The success of the steel front-loading smoothbore gun can be regarded as an important achievement of the weapons department, but whether to transform this scientific research achievement into batch equipment is not unified in the meaning of crossing the team. At the enlarged meeting of the committee, after the launch of Shiyan, the participants formed two factions of opinion.

As the developer of weapons, the weapons section naturally hopes to produce a batch of such artillery and equip it with its own armed liliang, at least all the gun emplacements on the fortress should be equipped. In this way, we can not only give full play to the role of the fortress, but also improve the manufacture of artillery, and accumulate experience for the next step of artillery research and development.

As a user of weapons, the military department did not have much interest in this relatively primitive artillery. It is felt that this kind of artillery is inefficient, too cumbersome to operate, and the power is limited, especially now that the security threat faced by the team is not very serious, and the need for artillery is not very urgent. Under these circumstances, rather than spending a lot of money -- it took thousands of times before and after building this shiyan cannon -- to equip this primitive artillery, it is better to wait a little longer, wait for the development of new gunpowder on the side of the chemical department, and equip the breech-loading rifled gun in one step.

As a part-time person in charge of the Weapons Section, Li Junwu said very unhappily: "The brothers of the Military Department are blindly pursuing the advanced nature of weapons, and they have no idea of the hardships in the process of weapons research and development. Do you think it would be easy to make such a so-called primitive artillery? All the members of the Weapons Section had to suffer a lot to make this cannon. Your current attitude is tantamount to a denial of the hard work of the Weapons Section during this time, and this denial is a kind of harm to the members of the Weapons Section.

Besides, since you want to do it in one step, why didn't Weishenme refuse to use flintlock pistols in the first place, and wait for rifled guns to be built before equipping them with firearms? It was not because the development of rifled guns was still far away at that time, and you chose flintlock pistols in order to gain a generation difference in equipment.

Now it's good, I think that the chemical industry should soon be able to make a new type of gunpowder, so I don't look down on this kind of front-loading artillery. Do you think that with the new type of gunpowder, you can immediately create a breech-loading rifled gun? If that's what you think, then you're looking at weapons development too simply.

You must understand that the development of new types of artillery is far from enough with new types of gunpowder, and the development of new types of artillery is far more complicated and difficult than today's front-loading guns. Whether it is the barrel, the barrel, or the gun carriage, which is much more difficult to manufacture than the front-loading gun. Moreover, even if a new cannon is created, there are many other problems to be solved. If nothing else, a stable and reliable artillery shell fuse alone cannot be developed overnight.

Moreover, I can tell you that not only new artillery, but also new rifles are not as easy as you think. Yes, the weapons section has already made several prototype guns based on the drawings that my second brother and I made. Maybe in your opinion, this is already all ready, and it is only up to Lao Jiu to make a new gunpowder. In fact, the development of a new rifle is far from being so simple.

There are prototype guns, and there are new types of gunpowder, but have you ever thought about what raw materials are used to make bullets and what tools are used to process bullets under our current conditions? If you can't make usable bullets, will those preparations ahead still make sense? ”

Speaking of this, Li Junwu paused, glanced at Zhou Lei, and motioned for him to tell everyone about the difficulties in making bullets. Zhou Lei immediately said: "Big brother is right, weapon research and development is by no means an overnight thing. Let's take the processing and manufacturing of bullets that everyone is familiar with, even if Lao Jiu and they can provide all kinds of new gunpowder for the weapons department as detonating charges and propellants, the mechanical processing of the bullets themselves is also a big problem. The only modern equipment that can be used for machining in our hands is a simple machine tool on the repair car, which can process all kinds of simple tools, but can process bullets without this function.

The kind of bullet you are familiar with, just one warhead, is divided into three parts: the warhead is armor, the lead sleeve and the steel core. There are dozens of production processes, and the requirements for machining accuracy are also very high. If you want to process bullets, you must at least have a press that performs 'extension processing'. But now the team does not have this kind of equipment in their hands, although the mechanical department is going all out to find a way, but if you want to make a breakthrough, it is not a day or two to achieve. ,

Therefore, everyone should be more patient, and do not think that if you make good steel today, and tomorrow you will make a new type of gunpowder, and you will be able to have an automatic rifle in your hands later. Meals must be eaten one bite at a time, things must be done one by one, and weapons must be updated step by step. To say a word of cold water on everyone, those modern weapons in everyone's mind are still a long way from mass production. Even according to optimistic estimates, it will not be until the end of this year to have a certain eyebrow, and by this time next year, it will be good to be able to complete the transformation of all members of the Ministry of Security and the Ministry of Military Affairs. Moreover, this goal is achieved only if the two departments do not increase their headcount significantly, and the financial position of the team is able to support it.

