He Liangtao was already at a loss, and he also knew that he forcibly demanded the punishment of Li Zhaoji, so he never spoke again.

After a burst of thumping alms, only eleven of the forty-six bird guns passed, and there was no explosion. Li Zhaoji originally thought that if there were many of them, he could put them in the commodity warehouse and sell them to local people or merchants, after all, even if these guns were improved, they could not be inserted into bayonets, and they did not meet the standards of the guards.

But he never thought that he only passed the eleventh stroke, Li Zhaoji waved his hand, put it in the box, and gave it to Atta.

"This is for you, as an expression of my apologies." Li Zhaoji said to Atta.

Atta was puzzled: "Have you done anything to be sorry for me?" ”

Lee said, "I told you that trading companies can produce muskets on a large scale, but that's not the case. I'll have the gunsmith improve these muskets, and I'll make up the parts before I send them to you. ”

"But your men can't produce good muskets, and you're starved of weapons." Atta is quite considerate of Li Zhaoji.

Li Zhaoji rolled up his sleeves, looked like he was doing a big job, and said: "I will solve this problem personally, and now I will act as the shopkeeper of this workshop." ”

Li Zhaoji is not a person who only talks but does not do, he ordered Tang Mu to install a bed for him in the workshop, build a mosquito net, and look like he won't leave if he can't solve it.

However, Li Zhaoji did not act in a hurry, but discussed in detail the details of the gun with Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou.

Although he was well aware that wrought iron was first forged and then drilled, and the musket was the most suitable for use, not only the lightest, but also of high quality, and not easily exploded. However, this is a solution that cannot be achieved under the current conditions of a trading company.

First of all, there was no one in the trading company who had mastered this craft, and secondly, there was a lack of necessary materials, such as the lack of stock in the trading company for boring holes, and more importantly, it took a long time to drill the barrel, and the drill bits made of the fallen steel always needed to be constantly cooled, and it took at least twenty-five days to drill a one-meter-long barrel.

As a result, Lee had to rely on existing craftsmanship and craftsmen to develop a new process for making muskets, especially the barrels.

In terms of the power of forging the barrel, Li Zhaoji wanted to use water power, and in fact, when the shipyard and arsenal were selected, they chose to use water power as power nearby.

However, this was not possible at all, because the difference between the river where the arsenal and the shipyard were located was relatively small, and because of its proximity to the estuary, the water level was too variable due to the influence of the tides, and it was not possible to use the natural flow as a power.

For the shipyard's forging workshop, Liu Mingde has planned an artificial canal to convey water, the canal is still being excavated, half of the Atayal slave workers are involved in this project, but it has not yet been completed, and the shipyard's hydraulic forging hammer is also in trial production.

Its technical level is not very high, and it is supervised by Liu Mingde personally, and it is relatively fast.

But the hydraulic hammers powered by the artificial canals will take at least three months to be put into operation, and the gunsmiths can't wait that long.

During this time in the arsenal, Li Zhaoji and Qiu Biao, Lu Yishou, and He Liangtao had a three-day bargain, and finally set the process and technical standards.

In terms of power, an animal-powered forging hammer is used, and oxen, horses and even manpower are used to act on the winch to lift the forging hammer and forge the barrel.

The winch was an essential tool for the trading company to arm merchant ships, and when the Shiratori was rebuilt, the shipyard had already mastered the technology of making the winch.

The process of forging the barrel is basically Qiu Biao's double-roll method, but his forging table has been improved, using a metal straight forging platform, with a groove about the same thickness as the barrel in the middle, and the drum rolled out of the double-layer wrought iron plate is directly placed in the groove and forged with an eighty-kilogram forging hammer, and the person in charge only needs to turn it over.

At first, Lee thought that this would reduce the craftsmanship of the craftsmen to a fixed number, and that those apprentices could also be in charge of a forging table.

However, Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou both denied it, because there was a steel bone in the barrel, and an experienced craftsman must check the state of the steel bone and pull it out at the right time to cool it. Not to mention the apprenticeship required for this experience, even Qiu Biao is a little vague.

However, Lu Yishou has been at the forging table for more than 50 years, and his eyesight is fierce, which is most suitable for supervising quality control.

Li Zhaoji originally thought that he would continue to give full play to the enthusiasm caused by the struggle between the two, and each be responsible for one or several forging platforms to facilitate the increase of output, but what he did not expect was that the new process proposed by Li Zhaoji would directly improve the relationship between Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou.

This is because the overall process is Qiu Biao's faction, but quality control and quality require Lu Yishou to play a role. Only by working together can the two come up with a qualified musket.

With Lee Siu Kee coming forward, all resources are prioritized.

