When Chen Yongfu was frightened by Wang Xiazi's cavalry and stopped going north for only one day, Luo Zhixue in the north continued to move south with the 3rd Infantry Battalion and other troops.
This time Luo Zhixue went south not only with the third infantry battalion and personal sentries and other combat troops, but also with a transportation battalion organized by the logistics department.
This transport battalion carries a large amount of grain, ammunition, arrows, some cold weapons for frontline troop replacement and subsequent backup, vulnerable parts of carriages, etc.
In addition to hundreds of two-wheeled and four-wheeled carriages, this transportation camp also has a large number of civilians who directly carry wheelbarrows and even carry them on their shoulders.
It has more than 300 draft mules and horses and more than 1,000 personnel.
Transportation camp, this is Luo Zhixue’s new attempt in logistics reform.
In the past, the baggage transportation of the Baoxiang Army was no different from that of other Ming armies and bandits. On the one hand, it relied on its own baggage troops for transportation, and at the same time, young and strong civilians were temporarily recruited to carry out the transportation.
However, civilian husbands were temporarily recruited for every expedition, which was very troublesome in management.
Later, the establishment of a transportation battalion was simply adopted. Although the personnel were still temporarily recruited civilians, professional baggage officers were dispatched to serve as battalion commanders and key management personnel of this transportation battalion, adopting militarized management.
Moreover, the transportation battalion has been established for a long time, and the civilians inside are recruited on a rotating basis to manage on the one hand.
This kind of transportation battalion is used to transport materials from the rear, while the transportation of materials on the front line is handed over to professional baggage troops.
The baggage troops in the Baoxiang Army are not only capable of transporting supplies, but they are also troops with combat effectiveness.
The personnel in the first and second baggage posts are all equipped with knives, spears, and muskets. Those transported on the front line can directly go into battle if they are attacked by the enemy.
When necessary, these two supply battalions can even be mobilized to directly participate in the battle and directly participate in front-line battles.
Of course, if it is time to bring in the baggage troops, the situation on the front line is often very critical.
Luo Zhixue led the combat troops and escorted the transportation battalion all the way south, and naturally the speed was not that fast.
But even the current marching speed shocked Huang Guangmao and others.
"This four-wheeler is so useful."
Huang Guangmao looked at the many four-wheeled carriages in the transportation camp heading south along the official road, and couldn't help but sigh: "With this new four-wheeled carriage, it will be much more convenient for us to transport heavy objects!"
Fei Bingqing next to him said: "I heard that this new four-wheeled carriage was built by the general himself. It can be easily turned and contains a lot of fine steel. This kind of four-wheeled carriage can carry up to a thousand kilograms. It’s just that it’s more difficult to use in the mountains.”
Huang Guangmao said: "It doesn't matter if it can't be used in the mountains. We have two-wheeled carriages and wheelbarrows in the mountains, which are enough. But after we go out of the mountains, it is much better to use this four-wheeled carriage on this flat official road."
"Save effort and get more luck."
While Huang Guangmao and Fei Bingqing were discussing the four-wheeled carriages on the road, Luo Zhixue from behind was also looking at the more than twenty four-wheeled carriages moving forward on the road.
This battle south was also the first time the Baoxiang Army used four-wheeled carriages on a large scale.
Luo Zhixue has always been very concerned about the issue of material transportation. After all, the Baoxiang Army is a force with firearms as its main weapon. According to Luo Zhixue's development plan, the proportion of firearms equipment will become larger and larger in the future, which will also have a negative impact on logistics. causing more stress.
In the early days, the scale of the rural protection army was still small, and at the same time it was limited by the narrow and rugged mountain roads in Funiu Mountain. Therefore, Luo Zhixueqi did not consider getting any four-wheeled carriages, and even two-wheeled carriages were optional.
Because in the mountains, except for the outer hilly areas where two-wheeled carriages can barely pass, there are many places where even two-wheeled carriages cannot pass.
Therefore, at that time, the material transportation of the Baoxiang Army was mainly based on manual transportation, and a small amount of wheelbarrows and two-wheeled carriages were used.
After leaving Lushan County in the east, this kind of transportation has become more limited. It consumes a lot of manpower, but the transportation capacity is too small.
When he was in Lushan County, Luo Zhixue began to focus on the development of wheelbarrows and horse-drawn carriages.
Wheelbarrows have always been around. The car camps in the Ming army and the shield carts of Dongluo all made extensive use of wheelbarrows.
The Baoxiang Army also used wheelbarrows for material transportation before. What Luo Zhixue did was to further improve them, make them more labor-saving when transporting goods, and then promote their use on a large scale.
The same is true for the two-wheeled carriage, which has undergone certain detailed improvements.
However, the changes to the two existing tools mentioned above are actually not major. They are just minor changes at most. What really made Luo Zhixue spend some energy and personally participate in the design was the four-wheeled carriage.
Because when we go south, the terrain will be flat and the road conditions will be better, so there will be a place for four-wheeled carriages.
