What Masato wants to talk about is the lost-wax casting method.

The so-called lost-wax casting method is to inject paraffin wax into the model first, and after taking off the model, the same paraffin investment mold as the required casting is obtained; Repeat the process of dipping refractory paint and sprinkling refractory sand on the investment mold, hardening the shell and drying; Then the internal investment mold is melted away to obtain a cavity; Roast the shell to obtain sufficient strength and burn off the residual investment material; Metal materials required for pouring; Solidification and cooling, sand removal after shelling, so as to obtain high-precision finished products.

According to Zhengliang's memory, the Ming Kingdom should already have this kind of technique now. Of course, for the current craftsmen of the Luo family, it is indeed a new casting method. After hearing Masayo's introduction. All the craftsmen present, including Liu Ye and Andel, thought carefully.

Seeing this, Masahiro smiled. With the current level of the Luo family's technique, it still takes a period of time to achieve this kind of casting technique. Therefore, in order to speed up the exploration, Zhengliang decided to spend a high price and let Wang Hai, Zuo Moyang, You Jianxia and others help obtain this kind of technique or craftsman from the Ming Kingdom, and also need to buy a large amount of paraffin.

Paraffin is a product of petroleum, and it is not possible to obtain raw materials in Japan, so we have to rely on imports for now. And Masato is also ready to hemorrhage for this.

Why is Zhengliang determined to import a large amount of paraffin? In addition to exploring the previous lost-wax casting method, there is another important reason, that is, Masayo is ready to promote the customized gunpowder method.

In the process of inspection, Masara has already discovered a problem, that is, the gunpowder that these arquebuses are equipped with, and all the powder poured out is powder. As a result, the composition of the gunpowder is uneven. Serious effects on the performance of gunpowder. Naturally, it also affected the power of the musket.

There was no smokeless gunpowder in this era, but black powder was also quite powerful as long as it was made into granular gunpowder, so it seems that these craftsmen who made gunpowder either cut corners or did not master the production method of granular gunpowder at all.

In addition, the gunpowder of the iron gunners is now packed in bamboo barrels of different sizes, and many inexperienced people can easily fill more or less when charging. There is no way to guarantee the quality of the reloading, and it also affects the speed of reloading.

In Masaliang's view, even in the arquebus era, it was completely possible to use fixed gunpowder, which was divided into small containers in advance and poured directly into the chamber of the gun when used. In this way, the quality of gunpowder can be guaranteed to be the same every time it is loaded, and the accident of exploding can be greatly reduced.

Granular gunpowder is also very simple to make. However, the powdered gunpowder is fully mixed evenly, spread evenly on the basket, and then boil some glutinous rice juice, whether it is sprayed with a mouth or sprayed with a watering can, the glutinous rice juice is evenly sprayed on the powdered gunpowder that is spread out, and then gently shake the basket, the powdered gunpowder will condense into granular gunpowder by itself, and store it after drying, and the granular gunpowder is considered to be completed, such granular gunpowder is much stronger than powdered gunpowder, and it is not easy to shake when transporting the heavier sulfur in the gunpowder to sink. The charcoal powder floats on the upper layer, and it can effectively reduce the moisture absorption of gunpowder, which can be said to be a multi-task.

As for the distribution of gunpowder, it is even simpler, as long as the gunpowder is divided strictly according to the amount of charge, and then packed with a small bamboo tube of the same size as possible. In this way, it is not only convenient to take and fill, but also can effectively prevent moisture, and its role is self-evident.

As for the production of small bamboo tubes, it is also very simple, almost just take local materials, find some dry fine bamboo, cut it into sections, pack the gunpowder in these bamboo tubes, plug the mouth with a cork, and then seal it with wax to prevent moisture after the most lucrative time, which is considered to be a great success.

Of course, there is another issue here. That's where the wax comes from. So in the end, it could only be imported in large quantities from Mingguo. There is also glutinous rice, which also needs to be introduced from the Ming Kingdom, and then vigorously promoted and planted in the territory. In this way, glutinous rice can be used as both a grain and a raw material for the production of granular gunpowder.

