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For Europe, Geng Jingzhong has always held a learning attitude, after all, Europe at this time is indeed ahead of China. But in terms of guns, the Mawei Army is ahead of Europe. Geng Jingzhong would not be kind enough to give his most advanced things to the Europeans, and the simplest, rifled gun Mawei soldiers did not bring ashore a single one, and it was in this barracks, so the Mawei soldiers used old-fashioned muskets. The biggest difference between these muskets and the rifles equipped by the horsetail soldiers at this moment is whether they are rifled or not, and there is not much difference between them.

As for the matter of ordering gunpowder, this is also the most old-fashioned, gunpowder in a paper shell, it is just a small idea, even if Chen Wu does not teach, the Dutch have already seen it, or it will not be long before Orange will know. One of the things that started with the Kunpeng fleet on its way to Europe, and it was very simple, encountering pirates halfway through. At that time, the fog was thick, and the pirates wanted to raid, and they had approached the ships, but the horsetail soldiers killed the pirates with their rifles. At that time, the Dutch officials of the Batavian Governor's Palace, which was on the Mawei warship, saw the soldiers of the Mawei Army firing, and there was no secret about the fixed ammunition.

In addition, the Mawei Army had fought against the Spaniards and the Dutch, and the governor of Batavia, Nescas, had already realized this matter when he got the report, so he came to the door to cooperate with the Mawei Army. Therefore, at this time, it is only convenient to teach the matter of paper shell ammunition, and the one taught now is only the most primitive paper shell ammunition, which is slightly more cumbersome than the current use of horsetail soldiers. These Dutchmen have learned to want to improve. It is estimated that it will take a few years to process.

At this moment, the guns of European countries are also front-loading smoothbore guns. The first smoothbore guns appeared in the XIV century. The process of charging such a gun is complicated. When firing, one person needs to aim and one person to ignite, and the firing speed and accuracy are very low. By the fifteenth century, arquebuses appeared, which used a lever equipped with a hinch to grip the fire rope, and when the trigger was pulled, the fire rope descended, igniting the initiating charge in the fire door, thus overcoming the difficulties of individual aiming and ignition. The maximum firing range of such a gun is about two meters, and the effective firing range is about one hundred meters. It takes two minutes to shoot a shot, but it is easy to expose the target at night and cannot be used on rainy days. Until now, France was the first to be partially equipped with flintlock pistols, and although they overcame the shortcomings of arquebuses, the rate of fire was only two rounds per minute. The muskets now displayed before William of Orange were firing two or three times faster than their Dutch soldiers. The Netherlands also had flintlock muskets, but the best soldiers could only fire two bullets a minute, and it is conceivable that if they had obtained such muskets, such a rate of fire and such power, they would have been able to resist the French invasion, and perhaps even turn defeat into victory.

"Mr. Miao, me. William of Orange earnestly asks if you can sell all the muskets to the Netherlands, in addition. We would also like to order an additional 50,000 muskets from you, at your own price. Orange bowed and said sincerely.

"Hehe, this is easy to say, the total of 20,000 muskets brought this time can be sold to you, as for the additional 50,000 units, you will have to wait for a while, we will come and go for a year."

In just one year, the Mawei Army increased by 130,000 new troops, and the tens of thousands of new troops in front still had weapons to use, but nearly 80,000 people recruited in the rear could not be allocated new rifles, half of them held old-fashioned muskets, and half of them temporarily held cold weapons such as broadswords and spears. This issue is very strict, so Geng Jingzhong and other decision-makers of the Mawei Army are very concerned about it.

Originally, in various workshops in Fujian, in order to stimulate the enthusiasm of craftsmen, Geng Jingzhong implemented a hierarchy among craftsmen. The hierarchy of craftsmen is divided into nine levels, which are binary. Everyone builds the same part, uses the same technology, and the better the quality of the product, the higher the level of craftsmanship. The higher the rank of the craftsman, the higher the basic wage. For each level, the basic salary increases by five pieces of silver. For example, a first-class craftsman is paid only one silver dollar per month, a second-class craftsman has a half-dollar, and a third-class craftsman has two dollars...... And so on, the highest level of the ninth-class craftsman, the basic salary per month, is five pieces of silver. At the same time, the higher the level of the craftsman, the higher the share of the commission. Level 7 or above is already a master, not only participating in the creation himself, but also responsible for leading the team and teaching newcomers, these are all wages to be paid, and on the whole, they can definitely be regarded as a high-paid family.

