The third day of the fifth month.

During this time, everything was prosperous in Dapan Fort, and the construction of Tun Fort, the cultivation of military tun, and the production of soap workshops were all going on at the same time. Chen Xun took a few dun soldiers to send another trip to Wangjiazhuang, 3,650 pieces of soap, in exchange for 1,460 taels, plus some silver left in Liu Yan's hand before, Liu Yan had more than 1,500 taels in his hand at this time, which can be regarded as wealthy.

Chen Xun placed an order in Wanfu Oil Mill, ordered 200 catties of soybean oil, spent 20 taels of silver, and bought back more than a dozen ploughing cattle and a number of farm tools by the way, and spent more than 100 taels of silver.

Liu Yan also spent some silver on the construction of the fort, as well as a series of expenses such as the wages of the soap workshop, and calculated that there were more than 1,500 taels and more than 1,300 taels left, so that Liu Yan also felt a little painful.

Now Liu Yan promoted Zhang Yi and Wang Bo, Zhang Yi led people to open stones in the area of Qianhu in front of Xiahe Village, Wang Bo supervised the work inside and outside the tunpu, Chen Xun was responsible for the work in the military tun, and Wang Yue was responsible for the guard inside and outside the tunpu with several dun soldiers, and also served as Liu Yan's follower.

As for Miao Shao and Xu Ming, because the two of them were born in the night, Liu Yan also wanted to form a team that was not collected at night, so he asked the two to concentrate on selecting the right dun army and young people in the fort, as long as there was nothing special during this time, they could act cheaply, and the main task was to pick people.

Seeing that the affairs inside and outside Dapan Fort were on the right track, and now that he had some funds in his hands, Liu Yan thought about expanding his troops, there were too few twelve dun troops in the fort, dozens of military households, a population of one hundred and dozens of people, at least a team of dozens of soldiers and horses.

However, at this time, there are too many affairs in the fort, and all parties have to use manpower, especially the military camp, at least before the autumn harvest, it is impossible to reduce manpower, so Liu Yan considered whether to use the evening time to practice, at least to set up the shelves of people and horses first.

"Everything is difficult at the beginning, let's raise the equipment first, I think I'm going to go to Wangjiazhuang."

The next day, Liu Yan came to Wangjiazhuang.

In the main hall of the Hundred Household Official Hall, looking at Liu Yan with a smile on his face, Wang Weizhen couldn't help but sigh and said: "Say, what is the matter with your brother coming to me, I know that you have always been on the Three Treasures Hall for nothing." ”

"I'm asking for something."

Liu Yan smiled slightly, hugged his fists and said: "My subordinates came here today to ask my brother to support some sword equipment, you also know that my Tunbao start-up has no equipment to defend myself." ”

Wang Weizhen stroked the stubble on his chin, muttered for a long time, and then said: "Okay, there are still some spears and guns in the arsenal of my hundred official halls, so I'll give it to you cheaper." ”

Liu Yan has also become accustomed to Wang Weizhen's style of acting, that is, what can be sold will never be allocated, and what can be recovered will never be wasted, so he said with a smile: "Then thank you brother." ”

After a while, Liu Yan followed Guan Tun official Yue Ming to the arsenal, where some ordnance was piled up, Liu Yan looked around, and found that most of the knives and guns and three-eyed guns were here, so Liu Yan asked: "Aren't there any bird guns and bows and arrows?" ”

Yue Ming's head shook like a rattle, and Liu Yan had no choice but to give up.

Liu Yan thought about it, archers are difficult to train, the cost of a bow is not cheap, and the cost performance of equipment is too low. And now the quality of the Daming Bird Gun is also worrying, and it is not bad to have knives and guns and three-eyed guns for the time being.

So Liu Yan casually picked up a spear and looked at it, only to see that this spear was about one zhang long, with an iron head and shaped like a duck's beak, a typical Ming standard spear. However, Liu Yan sighed, but unfortunately the preservation of these spears is not very good, the heads of the spears are rusty, and those three-eyed guns are also rusty, Liu Yan even thinks that these three-eyed guns will explode when they are fired.

Liu Yan sighed, such a weapon, such a quality is really not good, in the end he chose thirty eye-catching spears and ten three-eyed guns, the price of the waist knife was given up by him because of the high price, although he still has a lot of silver in his hands now, but the family in the castle has a big business, there are too many places to use money, and it is better to save some.

In addition to these weapons, Liu Yan also spent forty taels of silver to buy more than 300 catties of pig iron, it is better to buy it, or to do it yourself, in the future, the standard equipment under his command must be self-made.

