When He Tengjiao was processing the official documents of the provisional governor's office, an attendant suddenly rushed in with a panicked look and said urgently: "My lord, it's not good." ”

Hearing this, Bao Tengjiao raised his head, frowned and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

At this time, more than a dozen attendants broke in in with panicked expressions, and the sound of fighting sounded outside the line.

The attendant didn't care to answer He Tengjiao's question, and hurriedly said to the dozen or so attendants behind him: "You three, protect the adults and leave the back door quickly, and the rest come with me and go to the front door to block the thieves!" ”

"Yes."

More than a dozen attendants agreed with a bang, followed the attendant to the front door, and the remaining three attendants rushed forward, and couldn't help but say that they would set up He Tengjiao and leave, He Tengjiao was shocked and angry, and shouted: "Let go, let go of this official, what's the matter?" What's going on here? Quickly put down the official ......"

"Poof!"

Two strong winds swept by, and the two attendants who held He Tengjiao suddenly snorted and collapsed to the ground, and the remaining attendant was taken aback and rushed to He Tengjiao, another cold light flashed, and a blood flower bloomed on the waiter's neck, and then slowly withered to the ground, He Tengjiao's eyes widened, because he found that a large group of thieves suddenly appeared in front of him.

"You ......" He Tengjiao was extremely shocked and asked in a condensed voice, "Who are you?" ”

The young thief in the lead smiled brightly and said loudly: "If Ben Shuai is not mistaken, the adult must be the Governor of Huguang, He Tengjiao, Lord He, right?" ”

He Tengjiao said in a condensed voice: "It is this official." ”

The young thief gave He Tengjiao a long look and said, "I have heard that Lord He is a good official who is dedicated to the people, please accept this commander's worship." ”

He Tengjiao said in a deep voice: "You ...... Is it a thief? ”

"No, we're not thieves." The young thief general smiled and said, "The thieves are the slander of the Ming Court against us, and we are the Great Western Army. ”

"The Great Western Army?" He Tengjiao was shocked and said, "Sure enough, it's a thief!" But aren't you still two hundred miles away, how did you get to Xiangyang? ”

"Haha." The young thief looked up to the sky and laughed, "Don't you hear that the art of war is on the Yunming plank road, and secretly crosses Chen Canghu?" ”

"Ming Xiu plank road, secretly cross Chen Cang?" He Tengjiao's face changed drastically, "What a cunning thief, this governor has fallen for you!" ”

"Lord Ho." The young thief said, "Ben Shuai respects you as a good official, but remind you again, we are the Great Western Army, not some thief soldiers!" ”

He Tengjiao snorted and stopped talking.

The young thief turned around and instructed the thief soldiers behind him: "Pass the order, the soldiers of the whole army must not disturb the people, and if anyone dares to disobey the military order, they will be severely punished!" ”

"Yes."

Several thieves responded with a bang, and the order was given.

The young thief turned to He Tengjiao again, and said loudly: "Although Ben Shuai doesn't want to hurt the people by mistake, if the people attack us, we have no choice but to do it in order to defend ourselves, Lord He is the governor of Huguang, and it should be your duty to Zhang Bang Anmin, you won't watch the people in Xiangyang City being killed by mistake, right?" ”

He Tengjiao frowned and said, "This governor knows, I don't need you to remind me." ”

The young thief turned around and said, "Lord He, please." ”

He Tengjiao snorted and walked away.

■■■

Zhejiang, Jiande County.

After more than half a month of non-stop rushing, Wang Pu finally rushed from Henan to the Jiande Arsenal, and Zhen Youcai, president of the Academy of Military Sciences, and Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi, vice presidents of the Academy of Military Sciences, had already heard the news and rushed to the county seat to greet them.

After meeting, Wang Pu held Zhen Youcai's dry hands for a long time, and said movingly: "Youcai, thank you for your hard work." ”

Zhen Youcai smiled and said, "This is what a humble job should do." ”

Wang Pu turned to Song Yingxing, looked at Song Lao's gorgeous hair, and said with some regret: "Song Lao, you must pay attention to your body, don't get tired and sick." ”

"Hehe, Master Hou is too worried." Song Yingxing laughed heartily, "The old man stayed with Mizhi and those Xiyi academicians, discussing mechanical academic issues every day, not to mention how happy he was, this person is happy and has a good body, good appetite, Hou Ye, don't worry, the old man's body is hard." ”

Wang Pu said happily: "Old Song, you are the living national treasure of our Ming Empire, and you will never let you go to the heavenly realm to enjoy the blessings until you live to be a hundred years old." ”

Song Yingxing laughed when he heard this.

