Seeing this, Zhang Kui raised his hand to stop these people from preparing to run down to the top of the mountain, and personally took a student down to check the situation.

The penultimate one, running like a snail, was Qi Fang, and it was his neighbor Erhuzi who arrived later, and Qi Fang had fallen to the ground at this time, his face was a little pale, and he didn't know why.

Zhang Kui personally poured water on him, turned his head and asked Erhuzi, "What's wrong with him?" What's your name? ”

"My lord, my name is Erhuzi, the second brother of the Qi family should be hungry and faint! And also...... The soles of his shoes are broken, and his feet are punctured! ”

"Hungry and fainted...... Zhang Kui was also stunned, took out a bag of dry food from his body and handed it to Erhuzi, "You give him some water to drink and eat!" ”

When Erhuzi saw Zhang Kui getting up to leave, he immediately became anxious, stood up and asked, "My lord!" My lord, have we passed the test of climbing the mountain? ”

"What do you say?" Zhang Kui's eyes widened, "Hurry up and clean up, wake up this kid, we're on our way!" ”

Qin Kai found that he was now more and more accustomed to being a hands-off shopkeeper, and since the implementation of the new technical hierarchy, the Mawei Artillery Bureau had definitely become a huge magnet.

In the nearby Mawei shipyard, many small officials and technical backbones secretly came to get in touch with Xu Guofang in private, Xu Guofang naturally sorted out the news and sent it to Qin Kai, and conducted a preliminary assessment of the skilled workers in these shipyards, of course, as a secret state, this list only circulated between Qin Kai and Xu Guofang.

For the arrangement of these people, Qin Kai naturally had a plan, the nearly 2,000 skilled workers in the shipyard were the crystallization of more than ten years of education in Mawei Shipyard, and he was naturally unwilling to let these technical talents do nothing in the hands of Shen Sing and Jin Fatzi, but it was not yet the time, so he only asked Xu Guofang to deliver the message, and the artillery bureau would not recruit people for the time being, but there would be news soon, let them wait patiently.

In the past month, 7 senior skilled workers and dozens of intermediate technical workers have been recruited from Guangzhou, and the number of junior workers who are willing to come is even more amazing, which is also according to Qin Kai's meaning, junior workers are not in a hurry to recruit first, only leave words, and wait for the opportunity.

What surprised Qin Kai even more was that Lin Deping, the apprentice Wu Yun recruited from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, was at the cargo station of the He family in Shanghai, and arrived at Mawei on a British steamer.

Among them, there are gunpowder making talents and artillery shell technical workers who are in short supply at hand by Qin Kai, Wu Yun's recommendation is really in place, and the work responsible for the interview with him is completed by Qin Kai himself, after all, the Artillery Bureau lacks familiar manpower in this regard, and it can be seen from the interview that Lin Deping's knowledge of gunpowder and bombs is indeed very rich, and he has a lot of experience in the production of the most powerful flowering shells and maroon gunpowder and the processing of cannonballs.

Qin Kai assembled a gunpowder shell workshop by Lin Deping, which was placed under the jurisdiction of Wu Yun, and the first task given by Qin Kai to Li Deping was to complete the production of 10-inch caliber cannonballs and train junior technicians in the gunpowder workshop.

Lin Deping, who received this task, was obviously a little strange, this 10-inch shell was a new thing, after all, the Jiangnan Bureau had never made such a large-caliber cannon now, and when he went to find his top boss and teacher Fu Wu Yun, he saw that a huge cannon barrel was being installed on a large boring machine.

Wu Yun was nervously measuring the outer and inner diameters of the artillery, and from time to time there were workers gently tapping the wall of the cannon next to the barrel to detect whether there was a problem with the inside of the barrel.

"Deping, you are famous now, the first one in our Artillery Bureau can be a workshop supervisor!" Wu Yun joked with a smile.

"Old man, don't make fun of me, I can do this, it's not that Lord Qin trusts you, I'll have a good ride!" Lin Deping is now a serious senior skilled worker, and when it comes to the level of skilled workers being the same as Wu Yun, he laughed, "I originally came to ask what these ten-inch bombs were made for, but now I don't need to ask, it's for this big guy!" ”

"Deping, do you feel good here?" Wu Yun asked while recording the progress of the workers.

