Busy time always flies quickly, unconsciously, the time has passed through March, the northern Songjin battle has begun to enter the final stage, through the battle report of Liuzhou City, the Qing army launched five days later than the time of launching a decisive general offensive in history, but the result of the battle is basically the same. The general soldiers Qiu Minyang, Wang Tingchen, and Cao Bianjiao were killed, Hong Chengchou and Zu Dale were defeated and captured to Shenyang, and in mid-March, Zu Dashou led his troops to surrender the city, and the Qing army occupied Jinzhou. Since then, the first stage of the decisive battle of Songjin has ended, the Ming Dynasty lost several strategic points while losing a large number of soldiers and horses, only Xingshan, Songshan and other places were left to hold, but according to historical data, in April, the Qing army that continued to fight will use red-coated artillery to bombard several cities behind, and the defenders will also surrender to the death of the battle, and finally end with the defeat of the Ming Dynasty......

Of course, Deng Shifeng knew the process of history, but others didn't know, especially Zhong Shuqing, who is currently resident in the mountain village as the liaison between the two parties, often sighed for a long time, and from time to time ran to the education center to find Deng Shifeng or the service agency to find Qin Er, hoping to send out the second batch of rifles and ammunition as soon as possible, and even hoped that Deng Shifeng and they could sell artillery to the Ming Dynasty to fight.

Last time, the two sides reached an agreement to sell 5,000 summer rifles and 300,000 rounds of ammunition, but these guns and ammunition were secretly transported to the north by water first, except for the 300,000 primers, which were secretly transported to the north by water, and the guns and ammunition were delivered in two parts, the first transaction was 3,000 rifles and 150,000 rounds of ammunition, while the remaining ammunition and guns were delivered after the final payment and other supplies arrived......

It's just that Zhong Shuqing is helpless is that Deng Shifeng and Qin Er always prevaricate on the grounds that they don't see rabbits, don't scatter eagles, or are still producing, Zhong Shuqing is helpless about Deng Shifeng and Qin Er's excuses, although he doesn't know how long it takes to produce a rifle, but the delay in the second batch of silver and materials in the Ming Dynasty is enough to shut him up.

Even if he has the intention to move the two of them with the righteousness of saving the country and perishing, although Qin Er has the country in his heart, it is not your Daming's, even if Deng Shifeng has the heart to send the remaining ammunition and guns directly to Daming...... But with his understanding of Daming, it's useless for you to send 10,000 or even 100,000 new rifles!! The Three Kingdoms have Adou who can't be supported, and Da Ming is already rotten from the inside out, and advanced weapons can't save Da Ming's qi......

And don't look at the Xia-style rifle ahead of this era for more than 200 years, one or two can't change the situation on the battlefield, and forming a cluster of firearms combat is not as simple as training one or two shooters, it requires strict training of the overall team and a change in tactical thinking, if those civil and military generals in the Ming Dynasty only used it as a musket that could be fired quickly...... Not only will the combat effectiveness be greatly reduced, but it is more likely to be defeated by the current Qing soldiers who are extremely good at learning to seize the loophole!!

Therefore, what Deng Shifeng was concerned about was not the result of the Battle of Songjin, but how the Ming Dynasty army would use these Xia-style rifles after obtaining them, or put them in the Shenji Battalion to do a three-stage attack as before, or just use them to defend the city and be suppressed by the opponent's artillery without doing anything, or even surrender directly to the Qing army with guns and guns......

Among these three, the last thing Deng Shifeng wants to see is the third result, although he did not lose much, but this batch of weapons did not exert their due power and consume the strength of the Qing army, it would be too much failure, and the complete surrender of the formation also means that in the future, his troops are likely to meet the Eight Banners armed with Xia-style rifles head-on, which is not good news......

Of course, things still need to be looked at from two sides, if the Ming Dynasty officers surrendered in the formation without going through the actual combat test, then their concept of the Xia style rifle will also end on a possible rapid fire rifle, without actual combat sharpening and changing tactical usage and strict training, you just give them all automatic rifles that can break through, and they will not be able to really give full play to the maximum combat effectiveness of automatic rifles......

However, it is a pity that the news about these Xia style rifles is like a mud cow entering the sea without any feedback, and I don't even know where the equipment went, the only news is that the first batch of 300,000 primers secretly transported to the north were stored in two places after they arrived safely in Hong Kong, and on the eleventh day after the delivery of the first batch of guns and ammunition, the first batch of primers was quickly "found" by a group of officers and soldiers. It is only because of the light and angle that it is impossible to observe more closely, and it is impossible to get more information from the mental outlook and other details of the soldiers......

