After five days in Meaux, Tatsuhiko Akiyama and Hisashi Kamikawa concluded their visit to Dongbo.

Yan Zheng asked Li Haigou and Ashin to drive the Long March and the three 300-material lucky ships to Japan together.

Among the goods transported, there were 600 sets of iron armor, all of which were retired from the army.

There are also more than 1,000 waist knives, plus various retired weapons in the army. The reason for doing this is purely to find the wronged culprit, and naturally to clear the inventory.

And he also carried a large number of summer cloths, which were of high quality and low price, and were sold to Ryukyu and Japan, all in order to impact the market of the Ming maritime merchants there.

Unfortunately, the first textile mill has fallen into a semi-shutdown because it is too late to produce raw materials.

If you want to satisfy the appetite of the first textile factory, you must plant at least more than 100,000 acres of ramie.

This is unrealistic for Dongfan, and Yan Zheng is reluctant to spend his precious manpower and land on planting hemp.

Dongfan Island is all plains! This kind of land is used to grow sugar cane and rice, which will be more cost-effective than ramie.

Therefore, the source of raw materials is best in the mountainous areas of Fujian, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, where it is not easy to grow grain, but it is very cost-effective to grow ramie.

While Yan Zheng is dumping, he is also buying a large amount of hemp yarn, and hemp yarn has accounted for a large part of the goods supplied by the Song family recently.

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The First Iron and Steel Plant, thanks to the recent addition of many blacksmiths of Ming descent, has expanded the number of workers in the factory to 210 again.

Yan Zheng likes to run here these days, and sometimes he stays all afternoon.

Ironwood needles and a dozen craftsmen, who have also been nesting in the factory these days, are working on flintlock machines.

According to the drawings, they have already built several flintlock machines.

These flintlocks are two pieces of yellow bullets, and under the action of the trigger, the secondary yellow pieces are responsible for pulling the main yellow plates.

The yellow piece of the main bullet drives the faucet to hit the dragon head downward, and as long as it is matched with the blocking iron plate in front of it, it can successfully rub the fire.

Snap - the test of ironwood needles one by one, by listening to the sound to see the impact force.

After experimenting for a while, he sighed and said, "It's all about the same! So what kind of guns should I choose to use! ”

Yan Zheng was watching from the side, he didn't expect that he would encounter this kind of problem.

Because the quality of the yellow film has gone up, it is through a reasonable structure to use the kinetic energy of the yellow film.

Therefore, the flintlock machine can meet the requirements.

It's just that after a few tests, the advantages and disadvantages of these flint machines are not obvious, but they all have some advantages.

Like the 01 type made by ironwood needles and two other people, although it is a little larger, it has the highest firing rate, which can reach about 80%.

There is also a smaller Type 03, which has a firing rate of about 70% and is smaller, which seems to be more suitable for arming guns.

The other two have a decent size and a firing rate of more than 70%, which has the advantage of being simpler in structure.

The most streamlined one is that only one bullet yellow piece can be fired.

Ironwood frowned and thought for a while, and said, "Why don't you get guns and take a look?"

Yan Zheng also sighed and said, "Then let's get a gun and try it!"

Ironwood nodded and brought a few half-finished guns from the side, which could be changed into arquebuses with one part.

He tried to install it, and found that the Type 01 had to be redesigned if it was to fit perfectly.

After reluctantly loading, he handed the gun to Yan Zheng.

"Why does this gun look so awkward!" Yan Zheng complained.

Ironwood Needle smirked and said, "It's all for a higher firing rate, and all sizes are larger, so that you can clamp a bigger flint!"

Yan Zheng took a look, and sure enough, the flint was bigger than the other flintlocks.

He poured a little gunpowder into the medicine pool, pulled the trigger, and found that this model of flintlock did shoot more sparks.

After assembling a few more handfuls one after another, Yan Zheng tried them one by one and found that they were really similar.

After thinking for a while, he said to the ironwood needle: "You go to the carpentry factory, let them get a new batch of butts and gun bodies according to the size of these flintlock machines, and when they are finished, take them to the barracks, find a few soldiers, and use this gun to shoot at the target for a few days, and see how effective it is!"

Ironwood nodded and immediately took the flint to the carpentry factory.

