"There is no need to worry about the craftsman's affairs."

After removing a matter of concern, Chen Wang's face also had a smile, and he smiled confidently.

"By the end of May at the latest, the number of craftsmen in the Ordnance Bureau will at least double."

As long as the money is sufficient, it should be able to recruit a lot of craftsmen from Luo Guizhong.

Sun Chuanting's rectification of the four guards in Xi'an was mainly to rectify the Zhengjun and Tuntian, and he did not pay too much attention to the Ordnance Bureau, and there were not even many changes.

The reason is very simple: most of the inland defense centers have long since eroded into shape, and the guns produced by the Ordnance Bureau are basically of worrisome quality, and the internal problems are intricate and wide-ranging, and it takes a lot of time and energy to put them in order.

And now that the banditry is serious and the gangsters are rampant everywhere, Sun Chuanting has no energy and time to rectify the Ordnance Bureau again.

As the governor, Sun Chuanting only needed to hand over a few documents to get enough armor and weapons from the Ministry of Works.

The Ordnance Bureau of Xi'an Siwei said that it was responsible for making equipment, but in fact it was only casting some swords, guns and spears, and even the main job has now become a repair shop to repair damaged armaments.

It is precisely because of this that Chen Wang has room to operate.

And now almost all the minds of Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting are affected by Li Zicheng, and they have no time to take care of other places, so they are stuck at this time.

Li Zicheng entered northern Sichuan again this time, and Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao led the cavalry to gallop in the starry night, but after all, they were still a step late.

Now Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao led the troops as the vanguard to the north of Sichuan to help, and Hong Chengchou personally led the army as the rear drive, and they were also in a hurry.

Now there are still a lot of reinforcements from western and southern Sichuan around Chengdu Mansion, and the governor of Sichuan has now been replaced by Fu Zonglong.

Fu Zonglong was originally the right attendant of the military department and the imperial history of the capital, and he was the governor of the military affairs of Ji, Liao, and Baoding.

So this time, Hong Chengchou no longer needs to worry about Li Zicheng breaking Chengdu and losing his relatives.

Although there is a deadline for the March thief, but in the current situation, the March thief is already an impossible task.

Hong Chengchou was ruthless, no longer hurriedly pursued, but marched step by step, steadily advancing, gradually narrowing the encirclement network, and threatening to encircle Li Zicheng to death in Sichuan.

Hong Chengchou not only left enough soldiers at every checkpoint and intersection, but even took into account the situation in case Li Zicheng broke through the checkpoint and pass.

At that time, after receiving the order in Baoji, Chen Wang led the army all the way to Hanzhong, and the original order was to guard Hanzhong and protect the safety of King Rui.

After arriving in Hanzhong, because Li Zicheng did not enter the Hanzhong Mansion, Hong Chengchou's new order was also issued.

The new order was to move to Ningqiang after resting, take over the Qipan Pass, and block the road from the Liukou north into Hanzhong Province.

Sun Chuanting led the army to Chengjie to fill the vacancy and block Li Zicheng's road to the north.

"Now there are a total of 323 people in the Ordnance Bureau, according to the current situation in the Hanzhong Guard Ordnance Bureau, stop all output, only cast artillery, cast three catties of cannons, by August, how many three-catty cannons can be cast......"

It is now March of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, and in September of this year, the Qing army will enter again and invade Beizhili.

According to the original process, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting will receive an edict in October and go to King Qin in Beijing.

Although the situation has changed a lot now, Li Zicheng has not been defeated as in history, and many things are uncertain.

But there are some things that must be considered in the worst-case scenario, once the king of Jingqin is really selected, there will undoubtedly be a direct face to the Qing army at that time.

In history, Sun Chuanting led his troops to Beizhili, and soon fought several battles with the Qing army.

Chen Wang wanted to talk about how many doors he could cast in October, but in the end he still didn't say the date.

"Three-pound cannon?"

Bo Jue was slightly stunned, but he quickly reacted, the three-catty cannon that Chen Wang said was the bureau-level artillery he said at the beginning, and the cannon that could hit the three-catty cannon was named according to the weight of the cannonball.

According to the convention, most of the artillery will be cast with a loud and powerful name, and there are few cannons like Chen Wang, which directly take the weight of the cannonball as the name.

However, this name is much more concise and clear, which is easy to remember and co-ordinate.

"The casting iron cannon must be made of clay molds, and the clay mold casting cannons must be made of very familiar clay, and then placed in the mold to let it dry slowly, and only the time for making the mold is as short as one month and as long as three months, all depending on the time."

"If you want to speed it up, you need to bake it slowly with charcoal, and this method is extremely testing of the craftsmanship."

"If the craftsman is not skilled, once the mold is not dry or the soil is not ripe, the cannon will not be usable at all."

"And a mold can only cast one gun, which cannot be reused, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive."

