Coming out of the drilling workshop, the assembly workshop is below, here is the last procedure of the firecracker, the gun pipe coming out of the drilling workshop, plus the gunning stock of the woodworking workshop, as well as the trigger and other parts, so that a firearm is formed.

Ma Cheng picked up a handful of finished firecrackers, this kind of freshly manufactured Lumi guns were much stronger than those shoddy things in Zhang Guozhu's army. Ma Cheng looked left and right, and then asked, "Ambassador Liu, how much can you produce this kind of Lu Mi Gong every month?" ”

Hearing Ma Cheng ask this, Liu Benzhong smiled bitterly: "My lord, this kind of precision firearm can only produce more than fifty rods per month, mainly because there are too few skilled technicians. After Liu Benzhong finished speaking, he was afraid that Ma Cheng would be angry, so he hurriedly said: "Other firearms such as bird guns and three-eyed guns are sufficient. ”

Fifty strokes, that's too little! As for the other rotten goods Ma Cheng doesn't want it yet, that kind of thing has no power at all if it is more than fifty meters, what are you going to do here? Do you set off fireworks for the Manchus?

Ma Cheng looked at the Lu Mi gun in his hand, fiddled with the arquebus with his hand again, and then asked, "Ambassador Liu, do you have anyone here who can make a Franc flintlock pistol?" ”

Flintlock pistols? Liu Benzhong thought about it and shook his head, saying that he hadn't heard it.

Ma Cheng couldn't help frowning when he heard this, the flintlock pistol had been invented in Europe for more than a hundred years, and it should not have been passed on to the Ming Dynasty.

"Ambassador Liu, instead of a fire rope, a flint firebolt is used! Haven't you heard? ”

Hearing Ma Cheng say this, Liu Benzhong suddenly realized: "It turns out that the adult is talking about self-generated fire!" We've got this kind of firecracker! Liu Benzhong hurriedly asked people to go to the armory to bring the self-generated fire guns in stock to Ma Cheng to see.

Ma Cheng heard Liu Benzhong say this before he knew that the flintlock pistol was called a self-generated fire gun in the Ming Dynasty, and this name was very realistic.

After a while, the people brought a fire gun similar to Lu Mi Gong, Ma Cheng took it over to see, this fire gun really did not have a fire rope, but used a clamp to clamp a flint, and a blow anvil was provided on the side of the fire hole, and the flint hit the anvil when shooting to send out a spark, and then ignited the gunpowder of the fire hole, and finally ignited the gunpowder in the barrel to complete a shot.

Ma Cheng tried the trigger, and the strength was very strong, and it seemed that the Ming Dynasty had been able to imitate a steel sheet with elastic force.

"Yes, is this flintlock pistol a replica of yours?"

"My lord, this self-made firearm was made by Bi Maokang, the squire of the military department, in the eighth year of Chongzhen, and we can also produce it here, but the shrapnel inside is too difficult to produce, and it needs to be hammered a thousand times to make it, so it can only be made ten times a month!"

Ma Cheng was taken aback when he heard Liu Benzhong say this, he didn't expect that there would be capable people in the Ming Dynasty to develop flintlock pistols, why were arquebuses still used at the end of the Qing Dynasty?

There are still differences between this self-generating firearm and the European flintlock pistol, for example, there is no wind shield, so the firepower will be reduced in wind and rain days. There are also European mature flintlock pistols with springs, the Ming Dynasty technology can only use elastic steel plates, although the force is greater than the spring, but the durability is not good. However, although there are differences, this self-generated firearm has the basic characteristics of all flintlock pistols, so the rate of fire far exceeds that of the arquebus.

At that time, when Bi Maokang was in the military department, he felt that the arquebus shooting speed was too slow, and he could only shoot one or two shots against the Mongolian cavalry in the field, so Bi Maokang painstakingly researched and finally developed a musket that did not need to be fired by the arquebus, and recorded the manufacturing method in the "Illustrated Description of Weapons" compiled by him. However, it was already the eighth year of Chongzhen at that time, and the entire north was troubled by the rogues, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the northeast was also making trouble, and the imperial court really did not have the money to replace this sharp weapon for the army in large quantities, so this kind of self-generated fire gun has always existed on the design drawings.

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Manchu Qing occupied China, and the Manchu rulers were afraid that the Han people, who had a large population, would regain control of this weapon, so they burned the "Illustrated Description of Military Weapons" and opened the book ban in the Daoguang period before reprinting the book. However, at that time, China was already too far behind the West, and it was not at all possible that two advanced weapons could catch up.

Ma Cheng was overjoyed when he heard Liu Benzhong say this, but he didn't expect that these nerds in the Ming Dynasty were not all bullshit, there was a Zhao Shizhen who invented Lu Mi Gong during the Wanli period, and there was also a Bi Maokang who invented a flintlock pistol, I don't know if this old Bi is still there.

"Where is this old Bi now?"

Liu Benzhong heard Ma Cheng say this and hurriedly replied: "Bi Shilang has resigned and returned to his hometown after ten years in Chongzhen, and I don't know if he is still alive. ”

Well, it would be great if you lived. Ma Cheng turned back to Chang Fang and said: "Chang Fang, this is a retired cadre of your military department, you go back and help Lord Ben inquire if Lao Bi is still alive!" ”

Chang Fang didn't know what a retired cadre meant, but Ma Cheng didn't dare to refute what he said, so he had to nod his head in agreement.