Every upgrade of craftsmen needs to go through a strict assessment, and after the assessment, they can get the corresponding wages and benefits. At this time, in several musket workshops in Fujian, there were only fifteen ninth-level masters, and six of these fifteen were Westerners, and there was also one from the Netherlands. These ninth-level masters are no longer involved in the basic construction work, and the twenty are mainly responsible for R&D and improvement work, and their salaries are the highest in the entire workshop, in addition to the basic salary of five silver dollars, in addition to the basic salary of five silver dollars, in addition, the big guys have a subsidy of hundreds of silver dollars every month, if there is an invention and creation, a reward will reach thousands of silver dollars.

In the last year alone, the musket workshop has expanded and the number of new apprentices has reached 5,000. These 5,000 apprentices are all young guys, all of whom have studied in the Future School for four or five years, literacy and hyphenation are the most basic, and the important thing is that they are also proficient in arithmetic and know some physics knowledge, speaking of which, the basic physics textbooks compiled by Geng Jingzhong are still very useful. With these 5,000 newcomers joining, after a three-month learning period, the speed of gun production in the workshop has increased.

In each workshop, in order to allow craftsmen to produce high-quality rifles faster, but also for the need for secrecy. The craftsmen are divided into several groups, each responsible for different processes. Each group has its own steward, and without Geng Jingzhong's direct permission, the craftsmen cannot change the group lightly.

One of the most important is the rifling group, they need to learn how to operate the wooden rifling broaching machine, which is still very simple. It was also improved by Geng Jingzhong based on his memories of working as a metalworking intern and a group of madmen in the scientific research base. I have to say. It's simple, though. After spending effort, I was able to quickly depict the rifling.

Liang Crooked is like a carpentry group, that is, a large number of carpenters and craftsmen are responsible for the production of supporting wooden components such as gun stocks, handguards, and push rods. Even those wooden broaching machines were made by them. In addition, there is a department specializing in the production of crosshairs and doors, a department that assembles barrels, firing devices, doors, crosshairs, stocks, and handguards, a department that produces bayonets for muskets, a department that produces mini bullets, and a department that produces tools for the maintenance of firearms. The department responsible for the production and maintenance of firearms tools is the same as the assembly department, and they produce a lot of things, such as the general strip for wiping guns, the harness for carrying guns, and the leather bags for loading bullets. as well as butter, lubricants and much more.

Finally, the most important thing is the inspection department, they have to be responsible for inspecting the guns produced, and they must ensure that the quality is completely good. Only when the quality fully meets the standards can it be taken out for the fighters. However, before they leave the factory, these rifles have to be retouched by skilled craftsmen with numbers and patterns engraved on them.

Such as the whole strip of the gun, the strap for carrying the gun, the leather bag for loading bullets, and the butter. lubricating oil, etc.

"Each in his own way, each in his own right!" Whether it's a musket workshop or an artillery workshop. It's all the same requirement. Thanks to the meticulous division of the process, each craftsman has a clear responsibility. If there is a problem with the musket, it will be traced to the relevant group and then to each specific producer. You must know that the manufacturer of each component will leave a number on the part as required for future traceability.

In this way, all craftsmen can clearly know the pressure on their shoulders. This kind of pressure has never been experienced by the craftsmen from other places who came to Fujian at the beginning. In the past, when they supervised the production of weapons in the capital or other provinces, they only needed to complete the required quantity, and as for the quality, no one cared about it. Fujian's regulations clearly let them know that quality is more important than quantity.

However, although the pressure is not small, the harvest is also great. The workshop uniformly stipulates that after completing the basic number of workpieces every month, in addition, each additional piece can get a corresponding commission, which is a large amount of income. For example, there is the craftsman of the carpentry group, a craftsman specializes in the production of gun butts, and the monthly quota is to produce twenty, and more than one is given a reward of 200 wen. Generally, the first-level craftsman belongs to the apprentice and only needs to learn, while the second-level craftsman is also considered an apprentice, but he can already complete some of them, but there is no basic task and no commission, only basic salary. As for the third-level craftsmen, they can barely complete the task, the fourth-level is the more skilled craftsmen, more than two or three is about the same, as for the fifth, sixth-level and above, the craftsmanship is very skilled, and there are more than a dozen apprentices on the side, and it is normal to take two or three more pieces every month.

