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Immediately after that, Xiao Tianjian asked Gao Su to conduct several test firings in a row, not only fired solid bullets, but also tested the power of the shotguns, which were also loaded with lead bullets the size of a finger's belly, and the shotshots fired by this copper cannon could be 200 steps away, and could also cause effective damage to the enemy, which was compared to the Tiger Squat Cannon and the Furlong machine gun that could not kill people dozens of steps away, the increase in range was so great that it almost surprised many people, and they smacked their tongues, and secretly sighed that fortunately this cannon was from their Xingtian Army, if it was against the enemy, The other party was 200 paces away, and as soon as a cannon came over, they didn't know how many people were going to die. （）

"Haha...... Good! Gao Su, you're doing a pretty good job! Commendable! Come on, give Gao Su a credit, and reward fifty taels of silver! There are also craftsmen in the concoction, each of whom will be rewarded with five taels of silver, which will be distributed together with this month's wages! After Xiao Tianjian saw the shooting effect of this three-pounder cannon, he was open-minded, and immediately laughed and ordered Zhang Chao to give them a reward.

After Gao Su and his craftsmen heard this, they were immediately overjoyed, and hurriedly thanked Xiao Tianjian again and again.

"You don't have to thank me, compared to us soldiers, what you have done is no worse than ours, only if you continue to provide us with good weapons, we can continue to win battles, and our lives can be better day by day! Our soldiers can suffer fewer casualties, and more soldiers can survive!

So we, the generals, want to thank you! I hope that you will make more better cannons for us in the future, and one day we will make a piece of the country, and then not only you will be fed and clothed every day, but also your children and grandchildren will be fed and clothed every day! Xiao Tianjian waved them up and said to them.

Everyone laughed again, and couldn't help but start looking forward to the better days ahead.

When Xiao Tianjian returned to the cannon with everyone, he inspected the artillery work again, and saw that not only did he make a cannon that he had just tried here, but also two cannons had been cast, but they had not yet been polished and could not be used for the time being, and Gao Su had already made wax molds of two cannons, which could be cast after the mold was made.

In this way, if the craftsmen of Gaosu cannonware work hard, in a short period of time, they may have three to five such copper cannons, and they have also accumulated thousands of catties of copper during this time, and they can completely cast a few more such cannons, so their equipment firepower will be further strengthened in the next step.

But this is already the limit, although the copper cannon is easy to use, there are many advantages of using copper cast cannons, but after all, copper is not easy to get, and it is impossible to solve the fundamental problem by robbing everywhere in this way, so sooner or later, they will still have to switch to iron cast cannons, and this kind of thing must be put on the agenda.

Xiao Tianjian summed up in his heart, carefully observed the process of casting the cannon in the cannon work, squatted on the casting table, looked at the two gun molds made of wax and butter, touched his chin and thought for a while.

Although the bronze three-pounder cannon cast at the moment has met his requirements, and it looks very exquisite, but with this method of casting artillery, labor-intensive and time-consuming, each artillery, need to make a wax model, and then turn the sand into a casting mold, make a mud model, just a sand turning mold of the drying process, it takes a month or two of time, a little careless, the model may crack and deform and completely scrapped, even if it is completely in accordance with the process of carefully making the mud model, sometimes it is disturbed by factors such as temperature, Therefore, in the end, after a number of processes, a cannon can be cast, and the cannons cast, each of which can be called a unique work in this world, but relatively speaking, this process is also much more labor-intensive.

Although the shape of the cast artillery is required to be unified, but after all, it is not cast by a mold, there are still some slight differences, especially in the inner diameter of the gun chamber, it is not easy to achieve complete unification, and if the mold of turning sand is not completely dried, the water in the mold will evaporate as soon as the copper water or molten iron is injected into the mold, so that there is a cavity or sand hole in the casting, which seriously affects the casting quality.

And when the copper water is poured into the mold, the existing sand turning mold dissipates heat slowly, and when the copper water is cooled in the mold, because of the different components therein, the lighter material will float on the top, and the heavier material will sink below, so that the cast cannon body may appear uneven material, and may also affect the quality of the gun.

I think these craftsmen also know these things, but this is the kind of process that is commonly used at present, so Xiao Tianjian feels that it is still necessary to improve and improve work efficiency.

