When Lin Zhe walked into the Linde Machinery Factory, the first thing he heard was the rumbling sound of a steam engine coming from the depths of the factory.

The Linde Machinery Factory is only a refitting factory, and its overall scale naturally cannot be compared with those super-large-scale arsenals with thousands or even tens of thousands of people, and there are only more than 200 technicians and workers at present.

It's just that although they are not large in size and personnel, they have a large number of machines, including steam engines and many machine tools.

"At present, our machine factory has a total of 23 foreign technicians and 228 Chinese workers!" Pan Lixuan said to Lin Zhe and some of the officers of Yu Shengjun.

"At present, it is already possible to modify rifled rifled rifle guns in batches, and it is possible to manufacture mini bullets in batches!" Pan Lixuan pointed to the machine in the factory and said: "In order to be able to form the ability to manufacture bullets in large quantities, we specially purchased more than 20 large and small machines from foreigners, with the ability to produce 2,000 bullets per day!" ”

"In addition, we have also placed a lot of orders for foreigners, and it will not take long to ship them, and then we will set up a branch factory that can produce gunpowder on a large scale, according to the estimates of foreigners, after completion, the daily output of gunpowder can reach sixty pounds!"

"In addition to modifying guns, manufacturing bullets, caps and gunpowder, we can also mass-produce artillery shells, but at present, we are still mainly using solid bullets, and there is only a small amount of grenades, and the production is not large!"

Lin Zhe listened and nodded, the development of this Linde machine factory was more smooth than he expected, it was established for only half a year, but the introduction of a large number of modern machine equipment and the hiring of a large number of foreign technicians have made this Linde machine factory develop into a small-scale mature arsenal.

However, just the ability to modify rifles and make small quantities of bullets, gunpowder, and cannonballs was still far from satisfying Lin Zhe's ambitions.

So he said, "Do you make your own guns and cannons?" How's the progress, and when will we be able to come up with a mature product? ”

Hearing Lin Zhe ask, Pan Lixuan showed an embarrassed expression: "Recently, we have been trying to imitate foreign guns, although we have made a few sample guns, but the current problem is still relatively big, the quality of the barrel and the purchased foreign guns are quite different, and the test firing has been blown up many times!" ”

When Lin Zhe heard this, his eyebrows couldn't help frowning slightly, when he first arrived in Shanghai last year, he asked Lin Deji to try to make guns here, but looking at the current situation, this gun manufacturing is more difficult than he expected.

To build a gun, and it also requires a large-scale manufacture of the contemporary cutting-edge Minnie Bu's gun, which is still very difficult for the Linde Machinery Factory.

First of all, it is a problem of raw materials, not to mention compared with later generations, the quality of this barrel must at least be able to reach the quality of the brown bass 1841 rifle, otherwise the life of the barrel is too short, not to mention, and once the chamber pressure is high, it will explode, but too low will affect the range and power.

However, this raw material involves the problem of steelmaking, and the Linde Machinery Qì factory is now only a factory, and does not have the ability to refine high-quality steel.

In addition, in order to manufacture rifles on a large scale, the quality and quantity of the required equipment are very high, which is far less than the equipment used in the current modification.

In other words, if you want to manufacture rifles on a large scale, you need to invest heavily in a large number of machine equipment and hire more foreign technicians, not only to have a large processing capacity, but also to have steelmaking capacity.

As for the manufacture of guns, the problems they face are similar to those of guns, not that there are many technical problems, in fact, the technical difficulty of guns in these years is far from being compared with that of later generations, and if you entrust a foreign company to hire them, you can find a large number of foreign technicians to work for them, and it is not difficult to buy equipment.

The problem is money, to buy so much equipment, to hire a large number of technicians, which costs a lot of money.

The reason why Pan Lixuan set up this Linde Machinery Factory is mainly because Lin Zhe is the owner of the Lin Company, if it weren't for Lin Zhe, don't expect the big shopkeepers in the Lin Company to invest huge sums of money to develop this Lin Machinery Factory, this gun and cannon can make a few dollars, the investment is big and the income is small, with this money, they might as well build a few more machines and silk reeling factories.

In these days, it is very possible for a merchant to run an arsenal entirely commercially, especially in this part of China!

After leaving the Linde Machinery Factory and returning to his business zone Yamen, Lin Zhe planned it in his heart, although this Linde Machinery Factory was acceptable, but it was far from being able to support the future large-scale arsenal plan in his heart, let alone his ambition to develop heavy industry with the national defense industry as the core.

It's just that it is very difficult for this arsenal to rely only on the investment and development of the Lin firm, and the funds required to build a large-scale arsenal are very huge, and the random purchase of a batch of equipment is tens of thousands of taels.

Even if the Lin family firm is a wealthy businessman, but in the end it is just an ordinary raw silk business house, and the assets of several million are mostly physical assets, and the liquidity is not much, if they are allowed to take out more than 100,000 taels of silver at once and smash it down, I am afraid it will hurt the foundation of the Lin family business bank.

As for other businessmen, if they do not have a good prospect of expected profits, they will not invest huge sums of money, you must know that the investment in heavy industries such as arsenals is a large investment, and the time to recover costs is very long.

