After Zhu Youzhen chatted with Yang Tiansheng for nearly an hour, he finally had a preliminary impact on the current situation on the Indian mainland. The saltpeter needed by the Ming Dynasty was in the Mughal Empire's Bihar Province, which was adjacent to Bengal Province, and the saltpeter was abundant and extremely cheap.

However, although the Indians had already received muskets from the Turks and Europeans, they also regarded the weapon as a treasure. The Mughal Empire bought quite a few muskets from the Europeans, but they were issued to soldiers only during battles. As for the production of *, their skills are also bad, worse than those made by the Ming Army in the past.

Because of this, Indians have lost confidence in what they make*, and most of them have adopted the method of outsourcing*. Because India does not control the saltpeter trade, most of the saltpeter produced in India is purchased by Arab and European merchants from the Middle East.

However, saltpeter is not only produced in the region of Bihar, but also in the northwest of India, where saltpeter is also abundant, and Europeans and Arabs obviously prefer to go to the western coast of India, which is geographically closer, rather than bypassing the entire Indian continent to the northeastern province of Bengal.

As a result, the quantity of Bihar saltpeter sold in Hughle is not large, but the supply of saltpeter is hardly limited by the convenient water transportation from Bihar to Hughle, as long as there is sufficient demand.

Although the Coromandel Coast is the cotton textile center of the Indian continent, only a small part of its local cotton production can be supplied for export after meeting the local demand. This is also the reason why local merchants insist on settling the cotton business with gold, because demand outstrips supply.

In recent years, though, things seem to have changed. As Europeans became attracted to the cotton weaving technology, they began to bring cotton from Gujarat in western India, where they could exchange cotton cloth or sell it outright. The hostile relationship between the Mughal Empire and the kingdoms of South India, which had led to the inability to trade, was broken by these European merchants.

The Mughal Empire had several successive civil strife due to the issue of the heir to the throne, and Shah Jahan, who had just inherited the throne this year, was eager to consolidate his position and relaxed his oppression on the South Indian kingdoms in order to ease the relationship between the empire and the countries of South India.

In this situation, the South Indian kingdoms also began to relax their trade with the Mughal Empire, and the textile industry on the Coromandel coast flourished.

According to Yang Tiansheng's observation, as long as this trend continues, the Coromandel coast will probably become the same status as the Daming Susong region on the Indian mainland. Every year, the cotton cloth exported to the region will grow from 2 to 3 million to tens of millions.

When Yang Tiansheng told Chongzhen in detail about what he had seen and heard on his trip, the two persons in charge of the ordnance supervisor finally arrived in a hurry.

One is the deputy director of the Ordnance Superintendent, responsible for the development of muskets and * Bi Maokang; The other is Bo Yu, a firearms expert who even Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua admired. This craftsman-turned-firearms expert is particularly proficient in * and musket making, so he was personally named by Chongzhen to be responsible for the development and production of muskets, and is currently the director of the Royal Arsenal.

When Bi Maokang and Bo Yu were selected, Sun Yuanhua immediately put all his energy into studying the direction of artillery casting and use. Artillery firing requires an open field field, and casting artillery requires a lot of metal raw materials and coal.

When the Jingxi Railway was opened, Sun Yuanhua moved the cannon factory to Xishan between Mentougou and Beijing, where the environment was elegant and the transportation was convenient. However, in this way, it is difficult for Chongzhen to meet the director of the ordnance superintendent.

After hearing the emperor's request for summons, Bi Maokang, who was in charge of the daily affairs of the ordnance superintendent, called Bo Yu, and the two hurried to listen to Chongzhen's inquiry.

After listening to the emperor's inquiry, Bi Maokang didn't think much about it, but replied honestly: "The reason why they went to the Jiangnan Production Bureau to get the muskets and * is entirely because after the establishment of the Jiangnan Production Bureau, the Ordnance Supervisor wanted to clarify the responsibilities of the Beijing Arsenal and the Jiangnan Production Bureau.

The Ordnance Supervision stipulates that the Yangtze River is the boundary, and the Beijing Arsenal supplies ordnance production to the area north of the Yangtze River, while the Jiangnan Production Bureau supplies ordnance production to the area south of the Yangtze River. In this way, if there is substandard ordnance, it is easier to hold them accountable.

The muskets made by the Jiangnan Production Bureau are actually qualified in quality, as for the discrepancies in caliber. This is mainly because the craftsmen of the Jiangnan Production Bureau were originally good craftsmen who made shotguns, and they were fundamentally different from the craftsmen of the Beijing Arsenal.

