"Build so many 6-pounder guns in one go?" Lando was taken aback. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Of course. This is already the lowest number, less than that, how can the experiment be carried out? Zheng Sen said with the characteristic arrogance of an upstart, "Mr. Lando, you think, first of all, that the destructive experiments used to test the limit charge amount require at least one cannon of each type, right?" Then carry out durability experiments to test their accuracy, rate of fire, service life, which also requires a cannon, right? Then there's a cannon to be handed over to the guys who protect the factory to test their daily performance. In this way, you need at least three guns for each gun, right? ”

Lando stared at Zheng Sen and was speechless for a long time, before he said, "If that's the case, how long do I need to complete these cannons?" ”

"I hope the sooner the better." Zheng Sen said, "So I hope you can bring some apprentices and teach them the knowledge and skills of cannon casting." In this way, speed and throughput can be guaranteed. In case you didn't know, China is in a civil war and at war with the barbarians of the north. You know, China is a country about the same size as the whole of Europe, which is almost equal to all the countries in the whole of Europe fighting, can you imagine how much artillery is needed for a war of this scale? Therefore, every day we develop a useful cannon, our income can be greatly increased one day earlier; If we can produce one more cannon per day, we will be able to earn more than the price of one cannon. Now you understand the urgency of time, right? Compared with the value of time, the cost of any experimental cannon is just a small number. Mr. Lando, I know that knowledge and experience are valuable things, and we will not ask you to share your knowledge and experience with others for free. In this way, we pay you a fee for every apprentice you bring with you, and we give you a bonus for each apprentice who can independently guide the workers in the work of cannon casting. But you have to make sure that you teach them without reservation. Well...... For each apprentice, I pay them one Spanish silver coin a month, and once they are able to build a cannon on their own, I will give you fifty silver coins at once. What do you think? ”

"My God! You are so generous, Major General! I want to take off my hat and salute you! There's no problem with that, and I'll teach them like my own children. Lando shouted in surprise.

It is true that some technical secrets are valuable, but if you hide them and don't sell them, even if you monopolize them, how much money can you bring to yourself? And now that Zheng Sen's price is enough to make him a rich man, what else can he not be satisfied with.

But soon Lando calmed down, and he asked, "Major General, I'm worried about whether my apprentices will understand my language. ”

"As you may know, I found a couple of teachers for the kids in the factory team and taught them something. These are mainly mathematical and military skills, but also Latin. Zheng Sen said.

"Yes, Major General, I know Old John, who taught them Latin." Landau said, "To be honest, Major General, your factory guard team might as well be called a military school." Well, I know John Sr. took twenty or so students with him. If you're willing to have them come and apprentice me, that's really nice. ”

Indeed, as Landau said, the factory protection team is actually closer to a military school, and the half-grown children of today's factory protection team study all kinds of basic knowledge in the morning, including mathematics, astronomy, geography, gewu, military drawing, earthwork, military history and the like, and in the afternoon is the training of various tactical skills. In fact, turning the factory protection team into his own Whampoa Military Academy is also one of Zheng Sen's goals.

Today, there are about 1,000 people in the entire factory protection team. The immigration work continues, so by next year, a considerable number of half-grown orphans will arrive on the island, and most of them will be included in the factory protection team, and by that time, they will be the new first year. And now the factory guards have become second-year seniors. They should then enter the study of the subjects divided into arms.

At present, Zheng Sen only wants to have a two-year school system, and he can't learn much in two years, so this is not a military school for the purpose of training generals. His cadets are also suitable to be a squad leader, platoon leader or something, and put down the next generation, that is, a non-commissioned officer school. But in this era of unprofessional feudal armies everywhere, it is already very tall. This is like the famous Whampoa Military Academy in later generations, in fact, the school system is only about one year, and later, some periods are not even half a year, but they can still beat a lot of feudal warlords.

In this way, every two years, every two years, and when the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, Zheng Sen's hands would have a contingent of tens of thousands of non-commissioned officers. Zheng Sen has always felt that the combat effectiveness of an army is closely related to the level of grassroots officers, and with tens of thousands of non-commissioned officers, the Zheng family can easily expand to more than 100,000 troops that can really fight.

