The most crucial point for the Ming Dynasty to gain a firm foothold in the Hetao Plain is to have enough food to feed the people here. Therefore, Hong Chengchou is naturally very happy about Xu Guangqi's arrival, and he has been looking forward to it for a long time. The enthusiasm he showed was not only a matter of official position, but also from the bottom of his heart.

So, in the next few days, the dignified Governor of Naturalization and the Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty were all engaged in agricultural affairs, and they were with the old peasants, discussing how to plant the seeds of the crops they had brought in the Hetao. These things were particularly touched by the people of Hetao, especially those soldiers who were born as thieves and the victims who migrated from Qin and Jin.

"If our Mizhi County Commander had the thoughts of two adults, we wouldn't have gotten up to make trouble in the first place!"

"That's right, if our Fugu County had half of the minds of two adults, we wouldn't follow Wang Jiayin to make trouble!"

"We are still good officials!"

“……”

In fact, what the people of the Ming Dynasty want is really not much, except for a very few people, as long as they can live, no one wants to rebel with their heads. Because of Emperor Chongzhen's attention, the two senior officials of the Ming Dynasty practiced and invisibly condensed the cohesion of the people in the Hetao area to the Ming Dynasty, which was manifested in their specific patrols, training, land reclamation, construction and other things, and the efficiency was much higher.

Yang Sichang didn't have to worry about farming for the time being, he led his family to Baotou first, inspected the terrain, coordinated manpower, and prepared to take advantage of the cold winter to do a big job.

As for Bu Shitu's side, he seemed unwilling to receive a return from the night sent by Hong Chengchou before, but on his own, he did not dare to invade the Hetao area, and seemed to be lobbying other tribes, and there was no sign of coming east for the time being.

Yang Sichang was not at ease with Bu Shitu, so he sent his father Yang He to his family members who were familiar with grassland affairs, as his envoys, to the tribes in the west to listen to the wind and movements, and implement the strategy of wooing, beating and dividing the emperor that he had proposed to the emperor.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen, who was in Beijing, was meeting with Bi Maokang, director of the Ordnance Bureau. Needless to say, judging from their smiles, they knew that there was a good thing, and they only heard Bi Maokang say with joy: "Your Majesty, the ministers have strictly grasped the forging of steel, and have built more than 300 self-generated firearms, and their ignition rate has reached as much as seven or eighty!" ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he couldn't help but be overjoyed. Although there were flintlock pistols at the end of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the factor of exploding, the rate of mute fire was also extremely high, which led to the fact that the flintlock pistol was never promoted in the Ming army. After discussing with Bi Maokang before, I knew that it was a problem with the ignition device, and now it seems that Bi Maokang strictly pays attention to quality, and the ignition rate is as high as seven or eighty percent, which is qualified.

Before he could speak, Bi Maokang said again: "According to the idea of assembly line operation mentioned by His Majesty, the minister has broken down the construction of the flintlock pistol, and now he is familiar with it, and I believe that the construction of a flintlock pistol in the future can be completed much earlier than before." ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he was not very satisfied, it had taken so long to create more than 300 self-generated fire guns, and this efficiency was still slower than he imagined. You know, the Ordnance Bureau also has enough manpower craftsmen available.

Thinking of this, he stood up and instructed Bi Maokang: "Go, I will go and see for myself!" ”

Bi Maokang knows the emperor's ability, knows the emperor's past, and if he can't do it, he can come up with a wonderful idea and improve the method. If he was an ordinary Ming bureaucrat, he might not welcome the emperor to guide the work in his heart. After all, it's a shame to find out what is lacking. But Bi Maokang was a technical official who was keen on firearms manufacturing, and if the emperor could point out the improvement of firearms manufacturing, it would be something he could not ask for. Therefore, when he heard that the emperor wanted to go over to take a look, he was immediately overjoyed, and the samples brought over this time were not allowed to be presented to the imperial front, and they went directly to the Ordnance Bureau to see it.

Emperor Chongzhen naturally did not put on a score, but as if he went to Beijing, he drove lightly and simply, and arrived at the Ordnance Bureau with high efficiency, accompanied by Bi Maokang, who introduced the process flow and related instructions in detail.

At this time, whether it was the barrel of the Franc cannon or the gun, it was mainly forged. Generally, the weight is determined in advance, and then according to the weight, it is divided into single-barrel combined forging and double-layer composite forging. However, because the gun pipe is longer, it also needs to be combined with multiple sections, so that the man-hour consumption of the double-layer composite forged gun pipe with better quality and more scientific quality is naturally more.

The quality of the gun tube is whether it is easy to blow up one of the most critical processes, which is the combination of multiple sections, that is, the forging of the gun tube. If the forging is not tight, it is easy to explode at this joint. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, most of the reasons for the explosion of firearms came from this.

The means of testing this level is to pour boiling water into the pipe, and then observe the interface, if there is a leakage, it is necessary to reheat the forging joint. If the quality control is not strict, it is conceivable that the gun pipe that can leak can not be blown up?!

However, one of the biggest gains of Emperor Chongzhen's visit to the Ordnance Bureau to build the gun was to know the actual operation of the gun barrel drill at this time.

This operation is to hang the gun pipe on the drill stand, and it must be hung with an ink line, and there can be no deviation in the slightest. The gun pipe is fixed on the wooden frame and below, and the drill handle with the drill bit is put on the top, and the leather strip is tied to the drill handle, and the leather strip is pulled by manpower, and the drill handle is driven by the belt, and then the drill bit is rotated to realize the boring and milling of the inner wall of the gun pipe.

In this case, two people are required to pull the belt to drill the drill, and another person is next to the drill with an iron clamp to make the drill bit rotate freely.

Drill like this, halfway through and then drill from the other until you drill through. Moreover, where the drill is through, it is necessary to pay attention to the hanging wire to ensure that it is not misplaced. That's not all, after using up the short drill, you have to use the long drill to drill again. After going through so many processes freely, the gun tube can be guaranteed to be straight.

However, this is not the end, and it is still necessary to use a small file to insert it into the chamber and rotate back and forth to make the inner wall of the gun tube smooth, which is considered to be the completion of a gun tube.

At this time, it takes a month to build a qualified gun, and at this time, it is still a skilled worker to achieve.

After reading the whole process, Emperor Chongzhen immediately felt that the manufacture of this kind of gun tube not only wasted a lot of manpower, but also took so much time, and it definitely needed to be improved. And the improvement method for the people who have crossed over in later generations, there is a very simple way to improve, that is, to use a steam engine to drive the drill bit to drill the pipe, which can be reduced from three craftsmen to one person, and can also drill day and night, and the improvement of efficiency is naturally needless to say.