There is a row of tall waterwheels standing on the Weishui side in the northwest of Xi'an City, here is where the Gun Bureau is located, in fact, at the earliest time, the Gun Bureau was in the city, until three years ago, more than a dozen pseudonyms in the Ming Kingdom to learn the gun manufacturing of the flag man after returning from school, only to imitate the Ming Dynasty to build the factory on the riverside, in order to use water power nearby.

However, from the very beginning of its construction, this artillery bureau suffered repeated setbacks, and the reasons for this were nothing more than two reasons - insufficient equipment and limited experience.

Perhaps, those banner people under the pseudonym Han learned the manufacture of machinery and guns in the Ming Kingdom, but when they returned to Xi'an and started to set up a factory, they found that things were not as simple as they imagined, and they had no way to copy the Ming arsenal, because many machinery and equipment could not be manufactured out of thin air. In the end, this artillery bureau only changed the animal power of the past into water power, and some new production methods were created to improve the quality of production.

When he came to the Gun Bureau again, Xuan Ye's mood was a little depressed, this Gun Bureau was built by him against the public opinion, and even the selection of his outstanding children to study in the Ming Kingdom was also advocated by him, but what disappointed him was that the Gun Bureau did not play its role in application.

However, as soon as he came to the Gun Bureau today, he heard a happy event.

"Master,"

Wearing the official robe of the third grade, Salinha knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

"You're just in time, and the minion is about to give you good news."

"What's the joy of?"

Looking at Salinha, who was kneeling on the ground, he was one of the twelve people who went to the Ming Kingdom to study and learn six years ago by Xuan Ye, and this gun bureau was founded by him, although the gun bureau is not as good as the Ming country, but he is also very serious.

"Back to the master, from now on, the firearms of our Great Qing Kingdom will no longer need to use manpower to roll the pipe, and all of them will use a plate bending machine, which is made by a machine......"

Salinha's tone was smug.

"As long as there is this plate bending machine, the three-point thick iron plate can be rolled into a gun tube without a breath of effort, and then, the gun tube is burned red, and the pipe blank can be made with a hydraulic hammer for an hour, and the tube blank of this gun tube can be made, in the past, we were rolled and beaten, a craftsman can make up to two pipe blanks a day, and now a day can not make less than five or six ......"

"Master, in the past, we didn't have enough firearms, because the guns couldn't be supplied, and the guns couldn't be supplied, because it was too time-consuming to make them. And the shortest life of the firecracker is also the firecracker, so we have to buy the firecracker from the Ming Kingdom at a high price. But now there is no need for that, and in two months at most, we will be able to produce no less than 500 pipes a day......"

Hearing that five hundred pipes can be made in a day, Xuan Ye immediately said excitedly,

"Okay, Salinha, now you have made a great contribution to my Qing Dynasty!"

Xuan Ye, who was temporarily washed away by this good news, continued to ask when he watched how the gun plate was rolled into a gun tube, and watched a gun pipe being knocked out by a hydraulic hammer.

"This plate bending machine looks so simple, why is it only now built?"

This will be a little strange for Xuan Ye, and there is nothing new about this machine.

"Back to the master's words, this plate bending machine seems simple, but it is completely made of machines, steel beams, steel bodies, steel teeth, unless there is a machine, otherwise it will not be possible to build by hand, in recent years, the reason why the gun bureau is limited, in the final analysis, is because the machine is insufficient......

Seeing that the master seemed a little puzzled, Salinha explained.

"Master, in fact, the factories of the Ming Kingdom, at the beginning, were not even as good as ours, but they spent ten years constantly building machines, and then using machines to build machines, so that their machines are naturally getting better and better, and the firearms they make are naturally more and more sophisticated……”

Sighing that the Ming Kingdom was becoming more and more sophisticated, Salinha said again.

"However, as long as there is time, over time, the minions will definitely be able to build the same machine, and when the time comes, my Great Qing Kingdom will definitely be as good as the Ming Kingdom."

Prostrating his head to show his determination, he turned his gaze to Ilya Perfiliev beside him, and asked with a smile,

"Ilya, do you say yes, now the guns of our Great Qing Kingdom should be no worse than the Rakshasa Kingdom!"

Ilya Perfiliev heard Salinha ask, his heart was suddenly very bitter, this former Russian envoy, who retreated all the way to Xi'an with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he even helped the Qing people to cast cannons and make guns. But it was in this process that he found that the Russian arquebus had become tattered, and the more advanced flintlock pistols were used here in both the Qing and Ming countries.

Can...... Does Russia have so many flintlock guns now?

Whether there is a flintlock pistol or not, Ilya Perfiliev will still bluff.

"In recent years, the Qing Dynasty has become more and more sophisticated in the manufacture of guns, but Russia has been manufacturing guns for a hundred years, and when it comes to sophistication, it is naturally not inferior to your country."

