Chapter 53: The Mini Rifle

Li Zhi was temporarily unable to produce artillery, and artillery casting technology was a difficult point. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info But the manufacturing technology of the rifle, or the Mini style rifle, is not difficult, as long as Li Zhi draws the design drawing, the Ming Dynasty can completely imitate the craftsman who made the bird.

The parts of the flintlock gun machine are made by a craftsman according to the drawings and then assembled. The only thing new is a hand-drawn machine. But this kind of broaching machine does not require high precision, as long as Li Zhi designs the drawing, the blacksmith of the Ming Dynasty can make it.

There were no craftsmen in Fanjiazhuang who could make bird guns, so Li Zhi returned to the Tianjin Acropolis and found five craftsmen who could make bird guns, and asked them to make bird guns for themselves first.

In the Ming Dynasty, the craftsman household was hereditary, belonging to the Ministry of Industry, divided into two categories: shift craftsmen and resident craftsmen. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that shift craftsmen should take turns to serve in official workshops every one year or five years, with an average of three months per shift. Resident craftsmen serve in official workshops for ten days a month. However, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the artisan household system had collapsed, and the artisan household only needed to pay silver money to be exempt from service. Each shift craftsman pays four and five cents of "class craftsman silver" every year, and the resident craftsman must pay one penny of silver per month.

After paying the money, the artisan is free and can be hired as he pleases. For example, Li Zhi can hire craftsmen in the Tianjin Acropolis at will. Li Zhi used to be a blacksmith hired by the shuttle, and several of them were craftsmen.

The five artisan households found by Li Zhi were all sitting craftsmen, who handed over the silver of the sitting craftsmen every month and made a living by striking iron in the Acropolis. As for the work of making weapons for the officials, they did it occasionally, but they never received any money from the officials. At this time, when they heard that the hundred households in Fanjiazhuang asked them to make bird guns, the five people thought that it was another business with no money to take, and they were all reluctant. After Li Zhi understood the situation, he gave each of the five people five taels of silver for materials and wages, and the five of them were stunned for a while, so they stopped talking and began to make birds.

Li Zhi was familiar with all aspects of the situation in Fanjiazhuang, and at the same time rode to the Acropolis from time to time to see the progress of the craftsmen.

The first thing to do is the barrel of the gun: the craftsmen each find a few pieces of wrought iron and beat them into sheets, burn these pieces of wrought iron red, and put a round steel bar in the middle, turn and beat them repeatedly in a semicircular groove of steel, knock the wrought iron pieces into the shape of a barrel, and then weld the gaps with iron powder and borax, and beat them repeatedly until the weld is firm. After the barrel is roughened, the craftsman puts the barrel on a drilling instrument to drill holes, applies oil to the drill bit, replaces it with a larger drill bit by bit, and scrapes off the unevenness of the barrel little by little until a smooth bore is drilled into the barrel.

This drilling takes the most time-consuming, and it takes a craftsman more than ten days to drill a qualified barrel. When the barrel is done, the manufacture of the bird gun is mostly completed, and the butt and so on at the back are simple to make.

Li Zhi and the other five craftsmen drilled the barrel of the gun, and then asked them to stop the process.

"How do you keep the bird from exploding?"

The craftsman named Boss Wang had the best skills among the five, and he was a leader, and he said: "Master of the pipe, according to the rules, after the barrel is ready, we must put four times the ******usual gunpowder in the chamber of the gun and explode it once, if the chamber does not crack after the explosion, this barrel will be adopted!" If there is a cracked barrel, it will be disposed of as a scrap! After this step of inspection, there will be no fried boring of the finished bird. ”

After a pause, Boss Wang said again: "However, this year, the chief has deducted materials, and the barrel is not made of enough materials, and there must be cracks under the test of four times the gunpowder." But there is no way, there is not enough material! Even the unqualified bird guns were handed in. This crucial test has not been done for years. ”

Boss Wang said the reason why the firearms system was corrupt at the end of the Ming Dynasty and no one dared to use the bird gun. In fact, there is another reason why Boss Wang didn't say it, that is, to make fire organs for the government, the government deducts or even does not pay the wages, and the craftsmen can only complete other money-making jobs in order to support their families and do other money-making work, which can only be completed hastily and perfunctory.

The corruption of officials at the end of the Ming Dynasty had reached a point where there was no cure. The quality of the weapons produced in such an environment can be imagined, and it is no wonder that the army of the Ming Dynasty collapsed at the touch of a Tatar.

Li Zhi nodded, making sure that there was no technical problem with these five craftsmen, and then asked, "How have you lived all these years?" ”

Boss Wang was stunned, not knowing why Li Zhi suddenly asked this question, and said, "Don't hide it from the team, the life of the five of us is very hard. To build weapons for the official family, the official family deducted the money for buying materials, not to mention the wages that had been in arrears for several years and had not been paid until now. Now that the war is in chaos and all industries are depressed, there are few orders for blacksmith work outside. It's hard to sit down every day and support yourself. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "You are skilled people, do things for me in the future, and I will give you three or two months of money every month." In addition, I provide three meals a day, and meat is served at every meal. What do you think? ”

When the five of them heard Li Zhi's words, their faces were full of disbelief. After hesitating for a long time, Boss Wang asked, "My lord, what do you want us to do with such a high monthly money?" ”

"I want you to build me a new rifle that doesn't use arquebuses and can hit targets three hundred paces away."

Hearing Li Zhi's words, the five blacksmiths were even more surprised, and Boss Wang said: "My lord, I've heard of bird guns that don't use arquebuses, but I have never heard of a rifle that can hit a target three hundred steps away!" Isn't there a mistake about it? ”

Li Zhi smiled: "It's not that I'm mistaken, it's that you don't know!" I have here the drawings for this rifle, and you can make it according to my drawings. ”

"But I'm talking about it in front of me, the method of making this rifle of mine is absolutely secret, once you take my monthly money, you are not allowed to leave my power, let alone teach others how to make this rifle." After a pause, Li Zhi said fiercely: "Once the secret is leaked, at the end of the world, I, Li Zhi, will never let you go." ”

Listening to Li Zhi's warning, the five craftsmen shrank their necks, but replied with some joy: "If the adults give such a high monthly money, we will also go to the sword mountain and the sea of fire, and we will not leak any secrets." ”

Li Zhi nodded, waved his hand and said, "Okay, you will hire people to move from today onwards, and move all your stove tools to Fanjiazhuang." I will prepare a house for you in Fanjiazhuang, and give each person another ten taels of moving silver. ”

After Li Zhi said this, he asked the family to send moving money to the five craftsmen. Where do you need so much silver to move? The craftsmen got ten taels of silver, and one by one they went away happily.

Hire large and small ox carts, and a few days later, the five craftsmen moved all their belongings to Fanjiazhuang.

Li Zhi inspected the craftsmen's new homes, and then took out the design drawings of the flintlock gun machine and the hand-rifled broaching machine from his sleeve. The five blacksmiths looked at Li Zhi's drawings, pondered for a while, and then figured out the structure of the flintlock pistol, and were immediately shocked, and looked at Li Zhi with a little more respect.

The five blacksmiths also figured out the use of rifling broaching machines, but they did not understand what this rifling did.

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