The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 206 Plan ahead
"There is no need to worry about craftsmen."

After getting rid of one worry, Chen Wang also had a smile on his face, and said with a confident smile.

"By the end of May at the latest, the number of craftsmen in the Weapons Bureau can at least double."

As long as there is enough money, it should be possible to recruit many craftsmen from Luo Guizhong.

Sun Chuanting's rectification of the four guards in Xi'an was mainly to rectify the main army and the field, and he didn't pay too much attention to the military bureau, and he didn't even make many changes.

The reason is very simple. Most of the inland guards have already been corrupted to a bad state. The quality of the guns produced by the Armament Bureau is basically worrying. The internal problems are intricate and involved.

But now that banditry is serious and bandits are rampant all over the place, Sun Chuanting has no energy and time to rectify the military bureau.

As the governor, Sun Chuanting only needs to hand in a few documents, and he can get enough armor and weapons from the Ministry of Industry.

The Weapons Bureau of the Four Guards in Xi'an is said to be responsible for the production of equipment, but in fact it is only casting some swords and spears, and even the main job has now become a repairing of damaged weapons, reduced to a repair shop.

It was precisely because of this that Chen Wang had room to operate.

And now Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting's minds are almost all affected by Li Zicheng, and they have no time to take care of others, and they are stuck at this moment.

This time Li Zicheng re-entered northern Sichuan, Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao led the cavalry, although they galloped through the starry night, they were still one step late.

Now Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao are leading the army to advance to northern Sichuan as the vanguard, and Hong Chengchou personally leads the army as the rear, and they are also rushing all the way.

Nowadays, there are still many reinforcements from western Sichuan and southern Sichuan staying around around Chengdu, and the governor of Sichuan has now changed, replaced by Fu Zonglong.

Fu Zonglong was originally the right servant of the Ministry of War and the censor of the capital. He used to be the governor of Ji, Liao, and Baoding military affairs.

So this time Hong Chengchou doesn't need to worry about Li Zicheng breaking Chengdu and falling into the vassal.

Although there is a deadline of March to suppress the thieves, in the current situation, March to suppress the thieves is already an impossible task.

Hong Chengchou became ruthless, and stopped chasing him in a hurry, but moved forward step by step, gradually narrowing the encirclement net, and was about to encircle Li Zicheng to death in Sichuan.

Hong Chengchou not only left enough soldiers at every checkpoint and intersection, but even considered the situation in case Li Zicheng broke through the checkpoint and pass.

At that time, after Baoji received the order, Chen Wang led the army and rushed all the way to Hanzhong. The original order was to guard Hanzhong and protect the safety of King Rui.

After arriving in Hanzhong, because Li Zicheng did not enter the Hanzhong mansion, Hong Chengchou's new order was also issued.

The new order is to move to Ningqiang after the rest and reorganization, take over Qipan Pass, and block the way for the rogues to go north and enter Hanzhong Mansion.

Sun Chuanting led the army to Cheng and Jie to fill in the vacancy and block Li Zicheng's way to the north.

"Nowadays, there are 320 three people in the Military Weapons Bureau. According to the current situation in the Hanzhongwei Military Weapons Bureau, all output will be stopped, and only artillery will be cast, and three-jin cannons will be cast. By August, how many three-jin cannons can be cast ..."

It is now March of the 11th year of Chongzhen, and in September of this year, the Qing army will enter again and invade Beizhili.

According to the original process, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting will receive the imperial edict in October and go to Beijing to serve the king.

Although the situation has changed a lot now, Li Zicheng has not been defeated as in history, and many things are uncertain.

But there are some things that must be considered in the worst case. Once King Jingqin is really selected, he will undoubtedly face the Qing army.

In history, Sun Chuanting led the troops to Beizhili and soon fought several battles with the Qing army.

Chen Wang wanted to talk about how many doors could be cast by October, but in the end he didn't say the date.

"Three catty cannon?"

Bo Jue was slightly taken aback, but quickly realized that the three-pound cannon Chen Wang mentioned was the bureau-level artillery that Chen Wang mentioned at the beginning. The artillery that could hit three-pound cannons was named according to the weight of the shells.

According to the usual practice, most of the cannons will be given a loud and mighty name after they are cast. There are very few cannons like Chen Wang whose name is directly named after the weight of the shell.

However, naming it this way makes the brief introduction much clearer, which is easy to remember and coordinate.

"Casting iron cannons must be made of clay molds. Clay cannons must be made of extremely well-cooked clay to make molds, and then placed between the molds to let them dry slowly in the shade. The time for making the mold is as short as one day. The month can be as long as three months, depending on the time of day."

"If you want to speed it up, you need people to bake it slowly with charcoal fire, but this method is extremely testing the craftsman's skills."

"If the craftsman is not familiar with the skills, once the mold is not dry or the soil is not cooked, the cast artillery will be unusable at all."