Whether what Ilya Perfiliev said was true or not, Xuan Ye didn't care, the reason why he was here today was for another thing.

"Salinha, how is our steam engine done now?"

Build a steam engine.

I'm afraid that even Zhu Mingzhong himself could not have imagined that the Manchu Qing Dynasty's reaction would be so fast, and it was less than a year since the promotion of the steam engine in the Ming Dynasty, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which has always been known for its conservatism, took the initiative to try to make a steam engine.

In fact, the reason why he reacted so quickly was also forced to be helpless, after all, there was pressure to survive, and Xuan Ye couldn't help but take the initiative to learn.

"Back to the master, this ......"

Seeing that the master asked about the steam engine, Salinha's face became a little embarrassed.

"This steam engine is really ......"

Without waiting for him to finish, Xuan Ye said directly.

"Let's go, it's a steam engine built there, take me over now."

Before entering the workshop, Xuan Ye heard someone shouting in the workshop.

"It's impossible to build, we want a machine without a machine, we want nothing, how to build it, not to mention anything else, it's just that the accuracy of this cylinder is not enough at all, how to ......build it."

"Master......"

The shouting in the workshop made Salinha's face a little ugly, and just as he was about to open his mouth to defend himself, he heard someone shouting in the workshop.

"Those people want us to build a steam engine with a mouth, and I don't want to think about it, it took more than ten years for the Ming Kingdom, and I don't know how many skilled craftsmen have built so many kinds of machines little by little, and then built a steam engine little by little, what about us? Now I can't even build the most basic machine for making guns, and as a result, as soon as I come up, I will build a steam engine, isn't this a fool's dream? ”

This will not only be Salinha's face ugly, Xuan Ye's face is even more ugly, just when Salinha just wanted to tell the man to stop, he glared at Salinha, and just stood outside the door, listening to the shouting inside the door.

"How can you talk about dreams, hasn't the Ming Kingdom been built for several years, so we have to build it too. Otherwise......"

"What if you can't?"

The same shout from before shouted again.

"What do you think the steam engine is? That thing is like a cannon, and it can make thousands of them? I tell you, no way! ”

The words that were almost arbitrary made Xuan Ye stunned, and he didn't quite understand why this person said that.

"How much is a steam engine? There are more than 20,000 catties at least, and at least half of them are wrought iron, not pig iron, and it costs 20,000 catties to produce a steam engine, so how many 100 are needed? That's millions of catties, where does so much iron come from? ”

The rhetorical question in the workshop made Xuan Ye not only surprised, but also nodded in agreement in his heart.

That's it!

Where do millions of pounds of iron come from?

"There are a lot of iron factories in the Ming Kingdom."

"No matter how many iron factories there are, how many can they have? You also want to stay in Mingguo, in order to build a railway, Mingguo has almost exhausted the iron of all the iron factories in the world, and now they are building steam engines, there are so many irons in the world for them to use like this, steam engines need iron, railways also need iron, this railway costs tens of thousands of catties of iron, and the railway still has losses, they can't use all the iron in the world to build railways! ”

Then Xuan Ye heard what the people in the workshop were saying there, this also uses iron, that also uses iron, and in the end, it comes down to one point - the iron of the Ming Kingdom is not enough at all!

"Since there is not enough iron, then why does Ming Guo still mention what steam engines are in the newspapers all day long?"

With his ears pricked up, Xuan Ye only missed one word, why did Ming Guo mention the steam engine.

"Hmph, let me ask you, where did the wrought iron we use to make the guns come from?"

The sudden rhetorical question made Xuan Ye stunned for a moment, as if he understood something, and almost immediately realized that he had been fooled!

"The wrought iron we make is transported from Daming, the iron of Daming is not enough, our iron is even more insufficient, we use tens of thousands of catties, hundreds of thousands of catties of good iron here to build a steam engine, and the iron for making guns and cannons is naturally not enough, and when we build a steam engine, it is estimated that someone will say something, this steam engine is so convenient to use, we can also build a steam car, and when the time comes, it will also be like Daming to lay the railway, build a locomotive, and then ......"

And then there will be no more iron weapons!

“…… Build the railroad to the Western Regions? Is it possible? It is estimated that not to mention that there are no less than 5,000 miles from Xi'an to the Western Regions, that is, to go out of Xi'an to Tianshui, all the way over the mountains and mountains, not to mention the railway, that is, the sheep intestine trail is dangerous and difficult to walk, build the railway? Is it possible? ”

Xuan Ye, who was still worried, listened to the words coming from the workshop, and the words in his throat finally fell, and he turned his head to Salinha beside him and said.

"Who is the person who speaks, let him come to the palace tomorrow! I want to meet him! ”

After that, Xuan Ye, who was in a good mood, turned around and left, and he looked into the distance in a good mood, and said in his heart.

It seems that the situation is not as bad as he imagined!