In the Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, Bo Jue, Zhang Tao, Sun Xueshi, Jiao Miao and others are commenting on a two-person tall machine and putting forward suggestions for improvement.

In fact, this bulky machine is a state-of-the-art horizontal cannon boring machine, since the emperor asked to refer to the "modulus" theory to design the artillery, that is, based on the size of the inner diameter of the gun, according to a certain number of multiples of the design of the gun's various parts, such as the length of the gun, the outer diameter of the muzzle, the diameter of the bottom of the gun, the diameter of the bullet, etc. The production of Daming artillery is becoming more and more standardized and sophisticated.

By the eighth year of Chongzhen, the artillery experts of the Ming Dynasty Weapons Supervision had basically perfected the "modulus" theory, and the next step was to mechanize the tools used to make artillery, so as to be able to produce more sophisticated artillery. The most important machine is the hydraulically driven horizontal cannon boring machine.

The smoothness of the bore of the gun not only affects the performance of the artillery, but also has a bearing on the difficulty of cleaning the bore of the gun during combat. However, the previous manual and charged bore grinding not only caused the bore to deviate from the axis of the gun, but also took a long time.

As the General Staff paid more and more attention to the role of artillery on the battlefield, and engaged an army like the Houjin Eight Banners that was not weaker in organization and discipline than the Ming army, the primary problem was to break the opponent's formation and contain the opponent's first three attacks, and at this time artillery became the best helper of the Ming army.

In the Battle of Yizhou, the devastating blow inflicted by the Ming army's artillery fire on the Houjin army finally opened the general staff. Instead of using artillery as a large musket, they tried to assemble it as a technical weapon to control parts of the battlefield.

In the past, when the original dynasty fought with the nomads, they were most worried about two things, one was that they could not find the main force of the other party; The second is that the infantry against the cavalry of the nomads, when they can beat each other, they can't chase each other, and when they can't fight, they can't escape.

Although the Houjin were not a nomadic people, after they controlled many Mongol tribes, cavalry had become the main arm of the Eight Banners. In the past, cavalry that wanted to deal with enemy troops had to rely on their own cavalry.

Although the Ming Dynasty is now looking for horse breeds to breed good horses, the Ming Dynasty, which lacks a place to raise horses, wants to build a strong cavalry team, after all, it is not an overnight thing. But artillery is different, as long as there is money in the treasury of the Ming Dynasty, the army can make as much as it wants.

Compared with the elite cavalry that was difficult to expand, it was easier for the Ming Dynasty to train batch after batch of artillery units, which was easier for the Ming Dynasty, which established a school education system. Therefore, the General Staff has raised the artillery configuration of the field army from 1-3 guns per 1,000 people to 4-6 guns per 1,000 people.

Not to mention the navy, at the insistence of the emperor, artillery has become the main means of warfare used by Ming warships. In addition, after the imperial court relaxed the restrictions on self-defense weapons for trading ships and the arms trade with foreign countries, the production rate of Daming artillery obviously could not keep up with the increasing demand for artillery from the outside world.

In fact, there are three bases for the production of artillery in the Ming Dynasty, one is the Ordnance Supervision Cannon Foundry in Beijing and Tianjin, one is the Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau in Hai, and the other is the Guangdong Artillery Manufacturing Institute in Macao and Foshan.

At the three artillery production bases, the Ordnance Cannon Foundry produced almost 70% of the total output, so the cannon foundry was willing to invest in any machine that would improve the efficiency of cannon manufacturing, after all, the factory's export artillery fed an entire cannon foundry.

It was in this demand that this horizontal cannon boring machine was born, but for the artillery and machine experts of the Ordnance Inspectorate, this horizontal cannon boring machine was not the end of their journey, but the starting point of a broader world.

“… With this boring machine, the performance and manufacturing speed of the cannon can be improved a lot..."

"I think that gray cast iron, iron mold casting cannon method, sand casting method, and boring machine processing method should be fixed as prescribed processes, and cannons made with other old processes can only be used for export products..."

"Now that we have such a sharp machine for processing the barrel, why not experiment with drilling and drilling with die-cast solid iron?

No matter what cannon casting method is used, the cannon body still has sparse and different parts, and even the inner chamber has obvious honeycomb holes. However, die-cast solid iron does not have such problems, and its interior must be dense and compact without voids.

Isn't Mr. Galileo of Yenching University researching the manufacture of hydraulic presses? Maybe we can visit him and magnify the hydraulic press he designed several times to get a machine with solid iron for die-cast cannons..."

When everyone was expressing their opinions around the boring machine, Zhang Tao looked at Bo Jue watching the boring machine silently, and couldn't help but ask him: "Zijue, do you have any new ideas, why don't you also say them and let everyone discuss them together." ”

Bo Jue, who was woken up by Zhang Tao, looked at everyone's gaze, and only then came to his senses and said, "Ao, I wasn't thinking about making cannons just now, but thinking about something else. ”

Seeing that everyone was still a little suspicious, Bo Jue immediately said frankly: "Recently, I was assigned to a project, which is to improve the steam engine.

