According to the task allocation formulated by the Ministry of Industry, the position of Dangtu Heavy Artillery Factory is to provide large-caliber siege artillery to the army.
In the past, the main production was the 48-pound mortar, but now that the grenade project has been released, it is considered that the early howitzer project was an 18-pound howitzer.
Although this thing is very light, it is a veritable large-caliber artillery with a caliber of 150 mm. At the same time, there will be a 24-pound howitzer project and a 48-pound howitzer project in the future.
Therefore, the production task of the new howitzer was first handed over to this factory.
In addition to these two heavy artillery factories, there are actually five other artillery factories in the Dachu Empire, namely the artillery factory affiliated to Xiangyang Arsenal, the artillery factory affiliated to Hantian Arsenal, the artillery factory affiliated to Dangtu Arsenal, the artillery factory affiliated to Changsha Arsenal, Artillery factory affiliated to Guangzhou Arsenal.
Although the artillery factories affiliated to these five arsenals mainly produce a series of field artillery, mainly two-and-a-half-pound field guns, five-pound field guns, and nine-pound field guns, in fact, the artillery factories affiliated to these arsenals are all A comprehensive artillery factory can produce basically any artillery.
For example, the artillery factory affiliated to Hantian Arsenal also produces 48-pound mortars and accounts for about 10% of the country's 48-pound mortar production capacity.
The military production of the Dachu Empire is under the overall control of the Ministry of Industry. Taking into account transportation costs, in order to reduce costs, supply to the front line is nearby.
Therefore, the Chu Empire has quite a few arsenals!
At present, five major arsenal bases have been formed, which are large-scale and comprehensive arsenals for the whole country: Hantian Arsenal and Dangtu Arsenal.
These two arsenals can produce basically anything, and their output is also huge. They are supported by an entire industrial zone and even a steel production base.
In addition to these two large comprehensive arsenals, there are also several regional arsenals that mainly focus on the production of conventional weapons and ammunition. The output is generally not very large and mainly meets the daily consumption of local and nearby troops.
The Xiangyang Arsenal in northern Chu mainly supplies troops in northern Chu and the Central Plains.
The Changsha Arsenal in Chunan mainly supplies troops fighting in Chunan and Yunnan-Guizhou directions.
The Guangzhou Arsenal in Guangdong mainly supplies combat troops in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions. The factory is preparing to build a heavy artillery factory to produce various types of naval guns and coastal defense artillery to supply the navy and coastal defense forces.
Finally, there is the Tianjin Arsenal, which is still under planning and construction!
After the Great Chu Empire captured the Northern Zhili region and changed Northern Zhili to Hebei Province, the Chu army deployed a large number of troops in the northern region to cope with the Eastern Capture, and at the same time, they also had to deal with the war needs of Shanxi, Mongolia and other directions.
There is a huge demand for all kinds of weapons, equipment and ammunition, and transporting them all the way from the south to the north is too costly and takes a long time.
Therefore, it is very necessary to set up a nearby arsenal in the north to produce weapons and ammunition to supply the frontline army.
Of course, this is also because Hebei is rich in coal and iron mines, especially coal mines. Previously, a large number of small coal mines were mined in the local area to supply the government and the people. Officials from the Industrial Department of the Da Chu Empire, under the guidance of Luo Zhixue, He went to Kaiping to survey the coal mines and found that the local coal mines were of high quality and easy to mine. Now the Kaiping Mining Bureau has been set up to dig out high-quality coal to supply ironmaking needs.
Similarly, the arsenal in Guangzhou also benefits from the large amount of local iron ore and coal mining. Although there are no large-scale iron ore mines in the area, there are still many small and medium-sized coal mines in northwest Guangdong and Guangxi. Mineral.
Thanks to the Pearl River water system, the iron ore and coal mines in the upper reaches can be easily transported down the river, and the transportation cost is not very high.
The reason why Foshan became a famous iron-making area in the past was due to this.
Nowadays, when the Chu Empire builds the Guangzhou arsenal and even the industrial zone, it also takes advantage of the transportation convenience of the Pearl River water system.
Not to mention, the Chu Empire also discovered high-quality iron ore in Qiongzhou Prefecture. Although it is located in Qiongzhou Island, initial mining is difficult and requires road construction, but the local iron ore is of excellent quality. , the Ministry of Industry has made up its mind to dig up this iron ore...
For this reason, he also greeted the army and navy and asked them to eliminate the illegal armed forces in Qiongzhou Island as soon as possible.
When opening a mine, there must be a safety link first. Otherwise, if you are attacked by some illegal armed forces every three days, how can you open a mine?
The Ministry of Industry has been struggling for so long and has built six arsenals so far, some large and some small. Among them, the Tianjin arsenal is still under preparation and has not yet been put into production.
In the follow-up, it is estimated that several more arsenals will be built. For example, with the recovery of Shanxi and Shaanxi-Gansu areas, in order to face the battle in the northwest and the long transportation supply lines, it is inevitable to set up arsenals locally, such as in Xi'an.
Then, transportation in Yunnan and Guizhou is even more troublesome. After Yunnan and Guizhou are recovered, it will be necessary to set up a small and medium-sized arsenal in Kunming or Dali to produce conventional weapons and equipment.
Then there is Sichuan, which will have to face snowy areas and other areas in the future. At the same time, it has been difficult to enter Sichuan since ancient times. For logistical supplies, it is reasonable to set up a small and medium-sized arsenal in Chengdu.
These are still talking about some medium and large arsenals, the kind that produce weapons and equipment.
In addition to these conventional production plants, the Ministry of Industry has also established numerous firearms repair shops and ammunition factories in various places.
