Although the flintlock pistol has this series of problems, the cost performance is far less than the arquebus with the same technology has been quite mature, but history proves that the flintlock pistol is the trend of the future development of firearms, and Wang Dou still decided to vigorously develop it.

With a flintlock pistol, it was possible to consider replacing the spear with a bayonet, which was also the general trend.

However, the installation and processing of the bayonet in the early days was not so easy. The manufacture of bayonets requires extremely high steel quality, and the related metallurgical production is extremely difficult, without high-quality steel, the bayonet made does not stab twice, or the shield is broken, and then the opponent is hacked to death and stabbed to death.

In the latter part of World War II, the Japanese army lacked steel, which led to a rapid decline in the quality of the bayonets, which quickly bent or broke after penetrating the human body.

Without high-quality steel, substandard bayonets were created without the slightest advantage in hand-to-hand combat. Moreover, to make bayonets, the precision requirements for supporting equipment such as sleeves and card holders on the fire guns are very high, which is a severe challenge to the production of the Shunxiangbao handicraft factory.

The bayonet must be able to be loaded and unloaded quickly, and the relatively precise parts of the loading and unloading part are easy to be damaged, which increases the cost. The bayonet is more easily damaged than weapons such as broadswords and spears, because they are at best a light dagger before they are inserted......

Of course, the use of bayonets also had the advantage of using a firecracker, since there was no need for specialized pikemen.

This trade-off between the pros and cons made Wang Dou still undecided whether to use bayonets in the army, or to hold off for a few years and wait until the technology matured.

With this in mind, Wang Dou carefully inspected the military factories by the Yaozi River.

Compared with Chongzhen's nine years, the scale of each factory has expanded a lot.

Since the beginning of this year, the number of craftsmen in the Torch Factory has increased to more than 300, and the number of craftsmen in the Armor Factory has increased to more than 200. The plant has built 200 hydraulic drilling machines, which can drill 1,000 pipes a month, and requires no more than 50 people. The rest of the craftsmen are making other parts, and nearly 1,000 guns can be produced every month.

Due to the increase in manpower and the opening of dozens of new hydraulic forging machines, it is easy for the armor factory to produce 200 pairs of full armor a month.

With the expansion of the scale of each factory, the demand for iron has increased rapidly, and 40,000 catties of wrought iron are needed to make a thousand firecrackers. There are 200 pairs of well-made iron armor, and more than 30,000 catties of wrought iron are needed. It is also necessary to make weapons such as waist knives and spears, and the iron materials needed by all parties are astronomical - compared to the Ming Dynasty at this time.

Under the strong demand, the number of iron miners in Huiyaobao increased rapidly to 1,000, and they used a large number of gunpowder to open mines, so that the craftsmen of the gunpowder factory also increased rapidly to more than 300 people. As the manager of the gunpowder factory, Li Da was an officer of the gunpowder factory, and the place where the nitrate was collected under his factory had increased many places, and because of his outstanding performance, he was honored to become one of the vice presidents of the military engineering department.

In terms of production capacity, Wang Dou's current military engineering department is outstanding in the entire Ming Dynasty.

However, Wang Dou also found a problem, even with his extremely outstanding productivity, the fire gun is still fine...... From the seventh year of Chongzhen to the present few years, the armor made by his own subordinates is not comparable to the number of armor snatched from the Qing soldiers at one time.

In this battle, he recaptured nearly 10,000 armors of all kinds, which is equivalent to the number of armors that all his craftsmen have built day and night for five years.

Although he was surprised by this discovery, Wang Dou would not stop building and developing weapons in his army because of this, it was better to rob than to build, that was the idea of a rogue and Wang Dou had always despised it.

Counting the original armor in his army, as well as the number of armor recaptured from the Qing soldiers, and the armor pulled out by the imperial court, Wang Dou now has more than 16,000 pairs of armor. Among them, there are about 2,500 pairs of iron armor, as well as many cotton armor and chain mail.

After the armor recaptured from the Qing soldiers was transported back to Baozhou, the craftsmen of the Shunxiangbao Armor Factory and the Military Uniform Factory worked day and night to transform them into the armor style of the Ming army. If all these armors are equipped with the army in the future, the luxurious equipment lineup of the Shunxiang Army will rank first in the Ming Dynasty.

……

"The imperial court pulled out 1,000 of the Lu Mi guns, and the original intention was to change 500 of them to the style of self-generated fire guns, and try to fight in the army first. If it is changed, what are the difficulties of the military engineering department? ”

When Wang Dou was inspecting, the craftsmen in the firecracker factory beside him were all working hard, and they didn't care to look at him, the general of Dingguo.

