On the last day of April, a regular meeting of the General Staff of the Governor's Office of the Five Armed Forces was held in the Wuying Palace, and unlike in the past, several naval generals were added to this meeting as naval staff officers.

There were two deputy generals of the naval division, Fan Yonggao and Wu Zhenyuan, who were transferred from Fujian and Zhejiang, and Wang An and Song Wulie, two guerrillas and garrisons who were transferred from Tianjin and Denglai.

Sun Yuanhua first reported the results of his conversation with Shen Pei, who felt that the 800,000 catties of old* collected by the Ordnance Supervisor could still be sold to Southeast Asia, but he didn't look down on the inferior three-eyed guns piled up in the warehouse.

According to Shen Pei, although the natives of Southeast Asian countries were not capable*, they could distinguish what kind of firearms were useful in the war with those European colonizers.

The three-eyed gun, which is a low-powered musket, may not be acceptable to the natives. However, he is willing to take some with him and try his luck in Southeast Asia.

In addition, he took a fancy to the two new firearms made by the arsenal modeled on the turtledove gun, as well as the Furlong cannon and the tiger squat cannon, and hoped to allow the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to manufacture and sell them.

"Didn't the Fran cannon and the tiger cannon have already ordered it to stop? And a new firearm has already been developed? Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but ask curiously.

Sun Yuanhua immediately explained: "In addition to some inventory, the Furlong machine gun and the Tiger Squat Cannon have also been recast, mainly for military school training, and also used as a military weapons supervisor to verify whether the calculation formula of the shell trajectory is correct. More than a month ago, this matter was reported in the application report for training equipment in military schools. ”

Zhu Youzhen recalled, but he quickly shook his head, he shouldn't have looked at this trivial matter carefully at the time. But apparently Sun Yuanhua also played a little trick, for him, casting cannons has become a kind of faith.

Chongzhen didn't intend to pursue the matter, so as not to hurt his enthusiasm, and Sun Yuanhua quickly diverted the topic to the research and development of the new firecracker.

"Imitation of the first model of the turtledove, the gun is 1.2 meters long, plus *, the total length is 1.79 meters, the total weight is 84 kilograms, the standard charge is 45 grams, the bullet weighs 56 grams, the caliber is 19 millimeters, the ammunition is loaded from the muzzle, it must be placed on a fork bracket when firing, the maximum range is 230 meters, and it can penetrate heavy armor within 100 meters.

And the second model, the gun is 1 meter 1 in length, plus *, with a total length of 1 meter 60, a total weight of 46 kg, a standard charge of 18 grams, a bullet weighing 21 grams, a caliber of 12 mm, no need for a bracket, and can penetrate ordinary armor within 30 meters.

Both models of firecrackers are still being test-fired to verify various performances, but they have not yet been fully completed, so the minister did not report to His Majesty. ”

Zhu Youzhen said with interest: "Since you can be favored by Shen Pei, I think these two muskets are almost complete, how much do they cost?" Can it be standardized? ”

Sun Yuanhua, who was talking eloquently just now, suddenly became a little hesitant, and only replied in a low voice after a long while: "The first model of muskets is 26 taels each, and the second model of muskets is 17 taels each." ”

Sun Yuanhua probably knew that the price was too staggering, but he quickly raised his voice and explained: "However, in terms of standardization, the ministers have found a way, and I believe that when these muskets are made in large quantities, there should not be a large error." ”

Regarding Sun Yuanhua's proposed price for the production of muskets, Zhu Youzhen only frowned slightly, and did not appear very annoyed, although this price was nearly one-third more expensive than buying turtledoves from the Portuguese.

"So has the problem of wrought iron raw materials for * tubes been solved?" Zhu Youzhen first asked a question that he was most concerned about.

Sun Yuanhua was not embarrassed by this question, and he quickly replied: "According to His Majesty's reminder, the ministers assume that steel is a carbon-iron complex, and it is divided into three different forms: wrought iron, steel, and pig iron according to the content of carbon.

Therefore, the ministers use wrought iron as the raw iron, and pour pig iron liquid on it, and the wrought iron material obtained is close to the performance of steel, which can barely be regarded as solving the problem of pipe iron, but the cost is extremely large.

The minister thought that it would be better to set up a gun-making workshop in Fujian or Guangdong. Fujian and Guangdong have good iron, there is no need to add an additional refining procedure, and there are many rivers in the south, you can try to make a hydraulic push forging hammer to save labor. ”

Zhu Youzhen pondered for a while, and did not immediately agree to Sun Yuanhua's request, but asked: "So now the arsenal * tube, can it be formed at one time?" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty. However, *tube is more time-consuming than before. Sun Yuanhua replied.

"In addition to the hydraulic forging hammer, what other machines did the arsenal make?" Zhu Youzhen asked.

Sun Yuanhua recalled, and replied: "The arsenal has made several lathes and boring machines, as well as thread-cutting machines, and after the blacksmiths have made the barrel by rolling iron, they will use the boring machine to cut the inner diameter, and the tools made of crucible steel of different diameters will be cut in rotation. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a long time before continuing: "Aren't we going to cooperate with those maritime merchants to establish the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau? It's good to think that the way these two guns are made is a technology share.

These two muskets are named Chongzhen first year type 1 and Chongzhen first year type 2, the first type is a heavy arquebus, and the second type is a light arquebus.

In the first year of Chongzhen, the first type was sold to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau at a price of 20 taels * 500, and the first year of Chongzhen was sold at the price of 12 taels * 1500. The time limit is within two years.

