"Kong Sizhen? What is she here for? "Hearing that Sun Yanling and his wife were here, Zhou Peigong's first reaction was Kong Sizhen.

No way, Kong Sizhen's fame is too great, she is the daughter of Kong Youde, the righteous daughter of the Empress Dowager, the only Han princess in today's court, and she is the emperor's aunt and the eldest princess in terms of seniority. Sun Yanling, the titular boss of Guangxi, thought he was the king of Dingnan. In fact, if it weren't for Kong Sizhen, Sun Yanling would be nothing.

Kong Sizhen suddenly came to Huguang, definitely for the New Army.

Zhou Peigong's guess was indeed correct, Kong Sizhen and his group came here for the establishment of a new army in Huguang. Kong Sizhen, who was loyal to the Qing court, was placed in Guangxi, in fact, he inserted a nail in the middle of the three feudatories, and was responsible for keeping an eye on the three feudal kings of Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao, especially Wu Sangui, who was the most uneasy for the Qing court.

Although Shang Kexi is loyal, two years ago, when the "Haikou" bombarded Guangzhou, Shang Kexi broke a leg and was blind in one eye, and the de facto King of Pingnan was already Shang Zhixin. The Qing court was very uneasy about Shang Zhixin. Just imagine, a person who is not even at ease with his biological father, how can the Qing court be at ease.

Guangxi's Dingnan Wangfu Army is very important, but Kong Youde is dead, and the military salary allocated by the imperial court to Dingnan Wangfu is not as good as before, and the Guangxi Army was originally an elite Wuzhen Chaoha firearms army, but it was disabled by Li Dingguo, Kong Youde committed suicide again, and the current weapons and equipment of the Guangxi Army are not as good as before.

Kong Sizhen has always wanted to improve the equipment of his Guangxi army, but unfortunately he has not succeeded. Now the focus of the imperial court is on Huguang and Jiangnan, and all the silver has been taken by Ao Bai as military expenses, how can it be possible to take care of Guangxi.

What should I do if the court has no money? Kong Sizhen knows that to be the most loyal dog, it is best to be able to bring your own dog food. Now is the time when the imperial court needs to spend the most money, and Guangxi will try to save some silver for the imperial court if it can. But saving money does not mean that Kong Sizhen does not want elite firearms, just imagine, if there are no sophisticated firearms, how can he help the court watch Wu Sangui?

He Shuoge Kong Sizhen came to Huguang, and Zhang Changgeng, who was the governor of Huguang, naturally did not dare to slack off, and personally went out of the city to greet Kong Sizhen and Sun Yanling and others.

Seeing Zhang Changgeng and the others, Kong Sizhen first exchanged a few words of greeting, chatted a little about family life, and then went straight to the topic: "My lord, the slave's Guangxi is too close to Qiongzhou, the thief's old nest, and the slave family has not returned to Guangxi last time, and the giant ship of the Haikou attacked our Guangxi Naval Division, sank hundreds of warships of our Naval Division, and killed thousands of officers and soldiers of our Naval Division. If the Haikou invade Guangxi, I am afraid that with the strength of Guangxi, it will be difficult to resist! I heard that Huguang conducted a training exercise for the new army, which was quite effective......"

When Kong Sizhen said this, Zhang Changgeng understood that Kong Sizhen was indeed here for the affairs of the New Army. However, if she just came to investigate, it would be fine to imitate it after she went back, but if she asked for a weapon, it would be difficult for Zhang Changgeng to do it. If Kong Sizhen is given weapons, but Zhang Changgeng himself is not rich, and in order to form a new army, he has spent a lot of energy. But if you don't give Kong Sizhen a weapon, wouldn't it offend this Heshuo Gege?

It is difficult to give or not to give, but fortunately, Kong Sizhen did not ask for weapons, but only wanted to visit the new army and the workshops that produce new weapons.

For such a reasonable request, Zhang Changgeng naturally agreed to it.

"This is Mr. Zhou Peigong, and the formation of a new army was proposed by him." Zhang Changgeng pointed to Zhou Peigong and introduced to Kong Sizhen.

"Humble and glorious!" Zhou Peigong hurriedly stepped forward and knelt on the ground to beat thousands.

Kong Sizhen looked at Zhou Peigong carefully, and saw that this person was only about thirty years old, and he looked very handsome, and he couldn't help but feel a little moved: This man is so handsome, much more handsome than Fu Honglie's dog minion! It would be nice to be able to hook him in his hand!

Seeing Kong Sizhen staring at Zhou Peigong with a look, the cuckold husband Sun Yanling was very unhappy: This stinky biao has committed a cheap illness again! When you see a handsome man, you can't move your legs! Depend on! Lao Tzu is still by your side, you dare to look at other men like this, if Lao Tzu is not there, I don't know what will happen!

Kong Sizhen also felt her husband's dissatisfaction, so she didn't dare to stretch out her hand to pull Zhou Peigong recklessly, but secretly threw a wink and returned the blessing: "Zhou Gongzi, please get up quickly!" For this training of the new army, the slave family had to ask the son for advice. ”

Seeing Kong Sizhen's flattering eyes, Zhou Peigong felt that his scalp was a little numb, you must know that Sun Yanling is on the side, is it like pinching an ant to death if he wants to pinch him to death? He didn't dare to say anything, so he could only reply politely: "Since Gege wants to ask about the new army built by the lowly post, the lowly post will definitely serve!" ”

On the martial arts field, the battle flag hunting, the drums rumbled, the horn sounded, and a group of new sergeants of the green battalion holding muskets lined up in a neat formation, and walked into the martial arts field, followed by various field guns drawn by mules and horses. The artillery of the new army has also been improved, and according to the drawings provided by Yue Le, Xue Fengzuo and Mei Wending have also made artillery with big wheels. Although they did not know the secret of the bearings on the wheels of the Qiongzhou military guns, the mobility of the guns on large wheels was much better than the original small four-wheeled gun mounts.

