Chapter Twenty-Three: Preparations for the Southward Journey IX

Li Yunhe finished polishing the castings of the tools. Use the chisel to make the frustration of the cast iron plate several sides were chiseled into a horizontal twill reticulated pattern, what round square tip of the large and small do a lot, according to Zhang Zhimu's requirements, with the cylinder mud wrapped in toner powder respectively to wrap the tool, put it on the side of the stove, slowly dry, found that there are cracks immediately sealed with mud. In fact, the old blacksmiths all make tools in this way, it is said that there is a record in "Tiangong Kaiwu", but what Zhang Zhimu told Li Yunhe is that this is called surface carburizing technology. Another process is that the mud is burned on the stove after it has dried.

Seeing the beaming expressions of the three people who came back from a distance, Huang Yukun's heart finally relaxed.

When Zhang Zhimu returned to the kiln, the first thing he did was to share delicious and fun food for the children. The happiest thing for the children is that Zhang Zhimu goes to Xiurong City, and most of the time Zhang Zhimu will not come back empty-handed.

Chen Yufeng also smiled and said: "The children have made you spoiled." ”

When Zhang Zhimu finished dividing the things and told him what had happened, everyone was very happy, and a major event that had been pressed in their hearts finally passed.

In the evening, he made a pot of tea in a newly bought teapot and called Chen Yufeng to his room. Zhang Zhimu said: "Uncle Chen, today's business is so good. In the future, in the north of Jin, there will not be many bandits who can threaten us, what is the matter, Niutoushan is also a dependent, but when there is nothing to do, try not to openly interact with Niutoushan, those eagle dogs of the imperial court such as the East Factory and the West Factory Jinyiwei are not fuel-efficient lamps. It is estimated that there will be no major problems in the bow mine test tomorrow, **We have succeeded. It is estimated that the musket will be ready in a few days. It's all right, it's time to set off for the south. Zhang Zhimu took a sip of tea and said, "Before going south, I have a few questions that I want to discuss with you." The first thing is that the people who go south, we have to escort the grain back to the south, we need a lot of people, if you hire a dart bureau, it will cost a lot of silver, especially food, the amount is more and the money is less, the cost may not be enough, and it is not good to transport it to the home, and it is not much cheaper than at home. In particular, we have **, bow mines, and muskets, and I would prefer to escort them myself, but we have too few people now. And they can't all go south, they have to keep people at home. It is also taken care of by God, and the few people we have now are all virtuous and talented, and they will all be of great use in the future. But recently I am very optimistic about two people, one is Li Yunhe, this time to the south, I don't want him to go, once we really have any accidents, with him, Huang Yukun's mother and son have to rely on, we can have no worries when he is at home, in addition, his craftsmanship is even more useful. And then there is Li Jing, he we will take it with us this time, which can play a big role, and also let him experience and experience, and he will also be his right-hand man in the future. ”

"Don't worry, there are a few people in my junior brother, not to mention on the Lingshui Wharf, there are a group of good skills, how many or how many. I'll just say hello. Chen Yufeng said.

"Then look for it from Lingshui Pier. Your junior brother, as a backup in case of emergency. Zhang Zhimu said.

"How many people do you need?"

"Why do you have twenty?"

"That's fine, two hundred too. Those people at Lingshui Wharf, who can get on the springboard with flexible legs and feet, have good skills and endure hardships there, their character will not be too bad, otherwise they would have become bandits a long time ago. Chen Yufeng said.

"Another problem is that since we are going south, don't go empty-handed, I want to bring some goods that the south needs, and when I come back, I can't just bring back food, that would be too much of a loss. What is good luck, during this time, we all think about it. Zhang Zhimu said.

Chen Yufeng drank tea and said, "Originally, seeing that you have been busy, I want to wait for you to finish your work before telling you this, it seems that you have already made a plan." When you finish testing the musket, we will talk about it in detail, and we must plan it well, and the goods we bring and the route we take must be planned. But there's one thing I think I can consider. Now with the bronze medal of Niutou Mountain, it is a road from here to the mouth of the tiger, and we can walk if others can't go. The horses and leather goods needed in the south can be transported to the mouth of the tiger. ”

"Yes, Uncle Chen, can you invite a few people from Lingshui Wharf to come over first, first, we need people to kill the tiger, and second, we also need to familiarize ourselves with our weapons and train them. No matter how many others there are, we can just take them with us when we leave from Lingshui Pier. Zhang Zhimu said.

