Dongfan avant-garde, Kaohsiung City.

This is a strange city, at least the Ming Dynasty has built this kind of long city in the past, and it looks very strange, as if there is a huge wall on the north side of Xizi Bay.

Of course, Kaohsiung City is not a wall, but a city, which is a large city more than two miles wide and nearly 20 miles long, and its area is about the same size as the outer city of the capital.

At this time, Kaohsiung City is nearing completion, the whole city is roughly divided into six parts, the westernmost square area of more than two miles is the real meaning of the city, the streets are vertical and horizontal, the houses are rows, about 100,000 people can live, to the east are some huge factories.

The first was a huge machine factory, about three miles wide, three huge factories horizontally, and only a row of dormitories along the city walls on the north side longitudinally, and all the rest of the roads were wide roads.

The second is a huge cannon foundry, also about three miles wide, with five huge factories built horizontally, and a row of dormitories vertically.

The third is the shipyard, ten waterways lined horizontally, and with the addition of docks and dormitories, the width is about five miles.

The fourth is a gun factory, about two miles wide, with dense factories and dormitories, which is more similar to the city in the west.

The last one is the gunpowder factory, which is also about two miles wide, but the factory buildings and dormitories are sparse, and the empty space in the middle is quite large.

Originally, the development here would not be so fast, and Zhang Bin's plan was to spend about two years to add all the personnel and equipment of the military factory, but because Wen Tiren wanted to pick peaches, Zhang Bin changed the plan completely.

Now, all the government-built shipyards are moving here, most of the shipbuilding craftsmen are equipped with Kaohsiung shipyards, and only a small part has moved to Dayuancheng, and the Dayuancheng shipyard is also being built at this time, but it is specialized in building civilian merchant ships over there, and it is specialized in building warships here.

With such a relocation, the personnel of the Kaohsiung shipyard will soon be fully equipped, and the goal of producing 100 warships per year is estimated to be achieved within two or three years.

In addition, he also removed all the cannon foundries in Yuegang and Zhuhai, and all the equipment and craftsmen were moving to Kaohsiung City, and after these craftsmen came, they would be rearranged according to their respective specialties and sent to the newly built cannon foundry, machinery factory, gun-making factory, and gunpowder factory.

At this time, the whole Kaohsiung City was busy, there were constantly new craftsmen from Fujian and Guangdong to come by boat, and all kinds of equipment were constantly moving to various factories.

At about midnight that morning, in the sand turning workshop of the Kaohsiung Cannon Foundry, a bunch of people gathered around a sand field and discussed, of course, this sand field is not used to grow crops, but used to cast artillery, and the fine sand in the sand turning workshop is divided into a piece, boxy, just like cultivated land, so it is called a sand field.

The sand field surrounded by everyone is different from the other sand fields in the workshop, because there is a pit in the middle of this sand field, a large pit several feet deep.

Standing in front of this group of people were Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing, and at this moment, they were looking at the deep pit in the middle of Sha Tin in a daze with embarrassed faces.

Just then, there was a sound of neat footsteps outside, followed by a shouting: "Your Excellency the Governor has arrived." ”

The craftsmen surrounding Sha Tin hurriedly flashed to both sides, Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing looked at the gate with shameful faces, and they didn't even have the courage to go over to greet them.

Soon, Zhang Bin strode in, he saw the expressions of Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing, and hurriedly smiled and comforted: "Chuyang, Chang Geng, isn't it just a casting failure, it doesn't matter, we can try other methods." ”

Sun Yuanhua said embarrassedly: "My lord, we have used the best method, the clay mold can't be cast by deep burial and sand, I'm afraid there is no hope for this 10,000-pound cannon." ”

It turned out that after almost ten months of rushing work, the guns of the ten Zhenyuan cruisers and twenty Weiyuan battleships had all been cast, Zhang Bin thought, just when the new plant was relocated, and there were a few months of leisure, so he simply let Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing try to cast more powerful artillery.

At this time, increasing the power of the artillery is not as simple as increasing the caliber and lengthening the gun body, the larger the caliber and the longer the gun body, the weight will definitely increase exponentially, to put it bluntly, increasing the power of the artillery at this time is actually casting heavier artillery.

Zhang Bin asked Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing to try to cast two kinds of artillery, one is a two-thousand-pound Franc machine, and the other is a 10,000-pound Hongyi cannon.