"With the old man you covering, can it be good!" Lin Deping laughed and said, "The artillery bureau here is really different, the cannon made by our Jiangnan Bureau was learned from foreigners, I think the things made here are not worse than foreigners!" ”,

Lin Deping is a veteran who has been working in the Shell Bureau for more than ten years, this bomb is one size bigger, and this power is much stronger, so he also has a deep understanding of making artillery, Uncle Wu is his master, what can be made back then, he also knows very well, the most powerful thing in the Jiangnan Bureau is the 127mm (5 inches) breech gun.

It has only been a long time since the old man came here, and he can withstand so much at once, it is absolutely impossible, if he can explain it, there is only one truth, the supervisor here Lord Qin's ability is unbearable, from this exam for himself, he also found this, the questions asked by Lord Qin, he tried his best to deal with it, especially the last few questions, he had never heard of it at all.

However, he was full of expectations for such a new life, the previous days day after day, year after year, lifeless all day long, with a meager salary, he never wanted to live anymore, he had a strong desire to make some real achievements, so that Lord Qin felt that he was worthy of receiving the salary of 30 taels of silver.

After sending Lin Deping away, Wu Yun naturally knew very well about the current mental state of his apprentice, he left the boring machine, and ran to the other side to check the other side of the barrel of another larger No. 1 gun that was being drilled in depth.

Now the biggest factor limiting the caliber of artillery is the processing technology, at this point, Wu Yun is now very confident, looking at the large bore cutting machine and internal and external mechanical grinders in this plant, this is not a big guy in the Jiangnan Bureau, and now there are still some things that are not in place is this drilling machine, but Lord Qin has assured him that Xu Guofang's workshop is processing a more huge drilling through, and the length of deep hole processing has reached an astonishing 8 meters.

Another reason is the problem of steel, the quality of the iron produced by the Mawei Ironworks recently is very poor, even Wu Yun guessed that this is someone is obstructing the Artillery Bureau, and now these iron materials are transported from Guangzhou by Lord Qin, and Lord Qin even invented the process of making cannons with sleeves.

The sleeve technology is not a new thing, and the Krupp and Armstrong guns of this era used this technology to reinforce the bottom of the bore, but applying this technology to the entire barrel is definitely a new attempt.

The double-layer sleeve completes the strengthening of the main gun barrel, and then the three-layer reinforcement of the local tubular sleeve in the key parts is such a creative idea, he really can't imagine how Lord Qin has such a great idea.

Of course, there are side effects of this, that is, the weight of the barrel will undoubtedly increase a little, but for this 254mm caliber cannon, who cares about the increased weight!

Zhou Ruidong and Zhang Kui's group returned to the artillery bureau in the evening, and the first day of recruiting Xiangyong was still very effective, recruiting a total of more than 100 people, these are all men who have completed five kilometers of cross-country, most of them are honest farmers. Zhang Kui finally agreed that Qi Fang, who joined the team, was more or less an exception, he had studied for a few years and could read and write, but there were very few in the entire team.

After these news were reported to Qin Kai, Qin Kai directly handed over the training task of the township regiment to Zhou Ruidong, except for the training every morning that was carried out with the students, the training at other times was arranged by Zhou Ruidong, and the training naturally followed the model of the school.

As for the problem of literacy, he thought about it, it doesn't matter if he is illiterate, let people teach, he has a lot of students, they all go down to be probationary officers, exercise well, and study after training, as for firearms, Qin Kai thought of Old Man Ding again, if you don't give money, you can get a few hundred Mauser guns! However, Ding Tieji was very picky, and only issued 50 breech Mausers.

When the recruitment of this Xiangyong was carried out simultaneously, in Xu Guofang's machine tool workshop, a set of textile machines designed by Qin Kai was assembled, driven by steam power, a complete set of silk from silkworm cocoon to weaving was completed by the machine, the shuttle moved rapidly, and the silk cloth was rapidly formed at a visible speed.