As you should know, the previous steam engines used the principle of atmospheric pressure to transport water from low to high places. If you want to change the steam engine to power output, the old steam engine is obviously difficult to do.

So these days I've been thinking about how I can use the power of steam to redesign the power of the whole machine. We all now know that water comes in three forms: solid, liquid, and gaseous as the temperature changes.

The volume of each of these three forms is different, and the volume of a liquid part of water becomes a gas, which is roughly about six times larger. Suppose we are in a closed container and we heat water into steam, will the steam exert pressure on the four walls of the container?

Suppose one end of the container is set as the movable end, will the heating container push the moving end forward, and when the container is cooled, the movable end will return to its original position, so that it will not become a reciprocating power take-off device? ”

When the other people were still thinking about Bo Jue's ideas for improving the steam engine, Jiao Miao had already looked at the boring machine and came to his senses, "Ao, Brother Zijue, you want to use this boring machine to process a container you envisioned." Yes, only this boring machine can process a container that is tight enough, otherwise all the steam will come out of the cracks..."

After being broken by Jiao Miao's words, everyone also woke up one after another and put forward a lot of opinions on Bo Jue's idea.

For this group of technical experts to talk loudly, standing in the distance with the Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau manager to discuss official business Sun Yuanhua just looked up at this side, and then continued to talk with the manager around him, obviously he regarded the discussion of these experts as an ordinary technical exchange, and did not mean how important today's discussion is to the future Ming industry.

Under Sun Yuanhua's inquiry, the manager of the Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau took out an account book and said: "... A recent shipment of wrought iron from Hainan is of excellent quality, whether it is used to make cannons or quenched steel knives, and the wrought iron produced in Tangshan and other places has better performance.

In addition, the iron content of the ore from the Changjiang Shilu Iron Mine in Hainan has also been tested, with a grade of about 60% and very few impurities.

Therefore, we believe that the conditions are ripe for the expansion of production capacity of Shiroku Iron Works, and there are extremely rich copper resources in the local area, so it is necessary to increase the smelting capacity..."

Sun Yuanhua nodded and said, "You give me a copy of the information, and when I go back, I will write a note to Your Majesty." In addition, the output of the Shilu Iron Works will be supplied to the Ordnance Supervision Bureau on a priority basis, and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the Foshan Cannon Factory will not be allowed to interfere for the time being..."

Coquela's anti-corruption storm against former Governor Silva in Manila soon made Guo Qing feel strange. After writing a detailed report on the situation inside Manila and having people bring it back to the capital, he began to evacuate the Chinese living in the national city opposite the royal city of Manila to the port of Lingayen and Baguio City, which were under construction.

Located in the northwest bay of Luzon facing the South China Sea, in the delta of the Agno River, the port of Lingayen is an excellent port, and Baguio, which has a suitable climate and occupies a condescending advantage over the inland central plain, these two cities, if completed, will ensure the formation of the Ming control over the northwest Luzon.

Therefore, after Guo Qing realized that the attitude of the Spaniards in Manila towards friendly Chinese had changed, he accelerated the construction of these two cities, and tried to transfer the residents of the national city to those two cities. With the restoration of friendly relations between the Ming and the Spaniards, and the policy of allowing the Ming to lease and develop Luzon, the Chinese who migrated from the mainland to Manila showed a skyrocketing momentum, and by the ninth year of Chongzhen, the number of Chinese before the massacre in 1603 had exceeded that of the Chinese population, especially the Chinese residents of the national city reached more than 20,000 again.

However, unlike the free immigrants in the past, most of the Chinese who migrate to the Philippines now migrate under the organization of the imperial court. There are more Chinese who run farms in the Central Plains and the Cagayan Valley. Therefore, under Guo Qing's orders, although many Chinese were unwilling to leave Manila, where the business environment was extremely mature, they still had to obey Guo Qing's orders as a court official.

Although Coqueira desperately wants to suppress the Chinese forces on the Philippine island from Silva, as a Spanish colony, the Chinese on the island are actually several times that of the Spaniards, and they have earned a lot of money that should belong to the kingdom, which is obviously another crime of Silva in Coqueira's opinion.

But before he could start moving, the Chinese suddenly began to move away from the city, and the evacuation of the Chinese was soon said to be a rumor that they were forced to leave by the new governor, which made the market in Manila begin to decline, and the Spanish colonists in Manila were dissatisfied with the new governor who liked to make trouble.

Realizing that he might be isolated by the local colonists, Coquela finally lowered his posture for a while. He summoned Guo Qing to show him that Silva's previous agreement with the country was still valid; On the other hand, they vigorously wooed the local clergy to declare that they would give the church greater freedom of mission, so that the church could come forward to appease the discontent of the local Spaniards.

This gradually calmed down the tension in Manila, and Coqueira was still concerned about the interests of the Spice Islands, which Ma was about to fall into, so he had to restrain his rejection of the Chinese and try to keep peace with the Chinese for the time being.

However, at this time, Coqueira, who realized that the Chinese in the colony were not strong, also began to quietly look for helpers who could help him deal with the Chinese together. For example, the colonists who coveted the wealth of the Chinese and the Japanese expatriates who were under the status of the Chinese.

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