The next day, Liu Yan came to the Firearms Supervision Office early in the morning, and Tan Xiao waited at the door early in the morning, and specially brought Zhao Yan with him.

After this period of continuous recruitment, as well as the support of Liu Yan and Wang Weizhen, there are now more than 20 craftsmen in the Firearms Supervision Office, more than 40 craftsmen, and several pairs of craftsmen, fathers and sons, and brothers working in the armor workshop.

In addition, in order to supplement the manpower of the Firearms Supervision Office, Liu Yan also specially mobilized more than 50 strong women from Dapan Fort to assist, and now there is no shortage of manpower here.

Later, in order to make custom-made paper shells, Liu Yan not only selected some old and weak men and women from the craftsmen, but also selected some old and weak women from the fort to help. Counting up, even the craftsmen and the ordinary workers, there are now more than 100 people working in the firearms supervision office.

Liu Yan, accompanied by Tan Xiaoda and Zhao Yan, began the inspection.

From the gunpowder workshop, the armor workshop, and then to the firearms workshop, Liu Yan looked all the way, and Tan Xiaoda's explanation and introduction, I saw that most of these craftsmen's skills were passed down from father to son, and the regulations were also very strict when recruiting apprentices.

Liu Yan has strict requirements for the quality of weapons, reflecting on Tan Xiao's head, he also has extremely high requirements for craftsmen, each baked weapon has a number, and if there is a problem, you can easily find the craftsman and the steward. For Tan Xiaoda now, Liu Yan is very important to him, every batch of weapons he makes, he has relevant rewards, in Dapanbao, he is considered a high-income personnel, even Chen Xun, Wang Yue and other small flag officials are not as high as Tan Xiaoda's income, he doesn't want to smash his signboard.

Liu Yan and the others looked at the firearms supervision office for a while, and saw that the craftsmen in the workshops were working in full swing, and the enthusiasm for labor was very high, which formed a sharp contrast with the craftsmen of the other health centers.

Liu Yan looked carefully, and there were anvils, hammers, pliers, furnace boxes and other equipment in front of each ironworker. Carpentry equipment is simpler, that is, axes, saws, planers, chisels, etc.

Next to the armor workshop, there is an assembly room for bird guns, after several places of bird guns are made, they are assembled here, and here, there are many simple guns and beds and other things, which are personally responsible for Tan Xiaoda and some craftsmen. On the other side of the assembly room, there is also the assembly of weapons such as knives, guns, armor, etc. Due to the low level of skills, many old and infirm women are already qualified for the job. After the finished product, it was signed by Tan Xiaoda and sent to the warehouse collectively.

Next to the assembly room, there is a large house, where all the men and women are old and weak, and only a few craftsmen are in charge of patrolling and supervising.

Here, these workers make fire ropes, which are made of hemp rope or tightly twisted strips of cloth, soaked in some kind of solution and dried, which can be burned slowly during battle.

In the newly built courtyard of the paper-shelled bullets, some women carefully weighed the gunpowder, put a certain amount of gunpowder and projectiles in it, and then some people packed it, and every fifty boxes were packed, and everything was so orderly.

Because the rules formulated by Liu Yan are reasonable, and the quality of the products is directly related to everyone's reward wages, these craftsmen are working hard, and when Liu Yan comes in, they don't care about taking a look.

"Let's go, I'd like to see the assembly process of the bird gun again."

Tan Xiaoda hurriedly guided: "Captain A, please." ”

When Liu Yan and others came to the firearms workshop, they immediately saw a stout middle-aged man wearing a leather skirt and assembling a bird gun.

Liu Yan motioned to everyone not to talk and disturb, and then stood aside with interest to watch.

I saw that the man gritted his teeth and screwed a screw into the yin thread at the end of the mirror tube. This screw is screwed into the end of the mirror to hold the breath, and if the sergeant wants to clean the inner wall of the tube, the screw can also be screwed out. Then there was another series of operations, and it took only a stick of incense for the man to assemble a brand-new bird gun.

When Liu Yan greeted the man with a smile, he also looked at the black and thick bird gun in his hand with satisfaction, as if he was looking at his beloved woman.

Then the man saw that it was Liu Yan who came, so he hurriedly came over to salute, and Liu Yan also asked the man some questions about the assembly of the bird, and the man also answered them one by one.

After Liu Yan and the others inspected the circle, they said to Tan Xiaoda: "Okay, now I see that the production of the Firearms Supervision Office is also on the right track, let's go to the office to rest for a while and talk about something." ”

Tan Xiaoda respectfully led Liu Yan to his office room, and asked people to quickly serve tea and pour water. Zhao Yan also followed, standing respectfully beside Tan Xiaoda.

In fact, Liu Yan came to Tan Xiaoda today, in addition to looking at the production situation of the Firearms Supervision Office, he also had other ideas, such as making some grenades and mines, as well as artillery.

According to the historical materials that Liu Yan understands, the original version of mines has been widely used as early as the early Ming Dynasty, which is not unusual at all. During the Jiajing period, Zeng Rui, the governor of the three sides, made many mines in Shaanxi, causing the Mongols in the border areas to suffer a lot. However, the mine needs to use a fire device with steel wheels, so I don't know if Tan Xiaoda's subordinates have such a combat talent.

There are also hand grenades, with the technology of the Ming Dynasty, it should not be a problem to make a fuse, but the power of black powder is greater than that of grenades to be powerful enough, seven or eight pounds of grenades can not be thrown very far, can not blow up the enemy, the possibility of blowing up their own people is very high, but the field effect still has a certain role in defending the city.

