It didn't take long for Zhang Baigui and the twenty craftsmen to figure it out and have a general idea of the entire process of the iron mold casting cannon process proposed by Liu Juntao.

At this time, everyone admired Liu Juntao even more, and those craftsmen looked at Liu Juntao with reverence as if they had seen their ancestors.

Even Jang Baekyu seemed to be drunk, and his eyes narrowed into a slit with a smile.

At this time, Liu Juntao explained in detail to Zhang Baigui and the craftsmen: "This method of casting cannons with iron molds is not difficult to say, but it is not easy to do. First of all, according to the size of the cast gun, the clay mold should be made in five sections; Then according to the number of clay mold sections, the iron mold model is divided, each clay mold is divided into two petals, and the inner surface is rotated with the car plate to make the surface smooth and smooth and the shape is regular, and then dried for later use; A prefabricated handle is placed in the clay mold, and it is cast into one with the iron mold when casting. ”

"When turning the cast iron mold with a clay mold, first put the muzzle section upside down on the clay plate, fill one of the petals with mud, after drying, cover the clay plate, tighten the mold, and get a lobe of the first iron mold after pouring. Then go out and fill the mud, and you can do the same to get the other half of the iron mold. In this way, the pouring of each section can be cast into a complete set of iron molds that are layered and cut. ”

Liu Juntao's explanation made Zhang Baigui and the twenty craftsmen feel that the situation was as clear as if they had directly seen the entire manufacturing process.

Everyone was directly shocked by Liu Juntao's method, and in addition to the original reverence and respect, the eyes that looked at him were added with awe and a trace of worship.

This method was not created by Liu Juntao, in fact, during the Opium ~ Chip War in the late Manchu Qing Dynasty, this method had already been produced.

At that time, the artillery used by the Manchu Qing Dynasty had not made new artillery for many years, especially the artillery of many batteries in the southern coastal areas was cast decades ago or even earlier in the Kangxi and late Ming dynasties.

Therefore, after the war began, the Manchu Qing Dynasty found that there was a shortage of cannons, and the artillery used in the north for the Gongwei Beijing Division did not dare to go south easily, so the officials below were asked to speed up the manufacture of cannons, and the cycle of making cannons from clay molds was too long, so at that time, it was possible to think of the characteristics of fast speed of metal mold manufacturing tools and agricultural tools.

As a result, the Manchu Qing began to adopt a series of improvement measures to use this method to cast cannons.

Obviously, the iron mold casting cannon not only has the advantage of a short casting cycle, but also has the advantage of reuse. This not only reduces the manufacturing cycle, but also allows for consistent cannon size, standardized production, and a process that reduces the possibility of defects such as honeycombs.

It's a pity that not long after this new method of casting cannons came out, the Manchus surrendered, and they didn't even have time to cast a few cannons.

When Liu Juntao was thinking about these historical materials, Zhang Baigui and others also came back to their senses from the shock one after another, and said: "You build artillery according to the method I said, remember to try to build a few artillery pieces after the iron mold is cast, if there is no problem with the method, we will immediately start casting artillery in batches, now what we lack is time!" ”

Zhang Baigui and the twenty craftsmen couldn't talk at this time, and they were all struggling to record what Liu Juntao said.

Then, Liu Juntao said again; "Another thing you should keep in mind is that casting a cannon is the same as building a bird's gun, it must be strictly based on the dimensions on the design drawings, and there must be no mistakes! Only in this way can standardization be achieved and a sophisticated artillery can be cast. In addition, the Yushan Town Military Bureau must strictly record the name of the craftsman and engrave it on the cannon body for each artillery gun produced by the Yushan Town Military Bureau. ”

Zhang Baigui has always been very demanding about the quality of military equipment, and he also agrees with Liu Juntao's requirements.

Liu Juntao continued: "And! The gunpowder and cannon of the cannon can also be used in the form of fixed equipment in the same way as the bird gun ammunition. However, shells can no longer be shelled with paper shells. ”

"Can't use a cardboard shell? So what material should be used? ”

Zhang Baigui was already excited when he heard this, and he only felt that Liu Juntao's mind could always have magical ideas, so he couldn't help but ask directly.

