When problems arise, they must be addressed, and they cannot be ignored or inappropriate.

The reason why the Ming army degenerated from the previous army of pure firearms to an army with a mixture of hot and cold weapons was largely due to the decline in the quality of firearms.

The "decay" of weapons and equipment will inevitably bring about a decline in the army's discipline and combat effectiveness, and the two are both cause and effect and inevitable.

At present, the source of the firearms used by the sons of Gonggong Wei is very complicated, there are hundreds of high-grade guns obtained from Weinan Town, Jinyi, Beijing, and ordinary guns used by the original Wusong Water Battalion, and a large number of guns have recently been obtained from the Nandu Coalition Army, the quality of these guns is uneven, and the stability of the quality is worrying.

Therefore, if the problem of the use of granular gunpowder in these guns cannot be solved, then it will happen that soldiers do not dare to participate in battles with guns, or even dare not train.

This must be something that Grandpa Wei can't tolerate, so it must be resolved immediately.

Compared with the large-scale production of flintlock guns, it is more practical and practical to improve the barrels of existing arquebuses.

After all, the Ming Imperial Army will be put into actual combat in a few months.

Time waits for no one, Father-in-law Wei is humble and asks, and invites Wang and Hong, the two leaders of the craftsman's household, to be seated, and the two elders are very excited.

According to the standard of "Wubei Zhi", the fire gun used by the Ming army was roughly smelted from forty catties of wool iron to eight catties of refined iron, that is, ten percent of two - ten catties of wool iron were smelted into two catties of refined iron.

According to this standard, the annual iron production of the Liyang Iron Yard controlled by the father-in-law is about 160,000 catties, and if all of it is used for the production of firearms, the single barrel will only be enough to produce 4,000 pipes a year.

At present, whether it is the Ministry of War, the Nanzhen of Jinyiwei, or the Beijing War Bureau, it is rare to be strict with materials. According to the two old men, Wang and Hong, most of the firearms they handled in the War Bureau in the past were less than 20 catties of materials, but in the end, they also made the guns weigh about 8 catties.

Among them, there is not enough tempering.

Insufficient materials and insufficient tempering, it is no wonder that this gun pipe can be good. That is to say, the above instructed to make some kind of goods, or the border generals specially ordered enough materials for the family, otherwise it is all the same.

The reason why this is the case is that money is at odds.

Gonggong Wei knew this well, as early as when he bought and bought in the Beijing Military Bureau, Eunuch Lu told him a lot of inner and middle ways.

For the piece of steel, to be honest, Gonggong Wei really doesn't know much, and only vaguely remembers the standard of steel in his previous life, as if he looked at what carbon content was, and it seemed that the lower the carbon content, the better the steel.

To make a pipe, pig iron is used to heat it in a charcoal fire, and then it is forged repeatedly, so a good piece of iron is said to be made of steel.

The principle is that with the heating of the charcoal furnace, the wrought iron is carburized, and in the process of continuous heating and forging, the iron oxide scale continues to fall off, and the carbon is lost, resulting in the continuous reduction of the overall weight, and finally it becomes steel, which is the so-called high-grade wrought iron, or refined iron.

At present, Sugang, which is quite popular among the people in Nanzhili, is forged by Wuhu Iron Works. It's a pity that Sugang is mostly used for people's livelihood, and there are very few purchases in the military.

In order to make money, both the north and the south are shoddy and coping with things.

………..

Because it is rare for such a big person to listen to them say that this is a good thing, and Father-in-law Wei is not kind to them, he gives him enough settling-in allowance when he comes, and he gets more wages every month than in Beijing.

Gonggong Wei listened attentively, and immediately asked when he heard what he didn't understand, without taking a stand at all.

In fact, the most suitable for making a gun pipe must be a seamless steel pipe, and my father-in-law knows the concept of seamless steel pipe, but there is no high-speed motor at the moment, and there is not even power, so it is impossible to produce seamless steel pipes. In the previous life, until the founding of the People's Republic of China, China did not have the ability to produce seamless steel pipes, and it was still possible to produce them with the assistance of the Soviets.

Therefore, my father-in-law will not whimsically engage in any seamless steel pipes, and he thinks that the solution to the problem of easy explosion of the gun pipe still depends on the existing solution.

In order to let himself feel the production process of a gun tube more intuitively, Grandpa Wei specially asked Wang and Hong Erlao to take him to see it.

The second elder went to the workshop, asked the apprentices to prepare, and then took a piece of refined iron that had been tempered, and then prepared a cylindrical steel core about 30 centimeters long to make cold bones, burned the fine iron to make the pipe until it was red-hot, and used a hammer to knock the hot fine iron outside the steel core and roll it into an iron pipe. In the process of cladding iron, the steel core is continuously extracted and cooled with water to prevent the steel core and wrought iron from being welded together.

"My father-in-law doesn't know that only when the rolled gun tube reaches a certain thickness, the gun tube is strong and can withstand more than ten consecutive launches, otherwise if it hits two or three times, the gun tube will be hot and hot, and it will be useless."

Wang Lao'er said as he and Hong Lao'er started welding. Because of the limited process, the gun body is welded one by one, and if the gun is not welded well, it is easy to blow up the bore.

This work can't be done by ordinary people, and you have to study for more than three years to start.

Li Yanzhao whispered on the side that only when the welding is seamless, this gun tube can be used to make guns.

In addition, in addition to this gun-making method, there is also a drilling method.