After the butt and back of the gun were re-cut, each gun finally became extraordinarily coordinated.

Since the flintlock machine is not the same size, so the size of the gun is also different.

Tiemu Needle took these five flintlock pistols and ran directly to the barracks, asking Lu Wan to find a few soldiers and keep experimenting.

The enthusiastic Lu Wan chose to play by himself.

So in the shooting range of the barracks, the sound of happy gunfire flew all over the sky.

When the barrel overheats, they stop, and when it cools down, they continue firing.

After two days of experimentation, Tiemu Needle found Yan Zheng with the evaluation of the soldiers.

"They all think Type 01 is the best?" After listening to the evaluation, Yan Zheng said strangely.

Tiemu nodded and said: "These guns, after firing fifty to sixty more times, the rate of mute fire will increase, only the 01 type, after firing hundreds of times, this situation will appear!"

"And the Type 01 is also the most accurate, and many soldiers say that the Type 01 is more comfortable to shoot!"

Yan Zheng looked at the five guns and asked, "Which is the second best gun?"

"It's Type 05! The easiest to clean up, and it's also easy to replace the shrapnel! Ironwood replied.

Yan Zheng was silent for a while and said, "That kind of flint machine is easier to produce!"

"Type 05 and Type 01! Type 05 has a yellow film, which is natural and simple. The Type 01 is also easier, after all, the size is larger, and it doesn't take much effort to build! ”

Yan Zheng clapped his hands and said: "Then the main equipment is Type 01!" A batch of Type 05 is also produced, but Type 05 has a special gun type, and the gun body can be shorter! The smallest, the Type 03, is the most used to make a short gun, which is only about twenty centimeters long! ”

"The other two models of flintlock machines will also keep the physical objects and drawings for later study."

Tiemu nodded and said, "Okay, I'll discuss with other manufacturers when I go back!"

"Well, there is also the establishment of the first gun factory, from now on, the production of ordnance will be separated from other factories, and you will produce accessories and assemble them in the gun factory! The production of artillery shells, too, was transferred to the past. Yan Zheng said.

The ironwood needle promised, the production of ordnance is separate, it has been carried out for a long time, and now it is also a matter of course to build a separate factory.

"This time, everyone is studying the flint machine, everyone has worked hard for several months, and the merit will be rewarded! All the participants will be paid a 10% salary, and 5,000 catties of silver and grain will be rewarded. Your name will be an intermediate engineer in the future! ”

Tiemu Needle hurriedly thanked him: "Thank you...... Thank you, Son of God. ”

Since Yan Zheng came up with the set of professional titles, all craftsmen have been honored to obtain professional titles, but the professional titles all depend on Yan Zheng's mouth.

"Oh, there's also a ten-pound cannon mold, right?" Yan Zheng asked again.

Tiemu Needle said with a smile: "It has been made, and it will be produced in two days after tomorrow, with a diameter of 15 times, a length of 1.65 meters, and a diameter of 110 millimeters."

Yan Zheng nodded and said, "Time is tight, and the task is heavy!" You can do this thing, just do it, by the way, the 20-pound cannon is also established, and after the 10-pound cannon is built, the 20-pound cannon mold will also be made! ”

Being able to produce flintlock pistols and more powerful artillery is Yan Zheng's greatest confidence.

In the 16th century, not to mention the level of Chinese cannons, even the Europeans at this time, their cannon casting technology was not much higher, and now most of their gunsmiths are part-time bell casters.

If it weren't for the widespread use of bronze cast cannons in Europe, I'm afraid that European artillery would not be able to bypass the threshold of cast cannon materials.

In his book, Matteo Ricci once mentioned the problem of Chinese artillery at that time.

For example, the charge is small, the firing range is short, there is no crosshair, and aiming is not possible. The bigger problem is that the breech is wide on the outside and small on the inside, and in this case, the gas of gunpowder gas cannot be effectively collected.

And at that time, even in Europe, the inside of the chamber of their iron cannon could not be qualified round, and the boring process was rough.

You must know that when Matteo Ricci recorded it, it was already in the Wanli period, and the artillery technology at that time was not advanced.

The divine Hongyi cannon that was blown is definitely not as advanced as the Yanhuang three-jin cannon!

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