Jiang De looked at Pan Lianggui's face and said with a smile, "Manager Pan's face should not be darker anymore, our sergeants are well-equipped to win the battle, if we are defeated, no matter how much money we have, we will make wedding dresses for others." ”

Pan Lianggui reluctantly arched his hand and said, "Master Hou, it's not that the student doesn't know this reason, it's just that whether it's an ordinary chain mail or a mountain armor, or a plate armor or Li Guanggong, it's a lot of money, since my Liangshan returned to the imperial court, my income has been declining, and Goryeo is also too busy to take care of itself, it's really..."

Everyone frowned, but Pan Lianggui's words made sense, everyone wanted the belligerent armor blade, but they couldn't let the mountain go bankrupt for this.

Gongsun Sheng said, "General Manager Pan, we don't want to replace the equipment of the whole army immediately, take your time, there is always a way." ”

Pan Lianggui wrenched his fingers and said, "Our army has three armies with a total of 140,000, including 10,000 cavalry, 10,000 sailors, and 130,000 infantry.

If you want to change clothes, I just made a rough calculation, first talk about the blade, a knife and axe are consistent, the spear and spear are three runs, the bow and arrow can not be taken without five or six runs, Li Guang's bow is more expensive, plus arrows and daily wear and tear, that is to say, ordinary blades are about a million.

Speaking of the battle armor, the paper armor is the cheapest, a pair of fifteen guan, leather armor is about twenty guan, a pair of piercing armor is thirty guan, a pair of horse armor is twenty guan, and I think the average price of Shanwen armor and that plate armor is at least fifty guan, so that the battle armor will cost at least four million guan.

Finally, there were the ballistas, artillery, and warships, each of which was extremely expensive, and the cost of a million yuan a year was very small.

In addition, regular clothes, etc., all of them will be replaced at least one million times, and the most expensive ones are those winter clothes.

This is not counting the loss of military supplies consumed in peacetime, if the Hou Ye wants to complete the refitting within a year, it is impossible to do it without 18 million guan, and if the refitting is completed within two years, then it will also need at least 14 million guan a year of military spending. ”

After Pan Lianggui finished the calculation, he said to Jiang De, "Master Hou, do you know how much your property is?" ”

Jiang De scratched his head and said, "I really don't know, Mr. Pan will talk about it." ”

Pan Lianggui nodded and said, "Nowadays, my Liangshan financial resources mainly come from four aspects, on the one hand, for the transfer payment of Hou Ye's business abroad, on the other hand, for Goryeo's taxes, on the other hand, for overseas trade, and finally for the floating wealth outside.

Let's talk about floating wealth first, since I returned to Liangshan, this floating wealth has become less and less. Almost negligible.

Speaking of overseas trade, the sea trade profit last year was 3 million guan, but now the Liao country is in turmoil, Goryeo has been destroyed, and only the Japanese state is left, according to estimates, this year's sea trade profit will not exceed 4 million guan.

Speaking of Goryeo's taxes, Goryeo has been in ruins after war, and there are many cities that need to be repaired and water conservancy needs to be built.

And last year, the money transferred from Nei Huang's side was less than five million, Master Hou, our money is really not much. ”

was calculated by Pan Lianggui, and Jiang De also found that he didn't have much money in his hand, and not only was it not much, but it simply fell below the loss line.

Of course, this is mainly because Jiang De's current income is obtained from commerce and trade, and there is no tax, and the only Goryeo that occupies it, all the income has to be spent on healing the wounds of the Goryeo War, and it can't help at all in a short time, and in Jiang De's heart, Goryeo is going to become his rear base in the future, and Goryeo has abundant coal and iron, which is enough for him to have a big steel campaign.

"Master Hou, the government only raises 1.3 million soldiers, but we have 150,000 soldiers, is there more?" Xiao Rang said in a speech, and the implication was whether it could be disarmed.

"No! Whether it is the government or the Jin country, they are the great enemies of our army, and I think there are fewer than 150,000, where can we disarm? Chao Gai is a person who knows the overall situation, he said to Jiang De, "Master Hou, if you are really short of money, I still have a little there, I will take it all out for the cottage first, but no matter how short of money it is, it can't be disarmed, as soon as this knife moves, the brothers' hearts will be chaotic." ”

Jiang De waved his hand and said, "Where can this work, no matter what, you can't let the brothers take out the money for the cottage by themselves...."

