Along the Han River in the western suburbs of Xiangyang City, what was once a wilderness was leveled in just over a month, and many buildings were built. It was surrounded by simple walls, with sentry towers in between, and soldiers on the sentry towers. garrison.
This place is where the Xiangyang Arsenal is located.
Luo Zhixue took many military and political officials to the Xiangyang Arsenal for inspection early in the morning.
He has learned that the Xiangyang Arsenal has now established a series of core factories, but they are still very crude and relatively small in scale.
Yuan Gaofeng from the Ministry of Industry and Ding Gangyi, the supervisor of the Xiangyang Arsenal, followed him and explained the situation of the arsenal to him.
Ding Gangyi, who is the supervisor of the Xiangyang Arsenal, said: "In order to put the arsenal into production as soon as possible, our Construction Department has hired more than 20,000 workers. In addition, the Engineering Department of the Logistics Department has also dispatched a construction battalion of more than 5,000 people to the factory. infrastructure work.”
"In order to rush the work, we adopted the method of building a factory on a flat site. The iron smelting factory was completed first, followed by the machinery factory, and then we completed the artillery factory, musket factory and armor factory one after another."
“Some of the machinery and equipment were urgently built on site, and some were gradually relocated from Li Qingdian.”
"Up to now, we have initially completed the first phase of the project. Major branch factories such as guns, armor and cold weapons have successively entered the trial production stage. According to your instructions, our artillery factory has directly abandoned the production of cast iron long-barreled artillery. , In the future, the production of long-barreled artillery will be directly changed to bronze artillery."
"Now we plan to start production while continuing to build the factory building for the second and third phases of the project."
"After all three phases of the project are completed, the designed production capacity of the Xiangyang Arsenal will be three times that of the original Li Qingdian Arsenal when it was working overtime and having enough craftsmen and skilled workers."
"However, we are still in relatively short supply of mid-level and senior technical personnel. Even if we transfer all the technical personnel from the Li Qingdian Arsenal to the Xiangyang Arsenal, it will not be able to meet the needs of the factory. At the same time, the training of low-level technicians and ordinary workers will also take time. "
"Therefore, in the past three months, our production capacity has not been able to reach the designed production capacity. Considering that the army is currently in even greater shortage of guns, we plan to fully produce guns first."
"If we produce at full capacity, by next month, that is, in July, we can produce a thousand muskets and ten 600-pound bronze cannons per month."
"By August, our production capacity will be increased to 1,500 muskets and 15 600-pound bronze cannons."
“After September, when our third phase of the project is completed and a large number of technicians and skilled workers are trained, our output will be able to reach more than 2,300 muskets and more than 20 600-pound bronze cannons. "
When Luo Zhixue listened to these words, he didn't need Ding Gangyi to tell him that the data was actually accurate.
Because the gun production data mentioned by Ding Gangyi are based on a premise: full production of guns!
The implication is that other ordnance cannot be taken care of!
But in fact, it is impossible for the Xiangyang Arsenal to only produce 18mm matchlock guns and 600 kilograms of bronze long cannons in the following months. It also has to produce 200 kilograms of cast-iron artillery. The same goes for what Luo Zhixue explained. Large field artillery, large short-barreled siege guns, and a large number of cold weapons.
There are only so many technicians and skilled workers, and training takes time. At the same time, medium and large hydraulic equipment are also limited. If these are all allocated to the production of guns and cannons, other ordnance will not be produced.
Once the production capacity of other weapons is taken into account, the production capacity of guns will inevitably decline.
For the current main force of the Baoxiang Army, the status of heavy-armored spearmen and musketeers are equivalent. Both are indispensable. It is impossible to arm only musketeers and abandon heavy-armored spearmen.
However, Luo Zhixue did not say it on the spot. There was no need to undermine the confidence of the Ministry of Industry and deny their efforts on such a major occasion.
On the contrary, Luo Zhixue said with a smile: "Okay, the construction and commissioning of the Xiangyang Arsenal has gone more smoothly than I expected. The Ministry of Industry has done a good job in this matter. Later, the Ministry of Industry will have to coordinate with other ministries to do it as quickly and optimally as possible." Well done to Phase 2 and Phase 3.”
"It is hoped that after September, the factory's various ordnance production capacity will be able to arm two infantry brigades and one artillery battalion."
Luo Zhixue did not directly say how many guns and artillery, but used two brigades and one artillery battalion as the unit of measurement.
Ding Gangyi, who was behind him, couldn't help but groan secretly in his heart.
The eighteen artillery pieces required by that artillery battalion were all fine and within the estimated production capacity.
But two main infantry brigades?
According to the current establishment of the main brigade of the rural protection army.
Each infantry brigade has three infantry battalions as standard, a baggage post, a heavy armor assault post, and a mounted infantry reconnaissance post. In addition to the brigade officers, guards, and messengers, the total strength is about 2,200 people.
As a result, each brigade would need more than 800 muskets.
Nine 200-pound light artillery directly below the infantry battalion are also needed.