The winch was brought directly from the carpentry workshop, which was originally used to replace the old winch on the Vostok when repairing it, but now it can only be put on hold.

The forging hammer is directly used to use the hydraulic forging hammer trial-made by the shipyard, and the trial production of the hydraulic forging hammer can only be replaced by stones of the same quality first, and then cast one after the next batch of ships send iron.

Carpenters and blacksmiths from the shipyard and arsenal also came to support, and the four bullocks that were originally used in the docks were requisitioned to power the forging hammers.

Li Zhaoji stayed in the firearms workshop for half a month, never returned home, ate and lived here, and finally after half a month, a new firearms manufacturing process was born.

The blindfolded bullock pulled the winch, so that the forging hammer in the workshop was raised high, and then an apprentice opened the safety, the forging hammer fell, and hit the barrel in the groove of the straight forging platform, when the forging hammer on the left fell, the forging hammer on the right rose, and the two forging hammers alternated, Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou each stood on a forging platform, and with the forging of the hammer, they kept turning over the barrel.

The two exchanged words from time to time, but the sound of banging and mechanical friction in the workshop was so loud that both of them had to use their loudest voices to make each other hear.

In just half an hour, a barrel was heated, rolled, forged, and formed.

After cooling, Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou each checked the barrel they made, and handed over the barrel in their hands to the other party for inspection. ”

Qiu Biao took the lead and said: "I don't see any problem, it's better than hitting it with my hands." ”

Lu Yishou nodded: "It's really rare for the double-roll method to be like this." ”

Obviously, the two are satisfied, but whether they are qualified or not, the two can't give an answer.

Tang Mu took the barrel of the gun directly from the two of them, and several apprentices stepped forward, tied it directly to a wooden stick with hemp rope, and then drilled an eye in the right position, and hurriedly went to the test.

The test took longer than the time to build, after all, the barrel was cooled down after a few shots, and each barrel was tested fifteen times, five of which were double firing and 10 times 1.5 times the firing and ammunition.

None of them were blown up, and they performed very well.

"Eight more will be produced, and the results of the ten tests will be convincing." Li Zhaoji said to Tang Mu.

The results of the test exceeded Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou's expectations, the two were full of enthusiasm because of this result, and devoted themselves to production, and completed the mass production of ten on the same day, and Tang Mu took people to test overnight, and Li Zhaoji arranged wine and food, and invited the two craftsmen to dinner.

Different from the inextricable battle before, after some cooperation, the relationship between the two was much better, toasting each other, and when the news of all the tests came, Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou burst into tears, hugged their heads and cried bitterly.

On the question of who is in charge of the workshop, Qiu Biao also took the lead in making concessions and proposed that Lu Yishou should take the position, his reason is very simple, in the new barrel production process, only Lu Yishou is an indispensable person.

"The gun shop of the trading company will not be so big forever, and in the future we will have more troops, and muskets will also be an important commodity for the trading company. Each of you will lead hundreds of people, and those who sincerely contribute to the trading company, I, Li Zhaoji, will never be stingy with rewards. Li Zhaoji said.

Both of them are grateful, and then Li Zhao basically thought about setting technical standards, mainly to test the musket, not necessarily every gun needs to be tested, but it is necessary to engrave the name of the craftsman in charge on the gun, and draw one test out of three, once there is a problem, it will be investigated.

Li Zhaoji originally wanted to give each craftsman a number, after all, Arabic numerals are much simpler than traditional Chinese characters, and it is also convenient to engrave, but Ho Liangtao directly refused, making Li Zhaoji realize that craftsmen value their names and honors.

It's just that Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou didn't participate in the discussion, and the two were at the wine table, drinking while discussing how to improve technology.

So the wine table for four people was divided into two groups. Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou discussed process improvement, and Li Zhaoji and He Liangtao formulated technical standards.

According to Qiu Biao and Lu Yishou, the forging table should be improved, and the wrought iron plate used for rolling the gun barrel should also be forged more flat, these are to reduce tolerances, otherwise the loss of steel bones is very large, and there are not many steel bones stored in the arsenal now, so they need to be saved.

In order to improve the quality of the barrel, Lu Yishou proposed a method, that is, after the inner reel is rolled, a layer of iron wire is wound on it, and then the outer reel is rolled.

At the end of the discussion, Lu Yishou suddenly asked Li Zhaoji: "Big shopkeeper, I heard shopkeeper Liu say something some time ago, saying that our trading company has plans to build a steel plant and make iron and steel by itself, is it true or false." ”

Li Zhaoji nodded: "Naturally, it's true, it's just that there is no iron ore in the local area, and ironmaking is not considered for the time being, but using iron from Guangzhou to make steel is in the plan." ”