"That's good, after trying Gong Lei tomorrow, I will start preparing to build another row of houses, otherwise it will be difficult to arrange for someone to come, and now Mrs. Cai's family and Huang Yukun are crowded, it is not a long-term solution." Chen Yufeng said.

"After the trial tomorrow, Li Yunhe and I will get guns, and you will start building a house. This time, we want to build some houses, at least tiled houses with blue bricks. Otherwise, like this grass house, it will be lit on fire. Zhang Zhimu said.

When trying the bow thunder, Zhang Zhimu asked Li Yunhe to erect a two-inch-thick wooden board ten zhang away. In order to facilitate the launch of bow mines with tail fins, a new launcher like a trolley was made on the slide of the crossbow, and after the crossbow was hung, the bow mine was placed on the launcher. In order to try what the sharp blade at the front end of the bow thunder was, Zhang Zhimu asked Li Yunhe not to ignite it and launch it directly. The first shot, shot high, was plunged directly into the ground at a distance; Adjust it, but the second shot is close again, and it is directly closed on the ground; The third launch hit, firmly rooted in the plank, and the two-inch plank penetrated directly. Chen Yufeng said that if you don't need to blow it up, you will not be able to kill if you stab someone.

This time the bow thunder is heavier than **, counting the tail fin, there is a pound and two taels, **is more than **, there are ten taels, and the shell is thinner than **. It is a slender streamlined type. When the experiment exploded the bow thunder, Zhang Zhimu asked everyone to stay away, and asked Li Yunhe to aim with a crossbow, Zhang Zhimu personally lit the fire twist, Li Yunhe pulled the trigger, and the bow thunder drew a smoke arc very smoothly, pierced into the wooden board, and after a while, the bow thunder exploded, and I felt that the sound was much louder than **, and then I looked at it, and the wooden board was blown to pieces. The children jumped up first, and everyone cheered. Then I tried a few more, which were ideal, and of course I didn't forget to fry some more fish.

At lunchtime, Zhang Zhimu told Huang Yukun about the discussion with Uncle Chen, and Huang Yukun said that she had no opinion. Huang Yukun also told Zhang Zhimu about his family. At that time, all kinds of information were still very closed, and the information in people's heads was very simple. A person with a very smart mind like Huang Yukun remembers the things taught by Zhang Zhimu clearly, and can give full play to them. She kept the animals she raised, the children she observed, and the little changes in her heart. The rabbit has already laid several litters. Several foxes have also begun to lay cubs, each fox can lay a dozen, and the dead cubs have all been taken out and thrown away. Both ewes are pregnant. Two sows were also pregnant.

"Remember, a little fox can be weaned in fifty days. Feed some small fish in advance and wait for good feed. The larger ones split up. Zhang Zhimu instructed.

"Don't worry, go about your big business!" Huang Yukun said. Zhang Zhimu felt very warm in his heart.

"Hey, I've always wanted to tell you that the biogas is so easy to use, and now I can't use it up all day long." Huang Yukun said.

"Didn't you say that you don't eat the food made by dung? Ha ha! Just wait, there will be something more convenient later. Zhang Zhimu patted his chest and said.

After lunch, Chen Yufeng took Li Jing to ride a horse, and each person led three horses to Lingshui Wharf. Before, Zhang Zhimu gave Liu Yun, Li Wei, and Li Jing forty-five taels of silver each, telling them that even if they bought the three horses they rode, they usually rode them, and everyone used them when they had something. At first, the three of them resolutely refused to accept the money, but Chen Yufeng spoke before accepting it.

When Li Yunhe was in charge, Zhang Zhimu always followed, because this is the key to whether he can make a robbery.

First of all, make tools, light up the charcoal stove for striking iron, put the semi-finished tools wrapped in the dried tank mud, put them on the charcoal stove, and then start to blow the air, burn the cylinder mud to red, and after burning for a period of time, use iron pliers to clamp it to the furnace to cool naturally. Then, several long steel castings ready to be used for turning tools are red and forged into the rectangular shape given by Zhang Zhimu's drawings, and then placed next to the furnace to cool slowly.