Wang Pu's eyes finally fell on Fang Yizhi, he didn't say anything but patted Fang Yizhi's shoulder heavily, Fang Yizhi's character and talent didn't say, and he was in the prime of life, he could be said to be the natural candidate for the next president of the Academy of Military Sciences, and he was the leader of the scientific community of the Ming Empire in the future.

At that moment, the four of them got into the carriage and went straight to the arsenal.

The Jiande County Order has mobilized the people to build a wide official road between the arsenal and the county seat, and two troikas can drive side by side on the official road.

When it was almost dark, Wang Pu and his entourage arrived at the Jiande Arsenal.

At this time, the thirty Western academicians and two hundred students of Yangming University were already lined up outside the gate of the Jiande Arsenal to greet them, Zhen Youcai This guy is really heartfelt, and he also specially organized a welcome ceremony in his busy schedule, anyway, now Wang Pu is already the de facto ruler of the Ming Empire, and there must still be pomp and circumstance.

After a few simple words, Wang Pu went headlong into the production workshop of the arsenal.

As soon as he stepped into the door of the factory, what filled his ears was the roar of the machine, and in the huge workshop, all he could see were iron machine tools, a busy scene, Zhen Youcai had already come forward and said: "Master Hou, this is the No. 1 workshop for the production of rifle barrels." ”

Wang Pu casually picked up the iron material piled up on the side of the aisle, but it was a muddy iron rod.

Song Yingxing introduced: "Hou Ye, in the past, the barrel of the rifle was rolled out, and then the large tube was used to cover the small tube, nested inside and out, and finally drilled and polished, not to mention the complex process, the strength is not high, if the gap is not closed, it is easy to explode, and now the barrel is directly drilled by the muddy iron rod, the process is simple, and the strength is high, and it will not explode." ”

Wang Pudao: "Drill holes directly with a muddy iron rod? What should I do if the drill misses? ”

"That's a real problem." Zhen Youcai said, "But it's hard to get the secret brother." ”

After that, Zhen Youcai said to Yizhi on the other side: "Mizhi, let's talk to Hou Ye, how to ensure that the barrel of the gun will not be deviated?" ”

Fang Yizhi said indifferently: "Hou Ye is worried that the barrel is biased, in fact, it is because the drill bit is too thin and long, and it is easy to scratch when it rotates, so the solution is actually very simple, that is, the drill bit is fixed, so that the barrel rotates at high speed and feeds the knife, because the barrel is thick and hard enough, it will not be scratched when it rotates, so it will basically not be drilled." ”

"Awesome!"

Wang Pu couldn't help but give Fang Yizhi a thumbs up, although it wasn't a big deal to say this, it was not so easy to come up with this trick out of thin air, because it was completely reverse thinking!

Speaking of this kung fu, Wang Pu has already walked to the front of a drilling machine, and a bunch of barrels that have been drilled have been neatly stacked in the turnover box next to the craftsman, Wang Pu casually picked up a barrel and found that the inner hole was very smooth, and the inner and outer centers of the barrel at both ends were almost not offset, at least not visible to the naked eye.

Wang Pu turned around and asked, "How is the processing speed now?" ”

Zhen Youcai smiled and said: "Don't worry, Hou Ye, after the machine tool is replaced with iron, the service life has been greatly increased, and the processing speed has been greatly improved, and a drilling machine can drill fifty barrels in one day!" There are a total of twenty hydraulic drilling machines in workshop No. 1, and if there are enough raw materials, a thousand barrels can be drilled every day! ”

"A thousand a day?" Wang Pu was speechless, "Obediently, wouldn't you be able to equip a musket battalion in those five days?" ”

Zhen Youcai said: "Now there is no problem with the processing speed of the barrel, but the casting speed of the iron rod cannot keep up, because the purity of the refined iron transported from all over the country is not enough, it needs to be re-smelted, and then cast into a muddy iron rod suitable for processing, because the production of the sand mold is very time-consuming, so the speed can not keep up, but when the iron mold is developed, the processing speed can catch up." ”

Wang Pu nodded and said, "Then how many muddy iron rods can be cast in a day now?" ”

Zhen Youcai said: "It's almost more than 400 per day, and if you remove the stomata and scrap them, an average of 400 per day." ”

Wang Pu was secretly happy when he heard this, even if it was 400 per day, it would be a lot of production capacity, and at this production rate, it would take less than two years for more than 100,000 Central Army to be equipped with standardized breech rifles!