Recently, the Baoxiang Army has increased the light artillery firepower of each infantry battalion, from two 200-jin short robes to three 200-jin light artillery to strengthen the infantry firepower.
In addition to firearms, there are also many cold weapons.
An infantry brigade requires at least 400 sets of full-body heavy armor, 400 sets of full-body ordinary armor, and more than 700 sets of half-body light armor specifically for musketeers.
Then there must be at least 700 spears, more than 1,000 one-handed ordinary waist knives, more than 700 musketeer-specific short knives, 200 one-handed stainless steel waist knives, and two hundred one-handed round shields.
There are also picks, shovels and other materials used for construction of fortifications.
With two infantry brigades down, the above requirements will be doubled.
And with so many things, the production pressure is much greater than simply producing more than two thousand muskets and twenty 600-pound artillery pieces.
Just looking at the way Luo Zhixue said this now, Ding Gangyi very rationally did not say anything to shirk, but was thinking about how to further increase production capacity.
The limitation to increasing production capacity lies not in the factory buildings, but in the equipment and skilled workers and technicians.
It seems that I still have to speed up the training of skilled workers and technicians, otherwise I won't be able to produce so many things by then, and I'm afraid it will be difficult for the general to explain.
When Ding Gangyi was thinking this, Luo Zhixue himself was more casual. He didn't say that the Xiangyang Arsenal must reach this production capacity after September. He could accept less.
But, regardless of whether it can be achieved or not, set a goal first, at least to put pressure on Ding Gangyi and the others.
Only when you are stressed can you be motivated!
Following everyone's introduction, Luo Zhixue also walked into the artillery factory. Ding Gangyi had already calmed down the pressure in his heart and continued to explain to Luo Zhixue: "Now the artillery factory is processing and producing long iron cast tubes of 600 kilograms. As for the artillery, we started to build the first batch of iron cannon clay models when we first arrived in Xiangyang. Now that the mechanical equipment of the artillery factory is in place, we can just start casting and processing."
"But after we finish producing this batch of 600-pound iron-cast cannons, the clay models and equipment modifications of our bronze cannons will be almost ready. By then, we can directly start the production of bronze cannons. The first batch of bronze cannons is expected to be They will be shipped out of the factory in mid-August."
Although Luo Zhixue has instructed to convert the 600-pound long cannon from iron-cast cannons to bronze cannons, the manufacture of cannons takes time. It basically takes at least two months for a cannon to be made from the mold to production. This is still based on good weather or auxiliary means to assist the mud fan to dry.
The Xiangyang Arsenal's switch to the production of bronze artillery was also very smooth. It did not say that after the switch to the production of bronze artillery, it immediately stopped manufacturing all iron-cast artillery.
At this time, Ding Gangyi walked up to a bronze cannon and explained to Luo Zhixue: "This is a bronze cannon that we trial-produced at the Liqingdian Arsenal. Its shape is roughly the same as the original six hundred kilogram long cannon, and it fires two kilograms of shells. , we also call it two catties of bronze cannon."
"Although the shells fired are the same, this bronze cannon can use more propellant, the shells fired are more powerful, and the barrel is more durable. If used normally, it can fire eight or nine hundred rounds. question."
Luo Zhixue felt that the appearance and dimensions of the bronze cannon's barrel were similar to those of the original iron-cast cannon, so it wouldn't be too troublesome for the gunner to change them.
However, the gun mount has changed.
Ding Gangyi said: "Previously, our gun mounts were still made of a combination of iron and wood. According to feedback from the artillery director in high-intensity operations, the wooden gun mounts were still a little unstable and cracked, so this time we plan to The all-iron gun mount is directly used on the bronze artillery.”
"The weight is equivalent to the original gun mount, but it is stronger and less likely to be damaged."
Luo Zhixue went up and took a closer look. This two-pound long-barreled bronze cannon was actually a very small artillery piece. There was a small and slender barrel on the big two-wheeled iron cannon frame. This was replaced by a foreign cannon. They say it's probably between three and four pounds.
It was because this kind of artillery was too small and had limited power that Luo Zhixue asked Ding Gangyi to take charge of the development of larger field artillery.
Bidige
Soon, Luo Zhixue also saw the wooden model of the new field gun produced by the Xiangyang Arsenal.
Ding Gangyi pointed to the wooden artillery model in front of him and said: "This is a five-pound bronze long cannon that we developed based on the existing two-pound bronze long cannon. It uses existing technology and can directly use current equipment. in production."
"Although there is no prototype gun for testing yet, we believe that the power of this kind of artillery can definitely exceed the two-kilogram artillery by a large margin. At the same time, the weight will not be too heavy. The combat weight is about 800 kilograms, and the total weight is one thousand taels. About a hundred pounds!”
"In addition, we are also designing a larger nine-pound cannon, but the weight will be heavier. It is estimated that the combat weight will reach about 2,500 kilograms. The total gun weight will be even heavier, it must be more than 3,000 kilograms. I don't know. Can the artillery unit accept it?”
Luo Zhixue did not speak directly, but looked at Artillery Director Zhang Malin.