In addition, all craftsmen in each department need to work together to solve their own technical problems, discuss and make progress together, and if they are willing to teach unique skills, the workshop will give a large amount of subsidies and enjoy higher treatment. Anyway, those who can pass the assessment and become employees in the firearms workshop will definitely not have to worry about their life in this life. In the future generations, it will be an absolute civil servant, no, it is more insured than a civil servant, a complete iron rice bowl! As each craftsman becomes more skilled, their production efficiency is getting higher and higher, and the monthly output in this workshop is steadily increasing.

Just last year, there was an interesting thing happened in the Mawei workshop, a new elementary school apprentice who entered the workshop, just followed the master to learn rifling for only three days, and found a small problem on the broaching bed that could be improved, after studying his idea is completely correct, after the improvement of the efficiency has been a little improved, the quality will also be a little improved. Don't underestimate this progress, it is a big step forward when you put it on machinery. According to the regulations, his discovery was designated as a second-class contribution, and he was immediately rewarded with a thousand silver dollars, and at the same time the commendation was announced in various workshops, which was the envy of others.

It can be said that from the highest level to the highest level of ninth-level masters, and down to the lowest level of first-level junior apprentices, they are all working hard to find problems. Everyone is also working carefully and doing their best to improve every detail of the process.

The new army has been trained, and there are nearly 50,000 soldiers without rifles available, so the matter of this workshop has always been regarded as the top priority in Fujian. But fortunately, these 5,000 apprentices have learned very quickly, after four or five years of advanced knowledge, in the last two months, the output of the three workshops has begun to increase significantly, the total number of 3,000 heads per month in the past can now be increased to 5,000. It is estimated that in two months, the three workshops will be able to produce more than 6,000 pieces per month.

In this way, it will only take another five months, and even if the front line is scrapped and needs to be replaced, all the new troops will be able to get the new rifles in their hands. This means that the plight of the Mawei Army's long-standing lack of weapons has begun to be alleviated, and in a year's time, the workshop is fully capable of reproducing tens of thousands of unrifled muskets. You must know that the most difficult thing about this rifle is to carve rifling, which does not require rifling, and at least tens of thousands of guns can be produced every month.

Miao Quanchen also knew something about this, so he readily agreed to William of Orange's request, anyway, this would not hurt the interests of the Mawei Army, but would bring business opportunities to Fujian. Shipped to the Netherlands, a gun sold for thirty and fifty of it, not too much at all. When Orange received the reply, he was so happy that his attention was immediately drawn to the regular bullets on the soldiers' waists again.

The ammunition of the active rifle of the Mawei Army is a mini bullet, which is uniformly packaged in a paper shell. The paper shell contains one bullet and about ten grams of propellant. During the battle, bite through the paper shell, pour the projectile into the powder pool, and close the powder pool. Then use the ejector lever to push the conical bullet into the chamber of the gun, which can be aimed and shot. Each fighter was equipped with fifty paper-shell bullets in his hands, which were replenished when they ran out. All the bullets are packed in a leather bag. Of course, if the soldier feels that his body is sufficient, he can carry more paper-shell bullets.

And now William of Orange sees that the skin is not bad, but the paper shell ammunition inside is even worse. The ammunition was divided into two small parts, one was gunpowder and one was bullets, and the round bullets were the same as those of the European countries, instead of mini rounds. It is estimated that it will be a long time before the Europeans want to find out about this difference, after all, they will have to fight the Mawei army at least a few times to know this mystery. And the Ponytail Army has no chance to fight them for the time being, which means that they have no chance to discover this mystery.

"Dear General Chen, show us your cannons again, I'm looking forward to what the advantages of your cannons are." William of Orange, after watching the musket demonstration and learning about the paper-shell ammunition, began to turn his attention to the two cannons. These two are large general cannons and the other is general cannons, one large and one small, one twelve-pounder and one six-pounder. The barrel was slender and the barrel was thin, which was of course half thinner than the Dutch guns on the other side.

The first artillery in Europe was made of wrought iron bars welded side-by-side into cylinders, with iron hoops. It was only in the fifteenth century that bronze cannons were cast in one piece, with gun carriages and sighting devices, and cast-iron bullets instead of stone and lead bullets. To increase mobility, wheeled artillery appeared again, and granular gunpowder was adopted. The Spanish war against the Netherlands and the Thirty Years' War in Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century further contributed to the development of artillery. A year ago, Europe also began to replace bulk gunpowder with ration kits, and shotguns appeared, increasing the firing speed, accuracy and power of artillery.

"No problem, but it doesn't seem like a good place to demonstrate!" (To be continued......)