A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 329 Future Opponent

Although the flintlock has a series of problems, the cost performance is far inferior to the matchlock guns with mature technology at the same time, but history has proved that the flintlock is the trend of future firearms development, and Wang Dou decided to vigorously develop it.

With the flintlock, you can consider using bayonets instead of spears, which is also the general trend.

However, the installation and processing of the initial bayonets were not so easy.Manufacturing bayonets requires extremely high steel quality, and related metallurgical production is extremely difficult. Without high-quality steel, the bayonets manufactured did not stab twice, or broke when they hit the shield, and then were hacked to death by the opponent.

There was an example that the quality of the bayonets made by the Japanese army declined rapidly due to the lack of steel in the late World War II, and the bayonets quickly bent or broke after piercing the human body.

Without high-quality steel, the unqualified bayonet produced has no advantage in hand-to-hand combat.Moreover, to manufacture bayonets, the precision requirements for supporting equipment such as the upper sleeve of the firecracker and the card holder are very high, which is a severe challenge to the production of the current Shun Xiangbao Handicraft Factory.

The bayonet must be able to be loaded and unloaded quickly, and the relatively precise parts of the loading and unloading part are easily damaged, which increases the cost.The bayonet is more likely to be damaged than weapons such as broadswords and spears, because before it is inserted, it is at best a light dagger...

Of course, the use of bayonets for firecrackers also has advantages, because there is no need for special pikemen.

The trade-off between the pros and cons made Wang Dou undecided whether to use bayonets in the army, or to postpone it for a few years until the technology matured?

With this in mind, Wang Dou carefully inspected the military factories by the Yaozi River.

Compared with the ninth year of Chongzhen, the scale of each factory has now expanded a lot.

Since the beginning of this year, the number of craftsmen in the Firebolt Factory has increased to more than 300, and the number of craftsmen in the Armor Factory has increased to more than 200.The Huo Gun Factory has established 50 hydraulic drilling machines, which can drill [-] gun tubes a month, requiring no more than [-] people.The rest of the craftsmen are making other parts, and they can produce nearly a thousand firecrackers a month.

Due to the increase in manpower and dozens of newly opened hydraulic forging machines, the armor factory can easily produce two hundred sets of full armor a month.

With the expansion of the scale of each factory, the demand for iron materials has increased rapidly. To make a thousand firecrackers requires 3 catties of wrought iron.To make [-] sets of fine iron armor requires more than [-] catties of wrought iron.It is also necessary to forge weapons such as waist knives and long spears, and the iron materials required by all parties are astronomical—compared to Daming at this time.

Under the strong demand, the number of iron ore miners in Huiyaobao rapidly increased to 1000. They used a large amount of gunpowder to mine, and the number of craftsmen in the gunpowder factory also increased to more than 300.As Li Daji's nitrate officer in charge of the gunpowder factory, his factory's nitrate collection sites have increased in many places. Due to his outstanding performance, he was honored to be one of the deputy directors of the military engineering department.

In terms of production capacity, Wang Dou's current military engineering department is considered outstanding in the entire Ming Dynasty.

However, Wang Dou also found a problem. Even with his outstanding productivity, the firecrackers are still good... In the seven years from Chongzhen to the present, the armor made by his disciples can't compare to the armor made by Qing soldiers at one time. The number of armor looted.

In this battle, I took back nearly [-] pieces of various armors, which is equivalent to the number of armors that all my craftsmen have built day and night for five years.

Although he was surprised by this discovery, Wang Dou would not stop building and developing weapons in his own army because of this. It is better to rob than to build. That is the idea of ​​rogues, and Wang Dou has always despised it.

Counting the original armor in his own army, as well as the number of armor taken back from the Qing soldiers, the armor pulled out by the court, etc., Wang Dou now has more than [-] sets of armor.Among them, there are about [-] pairs of iron armor, and there are many cotton armor and chain mail.

After the armor captured from the Qing soldiers was transported back to Baoanzhou, the craftsmen of the Shunxiangbao Armor Factory and Military Uniform Factory worked day and night to transform them into the armor style of the Ming army.If all these armors are equipped with the army in the future, the luxurious equipment lineup of the Shunxiang Army will rank first among all Ming Dynasty.

……

"The imperial court pulled out [-] Lumi guns, and originally intended to change [-] of them into self-generating fire guns, and try to fight in the army first. If it is changed, what difficulties will the military engineering have?"

When Wang Dou was on tour, the craftsmen in the gun factory beside him were all hard at work, and they didn't care to look at him, General Dingguo.

In terms of enthusiasm for work, the craftsmen of each factory in Shunxiangbao have always been very high.For their management, Wang Dou adopts the method of basic salary plus commission plus bonus, more pay for more work, but if the quality of the firecrackers fails, it will be a terrible thing and will be severely punished.

