Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 834 The roar of the new era! 【Ask for a monthly ticket】

Starting from Wusongkou, along the west bank of the Wusong River, the naval academy, military port, and shipyard are lined up in sequence to the south. There is a mysterious place between the two low mountain ridges on the south side of the shipyard.

The soldiers and civilians in Huating Town only know that this place is called the "Manufacturing Bureau", which is a place with a higher level of secrecy than the town office, but they don't know anything about what it does.The craftsmen here are not allowed to come out as long as they go in, and they even have to sign a "non-disclosure agreement" with extremely strict conditions. This life, live here, die here!

What kind of scary place is this?

Once a living person enters, there is no way to get out alive!

Everyone has a strong curiosity about this place, but no one has ever dared to peep and covet it.

Because the first article of Chapter 1 of "Huating Covenant Law" in Huating Town stipulates that anyone who approaches the "Manufacturing Bureau" within half a mile without reason will be killed on the spot if he is regarded as a threat by the guards!

Speaking of which, the "Huating Covenant" created by the chief executive really made the soldiers and civilians of Huating town complain to the sky!For daily travel and behavioral norms, everything is stipulated in detail, such as murder and arson, bullying the market, fighting, inciting rumors, even spitting, affecting the appearance of the city, encroaching on people's land, refusing to pay taxes... almost every behavior will be mandatory The standards that need to be followed, each violation of the "Contract" has corresponding regulations.

Rigid to outrageous!
Fortunately, the current permanent population of Huating Town is either the army or poor people, and no one dares to raise objections no matter how strict the chief executive is.Even so, some well-known Confucian scholars in the south of the Yangtze River expressed indignation after hearing that, this so-called "Huating Treaty" is simply the brutal government of the Tyrant Qin!

But this is Fang Jun's fief, which was originally a wasteland. Not only was it not under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, but all the officials were appointed from the Huating Marquis Mansion.

This is Fang Jun's territory!

Those who do not obey the "Contract" can leave, but as long as they are here to make a living, they must obey it unconditionally!
At this moment, the "Manufacturing Bureau" is in full swing.

The full name of "Manufacturing Bureau" is naturally "Guns Manufacturing Bureau". However, in Fang Jun's mind, it is inevitable that hot weapons will appear on the stage in advance, but it is still necessary to block technology as much as possible. Other countries have developed thermal weapons, and they must also ensure that Datang's thermal weapons will always maintain their leading position.

Of course, the reason why it is called "Manufacturing Bureau" is also because in Fang Jun's conception, this place is not only a place to produce guns, but also more "black technology" will enter the historical stage of Datang...

With the new sailboat, Fang Jun naturally couldn't wait to develop the artillery.

As long as he imagines the huge "Royal Princess" battleship facing the enemy in a battle line on the sea, and the earth-shattering power when dozens of artillery salvos are fired, Fang Jun will feel his blood boil!

Wang Erxiao, the best blacksmith of the Fang family, stared at the iron-making furnace in front of him, silently estimating how long it would take for the bronze alloy in the furnace to melt.

Fang Jun stood beside Wang Erxiao with his hands behind his back, and asked with a smile, "Do you blame me for making you sign the non-disclosure agreement?"

The two of them stood at the front, and a large group of craftsmen surrounded them.

Some of these craftsmen were servants of the Fang family, and some were bought by Fang Jun from other families with a high salary.The status of craftsmen is low, and they are the private property of the master's family. As long as they spend money to buy slaves, they are servants of the Fang family.

Wang Erxiao was slightly taken aback when he heard the words, and then he smiled, his wrinkled old face was shining brightly: "What did Erlang say? Since he is a craftsman of the Fang family, he will be a servant of the Fang family for the rest of his life. Not only the little old man, but also the son , The grandson is also a servant of the Fang family. In another family, what is the difference between a servant and a beast in the pen? There is no need to sign any non-disclosure agreement. Even if you are locked in an iron cage for a lifetime, how dare you have any complaints? Bisheng Erlang Then when we treat ourselves as human beings, we not only have to sign some confidentiality agreement so that we will not have private contact with outsiders for the rest of our lives, but we also need to give a generous bounty to resettle our family members. With such benevolence, is that person here grateful? Or he will die tomorrow Here, the little old man has no complaints or regrets!"

All the craftsmen behind him nodded in agreement, with satisfied expressions.

