After carefully looking at the barrel of the gun weighing nine catties in his hand, the smile on Wei Zheng's face became even stronger.

Facing Wang Tiezhong in front of him, he asked, "How is it, Wang is in charge." With the help of these tools, how long will it take you to build a hundred and fifty muskets..."

"Half a month... Judging by the process just now, it takes an hour to build a barrel. If we work overtime, we can build more than 180 barrels in half a month. As long as there is a barrel, there are no problems in making arquebuses ...

Wei Zheng nodded and analyzed: "These tools have another benefit, that is, all the barrels created are of the same caliber. ”

Speaking of this, Wei Zheng's eyes lit up, and he said thoughtfully: "In addition, I have another idea. ”

"As far as I know, the way you've always built muskets is that a musket is done by one person from start to finish. On the battlefield, as long as one of the parts fails, the whole musket will be completely scrapped, and there will be no parts to use. ”

"In addition to this, the caliber of the barrel of the musket was different. The same lead bullet, fired with different muskets, will also be shot at different ranges due to the difference in air tightness between the barrel and the lead bullet. ”

Wang Tiezhong replied with an approving face: "General, because each craftsman has his own technique, it is impossible to guarantee that the musket parts created by different craftsmen are the same and can be used universally. ”

Wei Zheng waved his hand and replied in a surprising voice under Wang Tiezhong's gaze: "In that case, has Lord Wang ever thought of changing this status quo and ensuring that every part created by the weapons factory can be used on different arquebuses. ”

"This can't ......," Wang Tiezhong replied categorically.

"General, every blacksmith has a different way of making muskets, how can it be possible to make all the parts of muskets exactly the same. At least in my opinion, it's something impossible. ”

The smile on Wei Zheng's face did not change in the slightest because of this, and he continued with a mysterious expression: "Lord Wang, we can solve this problem in another way. ”

"Before, we were all one musket and one person was in charge of the end. Now that you can build a barrel, you can use some tools to create an exact same barrel. Then we can gather all the remaining craftsmen and concentrate one or two parts of a musket on one person as we do for the barrel of a musket. ”

"That is to say, a blacksmith will work on one or two parts of the musket, and when all the parts are finished, one or two people will be organized to assemble these musket parts into a complete musket."

"In this way, our muskets will be produced like an assembly line."

"Not only that, but the parts created by all craftsmen will also be standardized in a uniform way, which can be used across all muskets, increasing the life and adaptability of muskets on the battlefield."

Wang Tiezhong did not answer immediately, but kept repeating three words to himself: "Assembly line." ”

After half a pillar of incense, he gradually came to his senses in contemplation, and replied thoughtfully: "General, the method you said still needs to be tested in detail. However, as long as it is successful, the result you are talking about can be fully realized, so that the musket can be produced like an ordinary assembly line. ”

After two major problems in a row were solved, the last problem that the arquebus plagued Wei Zheng immediately came to mind.

The tedious process of loading the arquebus.

Facing Wang Tiezhong in front of him, Wei Zheng asked bluntly: "Lord Wang, you must pay attention to the matter of the assembly line... I'm going to talk to you about the reloading of the arquebus..."

"With the current way arquebuses are loaded, it is not only cumbersome, but also takes a long time. More importantly, on the tense battlefield, many musketeers could not guarantee whether the gunpowder they poured into the chamber was consistent, whether there was too much pouring, and the musket exploded in the process of firing......"

As a veteran craftsman who makes muskets, Wang Tiezhong still knows all the disadvantages of arquebuses on the battlefield. He asked Wei Zheng directly, "General, what do you mean ......?"

"We can go one step ahead and determine the amount of gunpowder at the weapons factory and wrap it in paper with lead bullets. On the battlefield, the musketeer only needs to bite open the paper skin with his mouth, pour a little gunpowder into the primer pot, that is, the fire door, and then pour all the paper shell bullets containing lead bullets and remaining gunpowder into the chamber of the gun, and tamp them with a whole strip. ”

"In just a few simple steps, we can replace the tedious and error-prone loading process and keep the arquebus ready for fire."

