"Is there a way for the metallurgical department to solve this technical problem?" Tao Donglai looked at the camp of the Ministry of Industry. (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable dìng) today are all experts engaged in related industries among the people, in order to be able to answer questions on the spot immediately when there is a problem, and try to clean up some unachievable solutions.

Metallurgical technical supervisor called Liu Xingli, graduated from the School of Metallurgical Engineering and Technology of China Metallurgical University in 2007 with a major in iron and steel metallurgy, and worked as a field technician in Shougang before crossing. Such a small problem naturally couldn't bother him, so he nodded and said: "Of course there is a way, in industrial production, it is generally solved by guò electroplating lead, but this requires the chemical department to provide fluoroboric acid as a plating solution." ”

Chemical expert Qiao Zhiya raised his hand and said in half-baked Chinese: "To make fluoroboric acid, we first have to find borax mines, and as far as I know, the main production areas of that thing in China are Qinghai, Tibet and Shaanxi, and I think we will probably not be able to occupy those places in the short term." ”

There was a sigh from the crowd, and it seemed that the road was blocked. However, Qiao Zhiya quickly continued: "But thankfully, you have met me as a professional, because I happen to know some alternatives, such as potassium sodium tartrate lead plating and triethanolamine lead plating, which are commonly used in car batteries, as well as lead methanesulfonate, perchlorate lead plating, sulfamate lead plating, ......etc."

"Stop, stop, don't say such detailed technical terms, most of the people in this room don't understand. Tao Donglai hurriedly stopped Qiao Zhiya's teasing: "Tell me, is there a processing method that is suitable for our current situation and can manufacture lead-plated shells on a large scale?" ”

"Yes! but ......"

"But what?" Tao Donglai was also a little anxious, whether this technical problem could be solved, but it was related to what kind of development route the future artillery should take, and in the long run, it would even affect the lives of quite a few people, so he couldn't help but feel nervous.

"But I have to build me a real room first so that I can perfect this process, after all, I haven't actually operated it before. In addition, I must remind you that this electroplating process is very power-intensive during large-scale processing, and you may have to stop some other production projects that use electricity. (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable)" Qiao Zhiya unhurriedly put forward his own requirements.

"Okay, no problem, I have approved this matter on behalf of the Executive Committee. After a short discussion, Tao Donglai immediately announced the decision of the executive committee: "The other is the issue of lead, I remember that there seems to be a lead mine in Hainan?"

Ning Qi immediately opened his notebook and connected to the large database: "That's right, there are two places in Ledong and Changjiang, and the reserves of the lead-zinc mine in Ledong alone are close to 100,000 tons, but the problem is that we can't go to that place to mine in the short term." ”

"If we can't go, we can hire someone to go, make an offer, and let Yazhou organize people to mine stones. Tao Donglai immediately thought of a solution: "And we also brought hundreds of kilograms of lead ...... ourselves."

"The lead has to be kept for rifle cartridges. Ning Qi reminded Tao Donglai softly.

Tao Donglai patted his head and didn't continue on this topic. The current plan to build artillery is only one aspect, and the plan to build flintlock pistols and arm the native troops is also on the agenda, and the executive committee really cannot use such a small reserve of lead in its hands.

So far, the discussions have only theoretically opened up the possibility of manufacturing and equipping breech guns, and have established the course of development of artillery manufacturing in the future. But in practice, it is basically impossible to build the kind of artillery that everyone has just discussed in one step. The reason is simple, because of all the traversals, no one has actually made a cannon. Including the North American gang of six who are weapons experts Cun Zài, at most they have personally fired old-fashioned front-loading smoothbore guns and know some of the technical parameters of artillery, but they are also outsiders to the cannon casting process. So after discussing for a long time, the topic returned to the beginning, and it was necessary to first cast a few small-caliber front-loading smoothbore guns with the least technical difficulty to practice their skills. If you can't even get a smoothbore gun, then don't mention anything about fully equipped breech-loading rifled guns for the time being.

This was not the only reason for choosing to make a smoothbore gun in the first place, there were two other important reasons that forced the Executive Committee to make such a choice.

