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On several large docks, there is a lot of noise, and nearly 1,000 craftsmen of all colors and more than 2,000 young and strong laborers are doing their jobs and are constantly busy.

Seeing this hot scene, Qin Mu felt very relieved in his heart, he specially came to Yuezhou this time, just for the sake of warships and artillery.

Wu Jinxi pointed to the keel in the dock and said: "My lord, the six warships that are being built now are all small fortune ships of four hundred materials, and according to Lord Tang's suggestion, some adjustments have been made to the hull and mast, but the hull is stronger and the ship is faster. The ship is ten zhang long, three zhang wide, and eight feet five deep, and equipped with double rudders, which can advance and retreat freely in both shallow and deep waters. ”

Qin Mu listened carefully, he didn't know much about shipbuilding and naval warfare, but he knew that due to the lack of artillery rate of fire and shooting accuracy, the more guns that the current warships were equipped with, the higher the hit rate and the stronger the combat effectiveness.

And to load more guns, larger ships were needed to withstand the recoil of the guns.

The small fortune ship of four hundred materials is not very large, Qin Mu frowned slightly and asked, "According to your design, how many cannons can this four hundred material warship be equipped with?" ”

Wu Jinxi replied: "If it is a thousand jin Fulang machine gun, it can be equipped with 20 guns, which can accommodate about 160 people. ”

Qin Mu intuitively thought that such a device was too weak, 20 thousand catties of Buddha Lang machine guns, divided into the left and right sides, only 10 guns on one side, in other words, in actual combat, a salvo is only 10 shells.

If it is used in naval warfare, I am afraid that a single salvo will not hit a single shot.

As far as he knows, the current Western warships are equipped with dozens, or even hundreds of guns, at every turn, and if you talk purely in terms of quantity, the enemy will be able to beat you several times with a single salvo, and this will be a big loss.

However, fortunately, what Qin Mu has to face now is not a Western warship.

Wu Jinxi also seemed to understand Qin Mu's thoughts. He said with a smile: "My lord, at present, our warships are mainly used for river defense, and it is not a problem for four hundred warships to sail on the Yangtze River, no matter how big it is, it will be inconvenient." ”

"The official knows, but shipbuilding requires a long-term accumulation process, and now it is necessary to gradually explore and accumulate."

"Don't worry, my lord, in fact, we have the drawings of the Thousand Fortune Boat, and after having the experience of building four hundred Fortune Ships, it will be much easier to build a large ship with more than 1,000 materials in the future."

Qin Mu understood that these things were in a hurry. Then he nodded, and Wu Jinxi continued: "In addition to these six small fortune boats, a number of bluffing boats, eagle boats, and sand boats are also being built at the same time. ”

"The bluff boat is also designed with a wide bottom. The head and tail are the same, the bottom is keel, straight through the front and back, and the boat is 1 zhang wide. It is about 4 feet long, low in stature, and only 3 feet in draft. 10 oars per side, with sails for wind. If there is no wind, you can also use the oars at the same time, and the speed is fast. It is convenient to advance and retreat, which is conducive to chasing sentry agents. ”

"The sand boat is designed with a flat bottom, which can be adjusted to make it go against the wind and enter and exit the waves as if walking on the ground, but there is no barrier to hide the arrows and rocks on the sand boat, so it is often used with the eagle boat. The eagle ship is pointed at both ends, does not distinguish the head and tail, the speed is fast, there are guards around the deck that can cover the arrows, this kind of guard is made of thatched bamboo and is closely nailed into a row, which is convenient for receiving the enemy, and the eagle ship is the vanguard during the battle, and the sand boat follows closely behind, rushing into the enemy's fleet. ”

Wu Jinxi took Qin Mu through the hulls of the ship, and explained in detail, surrounded by the sound of ping-pong banging, Wu Jinxi had to shout loudly to ensure that Qin Mu could hear clearly.

From Wu Jinxi's more professional point of view, although the gunboats in inland river operations are extremely powerful, they are limited by the depth of the waterways and may not be able to be put into actual combat.

Small warships such as bluff boats, eagle boats, and sand boats can often play a greater role because of their shallow draft, flexible rotation, and fast speed.

At the same time, these ships are also faster to build due to their small hulls and can be built in large quantities in a short time.

After listening to Wu Jinxi's introduction, Qin Mu nodded frequently, he thought about it, if the historical context did not change much, there would still be enough time to build a lot of warships by himself.

"Hmm. How's it going on with cannon casting? ”

With a ship, there must also be a cannon, and the cannon is the key.