However, Wei Zheng's introduction is obviously very general.

After finishing the sentence, Wang Tiezhong's face in front of him was still dazed.

Seeing this, Wei Zheng directly found a piece of jet-black charcoal and drew a simple schematic diagram of a paper shell bomb on the ground.

After the drawing, he continued to analyze: "Since we are going to make the suò fixed ammunition, in order to increase the airtightness of the lead bullet in the barrel of the musket, we can also make some improvements to the lead bullet... ”

The conical buckshot that Wei Zheng is talking about at this moment is the powerful Mini bullet in later generations.

Under everyone's attentive gaze, Wei Zheng continued to analyze.

"This conical buckshot I am talking about has the tip facing outwards and the tail pointing inwards. Not only that, but we also had to make the bottom of the conical buckshot into a concave shape. You can imagine that once the gunpowder in the chamber of the gun is ignited, the bottom of the concave lead bullet expands outward under the tremendous action of the gunpowder burning, and it is completely attached to the inner wall of the barrel. ”

"In this way, the arquebus will not leak when it is fired. There will be no air leakage, and the range of the buckshot will be correspondingly longer. ”

"The traditional lead bullets we use, for the convenience of loading, the caliber of the lead bullets is slightly smaller than the barrel caliber. When the buckshot is fired, no matter how tightly we strengthen it, there is no guarantee that the arquebus will not leak the barrel when firing. ”

When Wei Zheng was drawing a schematic diagram and explaining, Wang Tiezhong had already ordered his subordinates to find all the tools for making paper shell bullets.

Among these people, Wei Zheng is the only one who has seen the actual paper shell bullet in the history museum. Without hesitation, he took all the tools and began to make zuò paper shell bullets by hand under the watchful eyes of his subordinates.

The first thing to do to make the paper shell bullet described by the Wei Zheng is a conical lead bullet.

A conical iron mold is made of pig iron, melted lead is injected into the iron mold, and when it is about to harden, a round-headed iron rod that has been prepared is pressed into the lead-elastic iron mold.

Thus, a conical buckshot with a concave tail was completed.

In everyone's exclamation, Wei Zheng's hands did not stop.

Quickly pick up a piece of oiled paper, roll it into a paper tube, paste it with glue, and insert it into a wooden model of the same caliber as the barrel.

Fill the prepared buckshot upside down into the paper tube, and then pour the prepared gunpowder into the paper tube little by little, and keep compacting it with a wooden stick...

Under Wang Tiezhong's reminder, after confirming that the amount of gunpowder was sufficient, Wei Zheng compacted the gunpowder in the wooden model for the last time, decisively cut off the excess oiled paper, sealed the mouth of the paper tube, and tied it with a thin wire...

After pulling out the paper-shelled bullet that had been sealed, a cylindrical paper-shell bullet that was an inch and a half long appeared in front of everyone.

Outwardly, this paper shell bullet is very rough. However, being able to make such a level for the first time, Wei Zheng is still very satisfied from the bottom of his heart.

He shouted to Wang Tiezhong and ordered: "Master Wang, come over with an arquebus immediately, and see if this kind of fixed-loading paper-shell bullet can be shot..."

Although Wei Zheng wanted to test the gun himself, no matter what he said, Wang Tie and others did not agree.

Finally, under the construction of Wang Tiezhong, an apprentice from the weapons factory who specializes in testing guns took the paper shell bullets and began to reload them according to the steps described by Wei Zheng...

It took only half the time it took to reload the ammunition, and the test gunners a few meters away were ready to fire.

The two-handed arquebus was aimed at a target covered in iron armor 150 meters away.......

"Shoot...," Wei Zheng decisively ordered with a hot face.

"Bang...."A violent explosion sounded, and Wei Zheng saw with his own eyes that the muzzle of the arquebus shot out a powerful flame at the moment of the explosion.

When everyone rushed to the target position, the heavy iron cuirass on the target position had been pierced by lead bullets through a black hole.