Chang Fang saw Ma Cheng's surprised eyes, and knew that this second master probably thought that the whole country army used this kind of gunpowder. Chang Fang leaned on the side of Ma Cheng's ear and whispered: "Second master, this is the card of the Weapons Bureau, the output of this kind of gunpowder is very low, in addition to the Weapons Bureau here, there are several gunpowder workshops, which are shoddy!" ”

Ma Cheng reacted when he heard Chang Fang say this, how many people are here, how much gunpowder is produced every day, you must know that the Ming army is not the inland guards, that is, the army on the nine sides has more than 400,000, and the output of this gunpowder workshop cannot be supplied at all.

But in this way, Ma Cheng was surprised enough by the gunpowder process of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, he didn't have to be surprised, this gunpowder production process had been mature for hundreds of years before industrialization, that is, the British who defeated the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the Opium War, and the gunpowder technology was not much more advanced than the Manchu Qing Dynasty at that time, it was nothing more than that basic chemistry had appeared in Britain, and some raw materials could be purified with chemistry.

And Ma Cheng as a traverser advanced here, although Ma Cheng did not study well in later generations, but was influenced by the college entrance examination system in later generations, remembered a lot of chemical formulas in his head, this saltpeter purification method Ma Cheng knew several.

In addition to these, Ma Cheng also found that although the Ming Dynasty knew that gunpowder granularization could increase the power of gunpowder, it had not yet polished the gunpowder particles smoothly, so there was still room for further improvement in the process.

After Ma Cheng turned the gunpowder workshop, he said to Liu Benzhong: "Yes, can this gunpowder workshop be assigned to Lord Ben?" ”

What did Liu Benzhong do when he heard this? This is the face project of the Ordnance Bureau, if it is given to Ma Cheng, how can he ask the ministry for money in the future?

Liu Benzhong shook his head into a rattle, and definitely didn't give Ma Cheng. Ma Cheng saw this and knew that what Chang Fang said was right, probably this was a face-saving project of the Ministry of War, so naturally he couldn't give it to himself. However, Ma Cheng is a dog, and he will not let go of his mouth when he bites it, so he has to ask Liu Benzhong to give himself a gunpowder workshop.

In the end, Liu Benzhong had no choice but to assign a small workshop of more than a dozen people in the city to Ma Cheng, but Ma Cheng was not finished, and twenty skilled gunpowder craftsmen had to be taken from Liu Benzhong to finish the work.

Ma Cheng, who was satisfied, said to Liu Benzhong: "After reading it here, let's go and see the artillery workshop!" ”

Liu Benzhong heard that Ma Cheng was going to see the artillery, and hurriedly said: "My lord, we don't produce artillery here, because the iron quality in Jiangnan is not good and it is easy to become brittle, so the artillery is produced in Guangdong!" ”

Ma Cheng only remembered when he heard Liu Benzhong say this, it seems that until the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was no good iron in the south of the Yangtze River, and it was all Guangdong iron that was transported from Guangdong. The reason is very simple, coal is used to make steel in the south of the Yangtze River in China, and the iron ore in the south of the Yangtze River contains sulfur, and the sulfur in the natural pig iron exceeds the standard, and the pig iron is easy to become brittle. The iron smelting in Guangdong is made of charcoal, and the iron ore in Guangdong comes from Qiongzhou, the only iron-rich ore in China, so there is no brittleness.

Ma Cheng knew the news in later generations, and also knew that pig iron desulfurization was very simple, it was nothing more than adding some flour alkali to the molten iron. However, Ma Cheng didn't want to tell Liu Benzhong the news, there was no secret law in the Ming Dynasty, and if the news fell into the hands of the Manchus, it would be enough for him.

"Lord Liu, do we have a craftsman here who can make iron?" But don't say it, don't say it, the craftsman who can make iron still wants it, and Ma Cheng still has to make steel by himself.

Liu Benzhong listened to Ma Cheng's question and replied: "The Ordnance Bureau imitated the Hongyi cannon during the Apocalypse, and at that time it was our own iron, and the artillery workshop was abandoned after it was found to be too brittle, and some craftsmen were classified as the fire gun workshop at that time, if the adults needed the villains, they would be transferred to the adults!" ”

Now there is no iron smelting here in Nanjing, and these craftsmen can only do some low-level work here, and Liu Benzhong is also happy to get rid of these guys who do food.

In the next step, Liu Benzhong accompanied Ma Cheng to the firecracker workshop on the shore, which was much larger than the gunpowder workshop, with hundreds of houses in front and back.

Ma Cheng walked into a room where the heat was blowing in his face, and the craftsmen inside were all shirtless, pounding iron bars one by one.

Liu Benzhong explained on the side: "My lord, this is a workshop for making gun pipes, you see, the craftsmen first heat and hammer the wrought iron transported from Guangdong into iron bars, and then process them into gun embryos. ”

Ma Cheng saw iron bars standing on the side, Ma Cheng picked up one and looked at it carefully, this iron bar was about three centimeters in diameter.

"Ambassador Liu, is this the embryo?"

"My lord, this is just a rough workshop, and this kind of bridle has to be forged to make the inside of the iron part tighter! The next workshop is a forging workshop, please! After Liu Benzhong finished speaking, he led the way in front and introduced Ma Cheng into the next workshop.

This workshop is similar to the previous one, and there are more than a dozen blacksmiths who are concentrating on striking iron with their bare upper bodies. In their hands, the cylindrical embryo is forged into a hexagonal shape and then placed into a pool on the side to quench and cool.