Then Wang Pu visited the No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 workshops, the No. 2 workshop is to draw rifling, this is a technical job, the old craftsman can be competent, the No. 3 workshop is the production of bolts, most of the parts are forged process, with the good iron mold to press down, the parts are formed.

Workshop No. 4 is the final assembly workshop for rifles.

It is worth mentioning in particular the fifth workshop, that is, the bullet production workshop.

War has always been a catalyst for the rapid development of science and technology, and Wang Pu's research on military science and technology with the support of the country's financial and manpower resources has accelerated the development of military science and technology.

Because among the 30 Western academicians, there are several engaged in chemical research, when they were in Europe, they have begun to engage in the research of mine mercury technology, after arriving in China, thanks to the support of the Ming Dynasty and the support of finance, manpower, and equipment, their research was quickly successful.

The advent of the primer device made the evolution of the rifle revolutionary, and from then on it really began to achieve standardized production!

Although the current Jiande Arsenal has a small production capacity, it is already a modern arsenal in the true sense, because the rifles and bullets he produces are no different from modern firearms!

After visiting the No. 5 workshop, Wang Pu's inner agitation can be imagined, originally he only thought that it would be good for the Academy of Military Sciences to replace the wooden machine tools of the Jiande Arsenal with iron machine tools, but he didn't expect Zhen Youcai to do so well, and they really built a rifle production line!

Without waiting for Wang Pu's mood to calm down, Zhen Youcai pulled him outside a warehouse again, and said mysteriously: "Master Hou, I have a small gift for you." ”

Wang Pu's gaze became eager, and he asked in a low voice, "What gift?" ”

Zhen Youcai smiled and didn't answer, a craftsman had already stepped forward to open the door of the warehouse, Wang Pu saw at a glance that there was a behemoth in the warehouse, but the surface of this behemoth was covered with red cloth, and it was impossible to see what it was, but judging from the outline under the red cloth, this should be a cannon.

Wang Pu said in a condensed voice: "Hongyi cannon? ”

Zhen Youcai stepped forward and lifted the red cloth, and a brand-new cannon was displayed in front of Wang Pu.

This is a brand-new cannon, the barrel is longer and thinner than the barrel of the Hongyi cannon, but the body part of the cannon is much more bloated than the Hongyi cannon.

Zhen Youcai held the cannon and introduced: "This new cannon is made by several Western academicians according to the inspiration of the breech gun, its shells use copper shells like rifles, and also use primer devices, so the loading speed is shorter than the Furlong cannon, but the range and power are greater than the Hongyi cannon!" ”

After saying this, Zhen Youcai asked in a strange tone: "Master Hou, do you know that the range of this cannon is twenty miles!" ”

The maximum firing range of the Hongyi cannon equipped in the Central Army Artillery Battalion is five miles, and the firing range of the Furlong machine gun is about one mile, Wang Pu never thought that the firing range of this new cannon is actually twenty miles, which is four times the range of the existing Hongyi cannon, what kind of concept is this?

"Master Hou." Zhen Youcai said excitedly, "This new cannon doesn't have a name yet, why don't you give it a name?" ”

Wang Pu bowed his head happily and said loudly: "This guy's range is faster than that of the Franco, but the range is far beyond the Hongyi cannon, which can be described as incomparable, what in the world can stop him?" Why don't you call it the invincible general! ”

"Okay." Zhen Youcai said happily, "Then call it an invincible general!" ”

Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi on the side also echoed, the name of this new cannon was decided, Wang Pu stepped forward and patted the invincible general, and said to Zhen Youcai excitedly: "In the future, the artillery battalion of the Central Army will be replaced with invincible generals, and the sailors of our Ming Empire will also be equipped with invincible generals. ”

Song Yingxing on the side said: "Master Hou, do you want to go to the Academy of Military Sciences to have a look?" ”

"Huh?" Wang Pu was shocked and asked confusedly, "Academy of Military Sciences?" ”

"Well, that's right." Zhen Youcai hurriedly explained, "Because all the personnel of the Academy of Military Sciences have already come to Jiande, so they took it upon themselves to build a few houses on the Jiande side and moved all the equipment from Nanjing here, so that the academicians of the Academy of Military Sciences can also study nearby." ”

"I see." Wang Pu said happily, "It just so happens that Ben Hou also has something to discuss with the experts of the Academy of Military Sciences. ”

Wang Pu does have something to discuss with the experts of the Academy of Military Sciences, that is, the development of the steam engine, from the perspective of time, Europe at this time should have put forward the concept of the steam engine, I believe that those pagans from the West will not be unfamiliar, but to turn the concept into an industrial product, it is not so easy.

(To be continued)