Zhu Wanchun said to Min Yuanqi: "This thing was bought by the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing from Macao, there is a cannon factory over there, our Beijing Division, and Sun Yuanhua have bought machines from Macao, of course, they still buy the most artillery, our Emperor Daxing, and also gave these Macao cannons the name of Shenwei General, most of them are placed on the city wall of the Beijing Division, and now I don't know who it fell into." ”

Zhu Wanchun said that the cannon factory is Macao's Bujialao Cannon Factory, or founded in the Jiajing period, it manufactured a large number of cannon casting tools from Europe and Macao, and began to produce two kinds of artillery in the Jiajing period, copper cannons and iron cannons, the earliest business was to provide naval guns to the colonists of various countries in Asia, and most of its copper, iron ore, sulfur and other necessities were purchased from Japan, and the cast artillery was sold to the colonists in the South Seas countries to be installed and used on fleet warships.

Of course, the colonists at that time also built a large number of forts in the colony to protect the colonial city and port docks.

It was a good habit, and as long as the forts were built and the garrisons and fleets were coordinated, the natives had almost no chance at all.

The Dutch built the city of Geranza in Taiwan, which was the most common thing for the colonists at that time, choosing a good port and building a large castle in the style of a fortress by the sea, officials, soldiers, seafarers, immigrants, from the beginning of living in the castle, and gradually forming a storage area, a dock area, and a trade area around the castle, and then reclaiming the land, driving the local aborigines to plant and work for the colonists, and gradually forming a virtuous circle.

Bugarao and other Portuguese people in Macao may not be a good idea, they used the lend-lease method to get Macao, when the Ming Dynasty was strong, these Portuguese were still quite abided by the rules, Macao was just a place for their repair ships to anchor and rest, and they did not dare to rule the law on their own, and they were two faces in the colonizers.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, they directly regarded Macao as a colonizer, built churches, repaired forts, shipyards, docks, including artillery factories, and gradually formed a colonial system, and even drove away the Ming garrison and officials, turning their faces like turning books.

At this moment, the relationship between the two sides is not bad, after all, the Portuguese regard the Ming Dynasty as a civilized country, and it was not until the end of the Southern Ming Dynasty that the honeymoon period between the two sides was completely over, and these foreign colonists submitted to the Qing court and could continue to stay in Macao.

At its peak, the Cagalau Gun Factory minted a large number of guns, which were not only purchased by Asian colonists and governments, but also sold directly back to Europe.

Xu Guangqi alone had purchased eighty heavy artillery pieces, and the Ming court had also communicated through the Jesu Society many times to buy cannon casting machines and Hongyi cannons in Macao.

Chongzhen also had high hopes for these artillery, and gave him the name General Shenwei, hoping to play a role in the war against the Eastern Prisoners, but the result was of course unsatisfactory.

Most of the imperial court directly purchased artillery, and also entrusted experts like Sun Yuanhua to learn how to cast artillery.

The boring machine in front of him is used to rotate and grind the barrel, not the drilling and boring line as Min Yuanqi thought, this is what he took for granted.

The Franc cannon is an iron cannon, the process of casting the cannon is relatively complex, and the barrel is relatively rough after forming, in fact, the copper cannon also needs to be drilled and bored, but it is not as important as the iron cannon barrel.

The Franc cannon is no longer made by forging, but by clay mold casting.

The first step is molding.

Use very dry nanmu or fir wood, according to the style of the cannon body, to make a cannon mold. The two ends of the gun mold should grow more than a foot to make a shaft head, and an iron swivel stick is added to the shaft head, and then the gun mold is placed on the rotating frame in order to rotate the mud. After the gun mold is made, then the gun lug, the gun hoop, the mold with the word flower head is installed, and the gun mold is evenly painted with the coal ash that has been finely brushed, and then the good glue yellow mud and the sifted fine sand are used after drying, and the two eight phases are mixed to make mud, and the wool is shaken open, mixed into the mud, and evenly made "warp".

