To the south of Jingshi, near the canal and the lower reaches of the Yongding River, there is a ground circle. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoThis was originally a saline land in the Huangzhuang, uninhabited, and allowed the weeds to rise wildly.

However, since the peace of the Kyoshi after the war, the various workshops that had been eager to expand in the city have moved out of the inner city. And the target location of their intensive relocation is this place that was originally just a saline-alkali land, and was later renamed Jingnan Gongfang District. As the southwest of Jingshi, downwind, and close to the canal is conducive to traffic, it is convenient to take water next to the Yongding River, and there is also a direct road from Jingshi, close to the market, which can be called the best place to choose a site.

The workshop area has just been newly built, and it is full of vitality, with roads and houses in a radius of several kilometers, all of which are new-style buildings.

In other words, they are all cement brick buildings. The road, which is also a paved cement road, makes Zhu Cihong see the industrial development zone as if he has entered the later generations.

At the outermost point of the development zone is a ring of fences, on top of which are ironclad terrestris, and layers of high barbed wire.

Barbed wire seems to use a small amount of iron, but the technical content is not low at all, and the price is also expensive. Back then, the first regiment could only use three in small quantities in the Zunhua Campaign, but now, superimposed on the wall, it was dense and painful. That's a lot of money, obviously, this Jingnan workshop area can be described as wealthy.

As the production center of the imperial ordnance, it gathered the ordnance department of the craftsman compound, the Jingshi ordnance workshop, and the ordnance institute presided over by Li Jun and others. Of course, the most important thing is the Jingshi Ordnance Workshop.

The curtains on the carriage had been drawn, and on both sides of the road, the guards who stood solemnly saluted as the carriage slowly advanced.

Zhu Cihong smiled and waved in return, and after entering the walls of the workshop, the guards in line disappeared and were replaced by the person in charge of the Jingnan Workshop District who came to greet them.

Fang Yizhi was considered to have had great luck, and he followed Zhu Cihong all the way in and received the highest level of treatment.

As the most confidential ordnance R&D and production center, the Jingnan Workshop District is tightly secured, Fang Yizhi just glanced at it, and saw that there were many bright posts here, and if there were none, there were countless secret posts. Thinking of this, it is not unusual to see the barbed wire fence on top of the fence.

Zhu Cihong was greeted by the heads of three units in the Jingnan Gongfang District. The level of secrecy in the Jingnan Workshop District is extremely high, and the administrative level is naturally top. But it is the people in charge of these three units who really have the right to speak here. That is, the Jingshi Ordnance Workshop, the Privy Council Artillery Test Team, and the Craftsman Compound R&D Department. The heads of these three units are Zhao Zhenhui, Li Jun and Liu Quan.

Among them, Zhao Zhenhui is the grandson of Zhao Shizhen, a top weapons expert in the history of the Ming Dynasty, and Li Jun is the one who followed Zhu Cihong early in the morning and later developed the Zhongxing one-style rifle. As for Liu Quan, everyone is familiar with it, this is the highest commander of the artillery system in Zhu Cihong's army. The three of them originally had a lot of things to do, but when they saw Zhu Cihong coming, they all came over to greet them.

Zhu Cihong came, naturally not to disturb everyone's work, except for leaving Zhao Zhenhui and sending the other two away.

Zhao Zhenhui is in charge of the Jingshi Ordnance Workshop, which is the heart of the entire empire's weapons production, and of course, it also has good technical research and development capabilities.

As soon as the path went straight inside, Zhao Zhenhui said to Zhu Cihong half complaining and half boasting: "This new cannon that the Holy Lord originally set down in the craftsman compound really scared our colleagues in the ordnance workshop half to death, and everyone saw it, and they really felt that they couldn't do this errand." Just looking at the drawings, they all say that there is no such strong cannon in this world. No matter how good the cannon is, it can't be built. If the materials are not up to par, they can only see the drawings, but they can't see the method. It's really sad for everyone, and even more impatient, they all want to find this master and say, how can there be such a powerful artillery in this world. But then everyone thought about it, such a strong artillery can be worthy of my Ming Dynasty's strong army! ”

As he spoke, Zhao Zhenhui clenched his fists heavily: "A ship cannon made by Xiyi is stronger than all my Ming cannons, how can this make sense!" And when I told my colleagues about it, all of them were filled with indignation. Now, after several months of hard work by colleagues, this new cannon has finally come out with a sample! It's a pity......"