The first reason is that the Ming Dynasty was very strong in the procurement of arms during this period because of frequent wars. And the model in history of making a fortune to the Ming Dynasty by selling arms is the Portuguese. Due to the backwardness of their own cannon casting technology, most of the Hongyi cannons equipped in the army in the late Ming Dynasty were traded with the Portuguese in Macao, because the Ming Dynasty had a huge demand for artillery, and the Portuguese production capacity could not be satisfied, and they even did middlemen to resell the British shipborne cannons to the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the Dutch also got a share of such an arms deal, but it was only after the Ming Dynasty became hostile to the Dutch because of the Taiwan issue that the arms trade between the two sides stopped.

Although the shape of these Hongyi cannons imported from the Portuguese was clumsy, their price was also directly proportional to their weight, and they were often worth thousands of silver. With such a large arms business, the Executive Committee did not intend to cheapen the Portuguese for nothing. Whether it is military science and technology, tactical level, or the grasp of historical trends and key elements, the traversal has incomparable advantages, to be an invincible cross-fire merchant in this era, I am afraid that no one can be more qualified than this group of traversers from the 21st century. The Thirty Years' War in Europe is now in full swing, and there are still twenty years to be fought, and there are already people who have been clamoring to export arms to Europe as soon as possible, so that the whiteskins will kill more fiercely, so that they have no time to worry about the struggle for control of the sea in the East.

Since there is an intent to sell arms, this leads to the second reason, which is also an important principle in the arms business, that the most advanced weapons must not be sold. In the Executive Committee's long-term plan for arms exports, there should be at least a one-generation gap between export-oriented weapons and self-use weapons, so that in the event that a customer becomes an opponent, the cross-cutting army can still maintain sufficient battlefield suppression capability by virtue of its weapon superiority.

This principle of generational difference is not only for future arms exports, but also for the armies that the Crossing Masses themselves will build in the future.

The rapid pace of expansion in the coming decades will certainly be a sight unprecedented in history, and it is difficult for the organization and building of the army to be very solid in such an accelerated development, and even if the political work is done well, some of the armed forces in the marginal areas will inevitably have ambitions. But if the weapon generation gap is maintained, even if someone makes a mess, there will be no ability to turn the tables. In addition, armies that use firearms are so reliant on logistics that their ability to sustain operations is drastically reduced if they cut off the supply of ammunition. Controlling the source of arms manufacturing and supply is also one of the ways to effectively control the armed forces.

For this purpose, weapons of various technology levels will be manufactured and used separately as planned. For example, if the traversal has already made a breech cannon, then the low-tech "Haihan cannon" can be sold to the Ming Dynasty. When the Crossing Native troops were equipped with Minnie rifles, the obsolete old flintlock pistols could appear on the arms export list.

In fact, there is a rather subtle purpose for the export of arms, and the Executive Committee has not publicly announced it. In fact, this purpose was also set by the Executive Committee after being inspired by some of the major arms export policies in later generations, that is, to continuously export arms in a targeted manner, weakening the arms research and development capabilities of arms importing countries, and in the long run, arms exporting countries will have to have a strong dependence, whether it is the after-sales maintenance of weapons, the supply of ammunition, the training of personnel, etc., will be strictly subject to arms exporting countries. For example, India, a large country in South Asia in later generations, was jokingly called the 10,000-best arsenal, and the main weapons of the sea, land and air basically relied on imports from different countries, and its disadvantages are self-evident. It often takes decades to develop a weapon on its own, and when it finally looks like a sample is about to be produced, other arms exporting countries will "timely" launch weapons of the same grade with much lower production costs, so that this kind of laborious weapon research and development has to be abandoned halfway.

After this kind of control over arms science and technology reaches a certain stage, it is very easy for the arms exporting country and its customers to reach a military alliance, and at all times, they can also find an excuse such as "joint research and development of weapons" to ask the importing country to use the money to fund the exporting country's scientific research. Of course, the last weapon that the payer can get his hands on will still be a castrated version with a generational gap. The Executive Committee believes that this kind of soft suppression in military science and technology is more cost-effective than hard confrontation on the frontal battlefield, and there is no need to keep fighting in addition to making money. And these weak countries that pay for them will often be very active in kneeling and licking their father's country in various postures in exchange for being able to retain their place in a strong military alliance.

The reason why these ideas were not publicly released was that the Executive Committee took into account that the number of naturalized civilians would increase in the future, and that if this theory spread, it would be detrimental to internal unity on the one hand, and on the other hand, it would have a negative impact on future arms exports.

After discussing the big direction, the next step is to deal with some technical details.