Hearing Sun Hedou speak so confidently, Guo Dong, who has never been very into this courtyard, is also interested, and he watched around the four cannons for a long time, but he can't see too many doorways, he is a blacksmith who makes firearms and knives, and he became the leader of Li Meng's manufacturing because of fate, and he is loyal, but the level is not so high, he is really ignorant of this artillery, and he can't see why.

According to Li Meng's "what Sun Hedou wants, the expenditure below 1,000 taels will be used by him, and more than 1,000 taels will inform Master Ning", Sun Hedou's house is extremely generous.

The same is true today, this side is still watching in the courtyard, although the courtyard is quieter, but the courtyard is noisy, although there are dozens of personal soldiers following Li Menglai, after entering the scope of this workshop, the troops guarding this workshop are immediately dispatched soldiers to assist.

Despite the noise outside, Li Meng didn't have anything to worry about, and sure enough, a man shouted at the door:

"Mr. Sun, the horses you always want have arrived, let's wait outside!"

Sun Hedou agreed with a smile on his face, and said to Li Meng:

"My lord, the students have overpassed, and this will require the deployment of manpower to move the cannon."

Li Meng nodded, Sun Hedou began to direct the people to carry the artillery, and brought the horses in, the courtyard where Sun Hedou was located was not so much a yard as a small manor, the yard covered a wide area, and the gate was not small, this was all for the convenience of transporting coal and iron in and out, after all, the yard was also a place for blacksmith workshops and cannon casting.

There were a lot of people coming in in wagons, and the soldiers who had been temporarily transferred were all porters. Li Meng and more than a dozen personal soldiers stood aside. Watching everyone busy, he noticed that the four artillery pieces were different, and two of them were in the old style, that is, the styles of the guns sent by the Zheng family, including the batch sent by his own side after setting the specific caliber and poundage.

The other two are different, the barrel is almost indistinguishable, the details are on the battery mount. This kind of cannon was very close to the style he remembered, a large wooden wheel covered with iron, a gun mount, but on the side of the cannon there was a crooked two-wheeled ground shelf, but he didn't know what it was used for.

Started to finish it with all hands and feet. Each gun was equipped with eight horses in front of it. Twenty people. There are Sun Hedou's assistants commanding there.

At the sound of an order, the two ordinary guns did not need much tidying, the gun mount was actually a wooden box with wooden wheels under it, but it was quite troublesome to move, and the horses were pulled, according to the traditional style of driving and pulling the cart, at most two horses were hung up. Fewer horses. There is a lot of manpower, but twenty people don't have to be too troublesome to push these two guns. The shouting trumpet also began to move.

The two guns of the new style were much more troublesome, the tail of the gun mount was raised, and someone pushed the wheel carriage that was leaning to the side and stuffed it under the gun mount, and after fixing it with wedges and iron rods, the gun became a four-* cart, and several people shouted to put the shells on the gun mount.

Eight horses in front of the gun carriage were brought over, two horses in a row, lined up in four rows, the reins connecting them were all made of soft ground leather ropes, this side was busy, there were two old style cannons have been pushed out more than a few hundred steps, Li Meng's personal soldiers looked at each other there, this face is not a war, but in the Jiaozhou battalion's own territory, they are also relatively relaxed, and a personal soldier muttered quietly:

"This will be on the battlefield, how much work will be delayed, I really don't know what to toss."

The leader of the pro-soldier glared back at him, and the pro-soldier immediately didn't dare to speak anymore, but Li Meng had a smile on his face, he probably guessed what Sun Hedou was going to do.

The two cannons over there are ready to be completed, Sun Hedou took out a handkerchief and wiped it on his face, this is the only thing that is different from the people around him at the moment, and the rest of the time, this man looks like a blacksmith master, and he is also the kind of apprentice who contributes.

Sun Hedou turned his head and said to Li Meng, who was standing on the side:

"Master Li, Master Guo, let's go to the school together!"

Guo Dongming was a little confused, Li Meng nodded with a smile, and his own soldiers brought him horses, while some of the soldiers standing in front of the two guns sat in the back of the gun carriage, and some sat in front.

A man who looked like a coachman shouted, and the carriage began to move slowly, and ran out along the gate towards the official road, where the Jiaozhou battalion spent a lot of manpower in the large area of the blacksmith shop, and the road was smooth and wide.

Li Meng and his soldiers were all riding horses, watching the carriage run faster and faster under the traction of eight horses, and soon passed the old-fashioned artillery in front of them shouting trumpets and pushing horses.

