February 7, 1902, the twenty-ninth month of the 28th year of Guangxu, Chinese New Year's Eve.

This year's winter is a bit colder than usual, with deep snow on the riverside. However, thanks to the operation of the steam snowplow, the railway is still unimpeded, and it is a meter-gauge mining railway with a length of only about 20 kilometers, connecting the docks, the iron works, and the mines.

Although it is a factory-mine railway, several wagons loaded with iron ore on each side line illustrate the abundance of mineral deposits here. This rich mineral deposit made Ma'anshan, the most desolate corner of Dangtu County, move many rough people, and life began to boil.

The slopes of the hill are dense forests that are almost invisible to the sky, and above are the towering, bare peaks, covered with a thick layer of snow, and through the winding hills, the little train is slowly squirming upwards without small tracks.

Although it is a factory-mine railway, but on this small railway, there are also passenger cars, and the passenger cars are just temporary wagon cars temporarily attached to the train transporting ore, and the so-called passenger car is just a slatted freight car converted into a passenger car, and dozens of people, most of whom are workers, after a long day of hard work in the iron mine, take the train back to rest. There were at least a dozen people, apparently miners, judging by their dusty faces and the safety lights they carried.

They sat together smoking dry cigarettes, talking in a low voice, and occasionally glanced at the two people sitting opposite the carriage, the two people were wearing uniforms and wearing badges on their chests, this is the mine police, the mine police are the mine guards in the past, but now they have become policemen, for the workers gathered in Ma'anshan, this is a new word, this is just a few months, Yuan Shikai turned the official into a policeman for the sake of face, stationed in Tianjin, the word was invented.

However, as soon as the month of Layue, the Jianghuai Road Mining Company reported to the governor of Anhui, with tens of thousands of miners gathered in the mining area, because of regional disputes, often in the name of fighting, the Jianghuai Road Mining Company Police Department was established, and the police are the past mine protection team, although it is fresh, but it makes the Jianghuai Road Mining Company have a veritable "law enforcement power", not only Ma'anshan, even Huainan has also built a company police station, responsible for the security of the mining area, dealing with brawls, theft and bandits in the mine.

There were also a few women with children in the carriage, probably the families of the miners who had come to visit relatives or permanent residents of the mines, and along the railway line were scattered some miners' quarters, where the miners set up simple grass huts, and in addition to this, there was a young man sitting alone in the corner of the carriage, and next to him sat or stood several people, occasionally someone would turn their attention to this young man, but no one would talk to this man with short hair and a guard beside him, who thought he was a rough man on one side and a rich man on the other, and naturally there was nothing to say.

The young man sitting alone occasionally looks out the window, and may vaguely see the brightly lit iron factory area still looking like a large-scale construction project.

"I didn't expect it to be so fast!"

Through the light, you can see the towering chimneys in the ironworks area, as well as the foundation of the ironmaking blast furnace under construction, Chen Moran did not expect that it was just a few months of hard work, this was originally a wild riverside, and the ironworks showed some appearance, although it was no different from other construction sites now.

Chen Moran, who didn't want to stay at home alone during the Chinese New Year, didn't know why he came to Ma'anshan by boat in the morning, maybe it was just because it was far enough from Shanghai, and it was the only place he could come! Compared to Shanghai, there doesn't seem to be much of a New Year's flavor here, except for the sound of firecrackers in the air when we call at the port.

Turning around, Chen Moran saw that among the two policemen who were napping, one of the policemen moved, and seemed to be awake. It was his idea to change the mine guard team to a policeman, mainly to save some unnecessary trouble, after all, for these governors now, this police officer is no different from the one who cares for the home.

Moreover, the people who had been trained on Hell Island were fundamentally different from these policemen, and he didn't want to confuse these two groups of people, so it was logical to make this "factory policeman", and when the two dozing policemen woke up, they seemed to notice the difference between the young people in this carriage and others, and also saw a few people sitting next to him, and even saw that they were carrying weapons.

