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Yuan Gaofeng from the Ministry of Industry led a group of people to conduct a detailed production demonstration of the 2-year-old rifle, split the processes of each component, and then formulated a complete production line plan.
Yuan Gaofeng held a thick plan book and said to Luo Zhixue: "In the entire 2-year-old rifle, the barrel, butt and bayonet and other parts are basically the same as the original matchlock gun, so we plan to continue to use them. The original production line!”
"But the bolt part and parts are completely different from the original matchlock bolt. All parts need to be re-formulated in the production process and special molds prepared. At the same time, some special equipment needs to be added!"
"The required molds and specialized machinery and equipment have been sent to Hantian Machinery Factory for equipment and production!"
"For worker training in each process, I have also asked Hantian Arsenal to prepare in advance!"
"The construction of the entire production line and the training of craftsmen are expected to be initially completed in October!"
After hearing this, Luo Zhixue nodded slightly: "October, three months, not bad!"
Building a new rifle production line, even if it is just the bolt part, requires starting from scratch. Just creating special molds and equipment takes a lot of time, not to mention that the equipment will not be ready immediately after it is built. It can be used, but it requires repeated debugging and modification.
Even if this is war time, and even if these equipments are very primitive, it is estimated that it will take two months at the earliest.
After the equipment is produced and debugged, the arsenal still needs to complete the process according to the production equipment, such as how to make a component, how many people are needed, how to achieve the fastest efficiency, and how to ensure quality.
These all take time to complete.
In addition to equipment, training of craftsmen is also not easy.
In the past, the manufacturing of matchlock guns did not require very high craftsmanship for other parts except the barrel. Later, the arsenals of the Chu Empire began to widely use mechanical equipment, especially hydraulic equipment, in the manufacture of barrels.
The hydraulic forging machine replaces manpower by repeatedly hammering the iron material, which is more efficient. At the same time, the force on the forged part is more even, and the quality of the barrel created is even better.
Using a hydraulic drilling machine to enlarge and polish the hollow iron pipe that has been forged and formed by the rolling method is more efficient and smoother. At the same time, the caliber of the musket created is also relatively consistent, although it cannot be said that every The inner diameters of the barrels are exactly the same, but the error is much smaller than those made manually.
The large-scale use of mechanical equipment, especially hydraulic equipment, is an important reason why the output of matchlocks in the Chu Empire was so large. Of course, the weapons and equipment that benefited from hydraulic equipment also included swords, spears, armor, and even artillery.
This is especially true for armor.
It is very troublesome for traditional craftsmen to make armor. They need to repeatedly forge the iron pieces into shape. After the iron pieces are punched out, they cannot be used directly. They also need to be polished and drilled.
Drilling is a very time-consuming process. Manual drilling is very difficult and the efficiency is very low.
But now the arsenal of the Da Chu Empire drills the iron sheets used in armor very easily. They drill directly with mechanical equipment and use drill bits made of high-hardness fine steel. It is very easy to drill a hole. Free drill bit.
Overall, the production of matchlock guns in the Dachu Empire has basically entered into assembly line production, and various types of mechanical equipment, mainly hydraulic machinery, are used on a large scale. Therefore, the output is extremely large, and only the Ministry of Industry dares to shout out one. The slogan is to manufacture one hundred thousand matchlocks per year.
But when switching to a flintlock gun, this becomes more troublesome.
Even though mass production has been considered for the 2-year-old rifle, and the requirements for the parts of the core mechanism bolt have been reduced as much as possible, the overall process requirements are still much higher than those of the matchlock bolt.
The manufacturing of many parts cannot be completed with current mechanical equipment, and can only be achieved through a combination of machinery and labor.
For some core high-demand parts, the initial processing is done by mechanical equipment, while the finishing is done manually by skilled craftsmen.
For example, the springs used in flintlock guns are initially processed by mechanical equipment and then finished by senior craftsmen.
This kind of processing method requires a large number of skilled craftsmen.
The only good thing is that even with this model, assembly line production can still be used to a certain extent. Only the core gun part needs to rely on senior craftsmen for final running-in.
This is mainly due to the fact that the Dachu Empire's tolerance control of parts is still relatively poor. Even if the tolerances of the produced parts are controlled as much as possible, the bolts of current flintlock guns have relatively high accuracy requirements, so they can be used directly. When assembling fluid parts, many times he cannot assemble them.
Therefore, the final assembly process requires experienced craftsmen to perform final processing on several high-precision core components and then assemble them.
This also means that it is difficult to exchange core parts for guns produced in this way. At most, some non-core parts can be exchanged.
