It is believed that the ceremony of the righteous son was soon held in Chen Kai's small courtyard, and Chen Kai's four servants also changed their words to call Chen Yonghua the young master instead of Chen Gongzi when they saw Chen Yonghua again.

The relationship between Chen Kai and Chen Ding is closer, often talking about late at night, exchanging things with each other at work, and Chen Yonghua comes to say hello every day, Chen Kai has no regrets about the cultivation of this small potential stock, and he is even more pleased in Chen Ding's eyes.

Time passed quickly, and the production of weapons and armor in the armory workshop continued, and soon it had changed from the transfer to the arsenal on the first day of the fifth day to the transfer to the arsenal on the third day, so as to make room for the warehouse of the workshop to store raw materials.

Rattan helmets and bird guns, these two things have begun to equip the army, the former is very popular, first in Ding Town, and then left and right in Pioneer Town, occasionally passing by the barracks, looking at the soldiers in the school field in the distance training with rattan helmets, Chen Kai is also proud. However, although it is recognized that the production speed of the bird gun has been greatly improved, the scale of the three groups of bird gun craftsmen is really limited by the production capacity. What's even worse is that the demand for this kind of weapon in the army is really not small, not only the infantry, but also the Zhongding Bolin Xishan of the naval division has also asked many times, but it can only be a long way to go, that's all.

In terms of gunpowder, the two strategies of piling up manure and collecting natural saltpeter have achieved remarkable results. The scientific principle of the former lies in the reproduction and growth of nitrifying bacteria, which rely on nitrifying bacteria to produce nitrate. However, the problem is that the proliferation of nitrifying bacteria also requires a special environment and temperature, which is a big problem in the natural environment.

The layout and construction of the manure and nitrate yard outside the city were designed by Chen Kai himself, and they were all carried out in accordance with the requirements on the Internet in his memory. However, water and oxygen can barely support it, but in terms of temperature, the suitable temperature of nitrifying bacteria grows fastest at about 25 degrees Celsius, which is really impossible to control according to the current technical conditions, so the yield is far less than Chen Kai expected.

Fortunately, Zheng Chenggong is already satisfied with this. Originally, it was a raw material that needed to be imported with real money, but now it can be produced by itself, and the cost is nothing more than some cheap labor and unpaid manure, and at most it will take an uninhabited vacant land outside the city, which is definitely a profitable deal. Even for this reason, Zheng Chenggong specially rewarded Chen Kai with fifty taels of silver, and I don't know if this is a buyout of technology patents or simply a reward for scientific research.

The former is so, the latter, the hunters and mountain people on Nanao Island and Dongshan Island have been mobilized, and there are even fishermen who go to the nearby desert islands to look for them. For them, this is a good opportunity to earn extra money, especially in these troubled times, when the more money they have in their family, the better they can fight against disasters such as soaring food prices, which is often the difference between life and death.

The industriousness of the Chinese people made Chen Kai realize it again, but once he thought of the relocation and forbidden sea more than ten years later, the kind people like them who had lived on the island for generations had to face the fate of either leaving their homeland and dying of hunger and cold in another country without official resettlement, or they had to face the butcher's knife of the Qing army. At that time, there will probably not be much difference between these money and the money.

Destroying the Manchu Qing Dynasty has long been the greatest desire in Chen Kai's heart, which is not only the heartache of future generations for the fate of China, but also the sense of mission that will inevitably arise while contacting these Han people again and again!

Zheng Chenggong also invested in a charcoal field for the armory workshop outside the city, and began to cut down trees on a large scale, doing such a bad thing that later generations of environmentalists hated. Now, what is lacking is nothing more than sulfur, and Hong Xu is already thinking of a way, but whether he can buy it in large quantities and get a stable supply of goods is still unknown.

However, with the expansion of the scale, in addition to the core workshop in the city, the ordnance workshop under the management of Chen Kai also has a nitrate accumulation factory, a charcoal factory and a weapons test site under his management outside the city.

"If it is privatized in the future, whether this workshop will be called Procter & Gamble or Yunnan Baiyao, this is a question."

………………

In the winter moon, after a period of rest and basic training for recruits, Zheng Chenggong decided to officially expand the army.

"Appoint, recruit the general to join the army, Ke Chenshu as the chief military officer of Zhongchong Town, and Ke Chenmei, the captain of the armory workshop, as the deputy general of the Zhongjun Army in Zhongchong Town."

“……”

"Appoint, Yang Cai, the chief military officer of Qinding Town, is the deputy general of Zuochong Town, and recruit the general to follow Gan Hui as the deputy general of the Central Army of Zuochong Town."

“……”

"Appoint, aid and suppress Lin Yi, the deputy general of Youchong Town, as the chief military officer of Youchong Town, and recruit the general Xingyuan to follow Lan Deng as the deputy general of the Central Army of Youchong Town."

“……”

The appointments were issued repeatedly, and Zheng Chenggong relied on Ding Zhuang, who had sent troops to Zhangquan and Zhangquan to serve this year, while supplementing the vacancies in each town, he also newly formed the people of the three towns. Ke Chenshu was reused by Zheng Chenggong as Chen Kai expected, and even Ke Chenmei was naturally appointed as a deputy general because of Chen Kai's recommendation, which was also a happy event.

The relationship between Chen Kai and the Ke brothers has always been very good, and Ke Chenmei didn't say anything when the appointment was issued, but from that look, the two sides were already tacit.

The new captain of the armory workshop guard is the original deputy captain who was straightened, that is an honest man who can't beat a fart with eight poles, even if Chen Kai inquires, there are very few words. In this regard, Chen Kai had already given him the nickname of Stuffy Gourd in his heart, but this stuffy gourd was also a loyal character, second in ability, at least in terms of attitude, Chen Kai trusted him, and the security work of the Ordnance Workshop was naturally handed over to his shoulders.

The army was expanded, Zheng Chenggong's land division was expanded from five towns to eight towns, and the water division was basically unchanged, but a lot of soldiers were also added to it, plus Chen Bao's Nanao Town and the garrison of Tongshan, now it has the size of six or seven thousand troops, and it is no longer as weak as when Chen Kai first arrived, which was only slightly more than a regular barracks in Chengping.

However, it is one thing to expand the army and increase the number of personnel, but also to have weapons. Fortunately, Chen Kai has not been idle, even during the expedition of Zheng Chenggong's army, he also hoarded a large number of finished weapons for this army, and stored them in the arsenal. What really is missing is nothing more than the old problem, the ratio of troops in each town.

In any case, Chen Kai would rather let weapons wait for people than let people wait for weapons. Being able to do this, Zheng Chenggong has long been satisfied. What's more, the output of the ordnance workshop has expanded to the current level, and it has basically reached the limit of his current scale of raw material procurement, and it is fortunate that there are weapons to be produced every day to equip the army, and the rest should still ponder how to continue to regain lost territory, so that this snowball is the right way.