At the end of the exercise, Zhang Shijie's first sentence was: "How to make these muskets?" ”

Zhao Lie made a gesture of please: "Please go with the last general to take a look." ”

Everyone followed, even Zhao Ruo and the civil officials in charge of county politics refused to be left behind.

Zhao Lie first led everyone to the craftsman's workshop in the northeast of the city, where in addition to making conventional swords, spears, axes and armor, there was also an independent gun pipe.

Zhang Shijie watched as the craftsman struck down and down with an iron hammer on the groove, rolled a piece of fine iron into shape little by little, and then wrapped it with a layer of fine iron, and then beat it repeatedly until the barrel was fine and solid, and then the iron rod was pulled out of it, and a tubular barrel was presented in front of everyone.

Zhang Yongxi said: "This is it?" It's like making a sword......"

Zhao Lie shook his head: "The surface of the barrel is fine and smooth, but the inside of the barrel is rough, and it needs to be smoothed with a cone drill, so it is done." ”

Zhao Ruohe asked: "How long does it take to build such a musket?" ”

Zhao Hunting crossed his index fingers: "Ten days." ”

Zhang Yong pulled his beard, and he felt acceptable when he thought about it. After all, it takes three or five days to build a knife, a month to build a crossbow, and half a year or even a year to build a bow. Ten days to build a gun, it's a quick time.

Zhang Shijie walked to a crude iron barrel, there was a pile of barrels that had been made neatly inserted in the barrel, reached out and took one, weighed the weight, and aimed at the eye of the barrel, and suddenly said: "Why is the barrel of this gun octagonal, but the barrel of the musket in your army is round?" ”

Zhao Lie replied calmly: "The last step of the barrel is to round the octagonal shape, one is to reduce weight, and the other is to facilitate grip. ”

Zhang Shijie, Zhao Ruohe, Zhang Yong and others nodded again and again, not doubting him. Of course, they didn't know that the flintlock barrels used by the Dragon Bird Army were all stamped by machine pressure grooves, and the shape was naturally round, while the barrels that were beaten by hand were most convenient to hit in a prismatic shape, so they were mostly octagonal. It's not that these people are easy to coax, you must know that among these people, there are civil and military, generals and handsome, and all of them are insightful figures. It's just that in the face of this new weapon that they have never seen before, their previous knowledge has all been reduced to zero, and they are no different from the villagers.

After that, Zhao Lie led everyone to the back mountain to watch the drill workshop.

It is also in the mountain behind the military city, but it is not a cave, but under a waterfall. The waterfall is flanked by woods and in the middle by a stream. On the bank of the stream, a tall keel waterwheel is erected, and next to it is a long stone trough, under which is a huge stone mill, connected to which is a drill workshop.

Using the hydraulic power of the waterfall, the keel waterwheel is driven, and more than 20 huge bamboo tubes on the waterwheel continuously inject water into the stone trough, and the water flows down, driving the stone mill to rotate. Through a set of uncomplicated combined tools, the kinetic energy of the stone mill is transmitted to the cone drill floor of the workshop, and the barrel is drilled day and night......

Zhao Lie pointed to the drill pipe workshop and said: "This hydraulic drill pipe device is newly made, and it is still in trial operation. ”

Although Zhang Shijie originally appreciated it, he was not too surprised, this kind of ingenuity was just a stream of craftsmanship in his eyes, and when he heard Zhao Lie's words, he nodded frequently, so he paid a little attention to it and watched it with great interest.

The manufacturing process that Zhao Lie showed to Zhang Shijie and other court generals is completely in line with the productivity of this era, and it is also in line with their cognition. Not to mention these temple figures who don't know anything about machinery and technology, even if they are masters like Guo Chenggui, who specialize in the art industry, when they first see punches, machine tools and a dazzling array of tools, they are incredible.

Zhao Lie has been planning for a long time about this matter, and throwing out this "pseudo arsenal" can not only arm the Song Dynasty army, but also protect his core secrets, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

After some inspection, Zhang Shijie finally understood, why did the Dragon Bird Army never need a bow and crossbow, with such a sharp weapon, what is the use of a bow and crossbow?

"Who made this musket? The prime minister wants to play the court and ask for credit for it. "Zhang Shijie made up his mind, such a talent must be transferred back to Yacheng, how can it be used by the Dragon Bird army? However, Zhao Lie's answer stunned him.

"Thank you. The heavy weapons of the military state should be dedicated to the court, and the generals will not dare to take credit. ”

Zhao Ruohe was also stunned, and said after a while: "This, this musket was actually developed by the general?" ”

Zhao Liexiao was silent and led everyone to the assembly workshop.

