After coming out of the storehouse, there was a large dilapidated courtyard by the edge of a small canal next to the barracks.

A small blast furnace had been built in the courtyard with bricks and yellow clay, and a large pergola had been erected, in which several big men were beating an iron rod with their bare arms and hammers, and the sweat on their bodies flowed down like a stream and fell on the red iron rods. With a "whoosh", white water steam rose.

A thin old man in his early fifties sat on a chair with a tea bowl and crossed his feet, and kept scolding the men who were striking iron: "Little Erzi, you haven't eaten enough, are you, or when I gave birth to you, I took you off the force, and you are a hammer when you hit the iron, hard, hard, like your father's ******!" ”

"Hey, Xin Lao Wu, you just have a lot of strength to use it, you have to hit it accurately, evenly. Don't think that a good blacksmith is so easy to be, and if you knock it around, Lao Tzu will stuff this stick into your crotch! ”

"Whatever fire you dip in, it's broken. Mom pulls the next door, the master of a thousand households spent such a lot of money to invite us over, but it wasn't for you to spoil things. This month's salary, 50 yuan will be deducted. ”

……

This old man is obviously the master of the Ministry of Industry that Fei Hong invited back from the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing, and listening to the accent, it should be from Hubei.

Although the person is old, it is Jiang Gui's nature, and as soon as he opens his mouth, foul language rolls in, and they are all greetings to the genitals of other people's direct female relatives, and the faces of his apprentices are like dirt.

Sun Yuan was also a famous college student in his previous life, and he suddenly couldn't accept it.

Seeing that the old man of Qianhu frowned, Fei Hong shouted: "Old Cui, the general is here, you have a clean mouth." ”

Seeing Sun Yuan coming, Lao Cui was frightened, and hurriedly knelt on the ground with a few apprentices and kowtowed: "I've seen Master Sun." ”

Sun Yuan helped him up: "Master Cui." ”

"Don't dare, the villain can't afford to shout the big man."

Sun Yuan: "Hurry up, it's important to hurry." ”

"Yes." Master Cui hurriedly stood up and scolded the apprentices again: "Do you understand, get up and work immediately, ******, they are all monkeys, and they want to be lazy when they seize the opportunity." ”

When several apprentices heard the scolding, they hurriedly began to work again, and the jingle sounded.

Master Cui shouted into the house: "Girl, you are blind, didn't you see the master of a thousand households coming to inspect, hurry up and make tea and come to wait." ”

"Yes, Dad." A woman in her early thirties came with a pot of tea. This person should be the daughter of Blacksmith Cui, she looks very ordinary, and she has three and a half children behind her, the eldest is about ten years old, and the younger one is only three or four years old. Needless to say, these three children must be the grandsons of Blacksmith Cui.

Sun Yuan thanked him, took a bowl of tea handed over by the woman, took a sip, and asked, "Master Cui, after coming to Ningxiang, are you still satisfied with your life?" If there is any need, although the boss in charge says that if he does not agree, he can come and ask the general. "This is a technical talent, and you have to respect it.

Hearing Sun Yuan's greeting, the rude blacksmith Cui looked grateful. The status of craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty was low, and officials like Sun Yuan saw him, and they scolded him at every turn. When had he ever been so respected, his body trembled with excitement.

replied: "If you go back to the general's words, it's all good, it's all good." When the villain used to work in the Ministry of Industry, although he had a lot of money, what kind of work he did and how he did it were all up to others, and it was better to be better off than being the master here. ”

Sun Yuan: "By the way, Master Cui, I heard Fei Hong say just now that it will take two or three months to complete the construction of these more than 1,000 muskets." ”

Master Cui hurriedly replied, "So that the general will know that it will take so long." Of course, if the general wants to fool things around like the Ministry of Works, a month will do. But if you want to make a good shotgun, you can't be sloppy, the key is the barrel. ”

As he spoke, he stepped forward, pushed one of his apprentices away, lifted the hammer and forged it vigorously, slowly beating an iron rod into a slender iron plate.

Sun Yuan also saw the ancient man-made gun for the first time, and walked over to watch it carefully.

Blacksmith Cui explained the entire process while fighting.

It turned out that when making the barrel, an iron rod was first beaten into a plate, and then an iron rod was placed on it. Then little by little, the steel plate was rolled up, and the iron rod in the middle was pulled out, and the barrel of the gun was completed.

But there are two things that are very important, first, the barrel must be forged to a tight fit, making a shape similar to the seamless steel pipe of later generations, without a trace of gaps. Otherwise, the musket will leak air when firing, and the bullet will not shoot far; Secondly, the steel used to make the barrel must be of good quality and must not have too many impurities, otherwise the barrel will expand when it is heated and explode. Listen to Fei Hongzhong, because the quality of the guns of the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty is so bad, many soldiers have been blinded by this explosion.

In the end, when the soldiers opened fire, most of them turned their heads to the side and put a shot on it. In this way, there is naturally no accuracy to speak of.

This is also the reason why the army does not like to use musketeers, and after the firearms battalion is pulled into the battlefield, not only can it not play any role, but it disrupts its own formation.

To make the barrel without the slightest gap, it depends on the craftsmanship and sense of responsibility of the craftsman, and Master Cui has no problem with this. The key that remains is how to get rid of the impurities in the steel.

In fact, with the technology of the Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to increase the strength of steel in a simple way. Therefore, he used a stupid method: keep beating the billet, as long as it is enough times and for a long time, it can finally knock out the impurities inside.

