In addition to the musket workshop, Li Qingyuan can finally get some heavy weapons, with the current combat mode of Li Qingyuan's troops, Li Qingyuan feels that it is enough to make some tiger squat cannons and grenadiers.

The tiger squat cannon was available in the Ming Dynasty, with a slight improvement, engraved rifling, firing solid bullets can hit farther, and firing scattered bullets can also increase part of the range.

Li Qingyuan knew that the Qing Dynasty had produced a kind of iron cast cannon, but because there was no corresponding annealing process, the output of the artillery seemed to be a lot, but the quality was not very good, and even some defective products.

Therefore, if you want to make a good cannon as soon as possible, you still have to use the Shafan casting cannon method, as for the annealing process, this needs to be explored slowly, and it is said that Lao Mei has studied for 60 years in order to make a usable iron fan.

Therefore, Li Qingyuan felt that instead of researching this technology, it was better to make a batch of usable ones to use first, and as for that kind of technology, there will be more talents in the future, and he will slowly study it after it is stabilized.

The iron fan method was not invented in the Qing Dynasty, Li Qingyuan remembered which information he had read, as early as the Song Dynasty, many pig iron farm tools were poured with iron fan, and it is possible that some craftsmen mastered the annealing process.

However, this skill was lost during the war, and the Ming and Qing dynasties did not even reach the output of the Song Dynasty, and even the production process and technology regressed.

Shafan casting is a process commonly used by Europeans, and Huaxia uses mud fan, which is easy to form, easy to control the shape, and can be modified in the later stage, but there are also many shortcomings, such as long drying time, easy cracking, uneven internal and external heating, easy to deform and pores, etc.

Although Sha Fan has shortcomings such as easy destruction of molding and difficult to cast large utensils, he also has his own points, such as fast heat conduction, short drying time and so on.

Li Qingyuan remembered that when he was a child, he saw the kind of vendor who used scrap aluminum and scrap copper to demould to make pots and spoons on the street, and there was nothing to play at that time, and it was a whole day when he looked at it, so he really knew a little bit about this thing.

The most difficult thing in this is the formula of molding sand, Li Qingyuan only remembers that it is made of clay and sand, but he does not know the ratio of soil and sand.

However, when Li Qingyuan raised this question, several blacksmiths did say that they could do it, and Li Qingyuan asked about it and learned that the Shafan casting method is not only in Europe, but also in China, but no one has ever used this technology to make artillery.

The next thing is simple, first let the carpenter make the artillery model according to Li Qingyuan's design, and then polish it smooth, some blacksmiths recommend the lost wax method for making this kind of large utensils, but Li Qingyuan considered that he was afraid of impurities, so he simply poured it directly at one time.

The first experiment was the Tiger Squat Cannon, which Li Qingyuan designed was longer and thicker than the old version of the Tiger Squat Cannon, and Shafan was divided into two parts.

The lower part is the barrel mold and the front half of the gun body, the upper part is the other half of the gun body and the gun tail, and the two halves are buckled together to form an upside-down gun on the ground, on which there is a feed port for pouring iron juice, and there is an exhaust port.

Such a sand fan was prepared for two days before it was formed, but when it was used, it could only be used once, and the wrought iron used to make the tiger squat cannon was still wrought iron, Li Qingyuan participated in the whole process, and after pouring and molding, it was annealed and cooled in the next step.

Then it is to check whether there are cracks and pores, and after passing the inspection, start grinding, be sure to ensure that the inner wall is smooth, and then engrave rifling, which can not be pulled in and out from one end like a musket, and can only be used by pushing.

However, the caliber of this tiger squat cannon is much larger than that of the musket, so there is no need to worry about the problem of broken rods, and the external cannon lugs must also be brought on the gun carriage after they are done.

These slow work do not need Li Qingyuan to participate, Wu Duyan has a new move, maybe because of the special status of Zhili, Wu Duyan did not dare to make too much trouble, and after grabbing it at the bottom of the mountain for a while, he retreated.

After retreating, Wu Duyan began to wreak havoc in the mountains, successively attacking several towns in the mountains, and also defeating several bandits who did not obey his orders.

Maybe it's really because of the crow's love for selling weapons, so there is no new action against the crow's side, but Li Qingyuan's sphere of influence here further south has indeed been affected.

Fortunately, southward expansion is not the main direction of Wu Duyan, so although there is a conflict between the two sides, Wu Duyan is not in the mood to deal with the affairs here, and it is all a few small fights with a few minions.

What Li Qingyuan said about Wu Duyan's new actions did not refer to the conflict between him and himself, but according to the arranged undercover report, Wu Duyan was fighting the idea of a declining imperial merchant in Shanxi.

Li Qingyuan was very supportive of his idea, but Li Qingyuan heard that these imperial merchants had spokespersons in the imperial court, and even the eight imperial merchants could directly communicate with the emperor, so he couldn't afford to provoke them.

Li Qingyuan is not afraid that Wu Duyan will make things bigger, in fact, Li Qingyuan is very dissatisfied with this kind of concealment and failure to report Zhending Mansion, he not only did not benefit from this concealment of Li Qingyuan, but was even more sad because of the closure of the mountain.

This time, Wu Duyan cleaned up the imperial businessman Li Qingyuan just used him to explore the way to see how deep the water of these imperial merchants was, and also provide a reference for his next move.

Wu Duyan dealt with this surnamed Liu, the ancestor was one of the eight imperial merchants of the Qiao family had a dragon merit, and later the Qing Dynasty did not have a big reward, but they quickly made a fortune by taking advantage of the benefits of the Qiao family.

At the peak, one-tenth of the mountains and forests in the north of the entire Liao County were his family's, and the shops selling leather goods were opened to Beihai, but later the family offended the emperor during the Yongzheng period and was collected by the emperor.

The family fell instantly, but as the saying goes, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, even if his Liu family has been defeated, but it is still a well-known big family in Liao County, his Liu family compound is surrounded by mountains and rivers, the terrain is majestic, and it is said that there are five dragons and pillars.

Don't underestimate this compound, there are as many as seven entrances, the walls are high and the bricks are thick, and it is more difficult to attack than ordinary towns, and how many bandits have broken their minds to fight this courtyard.

Why Wu Duyan is not in the courtyard of the Liu family, it should be because there is such a saying in the bandit world of Taihang Mountain, and it is said that there are one hundred silver winter melons in the silver treasury of the Liu family's compound, one is ten thousand taels.

This is a whole million taels of silver, who listens to it without drooling, this silver winter melon is a popular anti-theft method for the rich people of Shanxi, the silver is melted and cast into a big silver pimple, you can't move, you can't lift it.

Even if one or two thieves enter the silver vault, you can't move this big winter melon, you can't carry it, and even ordinary carriages can't transport it.

Anyway, the Liu family must have such a silver winter melon, but no one knows how many there are, but according to legend, in order to repair the Liu family's compound, the Liu family has invested more than one million taels of silver, so it is not uncommon to really have a hundred silver winter melons.