Winter goes to spring, the revival of the canal not only makes the wharf of Zhangjiawan lively again, but also makes the Lugou commercial port lively, several small wharves along the river, full of boats, cotton cloth from Lugou, wells and other commodities will be transported from here along the canal to many other rivers in the north and Zhili.

In just a few months, the once desolate Lugou River seems to have become a lively river, and the large and small merchant ships that travel here give the river a new lease of life.

The vitality of the river is because of the size of the factories on the bank of the river, the raw materials and products needed by the factory, all need to be transported by boats, of course, the prosperity of the factory, but also the rapid development of the factory around, now this commercial port has even faintly become the largest "city" attached to the capital with hundreds of miles, like this has nearly 60,000 people but does not build a commercial port according to the city in the Ming Dynasty is extremely rare. After all, in the past. Most of these commercial ports were built on the basis of cities, but they were all built because of a few factories. And as the factories grew, they became more and more prosperous, which was completely detached from the traditional urban development model that had existed for thousands of years.

Wharves, factories, commercial ports, these things complement each other and make this place prosperous.

Compared with the bustle on the pier trestle, what is even more lively is the construction of several construction sites in the industrial and commercial port, where new yarn mills, weaving mills, dyeing factories and other factories are being built. Of course, the Lugou Iron Works in the distance was busier than usual while they were busy, after all, the equipment needed for the new factories was made from here.

The increase in new factories has also stimulated the development of iron factories, and now the iron factories have even become a composite factory with thousands of workers, thousands of various types of equipment, and a variety of metal processing and manufacturing capabilities such as machining, forging and casting.

When the workshop was busy, by a chemical iron furnace, more than a dozen workers were busy there, a large casting sand box was put into the casting pit by a crane, and then with the shouts of the workers, the furnace mouth of the chemical iron furnace was opened, and the red molten iron flowed into the sand box along the trench, and a faint white smoke was discharged from the sand mold exhaust hole.

"It should be about the same!"

Looking at the discharge of white water vapor, Shi Yiwen silently thought to himself, his eyes were still staring at the sandbox.

Although the Lugou Iron Factory has cast hundreds of thousands of castings of different sizes, from the parts of the Thunderbolt Gun to the wheels of the carriage, it can be said that the casting process has long been familiar with the road, but for the current casting goods, Shi Yiwen's expression still seems a little eager.

After all, what is about to be cast now is a weapon that will change the course of war - artillery!

Although the Ming Dynasty had already had artillery such as the Tiger Squat Cannon and the Big Franc Machine, the long-barreled cannon had not yet been introduced to the Ming Dynasty from Europe, after all, even similar artillery in Europe was only just invented.

In fact, at the beginning, Shi Yiwen did not think of casting artillery, and even the "invention" of the flintlock pistol was just a chance to catch ducks on the shelves, and even now, the reason why the cannon is cast is just because of actual needs.

"This maritime merchant really can't do without artillery?"

Zhu Dingchen, who is the little grandfather of the Chengguo Mansion, looked at the sand boxes with some doubts, and his face was full of questions.

"It's definitely inseparable,"

Shi Yiwen, who originally bent down to inspect the pine cannon body mold, deliberately gave an example when he got up.

"It's like from Zhangjiawan to the capital, but only dozens of miles of open space, because both sides of the official road are fields, so every season when the green yarn tent is up, there are often gangsters who haunt and take the opportunity to rob the property of one-way merchants. Every year, I don't know how many unjust souls die on that official road. ”

What is the peaceful and prosperous era, the peaceful and prosperous era is also more than bandits, Shi Yiwen naturally has deep feelings about this, but he almost lost his life in Mentougou. However, now, at least on the road from Zhangjiawan to the capital, this kind of murder and robbery has become a thing of the past, after all, after a winter of rushing work, the road has been put into use in the beginning of spring. Those one-way merchants and scholars can directly buy tickets to get on the bus and take the bus to Beijing, which can not only avoid the suffering of wind and rain, but also save their lives.

"This is the case in the first good place in broad daylight, let alone the endless sea where there is no king's law?"

After asking rhetorically, Shi Yiwen pointed to the cannon blank mold on the ground that was carefully turned with a woodworking machine tool and said.

"On the sea, Wang Fa is just a few cannons and a few shells. Without shells and cannons, merchant ships going to sea would be nothing more than fat in the eyes of others. ”

Why did the merchant fleet of the Ming Dynasty once pass through the South Seas, but in the end it disappeared in history, to put it bluntly, it was because it was not armed, of course, there were various reasons such as history, but without armed, it was impossible to survive in this world of "the jungle". Then Shi Yiwen deliberately explained.

