The banknote customs ship material tax, the goods tax in hand, an extra 500,000 taels of silver every year, plus 1 million taels of land looted from officials every year, and 300,000 taels of silver earned from buying and selling chemical fiber silk, in Suzhou Mansion alone, Fang Yuan has 1.8 million taels of silver a year.

Fang Yuan's goal fell on Songjiang Mansion, which was second only to Suzhou Prefecture in terms of economy.

In order to take over Songjiang Mansion, it is necessary to follow the procedure of taking over Suzhou Mansion, first to use the letter and visit mailbox to deter the officials, gentry, and wealthy merchants of Songjiang Mansion, then to recover the arrears of land endowments, and finally to take over the government affairs of Songjiang Mansion in an all-round way.

Fang Yuan ordered Qin Zhan to rate 300 Jinyi Wei to go to Songjiang Mansion to set up a petition office, and then retrieve the tax account books of Songjiang Mansion for review.

Taking advantage of Qin Zhan's mission to Songjiang Mansion, Fang Yuan took the time to go to the Weng Manor, which has now been converted into a firearms factory.

Guarding the firearms arsenal was the firearms battalion led by Li Zongze, as well as the 1,000 sergeants of the infantry battalion.

Fang Yuan moved all the military equipment of the Shenji Battalion and the Suzhou Prefecture Manufacturing Bureau to the military factory, and in addition to the fact that tens of thousands of workers who were originally employed in the textile industry were at least 2,000 people, the entire military factory was in full swing.

Fang Yuan met with Bi Maokang and Tang Ruowang, who were in charge of the development of new types of firearms, in the firearms arsenal.

Under the guidance of Bi Maokang and Tang Ruowang, the military factory has been able to independently produce flintlock pistols similar to thunderbolts, because of the backwardness of casting technology in the late Ming Dynasty, the quality is worse than that of authentic thunderbolts, but they can always produce independently, and there is no need to import them from overseas.

According to the estimates of Bi Maokang and Tang Ruowang, with the current production capacity of the military factory, it can produce 400 flintlock pistols per month, and the cost of each one is 15 taels of silver. In terms of cost alone, it is a loss compared to perfume and firearms trading, but only independent production can avoid being subject to foreigners, and the more expensive it is, the more expensive it is!

After five months of testing, according to the structure of the breech gun on the drawings provided, as well as the improved Western forging technology, the prototype of the breech gun was made, and the appearance was quite exquisite, but it was only an empty shelf.

Because of the lack of the most important spring-loaded firing pins and bullets for breech-loading guns, the produced breech-loading guns are still too far from being put into actual combat.

Fang Yuan invested 50,000 taels of silver in research funds, but the development of the breech gun still failed, and Bi Maokang and Tang Ruowang looked very frustrated.

Fang Yuan did not blame the two of them, the spring firing pin, the manufacture of bullets, and the rifling of the barrel are the top priorities to promote the progress of firearms, even more important than the breech and breech, and it took at least 200 years for the West to take this step. With Bi Maokang and John Tong's level of knowledge of firearms and artillery, it is reasonable that they cannot make spring-loaded firing pins and qualified bullets out of thin air.

He bought a spring firing pin on Taobao, along with a cross-sectional diagram of the bullet. In the bullet diagram, it is clear which part is the cartridge case, which part is the primer, which part is filled with firing charge, and which part is loaded with the warhead.

For the production of bullet shells and warheads, you can buy molds on Taobao, pour them in batches, and then polish them one by one by hand;

For the time being, gunpowder can only use black powder, and the Eighth Route Army used black powder in the War of Resistance behind enemy lines, which did not affect the guerrilla warfare that had been fought for eight years;

Thunder mercury and other fire sprays are controlled items that cannot be bought on Taobao, and can only be made in the Ming Dynasty.

To make thunder mercury at the chemical level of the Ming Dynasty, the only way to make it was mercury + nitric acid + ethanol.

Among them, mercury is ready-made, ethanol can be extracted by distillation technology, and nitric acid can be purchased on Taobao;

Spring firing pin, firing pin can be easily produced in the process of the Ming Dynasty, and the spring is a few cents a piece on Taobao, which is the price of cabbage.

Fang Yuan gave the method of making bullets and spring firing pins to Bi Maokang and Tang Ruowang, and asked them to experiment first.

Barrel rifling, the West at the beginning of the 17th century had a spiral rifled breech gun - rifles. The advantage of this rifle is that it improves the shooting accuracy, and the effective firing range can also reach 4 times that of the smoothbore gun, reaching more than 200 meters.

Because of the high cost of making this rifle and the inconvenience of filling ammunition in the breech, the West did not have large-scale equipment. The breech gun developed by Fang Yuan just needs this Western rifle technology.

As for the cost, it is not the main consideration, and Fang Yuan is definitely willing to invest a lot of money in the scientific research of military technology.

After Fang Yuan inspected the military factory, he immediately decided to add 20,000 taels of silver to scientific research funds, so that the most authoritative firearms expert group in Daming led by Bi Maokang specialized in overcoming the three problems of spring firing pins, bullets, and barrel rifling technology.

Fang Yuan once again provided 20,000 taels of silver and handed it over to Tang Ruowang, a Western metallurgical expert, who led the Ming Dynasty and the Francophone to a professional metallurgical team to improve the steel forging technology required for the barrel.