Zhao Zhenhui sighed heavily, and his disappointment was indescribable.

Fang Yizhi couldn't help but interject: "Dare to ask Mr. Zhao, what is this pity?" ”

Zhu Cihong probably guessed, but did not interject.

Zhao Zhenhui finally said the half-boast after half complaining: "It's a pity that because of the material process, we have built this cannon, but there are no good enough materials to mass-produce this new cannon!" ”

Hearing this, Fang Yizhi suddenly became excited: "Oh? If that's the case, maybe Xiaosheng can help Mr. Zhao! Before the introduction, the contemptible person is the director of the Jingshi Iron and Steel Plant, and this time I came to our factory to get a new process of the craftsman compound: the crucible steelmaking method. This method is enough to surpass the best Suzhou Iron and Steel in the Ming Dynasty, and I believe that our Jingshi Iron and Steel Plant will be able to provide high-quality raw material supply for the Jingshi Ordnance Workshop! ”

"Oh...... It turns out that Your Excellency is the director of Jingshi Iron and Steel Plant, which is disrespectful and disrespectful. Originally, we blamed the Privy Council for disliking our workshop, and complained that our grandmother didn't love our uncle and didn't love it. I didn't expect ...... It turned out to be ......" Zhao Zhenhui said, and he couldn't go on with the second half of the sentence: "Let's go and see it first, it's really not a dilemma." ”

Fang Yizhi suddenly turned red.

The reason why the Privy Council did not give the ordnance workshop enough qualified raw materials was naturally because the armory workshop was not up to standard.

Zhu Cihong didn't say much, and went straight to the test area of the Jingshi Ordnance Workshop.

At this time, it was the Ordnance Workshop that also pushed out the latest products. This is a brand new cannon.

Saying that he is new, not only in the appearance, but also in the new creation, but also in this style is completely different, from the design can be seen to be very powerful.

Secondly, even if the layman looks at it, it is enough to see that this artillery is different from the original artillery.

This is because this new cannon is cyan. Apparently, this is a cannon made of bronze.

"It's made of copper!" Fang Yizhi couldn't help but exclaim.

You must know that since ancient times, the Central Plains Empire has been a copper-deficient country. And metal copper is real money for this empire. In the heyday, I don't know how many people melted down the bronze and used it to mint money directly, but sometimes the fineness and value were even higher than the official minted copper coins.

This shows the importance of copper coins in ancient society.

In other words, this bronze cannon is not only a cannon, but also a cannon with money, full of gold.

Looking at such a heavy weight, Fang Yizhi understood how much the material process was restricting the ordnance workshop. Obviously, the technology of the iron cannon was not up to standard for the design of this new artillery. Otherwise, the more expensive, but equally technically and performantly more reliable bronze guns would not have been used.

For Fang Yizhi, who is not familiar with artillery and only knows a little about it, he can naturally only see this layer when he looks at artillery.

But for Zhu Cihong, the focus is more.

What he paid attention to was the gun carriage of this new artillery.

In the battle of Luzhen that year, Zhu Cihong moved to Phoenix Mountain with army artillery to give the thief a fatal blow and turned the tide of the battle. And it was this battle that made Zhu Cihong completely determined to develop a new generation of artillery.

First of all, it is because the redcoat cannon is too heavy and too difficult to move. At the beginning, in order to transfer the artillery, almost the whole army was carried on the shoulders and requisitioned all the animal power within a radius of 30 miles, so that the artillery was transferred to Phoenix Mountain to establish an artillery position.

That is, there were no full-fledged and reliable gun carriages in this era.

Therefore, after returning to Beijing, Zhu Cihong was very concerned about the design and manufacture of new artillery. The design was quite convenient, and Zhu Cihong relied on his memories to move the famous Napoleonic cannon from later generations.

In the history of the development of artillery from the 16th century to the 18th century, in general, the casting technology did not develop much, and the bronze casting process alone was very mature.

Therefore, Zhu Cihong is still confident that in the technical level of the Ming Dynasty, he can build a Napoleon cannon that will actually be available more than a hundred years later. After all, he is not an ordinary person, he is the emperor who is rich all over the world and has the most powerful civilization in the world.

At the sound of an order, the best craftsmen in the world can be gathered to the greatest extent.

Soon, the design of the Napoleonic cannon was quickly restored successfully, and the drawings were transferred to the Jingshi Ordnance Workshop in their entirety, and production began.