In addition to Qin Kai, there are two other giants of the Guangzhou Textile Association - He Yong and Wu Jingui, the two of them have already spread the news, as for the interested merchants are not a few, everyone knows that this foreign cloth is easy to sell, if they can produce it, this is not a big fortune!

Wu Jingui smiled so much that his eyes were about to open, this time he was very surprised to get acquainted with Qin Kai, and it was very difficult to say that the family supported Qin Kai's industry, and the early investment finally saw the opportunity to return, he arched his hand towards Qin Kai and asked: "Lord Qin, has this loom been tested for the textile of cotton cloth?" ”,

Qin Kai quickly asked people to take out a roll of cotton cloth and hand it to Wu Jingui, and several workers skillfully changed the cotton thread, hung up the shuttle, and began to cover up the textile cotton cloth on the spot.

The quality of such cotton cloth is very good, Wu Jingui this time in order to do business, it is a lot of effort, a good understanding of the foreign cloth market, obviously the quality of the sample is no worse than foreign cloth, now the disadvantage is only in the printing and dyeing and color of foreign cloth, but this point, Qin Kai has already said, soon there will be a new dyeing machine.

He Yong has already broken off his plan to open a foreign cloth factory these days, since He Xing brought back the news that Qin Kai received a huge amount of funding, the old lady He has completely changed his mind, and the old idea of leaving some foundation for the family has been completely abandoned, and the old lady has spoken, and he wants to mobilize all the ability of the He family to assist Lord Qin's business.

Today, with the advent of this full set of textile machines, He Yong saw that the energy contained in the machine was unimaginable, and then he understood why foreign merchants could send millions of horses of foreign cloth to Mawei Port every year, and now this power is finally in the hands of his family, and the giver of this qiē is undoubtedly the young and calm young man in front of him.

Qin Kai has a complete right to speak about this textile machine agreement, and he has long inquired about how much the machine of the foreign bank is, and the labor cost, workers' salary, and depreciation of the machine ...... Anyway, after all the miscellaneous expenses are converted, the price he now gives is less than half of that of a foreign company.

After the He family negotiated with the Wu family, they added 30% to this price and sold it to join the Textile Association, which was only more than 60% of the foreign bank, Wu Jingui got this price code, and he was already laughing so much that his teeth were about to dislocate, and the investment of this loom soon pushed up the price of cotton and silk in China, but on the contrary, it promoted the production of cotton and raw silk.

However, this is no longer a problem for Qin Kai to consider, a group of junior skilled workers were quickly put into the maintenance of textile machines, these textile machines not only created a one-time income for Qin Kai, but will continue to create a stable annual income in the future, of course, from the maintenance of the machine.

At the end of the month, He Xing showed a smile for the first time when talking about the silver money of the artillery bureau, that month, due to the huge expansion power of the Guangzhou Textile Association, the current textile machine has been scheduled until the end of the year, a large number of deposits and cash silver are included in the accounts of the day, and the horsetail artillery bureau has continued to lose money for several months and finally got the first surplus.

This shape even surprised Qin Kai, the architect of the whole project, who had to recruit a group of workers from Captain Mawei and the art garden again, and put them in Xu Guofang's machine tool workshop to speed up the production of textile machines.

In the governor's yamen, a copy of two excerpts from the inner line of the governor's palace once again set off a small storm, this time the excerpt was by Shen Singhe, the superintendent of the Mawei Ship Administration School, and co-organized by Jin Fatzi, the content of which is directly pointed to Qin Kai's teaching in the Mawei Ship Administration, saying that he reflected the imperial court in his teaching, and listed eleven examples of allusions to the imperial court, which is already a public tear face.

Qin Kai was naturally recruited to the yamen for the first time, and when he saw the content of this excerpt of "quoting scriptures", he also admired that these two guys were busy counting money in this month and could spare so much time to do such a careful work. In the first half of the month, Jin Fatzi completed the transaction with the merchants in Guangzhou, and the more than 30,000 taels of silver he made were also lost with the arrival of the goods.

