【2nd Update】

Wang Juqing was stunned when he heard this, he didn't expect that Han Gang was so proficient in kitchen cooking utensils.

He didn't know that Han Gang's family had a chef who could toss eighteen kinds of weapons in order to cook dishes.

Cast iron rice cooker, wrought iron wok, as soon as you come out of the house, you will be prepared. The rice cooked in the cast iron rice pot tastes much better than ordinary rice retorts and clay pots. It is used to make stews, stewed chicken, stewed meat, etc., and the heat is also good. Such a cast iron pot can be taken out and sold ten times more after being enamelized. Not to mention, wrought iron woks come in handy every day, and they also add a lot of new dishes to the menu at home.

"It's far away, or how to invent the iron fan." Han Gang smiled embarrassedly and motioned for Fang Xing to continue.

"It is said that things are learned, and what we don't pay attention to, I will remember it at a glance when I participate in politics, and I can say a few words about anything. Like Fang Xing, it will pass after seeing it, and forget about it in the blink of an eye. Fang Xing had a relationship with Han Gang, smiled and said a few words, and then said to Wang Juqing, "After Xu Liang left the Plate Armor Bureau, he was assigned to build a cauldron. The kind of cauldron with a diameter of three or five feet cannot be forged, but can only be cast. But he was transferred to a blacksmith, and his craftsmanship was not good, and the scholar used clay molds to cast pots, and there was always trachoma, and the iron pots could not be too thick, and if there was too much iron, he would lose money, so the pots he cast would leak every time. Later, Xu Liang somehow thought of getting an iron mold first, and then casting a pot in the iron mold, but he broke a way out for him. ”

Wang Juqing sighed when he heard this, "It's also thanks to that Xu Liang is a new hand in cast iron, otherwise there would not be this iron fan." ”

"Yes, if he had passed on the mud fan casting pot and knew how to avoid trachoma, he would not have to think of other methods, let alone have an iron fan. With the iron fan method, it is much stronger than the clay fan, the size and quality are not comparable, and the casting speed is not comparable, so almost all the iron pots on the market in Tokyo have been changed to official in the past two years, and to the south and north, there are also many official ones. The prison also knew that there was such a person in Lu Dao, and after the political participation proposed to set up two new bureaus of firearms and coinage, Zang Jian Cheng directly transferred Xu Liang back. ”

"Now Xu Liang is in the Firearms Bureau?!"

"No, it's in the Mint. It was a bit troublesome to use the iron model method for coinage, so I asked him for it. Fang Xing sighed, "Now it seems that the Iron Fan Forge is only suitable for large objects for the time being, and it is a little difficult to be as small as a coin." ”

"I just said that Xu Liang invented the iron model method for casting pots......"

"Indeed." Fang Xing nodded.

"But it should also be rewarded, after all, how much money has this saved the imperial court? How much time is saved? It is used in the casting pot to benefit the imperial court a lot, and it is used in the casting cannon to know how many benefits. Back then, a single wine-making method was rewarded to Lu Sansi, and this iron model method was far above the stove method. Wang Juqing was upset for Xu Liang, turned his head to Han Gang and said, "Participating in politics, if Xu Liang has not been rewarded, Juqing will go back today and write to the Queen Mother and Zhongshu." ”

Wang Juqing and Lu Jiawen's heart knot was knotted after Lu Jiawen swallowed the reward of the Lianzao method. Although over the years, Wang Juqing knew that Lu Jia's question was powerful, so he couldn't bear it. But this time, on Tingtui, he stabbed Lu Jiawen from behind. Now when it comes to the benefits of the new process, I don't forget to step on Lu Jia's two feet.

"It's ready to give. However, if it is given to the official now, I am afraid that I will let the north know the benefits of this iron model method. Fang Xing said, "I was afraid of telling the Khitan people about it, so I transferred to the mint." ”

"That's right." Wang Juqing calmed down and nodded yes.

Artillery, a militaristic weapon, has long been spread all over the world with the help of Han Gang's reputation, and it is impossible for the Liao people not to investigate. There are precedents of spaceships, plate armor and pox seeding methods, and it is conceivable how much attention the Liao people will attach to artillery. In order to prevent them from understanding the details of process manufacturing, there is no need to deal with them too much.

"In fact, this iron model method is like replacing the armor and scale armor with plate armor back then, and the man-hours and costs have been reduced to a fraction of the previous one, and the gift should be like the example of the divine arm bow and plate armor." Han Gang said.

Since the Divine Arm Bow, Horse Chopper, Plate Armor, and Spaceship became famous all over the world, there are many new weapons offered every year, but few are suitable for mass production, and even fewer of them are suitable for mass production. The same is true for process improvements, there are a lot of them, but not many can be used. There is none of them that can compare to plate armor. New processes such as the iron model method, which are suitable for both military and civilian use, are the first in these years.

"It's just that I'm afraid that Beiyu will know, so I will only promote Xu Liang when he waits in the mint bureau for a while, and coin minting also needs a master craftsman with ideas to manage. If he could improve the iron model method and use it in coinage, it would be even more justified. Han Gang smiled at Wang Juqing again, "If you cast a board to make money, you have to change the mold once, which costs a lot." Coins are inexpensive, and if you can spend less than one cent, you will be one cent. ”

This is the following proposal, Han Gang can't openly say that he doesn't care about the Liao people to make artillery. Moreover, compared to the appearance of the artillery, craftsmanship is more important. Looking at the appearance of the artillery, it is not difficult to imitate, but the craftsmanship is different. Han Gang still wanted to see the stupidity when the Liao people used the same weapons against the official army, and suddenly found that the performance was far from the same and the number was vastly different.

