Walk to the front of the blacksmith street, only to see the corner of the street there are Zhu Jun's soldiers standing in the alley, although the name here is "blacksmith street", in fact, it should be called the arsenal, except for the front and back two intersections, all around it is sealed with thick walls, and idle people can not enter. The arsenal was heavily guarded with three steps and one sentry and five steps, which was arranged to prevent the spies of the imperial court or other rogue gangsters from making trouble in the arsenal.

In particular, gunpowder needs to be carefully protected, Zhu Jun's gunpowder used to be obtained by foreigners, after the occupation of southern Shaanxi, Zhu Jun got Hanzhong Mansion, which is a large place to produce saltpeter, so in one fell swoop solved the saltpeter problem that had plagued Zhu Jun for a long time. Now Zhu Jun can be self-sufficient, and there is no longer a need to go through the channels of foreigners, but the danger of producing crude drugs is also extremely great, as long as a spies come in the warehouse where gunpowder is piled up, and throw out a fire fold, half of the arsenal can be lifted into the sky, so it is impossible for the defense here to be not strict.

Not long after the red lady joined Zhu Jun, this was the first time she came to visit Zhu Jun's arsenal, and she couldn't help but look left and right excitedly. After looking at it for a while, she had a question, so she asked Zhu Yuanzhang: "Eighth Brother Zhu, I see that our heavy infantry and heavy cavalry are very powerful, why is there no mass production of heavy armor in the arsenal?" I see that the main production here is still more weapons, and there is very little armor. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "Your eyes are still full of sharp, we have basically stopped the creation of armor, three thousand heavy infantry is enough, now the main building is firearms, and the secondary building is shields, spear tips, swords and other weapons." ”

The red lady was puzzled: "The heavy infantry is so powerful, it should be as much as possible." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and shook his head: "With the development of firearm technology. Armor will become more and more useless, and it will even become a burden to affect the movement of soldiers in the future, and I don't want to spend the production capacity that is not high enough to be doomed to be obsolete. The existing heavy infantry is enough for us to fight against ordinary officers and soldiers, and if we want to deal with a more formidable enemy in the future, we will have to make a lot of firearms. ”

The red lady disagreed, shook her head and said: "The firebolt is slow to load, and the fire rope is also slow when firing, and it is not necessarily as far as the bow and arrow, but I don't know what is good about that thing, it is not as good as my flying knife." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed. Don't talk to her more. You must know that the red lady is an ancient person after all, she has her limitations, and it is not interesting to talk to her more, just use practical actions to prove it to her in the future.

At this time, they walked to the center of the factory. A small leader greeted him. Invite Zhu Yuanzhang and his party to a room. Then a small group of blacksmiths came out, each with a torch in his hand. Zhu Yuanzhang looked at it, and what they were holding was an exposed revolver.

The group of blacksmiths handed the revolver musket in front of Zhu Yuanzhang. Then he said respectfully: "General, it took us a year to finally succeed in replicating the revolver muskets, and this batch of revolver muskets is no different from the one of the generalissimo's leader." ”

These blacksmiths did not call Zhu Yuanzhang the eighth brother Zhu like Ma Xiaotian and the Red Lady, but called him the general, which was very respectful and very rusty.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't correct their titles, anyway, he called himself General Zhenxi, and people who were not familiar with him wanted to call him a general. Picking up a revolver, he asked, "Have you ever shot it?" ”

The blacksmiths said seriously: "I have actually shot, but ...... They still have frequent problems. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "What's the problem?" ”

The blacksmiths replied: "Occasionally, the chamber will explode, the runner will often get stuck, and occasionally the trigger will not be able to hit the fire, which will not cause the problem of bullets...... Now we're working on it. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang knew in his heart that these problems have existed since the invention of the firebolt, and they may not be solved in hundreds of years, and these problems can only be eliminated until human beings have precision machining technology. He doesn't know the technical details, in his previous life, he wandered the sky, mainly to watch the changes in the world, but not to squat in the arsenal to learn technology, so he didn't know how to solve these problems.

A blacksmith picked up a revolver musket, handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang to show him, and then said seriously: "General, look, the fit between the runner and the bearing on this fire system...... It can't be done tightly, so when the runner rotates, the machine bracket is prone to failure, which is the main problem we are currently facing. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but ask curiously: "Why can't you do it tightly?" ”

The blacksmiths looked embarrassed and said, "We are not skilled enough to create the perfect and identical parts, such as the runner and the bracket, and no two are exactly the same...... This big dot, that small dot, this dot, that flat dot...... It doesn't always fit perfectly. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, he understood. The human hand is not a machine, and the strength of each hand cannot be exactly the same, so even if two identical parts are made by the same person, they are actually not exactly the same, and there are always some differences that are difficult to detect with the naked eye.

