Now that the musket factory has been built, how many muskets can it produce this month?"
