The next day, Dragon Thirteen got up early.

The soldiers are pressing, and time is running out.

He went to the firearms workshop again, and this time, he went to the artillery workshop.

Although it is only a thick-caliber, short-barreled tiger squat cannon, it still uses the mud mold casting cannon method, which is particularly time-consuming, and when he was in Shanxi before, because he has not regarded this place as a place to live, so he just let the craftsmen play at will.

However, when he arrived at Nanyang Mansion, although it was still a large army pressing the border, in any case, he occupied the territory of Yifu, plus the multi-layer defense lines of Baishui, Turbulent Water, Hanshui, Bear's Ears Mountain, Funiu Mountain, and Tongbai Mountain, he finally had strategic depth.

So, some "sharp weapons" had to be taken out.

He remembered reading in later books that in Europe during the same period, because most of the iron used in artillery was smelted from coal, the sand casting method was the best.

However, in the 19th century, due to the great progress of steel smelting technology, even the Qing Dynasty began to use the iron mold casting method to cast artillery, and the effect was good.

At this time, most of the artillery used by Europeans was cast in copper, in addition to the good performance of copper itself, it was not sure that the casting iron cannon was also one of the reasons.

This was the case until the time of Napoleon.

Since there is a high-quality iron material, it is all a casting method, and if you do not use the iron mold casting method, it will be a violent thing.

So, when Long 13 summoned the craftsmen to say their thoughts, the craftsmen suddenly realized that compared with the clay mold casting method, the iron mold casting method has a shorter cycle and higher efficiency.

The difficulty of the mud mold casting method is not in the "mud", but in the wood that fixes the mud, which is no less useful than the ship material used for sea vessels, soaking, drying, and drying, and it takes several months for the wood alone.

In addition, it takes up to a month to dry slowly after applying a paint made of a special mud mixed with other things to separate the wood from the molten iron.

If there is continuous rainy weather, the time will be longer.

The iron mold is different, a pair of iron molds can be reused many times, and only the paint needs to be applied to the paint when it is dried and dried.

Thus, in a month, a large number of artillery pieces can be produced.

And Long Thirteen is using a tiger squat cannon at the moment, so he doesn't need to be too careful.

In front of you, there are iron pipes of different diameters, first evenly coating the outer walls of the thin iron pipes, and then coating the inner walls of the thick iron pipes as well - of course, this is a technical job, and this process is extremely critical to the uniform thickness of the surface of the cannon cast.

After applying, carefully put the thin iron pipe into the thick iron pipe, and then pour the molten iron into the gap between the outer wall of the thin iron pipe and the inner wall of the thick iron pipe.

After the cannon is formed, the high temperature will melt and crush the outer layer of the paint, this process takes time, when the gun is completely set, this layer also happens to complete the melting, crushing, you can pull out the gun.

Then it is necessary to add iron hoops, lugs, drill doors (where the fire rope is inserted) to the barrel of the gun, and drill the bore to make it smooth and flat.

The hardest step, of course, was drilling.

As with the drill holes of the fire gun, the craftsmen of the Dragon Thirteen also used the method of pulling the drill, but two people on each side of the drill handle were required to pull, and the drill bit was made of steel with the hardest smelted in a small kiln after repeated trials.

In the past, it required craftsmen to use a long shovel with the same hardness and a hammer to shovel it out little by little, which took a long time.

Standing in front of Long Thirteen right now were four big men struggling to pull the drill, and although the artillery below was also fixed, there were still two people taking care of it.

Even then, it needs to be drilled into it little by little, and this kind of drill needs to be carefully polished after drilling a gun, and then scrapped after drilling.

Although Dragon Thirteen's method is time-saving and efficient, no matter which one it is, it is obviously extreme

It's expensive.

"Big Boss"

The steward of the artillery workshop is also a craftsman from Jiaokou Fort in Shanxi, and now he also has a salary of ten taels of silver a month, so he is naturally doing his best.

"According to what you told me before, thirty sets of molds were opened in one go, and ten pairs of each of them were 10 catties, 100 catties, and 300 catties."

"100 sets of pull drills have also been prepared in advance"

"The previous month was spent preparing these molds, drawing drills, paints, etc., and today is the seventh day of formal production, and one is completed according to the previously agreed method, and thirty pairs are thirty doors......

"Is there a test?"

"Yes," the craftsman's face lit up.

This man led Long Thirteen to a large courtyard on the outskirts of the workshop, which was almost the same as a large playground in later generations, surrounded by high courtyard walls.

On the ground at one end of the courtyard, there were already a few cannons that had been prepared, and there were some of them in the shape of catties, one hundred catties, and some of them three hundred catties.

"Big boss, the first batch has been tried, and half of them are qualified."

Long Thirteen nodded, and secretly thought, "That's not bad."

He saw that the artillery was surrounded by low walls made of straw bags filled with mud, and he understood that it was used to test artillery, and in order to prevent the cannon from exploding, he would put the lead very long until it was drawn into the low wall, and then light the lead and wait for the cannon to explode.