Ma Cheng has visited most of the Ordnance Bureau so far, although some other woodworking workshops and other minor places have not been visited, but Ma Cheng has a basic view of the weapons manufacturing industry in the Ming Dynasty, that is, pure hand. Although simple machine tools can be used in some places, the basic power source is still manual. Ma Cheng saw that he was confident, and he didn't need to improve the process, as long as he replaced the power source with a more powerful steam engine, and the production of muskets would be able to reach a new level immediately.

In the end, Ma Cheng asked for dozens of craftsmen from Liu Benzhong, these people he wanted to bring back for experiments, and after simplifying the process, he took over the Weapons Bureau in general.

Ma Cheng went to his own sugar workshop on the way back to the city, where it was already able to produce sugar after half a month of construction. The more than 1,000 catties of white sugar produced in Fengyang have been sold, and the market response is very good, and many merchants have booked the next batch of white sugar.

Ma Cheng looked at it here, and handed over all the craftsmen he wanted from the Ordnance Bureau to Ma Shun, and asked him to assist these craftsmen in building an iron factory in the sugar factory. Ma Cheng has already thought about it, no matter what, it is necessary to have an adequate supply of raw materials. The most important cylinder of the steam engine requires a large amount of steel, and there is also a point that after Ma Cheng's inquiry, ironmaking in the Ming Dynasty could not make iron into molten iron, but only into a paste, so there was the birth of the steel frying method.

Ma Cheng asked these blacksmiths to build an iron factory first, and then see if there was room for improvement, steel production is very important, if steel cannot be guaranteed, Ma Cheng's industrialization is completely a dream.

The Ming Dynasty was able to produce 18 million catties of iron per year in the early years of Hongwu, which was also the first in the world at that time. However, although the iron output of the Ming Dynasty was the first, some high-precision materials were not as good as those in the West.

The iron and steel smelting process in the Ming Dynasty has reached the point of large-scale, mass production, and continuous production of raw and wrought iron. This is to connect the iron-making furnace and the iron-frying furnace in series, so that the molten pig iron smelted by the iron-making furnace flows into the iron-frying furnace, and stirring with willow sticks to oxidize the carbon in the molten pig iron and mature the iron. This continuous production process has begun to take shape of the system idea of combined production, which not only improves production efficiency, but also reduces energy consumption.

The iron furnace described in the Ming Dynasty's "Heavenly Creations" is actually a churning furnace invented by Europeans in the second half of the 18th century. The difference is that European smelting furnaces usually use wrought iron rods or steel rods to burn the carbon in the pig iron and finally obtain low-carbon wrought iron. In China, willow sticks are used to stir, and the willow sticks are gradually burned off while stirring, which can mix carbon into the pig iron, or reduce the rate of decarbonization of the pig iron. Through this step, it is easier for a skilled iron whisk to control the ingredients, and he can directly fry steel with a carbon content lower than that of pig iron but higher than that of wrought iron, and even have the opportunity to fry medium carbon steel and high carbon steel.

At this time, the definition of iron types in China was different from that of later, and the so-called wrought iron fried in the iron furnace at this time was all iron with a carbon content of less than 2%, that is, according to the definition of wrought iron and steel in later generations, the meaning of this wrought iron included both wrought iron and steel in later generations. It's just that the temperature is not enough, whether it is fried steel or wrought iron, what is fried is semi-solid paste steel and iron.

At that time, the only thing that China had not yet reached was the smelting of liquid molten steel, and therefore the fine mixing of ingredients. Because only when the steel is heated to a liquid state can the ratio of carbon to other elements be controlled freely and precisely, it is impossible to precisely control the steel forged steel, steel-filled steel, and even wrought iron carburizing steel.

Finally, only when liquid steel is smelted can it be mixed with other alloys to make alloy steel, and the steel can be quickly produced by casting or rolling. During the Ming Dynasty, China had reached the world's most advanced level of steel smelting, but it was still close to the point where it could melt steel into molten steel.

Ma Cheng handed over these craftsmen to Ma Shun and returned to his home with a tired body.

In the past few days, Ma Cheng has been tired enough because of the affairs of the new army, and the entire new army is a hasty creation. Everything from the training of soldiers to the renovation of the barracks, from weapons and equipment to military uniforms and hats, from logistics and supplies to what to eat every day is all in Ma Cheng's care, but fortunately, in the past few days, grassroots officers at all levels in the army have adapted to their roles, and Ma Cheng can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

I spent a day in the Weapons Bureau today, and it was almost dark when Ma Cheng returned home. This is the first time Ma Cheng has gone home in recent days, and at the door, Ma Cheng asked the keeper: "Is the master at home?" "Ma Cheng is a son, filial piety is the first thing in the Ming Dynasty, no matter how tired you are, the first thing you have to do when you go home is to meet your parents.

"Second master, the master is in the study!"

Ma Cheng nodded and handed the horse to the family, and then went to the study to greet his father.

In the study, Ma Shiying didn't know what he was thinking, but when he saw his son Ma Cheng coming in, he still smiled and said, "Cheng'er is back, how are things arranged in the barracks?" ”

Ma Shiying knew that the second son was very tired in the past few days, but seeing that the second ancestor who had been mixed up before was finally willing to calm down and do something serious, Ma Shiying was very relieved.

Ma Cheng entered the house and saluted Ma Shiying first, then sat down and said, "Dad, the army has now recruited 2,000 people, and the uniforms and weapons have been shipped, and formal training will begin in a few days." Today, my son went to the Weapons Bureau, but I didn't expect that the production of the Weapons Bureau is very slow, and the best self-generated firearms can only produce ten rods per month, and the five thousand people of my son must be equipped, which will have to wait until the Year of the Monkey and the Horse Month? ”