Liu Yan took the spear and the three-eyed gun and came back from Wangjiazhuang, he had decided to build a batch of weapons by himself, and the next thing was the choice of weapon types, whether it was from actual combat or from his own financial situation, he had to sort out this idea first.

In his previous life, Liu Yan also read Qi Jiguang's new book of Ji Xiao and the actual record of military training, and remembered that in the book, General Qi once said: axes, axes, hammers, ge, halberds, hooks and sickles and other bold and artistic talents can be used to rush and kill the enemy on a single horse, but they cannot teach the soldiers and cannot be a great enemy. As for the palladium, big sticks and line guns, they are mostly used on horses, so Liu Yan doesn't consider these weapons for the time being, they are not easy to use, and they can't afford to use them.

In the end, after some consideration, Liu Yan decided to equip his subordinates with several weapons, such as waist knives, spears, shields, and firearms. The combination of these weapons is not only economical, but also both long and short, both defensive, coupled with Liu Yan's rigorous training, it will definitely be able to build a strong army that can fight, which Liu Yan still has confidence.

Long-range weapons Liu Yan abandoned the bow and arrow, and chose the fire gun instead, not because the bow and arrow are not sharp, but because the cost of manufacturing and purchasing is too high, and qualified archers are too difficult to practice, it is difficult to see results in a few years, Liu Yan does not have such time, nor does he have the financial resources.

The training of the firecracker is simple, a firearm is relatively cheap, and the use of firearms is also a trend in future history, so Liu Yan has no reason not to use firearms.

Counting the three-eyed gun in Chen Xun's hand, Liu Yan now has eleven three-eyed guns in his hand, but what he longs for in his heart is to have a bird gun, and the effective lethality of the three-eyed gun is only more than 20 steps, which is okay for cavalry combat, but not enough for foot combat. The Bird Gun is much further away, and the effective lethality of a good Bird Gun can be at 80 steps, which is the main equipment option in the future.

Qi Jiguang once praised the bird gun as the first sharp weapon in battle, the ability to shoot the hole armor, the shot can hit, and the bow and arrow can reach. Historically, the Qi family army trained the bird gunner, and stood a five-foot-high wooden card in eighty steps, and the bird gunner shot three shots and one hit, and ten shots and seven Chinese sides were the art masters.

However, the process of making bird guns is complex, and the craftsmanship of the craftsmen is quite high, so it is necessary to find some good craftsmen. If there are craftsmen in the fort who make bird guns, Liu Yan will gradually stop using them in the future.

As for the thunderbolts and Lumi guns at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Yan also wanted to equip them, but the production process of these firecrackers was complicated, the manufacturing cost was too high, and more importantly, there were very few craftsmen who could make these two firearms, comparable to giant pandas, Liu Yan could not achieve mass production, so he had to give up.

In the past few days, after Liu Yan sorted out the types of equipment in the future, he began to focus on reality. At this time, Liu Yan knew that there were a group of craftsmen in Wangjiazhuang, these people had been making weapons for generations, and presumably someone in them would make birds, so Liu Yan sent Wang Yue to hope that Wang Weizhen could transfer some craftsmen over.

Liu Yan prepared weapons to train soldiers, Wang Yue and Chen Xun of course agreed with both hands, only Wang Yue was a little puzzled by Liu Yan's preparation to fight the bird gun, but he didn't say anything, and after receiving Liu Yan's task, he went to Wangjiazhuang. After Chen Xun heard about it, he was overjoyed, and when he met people, he said that Liu Yan had a vision and knew the power of firearms. A few days later, Wang Yue returned and brought back six or seven craftsmen, one of whom was still a master craftsman, and he said that he was proficient in the making of bird guns.

Two days later, several craftsmen followed Wang Yue to Dapanbao, only to see these people standing in front of Liu Yan, all of them were rude, full of wind and frost, and the clothes on several people were all tattered, and they were already hot and sweaty when they hurried down.

Liu Yan asked Wang Yue to take a few people to fetch buckets of well water and let a few people drink saliva. After they were relieved, Liu Yan invited them into the house to talk.

Among them, there is a leader, that is, the head craftsman, the most skilled one among the several, named Tan Xiaoda, who is just thirty years old this year, and his figure is very stout, but his face is shrewd, Liu Yan opened his mouth to ask him if he would make bird guns.

Tan Xiaodao: "Back to my lord, it's not a small boast, when the small one was in the Lingshan Acropolis Ordnance Bureau, when it came to making weapons and firearms, it was also one of the best, even after arriving at Wangjiazhuang, the skills in this hand did not fall." ”

Liu Yan looked at him as if he was reminiscing, his expression was proud and hateful, he was originally in the Lingshan Acropolis, how could he come to this Wangjiazhuang in the end? However, this was not Liu Yan's concern, he just asked him about the knowledge of making bird guns.

