A large number of wooden boxes containing Hongxing's three-year-style arquebuses (imitation of Spanish light arquebuses) are piled up on the newly opened Nanjing Pukou wharf, which workers use pedal cranes and wheelbarrows to carry onto several Yangtze sand boats heading west.

The officers of the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of War, together with several officers of the Pingxi Domain Army who followed Wu Sangui to Nanjing, took notebooks and receipts and compared the guns that were about to be shipped. Before each box is loaded on the ship, it must be opened and inspected, the number must be checked, and the accessories and guns must be checked to see if they are in good condition, and then they can be repacked, sealed, and carried on the ship.

You really can't be sloppy at all!

Zhu Cihong and Wu Sangui were now in a corner of the dock, walking around seemingly casually with Chen Keqian, the envoy of the Ordnance Division, from time to time opening a box that had not yet been sealed, and taking out the musket inside to fiddle with it a few times.

Chen Keqian looked at Zhu Cihong and Wu Sangui with satisfied expressions, and hurriedly added two sentences: "The muskets sent to Shaanxi in this wholesale are all products of Nanjing Pudong Railway, Shanghai Shengang, and Quanzhou Zhengtie, and the quality is very reliable...... The three major ironworks now employ many of the Dutch masters to build refining furnaces, forges, 150-300 pound hydraulic hammers, hydraulic drilling machines, hydraulic blowers, and variable-speed reservoirs, as well as their sheet metal methods.

In addition, Daye Iron Works has now built a large blast furnace with a height of more than one zhang, and specially opened a ginseng iron furnace for military industry, using charcoal to smelt ore, and then using lime to remove slag. The pig iron smelted was then transported to Nanjing and Shanghai for refining, and Quanzhou Zhengtie was made of Fujian iron...... With high-quality pig iron, and then forged with a hydraulic sledgehammer, the wrought iron produced is of excellent quality, and then used to produce muskets and plate armor, the yield rate can be greatly improved. ”

This Chen Keqian was born in a family of craftsmen in Tianjin Wei - the artisan household system of the Ming Dynasty collapsed in the middle and late periods, and the craftsmen no longer served in the army, but changed to pay taxes. After paying the taxes, they will operate their own businesses, and those who mix well will become the workshop owners, and those who mix poorly will become the working people. And the Chen family of Tianjin Wei Tie is a good mix among the craftsmen, and they made a fortune by taking advantage of the east wind of the Wanli Aid Dynasty. There are also children of the clan who have been promoted, and now they not only have money, but also have a political umbrella.

Chen Keqian's father was already a first-class wealthy family in the Tianjin Acropolis. However, their iron-striking skills are not good...... Having been in the iron industry for generations, and making a fortune by striking iron, does not mean that you are an expert in iron smelting. This can only show that their shoddy products just meet the needs of the Ming Dynasty Poor Ghost Court!

As far as the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty is concerned, so many clans, officials, and troops have to spend food and salaries, and the officials in charge have to make a little money, and how much money can be left to buy equipment? Of course, the cheaper the better...... There are good things, Foshan is good, and if it is not good, it is made in Macao, and it can be imported if it is not good.

But the problem is that there is no money!

Good iron tools have to be smelted with high-quality "ginseng iron" and charcoal, which is expensive. At that time, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to purchase in large quantities, so the Tianjin Iron Chen, which was good at shoddy manufacturing, came into being.

However, in the two battles of Tianjin Wei, the iron Chen family was also completely ruined, and they did not dare to continue to stay in Tianjin, so they had to be a "righteous citizen", and the eldest son of the Chen family, Chen Keqian, who had already won the show, joined the army, relying on his knowledge of smelting and forging, and became a quartermaster.

Later, he also retired from the army for a time and became the chief manager of Nanjing Pudong Railway under the Royal Chamber of Commerce, that is, under his auspices, Pudong Railway, which had sufficient funds, began to hire a large number of foreign craftsmen and introduced Western iron-smelting technology - in fact, these technologies he introduced, including refining furnaces (that is, frying steel furnaces), hydraulic machinery, drilling machines, blowers, etc., are all available in China. But they are all relatively primitive and there is no big demand, who will spend time and time to improve?

Now, if you want to improve yourself, you have to spend a lot of time and money to make up the lessons, which is not as affordable as the introduction...... Anyway, there is no concept of intellectual property protection these days, and it is your own if you copy it!