When it comes to work enthusiasm, the craftsmen of the factories in Shunxiangbao are very high. For their management, Wang Dou adopts the method of basic salary plus commission and bonus, and he gets more for more work, but if there is a problem with the quality of the firearm, it is a terrible thing and he will be punished very severely.

In Shunxiang Fort, each weapon produced by each factory has a number, and the name of the craftsman, the name of the steward, etc., is also indicated on it. If something goes wrong, it is very easy to find the person in charge. This makes the quality of the weapons produced in Shunxiang Fort always very good. ,

In fact, the same is true for the weapons produced by the Ministry of Industry and the various health institutes of the Ming Dynasty, and there is no problem in the formulation of the system.

It's just neat corruption, and there are laws that are not followed, but the system they have drawn up has become a dead letter.

After watching it for a long time, Wang Dou was still satisfied with the work attitude of the craftsmen, and asked Lai Yuanlong, the director of the military industry department next to him.

When Wang Douban returned to the state, Emperor Chongzhen ordered the Ministry of Industry and the Second Bureau of Soldiers to raise a thousand Lumi guns and ten Hongyi cannons to bring back to the state with the army.

In addition to artillery, the production of weapons in the Ming Dynasty was strange, sometimes of good quality, sometimes of poor quality, depending on the supervising officials. The Ministry of Industry of the Apocalypse escorted 3,000 Lumi guns in Shanhaiguan, and only found dozens of substandard products, Wang Dou's luck was good, less than 50 of the 1,000 Lu Mi guns had problems, and most of the rest were excellent.

In Wang Dou's opinion, in addition to the local prefectures and counties of Daming and the health office, the quality of the weapons they handed over as tax service is unreliable, and the quality of the weapons produced by the Ministry of Industry and the Second Bureau of Military War is still good. Daming firearms research flourished, and high-end new firearms emerged one after another, but because the stockpile of firearms was in the hands of literati and eunuchs, military leaders in various places preferred to buy cold weapons.

-- For them, a few thousand spears can be used to raise an army, which is cheaper and more affordable than the expensive firearms that require constant investment and are often of unreliable quality, but it greatly affects the popularization of the new firearms of the Ming Dynasty.

"General, change the five-hundred-rod Lumi Gun to the self-generated fire gun style, there is no problem on the lower officer's side. It's just that the blind fire rate of self-generated firearms is as high as 30%, and the bird guns used by my Shunxiang Army now are less than 10% of the blind fire, did the general really decide to change it? ”

Regarding Wang Dou's decision, Lai Yuanlong was a little worried.

When Chongzhen was ten years old, Lai Yuanlong successfully researched the self-made fire gun, that is, the flintlock pistol. After two years of research, I still feel that the rate of mute fire cannot be reduced, and the reliability is far less than that of arquebuses.

Wang Dou said: "I will weigh the advantages and disadvantages, the use of self-generated firearms is the trend of the times, and we must not give up the use of food because of choking, because of its defects." In order to be safe, you can change one of the bird guns in the general to slowly improve this sharp weapon. ”

Lai Yuanlong received the order, and at the same time he was happy, from the words of General Dingguo, it can be seen that he is an open person, which is good news for a fan of weapons like him.

Last year, Lai Yuanlong spent a lot of effort to contain the volumes of "Artifact Spectrum" and "Illustrated Description of Military Weapons" compiled by Zhao Shizhen, and devoted himself to the study of sharp weapons such as the Winged Tiger Gun, the Eagle Yang Gun, the Thunderbolt Gun, and the Rocket Slip.

Then he said tentatively: "General, the court has pulled out a lot of Lu Mi guns, but you want to make the craftsmen imitate them?" ”

Wang Dou groaned for a while, the power of the Lu Mi gun is considerable, its hundred steps can penetrate the heavy armor, that is, the Qing army is wearing a double layer of heavy armor, a hundred steps can also penetrate the body, a dozen or two holes, more powerful than the Shunxiang army used by the fire gun - the Shun Xiang army's fire gun, that is, in seventy steps, can break the multi-layer heavy armor worn by the Qing army.

This long-range firearm will certainly have an advantage in future battles, but the Rumitong also has its flaws. First of all, it is too long, the total length of the Lu Mi gun is five to seven feet, and the seven feet of the Ming Dynasty is the 2.1 meters of later generations, and such a long breech gun is very inconvenient to load.

The Lumi gun not only has a long barrel, but also a heavy body, and also uses a double-layer barrel integration, which has high technical requirements and costs, and is troublesome to build.

Of course, most of the Lu Mi guns used in the Ming army were five feet long, about one meter six in later generations, and the same was true of the batch of Lu Mi guns that Emperor Chongzhen pulled out to Wang Dou. However, it is also a reality that Lu Mi Gong is difficult to build and the cost is high, for Wang Dou, he needs cheap and practical weapons that can be mass-produced, although Lu Mi Gong is good, it is not real.

