Along the canal more than a dozen waterwheels lined up, under the action of the current, these rotating water wheels appear to be extremely spectacular, the axles of the water wheels have been deep into the wooden sheds on the shore, this is the weapons factory of the Loyal Army, and these water wheels drive hydraulic forging hammers, grinders and other equipment to make weapons.

Entering this piece of weapons factory, which used to be a shipyard, before people entered the factory, Zhu Mingzhong could hear the sound of striking iron, through the semi-open workshop, you can see the craftsman using iron tongs to clamp the red steel blocks, under the hammer forging of the hydraulic hammer, those fiery red steel blocks become longer and wider, and eventually become a three-foot-long saber blade or a one-foot-long spear tip.

The emergence of hydraulic forging hammer has fundamentally changed the manufacturing of weapons, making the manufacturing cost of weapons cheaper, after all, it has always been the blacksmith wrought iron that restricts the cost of weapons, and now all this is handed over to the hydraulic forging hammer, with the help of dozens of pounds of hammer driven by water power, a large number of weapons can be made in a shorter time.

However, Zhu Mingzhong did not enter these forging hammer workshops, after all, most of them are used to make cold weapons, at most, they are to make some liners for strengthening bird guns, and now is the period of change, and muskets will soon completely eliminate cold weapons.

Compared with the crisp sound of metal hammer forging on the other side, the sound in the gun pipe refabrication workshop is also very loud, on the drilling machine driven by the water wheel, one by one truncated to three feet five inches of the diameter of the gun pipe is rough, the craftsmen check the progress of the expansion from time to time, and on the wooden multi-layer cart on the side, the rounded gun pipes are waiting to be added to the reinforced liner.

"How many pipes can we make every day?"

Picking up a gun, Zhu Mingzhong looked at the sunlight carefully, after installing the reinforcing liner, these gunners will be verified by craftsmen against the light, this is a quite professional work, only a dozen craftsmen in the whole gunpowder factory can master this skill, maybe there are a lot of folk guns, but there are not many people who can skillfully straighten the guns.

"At the beginning, only a few dozen pipes could be restructured a day, but now 200 pipes can be restructured every day, and if you add another waterwheel, it is estimated that it can reach 300,"

When mentioning this speed, Dai Cang looked at the Jingluo around him, with a little admiration in his eyes, in the past, when scraping the bore by manpower, it took at least half a month for a bird to drill the pipe, but here with the help of a hydraulic drilling machine, it only takes a few hours, during which the craftsman only needs to pay attention to see if the drill bit is broken, and there is no need for other manpower. And because the drilling machine of the belt driven by the water wheel is evenly output, the gun pipe is smoother than in the past. And the whole process is almost manual, even a teenage apprentice can do the job.

If you want to increase the output, it is very easy, you only need to add a waterwheel, add a grinding machine, and as for the craftsman, you can find a few apprentices and watch the machine.

It was so easy to produce that, in the past, it would have been hard to imagine anyway.

"But then the speed of the flintlock machine will not be able to keep up, although there are many blacksmiths and coppersmiths in the shipyard, but they have never made a flintlock machine in the past, and now the speed has just come up, up to now, 2,500 flintlock pistols have been made in the factory......"

Although the use of more than a dozen hydraulic drilling machines can speed up the transformation of the pipe, it does not mean that the production of flintlock pistols will be so smooth, after all, those craftsmen are just in contact with flintlock pistols, although its structure is very simple, but there is always a process from raw to cooked, which Zhu Mingzhong knows very well.

"2,500 of them? Well, you can send it down! Let's train a battalion first, well, it doesn't matter if the speed can't keep up, you can recruit another group of craftsmen to come over, and the more people there are, the faster they will naturally work, well......"