Then there is a problem that Masahiro also discovered, that is, the lead used by these iron gunners is a bit irregular, either large or small, the large one is not easy to load into the chamber when loaded, and it is easy to explode, but the small one falls into it with a chirp, and the muzzle is a little lower, the projectile will fall out, even if it does not fall out, because the gunpowder burns when it is deflated, causing the projectile to fly far and the power is greatly reduced.

So he had to ask a craftsman to melt the projectiles and recast them, and the specifications had to be matched to each gun so that it would not appear in the previous situation, and be as precise as possible, so that it could effectively match the chamber of the gun and increase the loading speed and power of the musket.

When these fixed gunpowder are made, they can be directly equipped to the iron gunners of the Luo family, when used, the iron gunners only need to bite off the sealed wooden cork with their teeth, and pour the gunpowder directly into the muzzle, Zhengliang also asked Zhang Qian to find some women, let them sew a set of belts with fixed gunpowder bamboo barrels from coarse cloth, which is similar to the belt of shotguns in later generations, and it is much more convenient to use.

After inspecting the firearms workshop, Zhengliang also inspected Liu Ye's newly established siege equipment workshop in the canyon. There is currently only one siege weapon in the Workshop, and that is the ladder. After the cage battle in Liuchuan City, Liu Ye was stepping up efforts to improve these ladders according to some of the situations that had appeared at the beginning.

After visiting the workshop in the canyon, Masahiro went to the station of the iron artillery team not far from the workshop and inspected the training of the iron artillery team. After watching the training, Masahiro gave several requirements on the spot that must be implemented immediately:

First, it is necessary to speed up the speed at which the iron gunners can reload the iron cannons. To this end, he asked the iron gunners to constantly practice the loading of the gun, and repeatedly let them repeat each reloading action, so that the reloading steps have always reached the level of instinct, and the loading mistakes of the gang of goods in the province when they are in battle, so as to avoid them either loading too much gunpowder and blowing up the chamber, or forgetting to load the projectile or forgetting to draw out the cane, and releasing a shot in vain, so that the training can also greatly increase the speed of reloading, at least to be able to reload twice a minute.

In fact, on the issue of speeding up the loading speed of iron cannons, Masarashi also considered the method of three-stage attack. However, based on the current situation of Roche and the strengthening of the iron gunners' own capabilities, Masayo decided to have both, not only to be able to master good musket operation skills on their own, but also to train tactics such as three-stage attack and platoon attack in the future, so as to flexibly respond to changes in the situation on the battlefield.

In fact, at present, Masara does not have high requirements for the gunpowder reloading speed of the soldiers, as long as these iron gunners improve rapidly after strengthening the reloading training, the speed of reloading that can only be reloaded once in one or two minutes has been greatly increased, so that the loading speed has reached the speed of two guns per minute, which can satisfy Masaliang.

In addition to letting the gang practice loading, Masara also asked the Iron Artillery Team to strengthen aiming training. The method of training is to require the iron artillery team to practice aiming for a long time every day, and everyone holds a musket, and one support is a long day. Masahiro also asked that in this process, each of them should be given another stone to hang on the barrel of the gun to increase the weight and exercise the stability of their guns when aiming.

It's a pity that the amount of gunpowder and muskets in the Luo family is too small now, although Masahiro wants to use live ammunition to train these iron gunners, but the shortage of gunpowder and muskets makes him unable to do so, plus the life of these muskets is very short, far less than the life of muskets in later generations, which can easily be thousands of rounds and tens of thousands of rounds of firearms. So in the end, they can only be allowed to live ammunition two or three times a day. The only thing I hope is that the Roche family's homemade musket production line will be formed as soon as possible.

After visiting the workshop and the iron cannon training camp in the mountain, when he arrived at the foot of the mountain, he stopped by the paper mill built by the stream at the bottom of the mountain.

As one of the earliest workshops established by the Luo family, after two or three years of development, the paper mill has expanded several times, and the paper mill can not only meet the daily needs of the territory, but also export to places outside the territory, creating a lot of extra money for the Luo family.

Just as Luo Ming was visiting the paper mill with great interest, he suddenly received a return from the Black Eagle, and it turned out that Zhu Qinfeng's Nanban ship was about to visit.

Hey! I was about to gather all the Nanban merchants and Ming merchants in the territory to discuss things, but I didn't expect them to come.

(Xie Lu Xie Shuyou Lu Miya for the tip.) (To be continued......)