Chapter 055

Artillery is the god of war, and having an artillery unit on the battlefield can play a decisive role. However, after Cheng Shijie received the eight Franc machine guns, he did not immediately send someone to receive them, but threw the guns to the gun bureau.

"Organize the manpower and imitate it immediately!"

Zhou Yandong said: "But the production of guns ...... pipes"

Without waiting for Zhou Yandong to finish speaking, Cheng Shijie said: "Stop the gun pipe first, this garrison has a better way to make the gun pipe!" ”

Throwing down this order, Cheng Shijie was like a gust of wind, walking towards the steelmaking plant of Ninghai Navy, the steelmaking is not in Ninghai City, but the iron mine is in Yangjialing, Yangjialing is closer to Muping County, the state seat of Ninghai Prefecture, only forty miles, but it is one hundred and forty miles away from Ninghai City.

In fact, this blast furnace did not play a decisive role in Cheng Shijie, but the craftsmen of Zuo Qianhu Institute made it themselves. In fact, as early as the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, China already had blast furnace steelmaking, and by the Song Dynasty, the technology had matured, and the Ming Dynasty was even more rare.

The annual steel production capacity of the Ming Dynasty is more than that of the whole of Europe. The largest blast furnace has reached 50 cubic meters, and according to the volume ratio of one-third, almost one furnace can smelt more than 20 tons of steel.

"See the Garrison!"

"Are you ready?"

"Ready!"

"Ignition!"

As a craftsman stepped forward and threw a lit torch into the hearth, the wood with tung oil burned quickly, and when there was a primer, the craftsmen added coke to the hearth and closed the furnace.

As the blower blew into the stove, it didn't take long for the fire to burst into the clouds, carrying a red spark.

In addition, the technology of using coal to make steel has matured as early as the Song Dynasty, but at present, this blast furnace is only 178 cubic meters, and it can refine more than 10,000 catties of steel at most.

The quality of the coke was good, the fire was very fierce, and under the calcination of the fierce fire, the ore began to melt little by little. The foreman constantly instructed the workers to join the coke, worked hard, and even ran over to push Cheng Shijie away, occupying the observation hole, observing every subtle change in it, and it can be seen that this craftsman is still quite dedicated.

When Luo Baishun saw the mineral sand melting, he grinned and shouted, "The fire is a little fiercer!" Blower, work harder, the fire can't be weak at this time, if it's weak, this furnace of molten iron will be finished! ”

Cheng Shijie actually watched the opening of the furnace, not his only purpose, he wanted to enter the final check on the shaft cold casting process.

At the same time as the blast furnace was making steel, located about 20 meters away from the blast furnace, a shaft had been built, for the sake of experimentation, Cheng Shijie did not follow the way of later generations, directly built a deep well of more than ten meters, this shaft was only more than three meters, and only dug a deep well when the technology was matured.

The cold-cast mold has also been manufactured, this mold is taken from the inner diameter of 32 mm, the outer diameter of 40 mm, that is to say, the barrel thickness is 8 mm, in later generations the general rifle barrel is only three or four mm, the sniper rifle barrel thickness is thicker.

Cheng Shijie also has no way, the smaller the diameter, the greater the difficulty of the shaft cold casting process, and the same problem, once it exceeds 150 mm, the technical difficulty of the shaft process also increases with the higher the caliber.

The easiest caliber to make, on the contrary, is the middle caliber, such as 60, 80, and 90 calibers.

Cheng Shijie looked at the craftsman in charge next to him and said: "You must remember that the preheating must be sufficient, as long as there is a little moisture, this molten steel will explode, it is not a joke!" ”

"Lord Garrison, how do we know that the warm-up is complete!"

"Burn it with fire, burn the mold to white, and that's pretty much it!"

Cheng Shijie is also groping, because there is measuring equipment in later generations, through instrument analysis, you can easily conclude that with an infrared thermometer measurement, as long as the mold exceeds 300 degrees, under normal circumstances, it is impossible to contain moisture.

The workers of steelmaking are very enthusiastic about their work, they used to work in the black mountain iron mine in Qingzhou Prefecture, and they were tired and tired every day, so they could only mix water and be full, and they didn't think about their wages. The owner rewarded them with a mouthful of food, they should be grateful, it is easy to do it if they don't want to, anyway, the technical content of iron ore is very low, and the craftsmen who master the technology have food and drink, and the small life is very nourishing.

At least ordinary workers are cheap laborers, they are unwilling to work, and some are homeless people who are willing to work, and it is not easy to survive at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and there is no place to exert strength. Later, Luo Changqing, the only son of foreman Luo Baishun, fell ill, and in desperation, he had to take Luo Changqing to Dengzhou for medical treatment.

Fortunately, Luo Changqing survived and survived, but they lost their livelihood, and it happened that Cheng Shijie recruited military households, and he successfully blended into the ranks of military households according to these techniques in his hands.

When he came to Yangjialing Iron Mine, Luo Baishun found that they not only had three meals a day, they could eat openly, but they could also eat salted fish every three or five days. In addition to managing food, housing, and living conditions are not bad, single craftsmen, every four people have a house, and each person has his own cabinet, which can put valuables.

