On the morning of December 4, the second year of Daming Ankang, the backyard shooting range of Bishui Park in Mengxian County.

Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jingyuan's grandchildren, both wearing new-style camouflage uniforms, each holding an assault rifle to shoot.

Zhu Zhongliang came to see his grandson and great-grandson, and he didn't come empty-handed, but also brought gifts.

Zhu Zhongliang finished firing a magazine in a row, and when he saw that Zhu Jingyuan had just stopped shooting, he put down the muzzle of the gun and said:

"I specifically ask the factories of the Ministry of Industry to make assault rifles that you are asking to make, no matter what, according to the indicators.

"The Ministry of Industry has repeatedly adjusted the design, developed new stamping equipment, and designed a special machine tool, which has been tossed back and forth for almost two years.

"Now the weight of the gun body is basically qualified, the muzzle lifting range of continuous shooting has also been controlled, and the shooting accuracy has also entered an acceptable range.

"Now the Governor's Office has been re-inspected, and it is ready to start a small-scale trial of installation from next spring."

Zhu Jingyuan immediately smiled and said:

"The one who supports me the most is really your old man......"

Zhu Zhongliang said proudly:

"That's not it, if I hadn't been staring at it, you wouldn't know how many years it would take for this gun to reach the standard and be mass-produced......"

Zhu Jingyuan also nodded with a little emotion, and the performance of the gun in his hand now is basically in line with his expectations for the assault rifle.

When I first wanted to design an assault rifle, I naturally thought of the most famous AK template.

However, I don't have a drawing of AK, but I just know a rough shape.

Therefore, the actual design process is still to provide ideas and requirements by yourself, and let the craftsmen complete the specific design.

The assault rifle that had just been made at that time did look more like AK.

But after two years of continuous magic change, the final product now is relatively far behind AK in terms of image.

The main thing is that the butt was changed to a straight one, and the barrel became a straight line.

The original historical AK, the butt inherited the design of the traditional bolt-action rifle, which was slightly inclined downward.

The barrel is in a straight line, where it is shouldered with the butt, not in a line.

In this way, when shooting, the recoil cannot be completely counteracted by the shoulder, forming an upward angular momentum.

In traditional bolt-action rifles, each shot has to be re-aimed, so this angular momentum has little effect.

But AK is an automatic rifle, and when firing continuously, each bullet will make the muzzle of the gun pick up.

The continuous upward pick makes the continuous shooting accuracy of the AK difficult to control.

The assault rifles of the subsequent new era basically chose the design with the muzzle and butt in the same line.

This is also a design improvement.

As for the Ministry of Engineering, which specializes in the research and development of stamping equipment and the design of special machine tools, these are the cost of research and development.

But if this assault rifle can be promoted on a large scale, the research and development cost is nothing.

And those equipment is not only this gun can be used, but there are other firearms in the future, which can also be used.

This belongs to the overall upgrading of production lines and basic production processes in order to produce specific products, which belongs to the upgrading of the industrial base.

This grandfather is really worried about his own business.

If it weren't for his special attention, the Ministry of Industry would have continued to optimize the design according to its own requirements.

However, they may not have the courage to upgrade production equipment immediately.

"Production Equipment, Production Process, Industrial Base ......"

Zhu Jingyuan savored these words in his heart, and his thinking suddenly diverged slightly.

Most of the designs and inventions that I have been designing are applied designs on the basis of existing industries.

It seems that there are not many inventions and creations that directly improve the "industrial base".

Even the formula of armor steel can only be regarded as an applied creation, and he did not improve the steelmaking technology of the Ming Dynasty.

As they invent more and more and become more and more modern, the requirements for the industrial base will be.

It will become more and more difficult for craftsmen to realize these ideas, until they will eventually become completely impossible to realize without hinting at the industrial base.

For example, the 420 mm caliber gun that you ask for uses shells from 1300 to 1500 kg.

With the current level of metallurgical technology in the Ming Dynasty, it may not be possible to do it at all.

After Zhu Jingyuan realized this problem, he immediately turned his face to Zhu Zhongliang next to him and said:

"Grandpa, when you came, did you go to see the development of the 420-mm gun?"

Zhu Zhongliang immediately said with some dissatisfaction:

"I didn't go directly to the factory, but I was always monitoring the progress.

"Now the new 420-millimeter cannon can hit 1,100 kilograms of shells.

"According to the standards of the Ministry of Industry and the craftsmen, this is already of high practical value.

"But it's still a little far from the 1,300 kilograms you requested.

"Insisting on a bullet weight of more than 1,300 kilograms would make the weight of the barrel and turret unacceptably large.

"So now the factory has temporarily stopped continuing to improve the design, and has begun to specialize in the production process of the barrel to improve the plan."

Zhu Jingyuan nodded directly after hearing this:

"Sure enough, the production process can't keep up with ......"

Zhu Zhongliang hung the gun on his body at this time and came to Zhu Jingyuan's side:

"The indicators of your shells are too demanding, seriously slowing down the design progress of the next generation of battleships.

"My suggestion is that if you can't quickly ramp up the production process in the short term, you should lower the design indicators.

"I think that the weight of 1,100 kilograms of shells, the weight coefficient of the shells is already acceptable.

"It can be put into production first, and then slowly optimize the process and replace the naval gun on the improved version."

Zhu Jingyuan kept in mind the information he still remembered:

"The production process is always to be improved, and not only for the production of large-caliber naval guns.

"However, whether the production process can be improved quickly is not easy to predict.

"I'll write out my thoughts and send them to the Ministry of Industry to try it......"

Zhu Zhongliang nodded lightly:

"In other words, you really have an idea?"

