Yang Meng is right, there must be a brave man under the heavy reward, Howard came from afar, not for the monthly salary of three hundred dollars? There were thousands of craftsmen here, and General Yang was a man who kept his promises, as long as he stayed in the Qing Kingdom for a few years, he would be a rich man when he returned to Millican, and he would no longer have to deal with cold machinery.

For Howard, politics is far, far away from himself, he is an ordinary gunsmith, and the influence of politics on him cannot be felt until the last moment.

As for the difference between the Qing people and the Millikans, Howard is just a very ordinary mechanic in Millican, and the Qing people with braids are just a little unusual for him, and now he values the potential of these workers more, and he only hopes that these people are not too stupid.

"General Yang, do we need to build a temporary arsenal here?"

Thinking of the rich reward, Howard couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable, thousands of workers! One year, two years or three years, after returning to China, you will become a high-ranking farmer, what a thing to look forward to!

"No, the land of the arsenal will be settled tomorrow, and within fifteen days, I will build a simple factory, and now you still have to choose the first batch of craftsmen!"

Building a factory in Yiliang is just a matter of his own words, hundreds of thousands of farmer tenants, one person and one foot, can also step out of a flat site, with Jiang Shuxian, Yang Meng is not very concerned about the location of the arsenal.

What he cares about now is his craftsman, whether he can learn the skills of Howard and others, and if he learns it, he can't do it. It also needs to be able to transform and improve. Colt's revolver. Like the big blade of eight catties, eight taels and eight dollars, in Yang Meng's eyes, it is just a product for hand practice.

The gun-making skills in Yang Meng's stomach, as long as he takes out a little bit, it is enough for these people to digest it for a few years, but the hardware is not up to par, no matter how good the design is, he can only look at it, and the fart is useless.

Hopefully, this group of Colters. You can lay a solid foundation for yourself in the military industry!

"Aren't these people all workers in the arsenal?"

When it comes to his own interests, Howard also mentions that thousands of workers and hundreds of workers have a great impact on his income.

"Give you 10,000 blacksmiths now, and you can have them make me a revolver tomorrow?"

"It's impossible! Workers need to be trained! ”

"That's right! The manpower you choose now is the assistant you train the workers, teach some people first, and then let these people teach the other part, so that you will have more and more people in your church, and of course these people are all considered to be taught by you. I won't be short of salary.

Howard, I have one more question, the pistols you made. Is it made by one person or by several people? ”

Yang Meng's question is related to secrecy, Colt's revolver may be the most advanced weapon now, but the great powers, including Millican, do not pay enough attention to it, they only pay attention to artillery and rifles.

Yang Meng, who has participated in modern warfare, knows that although artillery and rifles can determine the victory or defeat of a war, the most important factor in war is people.

The firearms of this era have determined that the white-knuckle warfare based on cold weapons will continue for decades, or even hundreds of years, this year is 1847, and in the next hundred years, the white-knuckle warfare will have a certain status in the war.

The revolver has no advantage at long distances, but within fifty meters, he is a killing weapon, and the manufacturing method of this killing weapon still needs to be kept secret.

"It used to be one person, but now there is a rough division of labor, but it is mainly the work of blacksmiths and carpenters, and blacksmiths play the most important role in the whole process of making guns."

Industrial production, the current Colt Arsenal is not yet industrial production, and the skills of the blacksmith are still the key to determining the quality and performance of the pistol.

"Hmm...... I looked at the components of the M1847 and there are quite a few screws on them, are they also made by hand? ”

The connector assembled by Colt M1847 is a screw, don't underestimate a screw, standardized screws, Xishan's blacksmiths may not be able to make it.

"Half-handmade, half-mechanical! First, the embryo body of the screw is manufactured by stamping machinery, and the other steps are mostly manual. ”

Howard didn't expect that General Yang was also proficient in industrial manufacturing, and the questions he asked not only bothered Mr. Colt in Milican before, but also made a lot of effort.

"So be it! Let's not rush to make guns, you take apart the M1847 you brought ten pieces, let's determine the manufacturing process of the pistol first. ”

The manufacturing process, for Yang Meng, is half a professional, and his impression of what work should be done is still very clear.

Let Ge Shiyang arrange a large room, Howard and the Colt Arsenal, the best group of mechanics, began to disassemble the M1847 revolver.

After the ten pistols were disassembled, Yang Meng took a closer look, the accessories were a little uncommon, and the ten pistols were more or less different, obviously in the Colt Arsenal, each production line produced different firearms.

The barrel and butt are the best done, while the revolver and trigger are the most complex and delicate work, screws or something, but also the key, the accessories of one gun are not compatible with another gun, this is the biggest disadvantage of the Colt M1847!

But this revolver is already the best weapon in this era, what to do, Yang Meng is also a little uncertain in his heart, standardized production is a good thing for Yunnan, but for Mi Lijian, it is a great thing, let them learn this method, and I don't know if Lu Dao is considered an enemy.

However, Yunnan needs standardized production methods, and it is Yunnan's demand that is the most important compared to the great powers.