At present, the relatively large-scale repair shops include Liuzhou Firearms Repair Factory, Hengyang Firearms Repair Factory, Quanzhou Firearms Repair Factory, Ningbo Firearms Repair Factory, Zhenjiang Firearms Repair Factory, Xuzhou Firearms Repair Factory, Jinan Firearms Repair Factory, Luoyang Firearms Repair Factory, You State Gun Repair Shop.
In addition, there are many small gun repair shops.
In fact, many of these gun repair shops were integrated and rebuilt from the weapons workshops originally run by the Ming court. The scale is generally not large, and they are mainly used to repair guns and even various cold weapons.
At the same time, some repair shops actually have the production capacity of weapons, especially relatively simple weapons and equipment such as cold weapons and muskets, but their output and technical capabilities are not very good.
So far, due to the expansion of the control area and the continuous expansion of military strength, in order to reduce costs and supply front-line troops nearby, the Ministry of Industry has basically deployed weapons and equipment production and repair factories in every province.
Otherwise, we can’t really hope to transport the weapons and equipment from Dangtu Arsenal or Hantian Arsenal across thousands or even thousands of kilometers to Jiliao or Yunnan-Guizhou front lines... The cost will be prohibitive. If you have money, It’s not so wasteful.
——
During Luo Zhixue's inspection in the Dangtu Industrial Zone, in addition to paying attention to the steel industry and machinery industry, he basically visited the Dangtu Arsenal and the Dangtu Heavy Artillery Factory.
After inspecting the major manufacturers, Luo Zhixue also held an imperial industrial meeting in Dangtu with the participation of the general offices of major local factories, once again emphasizing the importance of industrial development.
It is not only important to national defense, but also to people's livelihood and economy.
Luo Zhixue required all yamen to attach great importance to industrial development and not only require government-run investment in various important industries, but also encourage private capital to invest in industry and commerce.
Without agriculture, there will be no stability, without industry, there will be no strength, and without business, there will be no wealth.
All three are indispensable.
After passing this industrial meeting and once again conveying his importance to industry and commerce to his ministers and the outside world, Luo Zhixue did not stay in Dangtu Industrial Zone for long, but quickly returned to Jinling City.
Anyway, the Dangtu Industrial Zone is close, and he can come back at any time if needed.
After returning to Jinling City, Luo Zhixue once again entered into complicated daily affairs.
As the emperor of an empire, if Luo Zhixue wanted to be lazy, it would be easy for him to just push a lot of things to his ministers. However, this would detract from the imperial power and cause serious consequences.
In the future, Luo Zhi will learn to gradually transfer part of his power to his ministers through a more reasonable power structure design to reduce his workload.
But now, the empire is still in the stage of laying foundations and building a framework. Luo Zhixue still needs to be on the front line to handle many affairs. Otherwise, the foundation of the empire will be crooked in minutes...
After all, the new Great Chu Empire was different from any traditional feudal empire. There was no reference at all before this. Without Luo Zhixue personally taking the helm, the lowly ministers would turn the Great Chu Empire into a A replica of the Ming Dynasty...
——
Speaking of the Ming Dynasty, following the death of Chongzhen, vassal kings from all over the country successively supervised the country or proclaimed themselves emperors. Today, the remnants of the Ming Dynasty are in chaos. The Chu Empire, which is the enemy, cannot figure out what is going on. How many emperors and superintendents are there...even their true identities are unclear.
However, except for the many messy careerists with little power or people who simply come to play house, the regime that is currently widely recognized among the remnants of the Ming Dynasty is Sun Chuanting's strong support, and it also has limited recognition from Zuo Liangyu. Xi'an Longxing regime.
As time passed, Qin Liangyu of Sichuan in the south also represented the Ming army, which was mainly composed of chieftains in Sichuan, and declared allegiance to Emperor Longxing.
Prince Mu's Mansion in Yunnan also announced its recognition of Emperor Longxing.
Therefore, the current Longxing regime is still quite powerful, and it still nominally controls large areas such as Shanxi, Shaanxi-Gansu, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan.
However, in the huge control area, the various ministries are not actually subordinate to each other.
Zuo Liangyu and Sun Chuanting were fighting each other not long ago. If the Chu army hadn't taken this opportunity to seize Guguan, directly threatening the hinterland of Shanxi, Zuo Liangyu felt the pain, and Sun Chuanting felt that his lips were cold and his teeth were dying. Maybe these two are still fighting.
The Sichuan side is also relatively chaotic. Some of the local guardsmen are basically useless. The ones who can fight are the chieftain troops of Qin Liangyu's guardhouse. These chieftain troops have the highest priority goal of protecting their hometown and will not easily go out to fight in Sichuan.
The Yunnan-Guizhou region's allegiance to Emperor Longxing was only in name only.
But even so, it did not prevent Emperor Longxing from renovating thirteen temples at once after he ascended the throne. He also planned to build a temple in the palace and recruit monks. It is said that he recruited hundreds of monks in just a few months. The monks entered the palace to worship the Buddha.
Forget it, he really likes to make money, and even dares to spend money on military expenses...
It is said that Sun Chuanting advised him several times, but Emperor Longxing ignored him!
Emperor Longxing may have thought: Although you supported me, now I am the emperor and you are a minister. I cannot just do whatever you say!
Although you, Sun Chuanting, have more troops, I can't do anything to you, but I can choose to cover my ears and say: I won't listen, I won't listen, I won't listen...
After Luo Zhixue heard these gossips reported by the Military Intelligence Department, he chuckled: "Sun Chuanting will probably regret it now!"
Sun Chuanting's ability is quite good. He was able to initially put down the bandits in Shaanxi in just one or two years, initially stabilize the local situation, and also create a new Qin army.
What a pity that such a capable minister would be loyal to Emperor Longxing, who was fond of making money and worshiping Buddha!