Zhu Jingyuan didn't know how to answer:

"It's just an idea for now, and I'm not sure if it's feasible."

Zhu Zhongliang said with a smile:

"If you have an idea, let's do it quickly."

Zhu Jingyuan hurriedly agreed, continued to finish the bullet of a magazine, and went through the daily training process.

After returning to the residence to take a shower, I went back to the office area to sort out my thoughts.

When he thought of optimizing the production process of naval guns, what came to mind in Zhu Jingyuan's mind was to use the two metallurgical and manufacturing technologies of "electroslag remelting" and "self-tightening of body tubes" used in modern tanks and artillery.

Electroslag remelting is the use of electrical resistance heat generated when the current passes through the slag as a heat source to smelt steel ingots, which can reduce the impurities in the ingots, improve the purity of the steel, and improve the crystallization effect of the ingots.

In layman's terms, the steel smelted in this way far exceeds the properties of traditional steel ingots.

It can be used to make high-pressure modern artillery, high-precision castings, as well as bearings, molds, cutting tools, etc.

Using this process to make the barrel of the gun can greatly improve the bearing capacity and service life of the barrel at the same barrel weight, or use a lower barrel weight to achieve the original design index.

The principle of electroslag remelting technology was actually discovered very early, the Lucians claimed that at the end of the nineteenth century, and the Americans claimed to have discovered the relevant principle in the twentieth century and thirties of the twentieth century.

However, due to the impact of the Second World War and the misunderstanding of technology discoverers and manufacturers about this discovery, it was not until the end of the fifties that electroslag remelting began to be used in the industrial field.

Therefore, the battleship guns in the original history did not have the opportunity to use electroslag remelting technology until they were eliminated.

Early validation electroslag remelting furnaces were able to cast ingots on a very small scale, basically only a few hundred kilograms to a few tons.

The barrel of a naval gun of more than 400 mm starts with a weight of 100 tons.

It seems impossible to use electroslag remelting technology for large-caliber naval guns.

However, Zhu Jingyuan also remembers that the electroslag remelting process itself does not seem to be difficult, and the focus is on the accumulation of technical experience.

After the introduction of electroslag remelting technology in the late fifties, it took less than ten years, and by the mid-sixties, the scale of single-furnace ingots had rapidly increased to 100 tons.

In the early eighties, a two-hundred-ton electroslag remelting furnace was built in China, which was enough to make a super cannon with a caliber of more than 500 millimeters.

That is, in the mid-to-late sixties, it was possible to create electroslag remelted naval guns of 400 mm caliber.

However, by this time, battleships and large-caliber guns had long been phased out.

However, in the current world, if Daming starts to engage in electroslag remelting technology from now on, directly starts industrial production attempts, and accumulates production experience, it should take about ten years to make large-caliber naval guns use electroslag remelting steel.

Even if large-caliber naval artillery will be eliminated sooner or later, tanks and army artillery will be in long-term demand.

At the same time, electroslag remelted steel can not only be used in artillery, but also in the field of industrial production.

As long as the electroslag remelting technology can be developed, it will be a huge improvement to the industrial level of Daming.

Therefore, there is no doubt that this technology needs to be focused on.

Then there's the body-tube self-tightening technique.

The self-tightening technology of the body tube belongs to a scheme of the body tube fastening technology.

The history of body tube fastening is very long, and the round hoop outside the bronze cannon in the classical era can be regarded as the application of body tube fastening technology in a broad sense.

In the era of dreadnoughts, there were two main types of fastening schemes for the body barrel of naval guns: "winding" and "layering".

Wire winding, as the name suggests, is to make a steel wire of square section, and wrap several layers of fine layers on the outside of the barrel to increase strength.

Lamination, that is, the barrel is made into multiple layers, nested layer by layer, to increase the strength of the barrel.

Throughout the dreadnought era, large-caliber naval guns were basically used to achieve these two processes to achieve body tube fastening and strengthening.

The self-tightening of the body barrel of modern artillery is actually "self-tightening of the flesh of a single barrel".

The barrel is no longer complicated with multiple layers of nesting, and there is no need to carefully wrap wires.

The direct use of hydraulic equipment to pressurize the inside of the barrel to the outside makes the inner layer of the barrel more dense, forming an effect similar to the nesting of multi-layer barrels, which can be said to be quite simple and crude.

Compared with the complex traditional production process, the single-meat self-tightening method can greatly reduce the weight of the barrel, while increasing the firmness and durability of the barrel.

However, even if Zhu Jingyuan's understanding of metallurgical technology is limited to an extremely superficial understanding of related technologies as a military fan, it can be imagined that the requirements for sealing and pressurization equipment will be very high for hydraulic body and tube self-tightening technology.

Because in most cases, the so-called simple and crude solutions are usually low-end luxury applications of superb basic capabilities.

It's like flying a big brick in aviation......

Therefore, although Zhu Jingyuan wrote out the idea of electroslag remelting and hydraulic body tube self-tightening process and his understanding of the two processes in as much detail as possible, he also made an obvious distinction between the two degrees of importance.

The Ministry of Industry and the Royal Consortium were asked to give priority to the research and development of electroslag remelting technology.

As for the body tube fastening solution, if hydraulic self-tightening is difficult to achieve in the short term, the existing self-tightening technology will continue to be optimized.

Based on the experience of my previous life, it is clear that there is still potential to be tapped here.

The sixteen-inch (406 mm) naval guns of the Americans increased the shells to the level of 1227 kg.

The 420 mm naval gun designed by the Ming Dynasty, if the shells are also enlarged, they should be added to 1360 kg.