Do not have private contact with outsiders for the rest of your life?
It sounds harsh, like being treated as an animal in the pen, but as a slave, isn't it the private property that the owner disposes of at will?

Slavery is not just talking...

Then an old man with white beard and hair said with emotion: "Don't say that as a servant, the owner of the family is willing to deal with it. The settling allowance given by Erlang alone is afraid that even if the old man is unwilling, the dog in the family will have to force it with a knife." The old man signed the agreement..."

All the craftsmen laughed when they heard this.

After signing the agreement, the minimum settling fee was [-] guan, and senior blacksmiths like Wang Erxiao and Baibeard old craftsman received [-] guan!

What is this concept?
If one person signs the agreement, the whole family will be freed from slavery and become a middle-class family in an instant!From then on, it is the status of a commoner!If there are one or two future generations who are able to read and write and take the imperial examination, the original slave family will become a scholarly family...

What is it if you don't have private contact with outsiders for a lifetime?
Even if I shut myself in the sheepfold for the rest of my life, I am willing!
A man with a big arm and a round waist stood at the end of the craftsman, and asked curiously at this moment: "Erlang, what exactly are we going to build?"

This is also the question in everyone's mind.

Ever since I came here, all the daily preparations have been made according to the blueprints shown by Fang Jun. Many craftsmen are divided into several groups, each with different responsibilities, and the work they do is completely different. Everyone is at a loss. Jun spent a lot of money to gather so many excellent blacksmiths together to set up this so-called "manufacturing bureau". What exactly is he going to manufacture?
Fang Jun chuckled, and said calmly: "Be safe and don't be impatient. Later, you will witness the moment when a miracle is born!"

The craftsmen who joined later were puzzled, but the craftsmen of the Fang family immediately became excited when they heard this, eager to try.They followed Fang Jun to smelt the first furnace of iron, to smelting high-quality fine steel, and then to the big ball that can fly into the sky...

Which step is not to witness the birth of a miracle?

Erlang is a miracle worker!
Wang Xiaoer stared at the burning iron furnace, and said, "The fire is almost ready, let's get ready!"

"promise!"

He is now the chief craftsman of the "Manufacturing Bureau". As soon as he opened his mouth, the rest of the craftsmen immediately became busy.

What Fang Jun wants to make is a bronze cannon.

Now the craftsmen of the Fang family are more and more experienced in smelting fine steel, but limited by experience and technology, the quality of the smelted steel is sufficient for forging knife point armor, but not enough for making guns and cannons.

The quality of the steel did not meet the requirements, and the cannons produced were very easy to explode, so Fang Jun planned to start with the casting of bronze cannons, accumulate experience step by step, and at the same time continuously improve the steelmaking technology, and finally cast steel cannons.

Moreover, I am at a loss for explosive ammunition, and I don’t know much about primers. Now even if I make a cannon, it’s just a solid ammunition. A bronze cannon with a low melting point and good ductility is enough...

It's just that the price of copper is too expensive, and eventually we have to go on the road of steel cannons.

In fact, the technology of casting cannons is not difficult.

Make a cylinder of steel, closed at one end, with a solid cylinder in the center of the interior, which is a length shorter than the cylinder.If the cylinder is erected and cut open, the cross-section is in the shape of a "mountain", except that the middle vertical is shorter than the two sides, which is the solid cylinder.

The craftsman poured melted bronze into it, which happened to be the shape of the cannon, and the volume occupied by the round steel column in the middle was the inner chamber of the cannon.While the bronze is hot, forging can be carried out from the opening of the round steel cylinder to make the gun body dense, thus combining casting and forging.

The outer steel cylinder is relatively simple to make, it corresponds to the outer surface of the cast gun, and does not need to be particularly precise.The solid cylinder in the middle is different. It corresponds to the inner bore of the artillery and must be smooth and precise.

The cylindrical steel mold was cast first, and then forged. Because there was no lathe, it had to be finely ground and carefully corrected by hand. Wang Erxiao and his apprentice fought continuously for seven days, and finally made this steel rod that can be used for making guns ...

More than [-] craftsmen were divided into several groups, each performing their duties, and began to make guns.

First, one end of the steel rod is connected to the center of the round cake-shaped steel ingot, and the stick is inserted into the empty steel cylinder at both ends, and it is kept in the center of the cylinder with wooden blocks, and then the steel ingot and the steel cylinder are connected, and the section is "mountain". The font structure is complete.

The burly man who just asked the question was called Li Santai, and now he was holding a long, fine-bristled brush and brushing some powder on all sides of the steel cylinder.