"With silk!"

Liu Juntao is also based on the experience of later generations, more than 300 years later, some Western gunners have begun to use precious silk to wrap shells and gunpowder, and made simple fixed ammunition, but it has not been popularized, and the main form of artillery shells has not yet formed a fixed formation, until the appearance of iron cartridge shells.

However, when Zhang Baigui and the twenty craftsmen heard that they were going to make custom-made cannonballs from silk, they were shocked.

"O Lord! Even if our Yushan Town is rich now, then we can't waste money like this! How much silk is this cannon? After a big battle, how much silver will have to be spent! ”

Looking at Zhang Baigui's anxious appearance, Liu Juntao said with a smile: "Zhang Sicheng, this cannonball is different from the lead bullet of the bird, if you still use a paper shell, there will definitely be residual debris after burning in the barrel, which will not only increase the time and difficulty of cleaning the cannon chamber, but also once the cleaning is not in place, it will accumulate in the cannon chamber, which will cause an explosion!" ”

Liu Juntao said: "Compared with human life, compared with the victory or defeat of the war, spending some silver to buy silk is not a big deal!" ”

Everyone looked at each other after hearing this, and was finally persuaded by Liu Juntao.

Therefore, Zhang Baigui prepared to place an order with the Ministry of Commerce tomorrow, and immediately sent people to Jiangnan to purchase large quantities of silk and began to develop customized artillery shells.

After that, Liu Juntao, accompanied by Zhang Baigui and others, inspected the military battle bureau in Yushan Town, and saw that the workshops were in order, and many craftsmen were in full swing when they worked, and they were also very satisfied.

On the same day, Liu Juntao led the crowd to leave the Yushan Town Military Bureau.

However, this time Liu Juntao did not return to Yushan Town, but led his troops directly back to Yanzhou Mansion, after all, Liu Juntao was already the chief military officer of Yanzhou Mansion at this time, and all major military affairs were gathered in the General Military Mansion located in Yanzhou Mansion first, and he had to go back to deal with it.

Of course, these major events are all major military affairs on the part of Yanzhou Government, and the major matters of the Yushan Town series are still directly gathered in Yushan Town, after all, the stations of all departments in Yushan Town are still in the town.

Liu Juntao knew in his heart that such a situation would inevitably cause information difficulties, and once something big happened, he would definitely delay things by running at both ends like this.

Therefore, Liu Juntao also decided that after the current affairs were stabilized, he would immediately move all the departments of Yushan Town to Yanzhou City, and in the future, he would take Yanzhou City as his base camp.

As for Yushan Town, Liu Juntao is preparing to build it into a large rear, a military industrial base, and a money and grain base!

Two days later, Liu Juntao rushed to Yanzhou City.

Before Liu Juntao could take a break, he was stopped by Lan Siqi, the minister of the Praise and Painting Department: "General Town, this is an official document issued by the Ministry of War, asking us to report to the soldiers of the army." ”

Liu Juntao knew that this was the practice of the military department, and every general guarding one side had to report to the soldiers under his command on time, so that the military department could check the soldiers and distribute money and food.

Liu Juntao took a detailed look at this official document, and said: "Now the soldiers of our battalions and horses are generally complete, but it is impossible for all of these more than 80,000 soldiers to report to the imperial court, otherwise it will definitely attract suspicion and unnecessary trouble from the imperial court." ”

Lan Siqi also nodded and said: "Don't worry, we are also strictly confidential to the outside world, now we only know that we have tens of thousands of troops, but the specific number of troops is not known to the outside world!" ”

Liu Juntao nodded and said, "In this way, the actual strength of each battalion is only reported to be thirty percent!" ”

Lan Siqi smiled and said, "Okay! I'm going to get ready for the recital! ”

As soon as Lan Siqi left on the front foot, Liu Zi'an on the back foot hurried over.

Liu Juntao said with a smile: "You guys are deliberately not letting me take a breath!" ”

Who knew that Liu Zi'an didn't have the heart to laugh, but said with an unkind face: "Zongzhen! There's a change over there! ”