"Howard, can you still force these parts together?"

"General Yang, this is impossible, these revolvers, although they look roughly similar, but there are still very slight differences, disrupt these parts, these ten guns are scrap."

Howard is similar to Ge Shiyang. Craftsman by origin. He is a rigorous and honest person. What can be done is what can be done, and what cannot be done is what cannot be done.

"Then these days, you and these craftsmen under your command will make abrasives! From the barrel to the butt, from the revolver to the screw, I have to have a unified standard here, and the mold you make is the standard to check whether the products produced are consistent.

Take two thousand pistols. Take them all out and test them, the most powerful and reliable gun is your master gun, and all the parts must be according to the standards of this gun.

As for my blacksmiths, you can take out some of the equipment and teach them how to make standardized screws and fittings. If the machinery is not enough, compared to these stamping machinery, it will not be difficult for you, right?

The scale of the Yunnan Colt Arsenal is at least tens of thousands of people, and it is difficult to get more than 100,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of people are also possible, but not really. You start by making the machinery. ”

The manpower sent by Colt was still too small compared to Yang Meng's ambitions, and the scale of the arsenal that Yang Meng showed in front of Howard also aroused the Millican mechanic's ambition for money.

"General Yang, let's start with screws and accessories first! My selection criteria were simple, hand-built screws and fittings, which met my requirements and was one of the first apprentices in the arsenal. ”

Howard is a professional craftsman, Yang Meng showed him a clear way, what to do, he also has his own ideas, it is too early to build machinery and equipment, and the most important thing is to determine his salary first.

"Okay, just do as you say, try to complete your work within ten days, and you have to send someone to take care of that batch of machinery and equipment."

Machinery and equipment are extremely important things, and the handling process is also a killer of precision machinery.

"What a shame! General Yang, I will do my best to do my job well! ”

This General Yang in Yunnan is not only proficient in the process of machinery manufacturing and industrial production, but also an extremely cautious and careful person.

Jiang Shuxian's side went smoothly, and after a day's work, he found three suitable locations, and Yang Meng was also arrogant, with a big wave of his hand, all the land in the three places was expropriated, and Ding Taichen was instructed to arrange manpower to level out the land in these three places within ten days, and fence the three pieces of land with bamboo walls.

Within three months, whether it is rammed earth or masonry, a wall with a height of three meters and a certain protective performance must be built.

Of these three pieces of land, the largest one has six or seven thousand acres, which is difficult for Ding Taichen, and Yang Meng's words made Ding Taichen have a spectrum in his heart, everyone in Yiliang will take these three pieces of land as the center within three months, hundreds of thousands of people, and it is very simple to do this.

However, the progress on Howard's side was somewhat unsatisfactory, and initially Howard gave a few screws for the blacksmiths of the West Hill Sword Factory to make.

There is no need to quench, just make a screw, it stumped thousands of blacksmiths in Xishan, ninety percent of the people made it clear that they can't build it, and the remaining one percent, the screws that are made, are really unbearable, and the screws that are magnified dozens of times are bigger than the coffin nails, and they are not to build tanks, such screws are useful.

Howard, it took half a day to teach most of the blacksmiths to make tools for making screws, and after a day, sixty percent of the blacksmiths made similar screws, but compared with the molds made by Yang Meng and Howard, only a dozen people made screws, barely qualified.

More than a dozen people, which is still too few for Howard, a batch of screw embryo bodies were sent down, ten people per person, and a fully qualified screw was made before it was considered to pass.

But that's it, only more than 300 people have completed the assessment, thirty or forty people have made more than three qualified screws, and the rest of the people, most of them are barely qualified, for the sake of his huge salary, Howard chose to turn a blind eye, as long as it is almost qualified.

After the end, Howard picked dozens of people, and made up four hundred people, this is his first batch of apprentices in Yunnan, and the rest of the people will continue to build large blades, and Yang Meng will also take this opportunity to save a batch of large blades, which will be a nightmare in white-knuckle warfare with a revolver.

While waiting for the venue, Howard also began to teach, from physics to chemistry, to mathematics and geometry, his first batch of apprentices, there was too much knowledge lacking, and for a good salary, Howard also used his brain.

Ge Shiyang was also used by him, translating and printing the basics of gun making, which became the task of Xishan Academy, and Howard began to teach his apprentices the skills of secondary charcoal and quenching.

In ten days, the six or seven thousand acres of land was first sorted out, dozens of ships began to dock at the newly built wharf, and as boxes of machinery were transported off the ship, the Qingguo branch of the Colt Arsenal could be regarded as having an eyebrow.

In the grass shed, Howard also taught the knowledge of building firearms with the help of translators, and large factories for striking iron were also being built rapidly.

The method of making ink and removing smoke has also been used in the arsenal, and the workshop in the shape of "convex" has also become a special scenery in Yiliang, looking at the hot construction site, Yang Meng knows that the trouble is still ahead, and making guns is not something that can be learned in three or five days, but this trouble has nothing to do with himself, that is the problem that Howard should be concerned about. (To be continued......)