Tan Xiaoda replied one by one: "Lord Qiyu, this is a bird's gun, which is wonderful with six catties, but it consumes a lot of iron, forty catties of wool iron, and finally only seven or eight catties of refined iron, which is not a small cost." ”

According to Tan Xiaoda's estimates, plus the price of iron, charcoal, as well as the wages and food of craftsmen, as well as other expenses, etc., the cost of a bird gun is three to five taels, which is not counting the matching gunpowder and projectiles, which shows that the need to equip firearms is not a small amount.

Liu Yan nodded, he had read the relevant records in history, and Tan Xiaoda's estimate was similar to his, and he was also a sincere person.

However, Liu Yan only cares about the quality of the bird, and many Ming troops in history used the bird's gun to blow up the chamber, causing the sergeants to have a fear of using the bird's gun, and Liu Yan couldn't joke with the lives of his subordinates.

Regarding Liu Yan's worries, Tan Xiaoda said: "Lord Qiyu, the reason why the bird gun is damaged is that the materials are insufficient, or the craftsmen are clever in manufacturing, and the thickness is uneven, especially in the welding of the gun tube, many craftsmen have insufficient skills, resulting in the explosion and boring of the bird gun. However, the small ones don't have these problems, as long as the adults can provide enough materials, the small ones can make excellent fire guns for the adults. ”

Liu Yan nodded, of course he couldn't rest assured of him with Tan Xiaoda's words, in history, the Ming Dynasty's quality requirements for bird guns were actually very strict, whether it was the Ministry of Industry or the Ordnance Bureaus of local health offices, the weapons they made must be marked with the words "a certain department", a certain guard, a certain institute, a certain year, and a certain season, and they need to make a book afterwards so that they can be checked at any time.

However, even if there are so many strict regulations, the quality of Daming weapons is obvious to all, it can be seen that there is no strict execution, and no matter how optimized and strict the regulations are, it is a blank sheet of paper, which has no practical significance.

Of course, the reason why the quality of Daming's weapons is low is also related to the corruption ~ corruption of officialdom and the poor artisan system, of course, Liu Yan does not need to mention this.

Liu Yan said: "Tan Craftsman, it is best for you to say this, but we also have to make a rule: in the future, you will stay in the fort, and the monthly food wage will not be less than yours, and in the future, I will give you an additional reward for every qualified bird gun you make, and if the bird gun you create is not qualified, you will be deducted from the corresponding monthly food to replenish the material loss, and if it causes damage to the sergeant, I will also punish it." How is it?

Tan Xiaoda gritted his teeth and said loudly: "Okay, just say so according to the adults." ”

Before Tan Xiaoda came to Jingbian Fort, he had heard Wang Yue blow this place to the sky, saying that as long as he arrived at Jingbian Fort, he would definitely have enough food and clothing every day, and he would be full every day, and now these craftsmen are hungry and cold every day in Wangjiazhuang, and it is not easy to find a place to eat well this year, Tan Xiaoda believes that his skills will convince Liu Yan.

This matter was settled, and in the future, Tan Xiaoda and a few people stayed in Jingbian Fort, Liu Yan suddenly remembered something, and said: "By the way, Tan Jiangtou, in addition to the bird guns ignited by the fire rope, can you make that kind of wheel fire gun or fire fire gun?" ”

Liu Yan roughly described the two kinds of firearms he said, and he was talking about the historical revolving flintlock pistol and firing flintlock pistol, if only it could be done in one step.

The flintlock pistol, which appeared in the mid-to-late 16th century, was used to ignite gunpowder by rubbing a flint with a gear clockwork. The flintlock musket, which appeared in the early to mid-17th century, was ignited by a hammer striking a flint, and became very popular in the next few hundred years. Liu Yan naturally wants to have such a sharp weapon.

Tan Xiao's eyebrows tightened and he thought for a long time, although he wondered how Liu Yan could think of such a bird, but he finally shook his head and said, "I'm ashamed, the firearms that adults are talking about, I really don't know the small ones, and I have to think about them carefully." ”

Liu Yan nodded, Wangjiazhuang is a small place after all, and it is impossible for such a profound firearms talent to appear, it is because he is anxious, and I will talk about this matter later.

Later, Tan Xiaoda and a few people were arranged, and Liu Yan gave them three living rooms, and also selected a place for them as a weapons workshop, not far from the side of the soap workshop. Tan Xiaoda and the others went happily, and along the way, they also looked curiously at this newly built tunbao.