Hearing this, Zhu Hongsan thought of the railway, and he used to see that there were small trains in the steel mill, transporting all kinds of goods in the factory area. Now that the scale of the industrial zone has expanded, it is not cost-effective to use manpower to transport it.

Zhu Hongsan looked at the terrain and squatted down to look at the ground. It's close to the riverbank, and it's all sandy land, so I don't know if it can withstand the load of the simple track.

Zhu Hongsan said to Liu Dali: "We can't let the transport team occupy so much manpower, and the limited manpower must be put into production." I think the land in this place is very strong, let's build a track. ”

Liu Dali asked, "What is an orbit?" Is it a road like a straight? ”

Zhu Hongsan shook his head and said, "Tie Niu, go find me two hardwood sticks." ”

Zhu Hongsan put the hardwood strips on the ground, one meter apart, and said: "You see, in the factory area, use this kind of wooden strips to lay two tracks, and then install a solid wooden wheel as wide as the wooden strip under the carriage, and one person can easily push the 500-pound carriage." ”

The people present were all craftsmen, and when Zhu Hongsan said this, everyone reacted one after another, and it turned out that there was such a simple way. Liu Dali asked, "Master, I'm afraid that the wooden strip can't bear the weight of the vehicle, what if you use cast iron?" ”

Zhu Hongsan said: "Of course, it is better to use cast iron, but now we don't have so many raw materials, we can only use hardwood for emergencies, and the increase in cast iron production in the future can of course all be made of cast iron, and the cars that transport goods can also be made of cast iron, and at most a car can pull tens of thousands of catties of goods." ”

Tie Niu said: "Lord Wang, it's okay, let's wrap the hardwood in an iron sheet, which should be more durable than just using wooden strips." ”

Zhu Hongsan nodded and said: "You can discuss what to do, how big the car is, how wide the wooden strip must be experimented with first." Iron Bull, I'll leave this matter to you. ”

Iron Bull nodded and wrote it down.

Zhu Hongsan looked at it again, and there was nothing in the factory that he needed to solve. There are some things that cannot be solved at all with today's productivity. For example, when it comes to power, all the factories can only be built along the river, because they can't do without water power, and animal power is required from afar.

Zhu Hongsan sighed, now there is no rubber, and he can't get a steam engine, so it seems that he is looking for an opportunity to meet the Francois people in Macau to see if rubber is planted in Nanyang.

The next step was to take a car to the gunpowder factory, twenty miles away. Iron Bull called a few wagons from outside and dragged everyone to the gunpowder factory.

The gunpowder factory was built near the later Tongsha Park, a place with several hills and rivers running through it. Very hidden, suitable for the construction of a gunpowder factory.

In the early days of the construction of the factory, Zhu Hongsan formulated a strict management system for the gunpowder factory. There are more than a dozen safety regulations, and even animal skins and silk products are strictly prohibited at work, and production workers are only allowed to wear linen clothes.

At the same time, the manufacturing workshop and the charging workshop are strictly separated, and entering the two workshops must be searched, and it is strictly forbidden to bring some fire into it.

In this way, there were two explosions a year ago, but fortunately, the safety regulations worked. There were no large casualties, only a dozen workers died.

Zhu Hongsan and his entourage changed into linen overalls at the door, and used sprinkler equipment at the door to reduce the static electricity on their bodies. Only then did this enter the gunpowder manufacturing workshop.

Zhu Hongsan saw that the gunpowder workshop did not use hydropower, because the place was too far from the river, and gunpowder manufacturing was not a heavy physical work.

The manufacturing workshop also uses assembly line production, and the production process is subdivided as much as possible, and each worker is only responsible for one process. This allows for increased production speed while working proficiently. Another is that no one knows the complete production process of gunpowder, even if someone wants to learn it, they can't do it.

Zhu Hongsan looked at more than ten processes such as purification, stirring, filtration, drying, cutting, grinding, and polishing, Zhu Hongsan nodded with satisfaction and asked, "Old Duan, how much gunpowder can you produce in this workshop a day?" ”

Duan Changyou said: "There are a total of 1,000 people in this gunpowder production workshop, and if the supply of raw materials is sufficient, it can produce 2,000 catties of gunpowder a day. There are two workshops like this in the entire factory area, that is, they can produce 6,000 catties of gunpowder a day. ”

Zhu Hongsan calculated that an artillery gun needs three catties of gunpowder to shoot once, and even if ten cannons are fired in a battle, that is, thirty catties of gunpowder. Holding 6,000 catties of gunpowder is enough for 200 artillery pieces to be used at one time, not counting the amount of muskets.

