It's different from the tranquility of the past. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The people of Qingzhou City obviously feel that the atmosphere of the Equipment Division is a little dignified these days.

Because I don't know when, the number of soldiers guarding the Instrument Division suddenly increased several times, and all of them were wearing silver full-body armor, and they were murderous, and any people who approached the Equipment Division would be driven away immediately.

Someone once saw a person who did not take a token trying to infiltrate, and was beaten by soldiers on the spot and sent to prison.

In the midst of all the different signs, many people are speculating about what is happening in this equipment division?

And this is only the best in Xiao Ming's heart, at this time he arrived at the door of the equipment division and handed over the horse to the guard at the door.

He came at the right time, and Chen Qi in the equipment department was leading the craftsmen to prepare to pour the produced molten iron into the iron mold.

Although Qingzhou can produce high-quality steel now, not all steel can be used to cast artillery artillery.

In fact, in modern times, until the advent of Krupp cannon steel, artillery was cast in three materials, copper, bronze, and iron.

Among them, copper naturally does not need to be explained, this thing is completely throwing money, in Dayu country, where the mining rate is very low, this is almost the same as using gold to produce toilets.

Bronze is an alloy that requires different metals, including lead and tin, which are also lacking in Qingzhou, which is not easy for Xiao Ming to achieve.

Therefore, he had to honestly choose cast iron cannons, which were still the mainstream of artillery from the 15th century to the end of the 18th century.

After all, relatively speaking, any product pursues cost performance, and cast iron cannons obviously have a great advantage in cost performance.

"Your Highness, it will be ready to be poured soon."

The iron mold of the cannon is erected next to the blast furnace, and as long as the door on the blast furnace is opened, the fiery molten iron will be poured into the iron mold.

However, there is still a lot to prepare before that, and the casting of artillery is a delicate job, and the loss caused by one failure is very large, and the casting time of the next gun will be greatly delayed.

Therefore, before pouring the artillery, Xiao Ming instructed the craftsmen to strictly follow the procedures for casting the cannon step by step.

Under his supervision, a craftsman began to paint the inner surface of the iron mold with a mixture of fine rice husks and fine sediment, and the preparation of these two things was also very strict, the rice husks were crushed into powder, and then sieved more than 30 times with a sieve to obtain a uniform powder, and the sediment was basically the same, and the particles inside were basically the same size.

This is to avoid holes of different sizes in the gun body, and also to prevent the gun body and the iron mold from sticking together, otherwise the gun and the iron mold will be scrapped together.

After the first coat of paint is applied, the craftsman applies the second coat again, this time using fine coal dust ground into powder.

The purpose is simple, it is for carburizing, as we all know, the higher the carbon content in iron, the harder the iron, this layer of pulverized coal will penetrate deep into the outer layer of the gun after pouring the molten iron, making the shell of the gun hard, thereby reducing the blast rate of the gun.

These two coatings are also applied very carefully, so it is important to apply them evenly and carefully.

When the craftsman finished painting, Xiao Ming checked it and asked the craftsman to deal with some flaws.

Then let the craftsman tighten the iron mold with an iron hoop.

At the same time, some craftsmen began to heat the iron mold to avoid the outer layer of molten iron cooling too quickly when it came into contact with the iron mold, which would affect the carburizing effect.

After these works were done, Xiao Ming asked Chen Qi to stuff the specially made pottery core into the gun mold.

In general, the production of artillery requires the use of clay cores, but drawing on the experience of later generations, in order to improve the quality of artillery as much as possible, he decided to use ceramic cores.

This allows for rapid cooling of the inside of the gun by injecting it in the middle of the core, thus increasing the strength of the bore.

And this process is also called water tightness.

"Let's get started." After the preliminary preparations were completed, Xiao Ming asked expectantly.

Nodding, Chen Qi's expression was excited, and after a month of busyness, the first artillery in Qingzhou was finally about to be born.

At this time, Chen Qi suddenly had a kind of apprehension and joy that a woman was pregnant and about to give birth.

Trembling lips, Chen Qi shouted: "Pour in the molten iron!" ”

At the sound of an order, a craftsman suddenly opened the door of the blast furnace, and the red molten iron flowed down from the tube groove of the blast furnace with a scorching breath.

Even though he was five meters away from the blast furnace, Xiao Ming still felt a hot baking sensation on his face.

And the craftsmen in close proximity were sweating profusely, but at this moment there was a sense of expectation in the eyes of each craftsman.

Chen Qi told them that if the cannon was successfully cast, His Highness said that each person would be rewarded with 100 taels of silver, which would be an incentive for all craftsmen.

For these ordinary craftsmen, who are not in pursuit of a better life, and money is the greatest encouragement for them.

The red molten iron was slowly poured into the iron mold, and when the height of the molten iron was almost level with the muzzle, a craftsman took a hammer and gently struck the gun mold.

This is to make the deposition of molten iron more uniform.

Once the molten iron was completely flush with the muzzle, the other craftsman in charge of cooling began to pour well water into the core of the iron mold.

At the same time, a craftsman stuffed a piece of dried pig intestine into the pottery core.

The water in the core needs to be changed continuously until the inner molten iron is completely solidified, and this time it is necessary to constantly replace the cooling water.

In this era, Xiao Ming obviously couldn't find anything like a rubber tube, so he could only use sun-dried pig intestines instead.

In fact, in ancient times, animal offal did replace the role of rubber tubes.

Even if the modern sausage is filled, the pig intestine is still used, which shows that the toughness of the pig intestine is still good, and it can replace the role of part of the rubber tube.

The craftsmen on it are busy changing the cooling water.

After waiting for a while, after seeing that the molten iron in the iron mold solidified, the rest of the craftsmen immediately began to take off the iron mold under Xiao Ming's command.

At this time, the outer layer of the gun was still red-hot, and many raised burrs could be seen on the outside, and the craftsman responsible for cleaning the burrs immediately began to clean them, making the gun body round and smooth.

After these works were over, Xiao Ming finally breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and all that was left was to wait for the gun body to completely cool and solidify.

Chen Qi said at this time: "Your Highness, is this artillery as amazing as you say?" When will this cannon be pulled out and tested for power? See how much more powerful than the torch of my Great Yu Country? ”

"You don't have to try to know a day and a place." Xiao Ming said confidently.

The barrels of the Great Yu Kingdom are only shoddy, although there is basically a prototype of artillery, but it is still not a little behind.

The effect is really not as powerful as the return cannon that the barbarians snatched back from the Western Regions.

(To be continued.) )