In fact, the Portuguese are copying the iron-smelting technology of Foshan, and they have also copied the low-cost hard sail technology here in China. When the Ottomans attacked Constantinople, they also invited the Christian Hungarian cannon master Urban to cast the Urban cannon!

Of course, even with the introduction of the most advanced hydraulic hammers, hydraulic drilling machines and other processes, it is still impossible to produce barrels and plate armor by assembly line methods - because the hydraulic hammers imported from Europe are only large in weight and adjustable in speed (with variable speed gears and variable speed reservoirs), but they still cannot replace experienced craftsmen for forging.

This kind of hydraulic hammer is actually a tool used to repeatedly forge wrought iron to improve its quality and yield and change its shape. However, it can only be used to beat the wrought iron medium and heavy plate, and can not be used to beat the thin plate, let alone the steel plate processed by the "Suzhou Iron and Steel Method" - the power of the hydraulic hammer is too great, and the landing point is not easy to control, and the relatively hard and brittle steel plate will be smashed!

However, with low-cost and high-quality wrought iron plates and high-efficiency hydraulic drilling machines, the efficiency of processing barrels and plate armor has improved a lot. The assembly line can't do it, but mass production has become possible.

The total monthly output of Hongxing's three-year musket can reach 6,000 pieces, plus the output of a number of small factories, and 12,000 high-quality Hongxing three-year guns can be produced in a month at full horsepower.

In addition, there are many shoddy Hongxing three-year muskets, and it is impossible to count the specific output.

However, the output of plate armor is still relatively low, this needs to be customized, otherwise you can't wear it! But the output of simple cuirasses and iron helmets is easy to come up, it is nothing more than to find more people to knock on the hammer, and the Ming Dynasty is a lot of people!

Therefore, in the fifth year of Hongxing, the military output of the Ming Dynasty was enough to supply the Ming army, which numbered hundreds of thousands, for rigorous training and combat needs. And there is still spare power to supply feudal armies like Pingxi Town and Shuofang Town.

"Uncle Chang," Zhu Cihong handed the musket in his hand to Wu Sangui and said with a smile, "This time I will give you 10,000 Hongxing for three years...... It's a month's worth of the Ministry of War (and 2,000 were sold to the more wealthy feudal towns of the Dongning Army, Jing Navy, and Jinou Army), and they're all given to you!

Your Pingxi army has horses, and now you have muskets, so let's form thousands of musketeers! The phalanx soldiers are also needed, first engage him with 20 battalions...... 3-pounder guns give you 30 first, build 10 and a half companies (that is, half a company), half for cavalry, and half for infantry. ”

Wu Sangui was overjoyed when he heard this, and asked: "Your Majesty, do you want your ministers to send troops from Shaanxi to attack the Lao relatives of Henan Mansion?" ”

Among the three feudatories of Zhongzhou in the Qing Dynasty, Azig's son Lao Qin was undoubtedly the most powerful, and he was also the most stubborn!

His Ama Azig and a bunch of brothers and sisters are now under the control of Duoduo, and if he dares to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, it will be a tragedy!

Moreover, Duoduo treated him well, let him attack the throne, and gave him a batch of equipment.

"Not necessarily." Zhu Cihong waved his hand, "You are the envoy of the Pingxi Festival and the protector of the capital of Anxi...... The task is one, and that is Pingxi! The Yarkand Khanate and the Hoshute Khanate have been handed over to you to deal with.

In addition, you have to pay attention to the Beiting Army...... The guns I gave you will also be given to Beiting! If Batur Huntaiji dares to use the sharp guns at hand, you will teach him a hard lesson! ”

Wu Sangui was not afraid of the Mongols, and smiled and said, "Your Majesty, rest assured, these Warat people are not our opponents!" ”

Zhu Cihong nodded: "Anxi's hometown is already sparsely populated, and after being ravaged by Batur Huntaiji, the population will be even smaller...... You have to organize more thousands of households of the Pingxi Army to move to Anxi, and the court will pay for it! The Anxi army was calculated separately, and the losses of each thousand households were subsidized by the imperial court within 20 years of their move to Anxi. A thousand households with sufficient personnel will receive a maximum of 6,000 taels of silver a year. After 20 years, the subsidy is halved and paid forever. ”