"Just like those Western merchants, when they came to us, they were businessmen, but on the road they also played the role of pirates, and when they encountered a target that could be robbed, they would definitely kill and rob them, if there were no guns on our ship, going to sea, it would be equivalent to a sheep in the mouth of a tiger."

Zhu Dingchen listened to Shi Yiwen's explanation very seriously, although he didn't understand it very well, but in the end he just nodded and said.

"Well, my father has instructed that these things are all based on you, since you think it is useful, then install it, but this cannon is not heavy, will it be more if you need to carry 12 guns on a ship? There are more guns, but there are fewer goods. ”

Although he didn't know how to sail, Zhu Dingchen also knew that the load of the ship was limited, so he was naturally worried that these guns would be too heavy and would be loaded with a lot less cargo at that time. Compared with artillery, he is more concerned about how much silver he can earn by going to sea, after all, according to his father, in the future, the Western company will be the foundation of the Chengguo government.

Therefore, while relying on Shi Yiwen almost "obedient", he also has some ideas of his own.

Regarding Zhu Dingchen's question, Shi Yiwen just explained with a smile.

"Our cannon is different from ordinary guns, its body barrel is short, the caliber is large, and the weight is very light, each one weighs only 500 kilograms, which does not occupy much ...... space."

When casting the artillery, Edwin deliberately chose another world's "caron cannon", which was a very unique type of artillery at the end of the 18th century. Its magnification is close to that of howitzers and mortars, but it is used in a flat-firing manner like a cannon. It has only a single lug, a ring on the button, and the muzzle is not expanded, but retracted. Its caliber is huge, even up to 64 pounds, but its weight is much lighter than that of a cannon of the same caliber.

Although the Caron cannon has a short body and a small charge, which brings a short range and poor accuracy, this defect is not obvious at sea. Because in the naval warfare of the Age of Sail, a very close distance of 200 yards was a normal range, the accuracy and range of the Caron cannon could fully meet the combat needs of this distance, and the large-caliber shells it fired were full of destructive power. Therefore, the Royal Navy, which was guided by the guiding ideology of naval warfare for close combat, began to equip a large number of Caron guns with them, replacing small-caliber long guns. This greatly increased the firepower of the British battleship at close range.

These advantages are the reason why Evenwin chose them, of course, it is also related to the technological progress of the ironworks, especially the introduction of a number of new machine tools, which made it possible for him to cast a hollow gun body instead of a hollow gun body, as the Europeans did, but first cast a cylindrical solid gun body, and then use a boring machine to drill out the gun breech. The application of horizontal boring machine, sand mold casting cannon ash casting iron and other technologies in the iron factory has improved the production efficiency of the factory. And the application of these new technologies also laid the foundation for the emergence of factory casting caron guns.

Of course, its technological advancement also makes it difficult for outsiders to imitate it, after all, in the era of casting artillery, although the casting cannon is complex, but the threshold is not high, but if the artillery is precise enough, then the threshold is greatly improved, just like now, without the equipment of the factory, it is impossible for outsiders to manufacture artillery with the same performance, which also means that in another world, the artillery that the Ming Dynasty has cultivated with great difficulty, because of the behavior of several traitors, directly sent it to him to the Manchu Qing, and the Manchu not only got the cannon, but also got the craftsman who cast the cannon. This is a disaster for the Ming Dynasty and this nation. But now this is impossible, even if the artillery betrays, it is still impossible for them to forge the same artillery, because these cannons are industrial products of the industrial age.

Sufficiently advanced technology is the best choice to eliminate imitation!

"One door is five hundred pounds, and twelve doors are ...... Six thousand catties, plus shells and gunpowder, it must be more than 10,000 catties! But I've been to Tianjin to see it, and your boat is not small. ”

Nodding slightly, Zhu Dingchen looked at Shi Yiwen and said with relief.

"Zhiyuan, speaking of which, you've worked hard for a while, from shipbuilding to cannon casting, you have worked a lot."

In the face of Zhu Dingchen's kind words and relief, Shi Yiwen just smiled.

"It's nothing, I'm busy now, and when the captain arrives, I'll almost be ready to go to sea!"

Compared to artillery, or even ships, what is really needed is the captain! On the sea, the captain is the most important thing, and everything is empty talk without the captain! Without the captain, everything is just a flash in the pan, just a fool's errand.

"Captain?"

Stunned, Zhu Dingchen asked.

"When is our captain coming?"

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