Originally, Deng Shifeng also planned to pay attention to the whereabouts of these weapons through Zhong Shuqing, but Zhong Shuqing was soft-spoken, and to say something unpleasant, he was sent here to see that he was promoted by one level, but the Ming Dynasty sent him over that is an abandoned son who can be abandoned at any time, for an abandoned son, will you pay attention to it?

In desperation, Deng Shifeng could only passively wait for the news from the north, and continue to do a good job in various developments to prepare for his next round of army expansion and expansion.

Due to the impact of the trade with the Ming Dynasty, the refitting of the Xia modified rifle was carried out in advance due to the arrival of the material transaction, and the refitting that was originally expected to be carried out next year was brought forward to this year.

Due to the inheritance of the summer rifle, the production of the summer rifle did not encounter too many difficulties, especially the barrel part only needs to make some changes to the chamber, and the receiver change part is not large, so the summer modified rifle has a certain reserve a long time ago, and as mentioned before, the main reason for restricting the large number of summer modified rifles is not the production of firearms, but the production capacity limitation of ammunition.

Due to the birth of several verification steam engines last year, the power problem that has plagued the mechanized production of the factory has broken through the progress of the surname, after a few months of trial, these verification steam engines have withstood the strict test, whether it is the safety of the boiler or valves, pressure gauges, pistons, piston rings, crankshafts and other key equipment The use of hours have initially reached the most basic requirements, after the strict inspection of the acceptance team composed of Deng Shifeng and Lao Sun Tou and several other students, Everyone finally signed their names on the acceptance letter, and the steam engine, which was of epoch-making significance in the history of industry, finally changed the time and place of its appearance, and officially entered the history of industrial development in the mountain village.

The official production of this Taishan brand reciprocating steam engine was first used in the power supply of medium and large stamping machines, and various large and medium-sized stamping machines that had been produced according to the design power began to make bursts of roaring sound under the impetus of the steam engine, and a piece of copper and iron materials that have been pre-formed are quickly sent into various stamping machines through mechanical transmission, bullet shells, arc-shaped iron sheets of armor, helmets like fried eggs, iron boxes that encapsulate bullets, and various galvanized iron canned food boxes that are currently only used by the army; Even steam sterilization, which appeared in later generations until the middle of the nineteenth century, began to appear because of the appearance of the steam engine and the maturity of peripheral accessories......

On the day of signing, Qin Yi, as the main person in charge of technology, was the last to sign the list of researchers with a trembling hand, and when Deng Shifeng announced that the official acceptance of the reciprocating steam engine named Taishan brand, all the main researchers were crying, in order to study the steam engine, this research group did not know how much suffering it had suffered, how many sins it had suffered, solved one technical problem after another, and experienced many failures and setbacks. The finished drawings are stacked up to the height of one person......

When Deng Shifeng first set up the steam engine research group nearly four years ago, the students at that time only had a very vague idea of this epoch-making thing, and the mountain village did not have the ability to produce pressure gauges, valves, piston rings, crankshafts and other parts in harsh working environments; After these years of research, the obstacles that have been on the road of research have been taken down one by one, not only the steam engine is naturally ripe like a ripe fruit, but also the research and production of these parts has also dragged the birth of various new technologies and new products such as clocks, alloy materials and electroplating......

For the study of the steam engine, Deng Shifeng does not play a big role in it, he understands that even if he is anxious, he can't be in a hurry, the reciprocating steam engine as one of the most mature steam engines, Deng Shifeng only uses its structure and principle to tell the students, and the selection of materials, processing and the research and production of various parts is a hard threshold, this threshold Deng Shifeng has no plug-ins available, must be linked to the overall technical strength and production level of the mountain village, Even the parts that could be substituted from the cave could never be used on the steam engine, and the demand in his heart was to produce a product completely in-house; Because not only the steam engine must be produced, but also to ensure that there is the ability to produce replacement parts to ensure that these steam engines can continue to be produced and used.

At the same time, this is not only a big test of the industrial technical ability of the entire mountain village, but also a touchstone to improve the technical level of the overall practitioners and workers through these studies, a steam engine project not only promotes the improvement of the overall industrial production capacity of the mountain village and the emergence of various new technologies and new products, but more importantly, it involves the participation of thousands of people in various production departments; It can be said that through the research process of steam engines in the past four years, the greater harvest of the mountain village is to cultivate a group of experienced and more confident researchers and senior skilled workers!!

When the time crossed from April to May, when the Battle of Songjin in the north ended with the complete defeat of the Ming Dynasty, the industrial development of the mountain village also entered a new period with the delivery of the second batch of steam engines...... (To be continued.) )