After all, it costs a lot of money to produce these modern firearms under our current conditions. Among other things, the amount of copper consumed to make bullets alone is not a small amount. And China is a country that lacks copper, and the cost of making bullets can be imagined. ”

The words of Li Junwu and Zhou Lei woke up those who were so ambitious and made them understand the unreality of their previous ideas. The participants of the Military Department headed by Qian Yuanshan and Zeng Zhilin and the Security Department headed by Xu Shaoan realized their mistakes and reviewed them at the enlarged meeting.

In this way, the proposal put forward by the Weapons Section to produce front-loading smoothbore guns was naturally passed. According to the actual situation of the team's various places of residence, the committee decided to equip artillery in the "Jingyuan", "Liangyuan" and Feilong Village. Of course, the area and purpose of these places are different, so the number and caliber of artillery are also different. Among them, the "Liangyuan" was equipped with the most, six 120-mm guns and 12 100-mm guns; The Flying Dragon Village is in the center, with four 120-mm guns and eight 100-mm guns; "Jingyuan" was the least, with only six hundred-mm guns.

This time, a total of 36 artillery pieces of various calibers and corresponding shells and gunpowder will be built, which is expected to cost 30,000 yuan and take nearly half a year. It can be said that this is a huge investment, if it were not for the fact that the team owns the glass manufacturing business, which is a lucrative business, and at the same time, the "Tanggu Salt Farm" will soon provide huge profits for the team, such an investment would not have been thought of by the committee.

The artillery was worked out, the meeting ended, and the specific implementation was handed over to the Weapons Section and the Materials Section. When the weapons department and the materials department were going all out to make artillery, on the tenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, Liu Wendong finally looked forward to the long-awaited pyrite.

Under the leadership of Yang Xin and Boss Chu, a huge caravan composed of dozens of mules and horses arrived in Liangxiang and sent the first batch of 10,000 catties of pyrite to Liu Wendong. However, out of confidentiality considerations, Yang Xin did not take the caravan directly to the "Cool Garden", but led them to the "Quiet Garden".

With the Ministry of Science and Technology moving to the "Liangyuan", the "Jingyuan" at this time is no longer as lively as before. In addition to Xu Shao'an, there are only the second security department and the "Jingyuan Guard Class" responsible for protecting the dozens of children under the reserve Liliang Training Department. Therefore, when Yang Xin led the caravan to the "Jingyuan", only Xu Shaoan and Cheng Fei, the person in charge of the second section, came out to greet them. After Yang Xin introduced Boss Chu to the two of them, everyone came to the front hall of the "Jingyuan" to talk together.

After everyone sat down, Yang Xin briefly told Xu and Cheng about his experience in the Northern Han Dynasty during this time, and then asked Xu Shaoan where the pyrite was placed. Xu Shao'an thought for a moment and said: "I think so, it just so happens that the things in the temporary warehouse next to the 'Jingyuan' have been moved, so let's put these ores there for the time being." ”

Yang Xin nodded when he heard this, and said, "Okay, everything is arranged by the starling." ”

Subsequently, Xu Shaoan ordered the housekeeper Deng He to accompany Yang Xin and Boss Chu to the temporary warehouse to unload the goods, and he himself notified "Qingyuan" and "Liangyuan" of the news that the pyrite had arrived through the radio, asking about the next transportation method and the settlement of the payment.

Liu Wendong of "Liangyuan" heard that the pyrite had been delivered, so he was naturally very happy, saying that Xu Shaoan did not have to worry about the transportation problem, and he would send someone to transport the goods as soon as possible. Wang Kunjun of "Qingyuan" said that it is best to let Boss Chu go to "Qingyuan" to get the payment, which can save a lot of trouble. Xu Shaoan naturally had no opinion on this, and after Boss Chu came back from unloading, he asked Yang Xin to take him to "Qingyuan" to pick up the payment.

Not long after Boss Chu and Yang Xin left the "Jingyuan", the transport team sent by Liu Wendong arrived. Since the main thing at this stage is to carry out all kinds of shiyan, they only took five hundred catties of ore this time.

After Liu Wendong got these ores, he immediately devoted himself to the preparation of sulfuric acid. He first used the lead chamber method to produce sulfuric acid with a concentration of only 76%, and then purified these sulfuric acids to obtain more than 98% concentrated sulfuric acid, and then based on these concentrated sulfuric acids, the preparation of sulfuric acid was carried out through more advanced contact methods, and finally about 100 catties of concentrated sulfuric acid were generated from these 500 catties of ore. These sulfuric acids are then used as raw materials for the next chemical reaction.

In this way, after Liu Wendong's efforts for half a month, in late July, he finally got more than 100 catties of concentrated nitric acid that he dreamed of. With these concentrated nitric acids, Liu Wendong can be regarded as having the most basic raw materials for making nitro explosives, and he can finally start the research and development of various explosives, initiating charges, and propellants.

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