The mule pulled the three-pounder cannon, the six-pounder cannon and the twelve-pounder cannon, and walked as fast as flying, and Kong Sizhen, who saw it, was stunned: "I didn't expect this cannon to be pulled so fast!" ”

The 1,000 infantry and 300 artillery men who participated in the drill were carefully selected by Zhou Peigong's foreign instructors, and they were a group of soldiers who walked in the most neat queue, were most proficient in tactics, and had the best mental outlook.

A thousand infantry lined up in a neat formation, walked more than a hundred steps, and the formation was not the slightest confusion.

The artillerymen ran to the predetermined positions, the auxiliaries untied the artillery and pulled away the mules and horses. Then the gunners came up and set up the cannon, and the muzzle of the black hole was aimed at the target.

"Put!" The artillery of the Qing army gave the order to the general.

The new guns spat out orange tongues of fire, the cannons roared, and the wooden targets half a mile away in front were hit by cannonballs, and were smashed to pieces and turned into scattered sawdust. Then there was a dull sound of gunpowder gas expanding, and the mortar cannon with its muzzle held high spewed tongues of fire, and the flowering shells made an arc in the air and landed above the target. Only a series of explosions were heard, and the flowering shells turned into bursting fireballs.

"Forecast, aim, put!" The Qing army's musket team shook the small flag in the commander's hand vigorously.

I only heard a row of "bang-bang" gunshots on the martial arts arena, a row of firelight erupted from the muzzle of the gun, and white smoke rose up. The clearers in the first row immediately retreated, and the clearers in the second row stepped forward again, aimed at the target and pulled the trigger.

The gunfire on the school field was incessant, and it never stopped for a moment. One row of musketeers immediately stepped back to reload, while another row of musketeers stepped forward and fired projectiles like water at the target in front.

"This Huguang New Army is really worthy of its name! Terrible! It's really amazing! Zhou Gongzi, you really have a set! Kong Sizhen smiled and praised endlessly.

Zhou Peigong hurriedly saluted and said, "Gege has won the award!" ”

Next, Kong Sizhen asked again: "How much silver can be consumed for such a large number of sophisticated firearms?" How many craftsmen do you have to build? ”

Zhou Peigong didn't dare to hide it, so he had to answer honestly: "Hui Gege, this self-generated fire gun, it takes about ten taels of silver to build one; The smallest of the guns were of pure brass, and it cost about three hundred taels of silver to cast one; The medium-sized cannon was a copper-core iron cannon, and it cost about four hundred taels of silver to cast one; The largest cannon of this kind was an iron cannon, and it cost about three hundred and fifty taels of silver to cast one. The kind of cannon that fired into the sky was what the Tessians called a mortar cannon, and it was also cast in pure iron, and it cost about one hundred and fifty taels of silver to cast one. ”

"Isn't it true that the bigger the cannon, the more expensive it is?" Sun Yanling asked.

"General Huisun, this cast cannon also depends on the materials, and the cost of the copper cannon is high; Iron cannons are cheaper. Zhou Peigong replied.

Kong Sizhen asked puzzledly: "That kind of cannon facing the sky, the cannonball is extremely powerful, the cost is cheap, and the weight of the cannon is light, why don't you make more of that kind of mortar cannon?" ”

Zhou Peigong said with a smile: "Gege doesn't know, although the mortar cannon is cheap to build and easy to cast, but the range is short, the accuracy is too poor, and the flowering cannon is surprisingly expensive, and a cannonball costs fifty taels of silver!" ”

"Is Gongzi Zhou willing to take the slave family to see your firearms workshop?" Kong Sizhen asked with a smile.

"Humble officials are naturally willing to serve!" Zhou Peigong saluted.

Kong Sizhen and his entourage followed Zhou Peigong to the Huguang Gun Factory in Jiangbei. This is a large arsenal built by Xue Fengzuo and Mei Wending with the help of foreigners, the scale of the Huguang Gun Factory is very large, there are more than 5,000 craftsmen in it, including more than 3,000 craftsmen who make guns, can produce 6,000 flintlock guns per month, more than 2,000 craftsmen make guns, and have 10 large blast furnaces, but because it is still an old-fashioned clay mold casting method, it can only make 50 guns a month.

This Huguang Gun Factory still adopts an all-manual approach to build. However, with the efforts of Xue Fengzuo and Mei Wending, the method of manufacturing various parts in batches and then assembling them in a unified manner has been adopted. Because there are strict size standards, the caliber of the guns produced is relatively uniform.

Xue Fengzuo was originally a mathematician, and after obtaining the measuring instruments of Westerners, he successfully imitated them, which made it possible for the Qing army to unify the caliber of guns.

When I walked into the factory, I saw rows of craftsmen standing in front of the stove, beating iron plates into the barrels of guns. There were more than 1,000 people who specialized in the production of gun barrels, and thousands of people lined up and started work at the same time, which was extremely spectacular.

In addition, some people specialize in the production of various parts, such as springs, triggers, hammers and other musket accessories, most of the parts are made of copper casting, and then polished after casting, which can save a lot of manpower. There is also a group of workers who specialize in the production of wood accessories. After the barrel, parts and wood accessories are ready, they are assembled by a special person.

As for the casting of artillery, there are people who make clay molds, people who are responsible for blast furnaces, people who polish the bore of guns, and people who specialize in the production of gun carriages and gun carriages.

In addition to the newly produced artillery, some old artillery is also being renovated gun carriages and gun carriages, and according to Xue Fengzuo's requirements, eventually all artillery guns will be replaced with gun carriages with big wheels. (To be continued.) )