This will inevitably lead to trouble in subsequent repairs.
But there is nothing that can be done. If you want to maintain performance, maintain production capacity, and ensure the interchangeability of parts, this is too advanced for the current industrial level of the Dachu Empire.
This semi-mechanical and semi-manual production method requires a very large number of skilled craftsmen.
Hantian Arsenal needs to train a large number of craftsmen in advance for the production of new rifles. They are not ordinary skilled workers, but senior craftsmen who can perform finishing and assembly in the final process.
To this end, the Ministry of Industry has planned to transfer 500 quantitative craftsmen from various factories to supplement Hantian Factory.
It is worth mentioning that of these 500 skilled craftsmen, Changsha Arsenal provided more than 200!
This is because when Yang Sichang was planning to set up the Changsha Guns and Cannons Workshop, he recruited skilled craftsmen from almost the entire southern Chu region. After the Chu army accepted the guns and cannons workshops, they naturally accepted hundreds of skilled craftsmen.
Now that the Ministry of Industry wants to allocate skilled craftsmen to produce muskets, it might as well just allocate manpower from here.
After Yuan Gaofeng reported the preparations for the production line, he said to Luo Zhixue: "We are expected to start small-scale trial production in November, wait until December to try large-scale production, and wait until January next year to reach the design Production capacity. The designed production capacity is 50,000 pieces per year!”
"After the official launch of production, because a large number of equipment and craftsmen are occupied by the new rifle production line, starting from November this year, we will gradually reduce the production of the first-year matchlock gun. By January next year, if the new rifle cannot be produced, If something unexpected happens, production of the first-year-style matchlock guns will be completely discontinued.”
"After our repeated calculations, the price of the two-year-old muskets is based on the military's first batch of 50,000 orders. Hantian Factory can make fourteen taels of silver for this batch of orders."
"Only when this price is reached can the Hantian Arsenal support the construction and operation of the new rifle production line. Otherwise, additional capital injections will have to be made to the factory!"
Luo Zhixue said: "Fourteen taels, this price is fine. As for additional capital injection, there is no need. Since you are financially independent, you will be responsible for your own profits and losses!"
Luo Zhixue has been promoting the financial independence of factories under the Ministry of Industry and taking responsibility for their own profits and losses, so as to prevent the management of each factory from having the idea of eating from a big pot and getting by.
"Look back and tell me that the production of these two-year-old rifles is the first priority for the production of muskets in the future. We must make preparations for the production of new rifles and subsequent production."
"However, although the production of matchlock guns will be discontinued next year without any accident, before that, the production of matchlock guns cannot be dropped. Not only cannot it be dropped, but the production pace must be accelerated to produce more matchlock guns within this six months."
"Now that the eastward advance is imminent, the 7th and 8th Divisions are still not full of men, and the four mixed regiments are still short of guns. There will be a lot of losses in subsequent operations. All of these require a large number of Yuan-style matchlock guns. supplementary."
Luo Zhixue knows very well that even though the flintlock gun has been produced now, it will take some time for the flintlock gun to completely replace the current matchlocks and spears and become the main weapon of the army.
It will be October before the production line for the 2-year-old rifle is completed, and it is estimated that it will take another one or two months to run into trial production. The actual large-scale production is not expected until next year.
Prior to this, the Chu army still needed to rely on matchlock guns to fight, so it was very necessary to continue to replenish matchlock guns for the seventh division, eighth division, four mixed regiments and other units.
At the same time, Luo Zhixue also considered that the flintlock gun would be fully mass-produced, but it would take some time to form combat effectiveness.
This is not just about replacing existing troops with muskets. While replacing muskets, it also requires changes in organization and tactics.
During this process, a large number of spearmen had to be re-equipped and retrained as musketeers.
Although this whole process of changing equipment is easier than directly forming a new unit, it is not easy to get there. After a few months of training and running-in, it will not be able to form combat effectiveness at all.
This time is enough for Luo Zhixue to directly recruit new soldiers to form a new unit of pure flintlock rifles.
At the same time, the production capacity of flintlock muskets in the early stage was limited. The current production line is expected to only produce 50,000 flintlock muskets a year, which can support five divisions of equipment and is not enough to even replace the existing main forces.
Not to mention that the Chu army is still in the process of rapid military expansion.
Therefore, in the early stage, Luo Zhixue preferred to continue to equip existing troops with matchlock guns, while the subsequent newly produced flintlock guns would be directly used to equip the newly formed main force.
Even Luo Zhixue had figured out the name of the first batch of main troops equipped with flintlock guns: the Second Guards Division.
