Xuanfu Town, military factory.

The new staff general, Feng Wensheng, sat at a large conference table with a serious face, his waist straight.

In fact, he was quite excited at this time, because he was just a general a few months ago, but now he has been promoted to a general by three ranks, and he is fortunate to be recruited by the governor to attend a meeting of the military leadership.

The theme of this meeting is the manufacture of equipment, the 190,000 army, the equipment needed is massive, and the equipment of the Ming army is very different from the past.

In the past, the Ming army was mainly based on cold weapons, and occasionally there were some hot weapons;

At present, the Ming army is mainly based on hot weapons, and cold weapons are only auxiliary.

That is to say, even if the original border town had a weapon inventory, it was not enough to equip the 190,000 army, because the weapons in the previous inventory were all cold weapons, and the Xianning Marquis Qiu Luan did not care about the manufacture of overheated weapons after becoming the governor of the northwest, even if the original equipment of 40,000 or 50,000 horses was not very neat, and the equipment of the 190,000 army was even more lacking.

Yang Cong sat on the main seat, and glanced lightly at the Wenchen generals under his command, and then said kindly: "Zishi, the military factory here in Xuanfu Town has been abandoned over the years, and the number of machine tools is seriously insufficient, you can think of a way to enrich it as much as possible." ”

When Li Chunfang heard this, he asked solemnly: "Teacher, the disciple dares to ask, how many muskets is the teacher going to make, how many cannons are he going to make, and how long is the construction period?" ”

He is the kind of person who is quite rigorous, and he is deferential and humble, and he is very suitable for doing practical things, so Yang Cong made an exception to invite him to be responsible for the manufacture of weapons and equipment for the 190,000 army.

Although he is the champion of the Yuanlang, and he has been studying politics in the Hanlin Academy for three years, he is still the Hanlin Academy of Zhengliupin, but it is still very rare to hold such an important position as soon as he comes out.

However, he was not complacent because of this, at all times, he maintained a deferential and humble attitude, and he was quite serious in his work, which was what Yang Cong admired most about him.

Such a disciple, with a good training, is more than enough to enter the cabinet.

Yang Cong still said cordially: "This time the time is relatively tight, because the consumption of the 190,000 army is too great, and we can't delay it for too long, so the division is preparing to initially equip the 190,000 army within ten months, not to mention anything else, the 100,000 army that goes deep into the Hetao must be fully equipped." The 100,000 troops were mainly composed of thermal weapons, with at least 50,000 muskets and at least 5,000 artillery pieces. As for the remaining 90,000 troops, they can make do with the existing old equipment first, anyway, they don't have to participate in the attack, just for defense, it is enough to have these existing hot weapons, plus the cold weapons in the arsenal. “

Oh my God, 50,000 flintlock pistols, 5,000 cannons!

This amount is simply an astronomical amount, if it is changed before, let alone ten months, even if it is ten years, the Ming Dynasty may not be able to create it.

Now it's different, because with the extremely efficient machine tool, it is not impossible to build so much equipment within ten months, but the demand for this machine tool and personnel is also massive.

When Li Chunfang heard this, he thought carefully for a while, and then asked carefully: "Master, so many muskets and artillery Xuanfu Town may not be able to build even if it is equipped with more machine tools, right?" ”

Yang Cong nodded without hesitation and said: "Yes, it is impossible to build so much equipment in such a short period of time with the military factory of Xuanfu Town alone, but if the military factories in the capital and Jinling are also counted, it should be barely feasible." That's why you've been asked to be the head of the Ministry of Engineering, and you're going to try your best to coordinate and make use of the advantages of each place to get the equipment out on time. ”

It turns out that this is the case, plus the military factories in the capital and Nanzhili, it is not impossible to build so much equipment in ten months, but it is still very difficult.

Moreover, at this time, there was no concept of division of labor and cooperation, and Li Chunfang really had little experience in how to coordinate and arrange several military factories that were so far apart.

He humbly asked: "Teacher, please forgive the disciple for being stupid, this capital is hundreds of miles away from here, and Nanzhili is nearly three thousand miles away from here, how to coordinate and arrange in the middle, the disciple really can't figure it out." ”

Yang Cong patiently taught: "This is to give full play to the advantages of various places, such as this Xuanfu Town, which is the closest to the mine, so it is the most convenient to cast cannon barrels and shells; Another example is Nanzhili, which mainly produces artillery for warships, and its ability to process gun barrels and guns is the strongest; Another example is the capital, where skilled craftsmen can be said to be the most, so the more sophisticated equipment such as muskets can be placed there. In short, there are advantages everywhere, it depends on how you play it, anyway, there is a railway here, and the transportation of various gun parts is still very convenient, as long as you coordinate well,"

When Li Chunfang heard this, she nodded thoughtfully, and then asked, "Master, what is this artillery carriage?" ”

This was brought up by Feng Wensheng, because in the last battle, Feng Wensheng saw that the Tartar cavalry had already rushed over, and it seemed useless for the artillery to stay in front, so he simply ordered the artillery to withdraw to the back of the large formation to load ammunition, in order to launch the next wave of attacks.

This idea is not bad, but the artillery and ammunition are quite troublesome to transfer, although the tiger squat cannon is not heavy, there are dozens of pounds at best, and the soldiers who are not particularly strong do not want to pick up and run, and there are a lot of messes such as guns, gunpowder, and shells, and it is really not an ordinary trouble to move a place.

Therefore, he thought of a special artillery carriage, separating the artillery from the fire dragon chariot, putting everything on it, and just pulling it away.

Originally, he thought that his idea was a bit too idealistic, and the Governor would not pay attention to it at all.

But he never thought that the Governor would be full of praise when he heard it, and this time he was even invited to attend such an important meeting.

He was trying his best to keep his waist straight, when he suddenly heard Li Chunfang mention the gun carriage in the Ministry of Works, and his interest immediately came.

Sure enough, Yang Cong immediately said: "This is still proposed by Wen Sheng, Wen Sheng will let you introduce what this gun carriage is." ”

When Feng Wensheng heard this, he hurriedly said the idea in his heart.

What he envisioned was actually a modified flatbed truck, which could almost be loaded with artillery, shells, guns, powder kegs, etc.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Yang Cong quickly pulled out a huge blank manuscript paper, and immediately drew it with charcoal.

The gun carriage drawn by Yang Cong is different again, this thing even has an iron frame!

Where could he have imagined that Yang Cong had already had this thing in his mind, but he had never thought about it.

At this time, Yang Cong was just using his mouth to say this thing.