When the words came to his lips, Zhu Mingzhong suddenly thought of the origin of the standardization of industrial production, isn't it precisely because of the manufacture of muskets? At the end of the 18th century, Whitney signed an order with the U.S. government, promising to produce between 1 and 15,000 muskets within two years. At that time, the entire US military was able to produce just over 300 muskets a year. Some see Whitney's pledge as a sign of strong patriotism, but the actual reason he was eager to take the order was for money, and he was already ruined by the gin lawsuit. The government order is so tempting that the manufacturer receives $5,000 as soon as the order is placed.

However, it is almost impossible to produce more than 10,000 guns in two years. At that time, the craftsmanship of gun manufacturing was extremely high, completely handmade, and the speed of gun manufacturing depended entirely on the size of the workers in a factory. There is also the problem that each gun is made by a worker, so they have their own unique design, and if they fail, it will take a huge amount of time to re-polish and repair, and the repair speed is extremely slow.

Whitney came up with a standardized production system where parts could be replaced at will. In his vision, all parts are carved out of a mold, and if a part goes wrong, it can be replaced with other parts produced in the same mold. He created the manufacturing concept of interchangeable parts, laying the foundation for large-scale production and modern industry.

Looking at the arsenal in front of him, Zhu Mingzhong could vaguely see a similar production process, at least the barrel was uniformly "manufactured". It is only necessary to extend this process to the production of the flint machine.

"Jia Mei, how is our flintlock machine made now?"

"After the pipe is equipped with a tail liner pipe, straightened, and tested three times, it will be handed over to the craftsmen, and those craftsmen will make a flintlock machine according to the school, and the current skilled hands can make a flintlock pistol every day, and then their apprentices will load it on the gun bed to make a whole gun ......"

Although Zhu Mingzhong prefers to call it a "flintlock pistol", it is still a "spontaneous firebolt" in Dai Cang and official documents.

"Familiar with one a day, what if not familiar?"

Walking to the heating furnace, watching the craftsman carefully insert the five-inch-long fiery red gun tube into the expanded gun tail, and then submerge it into the oil to quench, looking at the liner that has been firmly fixed to the gun tail under the principle of thermal expansion and cold contraction, more than 200 years later, Krupp has achieved the reputation of the Krupp cannon with this process. Now, this seemingly extremely simple technology has made it possible to transform the bird's gun.

"Jia Mei, you see, there are craftsmen over there who are responsible for drilling holes, there are people here who are responsible for reinforcing the tails, and there are people who are responsible for making bayonets, in that case, why don't we consider subcontracting the flintlock?"

As if inspired by something, Zhu Mingzhong said to Dai Cang.

"According to the old method, craftsmen made muskets step by step in their workshops, starting with cutting wood, and at the end of the day, two craftsmen produced three or four guns at most. We can make a large number of parts in advance, and finally assemble them together, since we can only do one process at a time, then workers only need to do a good job of one process, do not have to learn a full set of manufacturing skills, different processes start at the same time, and the products are combined together, is not a complete musket? ”

In the process of industrial development, many things are just a layer of window paper, and now all Zhu Mingzhong needs is to poke open that layer of window paper, his words made Dai Cang, who has been concentrating on the study of machinery for more than a month, light up, and said in a loud voice.

"I see, I see......"

At this time, Dai Cang seemed very excited, and he even gestured a little excitedly.

"Carpenters specialize in making clay beds, blacksmiths make pistol pipes, and craftsmen specialize in lighting doors, and there are craftsmen specializing in machine tools...... Not only can this be done here, but also all the weapons manufacturing in the entire weapons factory, and the knife can be made with someone who is autocratic with the blade and someone with the handle of the knife...... After a little talent, it's really hard for us to shoot horses! ”

Dai Cang, who was excited, had already realized the speed of this production method.

"Even those who have never been trained can make a part in a matter of days, and in this way, the manufacturing speed is multiplied......

Not only will it multiply, but the introduction of standardized processes will set off an industrial revolution that has never been seen before.

Maybe the people of this era don't understand the meaning, but Zhu Mingzhong, who understands the industrial revolution in history, is very clear that standardized production plays a role in promoting industrial development.