Anyway, in a word, 100 refined into fine steel.

After listening to his explanation, Sun Yuan nodded, and proposed: "Master Cui, in fact, in the final analysis, the most time-consuming and labor-intensive process is the process of hammering the billet, as long as you have the strength. Otherwise, you can take in a dozen more apprentices, and you don't need to teach other crafts, just do this. As for the skilled hands in your hands, they are specialized in dipping the fire and rolling the barrel. ”

This is already the prototype of the assembly line operation of the factory in later generations.

Master Cui was stunned, thought for a while, and patted his head: "This method is good, if everything goes well, it should be possible to build more than 1,100 muskets a month in advance." ”

"Well, two months, yes, the recruit company is exactly two months." Sun Yuan nodded.

"By the way, you've got to build something." Sun Yuan suddenly remembered something, so he picked up a thin iron stick, drew a figure on the ground, and said, "It's still 1,100, by the way, this end should be just able to fit into the muzzle." You also have to make a hook that can be hung on your belt when you don't use it on weekdays. ”

"This is a dagger?" Master Cui looked at it and asked, "How long?" ”

"One foot two, one-sided blade. This is not a short knife, it is a bayonet. Sun Yuan replied.

The musketeers were too slow to reload after firing the pellets in their guns, and the enemy was not sure that they would rush at them. When the time comes, the musket in the hand is worse than the burning stick, and it must be equipped with a bayonet, at least the soldier will still have the ability to fight hand-to-hand.

"This bayonet doesn't need to be refined with steel, it's okay to get by, anyway, if it's broken, it's burned red, and then it's forged with iron. It's fast, it doesn't take much effort. ”

Sun Yuan: "Indeed, the quality is passable, but it can't be too bad, it's better than the ordnance made by the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty." ”

"Don't worry, sir, it's definitely better than the Ministry of Industry, otherwise you can cut off my head."

Sun Yuan laughed: "A craftsman like you, how many can be found in this world, how can I be willing to kill you." ”

Hearing Sun Yuan's praise, Blacksmith Cui was so excited that he began to sweat, and the hammer danced more happily, and the courtyard was filled with the jingle of the hammer in his hand.

"Bang!" There was a cannon sound, as if someone had lit a cannon fight, and the blacksmith Cui lost his mind, and the hammer struck crookedly and fell to the side.

"Daddy is firing again!" The three children cried out happily at the same time, "Mother, we want to see, we want to see." ”

Blacksmith Cui had the intention to show off his skills in front of Master Sun, but he didn't want to be distracted by this cannon just now, and he was immediately furious. He was already vulgar, and he couldn't care about Sun Yuan on the side, so he opened his mouth and scolded his grandson: "Little bastard, little private baby, what's the name of nonsense?" ”

This was a little ugly, and the daughter of the blacksmith Cui was so angry that tears came out, and she poured: "Daddy, this is your own grandson." Yue Saburo and I are a serious couple. Why is Ah Da Ah Er and Junior in your mouth, but they have become private children? ”

"Lao Tzu scolded, what's wrong with you?" Blacksmith Cui threw the hammer on the ground angrily, only then did he realize that Master Sun was by his side, and he knelt down in a hurry, kowtowing and making amends: "The villain is rude, the villain is rude, the lord forgives the sin." ”

At this time, the door of a house was pushed open from the inside, and a large white house rolled out, and the pungent smell of gunpowder filled the courtyard.

In the smoke, a middle-aged man came out with an embarrassed face and shouted: "No, no, this black powder still can't be done." ”

Seeing that there were so many people outside the house, all dressed in official uniforms, the man hurriedly knelt down: "Villain Yue Luming, I've seen all the masters." ”

Fei Hong introduced beside him: "General, this is the gunsmith invited back from Nanjing by the last general, Master Yue, the son-in-law of Master Cui. ”

"Oh, it turned out to be Master Yue, hurry up." Sun Yuanxu helped him for a moment, motioned for him to get up and speak, and asked again: "What was Master Yue doing in the house just now, why didn't the black powder come to fruition?" ”

"The smoke is too big." Yue Luming couldn't help but shake his head: "If it is only used to make artillery battles, it can still be used, it can be used to make gunpowder, but it can't be done, mainly because it can't be burned cleanly, and it is more troublesome to clean up." Moreover, it was not burned clean, and when the gun was fired, the lead bullet could not shoot far. The villain has been pondering for several days, but he still hasn't figured it out. I lit the fire and tried it just now, and it alarmed the big man, a capital crime, a capital crime. ”

Hearing him say this, Sun Yuan's heart suddenly moved.

Yes, gunpowder in this era does have the problem of not burning cleanly. As long as the gunpowder powder is too fine, it is stored for a long time, and the fine powder sinks, so that there is no gap between the gunpowder particles and the particles. Without gaps, there is no oxygen, and combustion requires oxygen.

After later generations figured out this truth, they added a certain amount of water to the gunpowder, made it into fine particles of equal size, and dried it before use.

When it is used, because the black powder is granulated, there are many gaps between the particles and the particles, so that the gunpowder can be fully burned. When used as a propellant for weapons, not only does it not remain, but it also produces much more thrust than powdered gunpowder.

Sun Yuan: "Master Yue, I have a method, you can give it a try." ”

"Please give me advice."

After explaining the idea of granulating gunpowder to Yue Luming, Sun Yuan had other military affairs to do, so he left this courtyard with Fei Hong and Guan Tao.

After another two days, everything was finally settled, and it was time for the recruits to enlist.