Although the mine protection team has changed to the police, their words are a lot easier, but they are still responsible for protecting the factory and mine, when a policeman stood up and walked towards Chen Moran, Ma Xiaoliu, who had been standing in the aisle, walked over, and when the policeman did not speak, he took out a document from his arms, which was the certificate of the head office, and the steel seal on it was not said, the most important thing was that the photo revealed that the identity of this person was different, after all, other people were nothing more than writing a name and leaving a steel seal.

The company is a little troublesome, especially between Shanghai and Ma'anshan, which are hundreds of miles apart, not all the policemen recognize the person sitting there as their boss, as soon as they see the company's documents, the natural policeman will no longer ask, but when he turned around, he looked at the young man twice.

A few minutes later, the train pulled into a dimly lit station with only two kerosene chandeliers, which was located in the middle of the iron factory and the mining area, which was different from the planned commercial living area of the factory and mine, which was planned to be the industrial area of Ma'anshan, and the mining machinery factory of the Jianghuai Road Mining Company was here, but it was only a name.

As soon as he got off the train, Chen Moran saw the gate of the factory with the lights on, compared to why he came here, in addition to the fact that there is also a person here who reads for the New Year, perhaps because the factory of the mining machinery factory hanging on is actually his military factory.

The group of five people only walked a few meters away from the gate, and Chen Moran saw that the guards standing in the "communication room" next to the gate moved, and if he guessed correctly, one of them should have already raised his submachine gun.

"Please show your ID!"

Although he is the boss of an industrial company, Chen Moran still obediently showed his ID, and checked the photos and steel seals one by one, but the guard looked at the light and pressed the steel rivets under the corners of the photos, the small steel rivets were made of stainless steel from small tongs pots in Shanghai's machine factory, which can be said to be unique in this era.

When they checked the documents one by one, Chen Moran looked at the barbed wire fence on the wall at least three meters high with great interest, the barbed wire was electrified, and there were only three places in the whole Ma'anshan that had electricity, one was the iron mine that had been put into operation, the second was the iron factory, and the third was here, all of which were powered by self-equipped steam generators.

After entering the factory, the factory yard was luxuriously lit with electric lights, several two-story small buildings against the gate were factory offices and technical rooms, and then to the back was the factory, before arriving at the factory, I heard the roar of the machine, although it was Chinese New Year's Eve, but it was still brightly lit, obviously still working.

"This Shi Si, he is not a New Year, and he will not let his family celebrate the New Year!"

"Young master, Manager Shi is in the No. 2 hammer forging workshop!"

"Let's go straight there! Today, young master, I will accompany this history expert for the New Year! Look at how this modern factory of his! ”

Laughing, Chen Moran followed Ma Xiaoliu to bring a factory attendant and walked towards the hammer forging workshop.

Although Chen Moran also studied machinery, but never seriously studied, later generations of Chinese folding universities are often just a process, learning is not in the university, so naturally in the construction of the factory is more in accordance with the advice of those foreign experts, as for himself is intoxicated in the products of the time, naturally will not care too much about the factory, and the Shi Si in charge of the mining machinery factory can naturally adjust the factory according to his set of management methods, so that he can reach the standard of "modern factory" in his heart, he is most proud of the achievement, I am afraid that it is to formulate a set of scientific management system, establish a set of strict quality control system, and strictly control a component of the tolerance range of parts.

In the forging workshop, the lifting sliding crane dragged out the red steel column from the furnace, sent to the semi-circular anvil of the 20-ton steam hammer, with the steam hammer violently hitting the steel column, the sparks splashed out of the slag, like fireworks, the 20-ton steam hammer is the largest equipment in the mining machinery factory, nearly 200 kilograms of steel column under the hammer forging of the steam hammer, like steamed buns to knead the dough with the hammer forging of the air hammer, the internal defects of the steel column forging metal are repaired.

More than an hour later, the steel column weighing nearly 200 kilograms with a length of about 2 meters was hammer forged and pushed into another workshop with the cart, where the cutting machine in that workshop spewed sparks like fireworks with the squeak of metal, and the billet heads at both ends of a steel column of the same size were cut off.

