In another adjacent factory.

A cold-formed spring, which is actually a steel sheet folded at an acute angle, is burning a scorching red in the furnace fire, and an experienced old craftsman stares at its color.

Yang Qingke did not have such a thermometer.

It is impossible to measure the mercury thermometer he invented to measure the temperature of nearly 1,000 degrees, and the mastery of the temperature still requires the experience of craftsmen, which is also the biggest problem he is facing at present, such craftsmen are too valuable, and it takes too long to train one. Even if these old craftsmen who were treated favorably by him were indeed taking apprentices according to his requirements, more than a year was still not enough time for these apprentices to grow up, after all, what he was doing now was also considered high-tech......

Uh, he's quenching.

"Good!"

The old craftsman, who enjoyed the treatment of the conductor's fellow knowledge, said suddenly.

His apprentice took out this small spring as quickly as possible, and then inserted it into the oil drum next to him, and the spring of nearly 900 degrees instantly created a series of bubbles in the whale oil, and the strange smell of grease immediately filled the entire factory.

Whale oil is the best quenching oil of this era.

This was the main thing used in Europe before the petrochemical industry developed petroleum-based quenching oil.

Otherwise, they would be desperately hunting whaling all over the world, which is extremely versatile in industry, and is not just used for lighting.

But the old craftsman didn't bother with it.

He walked directly to the other stove, then looked at the large bell above his head, and then used his pliers to pinch out a spring in the furnace that did not change color significantly, and put this spring on the ground, and the Marquis of Zhongyong honestly squatted down with him to look at it. It wasn't until this spring that had been tempered naturally cooled to a tolerable temperature that Yang Qing picked it up, and Zhongyonghou, who was not afraid of being hot, pinched the upper and lower sides with two fingers, and then picked up another spring of the same kind next to him and pinched it as well.

"This is a lot of energy!"

Yang Qing was very satisfied and picked up the new product again and said.

"Master Hou, this is much faster!"

The old craftsman said with a smile.

"But there are still too few people who know how to quench and temper!"

Yang Qing said.

Indeed, even if he has crucible steel, he still doesn't expect to achieve a flintlock pistol in the short term, this must require enough skilled workers, a flintlock pistol is not just one such spring, in fact, there are several such springs in a dog lock flintlock pistol to achieve various actions. The small springs that push the bolt, push the trigger to reset, open the medicine pool cover, etc., ensure that the trigger is pulled and the bolt falls down the medicine pool cover and opens the process, and finally let the flint hit the spark and ignite the gunpowder, each of which has to be manufactured by forming, quenching and tempering.

Industrialization is not so simple.

The British made their first flintlock pistol in 1620, but the English did not begin to use flintlock pistols until 1660, driven by the war of the Civil War.

It took them a full forty years.

Anyway, the number of British troops is not very large!

If you go to England now, you will see that they are still using the Sol arquebus from Sweden, just like the Ming army, and they have already built flintlock pistols more than 20 years ago, and Cromwell and the parliamentary capitalists behind him who are leading the new model army to fight against the royal army, don't they know that this weapon is better used? They certainly don't care about money, these new capitalists are not short of money, and the outcome of this war will determine who will rule the country, whether they or the king, and they will not be reluctant to invest.

But the requirements for the industrial level of such weapons are also too high.

They can only develop slowly!

The same is true for Yang Qing.

Fortunately, his starting point was relatively high, at least at this time the British did not have crucible steel, and that was only available a hundred years later, in 1740.

But there is really no way around skilled workers.

Even if the handicraft industry in Jiangnan is developed, those who know quenching and tempering are still considered cutting-edge talents.

"Cultivate an apprentice who understands the full set of processes, I will reward you with a thousand taels, as long as he can make qualified products on his own, this thousand taels is yours, if you can make the output of flintlock pistols reach 1,000 per month in the next year, then I will give you this extra one!"

Yang Qing took out an emerald and said.

He actually prefers to give gems now, after all, silver has to be used as currency by banks.

"Don't worry, the little one will live up to the trust of the Hou Ye."

The old craftsman said excitedly.

This is enough, this is enough to make the equipment of the Ming army catch up with the latest trend in Europe, at this time it was only 1647, ten years to complete the replacement is still not later than Europe, it is said that some European countries did not throw arquebuses until the Spanish throne melee, they completely eliminated this weapon after the Spanish throne war. It is even said that some of the poor princes of Germany did not eliminate arquebuses until the beginning of the 19th century, and it is not known how they survived the many wars of the 18th century.

As for the eastern battlefield, the Ming army did not use flintlock pistols, and it was invincible simply with arquebuses, after all, the equipment of these surrounding enemies could not catch up with the Ming army!

Li Zicheng is a bird.