Regarding the so-called insinuations pointed out by Jin Fatzi and Shen Sing and the two foreign historians, Qin Kai dictated them on the spot, and Sun Fu helped record them and refute them one by one, and the ridiculous thing is that the two of them were so absurd as to cite the example of the Franco-Prussian War, saying that this was an allusion to the landless treaty signed by the imperial court with Russia in the north.

After Sun Fu's polishing, a very detailed statement was sorted out and handed over to Ding Richang, Ding Richang was already quite unhappy with the golden fat man and Shen Singhe's repeated and repeated incidents, after all, this is the internal affairs of the Mawei Ship Administration, and this excerpt was actually thrown into the Governor's Palace, this is not clear that he can't get along with himself.

He immediately reassured Qin Kai, "Gale Wind, you don't have to worry about this matter, I'll give it to Lord Zhongtang, this won't let us sit here with peace of mind, please come out and say something!" ”

Qin Kai naturally had a face that had been seriously wronged, but at this time, he stopped Ding Richang from immediately writing an excerpt, "My lord, you can't be angry with such a villain, I have good news for you here, and I want to invite adults to the Artillery Bureau tomorrow to observe the new artillery coming off the assembly line!" ”,

Speaking of artillery, Ding Richang's interest increased greatly, and his old face looked happy, "Gale Wind, why don't you say such an important thing earlier, try the cannon as soon as possible, I want the imperial court to see the ability of our Mawei Ship Administration!" ”

The next day's observation, is completely the debut of the Mawei Artillery Factory, the last time the production of 5-inch guns, at most it is a commissioning ceremony, when Ding Richang saw the huge barrel that completed the final polishing of the appearance on the mechanical grinding machine, Ren was stunned to look at it for 5 minutes, the black barrel, the huge muzzle, which is very different from the bronze frog muzzle cannon he made back then.

And when this huge cannon of 254mm caliber (26 times caliber) was installed on the gun carriage, and after the final assembly was completed, it was dragged to the test gun factory by horses, which really made everyone feel a shock from the bottom of their hearts, and Zhou Ruidong and Zhang Kui looked at the god of war that Instructor Qin often said with obsessed faces.

Ding Richang also understood the basic principles of artillery, and there were several circular casings outside the long barrel, and he also guessed that it was the function of reinforcing the barrel. Qin Kai simply told Old Man Ding some of these technical tips, this set of barrel technology is really unheard of, which makes Old Man Ding excited, and from a technical point of view, this technology is undoubtedly a key to the giant cannon, and he kept praising Qin Kai along the way.

When he arrived at the gun factory, he saw that the carriage had dragged the giant cannon and the gun carriage to the position, at this time, Ding was quite emotional, pulled Qin Kai aside, and said with a stern face: "Gale Wind, this cannon is fired, the old man's wish for more than 30 years has been achieved, the old man was young and vigorous, but you were much sharper than the gale wind, this matter is over, the old man promised you that the thing will be done for you!" ”

Qin Kai saw how the old man Ding was like a farewell speech, and he couldn't figure it out for a while, and after a few words of compliment, the two waited for the artillery to test the cannon, and with a loud bang, the smoke shrouded the cannon for a long time, but the clairvoyance held by Ding Richang had already observed that the stone wall that was the target in the distance was blown apart, and the power of the cannonball could be seen.

After the smoke cleared, the surrounding workers let out earth-shattering cheers, and Ding Richang happily boarded the carriage and left, as the Minister of Fuzhou Shipping, the success of this artillery can be described as an amazing political achievement, which also lives up to his prestige as a cannon governor. Thinking of this, he had already begun to play the manuscript in his heart that he had given to Lord Zhongtang.

Qin Kai stood in the middle of the smoky artillery factory, his heart was full of passion, the success of this artillery will allow him to have a new world to display his talents, this is Ding Richang's reward for him. And now, it's time to clean up the trash! He hurried back to the artillery bureau, and at this time He Yong, Zhou Ruidong, and Zhang Kui were all waiting for him in the house, and there was another guest, who was the comprador in Guangzhou, Master Li.

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