“……”

Shi Si, who was explaining things to the technicians in the factory, widened his eyes when he saw Chen Moran, why did he come?

"My daughter-in-law went to a foreign country, and it's right to spend the New Year in Shanghai alone, and it just so happens that you are also alone, so I'll come over to accompany you!"

Explaining, Chen Moran glanced at the cannon body that was being processed, and then took the production flow chart from Shi Si's hand.

Shi Si's expression looked a little proud, and it only took a month to "design" a 75mm field gun, which is not a god's speed, although this cannon is only a trial production of six, and even the standard drawings have not been drawn, but this makes him unbearable.

“…… Drilling, broaching, rifling, skein, bushing, ......"

Looking at the production flow chart of the field cannon in his hand, Chen Moran's brows were furrowed.

"How long will it take to build a cannon?"

The six guns were built only to train the troops to cooperate with the infantry artillery, and at the same time for the training of the artillery class of the military academy, the Huangpu Sports School artillery training gun used a model gun of a mixed structure of steel and wood, and the model gun was still an old-fashioned rack made by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and the barrel was lined with a 1.5-inch caliber gun barrel in the steel pipe, which was used to scare the bandits.

The use of a carrying gun with a range of more than three kilometers after being filled with gunpowder as a cannon is also a last resort, and it is nothing more than to let those artillery scientists master the skills of using artillery and not to talk on paper; although the "carrying gun" is a little backward, it can be regarded as solving the problem of "artillery", and even the machine factory has developed a small grenade of 1.5-inch caliber for it.

Although the problem of training has been solved, if there is no real artillery, then the artillery department is just a decoration, and it is impossible for the troops to master the skills of infantry artillery coordinated combat without artillery. It is also for this reason that he will ask Shi Si to do everything to make a few cannons first, whether the parts can be used universally, and whether the life is long or not is no problem, as for the small cannons made more than ten years ago in the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, he can't look down on it, and that thing is not as good as "lifting guns".

"If everything goes well, by the end of the month, at least three doors can be built, fortunately you solved the problem of the recoiling spring, otherwise I'm afraid it will drag on for a while!"

Speaking of which, Shi Si added.

"Mr. Chen, you want to do the arms business, no problem, but you have too few machines, and most of the equipment is civilian equipment, although you can barely produce arms, it is just a little difficult, this factory even needs to let a foreign factory make a spring, not to mention it?"

The meaning of Shi Si's words, how could Chen Moran not understand, he didn't blame him, what kind of virtue his factory is naturally very clear, but the problem is that this output is not enough at all.

Just after hesitating, a rusty thing in the corner of the factory fell into Chen Moran's eyes, and without saying a word, he walked over to see that it was a steel pipe full of rust, and picked it up to take a look.

"This is Wuying Steel Pipe!"

When questioned, Chen Moran made a gesture that the inner diameter of the steel pipe should be about 80 mm, and the pipe wall should be within 20 mm.

"This is the high-pressure pipe that the steam hammer has scrapped!"

Shi Si replied from the side.

"High-pressure pipes?"

It must be a seamless steel pipe, looking at this steel pipe full of rust, one weapon after another appeared in Chen Moran's mind.

"Let's go! Go to your office! ”

Ignoring Shi Si's puzzlement, Chen Moran walked towards Shi Si's office, entered the office with his front foot, pulled a blank piece of paper from his hand, and gestured on the white paper with a pencil.

"Shi Si, look...... This is a bipod, this is the steering wheel, this is the high and low machine, you know better than me here, I just want to tell you the principle, this steel pipe is the barrel, smoothbore, this is the seat plate, the seat plate and the gun tail are connected with a universal joint, there is a hit at the end of the gun, the shell is stuffed directly from the muzzle, relying on the action of gravity, falling into the tail of the gun to fire the primer, and then launching! ”

asked, saw that no one spoke, looked up, and saw that Shi Siquan was dumbfounded.

"Shiji!"

"Ahh

Looking at the diagram, Shi Si could hardly believe his eyes, cannon- can it be made like this? was shouted by Chen Moran before he came back to his senses.

