Zhu Linmiao nodded slightly. According to his plan, the Dragon Guard army will be expanded to 10,000 people, and these 7,000 chasseurs, plus the existing 14,500, will be enough to equip the cavalry and artillery without rifles.

It's just that the number of these mini bullets is still too small, and the average gun is only 14 bullets. However, with the current finishing capacity, this is the fastest speed that can be achieved.

He thought about it for a while, if the Northern Expedition was started in a short period of time, then Mini could produce at most 200,000 bombs. In the process of pacifying the southwest, the fighting was far from fierce, and 20 guns per person was barely enough.

But if you fight against a dozen or even hundreds of thousands of prisoners, this little bit of ammunition will definitely not be enough. In the later stage, it can only be used with leather-wrapped lead bullets, although the accuracy and power are not as good as Mini bullets, but they are still much stronger than smoothbore guns.

If we wait until the Northern Expedition a few months later, the Chasseur Gun will be able to produce another six or seven thousand, and nearly 400,000 Mini bullets. It is possible to equip the Broken Battalion with some Type 2 Hunter guns, but the guns are still seriously insufficient.

As for the practice of delaying the Northern Expedition until after the year, Zhu Linmiao would not consider it at all. At present, the morale of the Ming Dynasty is high, and it is a good opportunity to recover the rivers and mountains in one go. If it drags on for a long time, people's hearts will be tired, and the impact on combat effectiveness will be far from being compensated for by equipping them with more new weapons.

Moreover, after the capture of Nanjing and Beijing, its ordnance manufacturing capacity is not weak, although the technical content is not as good as the Ming Dynasty, but there are more than 100 Hongyi heavy artillery on the battlefield, which will also increase the casualties of the Ming army several times.

At the same time, Jianguo's forces still had a clear advantage, giving them more time, and the Qing troops from all over the north would continue to gather in Nanjing. For every additional month's delay, the defenders of Nanjing would have to have at least 20,000 or 30,000 more.

He sighed in his heart, it seemed that it was still impossible to replace all the Dragon Guards and the Broken Battalion with Type 2 Chasseur Guns before the Northern Expedition.

After all, with all the strength of the Ming Dynasty, the output of high-precision weapons in the era of rifled guns and mini bullets is only so much. You know, looking at the whole world, it is just that Daming is mass-producing this extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming weapon.

It seems that as a supplement, the flint will have to build another batch. Thinking of this, he instructed Song Yingxing: "Mr. Song, from now on, the Suji Iron Field will stop making huntsman guns, and turn to make 15,000 flintlock guns with all your might. However, the production of Mini ammunition will continue to be continued. ”

Song Yingxing was stunned, but he didn't ask the reason, he never paid much attention to His Highness's use of soldiers, and immediately arched his hand and said: "The student will go to Longnan in person tomorrow." ”

After the matter of the gun was finished, Zhu Linmiao looked at Xu Erlu again, "How is the progress over there?" ”

Xu Erlu hurriedly said: "Your Highness, the students ordered Jiangxi and Fujian to cast light and heavy artillery, and added craftsmen and utensils.

"Today, the Suji Iron Field and the Ganzhou Ordnance Bureau can produce 40 cannons from 3 to 9 pounds and 20 guns from 12 to 14 pounds per month.

"The Fujing Ordnance Bureau mainly manufactures heavy cannons of more than 18 pounds, and can also cast more than 20 guns per month.

"According to His Highness's orders, in recent months a total of 100 light cannons under 9 pounds, 39 cannons from 9 to 12 pounderers, 30 cannons of 18 pounderers, and 16 cannons of 24 pounder have been cast.

"A total of 140 small cannons and 42 heavy cannons."

Zhu Linmiao smiled with satisfaction when she heard this. In three months, nearly 180 light and heavy cannons were cast, and only in Jiangxi and Fujing, this is the strength that the Ming Dynasty should have.

Historically, due to the corruption black hole of the Ministry of Industry, coupled with the backward craftsman registration system, the enthusiasm of craftsmen was hit, so that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, even a decent heavy cannon could not be cast.

Now he ordered Jinyiwei to be stationed in the Ordnance Bureau to supervise, and first blocked the corruption. Then the craftsman was cancelled, the process standardization was vigorously promoted, and the modern management plan was implemented, and the "terrifying" productivity of the Ming craftsmen was finally released.

He secretly said in his heart, no wonder the Fujing Ordnance Bureau alone can spend 110,000 taels a month to buy raw materials, and these silver can be exchanged for thousands of rifled guns, tens of thousands of mini shells and twenty heavy guns, which is already very cheap.

However, these more than forty medium guns and more than forty heavy guns sound like a lot, but in fact they are not enough to equip the sailors.

The Galen warship was characterized by a very large number of guns, and a 500-ton battleship had to carry more than 30 medium and heavy guns. These included two twenty-four-pounder guns or six eighteen-pounder guns, as well as eight to ten twelve-pounder guns, ten nine-pounder guns, and ten four- to six-pounder guns. As for the Franc cannon on the open deck, it is not counted.

Based on this calculation, even if all these cannons in the current inventory of the Ministry of War are allocated to the naval divisions, they can barely equip two or three 500-ton warships.

In addition, even a light Galen ship of more than 300 tons required a total of more than 20 cannons, including two 18-pounder guns, four twelve-pounder guns, six 9-pounder guns, and ten four-pounder guns.

In other words, at present, the three places that can cast cannons are all at full capacity, so that they can barely supply the ships of the naval division, and this is not counting the needs of the new artillery battalions to be added by the Dragon Guard and the Broken Battalion.

He then instructed Xu Erlu: "The cannon is the heavy weapon of the country, and it will have to work hard for a while for the long distance, and you can rest for a while when the sailor is first formed." ”

"Students should do their best." Xu Erlu paused, and then said, "Your Highness, it's just that seventy percent of the copper in the previous storage has been consumed, and at the current speed of casting cannons, I am afraid that it will be used up in more than a month." ”

Zhu Linmiao frowned, on the way back to Fujing, he had read the report of Sun Rui, the political envoy of Guangdong, saying that since the Helan people learned that the Ming Dynasty had signed a trade agreement with the Franc Machine, they had increased the plundering of the Franc Machine's merchant ships.

In particular, merchant ships transporting ores suffered from the slow speed of the draft due to the deep draft. It seems that there are fewer and fewer copper mines coming to shore.

It's Helan again! Zhu Linmiao said angrily in his heart, he must deal with this evil tiger entrenched next to Daming as soon as possible, so that the sea trade route can be unimpeded.

"I'll figure out how to deal with copper. Forge more iron cannons before then," he instructed Xu Erlu, "with the double casting method of raw wrought iron that I taught you." ”

"The students obeyed."

However, Zhu Linmiao also knows that this casting method has high requirements for iron, and at present, the desulfurization pretreatment of molten iron in Suji Iron Field can be competent.

It seems that it is necessary to build a new iron yard on the Guangdong side. He planned in his heart that Foshan was the birthplace of the germination of iron-smelting capitalism in the late Ming Dynasty, with a large number of large and small iron yards, complete supporting facilities, and a continuous supply of iron ore from Qiongzhou, and various conditions were much better than those in Longnan. In the future, there will be more and more places that need high-quality steel, so it is advisable to plan ahead.

In addition, if the Northern Expedition is urgently needed to prepare for the war, it is also possible to temporarily buy some cannons from the Macau Bugarao Artillery Factory, but the cost is much higher than that of casting it yourself.