The eleventh year of Jianxing and the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve

This year, Xu Shiyang spent the New Year in Xinyitun, because his eldest son was born, according to feudal morality, he should let his father hug his eldest grandson well.

This year, Xu Shiyang's second mother gave him a lot of good looks, and after this simple woman knew that her son had the opportunity to go to Jiangnan to study and get a better future, she didn't care much about the Xu family's current assets.

What's more, Xu Shiyang has a very good relationship with the Xu Shiliu brothers, which also affects women's views of Xu Shiyang.

On Chinese New Year's Eve day, Erniang even gave him a pair of well-textured riding boots, and talked about introducing him to a daughter-in-law .......

Xu Shiyang suddenly discovered that he was actually urged to marry in this feudal era!

Fortunately, Erniang is not a mother after all, and the two are still very unfamiliar with each other, and Xu Shiyang is in this situation now, and the wife must be carefully selected. After the woman had said a few words, the matter was over.

On the second day of the first month of the twelfth year of Jianxing, Xu Shiyang took his family to leave the first tun and return to the fifth tun of his base camp.

After settling his family in the new area, he traveled non-stop to the northwest area of the former 151 Fort, which had been transformed into a factory area by him, where all the important craftsmen of the Fifth Tun system were concentrated.

It's still the New Year, and it's still the Chinese New Year, but the whole factory area has entered a hot working state, and there are clanging knocking sounds everywhere in all corners of the factory, and there is a faint white smoke floating in the air, and occasionally you can hear the screeching sound of metal being quenched in water.

Xu Shiyang took Gongsun Sheng, Xu Da Xu Er and a few guards, and waited for no one to pass the word, and the group went straight to the northwest corner of the dock wall.

There is a huge workshop here, Xu Shiyang arranged for Tang Long to be in charge of casting metal cannons here, and there is also a workshop for making arquebus barrels next to it, which is probably the most technologically advanced military factory in the world at present.

Xu Shiyang and his entourage walked to the gate of the workshop, and Tang Long got the news and hurriedly came out to greet him.

"Your Excellency......."

As soon as Tang Long spoke, Xu Shiyang waved his hand to stop him: "According to the new rules, you should call me Lieutenant Colonel." ”

"Lieutenant ......, Lieutenant Colonel." Tang Long was still a little unaccustomed to this title, and after getting used to it for a long time, he barely swallowed the last two words in the lieutenant colonel.

"Well, okay, don't worry about these useless politeness now, you're also a sergeant now, don't be so submissive, be generous!"

"Yes." Tang Long lowered his head and agreed.

He was a bandit who was captured in Fulai Mountain, and he felt inferior to the Xu family, so he was careful everywhere, and even the small craftsman apprentice from the Xu family did not dare to offend.

What's more, now Xu Shiyang is already the No. 2 person in the Xu family, and for Tang Long, he is both a county official and the direct leader of the current management.

Xu Shiyang knew that he still couldn't let go, so he had to take the initiative to ask: "How is the metal cannon cast?" ”

Speaking of his achievements, Tang Long finally felt a little more energetic, and he replied with a little excitement: "Two cannons have been cast!" One is an iron cannon that fires 2 catties of cannonballs, and the other is a copper cannon that fires 3 catties of cannonballs! ”

"Take me to see it!" Xu Shiyang said excitedly.

"This way, please!"

Soon, two thick metal cannon barrels appeared in front of Xu Shiyang's eyes.

He took a closer look, and the bronze cannon in it was a standard front-loading smoothbore gun, with a standard lug structure, which could obviously be mounted on a gun carriage (although not yet).

"Big ......, lieutenant colonel, this cannon weighs 260 catties, and it is estimated that the total weight of the gun carriage is about 500 catties, and it can fire 3 catties of iron or stone bullets, and it can also fire twice as much shotgun."

Xu Shiyang measured it with his own hands, the barrel was very thick, obviously in order to withstand a large amount of propellant, Tang Long adopted the stupid method of thickening the cannon wall, which made the total weight of the cannon a little higher, but it reduced the possibility of exploding.

The length of the barrel of the copper cannon is about one meter two or three, and if the gun carriage is really only 500 catties, then this cannon is still within the scope of field artillery, and it can quickly maneuver with the infantry troops.

Xu Shiyang commanded: "Good job! Retrofit the gun carriage now! Then put it into production as soon as possible! ”

"I haven't tried it yet." Tang Long hesitated slightly: "And the copper material is also a little insufficient......." ”

"There is as much copper as there is to cast as many cannons." Xu Shiyang said eagerly: "As for the test cannon, let's go directly to the battlefield for experiments!" ”

"To the battlefield?" Tang Long was taken aback: "At this time, who will you hit?" ”

"Tang Long, you did a good job, so I won't hide it from you, after a while, I'm going to go to Jiangnan. Before I go, we need to punish the Fan family for their betrayal last year. It is also necessary to solve the group of displaced people entrenched in the generation of Wulian Mountain. ”

Hearing this, Tang Long lowered his head and thought for a moment, and then said, "Lieutenant Colonel, can you let me go this time?" I made the cannon, I'm familiar with these weapons, and I can use them better, and if something goes wrong along the way, I'll make a note of it and correct it when I cast it later. ”

"Good!" Xu Shiyang said happily: "Tang Long, you have some professional officers!" It's good that you can think like that! Yes! The next time you fight, you follow, bring a pen and paper, and write down any problems you encounter! Our cannon is not limited to this one, and it will definitely continue to improve and develop in the future! ”

"Yes! Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel! Tang Long shouted happily.

He always thinks that he is a superb craftsman at the same time, but also a good general, before seeing Xu Shiyang pay special attention to artillery, he took the initiative to apply for transfer from the arquebus workshop here to trial production of cannons, after success, while Xu Shiyang was happy, immediately applied to go to the front-line troops, and sure enough, he got permission.

'If I can make a meritorious achievement, I will not be inferior!' Maybe I can even marry a daughter-in-law! Tang Takashi thought beautifully.

"Take me to see the Iron Cannon." Xu Shiyang woke up Tang Long, who was daydreaming.

"It's my lord...... no, Lieutenant Colonel, please come here!"

The iron cannon cast by Tang Long was completely different from the bronze cannon in that although they were both smoothbore guns, the rear of the iron cannon had a belly that was significantly thicker than the barrel, a loading port was opened above the bell, an iron chisel was attached to the rear, and there was a thin and long tail.

If there was a second traverser at the scene who was familiar with the weapons of the Age of Discovery, he would probably be able to tell at a glance that this was the iron "Furlong machine" gun, an early improvised breech-loading gun.

Of course, in this world, its inventor is Xu Shiyang, so there will be no such name as "Franc Machine".

"Lieutenant Colonel, according to your requirements, this cannon is five feet and five inches in the field (the ancient carpentry ruler is about 0.31 meters, so the gun length is 1.7 meters), and it can fire a solid projectile weighing 2 catties or a shotgun of the same weight."

Tang Long stood in front of the iron cannon and introduced to Xu Shiyang:

"This cannon is easier to cast than the bronze cannon, and the materials are also easy to obtain, so I led other craftsmen and apprentices to cast this iron cannon first, and this cannon has already been test-fired."