The two-thousand-pound Franc machine was mainly used as the main gun for the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship, and Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing didn't take much effort to cast it, and they were processing samples at this time, preparing to replace the main guns for the cruiser and battleship.

This 10,000-pound Hongyi cannon is a problem, the first sample, the copper water has just been poured, the entire Sha Tin has sunk, obviously, the trial production failed.

Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing felt that there was little hope of casting a 10,000-jin Hongyi cannon, so they asked Zhang Bin to take a look and let him decide whether to build this 10,000-jin Hongyi cannon.

Of course, Zhang Bin wanted to build it, because the thousand-pound Franc machine or even the two-thousand-pound Franc machine was not a great threat to the super battleship, and unless it happened to be near the waterline of the super battleship, it would be impossible to sink the super battleship.

The super battleship is too huge, more than 50 meters long and more than 10 meters wide, and a shell the size of a small watermelon can smash a basin-sized hole at most, with a diameter of less than half a meter, and it is not much of a threat to the super battleship at all, even if a super battleship hits more than ten guns, it will be fine.

The 10,000-pound Hongyi cannon is different, the shell is the size of a watermelon of more than 20 catties, and if a cannon goes down, as long as it hits, it can at least blast out a big hole with a diameter of about one meter, and if you are lucky, you can even bombard the super battleship with one shot and sink it directly.

Therefore, Zhang Bin wanted to cast a batch of 10,000 catties of Hongyi cannons and set them up in the castle of Geranza to surprise the Dutch, as long as he could sink more than ten super battleships, it was very likely that he would be able to annihilate the Dutch fleet in the future and solve the problem of the Dutch at one time.

The 10,000-pound Hongyi cannon is definitely not so easy to cast, he knows this quite well, but he is not in a hurry, Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing can't do it doesn't mean that he can't do it, he still has seen a lot of artillery casting methods, but he feels that he is a layman, and Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing are insiders, so he didn't mention to them those methods that he saw from it, if it really doesn't work, then he can't say, he can only go out in person and give it a try.

He took a closer look at the sinking hole, and then said with great interest: "Dig it out and see what the bottom is casting." ”

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he immediately raised his hand and said, "Lao Zhao, take a few people to dig up the surrounding sand." ”

As soon as his words fell, a middle-aged man took a few young men, picked up the hoes and shovels by the wall, ran around the sand field and dug down quickly.

Soon, a section of the clay mold showed its head, and it didn't seem to be anything abnormal, but after digging down more than a meter deep, a huge crack appeared on the clay mold, and the further down the crack became, the bigger the crack became, and when it was dug to a depth of about a zhang, the clay mold collapsed down, because the bottom part of it had been completely cracked.

The fallen clay mold did not have any weight, obviously, the inside was empty, and the copper water flowed outside, sure enough, digging down, the fine sand came out of the boiling heat, and the copper water that had not been completely cooled was slowly revealed, at this time, where did the copper water still have the appearance of artillery, it was completely a huge copper cake!

Zhang Bin stood on the edge of the deep pit dug and looked at it, and then asked, "Chuyang, how deep has this sand field been dug?" ”

Sun Yuanhua recalled: "It's about one zhang five. ”

One zhang five is more than four meters, and the length of the 10,000 jin Hongyi cannon is more than three meters, which is enough, but the strength of this clay mold is not enough, and it can't withstand the pressure of 10,000 catties of copper water.

This problem is very easy to solve, Zhang Bin directly proposed: "Chuyang, if the clay mold doesn't work, use an iron mold, the mold made of iron can't be crushed." ”

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he immediately shook his head and said: "My lord, this mold is much bigger than the cannon body, and the iron mold is estimated to be more than 20,000 catties, and this mold can't be cast at all!" ”

Zhang Bin patted his forehead and explained: "The iron mold is not cast at one time, it can be divided into several sections, and each section can also be divided into two halves, so that each mold weighs only one or two thousand catties, and it is very simple to cast it, and when the time comes, leave some holes in it and fix them together with screws." ”

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, his eyes lit up, but he thought about it and frowned and said: "My lord, the copper water poured into the iron mold will be stained with the iron mold, and the iron mold plus copper water is tens of thousands of catties, how can this sand hold, the soil layer under it can't hold it, even if the stone slab is estimated to be crushed, this iron mold can't stand at all!" ”

Zhang Bin had naturally seen all of this, and he immediately explained: "The inner wall of the iron mold can be brushed with clay, just like the lime mortar brush is strong, just brush a layer." As for the bottom, you can pad some stones, and then make an iron seat, the iron seat can't be crushed. ”

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he touched his head and smiled embarrassedly: "I understand, I understand." ”

In fact, he can also think of these, but just after experiencing a casting failure, he was a little confused, and his mind was a little messy, at this time Zhang Bin explained, he suddenly felt extremely embarrassed, and he couldn't think of the iron mold being cast separately, but he could still think of such a simple thing as brushing clay on the inner wall and making an iron seat.