You can get one or two taels of silver every month, or two stones and four buckets of grain, where to find this kind of good thing, Luo Baishun remembered the workers who helped him at the beginning, and the result was good, I heard that Yangjialing was treated so well, and under Luo Baishun's flickering, more than 600 craftsmen came over.

Now these craftsmen are paid and fed, and if they don't work hard, they all feel sorry for Cheng Shijie, the workers shout trumpets, coke is poured into the furnace, and the blowers blow fierce winds.

Despite the cold wind, the workers were sweating profusely in their shirts.

The fire burned for a day and a night, until the iron ore in the blast furnace turned into a furnace of boiling molten iron, and all the craftsmen excitedly came up to see the freshness, and they were all very excited to see so much molten iron.

"The garrison is done!"

Cheng Shijie waved his hand: "Release the molten iron!" ”

An iron chisel gently stabbed the gate, as the gate was pierced, the fiery red molten iron torrent erupted from it, and flowed rapidly along the cooling tank, the red star scurried, and the purple smoke was swirling, which was magnificent.

As an iron ingot was cooled, the sluice gates of the blast furnace were immediately blocked.

Luo Baishun held a small hammer and gently tapped the iron ingot, his face was full of smiles: "Lord Garrison, this is good iron, rare good iron." This furnace can produce tens of thousands of catties of good iron! ”

"This is just for you to practice, and you can build a bigger blast furnace in the future!"

Cheng Shijie looked at these ordinary high-carbon steels, frowned slightly, he looked at Luo Baishun and said, "Add manganese powder to the furnace and stir!" ”

"Good Ratcha!"

Charcoal is an important ingredient that determines the quality of steel, Ming and Song Dynasty Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu Hardware": "Where iron is raw and cooked, it is raw if it is not fried, and it is cooked if it is fried...... Those who make pig iron for smelting and casting will flow into long strips, round blocks, and ranges for use. ”

The carbon content is greater than 2% belongs to pig iron, the carbon content of industrial pig iron is generally 2.11%-4.3%, and the carbon content from 0.60% to 1.70% belongs to high-carbon steel.

The hardness of steel with the same carbon content will also be greatly increased after quenching and engineering heat treatment. After the addition of the strong powder, stir.

Cheng Shijie said: "Open the gate, release the molten steel, and directly carry out the cold casting of the shaft!" ”

After giving the order, Cheng Shijie hurriedly ran into the distance, and as he ran, he said: "Unrelated personnel disperse, the staff do a good job of protection!" ”

Once the molten steel explodes, in addition to the shock wave, there is also the flying molten steel that will burn the workers, which is much more powerful than a bomb. However, the protective effect of cotton protective clothing and asbestos apron is actually not large, and once an explosion occurs, it is basically not dead or injured.

This kind of work is too dangerous, running more than 200 meters, Cheng Shijie climbed a watchtower, held a telescope, and observed the direction of the shaft.

As the molten steel continues to cool in the cooling tank, the temperature of the molten steel decreases rapidly, when the molten steel in the cooling tank flows into the mold of the shaft.

"There was no explosion!"

Cheng Shijie breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as the first drop of molten steel does not explode, there will be no further explosions later. When the molten steel flows into the mold, the water in the shaft will quickly cool down the mold, and the chassis of the mold and the mold are separated under the action of gravity, and under the action of the keyboard, it sinks slowly, and with the extension of the winch, the seamless steel pipe is cast.

After about a quarter of an hour, the wire rope of the shaft winch reaches the marking position, which means that the seamless steel pipe of the shaft has been cast.

In a quarter of an hour, or fifteen minutes, twenty-four pipes were cast with a length of three meters, a thickness of eight millimeters, and an inner diameter of thirty-two millimeters.

When the furnace door closes again, the molten steel in the cooling tank is led to the mold of the ingot to continue casting, while the worker lifts the winch and the seamless steel pipe in the shaft slowly rises.

The craftsman of the Gun Bureau who heard the news looked at the high-manganese steel barrel in the shaft with a dull expression.

"This ...... Is it done in the blink of an eye? ”

The length of the barrel of a firearm is only eighty-five centimeters, and this shaft can cut four guns, twenty-four times four, that is, ninety-six.

Ninety-six pieces are produced in fifteen minutes, which is ......

What if there is not one, but ten?

Zhou Yandong said with a smile: "Congratulations to the garrison, with the barrel, we can imitate the Thunderbolt immediately!" ”

"That's the best!"

Cheng Shijie suddenly remembered another question, a thunderbolt with a caliber of 32 mm, is it still a gun?

It should be renamed Thunderbolt, right?

The caliber is large, the tube wall is thick, and the bore pressure resistance is high, which means that each gun can add a larger amount of gunpowder and have greater kinetic energy, which means that they create a thunderbolt, no, the thunderbolt cannon has a longer range and greater power.

Think about what is the effect of being hit by a lead with a caliber of thirty-two millimeters?

Think about being fired by a thunderbolt cannon fired in a row of 18 or 28 rounds, what kind of scene is that?

That scene...... Absolutely wonderful.