"And one mold can only cast one cannon, which cannot be reused, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive."

After thinking for a moment, Bo Jue replied.

"Master Chief Soldier requires light weight, strong and durable, so bronze is the best casting cannon."

"Compared to iron cannons, although bronze cannons are made of bronze, although the materials used are much more expensive, they are much cheaper than cast iron cannons."

"For casting bronze cannons, you can use the iron molds used to cast farm tools on weekdays to make cannons. It doesn't matter the seasons, it's not affected by the weather, and it doesn't take time to dry or dry the clay molds."

"Not counting the time it took to cast iron molds at the beginning, more than a dozen skilled craftsmen worked hard, and a three-jin cannon could be made in one month."

"It's just that most of the craftsmen in the Suocheng Armament Bureau have no experience in making cannons. Although most of them are old craftsmen, it may take several months to teach them skills..."

Bo Jue shook his head and said.

"According to the best scenario, between March and April, the students and the artisans who come together can make two cannons. When making the cannons, the skills are taught at the same time. In May, most of the artisans are already familiar with it. Once you have mastered the craftsmanship, then you can try to make cannons with all your strength."

"There is an obvious gap between new craftsmen and old craftsmen in making cannons. I'm afraid the time will be much slower."

Bo Jue frowned, her mind spinning rapidly.

"There are more than 200 craftsmen in the Military Weapons Bureau, including armor craftsmen and weapon craftsmen. Although the commander-in-chief said that he stopped all output and devoted all his energy to making cannons, they have different specializations and skills. In May, there may only be a maximum of [-] people learning."

"According to 20 people, one cannon per two months, that is ten cannons, not counting the cannons made by the students themselves, not counting waste or defective products. By the end of August, at most twenty three-jin cannons can be made."

"Twenty doors..."

Chen Wang repeated the last number that Bo Jue said.

Calculating in this way until October, plus one cannon that Bo Jue can make every month, the best situation is that there are 37 cannons. Down.

If it is counted, I am afraid that it will not reach this amount.

In October, when he went north to King Qin, he could bring three soldiers and horses, one of which must be cavalry, and the other two infantry, that is, eighteen bureaus.

After distributing it, each round can be allocated almost one to two three-pound guns, and the distance above the front line is acceptable.

"However, casting cannons, especially bronze cannons, consumes no less gold and silver."

Bo Jue looked sideways slightly, looking at Chen Wang who was in deep thought, hesitantly, after hesitating for a long time, he interrupted.

"It takes a hundred taels of iron molds to cast cannons. Although they can be reused, making ten pieces at a time is worth ten thousand taels. Moreover, these are just small heads. The real big head is the copper used to cast the cannons."

This kind of bronze cannon that hits three catties can't reach a thousand catties, but you can buy hundreds of catties at will, and the price of copper is extremely expensive nowadays.

Casting bronze cannons is no different from throwing money at them. More than 30 three-jin bronze cannons cost a lot of money.

Bo Jue was a little worried that Chen Wang would not be able to spend so much money.

Seeing Bo Jue's hesitant eyes, how could Chen Wang fail to understand what Bo Jue meant.

"Mr. Pu doesn't need to worry about gold, silver and money, just let go and do it."

Chen Wang picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip calmly, and said calmly.

How could he not afford to build thirty or forty three-jin bronze cannons.

Right now, there is gold and silver worth 10 taels of silver hidden under the cellar in the city under his feet.

Some of these gold and silver were sent by Li Zicheng, the captain of the transport brigade, and some were left by Jin Chi Peng Lushi and Zhang Yuan, the black killer.

Although it took a lot to build two thousand households and to rectify the military bureau, it is still enough for now.

In addition to these gold and silver, a large amount of grain and grass were also seized at that time. Some of these grains and grass were stored in the two cities, and the other part was stored in the cottage where Zhang Yuan had grain.

When the price of grain in Huguang skyrocketed due to the bandits, Chen Wang also asked Wang Yuankang to sell a batch of old grain, and got a lot of gold and silver.

"correct."

Chen Wang suddenly remembered something, and the hand holding the teacup also stopped in the air.

"Since bronze cannons can be cast with iron molds, why can't iron cannons be cast with iron molds?"

The methods of casting cannons in this era are generally clay mold casting and lost wax casting.

Because the lost wax method has requirements on the condensation temperature of the wax, it has high requirements on the temperature. Generally, it can only be used in winter. When the temperature is high in spring, summer and autumn, the wax mold will melt first.

After the clay mold is made, it must be dried, otherwise, when the hot iron is added, the water vapor will evaporate and form air bubbles. The air bubbles will have a great impact on the cannon, making it unusable, and it will take a lot of time to dry.

Although Chen Wang basically didn't understand the knowledge of casting cannons, he remembered that iron molds could be used to cast cannons. He remembered that the iron mold casting method seemed to have appeared in the early Qing Dynasty.