After a series of difficulties, the first thing to solve is the cannon body. After all, they are all made of bronze, except that copper is too expensive in the Ming Dynasty, there is no difficulty.

The biggest difficulty fell on the gun truck.

And this, on the contrary, is what Zhu Cihong pays more attention to.

Today, looking at this new cannon that the Jingshi Ordnance Workshop had worked so hard to create, Zhu Cihong suppressed the surging mood in his heart and looked at it carefully.

The barrel of this gun is six feet, that is, the length of one meter seven, the caliber of 120 mm, and the entire gun body weighs 1,100 catties. And what attracted Zhu Cihong the most was the huge wheel on the left and right.

Because, this wheel is not wooden.

In fact, the Kyoshi Ordnance Workshop also replaced a variety of woods, but either due to quality problems or more unstable production problems, in the end, it had to choose steel as the wheel.

"This wheel is made of steel?" Fang Yizhi asked.

"That's right, Sugang. Otherwise, it won't be able to withstand the huge weight of the cannon body. Zhao Zhenhui said.

Fang Yizhi touched it silently, this wheel is a full one meter and five meters high, that is, the diameter of the chest.

"How much does it weigh?" Zhu Cihong asked.

Zhao Zhenhui said without thinking: "Counting the front trailer and the attached ammunition box, it is a total of three thousand five hundred catties." Among them, the weight of a shell is five catties. ”

"Okay." Zhu Cihong nodded slowly, and kept groping on the gun carriage.

Obviously, Zhu Cihong cares more about the artillery truck.

Especially when his eyes fell on the screw, his eyes lit up: "The screw is still made by you." yes, I thought you were all going to give up. ”

"How dare you give up ......" Zhao Zhenhui smiled bitterly: "This exquisite design, how can you miss it." ”

The so-called screw is a threaded pole behind the gun carriage. After shaking from side to side, the muzzle of the entire gun can be raised and lowered up and down.

In other words, from now on, this new cannon can be mechanically controlled to raise and lower the muzzle. Obviously, it is more stable and accurate to adjust the muzzle with a screw than to adjust it manually.

Stability and accuracy are an increase in accuracy for artillery firing.

And these seemingly inconspicuous details are the key nodes that surpass the past artillery.

"That is, this screw, which is also used in Sugang?" Fang Yizhi said.

Zhao Zhenhui glanced at Fang Yizhi very deeply, this classmate is very eye-catching. Such a rude situation in front of His Majesty the Emperor is really a little different.

It's just that His Majesty the Emperor will never be untargeted, and this Fang Yizhi may not be as hasty as he imagined.

Thinking of this, Zhao Zhenhui squeezed out some patience: "That's right, that is, a link that restricts the production of new cannons." Moreover, not all sugang can be used. Among them, many of them have to be customized from Foshan, where the ironmaking technology is some time-honored, which is better than that of Suzhou Iron and Steel. It's a pity that even if you use a clipper boat, the sea route only takes two months to make a round trip, but it is too far, too far......"

"It's easy to do! The new products of my Jingshi Iron and Steel Plant can be tried! After speaking, Fang Yizhi said in a heavy voice: "If it doesn't work, my Jingshi Iron and Steel Factory will smash the pot and sell iron, and I will also order enough Foshan iron to make up for it, and I will never delay the plan of the Jingshi Ordnance Workshop!" ”

Zhao Zhenhui looked at Fang Yizhi's eyes, which was confidence and courage to break the boat: "In this way, then arrange someone to give it a try later." ”

"Your Majesty, our artillery test team has come to report, please review!" At this time, Liu Quan led a team of people, facing a small cart, put the cart far aside, and led the soldiers behind him to salute Zhu Cihong.

"Take a break. Well, let's try this gun. Use live ammunition first. As he spoke, Zhu Cihong looked at the small cart that Liu Quan pushed over with great anticipation. It was loaded with shells used by the cannons.

Obviously, Zhu Cihong had already received the report and foresaw the surprise inside.

Soon, the gun carriage began to strap on the horses and drive to the test area. Zhu Cihong carefully observed all the way and nodded from time to time. Apparently, the speed of the artillery carriage was at least doubled.

"Ready, load!" Liu Quan began to command the artillery.

The live ammunition was taken out first, and Zhu Cihong's eyes fell on the remaining shells and couldn't help laughing. Surprises are coming soon! (To be continued.) )