The New Year is getting closer and closer, and Lin Zexu's actions are becoming more and more frequent, but fortunately, Lin Laohu still has the last reason, and he did not aim at the official gentry of Yongchang, but only focused the attack on the bandits and bandits.

Looking at Lin Zexu's situation, he wants to sort out a complete charter of Yongchang's affairs before the year, and settle the general account after the year.

And the second brother is also considered to be filial, rushed back from Yongchang, when the old man told him the truth, the second brother Yang Yi was also quite sympathetic to the old man's thoughts, in the name of mourning, went to the governor's mansion to see Lin Zexu, and Lin Zexu is now busy with anxiety, so he left Yang Yi in Kunming.

Many things held by Yang Yi in his hands have become the backing for Lin Zexu to deal with the Yongchang case, and with Yang Yi by his side, Lin Zexu's steps are slowly recovering.

According to Du Fuhu, the people and horses of the governor are still almost at the limit, and many people have already complained, which is also normal.

Yang Meng went back to Kunming during the preparation of the arsenal, and under his order in the West Campus, the Inspector stopped the cruel sparring, and most people were only grateful to Yang Meng, and the complaints were only sent to the two tigers of the Du family, which was also the reason why Yang Meng did not stay in the West Campus.

Although the matter was said to be their own beginning, it was Du Fuhu and Du Zhenhu who carried out the order, and these two people did not suffer less, not to mention their dead strength, and they also gained a harsh notoriety, and this is Yang Meng's means to weaken the majesty of the two in the supervision.

The Yang family's army, whether it is majestic or rewarded, is from the Yang family, not the generals who lead the troops. Yang Meng has a very high understanding of people's hearts. A small means. Let the Du family have no chance to control the bidding.

And Howard's side also ran into trouble, and the official gun building began, but in three days, only a dozen usable guns were assembled, and four hundred mechanics were assembled! More than a dozen guns, this efficiency is somewhat too low.

Howard had taught them all, but most of the craftsmen couldn't make the parts that were qualified. This made Howard a little suspicious of the method taught by Yang Meng, it seems that this revolver cannot be divided and cooperated, and only one mechanic can be responsible for one.

Howard also carefully looked at the method of building the blacksmiths in Xishan, and in the process of secondary charcoal firing and quenching, these blacksmiths seemed to have some problems, but Howard did not know what the specific problems were.

The time of secondary charcoaling, the process of quenching. The carburizing in the process of beating, these Qing blacksmiths did it. It's always awkward, and many of the barrels and revolvers, which are made, have quality problems, but there are also a few blacksmiths who create parts that are of extraordinary quality, and the specific reasons in these things, Howard, as a senior mechanic, still can't analyze them.

Looking at the piles of waste in front of him, Howard fell into trouble, watching the process of making the barrel of the Qing Dynasty blacksmith over and over again, it takes two or three days to make a barrel, nearly 100 times of heating, carburizing, and thousands of forgings, and it is also an extremely difficult job to record the whole process.

In order to train qualified apprentices, Howard also went out of his way, eating and living in the factory, and the barrels played under his guidance basically met the requirements, so that these could continue to build barrels, and the previous scene appeared again.

Unexplained quality problems, looking at the broken barrels, Howard fell into a deep helplessness, and couldn't find the reason!

Howard, who was helpless, could only find Yang Meng, a general who was extremely familiar with industry, thinking about the attractive reward and the hundreds of scrapped gun barrels in the arsenal, Howard could only attribute the reason to the substandard iron materials of the Xishan Iron Works.

"General Yang, the iron materials provided by the Xishan Iron Works are not qualified, and the arsenal will import a batch of iron materials from Milican to try it!"

"Unqualified iron? Didn't a single revolver of the required quality be made? ”

Hearing this news, Yang Meng's brows also furrowed, steel is the foundation of everything, if the iron material is not qualified, then it will be a big trouble.

"I have assembled more than a dozen guns by luck, but most of the barrels and revolvers are substandard products, and if they are assembled into firearms, the probability of exploding is extremely high."

Howard is not a scientist and can only judge problems based on his own experience, but Howard feels that his analysis is still correct.

"The quality of the gun must be guaranteed, so be it! You and those Milican mechanics in the arsenal will make the barrel once and see how the quality is, and if it is still the same as before, I will go to the Xishan Iron Works to see how it goes. ”

Out of the qualified products, Yang Meng felt that it should not be the reason for iron, the quality of iron, has been tested by many missionaries, they all claim that the quality of the wrought iron produced by the Xishan Iron Works is higher than that of European countries, is this good iron not suitable for making barrels?

Yang Meng originally planned to use steel, but Howard had no experience in making barrels with steel, so in order to hone in on some blacksmiths' skills, Yang Meng agreed to continue to use wrought iron to make barrels.

What I didn't expect was that there would be quality problems with wrought iron, and Yang Meng could only slowly explore this.

At Yang Meng's suggestion, a gunsmith from Millican built a barrel, and the results were all qualified products, so that the reason for the scrap was found, and the problem was still in the construction process.

"Howard, now it seems that it is not the cause of wrought iron, but the cause of people, gather the blacksmiths of the arsenal, I want to question."

Millican's mechanics can make a qualified barrel, but the blacksmiths of the Qing Dynasty can't make it, and Yang Meng can't guess this reason, could it be that Howard kept his hand?