After Li Zicheng won a few small victories in Zhending, the Qing army sent reinforcements, and the Dashun army began to retreat one after another, time is becoming more and more urgent for Qin Mu, and now in addition to stepping up the training of the army, he is most concerned about equipment.

Some of the craftsmen who got it from the imperial court this time were craftsmen in casting.

Within the scope of Qin Mu's shili, according to actual needs, the development and experiment of firearms were mainly divided into two points, one in Changsha and the other in southern Gansu.

In terms of actual casting, there are more separate locations, in addition to Gannan and Changsha, there are two places in Pingxiang and Yueyang, but the two casting points in Pingxiang and Yueyang lack research and development capabilities, mainly to make some relatively mature jishu some cannons and guns, and weapons such as arrows running together.

Now that Yueyang has Tang John on board, the situation is different, and the manufacturing workshop here will be fully engaged in casting Hongyi cannons and Furlong cannons. In particular, the Hongyi Cannon is not capable of casting at other casting points.

Wu Jinxi took Qin Mu to the foundry in the north of the city, which covered an area of dozens of acres, with a large open space outside, and soldiers around it.

Entering the foundry workshop, but feeling the heat wave was pressing, and the sound of dangdang knocking was endless, Tang Ruowang was covered in sweat, holding a handkerchief in one hand, wiping his sweat while directing the craftsman, and when he saw Qin Mu, he was stunned before he reacted.

"Lord Tang has worked hard." Qin Mu stepped forward and asked.

John Tang hurriedly stuffed the handkerchief to his assistant, stepped forward and said, "Meet the Governor." ”

"Master Tang doesn't need to be polite, how is it going?"

Tang Ruowang pointed to the model behind him and said, "Lord Governor, please see, this is the cannon mold of the Hongyi cannon, one has been cast, and the second one is about to be cast." ”

Qin Mu heard it, so many days have passed before a door was cast, this speed can really be described as turtle speed, but considering the high content of Hongyi cannons, it requires some special equipment and instruments to assist in cooperating, and the French requirements for various processes are also extremely strict, and it is normal to be fast and slow.

Tang Ruowang had helped the imperial court cast Hongyi cannons many times before, and with him, Jishu was no longer a problem. However, Qin Mu decided to cast only six Hongyi cannons for the time being, firstly, the Hongyi cannons were expensive to build, and secondly, they were very cumbersome, and they were only suitable for some specific battles, and it would be cumbersome to cast too much.

Qin Mu wanted to cast a large number of them, but instead they were thousands of catties of Buddha cannons, which were used to install them on warships.

The Franc cannon is not as good as the Hongyi cannon in terms of range and power, but it has the advantage of a fast rate of fire, which can reach four to five rounds per minute after the gun is loaded in advance.

What's more, today's ships can't withstand much of the recoil of the Hongyi cannons.

Combining these factors, the Franc cannon, although not the most powerful, is currently the most suitable.

Qin Mu is concerned about the material of the cannon, the main materials of the current Hongyi cannon are copper and iron, using the iron core copper body design, if the light is copper, the tube body is too soft, easy to cause the expansion of the cannon chamber, and if it is iron alone, the toughness is not enough, it is easy to explode.

However, this iron-core copper design was not only expensive, but also made the gun extremely cumbersome, and in terms of barrel materials, he had already let the craftsmen of Ganzhou explore.

"How is tungsten steel?" Qin Mu asked.

Wu Jinxi immediately replied: "According to the instructions of the adults, I have tried in southern Gansu, and some tungsten steel smelted a few days ago has high hardness and wear resistance. It can be used to make milling cutters, planer cutters, and cut other steel, but its most obvious disadvantage is that the toughness is too poor, too brittle, and judging from the current finished product, it is not suitable for making gun barrels and barrels, and it is too easy to blow up. ”

In the area of Da Yuling, Nan'an Prefecture, south of Ganzhou, a large amount of tungsten ore has long been discovered.

Tungsten steel Qin Mu has also heard of, it is said that tungsten steel has a series of excellent properties such as high hardness, wear resistance, good strength and toughness, heat resistance, corrosion resistance, etc.

Qin Mu felt that since tungsten steel had so many characteristics, if it could be successfully refined, it should be able to be made into a gun barrel.

But after listening to Wu Jinxi's words, Qin Mu couldn't help but be a little disappointed, he frowned slightly and said: "Let the craftsman keep changing the ore ratio, or add other ores to the same refining, in short, keep trying." ”

"Don't worry, my lord, I'm already doing it, but I'm afraid I'm not in a hurry to do it, I have to touch it little by little.".

(To be continued......)