"Do you know what I mean?"

"Ming...... Got it! ”

"I'm talking about building this kind of cannon, you study the structure of this kind of cannon yourself, just make it like this, this kind of cannon is not only simple and easy to make, but also easy to wreck, the caliber is between 80 and 90 mm, well! The best thing is to use that kind of high-pressure pipe directly, no need to expand the bore or change the diameter or something, a few meters long steel pipe, buy everything, screw on the accessories and a cannon will come out, that is the simplest! ”

Chen Moran, who is basically a half-off pseudo-military fan, stared at the mortar, so annoyed that he almost didn't want to pat his head, remembered the grenade, remembered the machine gun, but he didn't think of the mortar artifact.

"That...... Without rifling, the shells ......"

Without waiting for Shi Si to finish speaking, Chen Moran's head, this surname, scolded in his heart, and drew a pencil on the paper with a stable tail of a cannonball.

"The shell is this spindle-shaped, the shell is like a grenade, cast directly from cast iron, the tail pipe is a seamless steel pipe, and as for the primer...... Well! Use shotgun bullets directly, remove the old bullet and load more propellant, there is a fire transmission hole on the medicine tube, and when firing, the additional medicine bag is tied to the tail tube, and some holes are drilled on it as a fire transmission hole! As for the fuse, I don't want to explain it! ”

Staring at the simple "cannon" on the paper, which is almost equivalent to a toy, Shi Si almost couldn't believe that this thing could be a cannon, but the problem is that he is just a cannon, just like ...... Like all kinds of mortars, its trajectory should be as curved as mortars, but lighter and simpler than mortars, and can replace those mortars with complex structures and high costs.

"Chairman, if it's right, his trajectory should be very curved, I'm afraid he can't shoot directly!"

Although he was a little surprised that Chen Moran came up with such a simple cannon in an instant, Shi Si still reminded that although the mortar cannon was widely used, it was decades ago.

"This ......"

Shi Si's words made Chen Moran hesitate for a while, mortars can indeed only be fired in curved ways, as for flat shooting, it is simply to catch ducks on the shelf, although the flat fire of mortars is barely feasible, but it is not accurate.

"Look at ...... like this"

Hesitating, Chen Moran drew on the paper that he had once seen a cannon.

Standing at the table, Shi Si looked at the cannon on the paper, it was still a simple and light artillery, but the bipod had become a four-tapod with a short front and a long back, and the gun body was still a traditional cannonball, and the cannon body was also attached to the re-entry barrel, except for the gun carriage, there was not much difference from ordinary artillery.

"Shi Si, it's this kind of gun, the caliber is 37 to 40 mm, the projectile is about one kilogram, and there is no difference between the structure and ordinary artillery, but it can be simplified as much as possible, parts! The less, the better! When you've figured out this mortar, let's fix it! ”

After finally finishing painting this cannon, Chen Moran breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't know why he wanted the whole small cannon, I am afraid that he wanted to solve the problem of flat fire.

"This cannon...... It's almost like a gun! ”

At the mention of the gun, Shi Si's face became a little ugly, and when he was in Germany, he heard his classmates laugh at the Chinese for only using the most advanced machines to produce useless and outdated waste.

"That's right! It's just to raise the cannon! People can carry the cannon, the front tripod supports, and the rear tripod cushions! ”

Chen Moran nodded and smiled, isn't this cannon just a cannon!

"Let's make it simple first, and then we can get advanced things after accumulating technology!"

At this moment, there were bursts of firecrackers outside the window, this is the sound of firecrackers in the next year, the two people who were originally in a good mood heard the sound of firecrackers and looked silent at the same time, thinking about their relatives every festival, Shi Si was thinking about Nanyang's relatives, but Chen Moran was thinking about the other side of the ocean, the daughter-in-law who "made money" for herself, she was his only relative in this world.

"I don't know how Ji Li is now!"

With a sigh in his heart, Chen Moran, who was a little uncomfortable, lost interest in this weapon.

"Let's go, Shi Si, go drink with me!"

(To be continued)