Seeing the assembled muskets that exuded the smell of grease, Zhang Shijie couldn't help but ask Zhao Lie to take one and operate it himself. After loading the ammunition, he slammed a shot at a large tree more than 20 paces away.

In the explosion of sawdust, everyone cheered.

Zhang Shijie stroked the gun and couldn't put it down. With just one shot, he fell in love with the coolness of this long-range shot. Men don't like to shoot guns, both ancient and modern.

Zhao Lie took a step forward and arched his hand: "There are thirty-five new muskets in the workshop, and the last general is willing to give them to the envoy." ”

Before Zhang Shijie could speak, the general Zhang Yong was so happy that he shouted: "Really? ”

"The last general has a little heart, please don't let it go."

Zhang Yongxi turned his heart over, and immediately bowed to Zhang Shijie to congratulate: "With this sharp weapon, thousands of troops will be easy, and the recovery of Qiongzhou is in sight." The last will be to congratulate the envoy. ”

Zhao Ruohe and other courtiers all bowed: "To congratulate each other." ”

Zhang Shijie stroked his beard and smiled, and gestured to Zhao Lie, after this young show king, it is rare, very rare.

Zhao Lie took the opportunity to say: "There is a lot of iron material used to make guns, and there are not many remaining materials in the last general's warehouse......"

Zhang Shijie was overjoyed when he got this batch of muskets, and said happily at the moment: "Although you can rest assured, when the prime minister went north, there were three ships of iron purchased from outside the port to Hong Kong, and half of them were 'iron'. How about the Prime Minister playing the Queen Mother and urging the Ministry of War to allocate half to you? ”

At present, Zhang Shijie is also in charge of all the affairs of the Ministry of War, and the affairs of all kinds of weapons, baggage, and soldiers and horses are mostly decided by his words, and he said that if he can allocate half, it will never be less than half.

Zhao Lie was overjoyed and even thanked him. Fifty flintlock pistols were exchanged for a shipload and a half of iron, and the business was done. Among them, there is a pattern steel such as iron, and this deal is really cost-effective.

Most of the iron in this era was pig iron, and there was not much wrought iron, and the price was also expensive. Pig iron must be smelted at home, according to a certain formula and materials, raw and wrought iron infiltrated into steel, and the investment in labor and materials is quite large. Who wouldn't want ready-made steel? What's more, it was the best steel at that time, the Indian steel (Uzi steel) called iron at the time. There's a lot of good steel to use for forging armor.

Seeing Zhao Lie's joy, Zhang Shijie squinted his eyes and made another request: "Can the skilled craftsmen in this musket workshop be divided into one and two?" ”

The boss was so happy, how could Zhao Lie not be happy, and immediately said: "All the craftsmen are craftsmen in the inner court, and they all obey the orders of the envoy when they go and stay, and the last general will have no words." ”

Zhang Shijie stroked his beard and laughed, feeling very relieved, what he wanted was Zhao Lie's attitude. As Zhao Lie said, he has the right to transfer all the craftsmen for his own use, but this technology is developed by others, and the gentleman is not good for people, let alone the results? He wants to do this, not afraid of being sprayed to death by Asari Wenchen. Take 10,000 steps back and say, he won't do such a thing that leaves no room for error. He planned to transfer most of the gun-making craftsmen, leaving only ten or eight for Zhao Lie. Anyway, there are already a large number of muskets in the Dragon Bird Army, but his army only has thirty muskets, who needs it more, it is clear at a glance, and it is not good to say anything to forgive Zhao Lie.

Of course, Zhao Lie won't say much, because these so-called gun-making craftsmen are all "temporary workers". Almost all of these craftsmen were apprentices of the craftsman battalion, and they had not come into contact with the core secrets of his military industrial base. Although he was an apprentice, he was not a beginner in striking iron or blacksmithing, and in drilling the chamber of the gun, the master and the apprentice were equally inexperienced, and the apprentice also took advantage of the young and energetic eyes. When these apprentice-level gunsmiths have boiled out their experience, all of them are not bad. It's just that no matter how good a gunsmith is, how can he compare to a machine tool?

For Zhao Lie, as long as there is a machine, at most there will be another master Guo, and the rest will be floating clouds. You Zhang Shijie can take it if you want, and see how many guns you can make throughout the year? Of course, if you are also a friendly army, you can also support it if you need it, and if you don't have a high demand, you can compare it to today's words, and a few more ships of iron materials......

The two generals have their own place, one strokes the beard and the other rubs the jaw, looks at each other and smiles.