Bo Jue thought for a moment and replied.

"The commander-in-chief requires light weight, strong and durable, so it is better to cast artillery in bronze."

"Compared with the iron cannon, the bronze cannon body barrel is made of bronze, although it is much more expensive because of the materials, but it is a big cheap compared to the cast iron cannon."

"Casting bronze cannons, you can use iron molded cannons that cast farm tools on weekdays, regardless of the four seasons, not too affected by the weather, and do not need to spend time drying or drying clay molds."

"Not counting the time of casting iron molds at the beginning, more than ten skilled craftsmen can make a three-catty cannon in one month with their hard work."

"It's just that most of the craftsmen in the Ordnance Bureau of Suocheng now have no experience in making cannons, although most of them are old craftsmen, but I am afraid that it will take months to teach them skills......

Bo Jue shook his head and spoke.

"According to the best-case scenario, between March and April, two cannons can be made by students and craftsmen who come together, and the skills are taught at the same time as the cannons are made, and most of the craftsmen are already familiar with the craft in May, and then they can try to make cannons with all their might."

"There is a clear gap between new craftsmen and old craftsmen when making cannons, and the time is only a lot slower."

Bo Jue frowned, his mind spinning rapidly.

"There are more than 300 craftsmen in the Ordnance Bureau, including armor craftsmen and armor craftsmen, although the chief soldier said that he would stop all output and go all out to make artillery, but the specialization is different, and the skills are also high, and those who can be gunsmiths may only have 200 people at most by May."

"According to the calculation of one course for twenty people in two months, it is ten, not counting the cannons made by the students themselves, not counting waste products, defective products, by the end of August, at most twenty cannons of three catties can be made."

"Twenty Gates......

Chen Wang repeated the number that Bo Jue said at the end.

By October, with the one cannon that Bo Jue could make per month, the best case scenario was thirty-seven guns, which was the best case in theory, and not counting the scrap and defective products.

If you count it, I'm afraid it won't reach this amount.

In October, when he went north to King Qin, he could bring three troops and horses, one of which must be cavalry, and the other two infantry, that is, eighteen bureaus.

Divided up, each bureau can almost be divided into one to two three-pound guns, and the interval above the front line is quite acceptable.

"However, the cost of casting cannons, especially bronze cannons, is no longer a small amount."

Bo Jue looked sideways slightly, looked at Chen Wang, who was in thought, and seemed a little hesitant, and after hesitating for a long time, he still interrupted.

"The iron mold of the cannon needs a hundred taels, although it can be reused, but ten at a time, it is ten thousand taels, and this is only a small head, the real big head is the copper used in the casting cannon."

This kind of bronze cannon with three catties of guns can't reach a thousand catties, but hundreds of catties are casually wanted, and now the price of copper is extremely expensive.

Casting bronze cannons is no different from smashing them with money, and the amount of silver that costs more than 30 bronze cannons of three catties is not a small amount.

Bo Jue was a little worried that Chen Wang would not be able to come up with so much money.

Seeing Bo Jue's somewhat hesitant eyes, how could Chen Wang not hear the meaning of Bo Jue's words.

"Mr. Pu doesn't need to worry about gold, silver and money, just let it go."

Chen Wang picked up the tea cup on the table, took a sip indifferently, and said lightly.

Thirty or forty three-pound bronze cannons, how could he not be able to build them.

And now, under the cellar of this city at his feet, there was a hundred thousand taels of silver and gold and silver.

Some of these gold and silver were sent by Li Zicheng, the captain of the transportation team, and some were left by the golden-winged Penglu Shi and the black killer Zhang Yuan.

Although it cost a lot to build two thousand-household offices and rectify the Ordnance Bureau, it is still enough.

Moreover, in addition to these gold and silver, a large amount of grain and grass was also seized at that time, some of which were stored in the two cities, and the other part was stored in the cottage where Zhang Yuan had tun grain.

When the price of grain in Huguang skyrocketed because of the banditry, Chen Wang also asked Wang Yuankang to sell a batch of old grain and get a lot of gold and silver.

"That's right."

Chen Wang suddenly remembered something, and the hand holding the teacup also stopped in the air.

"If bronze cannons can be cast with iron molds, why can't iron cannons be cast with iron molds?"

In this era, the methods of casting cannons were generally clay mold casting cannons and lost wax casting cannons.

Because of the requirements for the condensation temperature of the wax, the lost wax method has high requirements for the temperature, and it can generally be used in winter, and the wax model will melt first when the temperature is high in spring, summer and autumn.

After the mud mold is done, it must be ensured to dry, otherwise when the hot iron is added, the water vapor will evaporate to form bubbles, and the bubbles have a huge impact on the artillery, which is unbearable to use, and it takes a lot of time to dry.