When the red embryo was put into the cooling pool, a puff of green smoke came up, Ma Cheng smelled a smell of urine, and Ma Cheng scolded: "Ambassador Liu, don't you pay attention to hygiene?" How can anyone still defecate in this pool? ”

Liu Benzhong knew that Ma Cheng was a layman, so he quickly explained: "My lord, there is horse urine in this pool, which is used to quench the gun tube, and the effect of using horse urine is better than using water, and the gun pipe is harder!" ”

As early as the Song Dynasty, the Chinese found that quenching with animal blood or urine was better than water, and iron tools were more durable and harder. Although Ma Cheng knows a lot of theoretical knowledge, he doesn't know this kind of small link. In fact, this is also a common problem in ancient China, in the general direction of the manufacturing industry, China's dynasties are not inferior to the West, but it is this kind of lack of attention to small links, so that China's manufacturing industry is more and more regressive.

Coming out of this workshop, Ma Cheng came to the next workshop, which is the most critical department of fire gun manufacturing, the drilling workshop.

Yes, you read that right, the highest-grade firecrackers of the Ming Dynasty, such as the Lumi guns, were drilled.

Before the Ming Dynasty, most of the firearms pipes were rolled, that is, the blacksmith first forged the wrought iron into an iron sheet, and then rolled it into a cylinder before taking it cold. Of course, the strength of this gun tube is not high, and it is easy to explode, but the power of gunpowder in the early and middle Ming Dynasty is not so great, so it is also very safe.

However, in the late Ming Dynasty, because of the study of Western gunpowder technology, the power of gunpowder increased a lot, and the original firearm production process was not good. At this time, Zhao Shizhen, an arms expert in the Ming Dynasty, invented the Lumi gun with reference to the heavy musket of Turkey, which is a drilled gun.

At the same time, Zhao Shizhen also invented a simple drilling machine in order to process the pipe, and now the one that appears in front of Ma Cheng is one.

This drill press is somewhat like a Western head-cutting table, with a table about two meters above the ground and a tall bracket on top. The forged pipe is erected and fixed under the platen, on which the worker manipulates the drill bit to drill through the pipe.

Drilling has many advantages, one is to ensure that the gun tube is smooth, which can maximize the power of gunpowder. The second is to ensure that the diameter of each gun tube is the same, which avoids the parts between the fire gun and the fire gun are not universal. There are a total of ten drilling machines in this workshop, which can process ten barrels at a time.

Ma Cheng looked at the drilling speed very slowly, probably the craftsman was afraid of drilling the waste pipe. Ma Cheng asked Liu Benzhong beside him, "Ambassador Liu, how many guns can you process in a day as an ordnance bureau?" ”

"Master Hui, there are a total of 30 drilling machines in this bureau, which can produce 30 guns at the same time, but the processing of guns is time-consuming, and it takes five days for a gun pipe to be produced."

One gun tube in five days, that is, 30 guns can be produced in five days, and 180 guns can be produced in a month, which is too low production efficiency. Ma Cheng was calculated according to perfect efficiency just now, and if you add factors such as tool wear and production loss, it will be up to 100 per month.

This kind of production speed is not good at all, Ma Cheng has to organize at least 5,000 musketeers in a year, and according to the monthly output of 100 musketeers of the Weapons Bureau, it will take five years to equip them. The Manchu Qing Dynasty will go south in one year, and it will not take five years, and if the musketeers are not fully equipped in half a year, Ma Cheng will only have the life to escape.

Ma Cheng climbed on the drilling machine and looked left and right, and found that this rotary machine had a lot of room for improvement, and found that the most laborious thing was the drilling stage. Probably for fear of scrap, the drill bit drills very slowly, and the kinetic energy is still done by manpower. Ma Cheng saw that the two workers above were pushing the turntable hard, and then the power was transmitted to the drill bit through the belt.

Of course, this all-manual method is very slow, Ma Cheng asked: "Ambassador Liu, this manual method is too slow, can't it be changed to hydraulic?" "There is no shortage of rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, and Nanjing is the Yangtze River, so it is possible to set up a waterwheel on the side of the Yangtze River, and then use a waterwheel to drive the drilling machine, which will be much faster.

Ma Cheng also thought that he had made a reasonable suggestion, but Liu Benzhong explained: "My lord, of course the water power will be much faster, but there are many people on the side of the Yangtze River, and in order to ensure that the process of Lu Mi Gong is not spread, it can only be produced far away from the crowded!" ”

Ma Cheng thought about this for a reason, Lu Mi Gong was a backward arquebus in Ma Cheng's eyes, but in the eyes of the Manchu Qing and Liukou, it was a precision weapon, and it was really troublesome if the Manchu Qing learned it.

Ma Cheng thought about it, if there was a good power source for inland production, it would only be a steam engine. Ma Cheng learned the principle of the steam engine when he was studying in later generations, and he also saw what Watt's improved steam engine looked like in the history books, but it was one thing to know it, and it was another thing to make it, and Ma Cheng didn't know if he could produce it.

Gunpowder, steam engines, steel, Ma Cheng quietly wrote down these key words in his heart, these things were the catalyst for the Ming Dynasty's weapons manufacturing industry to advance by leaps and bounds. After Ma Cheng's observation, the Ming Dynasty military factory has been fully formed into a scale, and there is a basic management process, which is nothing more than no breakthrough in key technologies.

Ma Cheng saw the superb weapon manufacturing technology of the Ordnance Bureau, and was glad that he had traveled to the Ming Dynasty, if he traveled to the Tang Dynasty or the Han Dynasty, the bad basic industry, even if Ma Cheng was a double doctor of Peking University and Tsinghua University!