Song Yingxing's Iron and Steel Smelting Bureau finally manufactured a set of iron and steel smelting equipment proposed by Zhu Youzhen.

That is, coal is used as fuel, crucible is used as furnace, and at the same time, the iron is stirred with willow sticks, and then the mold turntable is rotated by hydrodynamic force, so that the molten iron is directly cooled and formed on the mold, and then the hydraulic preliminary hammer is carried out by the craftsman for grinding and modification.

Zhu Youzhen named this set of equipment "Daming 001 blast furnace".

Each group of the Iron and Steel Smelting Bureau has a set of "Daming 001 blast furnace" equipment, and each craftsman has a different division of labor, so the efficiency is naturally much faster than the initial tandem ironmaking, and the yield rate has also increased a lot.

Each set of equipment can be replaced at any time for large-scale production of large parts of various weapons, because only one set of molds can be replaced.

However, at present, the Musket Bureau and the Artillery Bureau have not yet determined the regulations for flintlock pistols and field guns, which makes the Iron and Steel Smelting Bureau unable to produce important parts of flintlock pistols and field guns according to the production requirements of the Musket Bureau and the Artillery Bureau.

However, some cold weapons with great combat value, such as Miao knives, Japanese knives and spears, have begun to be produced in large quantities, because there is no need for craftsmen to burn and hammer for a long time, so the production speed of these cold weapons is particularly fast, and the sharpness and toughness are obviously much better than before, because the best carbon content can be determined at any time by the degree of burning of wooden sticks.

At present, Zhu Youzhen's guards army alone has 300,000 people, plus the number of recruits reported by several other guards.

Zhu Youzhen's guards had more than 500,000 recruits at once, so the demand for weapons for recruits in an army of this size was still very large.

Now, after the Iron and Steel Smelting Bureau has improved the level and quality of smelting steel, it can produce more than 100,000 cold weapons of various types every month.

Coupled with the weapons in stock in various places, basically the new recruits are equipped with cold weapons in the early stage, and the supply will completely exceed demand in the future.

According to Zhu Youzhen's requirements, Tang Ruowang began to draw the flintlock pistol that the Ming Dynasty really wanted to use in field battles according to the Portuguese flintlock pistol, Bi Maokang's "Illustrated Description of Weapons" and Zhu Youzhen's drawings.

For the firing device, John Tang made some improvements, the entire bolt surface presented an arc surface, that is, the banana configuration in the teaching, the medicine pot was widened and deepened, the fire curtain was also significantly widened, the fire curtain rocker arm and the iron cover were thickened a lot, the strip plate was also thickened, and the strip plate was changed to a fingerboard type to make it easier to operate.

The hammer also fully considered the practicality and long-term effect of the firearm on the battlefield, and changed the firing device of the rooster type to the swan-neck type, which made the firing efficiency higher and the operation easier.

The total length of the flintlock pistol and the bayonet was seven feet long, which was almost longer than the height of an adult male.

However, according to John Tong's ascertainment, the flintlock pistol was expected to be equivalent in all respects to the European level of the early eighteenth century, although he only made partial changes to make the whole device more suitable for ergonomics, protection against wind and rain, and the length of service life.

What's more, according to Zhu Youzhen's requirements, this flintlock pistol is to be used as the standard weapon of the Ming Dynasty, that is, to unify the standards of every component including guns and bullets, so it can be more cutting-edge beyond this era.

Of course, such a long spear had little effect on the infantry, and for the cavalry it was obviously not conducive to immediate combat.

Therefore, John Tang had to continue to design a special flintlock pistol for cavalry, but this kind of flintlock pistol for cavalry had to require that the barrel should not be too long, but the barrel was too short to affect the design accuracy and air tightness.

Therefore, in order not to affect the shooting accuracy and air tightness, the barrel caliber must be reduced, which requires the Iron and Steel Smelting Bureau to make a better barrel.

After Zhu Youzhen learned that John Tang had theoretically drawn the flintlock pistol for the Ming infantry, he ordered to immediately carry out research and development experiments, and the flintlock pistol for the cavalry could be put aside first, and the three-eyed gun could be temporarily used for the firearms used by the cavalry, and the ignition device of the three-eyed gun could be modified to a certain extent, which may be enough to meet the military needs of the current era.

Seeing that there is still more than a month to go until the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the urgency of the war is becoming more and more obvious, Zhu Youzhen can no longer wait for the cavalry and infantry special flintlock pistols to be manufactured, he can only let the infantry be equipped with flintlock pistols first.

The quality of materials is the basis of firearms manufacturing, Tang Ruowang and Song Yingxing and several veteran senior craftsmen of the Iron and Steel Smelting Bureau and the Fire Gun Bureau formed a research team, with the latest "Daming 001 Tianzi blast furnace" as the casting equipment, the first group of craftsmen of the Iron and Steel Smelting Bureau undertook the process from iron ore smelting to the casting of larger parts such as gun barrels, while the first group of craftsmen formed by the latest Fire Smelting Bureau was otherwise responsible for forging and welding wrought iron into various parts.

Each component was manufactured to the specifications calibrated by John Tong's drawings, with the first group of the Torch Bureau each craftsman responsible for the manufacture of one part, while the second group of the Torch Bureau was only responsible for assembling and the third group was responsible for trial performance.

As soon as the molten iron in the blast furnace came out, it flowed into the pond, and the craftsmen of the Iron and Steel Smelting Bureau immediately held willow sticks and prepared to stir them.

"Take out three of them first, take them out when they burn to six or seven out of ten, and make a record!"

Song Yingxing had to determine the best carbon content of the barrel of the flintlock pistol used by the first main equipment of the Ming Dynasty, so he had to start to keep a strict record of the degree of use of willow sticks.

To this end, Song Yingxing also asked people to prepare copper and lead after weighing; Once the iron barrel with the optimal charcoal content was not enough for the flintlock pistol, he was ready to try to make a better barrel out of alloy.

Moreover, before that, he had already ordered people to add some metal components such as copper powder, knowing that some alloys already had better results.

As soon as the barrel is condensed, the craftsmen begin to remove it, and at the same time the molds are converted to produce the ingots, which are then cooled, and the precision parts are immediately processed by the most skilled craftsmen of the Gun Bureau. At the same time, a team of craftsmen screens and retouches the barrel to ensure that the barrel caliber and length are consistent.

Tang Ruowang stared at the craftsman who made the fire curtain door: "The firing device is the key to this gun, there can be no sloppiness, if it is too soft or too hard, it must be pointed out, the thickness must meet my requirements, not too thick nor too thin, and the error is controlled within the range of my requirements." ”

Once all the parts are manufactured, they are dropped from the bamboo track (the bamboo has a smooth surface) through a 30-degree slope, and then assembled and inspected by the final craftsman.

After three days, Tang Ruowang and Song Yingxing looked at a brightly polished wooden-handled flintlock pistol and smirked.

"Report, the musket has been tested, with an accurate range of eighty paces and a maximum range of one hundred and twenty paces! Qualified! ”

The craftsmen below returned the guns as shooting experiments.