This method is extremely laborious, it is said that only one inch can be drilled per day, and it takes at least a month for a good gun tube to be drilled.

There are too many skilled craftsmen needed, and the output is low, so Jiajing basically didn't use it much after that.

About half an hour later, with the help of his apprentice, the second elder was able to weld the pipe.

Father-in-law Wei thought that was it, and he didn't want to have any more processes.

The pipe is put back into the furnace and burned until it is red, and a steel core is also prepared, and then the iron pipe that has been burned to red is put on the steel core, and the master craftsman vigorously smashes the iron pipe joint into one. In this process, the steel core should be withdrawn and cooled at any time, and the iron pipe should be heated back to the furnace while cooling the steel core, and the final iron pipe is the gun pipe that can be made.

Father-in-law Wei understood, he knew what he was going to do.

First, it is necessary to ensure the treatment of artisans so that they are motivated to work. This is an example of this, and the miners and porters of the Liyang Iron Yard are examples.

The second is to replenish manpower.

Now, counting the work brought by Beijing and recruited from the people, there are more than 300 craftsmen working in the General Manufacturing Bureau, and at least one-third of them are not skilled hands, so according to the process and time required to build a gun pipe, the General Manufacturing Bureau can only produce four or five hundred guns in a month.

This speed is far worse than the assembly line.

Therefore, Gonggong Wei ordered Zheng Duo to transfer all the soldiers captured from Zhongzuo in Dinghaiwei, Zhejiang to the General Manufacturing Bureau, and also draw a batch of prisoners brought by Nandu.

"Let's give you another six hundred people, and how to arrange them is up to you."

Gonggong Wei also knew that this kind of gun making was not something that could be done by a large number of people, and the important thing was the progress and proficiency of the process. He transferred these hundreds of people not directly to the front line, but to do the coolies and other auxiliary work in the furnace, so as to reduce the workload of the craftsmen and make them more efficient.

Of course, these people also exist as apprentices, and Grandpa Wei hopes that Wang and Hong can be teachers and teach their skills well, and he will not treat them badly.

More people work to reduce their workload, how Wang and Hong Erlao don't know the benefits, they are full of promises.

To put it bluntly, Gonggong Wei did not make any innovations, he just picked up the previous system again and solved the problem with the attitude of "there must be brave men under heavy rewards".

And this is the most realistic and the most effective.

Of course, the premise is that his father-in-law Wei is very wide now, otherwise, he can't afford it.

After giving these orders, my father-in-law ordered Li Yanzhao to organize people to inspect the firecrackers in each battalion, and those with good quality were retained, and those with the slightest problem were brought to the General Administration of Manufacturing, and those that could be repaired were repaired, and those that could not be repaired were dismantled and returned to the furnace.

It was not allowed to explode in the hands of the soldiers of the imperial army, it was a death order given to Zheng Duo by Gonggong Wei and Li Yanzhao.

At the same time, an additional 10,000 taels of silver were allocated for the manufacture of firecrackers.

My father-in-law believes that many things can be solved with sufficient funds.

The prerequisite for the success of any scientific research is that there is a lot of money.

The father-in-law also explained a lot, Li Yanzhao was hunched beside him, holding a pen and kept remembering, lest he miss it.

The rest of the managers of the General Manufacturing Bureau also did the same, one by one with small notebooks around the father-in-law, listening and remembering with a serious face.

This made Grandpa Wei very happy and very fulfilled.

The pride of the sky, that's probably it.

For dinner, my father-in-law ate at the General Manufacturing Bureau, with more than 30 craftsmen.

After the meal, the father-in-law specially talked with these craftsmen, chatted with some parents, asked for warmth, and ordered them to solve any difficulties on the spot, which made the craftsmen's respect and gratitude to their father-in-law even heavier.

After that, my father-in-law shared some of his opinions and opinions on the manufacture of firecrackers and firecrackers, and guided the craftsmen to use their brains to think about how to improve work efficiency and how to produce better weapons.

"What are the officers and soldiers taking your weapons into battle for? In order to protect our country and protect you. Therefore, you must be careful and careful, only if our weapons are powerful, the officers and soldiers will not sacrifice needlessly..."

The prince said justly, but when he saw that the teapot was boiling, he casually pointed to the lid of the pot that was lifted by the heat, and smiled at everyone: "Look, the water vapor of a small teapot can lift the lid, if this is a big tank of water, won't the water vapor be able to lift everyone?" If there is such a thing that can continue to move, we don't have to manually beat it, and save a lot of trouble...... Well, that's the motivation. ”

Gonggong Wei proposed the concept of "power", but he did not think that the craftsmen would make him a steam engine when they heard the word.

He was still young, he had time, and he didn't have to rush to do that, he just had to convey some ideas to these craftsmen.

In the land of China, there are hidden dragons and crouching tigers, and there are countless skilled craftsmen.

As a qualified traverser, the delivery of ideas and the cultivation of talents are more important than going to the company in person.

The next day, my father-in-law turned over and waved goodbye to everyone under the farewell of hundreds of "employees" of the General Manufacturing Bureau.

Many of the women working in the General Manufacturing Bureau in the surrounding villages wept sadly.

This situation is touching.

This is probably the first eunuch in ancient and modern times to win the hearts of women in this way.

An hour later, the figure of the father-in-law appeared in the base camp.

Soon, Order No. 1 was issued, and 520 naval officers and men, 100 staff cadets, and 450 army warriors boarded the warship and galloped north.