Four-wheeled carriages are not a new thing in China. However, traditional Chinese four-wheeled carriages lack steering mechanisms, so they are more troublesome to use. Therefore, except for a few urban areas with very good road conditions, they are used in other places. very few.
Naturally, Luo Zhixue would not use this kind of four-wheeled carriage without a steering mechanism.
So he got a steering mechanism for the four-wheeled carriage. It wasn't a fancy differential or anything like that. It just divided the four wheels into two independent frames at the front and rear. It was a typical ancient Western-style steering mechanism.
This is not the first time Luo Zhixue has developed this thing. In fact, when he first developed this steering mechanism, it was still for the mobility of the artillery.
The gun carriage of the 600-pound artillery was a large two-wheeled carriage, and when marching and maneuvering, it had to be mounted on a two-wheeled carriage.
In this way, the daily marching state of the 600-pound artillery is actually a very typical four-wheeled carriage structure.
When the Baoxiang Army wanted to get a four-wheeled carriage, they didn't need to work too hard. They could just imitate the steering mechanism of the artillery and get a frame.
In order to increase the load capacity and save labor, steel structures are also used in key mechanisms. For example, axles, steering shafts, etc. are all made of fine steel to resist wear and reduce friction.
It's just that Luo Zhixue looked at these four-wheeled carriages, but he was still not satisfied.
These four-wheeled carriages are still too heavy and heavy. The body still uses a lot of heavy wood and ordinary iron materials, and there are no bearings.
In fact, Luo Zhixue had already asked the machinery factory to try to make bearings.
Luo Zhixue had finished the principles and design drawings for them personally, and was waiting for the craftsmen to build them. At first, Luo Zhixue thought that this thing was just some small steel balls, plus a few iron rings, and it shouldn't be a big problem to make it. .
At first, the craftsmen made a model out of wood. Luo Zhixue was very happy after seeing the model. He felt that with the lathe he made, he should be able to make bearings.
But Luo Zhixue soon discovered that he had underestimated things like bearings.
This thing requires high processing accuracy and even higher requirements for materials!
Luo Zhixue, who was born in liberal arts, had no idea that even in later generations, the performance of bearings directly represented the metallurgical level of a country.
After trial-producing the wooden model and finalizing the dimensions and processing procedures, the craftsmen in the machine shop began to manufacture the iron bearings.
At the beginning, I used ordinary iron materials, so I could barely process it during processing. Although the accuracy was not very good, it was still possible.
But when I put the bearings made of ordinary iron on a carriage and tested it, it didn't even last long...
When I took it apart, I found that the cylinder inside was slightly deformed.
The empty carriage is better, but the four-wheeled carriage loaded with goods weighs thousands of kilograms, and the weight of these thousands of kilograms finally falls on these small beads...
It is conceivable that iron pillars made of ordinary iron materials cannot withstand such heavy pressure.
Later, craftsmen in the machinery factory began to try to use good steel materials to make bearings, but by this time they found that processing had become a big problem again.
It is impossible to machine with regular steel tools!
In the end, it can only be processed with the best stainless steel tools specially used to process the inner diameter of the gun barrel. However, it is still very troublesome to process.
On the one hand, the processing accuracy of the bearings is too high, and if the processing is not careful, it will be scrapped.
On the other hand, after selecting high-quality steel materials for processing, even the best stainless steel tools Baoxiangjun currently has cannot last long. The tools are often scrapped before a cylinder is finished processing.
For the time being, this kind of fine steel knives can only be handmade by senior blacksmiths such as Blacksmith Song, and the output is extremely low.
This kind of fine steel cutting tools are not enough for making muskets and other parts. When used to process fine steel bearings, several cutting tools are scrapped in a day.
A senior craftsman can only produce a few qualified high-quality fine steel knives in a month, and the rest are all scraps...
Your machine shop is good, if you scrape several knives after a broken car, Blacksmith Song will scold you...
Even if Luo Zhi is a good student, if he really wants to come up with such fine steel bearings and use them on freight carriages, he will just install a V12 engine on an agricultural tricycle... It's ridiculous no matter how you look at it!
After this incident, Luo Zhixue deeply realized the importance of materials.
There are no qualified materials, and there are not even tools to process fine steel bearings.
I understand more clearly that materials are a big hole. If you want to achieve results, you have to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to fill it.
In the end, Luo Zhixue temporarily gave up the idea of installing stainless steel bearings on the four-wheeled carriage, and instead asked the Industrial Department to continue to think of ways to come up with better tools.
On the other hand, first-class steel materials are used to make second-class bearings, and they are used in some machinery that does not bear too much force. On the one hand, it improves the efficiency of the existing machinery, and on the other hand, it can also continue to accumulate, Develop experience and technology in finishing.
According to Luo Zhixue's estimation, it is estimated that it will take a few years to achieve a certain breakthrough in metallurgy before mass production of fine steel bearings can be used on heavy-duty four-wheel carriages.
As for now, let's use traditional methods first, first solve whether there is a problem, and then solve whether it is good or not.