The craftsmen of the Beijing Arsenal were originally not good at making firecrackers, but after His Majesty ordered the restructuring, the production of firecrackers was divided into several processes, and it can be said that the craftsmen of the Beijing Arsenal may be very good at making a single part, but if you want him to make a fine firecracker alone, few people can do it.

However, most of the craftsmen of the Gangnam Production Bureau can make a complete fire hammer, and they regard this skill as a family business to pass on to their descendants, just like the ancestral fields of rural farmers.

Because of this, these craftsmen were not willing to disassemble the production of the firecrackle into several processes according to the requirements of the technicians sent by the Beijing Arsenal, and several people were responsible for one process. They always demanded that the guns be made in the old way, and the person in charge refused to go to work.

Considering the urgent need for the southern army to change its equipment and sell weapons for export, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau finally listened to the advice of these craftsmen and asked them to set up a separate gun-making workshop. Of course, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is also training a new generation of craftsmen, and is preparing to use the abundant water resources in the south to greatly improve machine processing to simplify manual labor.

However, it takes time to train workers and make hydraulic processing machines, so in two or three years, the southern army will have to temporarily tolerate the defect of large caliber tolerances. However, we have already decided that we will no longer issue standard bullets to the guns made by the Jiangnan Production Bureau, but instead issue lead blocks and tools, so that soldiers can use their own bullets before the war.

As for the problem of insufficient power, the minister thought that they should have chosen the export type. For all the military standards*, the purification of soil nitrate must meet a certain standard, about 3-5 times. The more purification times, the more the cost will naturally rise.

For the export type*, the purification of soil nitrate is at most 1-2 times, and the cost is low. The price difference between the two is about double, and I think that the price is worth the goods, which is still good. ”

Yang Tiansheng's face was a little red, to be honest, he didn't know that the * produced by the Jiangnan Production Bureau was divided into export and military, but apparently the relatives he sent to buy * didn't tell him the truth, and as a result, he lost face in front of the emperor.

Zhu Youzhen didn't seem to be aware of the change in Yang Tiansheng's face, and he still said to him calmly: "Envoy Yang Zhen, it seems that you can only overcome the problem of the caliber of the fire gun by yourself for the time being. As for the *aspect... In this way, a barrel of 100 pounds* is 115 yuan, and you shouldn't be able to use 10,000 barrels a year, right? That's $115,000.

In addition to the military expenses that should be allocated, I will personally subsidize you with 25,000 yuan as a * subsidy, what do you think? ”

Yang Tiansheng could only accept Chongzhen's kindness in a sneering manner, and did not dare to dwell on the issue of *, but he still asked a little unwillingly: "Your Majesty, can't the Beijing Arsenal even out some firecrackers?" ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Bi Maokang with an inquiring gaze, Bi Maokang thought about it and said to Bo Yu behind him: "Director Bo, it's better for you to answer Your Majesty's question." ”

Although he had seen the emperor several times in the arsenal, it was his first time to meet Chongzhen in the inner courtyard of the palace. The atmosphere here was obviously much more depressing than the arsenal he was familiar with, and the director of the arsenal couldn't help but tremble.

After hearing Bi Maokang's instructions, he immediately stepped forward and stammered: "The pig iron smelted by the Jingxi Iron Works, and then refined by the reverberatory furnace, will lose about two-tenths or three-tenths.

According to the determination of the arsenal, one ton of refined wrought iron can make 152 heavy arquebuses of the first type of the first year, or 300 light arquebuses of the second type of the first year.

The monthly quota of refined wrought iron allocated by the Ordnance Superintendent to the gun sub-factory is 10 tons, of which 3 percent is used to make Type 1 heavy arquebuses and 7 percent is used to make Type 2 light arquebuses. Therefore, the arsenal can produce 456 heavy arquebuses of the first type and 2,100 light arquebuses of the second type per month, for a total of 2,556 guns.

The quota for refining wrought iron began in July, and about 3,778 were made intermittently before, and from July to now, the arsenal has produced a total of 15,026 arquebuses, which means that more than 17,500 arquebuses have been made this year.

Of the more than 17,500 arquebuses, a quarter was allocated to the Jizhou army, a quarter was transferred to the Xuanda border town, and a quarter was handed over to the new army. The remaining quarter is still in the Ordnance Prison.

However, according to the requirements of the General Staff, after the beginning of spring next year, this part of the ordnance will be allocated to the Henan New Army and the Sichuan New Army. According to the quota of 4,500 for the Henan New Army and 8,000 for the Sichuan New Army, the arsenal still needs to produce more than 8,000 more, that is, 4 months' output. With the addition of the needs of the armies of Jiubian and Gyeonggi, I am afraid that it will not be able to meet the needs of other places within the next year and the year after..."