Starting from Wusongkou, along the west bank of the Wusong River, the sailor school, the military port, and the shipyard are lined up to the south, and there is a mysterious place between the two low mountain beams on the south side of the shipyard.

The soldiers and civilians of Huating Town only know that this place is called the "Manufacturing Bureau", which is a place with a higher level of secrecy than the town office, but they don't know what it does. As long as the craftsmen here go in, they are not allowed to come out, and they even have to sign a "confidentiality agreement" with extremely strict conditions.

What a scary place is this?

When the living go in, they want to come out alive!

Everyone had a strong curiosity about this place, but no one dared to peep and covet it.

Because Article 1 of the first chapter of the "Huating Covenant Law" in Huating Town stipulates that anyone who approaches the "Manufacturing Bureau" within a radius of half a mile without reason will be threatened by the satellite TV and can be killed on the spot!

Speaking of which, the "Huating Covenant Law" that the chief manager made really made the soldiers and civilians of Huating Town cry bitterly! However, all daily travel and behavioral norms are stipulated in detail, such as murder and arson, bullying and dominating the market, fighting, inciting rumors, and even spitting, affecting the city's appearance, encroaching on people's land, and refusing to pay taxes...... Almost every act is subject to mandatory standards, and there are rules for dealing with every violation of the Covenant.

Outrageously harsh!

Fortunately, the permanent population of Huating Town is either the army or the poor people, and no one dares to raise objections even if the chief is strict. Even so, some well-known Su Confucians in Jiangnan said indignantly after hearing about it that this so-called "Huating Covenant" is simply the cool government of the tyrannical Qin!

But this is Fang Jun's fiefdom, which was originally a barren beach, not only was it not under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, but all the official appointments came from the Huating Marquis Mansion, and the town office was the administrative core, and Fang Jun covered the sky with one hand.

This is Fang Jun's territory!

Those who disobey the covenant can leave, but as long as they seek a living here, they must obey it unconditionally!

At this moment, within the "Manufacturing Bureau", there is a lot of heat.

The full name of the "Manufacturing Bureau" is naturally the "Gun Manufacturing Bureau", but in Fang Jun's mind, it is inevitable that hot weapons will appear on the stage in advance, but it is still necessary to block the technology as much as possible, and when to blockade it, even if other countries have developed hot weapons, it is necessary to ensure that Datang hot weapons always maintain a leading position.

Of course, the reason why it is called "Manufacturing Bureau" is also because in Fang Jun's concept, this is not only a place to produce guns, but also more "black technology" on the historical stage of Datang......

With a new sailboat, Fang Jun naturally couldn't wait to develop the artillery.

As long as he imagined the earth-shattering power of the huge "Royal Princess" battleship facing the enemy in a battle line on the sea, and dozens of artillery guns fired in a salvo, Fang Jun felt his blood boiling!

Wang Erxiao, the best blacksmith in the Fang family, stared at the iron-making furnace in front of him, silently estimating in his heart how much time it would take for the bronze alloy in the furnace to melt.

Fang Jun stood beside Wang Erxiao with his hands in his hand, and asked with a smile: "Do you complain that Ben Hou asked you to sign that confidentiality agreement?" ”

The two of them stood at the front, with a large group of craftsmen huddled behind.

Some of these craftsmen were slaves of the Fang family, and some were bought by Fang Jun from other families with high salaries. The status of the craftsman is low, it is the private property of the master's family, and he only needs to spend money to buy a slave, and he is a slave of the Fang family.

Wang Erxiao was slightly stunned when he heard this, and then smiled, and his wrinkled old face was sunny: "What did Erlang say?" Since he is a craftsman of the Fang family, he will be a slave of the Fang family for the rest of his life. Not only the little old man, but also his sons and grandsons are all slaves of the Fang family. What is the difference between a slave and a beast in a pen in another house? There is no need to sign any confidentiality agreement, even if you are locked in an iron cage for a lifetime, where can you dare to complain? Partial Shengjilang, then we should be treated as human beings, not only to sign a confidentiality agreement, so that we will not have private contact with outsiders for the rest of our lives, but also to give a generous bounty to settle the family, so benevolent, that person here is not grateful to Dade? Even if he dies here tomorrow, the little old man has no regrets! ”

The craftsmen behind him nodded yes one after another, looking satisfied.

Don't have private contact with outsiders for the rest of your life?