Although Chen Wang basically didn't understand the knowledge of casting cannons, he remembered that it seemed that it was possible to cast cannons with iron molds, and he remembered that there seemed to be a method of casting cannons with iron molds in the early Qing Dynasty.

Many online books praise iron molded cannons because they are not only cheap, but also can quickly arm armies.

"Iron mold cannon?"

Bo Jue frowned and shook his head directly.

"Iron mold casting cannons can't work, I used to think about casting cannons with iron molds."

"There are many problems that need to be solved, the first is the problem of demoulding, I tried many methods at that time, and it was extremely difficult to demould."

"Later, it took a lot of energy, but the demoulding was successfully cast, but the cast cannon could not send a few shells at all, and it would give birth to cracks, which was not useful at all, but it cost a lot of silver in vain."

Bo Jue sighed, if he could use an iron mold to cast a cannon, he would indeed be able to save a lot of money.

However, the reality was that there were many difficulties, and the most important cannon was also extremely flawed, and because of the lack of funds, he finally abandoned this path.

Chen Wang's expression was slightly condensed, listening to Bo Jue's tone, the iron mold casting cannon is probably not as simple as those books say, and there should be certain technical problems in it.

However, since there are indeed people in history who have used iron molds to successfully cast cannons, and iron mold casting cannons are still popular for a while, it proves that this road can be taken.

You only need to overcome those few difficulties to use the iron mold to forge an iron cannon.

However, in history, iron molds were used to cast iron cannons after the Opium War at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and these difficulties were only difficult to overcome.

"I think it should be feasible to cast the iron mold cannon, Mr. Pu might as well divide some energy to see if he can break through the difficulties."

Chen Wang figured out the trick, his mind changed, and he said.

"If you can use iron mold casting cannons, it can undoubtedly save a lot of money for the country, and it can also block the invasion of the northern captives."

Bo Jue tilted his head slightly, thought for a while, and finally nodded.

"The General Soldier is very knowledgeable and has a profound study of weapons, and since the General Soldier thinks it is feasible, the students are willing to study it later."

Chen Wang smiled and said.

"I heard that Mr. Pu had built a special workshop in Nanzhili's house before, and set up a place for experiments."

"I don't know what the laboratory built by Mr. Bo looks like, but Mr. Bo can also build one in Hanzhong, and you can record the data in it when you cast the gun, and if there is a problem, you can find out the reason."

"I have already allocated the funds for the construction of the laboratory, and when the time comes, you can directly find Wang Tongzhi, and he will fully assist you."

Chen Wang pointed to the right, Wang Yuankang saw Chen Wang's finger, and immediately smiled, bowed down with both hands in fists, and bowed respectfully to Bo Jue.

Although Bo Jue has no official position, Wang Yuankang does not look down on Bo Jue at all.

The high standard and high treatment that Chen Wang sent to invite Bo Jue undoubtedly did not represent Chen Wang's attitude.

came from the acropolis of Han Zhongwei and saw everything after coming to Chen Wang's command.

Wang Yuankang had already made up his mind, and he would follow Chen Wang from now on.

Chen Wang was different from all the people he had met before, and he didn't know why he had a feeling in the dark......

Chen Wang is definitely not a thing in the pool!

Therefore, after Bo Jue came to Suocheng, Wang Yuankang has always been respectful to him, as if Bo Jue is the commander of Sanpin, and he himself is a white civilian.

"If Mr. Pu has any affairs, even if he is instructed, he will do his best."

Wang Yuankang smiled and saluted again.

Wang Yuankang's low profile made Bo Jue a little uncomfortable.

In fact, Bo Jue was actually a little at a loss for Chen Wang's respect for him, but Chen Wang knew everything like weapons and artillery very well.

After exchanging these, Bo Jue couldn't help but ignore Chen Wang's identity.

"I am going to add the position of technical adviser in the Ordnance Bureau, and Mr. Bo will be specially appointed to be in charge of technology."

"There is no chief officer in the Ordnance Bureau, and it is currently managed by Tang Shiping, and I will also let him cooperate with Mr. Pu and follow Mr. Pu first."

Chen Wang looked at Tang Shiping on the left again.

When Tang Shiping heard his name, he also took a step forward and saluted Bo Jue.

Bo Jue replied with some restraint.

For interpersonal communication and ushering in the send-off, Bo Jue has always been not very well-versed.

He has a lot to say about technology, but he doesn't have a lot to say when it comes to other things.

And Bo Jue has not yet recovered from the heavy news that Chen Wang's allocation was given to him to establish a separate workshop laboratory.

"Mr. Bo rests first, and puts his body first."

Chen Wang stood up, everything that should be said had been said, time was pressing, there was not much time for him to delay, there were still some extremely important things in the guard that he needed to deal with.

In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the north was not peaceful, and Hanzhong was not peaceful.

Soon.

Hanzhong Province will also be hit by famine.

What he needs to do now is to prepare for a rainy day.

(End of chapter)