As for artillery, Liu Yan felt that he had to forget it, the technology required to build artillery was relatively high, and there were many iron and copper materials needed, so it was more cost-effective for him to use all the resources where he needed them most.

So Liu Yan said his thoughts, and after listening to Liu Yan's words, Tan Xiaoda pondered for a long time and said: "Don't blame Captain A, this mine's subordinates know, as for the grenade, after listening to Captain A's description, it should be the so-called earth-shattering thunder." However, the subordinates of these two firearms do not know much about it, but they have only heard of it, and if they want to mass produce them, they will need time to study the technology. ”

Liu Yan just nodded when he heard this, he was a little anxious now, not long after Dapanbao was created, he wanted to develop all kinds of sharp firearms, and it seemed that the steps were a little big.

So Liu Yan asked about the output of bird guns: "Then how many bird guns can be made in a month now?" How many armor pairs can be crafted? ”

"Captain A, as long as the iron can keep up, stop the making of knives, guns and other instruments. With the current production capacity of the Firearms Supervision Office, it can produce 50 bird guns and 10 pairs of iron armor every month......"

Now that the manufacturing process of the Firearms Supervision Office has been smoothed out, coupled with the fact that the craftsmen in the department have thoroughly mastered the techniques of the birds, as well as the heavy rewards of silver, the production of the birds has increased a lot, and a craftsman can make and manage one in about half a month. That's why Tan Xiaoda dared to guarantee like this.

However, Liu Yan was a little disappointed after hearing this, now the manpower of Dapanbao is enough, and he still wants to finish this period of time, expand the number of soldiers and horses under his command, increase the proportion of birds and guns, and implement the armor of the whole army, but this kind of output makes Liu Yan a little hesitant.

"The Firearms Supervision Department can increase the production of bird guns and armor, such as making two hundred bird guns and forty pairs of armor a month?"

Tan Xiaoda was a little embarrassed when he heard this, and then he calculated an account for Liu Yan.

Let's not mention the production capacity of the Firearms Supervision Department, let's talk about the supply of iron:

Calculated by refining five catties of wrought iron into one pound of fine iron, one rod of bird guns needs eight catties of fine iron, one hundred rods of bird guns need four thousand catties of wrought iron, and two hundred rods of bird guns are eight thousand catties of wrought iron.

There is also iron armor, a pair of iron armor requires more than 30 catties of fine iron, Liu Yan requires 40 pairs of iron armor per month, and more than 6 catties of wrought iron is needed a month.

In this way, 200 bird guns and 40 pairs of iron armor are made in a month, and the Firearms Supervision Office needs more than 14,000 catties of wrought iron every month, which is equivalent to more than seven tons of iron.

Such a number is naturally nothing in the later generations, but in the Ming Dynasty at this time, this is an extremely large number. I'm afraid that the entire Lingshanwei doesn't have so much iron material from above every year.

After listening to this, Liu Yan also frowned, such a problem would occur if he couldn't control the source of raw materials, which was really uncomfortable.

Liu Yan groaned, and said secretly in his heart: "It seems that there is a chance to find out, is there an iron mine around Dapanbao, and when the time comes, building an iron mine and pulling Wang Wei Town in as a cover can also solve a lot of problems." ”

Seeing that Liu Yan was groaning, Tan Xiaoda thought that Liu Yan was dissatisfied with his answer, so he said: "Armor chief, in fact, to make armor, you don't have to use all iron, you can also make cotton armor and leather armor, and it can also be used to prevent guns and arrows." ”

Cotton armor can indeed effectively protect firearms, for example, when the Eight Banners soldiers make cotton armor, they soak the cotton, and then beat it repeatedly to make a very thin cotton sheet, and after embellishing a number of such cotton sheets into a thick cotton cloth, install an iron sheet between the two layers of cotton cloth, and fix it with copper nails inside and outside, and the cotton armor is made. Such armor has a very good defensive effect on firearms, and it can also protect against cold in winter.

Compared with iron, cotton is also more common in the north of Daming, and the price is lower than that of iron. However, Liu Yan considered that now that there is war everywhere, the supply of raw materials such as cotton cloth is also unstable, and he will also be controlled by others.

If you open an iron-making plant, it is easier to control military raw materials, and you don't need to worry about the source of raw materials all the time, and the same is true for leather armor. Besides, the Qing soldiers mostly used bows and arrows, and from the north to the cotton armor, the iron armor had better protection against bows and arrows.

With the iron armor of the bird, Liu Yan made up his mind, and he said to Tan Xiaodao: "You don't have to worry about the iron, I will find a way, you just have to take the craftsmen to make the bird's gun and armor." ”

Liu Yan made up his mind that he would spend a lot of money to purchase iron materials now, and he could purchase at any cost to ensure supply, and during this period, Liu Yan would find a way to find a place where the iron ore could be mined.

Seeing that Liu Yan said this, Tan Xiaoda had no choice but to respectfully accept the order, after all, as long as the supply of iron materials was sufficient, two hundred bird guns and forty pairs of iron armor a month were not impossible to accomplish, at most it would take some effort.

In the end, Tan Xiaoda looked at Liu Yan again and mentioned the matter of saltpeter, and Zhao Yan, who had been waiting for a long time, also looked at it a little anxiously.

Liu Yan smiled when he saw this and said, "Okay, now that the matter is over, let's talk about the problem of saltpeter." ”