It is difficult to rely entirely on business, but it is also unreliable to run completely government, so many government-run enterprises in the late Qing Dynasty, few of them are in good condition, and there are few of them that are aggressive, and they may be okay at first, but after a few years, they are often filled with a large number of corruption unique to officialdom, and they are waiting for death.

In order to develop smoothly in the future, the arsenal must adopt a commercial-run model, as for the funds, the Lin firm can't get it, but the official organization it represents can be taken out!

Lin Zhe is not alone in Shanghai, he is also the commander of Su Songtai's military preparation road, Jianghaiguan Road, business and trade zone, and Yu Shengjun, responsible for the lives of millions of people and commanding 5,000 troops.

If you squeeze it, you can still get more than 100,000 taels of silver, not to mention anything else, some time ago, Yu Shengjun's various seizures had 500,000 or 600,000 taels of silver, and the expansion of the army could not be used so much.

As for the cost of raising the army, Lin Zhe had already planned to let Su Songtai's taxes from the three prefectures, as well as the revenue of the Jiang Customs and the tax of the trade zone, how could so many of the above-mentioned areas bring him tens of thousands of taels of silver every month!

In this way, the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in Yu Shengjun's inventory can be temporarily misappropriated for other purposes, such as supporting the development of the arsenal.

Thinking of this, Lin Zhe called Han Xiangfang, the general office of Yu Shengjun's Ordnance Bureau: "You go to the Linde Machinery Factory to discuss one or two, and tell them that our Yu Shengjun can order 20,000 rifles, fifty artillery pieces, bullets and shells from them!" ”

Han Xiangfang, the general office of the Ordnance Bureau, was taken aback when he heard Lin Zhe say this!

20,000 rifles, 50 guns?

What is the marshal going to do, is it necessary to expand the army again, and to expand the army by more than 10,000 people at one time?

The expansion of the army by 10,000 people is something that many generals of Yu Shengjun dare not think of, because the expansion of the army requires a huge amount of military expenditure, and the first phase of the military construction fee alone will cost nearly 500,000 taels of silver, and what is even more terrifying is the maintenance funds in the later stage, which cannot be raised without 100,000 taels of silver a month.

All the remaining military expenses of Yu Shengjun have been emptied, and they can't be built, can it be said that their own marshal has found a source of wealth or simply millions of taels of silver fell from the sky?

Looking at Han Xiangfang's expression, Lin Zhe knew that he was frightened by his lack of clarity, and immediately said: "But you tell them that this batch of orders must be guns and cannons produced by them themselves, not modified products, and we can prepay them a batch of models before delivery!" ”

Han Xiangfang was a little puzzled when he heard this: "Why is this? ”

Lin Zhe did not explain at length, but said simply: "Nowadays, our army's ordnance is extremely dependent on foreigners, and it is easy to have problems for a long time. Must be self-sufficient as soon as possible! ”

"If you want to be self-sufficient, you have to build guns, and the plate on the side of the Linde Machinery Factory is still too small, and it is difficult for the Lin family to invest too much money!"

Han Xiangfang was not a stupid person, and after hearing this, he said: "Could it be that we ordered ordnance from them and paid part of the money in advance just to support them and let them have sufficient funds for development?" ”

Lin Zhe nodded: "Not bad!" ”

When Han Xiangfang heard Lin Zhe's affirmative reply, he understood some of Lin Zhe's thoughts in his heart, and the core was nothing more than that he didn't want to be controlled by others!

There is nothing more uncomfortable than an army's ordnance supply being restricted by outsiders, if Yu Shengjun can support the Linde Machinery Factory, Yu Shengjun's ordnance supply will be guaranteed in the future, and there is no need to worry about being controlled by others.

Immediately, he said: "The ministry understands, I will negotiate with Linde Machinery Factory!" ”

Lin Zhe nodded and said, "Well, these are some of my detailed requirements for their new guns and new guns, you can also take a look!" ”

Han Xiangfang took the text in Lin Zhe's hand, looked at it slightly, and showed a cautious expression: "The caliber of this new gun is smaller than the current one?" Will the power and range of the new gun be worse than the current one! ”

Lin Zhe shook his head and said: "I have already received news from foreigners that the new Mini Infantry gun equipped by the British foreigners is a small caliber, and it is said that not only the range and power are better than the original Mini Infantry gun, but even the accuracy has been greatly improved!" ”

Although Han Xiangfang is the general office of the Ordnance Bureau, he is not a professional technician, he used to be just an ordinary shopkeeper, although now the long-term contact has given him a deeper understanding of contemporary guns, but it is still far inferior to those professional technicians.

He doesn't understand, but it doesn't matter if he doesn't understand, he just needs to convey Lin Zhe's request to the Linde Machinery Factory, whether he can do it and how to do it, that's the matter of the Linde Machinery Factory.

When Han Xiangfang placed the order of 20,000 rifles and 50 cannons in front of the people of the Linde Machinery Factory, they were full of surprise and frenzy, but when they saw that these guns and artillery were all manufactured by the Linde Machinery Factory, and they were still small-caliber infantry guns, they showed embarrassment again.

For a while, the expressions on the faces of the people of Linde Machinery Qì Factory can be described as rich!

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