I am Da Song

Chapter 196 Da Song’s Steel Machine Tool

The North and South Workshop is one of the three military supervisors responsible for the production of military equipment and equipment in the Song Dynasty.

Early this morning, the entire vicinity of the workshop was under martial law by the Imperial City Commander. The sage king of the Song Dynasty who "received books from all over the world, received tribute treasures from all nations, caressed the Xia from within, and treated all barbarians from outside" is about to visit here today!
The sun had just risen, and Zhao Huan arrived with a large number of civil servants and generals.

This is Zhao Huan's third visit to the military workshop this year as the emperor. Through this, everyone can clearly see the importance that officials attach to military equipment.

The will of the emperor can always focus his eyes and produce immediate results.

Under the constant attention of the emperor, the corruption and corruption of the third military prison has been greatly restrained.

After all, the Third Supervisor of Military Weapons is no longer a state official. Without the umbrella, it is easy for Taiwan's admonishment to clean them up.

On the other hand, the Taiwan admonition officials, who have completely lost control, are completely smashing their cans and smashing their colleagues at the moment, frantically purging their colleagues, in order to give the Taiwan admonition officials their own qualifications, and prepare to use better qualifications when the Taiwan admonishment falls. Transferred to other monastery supervisors.

In this worsening situation, the officials of the third military supervision department did not want to use their heads as a stepping stone for other officials to advance.

Moreover, after the reorganization of the third military supervisor, the procurement funds were obtained directly from the imperial court. Everyone improved production efficiency, reduced production costs, and earned a lot of money.

You must know that this year, the funds spent on military procurement alone exceeded 8000 million yuan!Except for a small part of the purchase of food everywhere, the rest were all thrown on the Third Military Supervisor!

Countless people have never seen so much money in their entire lives. This is a real hen that can lay golden eggs, and it can make everyone eat for a lifetime.

Whoever dares to tarnish the reputation of Cao Si's quality will simply smash everyone's golden job.Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents.This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated within the military third prison.

Therefore, the three workshops are desperately improving the quality and efficiency in order to obtain more purchase orders from the imperial court.

North-South Workshop is one of the best.

Its reputation, even Zhao Huan heard of it several times in the palace, and the prime minister, Ji Xiang, Privy Council, and Shang Shusheng all praised it.

It is said that the North and South Workshops can be regarded as the pinnacle of the military industry in the past three generations, and the military equipment is so advanced that it has never been seen in ancient times.

With the independence and competition between the three military supervisors, the production focus of the three supervisors has been clearly inclined in the past half a year.

The Bow and Crossbow Academy is good at making divine arm bows, which is their housekeeping skill.In addition to the god arm bow, they are also mainly responsible for the production of flags and military tents.

The Imperial Arms Institute is more inclined to research and develop firearms. Under the fierce competition, they have the most accurate grasp of the proportion of gunpowder.This is far different from the situation in which the dynasties of the Central Plains were vague about the proportion of gunpowder in history.

The precise ratio of gunpowder used by the Imperial Armaments Institute has reached the point where every penny must be compared, and craftsmen are not allowed to make a slight difference.

Serious craftsmen will use millimetre-level copper spoons to precisely control the weight of materials on oiled paper.

Therefore, although the firearms of the Song Dynasty are still relatively backward, they can easily crush the Qing Dynasty in terms of the quality of gunpowder and the explosive power.

Even comparing the Qing Dynasty with the Imperial Arms Institute, I feel a little wronged and insulted this arms workshop.

When the Qing Dynasty suppressed the White Lotus Sect, the quality of the gunpowder was not good, and instead of gunpowder firearms, rubble and bricks were used to suppress the rebellion.

If the two armies lined up and fought with firearms, the current level of hot weapons in the Song Dynasty would be able to wipe out all the scum that was crushed by the Qing Dynasty.

The North-South Workshop is the best at making armor and soldiers. It can be said that it has reached the peak of cold weapons and cannot be improved.

The reason for such a superb level is not because of the superb skills of the craftsmen, but because of the large-scale use of machine tools and assembly lines in the North and South workshops.

When Zhao Huan heard about it, he was astonished that Da Song actually had a machine tool!What's even more amazing is that it's not recent, it's from 960.

The reason why Zhao Huan calculated the time so clearly was because that year happened to be the first year of Jianlong, that is, the year when the Chenqiao Mutiny and the founding of the Great Song Dynasty happened.

It has been used for nearly 200 years, and the North-South Workshop has recently improved it further.

After entering the Nanbei Workshop, Zhao Huan said to Yue Fei: "I heard that the Nanbei Workshop has a sharp weapon that can greatly improve the quality of armor, making my armor indestructible, shining brightly, and can be used to judge hair."

"It's bright and indestructible?" Yue Fei exclaimed, "If I really have such armor, I will definitely be able to improve my military strength."

The supervisor of the North-South Workshop is a fat official named Su Xi.

This name is not very well-known, but his son inherited his father's business, and his father's name is like a thunderbolt. His name is Su Song.

This person has undergone the restructuring of Yuanfeng and the transformation of Yuanyou, and has personally experienced the struggles of a series of people such as Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, Zhang Dun, Cai Jing, etc., but he does not support the party and maintains himself with courtesy.

So you think he is an official like Zhang Juzheng?

Do not!He is one of the two great scientists who stand side by side with Shen Kuo in the Song Dynasty.

What's even more commendable is that the minister did not neglect to create a human being during his scientific research, and he gave birth to six sons and three daughters.The three daughters were all married to the ministers of the court, and the six sons were all civil servants.

Among the six heirs, there is finally someone who upholds the family tradition and inherits the tradition of scientific research and learning from things, and it is the fat official Su Xi in front of him.

Because he was born in the prime minister's mansion, Su Xi had a broad vision and had witnessed all kinds of equipment at the peak of the Song Dynasty, so he quickly set up machine tools and set up production lines after taking charge of the North and South workshops.

Hearing what the official said, Su Xi smiled and said: "The instrument mentioned by the official is right in front, and it's called Xuanzuo."

Under the guidance of Su Xide, Zhao Huan soon saw a huge machine tool, which was not made of wood, but made of dark steel.

The structure of the machine tool is extremely complex, with huge and thick steel arms, precise gears, and huge mechanical linkages, everything is interlocking.It gave Zhao Huan the illusion of being in front of the Mohist institution.

However, in the era of the Mohists, the production capacity of steel was insufficient, and all wooden materials were used. By the time of the Han Dynasty, the gears had become bronze. Except for the different materials, its structure was completely the same as that of later generations of gears. (Don’t ask me how it was done in ancient times, I don’t know either. Last year, a large number of archaeological objects were found in the real tomb of Emperor Wen of Han)

In the Song Dynasty, the bronze gears finally turned into steel gears, driving this huge steel machine tool and providing a steady stream of weapons for the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Huan asked, "Where is this rotation mainly used?"

Su Xi bowed and replied: "It is mainly used for forging cold forging armor, and standard cutting is used for metal cutting and forging."

(End of this chapter)