Zhang Bin didn't have anything to do at this time, he simply stayed and helped Sun Yuanhua make an iron model.

This iron mold is simple to say, but it is a bit complicated to do, first according to the size of the gun body and the strength of the iron mold to draw a shape drawing, and then according to the drawings to make a set of wooden molds, and so the wooden modules are installed together, and then use the wooden mold to make a set of clay molds, and finally use the clay mold to cast, the iron mold to cast.

Fortunately, there are all craftsmen in Kaohsiung City, and there are many materials such as wood, clay, and pig iron, so it is not difficult to do these.

With Zhang Bin here, the progress is naturally fast.

He and Sun Yuanhua worked together for a day, and then they drew the model, and they designed five sections, a total of ten pieces, that is, ten semi-circular arc-shaped molds.

Then, the next day, the wood mold was processed.

As soon as the wooden mold was made, I put it together and tried it, and after improving it a little, there was no problem.

This was followed by clay molds and pouring, and in less than five days, a new set of iron molds was ready.

At this time, Song Yingxing also organized people to lay a solid foundation under Sha Tin, and the iron seat was also buried, everything was ready, and it was time to start construction.

Zhang Bin personally supervised the work, Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing commanded, a piece of clay iron mold was hoisted up by the hanging gourd, slowly fell into a deep pit in a sand field, less than an hour, a shape like a pagoda, and a bit like a Dan furnace iron mold was assembled.

Finally, the iron core in the middle was hung inside, and Sun Yuanhua began to organize people to fill in the sand, while Song Yingxing was organizing people to refine copper water, and the two sides cooperated tacitly, and the progress was fast.

Zhang Bin finally saw the process of casting cannons with his own eyes, it turned out that this copper water was not carried down by a bucket of crucibles, but directly led from the furnace to the entrance of the iron mold with a crucible trough, and then opened the gate to let the copper water flow into it slowly.

10,000 catties of copper water, I don't know how long it has flowed, Zhang Bin's eyes are a little stinging, the copper water has finally flowed out, there is no collapse in Shatian, only the steaming heat is rising, which proves that the pouring is successful.

It generally takes two to three hours for the copper water to be completely cooled and solidified, so the cast copper cannon is generally prepared in the morning, the copper is smelted and poured in the afternoon, cooled overnight, and then taken out the next day.

Early the next morning, another group of people gathered around Sha Tin, but this time there was one more Zhang Bin in the crowd.

Sun Yuanhua gave an order, or the middle-aged man Lao Zhao led a group of young men, around the Sha Tin and quickly dug up, the iron mold slowly revealed, this time everything is normal, what the iron mold looks like when it is buried, what it looks like at this time, until it is finally dug out, just like when it is buried, it stands on the iron pedestal like a pagoda.

Sun Yuanhua also commanded people to use the hoist to call out the iron core, and then fixed the cannon mouth with a wooden stake, and dismantled the iron mold piece by piece, and a huge cannon body was slowly revealed.

As soon as the gun body is cast, the processing is relatively simple, that is, it is a shaft, which can be pulled out by hand, and it is naturally simpler to have a machine tool at this time, and the processing is not a problem at all.

However, due to the complexity of the casting of this 10,000-pound Hongyi cannon, with the production capacity of the Kaohsiung Cannon Foundry at this time, only about 20 cannons can be cast in a month.

There are about twenty guns a month, and sixty guns in three months, that is to say, if the Dutch come to attack in June, at least half of the city defense guns in the castle of Geranza can be replaced by 10,000 catties of Hongyi cannons.

When the time comes, it will be exciting, a round of artillery fire, at least one super battleship can be overturned, but I don't know how many super battleships the Dutch organized to attack this time, if it is still forty or fifty, hehe.

Zhang Bin seemed to have seen the panicked appearance of the Dutch, 10,000 catties of Hongyi cannons, one cannon went down, and the foot basin was a big hole, so he asked if you are afraid!