Gongsun Sheng said to Pan Lianggui, "Manager Pan, I think this price is probably the original price, but now the price of these ordnance has been greatly reduced." ”

"Oh? How so? ”

Jiang De looked at Gongsun Sheng and said, "Gongsun Daochang is talking about hydraulic presses and converters, what's the matter?" All the experiments were successful? ”

Gongsun Sheng smiled and said, "Fortunately, Brother Lei Heng knows best." ”

Lei Heng came out of the column and said, "The Taoist chief also said that he wanted to give Hou Ye a surprise, so I didn't say it, but I said it myself, it's really not interesting." ”

Everyone else was confused, to say that Lei Heng had been guarding several mines and workshops in Liangshan's vicinity, everyone knew about it, but they didn't understand what this hydraulic press and converter were.

Jiang De actually didn't understand how to manufacture converters and hydraulic presses, he just told Gongsun Sheng some of the principles he knew, and basically Gongsun Sheng was tossing there with a group of craftsmen.

I have to say that Gongsun Sheng, as a Taoist priest with some "magical powers", is indeed talented in science and engineering, and the plate armor in front of this is made by Gongsun Sheng with a hydraulic hammer transformed from a traditional water cone.

But a hydraulic hammer and a hydraulic press are two different things, and they have little in common except that they both use water.

Jiang De asked Gongsun Sheng to take everyone to the forbidden land of the back mountain of Liangshan, which is a small basin with only two roads, and there are sergeants guarding the entrance and exit to guard the secrets here to the greatest extent.

Many of the people were here for the first time, and as soon as they entered, they heard a clanging sound, and they all knew that someone was striking iron.

"The blast furnace and converter are in the mine, so it's not convenient to see them, but the hydraulic press and the hydraulic hammer are here, and this is the hydraulic hammer workshop." Gongsun Sheng led everyone to a factory and said, "Brothers, you see, for this hydraulic hammer, we specially widened a stream that was originally here, and created an artificial drop, this hydraulic hammer is actually similar to the waterwheel in some places in our countryside, except that it can be used to make iron. ”

When everyone walked into the brick factory, they felt a wave of heat hit, and the men inside were all barebacked, but they were wearing aprons like leather armor in front.

Gongsun Sheng said, "This iron is hard work, as the saying goes, a hundred tempers into steel, not to mention the ordnance to be beaten into a fixed shape, the hardest thing in this is the work of picking a hammer." ”

Everyone came to the front to see clearly, but saw that no one was picking a hammer at all, they were holding an iron clamp and holding a piece of iron against a hammer, and waiting for the hammer to smash down one by one, the hammer was very large and long, and the hammer extended out of the wall, about every three or four breaths, the hammer would fall from about seven or eight feet, and each blow would rattle, and then slowly raise it, and everyone could think of how powerful the hammer was, and if a person was below, I am afraid that he would die in a moment.

Again and again, a plate armor gradually took shape from a rough embryo.

Of course, such a hydraulic hammer can only be built in general shape after all, and the details are modified by craftsmen with small hammers slowly, but in this way, a lot of manpower is also saved.

"This is really too ingenious, I'm afraid there is a stream behind it, right?" Xiao Rang said in amazement.

"It's nothing, let's go over there, that's the real weapon." Gongsun Sheng touched his beard and said with a smile, everyone went out and continued to walk forward, and saw a factory four or five feet tall, which was a head taller than other factories.

Gongsun Sheng said, "We have only made two of these hydraulic presses now, there is no way, the production cost of this thing is too high." ”

When everyone entered, they saw a strange thing that was three feet high.

The strange thing is divided into two parts, one part has four stainless steel pillars, Pang Wanchun stepped forward and flicked the pillar to know that this is the best stainless steel.

Above the pillar was a board with a cylinder made of stainless steel, which had a tube attached to a cogwheel on the side, and looked extremely ingenious.

Jiang De looked at this thing but rubbed his hands excitedly, and he asked, "Gongsun Daochang, how is this thing performing now?" Let's show you a good show. ”

Gongsun Sheng nodded, greeted the outside world a few times, and then said, "This hydraulic press is the pressure using Hou Ye's calculation method, it is twenty tons." ”

"Twenty tons? Enough is enough. Jiang De nodded and said.