As for the arsenal in the capital, what do you need to do to reduce the cost of these two muskets to this price? ”

Sun Yuanhua thought for a long time before he said uncertainly: "The minister has calculated that the cost of purifying iron and secondary processing accounts for nearly half of the cost.

If the performance of wrought iron required by the arsenal can be met at one time in ironmaking, then the cost of the musket will be lower than that required by His Majesty. ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly thought of one thing, and asked Sun Yuanhua: "Has the design of the new iron-making blast furnace in Mentougou been completed?" I asked you to use coal to make coke, did you succeed in refining it? ”

Sun Yuanhua hurriedly lowered his head, took out a drawing from the document on the table in front of him, handed it to Chongzhen, and then said: "The ministers have tried several times, and found that the white coal produced in Mentougou does not seem to be suitable for coking, and it always becomes very loose after refining, and it is not at all like the appearance of coke that Your Majesty said.

Therefore, the ministers began to look for other different kinds of coal, hoping to make the coke that His Majesty said. ”

Zhu Youzhen was a little disappointed, but he quickly focused his attention on the drawing in front of him.

Taking a pencil from Wang Chengen beside him, Zhu Youzhen began to revise the blast furnace drawings handed in by Sun Yuanhua.

Sun Yuanhua, who was called to Chongzhen's side, looked at the unrecognizable drawings, and was suddenly a little speechless.

Zhu Youzhen said to him unceremoniously: "When building a building, the foundation is the most important, if the foundation is not stable, the building will be tilted."

The blast furnace iron smelting needs a solid foundation, after all, the molten iron smelted in the blast furnace is heavy and high, if the furnace is tilted, the furnace can not be used.

And the blast furnace itself should be strong enough, not just refractory bricks as support, I thought that pig iron should be cast into iron plates for the outer chamber of the furnace, and then the refractory bricks should be built inside as thermal insulation..."

Although Zhu Youzhen did not specialize in iron smelting, as an industrial building, he still built one or two smelters.

For the basic principle and shape of the iron-making blast furnace, he is still much more conceptual than Sun Yuanhua, who is still exploring the ancients.

The reinforced concrete is used as the foundation, the thickness should be as high as half a meter, and then the iron plate is used as the skeleton to build an iron-making blast furnace with an inner diameter of 15 cubic meters.

The refractory bricks of the blast furnace are salt mud bricks precipitated by refined salt, that is, brine plus lime milk, and then filtered and precipitated, and the main component of the precipitate is magnesium hydroxide.

After Zhu Youjian's changes, the scale of the iron-making blast furnace was nearly doubled. The cost of building a blast furnace has tripled.

Finally waited for Chongzhen and Sun Yuanhua to finish talking about the ironworks, Sun Chengzong finally couldn't help but say to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, the two battalions of the new army and the three battalions of the Beijing battalion after the reorganization have almost stabilized again. ”

Regarding Sun Chengzong's question, Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while, and he thought for a long time before saying: "The third battalion of the Beijing camp will do what Mr. Sun wants, and train it into two car battalions and one cavalry battalion.

As for training the first and second battalions, I am not going to train them into a car battalion. My Ming Dynasty fought with Houjin several times, and every time I encountered a slight setback, it would turn into a rout that swept the whole army.

The reason for this is not that the equipment is not fine and the armor is incomplete, but that our army lacks courage, and all day long they either think about hiding in the city or want to hide behind the car, once there is no city wall or car in front of them, in the face of direct attack by the enemy, they only think about fleeing.

An army that doesn't even have the courage to face the enemy is still called an army? To train an army, we must first train the courage of a soldier, and I need an army that can fight the enemy head-on, not a coward who hides behind a car formation and fires a gun.

Therefore, I asked for the armament of the two battalions of the new army, spearmen and musketeers, and 5-10 furlong cannons. The ratio of spearmen to musketeers was 1:1, while musketeers were equipped with a ratio of 1:3 to 1:3 for musketeers of type 1 and type 2.

The Arsenal developed a sleeved bayonet that could be mounted on the barrel of a Type II musket and could be used as a spearman in close combat.

Staff Officer Mao proposed in his letter that it would be better to set up another command level between the battalion and the company to facilitate command. I felt that it made sense, so I lowered the battalion by one level, and then replaced the current battalion command size with a regiment.

A company was set at 120 men, a battalion governed six companies, while four battalions formed a regiment, and the surplus personnel formed an artillery company.

Then the company formed the smallest phalanx, the company phalanx formed the battalion phalanx, and the battalion phalanx formed the regimental phalanx. All the ways of fighting are based on these phalanxes. ”

Sun Chengzong was suddenly a little puzzled, and when he was about to ask how this so-called phalanx was arranged, Mao Yuanyi couldn't wait to ask the emperor this question.

Zhu Youzhen smiled and said, "The spearmen are used to block the enemy cavalry and protect the musketeers, while the musketeers are used as a long-range firepower output class to support the spearmen.

The change of the phalanx is actually a geometry problem, how to use the shortest distance to change the formation, or to output the maximum firepower at the shortest distance.

Let the military academy organize manpower to conduct research with mathematicians from universities and academies to find out the law of this formation change.

I have heard that the Europeans have a large Spanish phalanx, and that the Portuguese in Macao have accepted my orders, and will soon send a team of officers to Beijing, and you may also learn from it.

However, I would like to remind you first that the first thing to do is to fight with people, and if people can't do it, no matter how good the weapons and tactics are, they will not be able to win. ”