So he stretched out his hand and beckoned Yang Changshou and Gao Su to them, and said to them: "Let's see if this cannon casting process can be changed now?" ”

Yang Changshou has been following Xiao Tianjian for a long time, and now he has formed the formation that as soon as he hears what Xiao Tianjian says, he will immediately understand what Xiao Tianjian wants to say, so he immediately nodded and asked: "Does the general think that this method of casting cannons is inadequate?" Is there any better way to make the cannon better? General just say it! ”

And Gao Su was a more conceited person, and felt that although Xiao Tianjian could be called an extremely smart person, he immediately said: "General, this method of casting cannons is a method handed down from our family, and the craftsmen of our Western countries all use this method to cast cannons!" There is absolutely no need to change anything! It can't be that the general is not satisfied with the cannon cast underneath! ”

After hearing this, Yang Changshou glared at Gao Su fiercely, and said angrily: "What do you know about this red-haired ghost? Our general is a fairy-like figure, what don't you understand? In the eyes of Lao Tzu, this little bit of your means is nothing more than that! The general can tell you and me without hesitation, this is to lift us up! ”

Gao Su didn't like to see this Yang Changshou very much, and there was obviously a lot of dirt between the two of them during this time, so he immediately sneered at each other: "Since Yang Craftsman will also do it, then why doesn't Yang Craftsman cast cannons?" ”

Xiao Tianjian saw that the two guys were about to break up, so he immediately shouted: "Shut up for me!" Listen quietly to what I'm saying! Gao Su, let me tell you, in this world, there is always a mountain higher than a mountain, any technology has room for development, don't be too conceited!

I'm not dissatisfied with the cannon you've made, on the contrary, I'm happy with the cannon you've made, but please also remember that in this world, you Westerners are not necessarily smarter than us Easterners! Remember, what does the word modesty mean?

I can tell you now that there is a way to greatly increase the efficiency of cannon casting, you can only forge one cannon in a month, and in the next ten days, you can cast a cannon! And I can guarantee that the quality of the cannon cast by the method I said will never be worse than that of the cannon you are casting by the method you are currently using! It's definitely going to improve! Please be patient! ”

Yang Changshou saw Xiao Tianjian angry, so he quickly closed his mouth, not daring to say anything more, but Gao Su was still a little unconvinced, and immediately asked: "General just say!" I don't believe that the method said by the general will increase the speed of casting cannons by such a large amount! It doesn't affect the quality of the cast cannon! If the general's solution is feasible, then I am willing to serve the general for the rest of my life! ”

Gao Su is indeed a little arrogant, even boasting about Haikou.

Xiao Tianjian sneered and said to him: "Since this is the case, then it is a word!" Then I'll tell you what I can do! That's the Iron Fan Cast Cannon! ……”

Tiefan casting cannon is actually not something that Xiao Tianjian figured out, this process was actually created by a person named Gong Zhenlin in the late Qing Dynasty, it should be during the first Opium War, the Qing Dynasty to resist the invasion of Western powers, need to cast a lot of artillery to establish forts along the coast, but the ordinary clay fan casting cannon seriously affects the speed of casting cannons, and because the craftsmen have different skills, the quality of the cast artillery is also very uneven, and there are often accidents of explosions, so this Gong Zhenlin came up with such an iron fan casting method, At the same time, he also summarized some advantages of using iron fan, such as one fan more casting, low cost, high work efficiency, reducing the workload of surface cleaning and polishing and polishing the inner chamber, the casting mold does not contain water vapor, does not produce pores, easy to collect and maintain, if the war is urgent, it can be quickly put into production for emergency needs, and so on, which is consistent with the understanding of metal types in modern foundry.

And for this era, this kind of casting method can fully meet the requirements in terms of craftsmanship and will not cause an insurmountable technical bottleneck, so Xiao Tianjian once again plagiarized the wisdom of later generations, and told Yang Changshou and Gao Su and others about this iron fan casting method, and Xiao Tianjian also took advantage of this to say the problems existing in the ordinary mud model method and the lost wax method casting cannon, as long as the iron fan method is used to cast the cannon, these existing problems can be easily solved.

After listening to Xiao Tianjian's words, Yang Changshou, as an insider, was stunned on the spot, and praised it again and again, why didn't he think of such a simple way before?

And the expression on Gao Su's face was also very strange, although he didn't applaud on the spot, but he still understood the key to Xiao Tianjian's iron model method, and he was actually already convinced in his heart, but he couldn't rub his face for a while, so he didn't say it.

After Xiao Tianjian finished speaking, he patted Gao Su on the shoulder and smiled at him: "Gao Su, in the future, I will do what I say!" Cast the Iron Fan first, and then switch to the Iron Fan Casting Cannon, so that the speed of your casting cannon here will be much higher, and the scrap rate will be greatly reduced! In the future, don't underestimate the wisdom of our Orientals at every turn, many of the technologies you use now are all used by us Orientals a long time ago! ”