The muskets seem to use less gunpowder, but they can't hold up the large number of muskets. Zhu Hongsan estimated that the output of the gunpowder factory in one day could be used by one regiment at a time. A regiment is fifty-four artillery pieces, and if each cannon is fired ten times, it is 1,620 pounds of gunpowder, plus muskets, almost one battle.

It seems that the production of gunpowder will still be sufficient. Now he has only two regiments, and the next step is to expand to ten regiments and 30,000 people. This bit of gunpowder is not enough for even one training session.

Zhu Hongsan thought of this and asked, "Old Duan, what should I do if I want to increase production?" ”

Lao Duan Tou often said: "There are only two methods, one gives me enough raw materials, and the other gives me manpower." ”

These two conditions are not realistic now, and now all the toilets in Dongguan County are about to be turned over twice, plus some saltpeter has been imported from Yungui, so that it is enough for the consumption of the gunpowder factory. The same goes for manpower, there is a shortage of people on his side, and there is a shortage of people on the steel plant's side, so it seems that there are many problems.

Zhu Hongsan said: "I'll let Tong Yangjia solve it for you, the northern refugees will come in half a month, and the manpower can solve it." Saltpeter will not have a way until Feng County makes them the prefect. After all, there are millions of people in Guangzhou and countless toilets, which should alleviate the shortage of raw materials. ”

The next one went to the charging workshop, which had the most people, a total of one workshop, and more than 2,000 people were here. In this place, the finished gunpowder is divided into gunpowder and gunpowder for gunpowder.

The gun is simple, first take a one-inch thick plank, this plank has sixty-four holes of the same size on the top, and a cardboard pad underneath. Then put lead bullet in the hole, then gunpowder, and use a trowel to smooth out the excess gunpowder. Then remove the bottom pad. Gunpowder and lead bullet fell into the oiled paper bag below.

Then in the next process, someone else seals the oil paper bag with beeswax, and then applies lard and butter to waterproof, so that the customized lead bullet is made.

Zhu Hongsan saw that this method was very good, and he used to use manual packaging by craftsmen one by one, but he didn't expect to use a few simple tools to greatly improve production efficiency.

Zhu Hongsan asked: "Who came up with this method, it's very good." ”

Duan Changyou said: "This is what my eldest son thought of. ”

Zhu Hongsan said: "Very good, reward your eldest son with one hundred taels of silver." In the future, if there is a craftsman who improves the production process, he will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver. ”

Lao Duantou is now worth a lot of money, and a hundred taels of silver is not eye-catching, but Zhu Hongsan's personal reward is rare. In this way, his son entered Zhu Hongsan's eyes, and Feihuang Tengda was no problem.

The old Duantou's happy mouth couldn't close, and he nodded again and again to thank him.

Below is the charge line of the artillery gun * pill pack, which is similar to the musket, except that no shells are put in it, and the artillery ammunition is separated. There are two kinds of powder packs, one is the three-pound gunpowder bag used in solid bullets, which is fully charged for the sake of range. One is a two-pound pack, which is prepared for shotguns. After all, the range of the shotgun is only 400 meters at most, and it is wasted with three catties of full charge.

Zhu Hongsan has done experiments, and it is also a shotgun, and the range of three catties of gunpowder paper and pens and two catties of gunpowder is 20 meters more, which is really worth the loss. Therefore, it is stipulated that only two catties of medicine bags are used for shotguns. In this way, three heavily armored dummies can be pierced from a distance of 200 meters.

Duan Changyou said on the side: "Lord Wang, we are experimenting with a new type of gunpowder, do you want to take a look?" ”

"Oh? Have you made new gunpowder? Zhu Hongsan was very surprised, you must know that this recipe is already the ultimate in black * gunpowder. No matter how powerful it is, it will not be black * gunpowder, until the nitro * glycerin comes out.

Zhu Hongsan thought that they had made nitric acid* glycerin, so he hurriedly asked, "There, take me to have a look." ”

Duan Changyou took a group of people to the outside of the factory, and there was a single-family house near the river. This is supposed to be the laboratory for the new gunpowder.

Duan Changyou led everyone in, then took out a black medicine pillar to show Zhu Hongsan, and said, "Lord Wang, look, this is the new gunpowder we developed. ”