"Master Hou, I can't do this armory department master."

Lao Li walked in angrily and complained to Chen Yue.

Li Xiong followed Chen Yue when he was in Xishan Town, and equipped the army with gunpowder, and the Pingnan army could continue to achieve victories, and the generals under his command made great contributions to the battalion. The shogunate was established, and considering his hard work in the past, Chen Yue appointed him as the head of the Ordnance Division.

Li Xiong is over forty years old, but he is still an official fan, although he himself said that he can't do it, if he is really dismissed, it is estimated that he will be able to make a lot of trouble.

"What's wrong? Lee. Chen Yue asked with a smile.

Li Xiong likes to be called by others for his official position, and Chen Yue once called him Lao Li, which made his boss unhappy.

"There is no sulfur, there is no saltpeter, and gunpowder cannot be prepared at all. There are also refined iron and red copper, charcoal and charcoal, all of which are lacking, I told Zhang Chengkai of the Logistics Department several times to ask him to buy these, but there is no movement. Without these things, my Ordnance Division would not be able to get to work. ”

Li Xiong chattered and complained.

"The Logistics Department is also new, and Zhang Chengkai is very busy. In this case, you bring the list of materials that need to be purchased, and I will approve the silver, and you can send someone to buy it yourself. Chen Yue said busily.

"Where do I have someone? More than 100 of my subordinates are busy setting up workshops, and the gunpowder workshop has already chosen a place, and our old family is still there, as long as there are raw materials, it is not a problem to make gunpowder quickly. But the production of firearms and cannons requires refining copper and iron, and molds need to be made, and Pan Xuezhong and Liu San are busy with a group of blacksmiths.

Lu Sanyou's old thing is leading people to build a workshop for making shield armor, and he is worried about how to make armor. Where is the vacant manpower now? ”

Li Xiong poured out his difficulties in one go, completely ignoring Chen Yue's face getting darker and darker.

Damn, you need people everywhere, where do I conjure up so many people? Chen Yue wanted to scold.

However, troubles are troubles, and problems have to be solved.

"That's it," Chen Yue pondered carefully for a while, and said slowly, "You don't need to buy all the materials you need in person, you just have to hand over the list of what you need." I entrusted the Yangzhou government to conduct the bidding. ”

Yangzhou is one of the most prosperous places in the world, where businessmen gather, as long as the wind is exposed, some businessmen are willing to do this business, there is no need to worry.

The material problem was solved, and a smile finally appeared on Lao Li Xiong's face, but his problem was not over yet.

"How can you get armor, our people have never made armor at all, I'm afraid I won't be able to make it." Li Xiong said embarrassedly.

In the past, the armor of the Pingnan Army basically relied on capture, and the general battalion did not have the ability to make armor.

Now the army is expanding rapidly, as long as the soldiers are equipped with shields, armor and other armor. In the past, it was precisely because the Pingnan Army was equipped with a large amount of armor that it was able to achieve victory after victory.

Whether there is armor or not is crucial to the combat effectiveness of an army, and it must not be overlooked. Of course, Chen Yue could apply to the Nanjing Imperial Court for the configuration of armor, and the Ministry of War was responsible for building it. However, the imperial court in Nanjing had just been established, and although there were many workshops under the Ministry of War, Chen Yue did not dare to count on efficiency and performance.

Therefore, it is necessary to quickly establish your own armor-making workshop.

"In this way, I will ask the imperial court for an order to recruit craftsmen from all over the country to come to Yangzhou, what kind of craftsmen are needed, how many people are needed, you go back and sum it up, and report it as soon as possible."

Chen Yue thought about it and promised.

There are many craftsmen in Nanjing, except for Beijing, the world's skilled craftsmen are all in Nanjing. Some are people who can make armor, and there are all kinds of other craftsmen. As long as the imperial court agrees, as long as he improves the status and treatment of the craftsmen, he will definitely recruit enough people, as for whether the imperial court will agree? With the relationship between himself and Chongzhen, and Chongzhen's expectations for himself, there should be no problem.