Anyway, being idle was idle, Fang Yuan also stayed in the military factory for a week, and after dozens of failures, spending thousands of taels of silver, and injuring five or six hired workers of the military factory, the firing agent thunder mercury was finally successfully manufactured.

The successful manufacture of mercury was a big step forward in making a simple bullet.

Fang Yuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, at least it proved that his Baidu method of making thunder mercury was still feasible, although the purity of this thunder mercury was not high, it was enough to be used as a firing medicine.

Fang Yuan was not worried that Tang Ruowang's participation in it would reveal military secrets, because bullet molds, nitric acid, and modern springs that could satisfy Hooke's law were beyond the reach of the production technology of this era, and Fang Yuan had absolute monopoly.

As for the technology of breech guns, with the level of productivity of the Ming Dynasty, it was really difficult to do. Even the breech gun technology in the West will not mature until 200 or 300 years later, and even the breech guns used during the Napoleonic period were breech guns. It was not until the First World War that breech-loading guns completely replaced breech-loading guns.

Anyway, the existing Hongyi cannon and medium artillery in the land war are enough to use, and the 'high-tech' thing like the breech gun should be slowly developed in the future!

Fang Yuan decided to temporarily shelve the research and development of breech guns, and instead invested all his funds and energy on artillery-cannons that could be used for the equipment of the naval fleet.

He called out to John Tang, walked on the path of the military factory, and said slowly, "Mr. Tang, I plan to build a new type of naval fleet according to the standards of Western warships. ”

Legend has it that Zheng He's treasure ship has a displacement of 10,000 tons, but this is just a legend, and now the shipyards of the Ming Dynasty can't get the manufacturing drawings of the original treasure ship, and the legendary treasure ship is impossible to operate in reality.

At present, the official shipyard of the Ming Dynasty can only manufacture the most advanced warship Fuchuan with a displacement of less than 200 tons, while the main battleship of the most powerful Zheng Zhilong fleet has a displacement of only 400 tons.

Although Fang Yuan's naval camp seems to have more than 30 warships, the so-called warships are all small boats under 100 materials, not so much warships, but merchant ships and fishing boats, and there are less than 8 of 200 materials.

On the other hand, in the West, 50 years ago, the Spanish Armada had more than 10 warships capable of reaching a displacement of 1,500-2,000 tons, and there were at least 100 warships with a displacement of about 200-400 tons.

The shipbuilding technology in the last years of the Ming Dynasty has long been far behind, and the only barrier under the Ming Dynasty is not the legendary treasure ship, but the internal strife of European countries, as well as the sea frontier that is thousands of miles away, but it is a matter of time before European countries come to the door. In order to build a powerful fleet to defend the coastal seas and even expeditions to the oceans, it is necessary to take Europe as a teacher and build it according to the standards of Western warships.

Tang Ruowang looked at him in amazement and said, "How many warships does Governor Fang's fleet need?" ”

Fang Yuan said in a deep voice, "At least 500 ships!" ”

John Tang was surprised and said, "500 ships are so huge? What is the total tonnage of displacement? ”

Fang Yuan said lightly, "The displacement of the Spanish Armada back then was 60,000 tons, and my fleet was at least 100,000 tons!" ”

Tang Ruowang couldn't imagine that he had such lofty maritime ambitions, and said dumbfounded, "This, Governor Fang, Zheng Zhilong's fleet, the strongest fleet in the Far East, is only about 50,000 tons, why do you want to build such a powerful fleet?" ”

What Fang Yuan wanted to say in his heart was that he had built an empire that would never set on the sun to sell opium!

But these words can't be said in front of Tang Ruowang, Fang Yuan smiled and said, "The artillery equipment should also be compared with the standards of the most advanced battleships, and a capital battleship is equipped with at least 100 cannons and fast guns. ”

Zheng Zhilong's main battleship has 16-30 guns and a displacement of about 400 tons. Fang Yuan asked for a 100-gun gun, at least three decks, and each giant warship of more than 2,000 tons.

Seeing that John Tang had not yet come to his senses, he said, "Mr. Tang, how much silver does this fleet need and how many years does it take to build it successfully?" ”

Tang Ruowang made a rough estimate and answered truthfully, "For a large warship of 1,000 tons, the silver required for artillery alone is 1 or 20,000 taels, and the cost of each ship will not be less than 100,000 taels." To re-establish a superfleet similar to the Invincible Armada, including the training of gunners and sailors, the silver required will never be less than 30 million taels. ”

"If there is enough money, it will take at least 10 years to build it."

Fang Yuan frowned and said, "Ten years? It's too slow! ”

John Tang also said, "If half of it is purchased and half is self-made, it should be able to see the scale in three years." ”

Three years was the time that Fang Yuan could accept, so he agreed to Tang Ruowang's plan, "Okay, any Francophone Chamber of Commerce who wants to come and talk about this silk, porcelain, and perfume exchange warship deal, can come to me to talk." ”

The flintlock pistol has been able to be made by itself, and more advanced breech guns are also being developed, and the transaction of Taobao goods for firearms has completely lost the attractiveness of the other party, and the Francophone Chamber of Commerce must exchange it for more advanced warships and shipborne cannons.

Half a month later, Qin Zhan and 300 Jinyiwei, who went to Songjiang Mansion to perform a mission, returned to Suzhou City in embarrassment.