After the mud is adjusted, paste it on the gun mold, then turn the swivel stick, use a round mouth wooden swing board, dip it in water and wait for drying. After drying, apply the mud again according to the previous method. After the mud reaches a certain thickness, use a thick iron wire to wrap it from the head to the tail of the gun mold, and then apply the mud according to the method just now. When the required thickness is almost reached, the iron bar with a large finger is used to compare the length of the gun mold, the long one is used more, and the short one is used less, and it is evenly placed on the gun mold as a skeleton. Then, an iron hoop one inch wide and five minutes thick was used to evenly tie the iron bar from the head to the tail of the gun mold.

Then put on the mud and swing evenly. After it is completely dry, the wooden core is taken out and the charcoal fire is put into the clay mold, on the one hand, to burn the clay mold, and on the other hand, to burn the ear, hoop and flower head characters into ashes. After cooling, sweep out the ash and slag, place the bottom of the wooden mold, and then install the tail beads. Then put on the mud, after drying, take out the bottom of the wooden cannon mold, and then burn the tail beads with charcoal fire, after completely cooling, wait for the kiln casting.

At the same time, the mold was made of iron, the length was equal to the length of the inner diameter of the gun, and the size was half of the inner diameter of the gun.

The second step is to place the gun mold and mold core. The light gun mold weighs thousands of catties, the heavy one weighs tens of thousands of catties, and the cannon core is also very heavy. With the help of simple machinery, the gun mold should be placed first, and then the mold core should be installed in the gun mold, the lower mouth should be plugged tightly, and the surrounding area should be padded with dry soil.

The third step is the refining ingredients. Whether it is pig iron or copper, it must be refined first, and then cast into thin sheets of three or five catties, waiting to be poured into the furnace for casting.

The fourth step is copper and iron pouring. The refined copper and iron are put into a pre-built brick-shaped copper pouring furnace, and then the copper and iron are catalyzed into juice with a high fire, and then the copper and iron are gradually added. When all the copper and iron juice is cleared, like oil and water, and there is a golden flower and green flame on it, the copper and iron juice will be drawn out, and gradually put into the mold, and when the wooden mold is filled, even if the casting is completed.

The fifth step is to start the heart. Within three days of casting, the mold core will be shaken loose; On the fifth day, the mold core is removed; On the eighth day, the earth was dug up, the cannon was put down, the two ends were raised two feet high, the mud on the mold was removed, swept clean, and the cannon body was cast.

The sixth step is to look at the chamber. It is to use a certain method to check whether the inside of the chamber is smooth, and the smooth inside of the chamber is a good cannon.

The seventh step is to take the same mouth. After the cannon is cast, the muzzle is uneven, and it must be in unison to make the muzzle neat and smooth.

The eighth step is the chambering. The knife was slashed into the muzzle of the gun, and the inside of the gun was extremely smooth.

The ninth step is to drill the fire gate. The proper placement of the cannon is related to the use of artillery. Therefore, according to the size of the inner chamber, close to the bottom of the gun, use a pure steel rough drill, dipped in oil to drill the fire door, the fire door must be parallel to the bottom of the gun, it is appropriate.

The boring machine in front of you is used for boring, the gun body tube is fixed on the boring machine, and the drill bit is operated by the machine to polish the gun chamber smooth and clean, and the later process of the entire artillery is the most important.

In addition, there is a drilling machine, which is smaller than the boring machine, which is used to drill the fire door.

Min Yuanqi was very interested in these boring machines and drilling machines, which were serious industrial productions, even if they were so early and rough, they still made him look at them with relish.

The military attaches around him began to feel a little bored, and Min Yuanqi simply waved his hand to drive these guys who were in the way away.

Although Zhu Wanchun didn't understand what kind of madness Min Yuanqi was smoking, he still watched with a smile on the side.

After a while, Chen De and the Li family brothers, as well as Shen Yong and others, rushed over.

Seeing that the craftsmen were all blacksmiths, Chen De and others were disappointed, and there was a huge shortage of civilian craftsmen, but Yunti Pass was within a radius of 100 miles, and even the folk craftsmen from Huai'an to Yancheng were recruited, Chen De and others also knew that this matter was urgent, this time they heard that dozens of new craftsmen came, and these people rushed over, and then there was a burst of disappointment.