Seeing this, the pro-soldier who spoke out was immediately speechless, and Sun Hedou also got on the horse, caught up with Li Meng, half a horse's head behind, and said:

"My lord, the school field where the artillery test fire is fired is five miles away from here, my lord is fast, why don't you go there and wait first."

Li Meng smiled and nodded, beat his horse forward, and the group galloped towards that side. Li Meng hurried his horse, but he noticed that the two cannons dragged by the eight horses were not slow, and as for the two old-fashioned artillery, they had long been left far behind.

This side of the school field is a relatively gentle place, it turns out that there are dozens of families living here, but they have all moved out, when there is no firearms drill around, it is the training place of the cavalry, and when there is a firearms drill, it is the cavalry to search outward, so as to avoid anyone entering this place and encountering danger, or peeking into the secrets of the Jiaozhou battalion.

Wuli Road, for Li Meng, who was riding a horse, quickly arrived at his destination, Sun Hedou had already arranged for his assistants to wait here, beckoning a group of people to enter the school field and enter the position.

It didn't take long for the two guns dragged by the eight horses to follow to the school ground, and under the command of Sun Hedou, the two-wheeled gun carriage was unloaded and placed in the designated area. Sun Hedou thought about it quite completely, seeing that it was already lunch time, and someone brought some flour cakes and mutton pickles, Li Meng was not a person who paid attention to food, he directly sat with the soldiers and blacksmiths and ate happily.

It is said that this Sun Hedou is a person from Songjiang Mansion, and he is a family of officials and eunuchs for generations, so he should be very particular about diet, but this Sun Hedou is a dough cake with mutton, and he eats very happily. This made Li Meng's good impression of him deepened a lot, Sun Hedou is a practical character.

After almost half an hour, the two old-fashioned guns were late, because there were several uphill slopes on the road, but the old-fashioned driving method could only set two horses, and the horsepower and manpower could not be used, and it was extremely laborious. Everyone was sweating profusely.

The advantages and disadvantages of old and new artillery are already clear, and on the battlefield, Li Meng certainly understands what the heavy firepower and mobility of artillery represent.

After the arrival of the two old-fashioned guns, they were also lined up side by side with the two guns in front, and after Sun Hedou asked Li Meng, he gave an order to that side, and the craftsmen and apprentices there skillfully cleaned the barrel of the cannon, poured gunpowder into the chamber with a powder barrel, and after tamping, loaded the shells.

"So that your Excellency will know that all guns of the same caliber, regardless of the old or new style, have the same charge here, no matter how many, and in doing so, the result will be valuable."

Li Meng frowned and looked at the craftsmen who were still charging the medicine over there, thinking that it would not take long for these craftsmen and apprentices to be replenished to his artillery team, which is also a tradition, but he always felt that something was wrong in front of him, but he figured it out quickly, and said:

"Mr. Sun, the size of this cannon is different, and the amount of charge is also different, these craftsmen know it."

Hearing Li Meng's question, Sun Hedou couldn't help laughing, this was clearly common sense, and replied:

"The craftsmen are all skilled, and the gunpowder poured into the chamber of the cannon will not be more than three taels, and the students have tried it many times."

"Why don't you weigh how much you need to use for each gun, find something to wrap the gunpowder, and stuff it into the barrel of the gun when the time comes."

After saying this, Sun Hedou, who was smiling, suddenly stiffened, and was stunned for a long time before he stretched out his hand and patted his head, and said with a wry smile:

"If you don't say it, the students really can't think of it, it's really separated by a piece of paper, and it can't be broken!"

Listening to Sun Hedou's emotion, Li Meng was a little embarrassed, if he wasn't there today, I am afraid that he would not be able to remember the improvement of this quantitative charge, if the quantitative charge is applied in the firearms unit, at least the degree of loading and ejection will be greatly improved, after laughing dryly, he turned back and instructed Guo Dong:

"The gunpowder of the fire gun should also start to be dosed, and it should be started immediately."

Seeing Li Meng's solemn instructions, Guo Dong hurriedly agreed, the new and old artillery turned over to the test firing is not so attractive to Li Meng, the new artillery mount artillery range is two percent farther than the old artillery, but the previous demonstration of mobility has made Li Meng extremely impressed.

With these artillery mounts, the artillery can also keep up with the maneuver of the Jiaozhou battalion, which is naturally of great benefit to the combat strength, in any case, Sun Hedou has made great contributions to the Jiaozhou battalion, because of his pragmatic style and outstanding knowledge, it will definitely be reused.

In July of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the weather was not as hot as in previous years, and the north wind gradually rose, and it was actually a little cold......