The powerful weapon frightened his own people, and the four ministers of the General Staff all looked at the musket in Weesser's hand with awe. Wei Ze took the musket in his hand and threw it up and down like a juggler, and all four of them subconsciously wanted to say something to stop it, as if the weapon in Wei Ze's hand was some very delicate and fragile object.

Wei Zeyan said to the four of them: "This is the end of the matter of this gun. Everyone must obey the silence, and if the news of this gun spreads, I will not let it go. ”

"Fourth uncle, there is such a good gun, why don't you continue to build it?" Wei Changrong immediately asked.

Wei Ze could fully understand Wei Changrong's thoughts, and he replied: "Now is to solve the problem of whether it can be made, and now there are no conditions for large-scale manufacturing. Besides, there are so many problems in this gun that it's far from easy to use. ”

Without waiting for Wei Changrong to question again, Wei Ze threw the gun in his hand to Wei Changrong. Although the action was sudden, Wei Changrong still grabbed the gun in his hand with ease. In kind, he also played with an empty gun, aimed at the gun, and carried it on his shoulder. Soon, Wei Changrong showed a look of regret on his face.

The other three also tried it, and the final expressions on everyone's faces were similar to Wei Changrong's. This gun is hugely powerful, but there are too many problems elsewhere. First of all, the center of gravity is unreasonable, the arquebus made by the official arquebus is relatively thick, and the iron pipe at the front is relatively thin, and the center of gravity is behind when used, which feels very comfortable. The weight of the barrel of the musket made by Wei Ze is about the same in the front and rear, and the bayonet is installed in the muzzle position, so it feels heavy in the front and light in the back, which is very uncomfortable.

This is only the most intuitive fault, in Weeser's opinion, in addition to the advantages of great power, this musket has many problems.

The four of them all understood the reason why Wei Ze asked not to promote this musket now, and Wei Ze didn't care whether they were happy or not, and handed the gun to Chen Zhe, "The technical department has made a detailed record of the entire process, and when we take down the big city, we can redesign this musket." At that time, it would take great care to design this musket to the point where it was easy to use. ”

"It's a pity!" Wei Changrong sighed.

"What's the pity?" Wei Ze smiled, "Before we go to war again, let's learn to make flint guns, at least learn to make flint handguns." It's not been long since then, and the Qing Demon is about to fight. ”

The work of learning to transform an arquebus into a flint is left to the team that makes the Migne rifle, which has many advantages over the arquebus. Converting an arquebus into a flint gun is relatively uneasy, at least without having to create a new barrel, just by changing the fire device from gunpowder to flint. In these years, the flint guns were also handmade, and with this successful experience, although it was still difficult to modify, there was no need to completely reinvent the structure of the musket.

In addition to the technical problems of converting the arquebus into a flint, Weeser also put forward a request to the military industry department, that is, to modify the wooden carriage of the current arquebus. The Manchu arquebuses were not designed with bayonet warfare in mind. Weeser asked for a redesign of the wooden brackets to achieve the effect of installing bayonets. For the most elite troops, they can be trained to play the role of musketeers and bayonets. Even if you don't have a flint, you can change the shape of the wooden carriage to transform the arquebus into a more convenient short spear for assassination.

In this era, elite infantry could shoot with rifles from afar and bayonets at close range. This basic ability remained the mainstream of infantry around the world until 9o years later, in 1942. Weeser must firmly follow this correct path.

In a short period of time, Wei Ze pressed down so many topics, and the team in charge of muskets in the military industry department was under great psychological pressure. Weser didn't force them to come up with perfect results immediately, leaving the musket research team to fumble on their own, and Weser himself transferred to the team of cannon casters. The blacksmiths have completed the installation of the equipment with the assistance of the military industry department in the past few days, and the progress has entered a very critical stage at this time.

Wang Qixiu, who inherited the title of master "Wang Da Hammer", can also be regarded as really capable, and after getting Wei Ze's artillery design drawings, he and Wei Ze's military industry department cast a relatively fine mold together. To pour artillery with molten iron, you must first have a mold, and the more accurate the mold, the better. Even with a five-fold body-to-barrel gun, the straighter the breech, the better. How to make a straight cylinder? For the average craftsman, this is a big problem. For Wei Ze, after having more elaborate stationery, it is much easier. Set the angles of the circles, draw the same circles on many pieces of paper, carefully cut the circles, and stack them on top of each other. Hold the position with thin bamboo strips, which is the most basic cylinder.

Apply a layer of wax to the outside of the paper column, wrap the column with plaster, and after the plaster has condensed, the paper column is pulled out. Then inject wax oil into the gypsum mold, wait for the wax oil to condense, and break the gypsum outside, and get a better cylinder. With this cylinder, it is possible to perform several inversions of different materials. Although the accuracy decreases after each mold pouring, this is the best way to do it.