The individual combat power of the soldiers of the Ming Army was far inferior to that of professional soldiers like the Eight Banners, and if they wanted to win the battle, they could only rely on the strength of the armor and the strength of the soldiers, and rely on equipment to crush them.

Therefore, in the future, it was necessary to equip muskets and artillery in large quantities, and the quality of the workshop musket artillery of the imperial court was not good at all, and it was necessary to make it yourself in the future.

If you want to equip a large number of troops, it is simply not possible to make firearms by hand, first, the efficiency is too low, and then the specifications are different. In this era, Western countries have begun to use machine tools to make gun barrels, and the Portuguese in Macau have set up gun factories. If this is not possible, they will send someone to Macao to discuss with the Portuguese whether they can buy a workshop in the name of the imperial court that can make gun barrels, and invite some technicians to come over.

Although this may seem difficult, the Portuguese may not agree. However, Chen Yue believes that as long as there is money, it will not be a problem to do this.

Moreover, the firearms equipped in the Pingnan army are too backward now, most of them are some bird-fired guns and three-eyed firearms, and the range is not even comparable to that of bows and arrows, and they are all front-loading muskets, not to mention the difficulty of loading ammunition, and they are completely unusable in rainy days. And this south has far more rain than the north, and it can't rain on a rainy day without fighting.

Was there a breech-loading arquebus in this era? Or a flintlock pistol? Chen Yue did not know much about the craftsmanship of muskets, and it was impossible for him to design advanced muskets on his own, and he had to find talents who could make such muskets.

Does Daming have such talents? Yes, Pan Xuezhong in the Pingnan Army was one of them, Pan Xuezhong was the righteous son of the missionary John Tang, who was proficient in the production of firearms, but he could not make flintlock pistols and breech-loading muskets. Therefore, if you want to make advanced firearms, you have to go to Westerners to find talents.

Muskets had to be made in large quantities to equip armies, and artillery could not be ignored, whether it was defending a city or fighting in the field, artillery was indispensable. Moreover, the Manchu people's use of artillery was not weaker than that of the Ming Dynasty, and in previous wars, they captured a large number of firearms. In another time and space, whether it was the Ten Days of Yangzhou or the Battle of Jiangyin, the Manchu Qing Dynasty relied on artillery to open the city wall.

Like Yangzhou City, if there are 100 red-coated cannons, they are not afraid of any siege by the Manchu Qing Dynasty at all, and they dare not rely on long-range firepower alone to suppress them. It's a pity that when it came to the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Ming army couldn't even compare to the Qing army with artillery.

Pan Xuezhong was in charge of the production of the red-coated cannon, but now Chen Yue regretted very much that he did not take John Tang away when he evacuated Beijing......

As for the Ming Dynasty, what other talents are proficient in firearms production? After inquiring slowly, Chen Yue made up his mind to gather them all under his umbrella, and research and design more advanced firearms in the future.

But now, less than a year has passed since the Manchu Qing Dynasty went south, and in such a short period of time, it is very difficult to make firearms in large quantities. Therefore, it is necessary to find a way to make up for the lack of long-range firepower, and the only way to make crossbow arrows is to make them.

Since the advent of firearms, the Ming Dynasty used archers a lot less, after all, compared to firearms, archers took too much time to train. But the crossbow is different, it doesn't take much time to train.

However, the volume of the crossbow is often relatively large, and the stronger the range and strength, the larger the volume of the crossbow, which tests the user's physical strength, which is also the reason why the crossbow in Daming is gradually eliminated.

But Chen Yue himself knows how to make a crossbow, before crossing, he himself has made crossbows many times, using pulleys to borrow power, an ordinary man can easily use a crossbow.

Chen Yue decided to draw the drawings of the crossbow and bow, and gathered craftsmen to make them in large quantities and popularize them in the army to make up for the lack of muskets.