Iron mold cast guns are highly praised in many online books, because not only the cost is low, but also the army can be quickly armed.

"Iron mold cast cannon?"

Bo Jue frowned, shook her head and said.

"Casting cannons with iron molds won't work. I thought about casting cannons with iron molds before."

"There are many problems that need to be solved in iron mold casting cannons. The first is the problem of demoulding. I tried many methods at that time, and demoulding was extremely difficult."

"After spending a lot of energy, one was successfully cast out of the mold, but the cast cannon could not fire a few shells at all, and would have cracks. It was useless at all, and it cost a lot of money."

Bo Jue sighed, if the cannon could be cast in iron molds, it would indeed save a lot of money.

But the reality is that there are many difficulties in it, and the most important cast artillery also has great defects, and because of insufficient funds, he finally gave up this path.

Chen Wang's expression was slightly condensed. Hearing Bo Jue's tone, casting a cannon with iron molds might not be as simple as those books said, and there should be certain technical problems in it.

However, since some people did use iron molds to successfully cast cannons in history, and iron mold casting cannons were still popular for a while, it proves that this road can be taken.

You only need to overcome those difficulties before you can use iron molds to cast iron cannons.

However, in history, iron cannons were cast with iron molds after the Opium War in the late Qing Dynasty. These difficulties may not be easy to overcome.

"I think it should be possible to cast a cannon with iron molds. Mr. Pu might as well devote some energy to it to see if he can break through the difficulties."

After Chen Wang figured it out, he changed his mind and said.

"If you can use iron molds to cast cannons, it will undoubtedly save a lot of money for the country. With the benefits of artillery, it can also stop the invasion of the northern captives."

Bo Jue tilted her head slightly, thought for a while, and finally nodded.

"Master Chief Soldier is very knowledgeable, and has a deep understanding of military research. Since Lord Chief Soldier thinks it is feasible, the students are willing to conduct research later."

Chen Wang smiled and said.

"I heard that Mr. Pu had built a special workshop in his home in Nanzhili before, and set up a place for experiments."

"I don't know what the laboratory built by Mr. Bo looks like, but Mr. Bo can also build one in Hanzhong. When casting guns, he can record the data in it. If there is a problem, he can find out the reason. .”

"I have already allocated the funds for the construction of the laboratory. When the time comes, you can directly contact Wang Tongzhi, and he will fully assist you."

Chen Wang pointed to the right side, and Wang Yuankang smiled when he saw Chen Wang's finger approaching. He bowed down with his hands clasped in fists, and saluted Bo Jue respectfully.

Although Bo Jue had no official position, Wang Yuankang did not underestimate Bo Jue at all.

The high standards and high treatment that Chen Wang sent to invite Bo Jue undoubtedly did not represent Chen Wang's attitude.

After coming from the Acropolis of Hanzhongwei and under Chen Wang's command, he saw all kinds of things in between.

Wang Yuankang had already made up his mind to follow Chen Wang from now on.

Chen Wang is different from all the people he met before, for some reason, he has a feeling...

Chen Wang is definitely not a thing in the pool!

So Wang Yuankang has always respected Bo Jue since he came to Xiangsuo City, as if Bo Jue was the commander of the third rank, and he himself was a commoner.

"If Mr. Pu has something to do, just ask me, and I will do my best."

Wang Yuankang smiled and saluted again.

Wang Yuankang's low profile made Bo Jue a little uncomfortable.

In fact, Bo Jue was at a loss for Chen Wang's respect for him, but Chen Wang knew everything about weapons and artillery.

After talking about these things, Bo Jue couldn't help but ignore Chen Wang's identity.

"I'm going to add a post of technical advisor to the Military Weapons Bureau, and I'll specially hire Mr. Bo to be in charge of technology."

"There is no chief officer in the Weapons Bureau. Tang Shiping is currently in charge. I will also let him cooperate with Mr. Pu and follow Mr. Pu first."

Chen Wang looked at Tang Shiping on the left again.

When Tang Shiping heard his name, he also took a step forward and saluted Bo Jue.

Bo Jue saluted somewhat cautiously.

Bo Jue has always been not very familiar with interpersonal communication, welcoming and seeing off.

He can't finish talking about technology, but he has nothing to say about other things.

Moreover, Bo Jue hadn't recovered from the heavy news that Chen Wang said that he had allocated funds to establish a separate workshop and laboratory.

"Mr. Bo rests first and puts his body first."

Chen Wang stood up, he had finished what he needed to say, time was running out, there was not much time for him to delay, there were still some extremely important things in the guard that he needed to deal with.

In the 11th year of Chongzhen, the Northland was not peaceful, and Hanzhong was not peaceful either.

soon.

Hanzhong Mansion will also suffer from famine.

What he needs to do now is to plan ahead.

(End of this chapter)