Zhang Zhimu invited the Lu family father and son to come over, according to their own drawings, to make a wood lathe out of hardwood, the power source is a cow belt drive large wheel with small wheel transmission mechanism, the big wheel, can be shaken by two people. On the passive wheel of the lathe, there is also a stone disc for energy storage and stabilization. Originally, Zhang Zhimu thought that the concentric problem of the top plate and the fixture on the lathe would take some work, but the Lu family father and son would solve it by hanging a few wires and a few rulers. It seems that in any era, skilled craftsmen have their own solutions to problems. Since then, when Zhang Zhimu encounters problems in the future, he will definitely not meditate there, but come up with ideas and let everyone work together.

Prepare the lathe, let Li Yunhe thread a grinding stone on a wooden stick, grind off the sand in the inner hole of the barrel casting, and clean the slag. It's a lot of work. The father and son of the Lu family also changed to help Li Yunhe do this laborious and laborious work. Clean out the two first, and grind the inner holes of the two castings to be shiny without any residue.

When the mud has cooled, break the mud, rinse off the toner on the tool, and let it dry. I found a piece of iron, smashed it with a large board, and tried it, and the iron foam fell off quickly. The carburizing succeeded, and the tool was made. Tried a few of those things and it was good. Then the square steel that was ready to make a turning tool was stuck, and Zhang Zhimu personally frustrated a turning knife, which was the kung fu that he practiced by grinding his hands out a few big bubbles during his internship in the factory during college. Then let Li Yunhe follow it and frustrate a few more. After all the setbacks are done, put the cutting edge of the turning knife on the fire to burn red, and then quench it in water.

Zhang Zhimu picked two steel bars that were cast longer than the barrel and two rigid rods that were two times and four inches longer than the barrel, and put them in the furnace to burn red. Then let Li Yunhe and Li Wei and Liu Yunduan, who helped him beat it, to beat it into round steel rods that were four feet long and eight feet long, and about eighty centimeters thick, and put them aside to cool naturally. This size, Zhang Zhimu took a little effort to convert, because the current metric unit of measurement cannot be used, and now the length of the unit of measurement is the size of the centimeter, and the correspondence with the metric system is three feet = one meter. And one zhang = ten feet, one foot = ten inches, one inch = ten, one point = ten cents, one centimeter = ten hao, one milli = ten silk, one trace = ten hundred.

In this way, the inner diameter of the barrel that Zhang Zhimu wanted to make was fifteen millimeters, which is forty-five centimeters, that is, four and a half centimeters. In ancient times, it was said that it was not bad at all, and the accuracy was quite high. After the forged steel rod is cold, take it and get stuck on the lathe, and the other end is pressed to death with a disc. With a hardwood fixture, jam the turning tool and place it on the chute. The two began to shake the big pulley, a little bit of acceleration, and after accelerating to a certain speed, they began to feed the turning tool a little bit, and each time they gave a little bit of feeding, they were processed along the slideway from beginning to end, and the uneven steel bar became smooth little by little, becoming a round and shiny round bar. Looking at the changes, everyone was extremely excited by this magical thing. When processing to the back, each time the processing is measured with the calipers made by themselves, Zhang Zhimu repeatedly reminded that you must pay attention to not processing into one big and one small. Zhang Zhimu asked Li Yunhe to process the steel rod to a diameter of 44 centimeters, and then the turning tool was sharpened on the surface by changing the grinding stone, and finally grinding it again with an oil stone. At this time, the surface of the steel rod is already shiny and shiny. The same steel rod is machined into two. At the ends, respectively, use a chisel to mark one and two marks. After processing the two steel rods, looking at the fruits of their labor, several people were very happy. Zhang Zhimu took out his teapot and let everyone rest and drink tea. The strong men Liu Yun, Li Wei and the father and son of the Lu family, who were helping the wheel, were soaked with tired clothes. Zhang Zhimu thought that this depended on manpower, and it was okay to do experiments, but not production, and said: "After a while, everyone will work hard to finish processing the two long rods." In the future, you can't use people to shake it, but you have to find a way to change it to something that can be driven by cows and horses. ”

Seeing that everyone had taken a breath of relief, Zhang Zhimu took the lead and clamped two eight-foot-long rigid rods on the lathe.