The ingredients of these powders are carbon powder and calcined refractory high-alumina clay. They are ground very finely by the grinding disc driven by water conservancy, and brushed into the steel cylinder thinly to play the role of isolation and lubrication, so as to prevent the bronze cannon and the steel cylinder, The steel rod sticks together, and the steel cylinder steel rod and the bronze cannon body cannot be separated after casting, which would be a big embarrassment...

Immediately afterwards, the steel cylinder was erected and fixed under a special hydraulic forging hammer.

The iron-smelting furnace was built on a high place, and the copper ore in the furnace had already melted. Wang Xiaoer immediately directed a few craftsmen to open the valve of the iron-smelting furnace, and the red-hot molten copper flowed out along the groove and opened from the upper end of the steel cylinder. cast in...

After waiting for a while, when the temperature drops and the copper water solidifies, casting starts according to the process arranged by Fang Jun in advance.

Wang Xiaoer put a round pie-shaped steel ingot of the same size as the opening from the opening of the steel cylinder, and pressed it flat on the tail of the bronze cannon inside the cylinder. Falling in the air, knocking on the steel ingot, the huge pressure is transmitted to the bronze gun body, so that the force is more uniform than direct forging.

After forging more than a dozen times, the steel ingot was removed, because the underside of the steel ingot was punched with a forging hammer to make a dimple the size of a rice bowl. a bump.

This is the old white-bearded craftsman who was respectfully called "Xu Da" by the craftsmen just now. He used a drill bit made of high-quality stainless steel to drill holes in the raised part of the breech of the gun, fastened the iron chain, and then tied the iron chain to a On the forging hammer rod of the big wheel and small teeth.

This kind of gear with large wheels and small teeth is like a variable-speed bicycle, which rotates fast, but the speed of the forging hammer is very slow, so the force is great.

A craftsman next to him loudly ordered the people in the upstream direction to open the sluice, the river surged down, and the abundant power was transmitted to the waterwheel. A craftsman started the forging hammer, which was slowly lifted with a thousand-ton force, and the forged hammer was lifted. The bronze cannon was pulled out of the steel barrel.

Due to the tight connection between the cast bronze gun body and the steel cylinder, despite the lubrication isolation of carbon and high-alumina clay powder, the friction between the forged copper gun and the steel cylinder is still very large, and the huge forging hammer The gears burped and squeaked, and when the gun barrel was slowly pulled out, it made a teeth-stinging squeak...

The new craftsmen were amazed.

After they arrived here, they had all operated the hydraulic forging hammer, marveling at the huge power of this thing, which can easily forge steel into any shape, round and flat, whatever they want.But seeing that he was able to reverse such a huge hammer force now, he was even more astonished...

Although this is the first time I have seen this kind of operation, everyone knows how strong the bonding force is between the bronze cannon body and the steel cylinder. It would be impossible to pull out the bronze cannon body with human power alone. It's not going to work for a long time...

In the tooth-piercing "squeak", the bronze gun body was finally pulled out from the steel cylinder, and the pulled out gun body was drilled a hole in the buttocks with a drilling machine as a fire door, and the processing of the gun body was over. .

Fang Jun and a group of craftsmen gathered around one after another. Fang Jun was excited, but the craftsmen didn't know what it was for.

The next thing I need to do is to test the endurance of the cannon body, to see if the copper cannon I messed up will explode...

For the first experiment, it is natural to charge from less to more.

He ordered someone to fill three catties of explosives, and put a solid cast iron spherical solid shell into the barrel with an iron drill, and then a young and strong craftsman inserted a long fuse into the fire door, lit it, and slowly Walk back step by step...

Fang Jun almost died of anger, and cursed: "Are you so lame? Run!"

After speaking, he quickly lay down on the ground.This was all in the process beforehand, and the craftsmen followed suit and got down on the ground.

The craftsman who lit the fire was scolded by Fang Jun, and then he ran back faster.

But just after he ran a few steps, he heard an earth-shattering loud noise behind him, which shook his ears and his soul, and he jumped into the sand with his head firmly buried under him...

"boom!"

The first bronze cannon in history uttered an earth-shattering roar on the land of Tang Dynasty, which awakened the enterprising heart of this nation and at the same time sounded the death knell of some resisters!

The era of gold and iron horses is about to become history, and the era of giant ships and cannons is coming!

(End of this chapter)