Maybe there is no way to achieve the standard kind of standardized production in this era, but it only needs to make a start. In the next few decades, through continuous development, he will eventually evolve into truly standardized production, and at that time, a real industrial revolution may be born in China.

"Jiamei, not only that, but in the future we should let the tools do the shaping work and give the correct proportions for each component – these tools, once completed, will significantly improve the progress of the work, so that all products are more accurate and consistent."

Thinking about some familiar examples in this era, Zhu Mingzhong continued to explain.

"How so? This tool is a bit like "stereotyped printing", just like those printing plates that can reproduce a large number of identical prints, and with the help of these tools, they can also make the same components. ”

Zhu Mingzhong, who continued to poke at the thin layer of window paper, looked a little excited. He is well aware of the significance of standardized production, and if this mode of production is realized in China, the industrial revolution of this world will be presented in the world in another way.

Regardless of whether Dai Cang could accept all this immediately, Zhu Mingzhong continued to introduce standardization to him.

"We first need to make a tool that can cut metal according to an abrasive tool, and then we can use the tool to make a "precise and consistent" part, which of course requires a more precise unit of measurement to ensure that all parts are accurate and consistent......"

One of the principles of standardized production is to make machines out of machines. There may not be a steam engine, but water power can also be substituted, after all, there is an abundance of water power available in China.

Of course, after solving some processing and technical problems in the future, the invention of the steam engine will be a smooth thing. What is needed now is to open that door and pierce the window paper of the industrial revolution that transformed from an agrarian society to an industrial society.

"What the scripture says is very true, but the ordinary construction ruler is naturally no longer suitable for measuring the parts of the musket, so if you want to implement this method, you must have a new ruler ......"

It is realized that the change in the manufacturing of weapons brought about by this production method proposed by the Economic Strategy will not only increase the production speed, but also greatly reduce the cost. But Dai Cang is also well aware that measurement tools need to be properly changed in order to adapt to all this.

"What Jia Mei said is very true, you can study this matter first, and if you have time, the two of us can also discuss a ...... or two."

For Zhu Mingzhong, who had already pierced the layer of window paper, he did not continue to instill knowledge from the future into him, but hoped that Dai Cang would be able to understand all this by himself.

As long as Dai Cang can introduce all this into the production of weapons, then the production model of standardized, replaceable parts will be permanently passed down in China. At its core, it is necessary to make each component have the same properties, so as to achieve the goal of replacing it at any time, and in order to achieve this goal, people must first manufacture large-scale abrasives and grinding instruments, which further improves the precision of instrument making. And this is exactly the symptom of the mechanized industrial age.

And all this needs to be comprehended by Dai Cang himself, not forcibly instilled......

Real change is a natural and inevitable part of social development. Just like the germination of industrial production at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when small workshops began to turn into factories. The Industrial Revolution will be born unconsciously.

Of course, the premise of all this is that his development is not interrupted. Historically, the industrial revolution that was supposed to take place in China was interrupted by the Manchu invasion.

And now, for Zhu Mingzhong, who has come to this era, what he needs to do is to guard this sprout, let it develop naturally, and at the same time give him a proper boost.

"Maybe that's the root of all the changes!"

When he was about to leave this somewhat primitive arsenal in his eyes, Zhu Mingzhong's whole face looked a little excited, this was the first time, and he saw another hope. This hope is completely different from the past, where he only saw military affairs and war, but now in this arsenal, he sees hope for the future.

"If you take advantage of this opportunity, everything will change."

Zhu Mingzhong muttered to himself in his heart, imagining the indescribable future, and his whole life seemed a little excited. After all, he knew all too well about the impact of the Industrial Revolution, and all he needed to do was seize the opportunity in front of him.

If you can seize this opportunity, everything will change, and then it will be completely different.

At this moment, Zhu Mingzhong seemed to see the dawn of the future......