"The boss, each qualified gun has been adjusted with a different propellant, the optimal dosage has been determined, and the powder shop has been informed."

"According to the previous agreement, for the ship's artillery, no matter how many catties, the way of gun wheels and gun carriages is used, and for land catties or tiger claws, more than 100 catties are changed to the same gun wheels and gun carriages for ships, and the gun body and gun carriage can be disassembled and carried away when marching"..

"The gun carriage is also made of iron, almost the same weight as the gun body, and the gun wheel is made of wood, and the carpentry workshop has been notified to assemble it here after it is ready."

Dragon Thirteen didn't care about this.

"What about range?"

The brightness on the man's face grew.

"Big boss, I've tried it, if it's loaded with solid bullets, it can directly hit the end of the courtyard and have lethality, that is, about thirty zhang."

"More than 100 catties have been transported to the suburbs for testing, about 70 zhang, and about 70 zhang of 300 catties, which is about 70 zhang higher than the previous seizure."

Seventy zhang, that is, about two hundred meters, it's okay, whether it's for boats or land, Long Thirteen pays attention to mobility, and at this time, there are naturally far away, and they can easily erode for more than ten miles, but that kind of thing is too heavy.

And when used on a boat, or on an inland river, such a distance still feels a little far, and it is best to bombard at a distance of about 20 meters.

"How's the yield?"

"Well, thirty doors, the actual two, one month is about one."

Long Thirteen nodded, and secretly thought: "Enough, if it is a long-barreled Hongyi cannon, it will take at least twenty people to serve it, and it is unlikely to use the iron mold casting method, only the clay mold casting method can only be used for half a year, and the yield is extremely low, such a thing, let's talk about it in the next step."

Lightweight, a lot of it, is what Lao Tzu needs.

Then he thought, "In another month, all the 2,000 new firecrackers I recruited will be able to use the new firearms, and the ship's artillery can also be fully equipped, and there will even be a surplus for the land division to use."

"I hope Zijin Liang and they can hold out in Tongbai Mountain for a long time, and don't bring the officials and soldiers over too early."

"If I can delay the officers and soldiers for more than two months, maybe all my sailors' ships will be launched."

After leaving the artillery workshop, he went to the armor-making workshop.

After coming to Nanyang Mansion, he had completely arranged how to equip his troops with armor.

That is, the cavalry and pikemen are naturally all armored, all of which are wide-brimmed iron helmets, cloth armor, and cotton armor, and cloth armor is used in summer, and cotton armor is used in winter.

From here, the wide-eaves iron helmet was also made of molds, and the molten iron was poured into a mold to form a helmet

The embryo is then set on a raised anvil and beaten, and finally handed over to the next group of craftsmen to drill holes and build nets.

Due to the high quality of iron, the iron sheet does not need to be as thick as Daming, and the total weight of a set of cloth armor can be maintained at about 30 catties, and the cotton armor is heavier, but only about three.

Men were required to make the nails, but the nails were fastened to the fabric and fastened with copper nails, and only the strong women of the artisan battalion were required to do it.

After entering the finished armor workshop, Long Thirteen only glanced at it, and then fled under the eager eyes of a group of strong women and girls.

Next, he went to the mountains near the county seat to watch the nitrate refining workshop in the cave, and the storage yard at the bottom of the mountain that uses human and animal feces and urine to pile nitrate.

In the later life, Long Thirteen seemed to have seen it in a certain book, saying that the method of piling up nitrate is a method of innovation, but after he came to this world, he found that it was simply a thousand miles wrong.

Nowadays, fireworks and firecrackers are very popular, in order to buy nitrate, some are hawkers walking the streets and alleys, and the people in order to sell nitrate, will pile up nitrate in the front yard of their houses, or scrape from their own toilets every few days, and have long known how to take nitrate.

Of course, it is much slower to use the method of piling up nitrate and refining nitrate powder directly in the nitrate pond by steaming, but unfortunately he can't stay in Shanxi for a long time, otherwise if he occupies Xizhou, there will be a large amount of nitrate powder available in the vicinity.

However, at present, he has three nitrate dumps in Neixiang County, Xixia County, and Xichuan County, as well as a cave in the nearby mountains to refine nitrate, which can at least meet the needs of his people for nitrate powder at the moment.

As for the other item made into black powder, it needs to be refined from pyrite, and pyrite, which is only available in Dengzhou in the entire Nanyang Mansion, will take a few days before he can see it.

For him, because he has mastered the precise ratio of nitrate, sulfur, and toner, the purity and strength of the black powder he makes are still stronger in this world, so he can use the same amount of black powder to shoot lead bullets farther and more powerful.

That's enough.

As for the flintlock pistol, he is not ready to arrange it for the time being, so let's talk about it after stabilizing Nanyang Mansion first.

The meal has to be eaten in one bite, and the road has to be walked step by step, who says it is not.

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