"Politics is what it says." Wang Juqing nodded, paused, and suddenly asked, "I wonder if the bronze cannon can also be cast with iron fan?" ”

Fang Xing replied, "It's still in the trial." It should be possible, at most, just change it. ”

"If we succeed, it will be great news." Wang Juqing praised and asked Han Gang, "The tiger squat cannon is made of iron, and the field cannon and the city defense cannon are still bronze." Dare to ask if you are participating in politics, can this field cannon and city defense cannon be changed to iron, or can only be used bronze? ”

Han Gang said: "The price of copper is far more expensive than the price of iron, of course, it is better to use iron. It is only because the structure of the field artillery and the city defense artillery is different from the tiger squat cannon, and the force on the cannon wall is far greater than that of the tiger squat when firing, and the iron cannon is worried that the iron cannon will explode like a firecracker, so it is better to use more resilient bronze. ”

"If the iron cannons can succeed, the number of iron cannons can be ten times that of bronze cannons, and there should be more than a thousand guns a year."

Fang Xing has been in the Firearms Bureau for a long time, and he is a veteran hero who has single-handedly controlled the development of the Firearms Bureau, and he is certainly more familiar with his family background than anyone else.

"If there are more than 1,000 field guns and city defense guns a year, bed crossbows will no longer be useful." Wang Juqing smiled at Han Gang.

Han Gang immediately asked, "At that time, what is the Ordnance Superintendent going to do?" ”

Wang Juqing was stunned for a moment, thought for a while, "Remove it." Compared to the bronze cannon, the cost of the bed crossbow is also much higher, not to mention the iron cannon. It can be used for a short time, and it is also troublesome to maintain. In fact, these days, Ju Qing is thinking about how to deal with the one in the crossbow courtyard that makes bed crossbows. ”

Han Gang nodded. In his idea, the department of the Ordnance Superintendent, which specializes in the manufacture of bed crossbows, will reduce the number of establishments and production. At most, only a small team of craftsmen is maintained to ensure the inheritance of the technique. Everything else went elsewhere. Wang Juqing can also think so, so as not to bother himself anymore.

"There are not a few bed crossbows in stock." Han Gang said again.

Wang Juqing couldn't think of what Han Gang wanted to say now, so he bowed and said, "Please participate in politics and make it clear." ”

Han Gang said, "The bed crossbow that has been made can also be sent to the Western Regions." In the face of the Black Khanate's army, the Divine Arm Bow and the Bed Crossbow were enough to deal with, and the Bed Crossbow was disassembled and transported, which was a little lighter than artillery. ”

Although Wang Sunsin's side also needed artillery, he did not plan to transport it for the time being. Weight is a problem, and the opponent is a country that is no less civilized than China, which is very different from a thousand years later. Due to the long distance, the advantage of the Great Song Dynasty's national strength could not be reflected, and when the technique was leaked, it could not overwhelm the opponent in quantity, and in terms of quality, it was difficult to open a distance beyond the enemy's reach at the current level.

How to distribute the weapons that have been made is the work of the Privy Council, and it has nothing to do with Wang Juqing at all, and it has nothing to do with Han Gang, but this does not prevent Wang Juqing from echoing Han Gang's words: "The Privy Council said that it is indeed enough to use a bed crossbow to deal with the Black Khan. ”

Han Gang smiled, and together with Wang Juqing, he continued to visit the firearms test site, and it took a lot of time for the two of them to move from the test range to the houses of the guards and experimental personnel, and then from the houses of the guards to the warehouse.

In the past two days, the tiger squat cannon has been tested here, and the bronze field cannon and city defense cannon have not been dragged over, and Han Gang and Wang Juqing have no idea of continuing to let the sound of artillery continue to torture their ears.

Coming to the walled wall, which was nearly two zhang wide, Han Gang looked down at the test site surrounded by the city wall, and asked Fang Xing: "What else does the Firearms Bureau need now?" ”

"There are still few raw materials for gunpowder."

After a large number of experiments, a more suitable purification method has been found for the raw materials of artillery propellants, and the ratio of the three raw materials has also been confirmed, and the manufacturing procedures for finished products have also been established, which can be said to have been preliminarily finalized.

With the exception of two teams who were still experimenting with more powerful gunpowder, the rest of the craftsmen were all transferred to solve the set-up and safety issues of mass production.

Nowadays, the only problem is the quantity of raw materials.

But since hundreds of years later, the two dynasties that popularized firearms were not short of gunpowder, Han Gang didn't feel that he needed to worry.

"In the land of China, there is no shortage of sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter are more abundant, as long as the imperial court needs it, there will definitely be no shortage."

"Participating in politics says so, Fang Xing is also at ease." Fang Xing said, and sighed: "I heard that Japan has a lot of sulfur, and the Liao State has occupied Japan this time, so it will be easier to build artillery." ”

"I can't learn like I can't learn, I can't catch up with China, so I don't have to worry too much."

Han Gang is not afraid that the Liao people will steal artillery, but he is afraid that they will not learn. He really wanted to see the Khitan cavalry marching with thousands of pounds of cannons. The artillery that could not move with the cavalry, the Liao army did not have the corresponding tactics to cooperate. Just like the official army of the Great Song Dynasty, its tactical system is completely based on infantry, and the tactical system of the Liao army also revolves around the cavalry, which it is best at.

"Yes." Fang Xing arched his hand.

"The Firearms Bureau is the top priority of the Ordnance Supervisor, and Shouming will have to worry more about it in the future."

"Ju Qing does not dare to live up to the trust of the court and participate in politics." Wang Juqing recalled Fang Xing, "And there is a promotion, and there is no need to worry about participating in politics." ”