A large number of blacksmiths collected from Sichuan and Shaanxi have been enriched into the Hanzhong Military Bureau, and as of the day Wang Huan came, there were more than 500 people in the huge valley, among which Wang Huan selected more than 100 teenage apprentices from the children of the Kuizhou army, the rest were blacksmiths with a practical foundation.

As soon as Wang Huan entered the workshop, he asked Xu Erjue to give him a room to stay in.

He pointed to Ma Wannian and the others who were following behind him, and said again: "Find a place for these people to live in, remember to be next to my house, otherwise they will sleep under my roof at night, get up in the middle of the night to pee, and the people sleeping all over the ground can scare your urine back." ”

Xu Erjue didn't understand at first, so he agreed, but after a while, the more he thought about it, the more wrong it became, and he hurriedly asked, "Master Hou, do you want to live here for a long time?" ”

Wang Huan took over a big burden from Ma Wannian's hands, and said with a smile: "Yes, if I don't make the cannon I want, I won't leave." ”

Xu Erjue was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "How can this be made, Hou Ye has a lot of opportunities, how many things in the world have to be decided by Hou Ye, you live here, and ...... outside."

Wang Huan waved his hand and said categorically: "Ambassador Xu doesn't need to worry, I have explained everything outside, since someone will deal with it, Ambassador Xu will be thinking about casting cannons, although he doesn't know how to cast cannons, but he knows some principles of ingenuity, and if he says it and consults with Ambassador Xu, he may be able to get twice the result with half the effort." ”

Xu Erjue was embarrassed, and he had more than enough strength to raise it, and mustered up the courage to persuade again: "Hou Ye personally supervises the work, and the lower officials must do their best, but this cannon casting matter cannot be done overnight, even if Hou Ye is here, it may not be able to be done overnight, and it will take a lot of time to talk about this iron smelting alone." ”

Wang Huan was noncommittal, urging him to hurry up and find a house, Xu Erjue sighed, and reluctantly led him to the courtyard where he lived, cleaned up the inside, and vacated it to Wang Huan.

Throwing the burden he brought with him to the bed, Wang Huan grabbed Xu Erjue, who was thinking about how to arrange lunch, and excitedly took out a piece of paper from his arms, which was densely covered with handwriting.

"Ambassador Xu, let's take a look, can this method be made?" Wang Huan's eyes flashed with excitement, shining on Xu Erjue's face.

Xu Erjue took the piece of paper with some goosebumps, only glanced at it, and was immediately stunned. His hand holding the paper clenched in vain, trembling slightly, and he couldn't help but stare at the words on it.

After looking at it for a long time, he raised his head, his face was full of shock, and he stammered: "Master Hou, this, where did this come from?" ”

Wang Huan ignored him and asked, "What?" How? Can it be made? ”

"Unbelievable! It's incredible! My lord, according to this method, it is easy to cast cannons! Xu Erjue applauded: "Iron mold casting cannon method!" This method is much more convenient than our original clay mold casting cannon method, first build an iron mold with a clay mold, and then quickly cast a cannon with an iron mold, which is not affected by the weather and the drying speed of the clay mold, and the speed of casting a cannon barrel in the past mud mold can be greatly accelerated in a month, and a set of iron molds can make a cannon barrel within ten days, which can be called god speed! ”

"Feasible?" Wang Huan also exclaimed in surprise that his method was written in imitation of the patent of Gong Zhenlin, an artillery expert in the Qing Dynasty in the nineteenth century, because his memory was not very clear, he was not sure whether it was written correctly, but looking at Xu Erjue's facial expression, this road would work.

So he quickly took out another piece of paper from his bosom, which was different from the previous one, and on which was a picture was drawn.

"What about this cannon? Can it be made? Wang Huan asked anxiously, as if urging the matchmaker to introduce him to a beautiful girl.

With the first experience, this time Xu Erjue was a little mentally prepared, but he had more expectations, he took the piece of paper with anticipation and looked at it fixedly.

Then he opened his mouth wide and stared at the paper for a while, unable to speak.

Judging by his expression, the piece of paper made him dumbfounded more than a million taels of silver tickets.

In fact, there is nothing strange on the paper, the painting is a cannon, to say special, that is, the gun carriage of the cannon is different, on both sides of the gun carriage, two wheels as high as the top of ordinary people's heads are particularly eye-catching, and the gun body, eye-catching painting with scales, seems to be used for aiming.

"Master Hou, this kind of cannon, the first time Xia Guan has seen it, such a huge wheel, there is no precedent, there are many details in the painting that are not clear, it is relatively vague, and it is a little difficult to build it." Xu Erjue said truthfully, he was amazed by the exquisite and strange design of this cannon, but the details were too rough, and if you want to understand it thoroughly, I am afraid it will not be possible to do it in a short time.

"Oh!?" Wang Huan responded disappointedly, and his frustration was beyond words.

This is the world-famous Napoleon cannon in later generations, can be called the classic front-loading cannon that will be designed to the extreme, Wang Huan has read a lot of books in the later world, has seen the pattern of this cannon, but has not studied it in depth, at the moment draw it out from memory, of course, it is impossible to draw it as it is, not only did not draw it in many places, but even the basic structure was wrong, of course, Xu Erjue did not understand it.

At that time, Napoleon's cavalry artillery tactics fought all over Europe, relying on this kind of field artillery with strong mobility, fast rate of fire, and great power.

Xu Erjue felt that Wang Huan's emotions quickly fell from the peak to the trough, and he was very uneasy, feeling that this was caused by his limited ability, he was very guilty, and bowed down and apologized: "The incompetence of the lower officials has disappointed the Hou Ye." ”

Wang Huan waved his hand and grinned: "Where to speak!" It has nothing to do with you, I think about it again, think about it again, there must be a way to complete this design drawing, and then you can see the clue when you look at it again. ”

"Okay, well, when the time comes, the officials will definitely find more craftsmen to refer to together." Xu Erjue replied: "The lower officials are only shallow in their studies, and if more people come, maybe they will be able to have more ideas and more methods." ”

Xu Erjue carefully put away the two pieces of paper, and as he spoke, he followed Wang Huan out of the house.

Entering the workshop, there is a busy scene everywhere, the blacksmiths take out the hot iron obtained by smelting from the blast furnace, carefully pour it into the mud mold, the clay mold casting cannon, is Wang Huan said to Xu Erjue to know, this is the Qing court in the Han people to develop the lost wax method, Wang Huan replaced the beeswax with a mud mold, that is, to reduce the cost, but also improve the efficiency, Xu Erjue is regarded as a very advanced casting method.

But compared with the iron mold method written by Wang Huan just now, the clay mold method is much inferior, and Xu Erjue's vision of Wang Huan is no longer just admiration and admiration, but also adds a lot of admiration to the master.

"Why do you use iron?" Wang Huan frowned and asked, "What about the copper that was shipped?" How not to use it? ”

Xu Erjue hurriedly replied: "The iron cannon is a new method developed by the Ming Dynasty in recent years, which can save precious copper and build an equally durable iron cannon, so Xia Guan thinks that the iron cannon should be built first to meet the needs of the army." ”

Wang Huan waved his hand and said categorically: "No need! There will be no problem with the supply of copper, immediately stop the iron cannon casting and replace it with a copper cannon, but the copper should be smelted with two or a half points of lead, cast into bronze, and then used to cast the cannon! ”

(End of chapter)