"How many guns have been cast in Keelung's cannon so far? But what's the problem? As soon as Yu Xiaotian arrived, he immediately asked the steward here.

The steward here is now the apprentice that Zhang Blacksmith brought at the beginning, and he learned a good craft with Zhang Blacksmith, not only can build muskets, but also has a deep attainment in casting, and there must be a master and an apprentice, he also belongs to the kind of person who likes to study very much, don't look at his age, but for a lot of mechanical understanding, far more than the vast majority of craftsmen.

So after Yu Xiaotian found him, he decided to use talents in an eclectic way, first when he was on Nanri Island, he asked him to do things in the cannon, first learned how to cast the cannon, and soon he stood out among the craftsmen in the concoction, so when the chicken coop village established the concoction, he let him come here as a manager, in fact, he is the director and chief engineer here.

At such a young age, he was given such a heavy responsibility by Yu Xiaotian, this young man named Zhang Tong is naturally very grateful to Xiaotian, and he is quite diligent in his work, after arriving at Keelung Fort, almost all of his food and accommodation are in the midst of concoction, and very few people see him have to take a look around to see what is fresh, which has been recognized by Heitou, Sun Baoqiang, and everyone here in Keelung Fort.

Among the sea wolf people, whether it is the military system or the logistics system, including the military industry such as the Ordnance Institute, Yu Xiaotian has always deliberately implemented a strict system of superiors and subordinates, no matter how old you are and how old you are, as long as you are at a low level, you must obey and respect the leadership and instructions of people who are higher than him, you can keep your opinions, and you can make reasonable complaints, but you must implement them, disobeying the instructions of the superior leader, it is a felony among the sea wolves, and you will be beaten with a military stick at the lightest, and you will go to the labor camp to stay. With serious consequences, it is not impossible to move the head.

So now in the various systems of the sea wolf, this kind of atmosphere has been cultivated, although Zhang Tong is very young, just twenty, all the craftsmen under him are older than him, and even some of the apprentices are older than him, but he is skilled, and his skills are much more than others, and no one among the craftsmen and apprentices under him dares to disobey him.

Zhang Tong was black and thin, but very strong, when Yu Xiaotian arrived to work here, he was busy here, wearing a thick protective canvas coat, with a dirty and torn apron, his face was full of black ash, and his white eyes were bloodshot, as if he had just come out of the coal pile, and he didn't look like the head of a workshop at all, but like a little ghost.

After listening to Yu Xiaotian's question, he hurriedly replied: "You are a big master!" The little ones didn't dare to slack off here, in the past few months, new guns have been cast every month, and now the No. 6 cannon (eighteen-pounder cannon) has been cast into six, the No. 5 long cannon has been cast into eight, and the No. 7 (twenty-four-pounderer) heavy cannon has been cast into four! A total of eighteen cannons were cast!

Now there are still a few guns that have not yet been bored, some of the rest have been handed over to the battery, and a few are still being gunned, waiting to be installed on the gun carriage, and they can be handed over to the battery!

In addition, in the current shed, the cannon model of a No. 6 gun has been put on the casting table, and it can be cast in two days at the earliest, and it can be boring within seven days.

In addition, there is a No. 7 cannon, which is now being cast in the shed, and the small one has to be stared at, and it is inseparable from it, and I hope that the big boss will forgive his sins, after this cannon is cast, the small one will come to see the big boss again! ”

As soon as he finished saying this, Zhang Tong burned his buttocks, which did not mean that Xiaotian had nothing to say, so he slipped back into the shed, standing at the door, he could feel the heat coming from the shed, and Zhang Tong shouted at the top of his throat, beckoning his apprentices to continue to receive the molten iron and send it to the casting table for continuous casting, without delay.

Yu Xiaotian opened his mouth, but before he could stop Zhang Tong, this guy ran away, and the angry guards wanted to go in, Zhang Tong caught it, and even the black head had a black line in his head, thinking that Zhang Tong didn't take Yu Xiaotian seriously, he was too lazy, and he couldn't help but want to lose his temper.

Yu Xiaotian raised his hand to stop them, and said with a smile: "Okay! Attaboy! The world is big, the work is the biggest, I didn't choose this person wrong! Hehe! Alright, let him get busy first, and let's not mess with them here.

Black head, you kid remember for me, you must be polite to Zhang Tong, don't trouble him because of this matter today, he is right to do this, it is being cast at this time, don't dare to make a mistake, otherwise, this cannon will be scrapped if you are not careful, I naturally won't blame him!

You have to remember that he is doing this today for our own good, and the cannons he is casting right now are directly used by you, if you don't admit it, then you really don't know what to do! ”

With Yu Xiaotian's words, who would dare to talk more! So everyone said yes again and again, and followed Yu Xiaotian to leave the cannon.

Yu Xiaotian was not verbose, briefly learned about the various situations on the Keelung Fort side recently, and then personally went to each fort to check the situation of the forts.

There are now a total of 32 guns of various kinds with more than 12-pounder cannons on several batteries, of which 4 have been installed with 24-pounder guns, and one is still in the process of being gunned and has not been transported to the battery for installation, while the battery on Heping Island has three guns, and the other is installed on a battery opposite, and these cannons plus more than ten 18-pounder cannons and 12-pounder cannons constitute the defense line of the entire perimeter of Jilong Bay, firmly holding Jilong Bay.