It sounds harsh, as if it was treated as an animal in a pen, but as a slave, isn't it the private property of the head of the family at will?

Slavery, it's not just talking......

There was an old man with white hair and said with emotion: "Don't say that as a slave, how the master of the family deals with it is willing, just the settlement fee given by Erlang, I am afraid that even if the old man is unwilling, the dog in the family will have to use a knife to force the old man to sign the agreement......"

When the craftsmen heard this, they laughed.

After signing the agreement, the minimum amount of settling-in allowance is 500 yuan, and the amount of high-level blacksmiths like Wang Erxiao and the white-bearded old craftsman is 2,000 yuan!

What is this concept?

If one person signs an agreement, and the light of day will not see the light of day in this life, the whole family will be freed from slavery and instantly become a middle-class family! From now on, it's a civilian! If there are one or two outstanding scholars among the descendants who are literate and participate in the imperial examination, the original slave family will become a scholarly family......

What is the point of not having private contact with outsiders for the rest of your life?

Even if you lock yourself in the sheepfold for the rest of your life, you are willing!

A man with a big waist and a round waist stood at the end of the craftsman, and asked curiously at this moment: "Erlang, what are we going to build?" ”

This is also a question in everyone's heart.

Since coming here, all the preparations every day are according to the drawings presented by Fang Jun, many craftsmen are divided into several groups, each has no responsibilities, and the work is completely different, everyone is confused, I don't know that Fang Jun spent a lot of money to gather so many excellent blacksmiths to set up this so-called "manufacturing bureau", what is it to make?

Fang Jun smiled and said indifferently: "Don't be impatient, later, you will witness a moment of miracle birth!" ”

The craftsmen who joined later were inexplicable, and when the craftsmen of the Fang family heard this, they all suddenly became excited, grinding their fists and eager to try. They started from following Fang Jun to smelt the first furnace of iron, to smelting extremely high-quality steel, and then to the big ball that could fly into the sky......

Which step is not to witness the birth of a miracle?

Jiro is a miracle maker!

Wang Xiaoer stared at the iron-making furnace that was burning on the top of the furnace, and said, "The fire is almost over, let's start preparing!" ”

"No!"

He was now the chief craftsman of the "Manufacturing Bureau", and as soon as he opened his mouth, the rest of the craftsmen immediately began to get busy.

What Fang Jun wants to make is a bronze cannon.

Now the craftsmen of the Fang family have more and more experience in the smelting of fine steel, but limited to experience and technology, the quality of the steel forged blade armor is sufficient, but it is slightly insufficient to make guns and cannons.

The steel quality is not up to the requirements, and the cannon made is very easy to explode, so Fang Jun plans to start with the casting of bronze cannons, accumulate experience step by step, and continuously improve steelmaking technology before casting steel cannons.

And I am confused about the flowering bullet, and I don't know much about the primer or something, and now even if I make a cannon, it is only a solid bullet, and the bronze cannon with low melting point and good ductility is enough to process......

It's just that the price of copper is too expensive, and in the end it is necessary to go on the road of steel cannons.

In fact, the technique of casting cannons is not difficult.

A cylinder is made of steel, closed at one end, with a solid cylinder in the inner center, which is one section shorter than the cylinder. If the cylinder is erected and cut with a knife, the cross-section is in the shape of a "mountain", but the middle vertical is shorter than the two sides, which is the solid cylinder.

The craftsman poured the melted bronze into it, which was exactly the shape of the cannon, and the volume occupied by the round steel column in the middle was the inner chamber of the cannon. Taking advantage of the red heat of bronze, the cannon body can be made dense by forging from the opening of the round steel cylinder, so that casting and forging are combined.

The outer steel cylinder is relatively simple to make, it corresponds to the outer surface of the cast cannon, and does not need to be particularly precise. The solid cylinder in the middle is different, it corresponds to the inner chamber of the gun, and it must be smooth and precise.

First cast a cylindrical steel type, and then forging, because there is no lathe, must be finely ground by hand, carefully corrected, Wang Erxiao and his apprentices fought for seven days in a row, and finally created this steel rod that can be used to make cannons......

More than 30 craftsmen divided into several groups, each performing their own duties, began to make cannons.

First, one end of the steel rod is connected to the center of the round cake-shaped steel ingot, the stick is stuffed into the steel cylinder with two empty ends, and the wooden block is used to keep it in the center of the cylinder, and then the steel ingot and the steel cylinder are connected, and the structure with the profile of the "mountain" is completed.