When he withdrew from Beijing, he packed up all the craftsmen of the Zunhua Iron Yard, because he also treated the craftsmen preferentially, and these craftsmen of the first state-owned iron and steel plant in the Ming Dynasty were building their own steel industry for him, although this is an exaggeration, but the quality of his steel is indeed good. Especially relying on the forests of the Qinling Mountains, he is also using charcoal to smelt iron, and the performance of the bird gun is not at the same grade as that used by the Ming army back then, so he is also reforming his Spanish phalanx, reducing the number of spears and increasing the proportion of bird guns, especially for his cavalry to equip a large number of pistols, even arquebus pistols.

This is the magic weapon that he ran rampant in the northwest and beat the various departments of Oirat that had to beg for mercy.

But there is still a big gap between his firearms level and the Ming army at this time.

After all, he lacked hydraulic machinery.

This is very important, and now hydraulic machinery has spread all over Jiangsu and Zhejiang under the drive of Yang Qing.

And Dorgon is reforming his Eight Banners.

After all, he will definitely not be able to do Yang Qing and Li Zicheng if he does not reform, although Li Zicheng took away the craftsmen of the Zunhua Iron Field, but relying on the support of those northern gentry, Dolgon still quickly rebuilt the Zunhua Iron Field, and used the Spanish phalanx to train those miscellaneous Eight Banners.

These cannon fodder were used as infantry to block the Ming army.

And those elites of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and those invited Mongol allies were forming the largest musketeers on the Eastern Battlefield for him.

It's just like Ge Erdan in the original history.

Don't think that Ge Erdan is a Mongol is a cavalry, his main force is actually a water dragoon, light artillery, a large number of arquebuses, and even a Swede under him as an instructor, it is relying on firearms, especially the firearms supported by the Russians, Ge Erdan swept across the northwest to establish his earthly Buddha country. In the end, Ma Ge betrayed Lingbei in exchange, in exchange for the Russians stopped providing arms to Ge Erdan, and relied on heavy artillery, especially the mortar cannon cast by Dai Zi for him, to blast Ge Erdan's camel city with muskets and light artillery as the core in Ulan Butong.

Our Daqing Dynasty relied on firearms to finally become the last to laugh.

But because he was afraid that the Han people would play with firearms to rebel, Ma Ge hurriedly threw Dai Zi, who had made great contributions to him, to death in Ningguta, and then began to boast that they were arching horses to win the world, and in the end, not only the Han people, but even their own descendants believed it.

Until he was taught to be a man by the British.

Dolgon, who was beaten by Yang Qing and Li Zicheng with firearms, is embarking on the road of Ge Erdan, relying on his advantage of not lacking war horses, forming a large number of musket cavalry, and he has made 10,000 such cavalry in this year. All of them are two or three hundred pounds of light cannons similar to the Fran machine, which can be dragged around by a horse, and there are even similar guns that are directly mounted on the horse's back, and then all the soldiers have a bird gun in addition to bows and arrows, and in the future he claims to use 100,000 iron horses to determine the world.

I guess it's okay.

After all, his cavalry was well numerous.

The infantry, on the other hand, played the Spanish phalanx with a small number of birds.

However, he can only defend, and it is unrealistic to attack to the south, after all, he is all left over from Yang Qing's play, and the musketeers can't deal with the Ming army's car battalion, and those light artillery bombardments are a draw with the Franco, and the Ming army's mountain splitting artillery can teach them to be people, and the biggest advantage of this kind of cavalry is that it is extremely mobile.

It would be very troublesome for them to attack.

But it is a pity that Yang Qing has already almost emptied Henan, leaving only a garrison fortress connected by waterways, this kind of musketeer cavalry does not have the ability to attack the city, and wants to cross the Yellow River on ice in winter and run south for 500 miles without any supplies, to the banks of the Huai River. But there they had to face the militia of Huangzhuang, Yang Qing did not think that any harassing cavalry could have any good fruit to eat in the vast sea of the people's war, when Li Zicheng went south, Zhang Nai and others suffered a lot.

Dolgon's musketeers would only pose a threat to the Ming army's Northern Expedition.

This attack logistics line is still very useful.

But Yang Qing thought that the Northern Expedition did not need to advance from Henan to the north at all, where it was only suitable for the encroachment of pieces of the battalion step by step, and a fatal blow could pass by sea, even now he could transport an army to Dagukou to land and then go straight to Beijing. It is explained that the Beiyang Naval Division of the army has so far controlled the two capital cities of Dengzhou and Laizhou, and there are also many counties along the coast of Wendeng all the way west to the capital city of Laizhou, and it is not simple for the maritime infantry from the south of the Yangtze River to the north, assemble at Denglai, and then land at Dagukou. At that time, hundreds of thousands of troops on the southern front pressed north, landed at Dagukou by sea and smashed Beijing, Li Zicheng's army in the west blocked Taihang Mountain and prevented them from passing, and Dolgon and those bulls, ghosts, snakes and gods invited by him happened to be surrounded in Hebei to gather and annihilate.

Of course, that's for later.

Yang Qing is not interested in the Northern Expedition now, what he has to do now is to clean up those cows, ghosts, snakes and gods inside him first.

"Master Hou, it's time to see him off!"

Stilwell reminded him.

"Let's go, go see off our chauffeur group!"

Yang Qing said.