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In the heavy snowfall, Li Ye, escorted by Jinyiwei, came to the firearms workshop of the Ordnance Supervisor.

Compared with the busy departments of the bow and crossbow workshop, the knife and gun workshop, and the armor workshop, the firearms workshop is not so busy, even the gunpowder shop under the firearms workshop is not very busy, and it is even more impossible to be in full swing, and the gunpowder is not visible at all.

Although the workshop of the firearms workshop does not have that kind of hot scene, but the defense is the tightest, and the location is relatively partial, except for the people of the firearms workshop itself, even the people from other workshops of the Ordnance Department cannot enter the area of the firearms workshop, and the offenders are directly taken away, and then dismissed and exiled.

The firearms workshop is so tightly defended, which naturally attracts the attention of people with intentions, but so far no one has been able to infiltrate the firearms workshop.

In addition to the guards of the Weapons Supervisor itself, the Jinyi Guards also have people who keep an eye on the Weapons Supervisor to ensure that the secrets of the Weapons Supervisor will not be leaked.

In one of the courtyards of the firearms station, several blacksmiths were sweating profusely pulling the bellows, then using iron tongs to pinch out the red-hot iron, and then began to beat hard.

Even though there were snowflakes outside, several big men were still sweating profusely, and after some beating, the piece of iron became the shape of a gun barrel.

This kind of production method is indeed a bit backward, but the current technical level cannot be done with machine tools or other streamlined operations like later generations, and it is very good to be able to make it, and Li Ye is not so demanding.

Subsequently, Li Ye was led by Qingyangzi to another room in the courtyard, to be precise, the warehouse, which contained a lot of finished barrels, and even some finished muskets.

The musket in front of him is actually an arquebus, it's not that Li Ye doesn't want to make a flintlock pistol, but the conditions don't allow it.

It's just that arquebuses are not difficult to make, but how to ensure a low explosion rate is the most important thing.

In fact, the finished musket was taken out two years ago, after all, it was just a tube, and then the spherical lead bullet was shot out.

However, the bombing rate was so high that even the workers of the firearms workshop were afraid to use it, let alone equip the army.

Li Ye picked up one of the arquebuses placed on the top and began to play with it, and Qingyangzi next to him hurriedly explained, "Your Majesty, this musket is the latest made in the firearms workshop, and the explosion rate is much less than before, as long as the barrel is replaced after a certain number of times, it will not cause too many safety hazards."

As for the rifling mentioned by His Majesty, the minister asked the firearms workshop to try many times, and the probability of failure was too great, and it would be a very good result if one of the ten barrels could succeed.

Therefore, it is not advisable to be in a hurry to equip rifled muskets, although the current muskets have some defects, but they are much better than assault muskets. Your Majesty, please move to the test site, the test firing team of the firearms workshop is ready! ”

Li Ye nodded, and soon the group came to a wide test site.

At this time, there were already three rows of weapons test personnel from the firearms workshop, standing in three rows, except that they were not wearing military uniforms and armor, they were not much different from ordinary soldiers.

Next to the third row of gun test personnel stood a commander holding a command flag, and when he saw Li Ye coming, he hurriedly ran over to salute.

Li Ye nodded at Qingyangzi, and Qingyangzi instructed the visitor, "Let's start!" ”

After saluting, the flag bearer ran back to the queue, raised the flag, and commanded, "First row of volleys." ”

"Bang bang bang!"

As soon as the flag fell, several gunshots rang out neatly, followed by smoke.

After the first platoon of test shooters finished firing, they quickly retreated to the rear to continue loading, and then the second platoon stepped forward.

"Second row, salvo!"

"Third row, salvo!"

。。。。

The three platoons shot once and then repeated two more rounds, and there was some panic in the middle, but the overall effect was okay, after all, these were not soldiers, and they couldn't be as well-trained as the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion.

After three rounds of firing, the entire range was filled with gunsmoke, which was a characteristic of black powder combustion, and could not be avoided unless smokeless powder was developed.

"Ahem, ahem!"

Smelling the rumbling smell of gunpowder, many soldiers of the forbidden army and Jinyi guards at the scene couldn't help coughing.

Li Ye just covered his nose, and after the smoke cleared, he looked at the scarred wooden rake in the distance, and nodded with satisfaction.

Three-stage shooting is not new, the Shenji Battalion is using this method, but the weapon is not an iron musket, but a bamboo assault rifle.

"Your Majesty, if the Shenji Battalion is equipped with a large number of this kind of musket, even if there are tens of thousands of enemy troops in front of it, it will not be able to stop it!" After seeing the power of the musket, the most surprised person was Li Sizhou, the new secretary of the military department.

Pei Rong, who was accompanying him next to him, had seen it after all, unlike Li Sizhou, who had never been to the ordnance prison at all.

"What Li Shangshu said makes sense, the minister thinks that such a big killing weapon should be equipped with a large number of forbidden troops, and at that time, whether it is a feudal town such as Zhu Wen or a foreign race, it will not be the opponent of the imperial army." Pei Rong hurriedly said.

"Envoy Pei, the current production of muskets cannot meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of forbidden troops." Qingyangzi saw that what these people said was getting more and more outrageous, and couldn't help but remind.

"Dare to ask the chief, what is the current production of muskets?" Li Sizhou asked.

Compared with Pei Rong, it was more of a compliment to the saint, but Li Sizhou knew the importance of this musket to the current Tang army, and it could even change the way of war in the future.

Qingyangzi looked at Li Ye and coughed twice in embarrassment, "His Royal Highness King Qin, at present, you can produce up to ten sticks a day." ”

"Is it the worker's problem, or is it?" Li Ye asked casually.

"Back to Your Majesty, yes and no. At present, the iron produced by the ironworks is mainly used by other workshops to produce knives, guns, and armor, and there are not many wrought iron that can be provided to the firearms workshop.

If the scale is expanded, the production of muskets in the firearms workshop can be increased to a maximum of 20 guns per day. If it is further raised, it will inevitably affect the production of other weapons. Qingyangzi explained.

Li Ye hesitated a little, but Li Jian next to him stood up, saluted slightly to Li Ye and said, "Your Majesty, the minister has a word, I don't know if I should say it or not?" ”

"Commander Li, please speak!" Li Ye was stunned for a moment, and then commanded.

Li Jian immediately said, "Your Majesty, although the minister doesn't understand the musket. However, from the test firing just now, the minister found that the musket was very powerful, but it also had a big flaw, that is, the protection ability was poor, and if the enemy rushed to the front, the musketeer would have no power to fight back.

Moreover, such a large-scale killing weapon, the minister does not recommend large-scale equipment, if it is out, it will be a great threat to the imperial court. ”

"Commander Li makes sense, but I didn't take this into account."

Li Ye couldn't help but nodded, and glanced at this Li Jian in his heart, he didn't expect the other party to see the problem so thoroughly and enter the role so quickly.

Before, he was still worried about whether the other party could quickly enter the role, but now it seems that he may be worried too much.

Don't be suspicious of employing people, don't use suspicious people, if the other party really can't do it, then change it. I want to talk about "Rebirth of Tang Zhongxing" with more like-minded people, and pay attention to "excellent reading literature" on WeChat, talk about life, and find confidants~