In addition, each battery is also equipped with some small cannons, both six-pounder guns and tiger squat guns, which are mainly used to block the enemy's landing personnel from attacking the battery, because once the enemy forces approach the battery, those cannons of more than 12 pounder will lose their effect, because the firing angle is too low to shell them again, so it should be strengthened with some small cannons.

There are many examples in history, that is, because there are only cannons in the forts, but there is a lack of close-range firepower, so that the enemy takes advantage of the loopholes, from the side or back close to the forts, and finally effortlessly, the seemingly impregnable forts will be overcome, so the cannon is not necessarily the bigger the better, when necessary, there must be small cannons to protect them, as an auxiliary, so that the defense of the fort will be more perfect.

It's just that such a number of artillery pieces still makes Yu Xiaotian a little uneasy, because he knows very well the current firepower intensity of Western sail warships, and ordinary armed cargo ships are equipped with at least a dozen cannons, and there is no shortage of heavy guns equipped with twenty-four or even thirty-two pounds.

The structure of the Galen ship itself has the advantage of being very good, the tonnage of the dedicated battleship is slightly larger, it can be divided into two or even three layers of artillery decks, loaded with dozens of cannons, and decades later, the British first-class battleships are even equipped with more than 100 guns, the smallest artillery is also a twelve-pounder cannon, and there are thirty cannons alone, and the firepower has reached a rather terrifying level.

Of course, the current Spanish and Dutch warships on the Asian side will certainly not reach that level, and their main warships are now in Europe, staring at each other, and no one dares to move.

But the gunboats of the Spaniards and the Dutch on the Asian side, even if they were smaller, now have at least a few dozen cannons without problems.

If the Spaniards came over this time, in case they brought a large fleet of ships, the firepower would be quite terrifying, and now there are only so many more than 30 cannons on the battery, and they are mainly 12-pounder guns and 18-pounder guns, and the 24-pounder guns as big killers are only 4, and the firepower is indeed a little weak.

If you deal with your peers, there will definitely be no problem with such firepower, but if you have a big showdown with the Spanish fleet, I don't know if you can hold it.

Once the defense of the bay mouth is broken through, then the number of artillery in Keelung Fort will not be able to suppress the enemy's shipborne firepower, and they will definitely suffer a big loss when the blackheads are at that time.

Therefore, Yu Xiaotian was a little worried, and instructed Zhang Tong to continue to increase the number of twenty-four-pounder cannons as soon as possible, and try to cast a few more such heavy cannons before they were needed.

Yu Xiaotian had just returned to Nanri Island, and before he could enjoy the fun of having fun with the two little guys who had been separated for more than two months, he received a lot of news.

The main news is the information about Zheng Yiguan, who is very concerned about Yu Xiaotian recently, after Zheng Yiguan's attempt to secretly intercept the silver money for the purchase of guns delivered by Yan Siqi to the sea wolf was exposed, he did not dare to slack off and immediately escaped from Bengang with oil on the soles of his feet, and slipped to an island in the Penghu Islands, where he temporarily used it as his old camp.

For this matter, Zheng Yiguan hated Yu Xiaotian, who had done bad things to him, and officially ordered his subordinates to regard the sea wolf as their enemy, and they must find an opportunity to return the favor and save face.

As a result, the friction between the sea wolf and Zheng Yiguan has gradually increased recently, especially in the Quanzhou area, where there have been frequent firefights.

However, the result of the friction between the two sides is often that the sea wolf side takes advantage, unless it encounters Zheng Yiguan's fleet with a big vote, otherwise, just by the two sides, Zheng Yiguan's subordinates can't even get the slightest advantage, but they were killed by the sea wolf's patrol ships one after another, and they also captured dozens of their subordinates and sent them back to Nanri Island.

After extorting confessions by torture in the torture hall, the sea wolf learned about Zheng Yiguan's lair, and in line with Yu Xiaotian's instructions, Liu Laoliu ordered the sea wolf's fleet not to go to Zheng Yiguan's trouble for the time being, and handed it over to Yan Siqi in advance.

So the news that Zheng Yiguan is currently entrenched in the area of the Penghu Islands was passed on to Yan Siqi.

After Yan Siqi learned of Zheng Yiguan's whereabouts a year later, he immediately mobilized dozens of ships and more than 1,000 subordinates, and personally led a team to the Penghu Islands to settle accounts with Zheng Yiguan.

After some purge of his subordinates, Yan Siqi cleaned his subordinates who were friendly with Zheng Yiguan and openly or secretly defected to Zheng Yiguan to stabilize his situation.

In addition, after the sea wolf delivered them a batch of six-pounder guns, tiger squat cannons, exterminating cannons and other artillery a few years ago, they were quickly armed into Yan Siqi's fleet.

(Not much to say, thanks to Ke Daowu and the wdj1972 brothers for another tip!) My son's condition has not improved greatly, and today I will switch to imported antibiotics, hoping to control the condition as soon as possible! ）