Weeser had also exhausted his ability, and even if the accuracy dropped, he could only accept this fact. In these years, the level of China's cast artillery was backward, and the inside of the barrel of the cast artillery was uneven, and the shells fired by such artillery were just like the administrative ability of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which could only be described by the word "unreliable".

In order to build reliable artillery, the casting method was not the best during the Second Industrial Revolution, which was about to begin. The best way to do this is to forge a steel column with a water press, and then use a machine to drill a hole in the steel column. After the metal is treated by a hydraulic press, the internal structure of the metal will become very uniform and dense, and then there are stress-relieving processes such as annealing, and the quality and life of the cannon barrel will be greatly improved.

Of course, there are also very complex metal crystallographic issues, including how to promote crystallization and how to relieve stress. Wei Ze is not engaged in this profession, he has only read relevant articles on many things, and he is not clear about the specific operation, and there are not many practical skills that he can contribute now.

With Weeser clapping the board, the artillery casting yard began to operate. Iron furnaces have already been used, and the intense heat generated when the coal burns makes anyone who approaches it feel like they are in a sea of fire. Even though it was a Futian day in August, all the craftsmen and soldiers of the military industry department were dressed very thickly, and their coats were still wet with water, and they were steamed with water as much as possible to bring out some heat.

This fire-like smelting environment is a chasm between agricultural and industrial countries. The industrial countries were able to develop heavy industry and manufacture a large number of machinery and equipment to solve the production that would not be possible by human beings alone. Moreover, through continuous technological accumulation and research, the production capacity of industrial countries is still improving. However, agricultural countries cannot cross this threshold on their own, and their final technological capabilities are limited to a small scale of production. Even China, an ancient civilization that has led the world for thousands of years, has a profound accumulation, but it has also lagged behind in the accumulation of industrial exhibitions in the West for more than 100 years.

In the Yongxing Cannon Foundry, Wei Ze did not add much to the site, mainly using the crane of the pulley block. The pulley block is iron, and the iron chains that pull the pulley block, the rough gears and the chains that match it are all made by Weizer at no expense.

In a sense, casting cannons is a heavy industry, and heavy industry is a gold-swallowing beast. Even if a cannon is cast, it cannot be directly used to improve the standard of living of the people. Only by using artillery to attack cities and conquer foreign land, grab land that can be cultivated and operated, or more directly grab gold, silver, grain and materials, can it be said that the curve has played a role.

Whether or not we can win the war after the construction of heavy industry is a matter of ambiguity. But if you want to build a heavy industry, you have to immediately put real money into it. As one line says, "You say I'm a stinky capitalist who drinks workers' blood?!" I have to drink my own blood before I drink someone else's blood! ”

The metal items that Weizer had stolen from the Manchus, except for muskets and other weapons that could not be moved, were put into production, and this part of the expenditure did not include the wages paid to the craftsmen. This expenditure does not take into account another hidden cost, that is, Wei Ze's own knowledge, which was taught to Wei Ze by the education system accumulated in New China for decades. Behind every bit of knowledge is the accumulation of countless blood and sweat of the workers of New China.

In New China, it was impossible to use such inferior technology to make inferior cannons, and Wei Ze had no experience, so he could only rely on the craftsmen of this era to complete this task. If the craftsmen fail to cast cannons, then the things that Weize has accumulated from birth and death in front of him will be equivalent to being lost.

Therefore, Wei Ze is preparing to come to the artillery casting field more often, not to supervise, but to do his best to support as much as he can. At this time, the high-minded attitude and hiding private interests only have side effects. Not only Weese, but also the military hospital was moved to the vicinity of this artillery casting site, which was very prone to wounded people, and sometimes it was just a little late treatment, and it was likely to be a human life.

Wang Qixiu saw Wei Ze enter the artillery casting field, and immediately pulled a tall and thin young man to Wei Ze. "Master Wei, this is the clan brother Wang Qinian I mentioned. It turns out that he has run here from Guiyang! ”

When Wei Ze heard this, he was overjoyed. He himself had little confidence in himself, and he didn't have much confidence in these craftsmen who had not participated in cannon casting. Wang Qinian has personally participated in cannon casting, and such experienced craftsmen are the most rare talents.

didn't wait for Wei Ze to speak, but saw Wang Qinian's gloomy face, he arched his hand to Wei Ze, "Master Wei, I heard that you have a doctor here." My brother is sick, and if you can save his life, I'll concentrate on casting cannons for you!" ”

"Huh?" Wei Ze didn't expect Wang Qinian to make such a request, but he was stunned.

Tips: The new domain name "biquge.info" has been launched by Biquge, and the original domain name is about to be discontinued. Please tell each other, thank you!