The burly man who just asked the question was called Li Santai, and at the moment he was holding a long, fine-bristled brush and brushing some powder to all sides of the inside of the steel cylinder.

The composition of these powders is toner and calcined refractory high-alumina clay, which is polished very fine with a grinding disc driven by water conservancy, and brushed into the steel cylinder thinly to play the role of isolation and lubrication, so as to prevent the bronze cannon and the steel cylinder and steel rod from sticking together......

The cylinder is then erected and fixed under a special hydraulic hammer.

Wang Xiaoer immediately commanded several craftsmen to open the valve of the ironmaking furnace, and the red-hot copper liquid flowed out along the trench and poured into it through the opening at the upper end of the steel cylinder......

After waiting for a while, when the temperature is lowered, the copper water solidifies, and then the casting starts according to the process arranged by Fang Jun in advance.

Wang Xiaoer put a round cake-shaped steel ingot from the opening of the steel cylinder and the size of the opening, and pressed it flat on the tail of the bronze cannon in the barrel, and Li Santai, who had just put down the brush on the side, steadily pulled down the machine to start the forging hammer, the forging hammer fell from the air, knocked on the steel ingot, and the huge pressure was transmitted to the bronze cannon body, so that the force was more uniform than direct forging.

After forging more than a dozen times, the steel ingot was removed, because the underside of the steel ingot was used to make a pit the size of a rice bowl with a forging hammer in advance, and the red-hot and soft bronze was squeezed during the forging process, and there was such a large bulge on the gun tail.

This is the white-bearded old craftsman who was revered by the craftsmen as "Xu Da" just now, using a drill bit made of fine steel to drill holes in the protrusion of the gun tail, tying an iron chain, and then tying the iron chain to a forging hammer rod with large wheels and small teeth.

The gears with large wheels and small teeth are like a variable speed bicycle, which rotates fast, but the hammer is very slow, so it has a lot of power.

There are craftsmen next to them who loudly instructed the people in the upstream direction to open the sluice gates, the river water is surging down, and the abundant power is transmitted to the waterwheel, and a craftsman starts the forging hammer, and the forging hammer is slowly lifted with a thousand strengths, and the cast bronze cannon is pulled out of the steel cylinder.

Due to the tight connection between the cast bronze cannon and the steel barrel, the friction between the forged copper cannon and the steel barrel was still very large, despite the lubrication isolation of carbon and high-alumina clay powder......

The new artisans are all amazed.

They have all operated hydraulic hammers since then, and are amazed by the sheer power of this thing, which can easily forge steel into any shape, round and flatten, and do whatever they want. But now it is even more shocking to see that such a huge hammer force can be reversed......

Although it is the first time to see this kind of operation, everyone knows how huge the adhesion between the bronze cannon body and the steel barrel is now......

In the tooth-squeaking sound, the bronze cannon body was finally pulled out of the steel barrel, and the pulled out cannon body was drilled into the butt with a drill machine to use it as a fire door, and the gun body processing was over.

Fang Jun and a group of craftsmen all gathered around, Fang Jun was excited from the bottom of his heart, but the craftsmen didn't know what this thing was for.

The next thing you need to do is naturally to experiment with the endurance of the cannon body and see if the bronze cannon you have made up randomly will explode......

In the first experiment, the charge was naturally from less to more.

He ordered someone to fill three catties of explosives, and used an iron drill to load a spherical solid shell of solid cast iron into the barrel, and then a young and strong craftsman inserted a long lead into the fire door, lit it, and walked back slowly in three steps......

Fang Jun almost died of anger and scolded: "Are you so lame? Run! ”

After speaking, he quickly lay on the ground. This is all in the process of being in advance, and the craftsmen have learned from each other, and they all lie down.

The craftsman who lit the fire was scolded by Fang Jun, and then he sped up and ran back.

But he had barely run a few steps when he heard an earth-shattering bang behind him, which shook his ears and his soul scattered, and a fish jumped and plunged his head into the sand beneath him......

"Boom!"

The first bronze cannon in history emitted an earth-shattering roar in the land of the Tang Dynasty, which awakened the enterprising heart of this nation, and also sounded the death knell of some resisters!

The era of the Jin Ge Iron Horse is about to become history, and the era of giant ships and cannons is coming!