"What is a hydraulic press?" Niu Gao asked curiously.

Jiang De nodded to Gongsun Sheng and motioned to Gongsun Sheng to explain, Gongsun Sheng nodded and said, "Brothers, this hydraulic press is actually a kind of stamping equipment, do you all know stamping?" ”

Many people shook their heads, and Gongsun Sheng continued, "Actually, to put it bluntly, the seal is a kind of stamping, and when we stamp, don't we let the words or patterns we want appear on the paper, but now this chapter has become a steel hammer, and the paper has become a steel sheet."

As he spoke, several workers walked in, Gongsun Sheng waved his hand to them, and they took out a piece of steel from a box, and then took out a mold, Gongsun Sheng explained, "Our mold and pressure hammer are made of cold iron that Hou Ye found from overseas, and the hardness is extremely high, and in front of this thing, ordinary steel is like dirt." ”

Saying that, the things have been arranged, Gongsun Sheng signaled, several workers grabbed a roulette wheel and turned it hard, and then, the pressure hammer that was originally high above fell, and everyone only heard the sound of the bell, and then, the workers turned in the opposite direction, and the pressure hammer was pulled up.

The worker standing in front of the workbench took out the steel plate just now to show everyone, only to see that there were big holes in the steel plate, and then the worker took out a few armor pieces that had been drilled holes from the groove to show everyone.

Pan Lianggui's eyes were straight, he grabbed the armor pieces and looked at them carefully, then counted them, and said, "There can be twelve armor pieces in less than a few breaths... It's really..."

Gongsun Sheng smiled: "How? With this item, the price of the armor will probably drop significantly. ”

Pan Lianggui nodded in agreement and said, "That's true, this stamping, both labor and materials are greatly saved." But even so, the military expenditure of 12 million a year will not be less, and the price of this thing will not be low, if you count this thing, I don't know if it will be more or less. ”

"As long as the output goes up, it must be less, and such machinery can greatly reduce our labor and release our productivity, if there are five hydraulic presses, we can arm tens of thousands of armor soldiers in just a month." Jiang De calculated for everyone and said, "Under such a machine, the combat power of our army can be increased at any time, of course, this is under the condition that there are enough raw materials." ”

A hydraulic press can be pressed four to eight times a minute due to proficiency, even if it is five times, there are sixty armor pieces, and an hour is 3,600 pieces, which is the number of armor pieces of three pairs of armor, and the machine can have seventy-two pairs in three shifts for 24 hours. Calculated in a month, that is, more than 2,000 pairs, Jiang De said that he could arm tens of thousands of armor soldiers in a month, but he was not talking nonsense.

But such a hydraulic press is still a relatively primitive hydraulic press, the first hydraulic press in history was made in 1795, the 47-year-old British engineer Bramer, and this year, that is, the sixty years of Qianlong, well.... At that time, Huaxia had no soil for the development of such machinery.

Pan Lianggui also agreed with Jiang De's idea in his heart, but still said, "Master Hou, even so, our money and food are still tight." ”

Jiang De scratched his head in annoyance, and said, "Now that business is expanding everywhere, money can't be transferred more, they have all told me in this regard, not to mention that we still have a lot of academies to maintain, it seems that we can only find new sources of money." ”

Gongsun Sheng said regretfully, "If in a few years, cotton will be completely spread, and it will be a source of money." ”

After several years of popularization, there are people in both the northwest and Shandong, but the cotton grown out of these plants will not flow into the market, but all of them will be purchased and made into cotton clothes and distributed to sergeants or dignitaries. If it can't flow into the market, there will naturally be no additional income.

Jiang De thought for a while and said, "Now that the Liao State and the Jin State are at war, I think it's time to release that." ”

Gongsun Sheng was stunned for a moment, and then said with some fear: "Master Hou really wants to release this thing?" Didn't the Hou Ye say in the past that that thing can eat people? ”

Jiang De sighed, "The current Liao State is gradually unable to support it, and if this thing is released now, it may be able to add some vitality to the Liao State, but we still need to find a spokesperson for the Liao State." ”

"Master Hou has an idea?" Gongsun Sheng asked.

Jiang De nodded and said, "Now Shi Qian should be in the Liao Kingdom, I don't know if I want to contact that person..."