More than four hundred blacksmiths gathered in the empty arsenal, Yang Meng glanced down, the mood of the blacksmiths was not high, it seemed that the scrap not only affected Howard's mood, but these elite blacksmiths in Xishan were also affected.

"The blacksmith who made a good product stood up, and the blacksmith who made a high-quality product stood by my side."

Yang Meng said a word, and dozens of blacksmiths came out in line and obediently stood in front of Yang Meng.

"Howard, the one with the best barrel?"

Howard's fingers moved, and an old blacksmith with a somewhat pale beard stepped forward. Looking at his outfit, he is still a blacksmith of the Yi tribe.

"In the process of making the barrel. It's all according to what Mr. Howard taught. Step by step? ”

Yang Meng asked casually, but he didn't expect the old blacksmith to kneel down tremblingly.

"Third master, there are some things that are wrong with the things taught by this foreign master, so I will follow my own way."

One sentence stirred up a thousand waves, it turned out that the problem was this, and after this sentence was finished, Yang Meng's thinking became clear. These blacksmiths are all masters from the age of forty, who have been striking iron for many years, and each has their own way, Howard's teaching, they have a choice of learning, so there is such a problem.

I can't learn it with a hand-in-hand teaching, Yang Meng thought of this problem before, but I didn't expect the reason to be the old way, the people of the Qing Dynasty pay attention to the rules, it seems that it is this old rule. stumbled on the development of the arsenal.

"Howard, come on."

To change. Yang Meng's method is also simple, a whip is enough, but Howard's group of people don't want to be like Ge Shiyang, so they are afraid that these foreign masters will make trouble!

"General Yang, what do you command?"

"The problem has been found, I still have a way to improve the quality of the revolver, are you willing to learn?"

"Of course I do!"

"Well, the way to improve the quality of the revolver is on the old blacksmith, and I will send someone to record his method later, and these days you and the mechanics of the Colt Arsenal have summed up a simple and easy-to-learn process, when to do what to do, and what to do when the time comes.

The records are more detailed, and I will send a team of soldiers over these days, and don't let these blacksmiths make anything, let them memorize the process for me first, and if they can't remember well, let the soldiers whip them until they remember.

After memorizing the process, let them make the gun, and if the scrap is out, let the soldiers punish them severely, and make the blacksmith with all the barrels qualified, give me the list, and I will reward them.

Are you okay with that? ”

Punishment and reward, Yang Meng's method is very bad, but it is very useful, on one side is leather whip, on the other side is gold and silver, such a gap, the old rules followed by blacksmiths are nothing.

"Of course it is acceptable, moderate corporal punishment can increase the enthusiasm of the workers, I will do what General Yang said!"

Howard can accept the best, even if he can't accept it, Yang Meng will force him to accept it.

"On the side of the cannon, you also go to Xishan to select a group of apprentices, and in the next few months, you have to give me the results."

The problem of the revolver is solved, and the production of the gun is not a big problem, so let's just carry out the two together!

Returning to the blacksmiths with Howard, Yang Meng's face sank, and he began to speak angrily:

"Mr. Howard, I have given you everything that should be taught, what Mr. Howard says you should do! I didn't do it according to his method, so you can't produce qualified products, this kind of thing, once is enough, next time you will renovate the process indiscriminately, beware of your skin and flesh suffering!

These blacksmiths who make qualified products, one person will be rewarded with one hundred taels of silver, and the blacksmith who makes high-quality products will be rewarded with five hundred taels of silver. ”

Sure enough, as soon as Yang Meng said this, most of the blacksmiths lowered their heads, no need to guess, these bowed heads must be the same as the old Yi blacksmith, they all came according to their own methods, the differences are very subtle, the heat, the amount of carburizing, and the time of forging, these are the key factors that affect the finished product.

Most of the blacksmiths in Xishan have no experience in making firearms, and they don't know the danger of blasting in the tunnel, and they don't know much about the principles of carburizing and forging, which is why there is such a big problem.

Thinking about this, Yang Meng also felt a little funny, almost because of the habitual actions of these blacksmiths, he destroyed the Xishan Iron Works, if it weren't for himself, I am afraid this matter would be a big trouble.

While the mechanics were exchanging experiences with the old Yi blacksmith, Yang Meng was also familiar with the manufacturing process of the revolver.

In addition to striking iron, many processes can be done by women, which is undoubtedly a good way to increase the income of farmers and tenants, Yunnan's native cloth is gradually replaced by foreign cloth, although the output of the field is a lot, the income of farming is still the lowest in Yunnan, and can only barely maintain food and clothing.

The arsenal needs a lot of manpower, a revolver, there are a lot of things needed, gunpowder, lead bullet, primer, gunpowder bottles, holsters, copper accessories, a gun is a huge industrial chain, so that one-tenth or more of Yiliang's farmer tenants can live a better life, an arsenal can do it, it seems that they want to get more factories in Yunnan.

One day to study the process, four days of time experiments, after destructive experiments, the old Yi blacksmith's method is really feasible, Howard's harvest is not bad, Colt M1847, will soon be mass-produced in Yunnan.

The matter of Yiliang Arsenal is also in order, Yang Meng took more than 1,900 revolvers and returned to Yangjia Wuzhuang, most of these guns Yang Meng saved, only took 200, he wanted to go to the West School Field, let the supervisors experiment with their ideas. (To be continued......)