Thinking of this, Wang Dou said: "It can make craftsmen imitate a batch, and there is no need to make it on a large scale." ”

He said: "Ben will come, but also for the matter of artillery, can the military industry department have the ability to manufacture artillery?" ”

Lai Yuanlong said: "General Hui, I am a craftsman in Shunbao, if I build a Franc cannon, it will not be difficult." It's just that although the Hongyi cannon has a physical object, there are no drawings, so it is made according to the same, and I am afraid that the tiger will not become an anti-dog...... There is a worry of exploding. ”

Wang Dou was silent, when he returned to Baozhou, Emperor Chongzhen in addition to pulling out a thousand Lu Mi guns, but also pulled out ten Hongyi cannons, eight Hongyi three-pounder cannons, and two six-pounder cannons.

The quality of these artillery pieces is good, after all, all kinds of artillery in the Ming Dynasty have design drawings, how much is the length of the gun, how thick the tube, there are strict rulers to die, it is difficult for the craftsman supervisor to shoddy, cut corners. This ensures the quality of all kinds of cannons in the Ming Dynasty.

In particular, the Ming Dynasty self-cast Hongyi cannon is excellent, using boring and milling technology, good air tightness, high muzzle velocity, Spain and Portugal at that time were nearby to the Ming Dynasty to buy artillery. ,

Of course, this is based on the fact that the Ming Dynasty has all kinds of rich fire paper, as well as a large number of cannon casting craftsmen.

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, all kinds of artillery designs were either destroyed in the war, or were listed as banned books and burned by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, so that during the Opium War, the Qing army became a professional household in the bombing of the cannon itself, and it was not uncommon for the newly cast cannon to explode as soon as the cannon was fired, and similar artillery explosions were extremely rare in the Ming Dynasty.

This is also a warning to Wang Dou, without relevant craftsmen and genuine drawings, if he insists on making cannons, he will repeat the tragedy of the Qing army's self-casting cannons.

However, the Hongyi cannon had to be built, and the fourteen Hongyi cannons in Wang Dou's army were far from enough, and he was always a little worried in his heart.

After the Battle of Pinggu, Huang Taiji must have paid great attention to his army, and there may be a large number of firearms battles in the future. The firearm duel Wang Dou is not worried, but the artillery ...... After Kong Youde surrendered to the enemy, the Qing State already had the ability to forge its own Hongyi cannon. After the Battle of Songjin, the number of Hongyi cannons used in its army exceeded that of the Ming Dynasty for the first time.

Wang Dou attaches great importance to Kong Youde's artillery force. That army turned out to be the only qualified artillery unit in the Ming Dynasty, with a large number of well-trained gunners. As early as the second year of the Apocalypse, Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua hired a large number of Westerners to teach and train for more than ten years, and fought side by side with the hired Portuguese gunners many times, which should not be underestimated at all.

Their artillery used a large number of ranging tools, and this kind of ranging was considered a secret method in the Ming Dynasty at this time, and artillery was not allowed to be practiced by people who were not reliable and reliable. Wang Dou didn't have the relevant tools yet, and he relied on a large amount of ammunition to find out a set of ranging methods, so he didn't know what the situation would be like when the two sides faced off.

In the war in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, he lost nearly 2,000 soldiers, which was still established under the contempt of the Qing State. But in that battle, each of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty suffered under its own guns, and it was impossible not to pay attention to it.

The opponent in the future will definitely be a strong opponent, and he must take precautions.

……

When Wang Dou escorted the guard of honor back to Baoanzhou, not far from his mansion, he was watching a person dressed as a scholar being stopped at the door, and the first feeling was that the scholar's head was very big. He was talking to the gatekeeper rather unhappily.

Around the gate, a circle of onlookers gathered from afar, listening to the scholar with great interest.

Seeing Wang Dou's guard of honor, everyone said, "The general is back." ”

Hearing the movement, the scholar looked at Wang Dou in surprise, and Wang Dou noticed that his face was round and white, with some short whiskers under his chin, and he looked less than forty. Dressed in a Confucian shirt, a sword on his waist is very obvious.

Xie Yike rode forward, and after a while, he came back and quietly reported to Wang Douyu: "General, that poor sour sword went straight to the general's mansion and was stopped by the guards. ”

Wang Dou sighed.

As he spoke, the scholar strode over, and from a distance, he saluted Wang Dou, and then shouted: "I know the will of the public, but I am indispensable if the public wants to achieve great things."

There was a lot of laughter around, Wang Dou frowned slightly, and thought, "Crazy one." ”