Shen Yong is smile and can't see his eyes, he is a blacksmith used in the military town, and these are from the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing, but everyone is a sufferer, and the same experience makes everyone know each other at first sight even though they are unknown.

These craftsmen in front of them were kind of eye-opening, first a large number of military attachés, and then many flag soldiers who did not take turns on holidays also came to see the excitement, the craftsmen who repaired and repaired the ships also came around, and those farmers who worked in the fields also squatted on the ridges to see the novelty.

Then the craftsmen like them came running, and when the clay and wood workers heard that they were iron workers, they went away disappointed, that is, they hugged their fists to the guerrilla general in front of them and went away, and the situation was extremely relaxed.

These people came and went in a hurry, and judging from the words, everyone had something to do, so they couldn't delay much here.

This is also to make these craftsmen from the Nanjing Ministry of Industry very surprised.

The pig and dog food they eat, the cattle and horse work they do, if the officials are present to supervise, everyone has no choice but to work hard.

If there is no supervision, it can be delayed, and it can be relied on, anyway, as long as the whip does not draw on the body, it is good to be able to hide for a moment and recover his strength.

This body of tendons and flesh is exchanged for life, and without supervising the upper body of the leather whip, everyone will never be willing to work hard.

The craftsmen at this cloud ladder pass are completely different, not only do they not have much respect and fear for Shangguan, but they regard the matter at hand very seriously, which is really strange.

Inevitably, a craftsman quietly pulled Shen Yong to inquire, Shen Yong focused on the boring machine and the punching machine, it was thoughtful, he didn't care when he heard the words, and only said casually: "I was the same as you before, and now you see what I look like." Here we are not bullied, there is no bullying, we do more, we earn more, and everyone is working our own. If you earn more, your family will be full, your family will be full, and you can also make your children study...... Not much to say, if you have been here for a long time, you will naturally know. ”

Prior to this, there was Min Yuanqi's assurance, and Zhu Wanchun's temptation, but before arriving at this deserted guard, these craftsmen were still uneasy, even if they went to Yunti Pass and saw all kinds of different scenes, but there was Liu Zeqing who sent an army of 10,000 people to come to conquer and suppress, and the sense of unease in the hearts of the craftsmen was already to the extreme.

At this time, seeing all kinds of strange situations, I felt that this place was very different from other places, and then heard Shen Yong's words, these craftsmen from Nanjing were finally completely reassured.

After all, the assurances of the big men that these craftsmen have heard and seen a lot, and that doesn't count.

On the contrary, Shen Yong in front of him was born in a craftsman like them, but now he is not their kind of energetic facial expression with thinness and suffering torture.

All the craftsmen and those peasants, the banner army, are all strong and healthy, their faces are full of red light, their expressions are calm, their attitudes are confident, and most of the robes they wear are new, even if they are old, they are obviously not long, unlike the robes on the clothes of these craftsmen who went north, which are tattered, almost patches and patches.

Past the wharf, there is farmland under repair, and there is a large area of work in addition to the construction site for the defense.

This vast plain is a vast area of woodland, dikes, canals, rivers, and large houses that cannot be seen at a glance.

A few miles away, there were two or three thousand soldiers in gray robes who were practicing with all kinds of weapons, and although these soldiers were far away and could not see how they looked, judging from the majestic military slogans, the neat and mighty maneuvers, and the dazzling cold light of the weapons, there was no doubt that this was an elite army that these craftsmen had never seen at all.

The Beijing battalion soldiers in Nanjing, like the battalion soldiers of the Beijing Division, are occupied by the families of the powerful, and they are usually guarded by the gatekeepers, or do some battalion life by themselves, and they don't look like soldiers at all.

Even if it is a battalion soldier in Caojiang, that is, carrying a big gun, and looking lazy all day long, it will only gather in the camp when the imperial court sends a big member or the imperial history to patrol, put a few Jiugong gossip arrays, shout for a while, change the formation in response to the flag, and barely pass the pass perfunctory.

The barracks a few miles away, those flag troops, those men with a majestic and majestic atmosphere, how could the Caojiang battalion soldiers in Nanjing be embarrassed to compare with them?

With such a show, these craftsmen are really at ease, and they are communicating with Shen Yong and others at the moment.