He couldn't help but say, "Then why don't you make a few molds first, pour the burned molten iron into the mold, cool it and take it out, and you can make a batch of identical parts." ”

The concept of molds has been popularized in later generations, and even an ordinary person knows how to take a plastic mold to freeze ice cubes in the refrigerator. But in the era of the Ming Dynasty, molds were still rarely used, and most people didn't know that only the craftsmen who made moon cakes already knew how to make moon cake molds, and other industries didn't use them much......

When the blacksmiths heard this, they were puzzled. Zhu Yuanzhang briefly explained the concept of the mold, and then asked people to find a moon cake master in Xianyang City, at this time it was the end of summer, about to the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon cake master was also very busy, he saw a group of iron men are looking at him with green eyes, frightened, and quickly put his moon cake mold on both hands. The blacksmiths were amazed after seeing it, no wonder the words printed on the moon cakes were all the same, it turned out to be molds, and a group of blacksmiths were excited to follow the moon cake master to learn to make molds.

The blacksmiths happily learned to make molds, but then the question arises, what materials to make molds? To pour the molten iron into it, the material of the mold must be very heat-resistant, and the molten iron must not be allowed to condense and stick to it...... Mooncakes can be made of wooden molds, but it is absolutely impossible for blacksmiths to use wooden molds, and as soon as the molten iron is gone, the wooden molds will be burned into slag.

The blacksmiths got together and discussed for a long time, and an experienced old blacksmith said, "Let's use a hundred refined steel to make molds, and we won't be afraid of molten iron." ”

The so-called 100 refined steel, in fact, is still iron, in the Ming Dynasty this era is not a real sense of steel, the way to make 100 refined steel, is to burn the iron red, and then use a hammer to hammer hard, the impurities in the iron to beat out. The whole process is a turn, according to the number of exercises, for five, there are "nine refining", "thirty refining", "fifty refining", "seventy-two refining", "hundred refining", the number in front represents the number of exercises. The more you refine, the higher the quality.

According to ancient records, during the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei ordered the swordsmith Pu Yuan to build 5,000 treasure knives, each of which was engraved with the words "Seventy-two Lian". And Cao Cao has five "Hundred Refining Weapons", and Sun Quan is the worst, he only has one.

In fact, for the blacksmith who pursues perfection, the best iron is not the best, they have to hammer the iron repeatedly, exercise it repeatedly, regardless of how many times it has been refined, until the weight is not reduced after the exercise, it means that the impurities in the iron have been completely beaten, that is the hardest pure iron. That kind of iron is better than a hundred refinements, and it is enough to make molds for ordinary iron.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked them how long it would take to make a hundred refining steel, and the old blacksmith said: "I will fight in the morning, and I will fight at night, and when I am tired, I will change my son to fight, so that in seven hundred and forty-nine days, you can make a hundred refining steel to make molds......

Zhu Yuanzhang wiped a handful of sweat, you are too sad, aren't you...... If you want to make a large number of firecrackers, you can't just have one or two molds, you have to have a lot of molds before you can use them, and if each mold takes you 7749 days to play, then you have to do it? He searched his stomach and thought for a long time, only to think that there is a kind of future mold made of ceramics, and I don't know if the ceramics of this year can work, in short, it is good to give it a try, the origin of Shaanxi celadon has been included in Zhu Jun's pocket, send someone to find some porcelain craftsmen to study it carefully, whether it is successful or not, always have the idea to give it a try.

After patrolling the arsenal for a long time, the red lady was already impatient, yawning, Zhu Yuanzhang also felt a little tired, so he planned to go back, at this time, a herald flew in, he was obviously very anxious, full of sweat, saw Zhu Yuanzhang, immediately reported: "General, my subordinates first went to Xi'an to look for you, but I didn't find it, so I quickly came to Xianyang again, and it took half an hour in the factory to find you...... Here is an urgent letter from Lord Li Panlong of Luochuan. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang stretched out his hand to take the letter, unfolded it to look at it, only looked at it twice, and was immediately overjoyed.

Seeing his expression, Ma Xiaotian and the red lady next to him asked, "Brother Zhu, is it a happy event?" ”

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "It is indeed a happy event, and several rebel armies occupying northern Shaanxi have fought." Hengtian King killed the Chongtian Pillar, and begged to surrender to the imperial court, mixed with 100,000 anger, sent troops to attack Hengtian King, the two armies fought in the north of Yan'an Mansion, and killed corpses all over the field. ”

"Huh?" Ma Xiaotian Khan: "This is also a happy event?" (To be continued.) )