Zheng Sen estimated that by that time, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong would definitely not have so many troops who could really fight. As for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Zheng Sen felt that the army that could really fight would not exceed this number. As for the fight with the Manchus, he can also use the maneuver advantage brought by the superiority at sea, as well as the superiority in equipment, to bully them.

Latin is not a compulsory part of the content of the factory protection team, so the total number of students who learn this is only about 50. Now that Lando wanted to bring them all over as soon as he opened his mouth, of course it was impossible.

"Many of these kids will go to the fleet for internships in the second half of the year, and you know that there is a high demand for people who can speak the Tessie language on the fleet side, and they can't wait to get all of these fifty, so how can they give them all to you. I can only pick one or two of them. ”

Hearing this, Lando felt very disappointed, if there were fifty apprentices, he would be able to get fifty more silver coins a month, but there were only one or two.

"With them, Mr. Lando, you can mentor more apprentices through them, won't you?" It was as if he had seen Lando's thoughts, Zheng Sen said.

"That's a way," Lando said with his head down, but he seemed to think of something else, and looked up and said, "Young General, I've actually thought of a better way." ”

"Oh? Tell me about it? Zheng Sen said.

"Major General, there is a famous saying among the Arabs that says, 'If the mountain does not come, Muhammad will go, and Muhammad will go to the mountain'. It's hard to get all those students to learn European and come and apprentice me, so I think the best thing to do is for me to learn Chinese, yes, that's how it works. Lando said proudly.

"It's hard to learn Chinese." Zheng Sen couldn't help but remind.

"It doesn't matter, I'm gifted in languages." Landau said confidently, "General, I'm Italian, I was born to speak Italian, and then I can speak Latin, you know, and I can also speak Spanish and French, guess how long it took me to learn Spanish and French?" ”

Zheng Sen smiled and shook his head.

"Three months, three months. Within three months, I was able to speak Spanish and French. Of course, counting in French is an exception, and to this day, I'm not used to it. Lando said with a smile.

Zheng Sen knew that Lando still underestimated the difficulty of Chinese. It is not easy for a European to learn another language in a few months, but the difficulty is limited. Because the languages themselves are very similar. However, he didn't intend to dampen Landu's enthusiasm for learning Chinese, he just smiled and nodded, "This is indeed remarkable." ”

After a cordial and fruitful conversation with Lando, Zheng Sen took out a pocket watch and looked at the time, and then said to Lando, "Mr. Lando, I'm sorry, I'm leaving. I'm going to teach those kids, and it's going to be class time. ”

Zheng Sen served as the "principal" of the de facto military academy of the Guardian Brigade, personally in charge of the small team, and also personally served as a math and Chinese teacher for them. At present, the teaching progress of mathematics has just finished the basic addition and subtraction operations, and it is still very stressful to advance to trigonometry before they graduate in the next year. So he had to resort to a trick that the children hated: an evening class.

Because of the development of whaling, whale oil began to flow into the Chinese market, as a lighting oil, whale oil burns bright and without black smoke, which is completely comparable to candles, but compared to candles, whale oil is much cheaper. At that time, there was no petrochemical industry, and naturally there was no cheap paraffin. The wax used to make candles relies almost entirely on beeswax. And even in later generations when beekeeping has been industrialized, the production of beeswax is still limited and the price is not cheap. And in ancient times, this thing was naturally a luxury. During the Tang Dynasty, candles were given by the emperor to the high nobles. Tang Han Hong's poem "Cold Food": "Candles were passed in the Han Palace at dusk, and light smoke dispersed into the Wuhou family. "History of the Song Dynasty" records: Kou Zhun "is a rich and noble youth, extravagant in sex, comedy drinks, and every banquet guest, many of them are closed." The home has not tasted the oil lamp, although it is located, it will be burned. "The use of candles instead of oil lamps in the house is even a luxury that can go down in history. You can imagine how expensive candles are. In contrast, after having a professional whaling ship, as long as you catch a whale, you can get more than 10,000 catties of whale oil, which is naturally much cheaper. So, whale oil is selling well in the market today. In Quanzhou, whale oil has almost completely replaced not only candles, but also vegetable oil for lighting lamps. In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, whale oil lamps have also become popular rapidly, and there is often a phenomenon that the supply exceeds demand. However, no matter how the supply exceeds demand, if the factory protection team wants to use it, whale oil is definitely guaranteed.