In Shunxiang Fort, each factory produces firearms, armor, waist knives and spears. Each weapon has a number, and the name of the craftsman and the name of the manager are also marked on it.If something goes wrong, you can easily find the person in charge.This makes the quality of weapons produced in Shunxiangbao always very good.

In fact, the same is true for the weapons produced by the Ministry of Industry and various guards of the Ming Dynasty, and there is no problem in the formulation of the system.

It's just neat corruption, and the law is not followed, but it makes the system they have drawn up a dead letter.

After watching for a long time, Wang Dou was satisfied with the working attitude of the craftsmen, so he asked Lai Yuanlong, the head of the military engineering department beside him.

When Wang Dou's troupe returned to the prefecture, Emperor Chongzhen ordered the Ministry of Industry and the Second Bureau of Bingzhan to raise [-] Lumi guns and ten Hongyi cannons to bring back to the prefecture with the army.

Except for artillery, Ming's weapons production has always been strange, sometimes the quality is good, sometimes the quality is poor, depending on the supervisory officials.The Ministry of Industry and Engineering of Tianqi Nian escorted [-] Lumi blunderbusses from Shanhaiguan, but only dozens of them were found to be unqualified. Wang Dou was lucky, less than [-] of the [-] Lumi blunderbuss had faults, and most of the rest were excellent.

In Wang Dou's view, apart from the unreliable quality of the weapons handed in by the local prefectures, counties and guards of the Ming Dynasty as taxes, the quality of the weapons produced by the Ministry of Industry and the Second Bingzhan Bureau is still good.The research on firearms in the Ming Dynasty was prosperous, and high-end new firearms emerged in an endless stream. However, because the firearms inventory was in the hands of literati and eunuchs, military leaders everywhere preferred to buy cold weapons.

——For them, sending thousands of spears can pull up an army. Compared with expensive firearms that require continuous investment and often unreliable quality, they are considered cheap and affordable, but they have greatly affected the new firearms of Ming Dynasty promotion.

"General, changing the [-]-barrel Lumi blunderbuss to the self-generating blunderbuss style is no problem. It's just that the self-generating blunderbuss has a [-]% rate of blind fire, and the bird blunderbuses used by the Shun Township Army now have no blind fire. When it reaches [-]%, does the general really decide to change it?"

Lai Yuanlong was a little worried about Wang Dou's decision.

When Chongzhen was ten years old, Lai Yuanlong successfully developed a self-fired gun, that is, a flintlock gun.After two years of research, I still feel that the misfire rate cannot be reduced, and the reliability is far inferior to that of the matchlock gun.

Wang Doudao: "The general will weigh the advantages and disadvantages. The use of self-generated fire blunderbuss is the general trend. Don't give up using it because of choking, or give up using it because of its defects. To be safe, you can change one part of the general's bird blunderbuss, and gradually improve this sharp weapon."

Lai Yuanlong took the order, and at the same time he was very happy. From what General Dingguo said, he was an enlightened person, which was good news for a military fan like him.

Last year, Lai Yuanlong put in a lot of effort to take in the volumes of "Sacred Artifact Book" and "Illustration of Military Weapons" edited by Zhao Shizhen, and devoted himself to researching sharp weapons such as wing tiger guns, eagle Yang guns, thunder guns, and rocket slippers. It can also allow the Shunxiang Army to have several options, which is like adding wings to a tiger.

Then he tentatively said: "General, the imperial court has pulled out a lot of Lumi guns, but do you want craftsmen to imitate them?"

Wang Dou pondered for a while, the power of the Lumi blunderbuss is quite impressive, it can penetrate heavy armor at a hundred steps, even if the Qing army is wearing double-layer heavy armor, it can penetrate the body at a hundred steps, one punch two holes, compared to Shun Township The firecrackers used by the Qing army are still powerful-the firecrackers of the Shunxiang army can only break through the multi-layered heavy armor worn by the Qing army at seventy paces.

This kind of firecracker with a long range will definitely have a great advantage in future combat, but Lu Mitong also has flaws.First of all, it is too long. The total length of the Lumi gun is five to seven feet, and seven feet is the 2.1 meters of later generations. Such a long muzzle gun is very inconvenient to load.

The Lumi blunderbuss not only has a long barrel, but also a heavy barrel. It also uses an integrated double-layer barrel. The technical requirements and cost are high, and it is troublesome to manufacture.

Of course, most of the Lumi guns used in the Ming army were five feet long, about 1.6 meters in later generations, and the batch of Lumi guns drawn by Emperor Chongzhen to Wang Dou was also the same.However, it is also a reality that the Lumi gun is difficult to manufacture and the cost is high. For Wang Dou, he needs a cheap and practical weapon that can be mass-produced. Although the Lumi gun is good, it is not practical.

Thinking of this, Wang Dou said: "The craftsmen can make a batch of imitations, and there is no need to mass-produce them."

He said: "I will come here because of artillery. Can the military engineering department have the ability to manufacture artillery?"

Lai Yuanlong said: "General Hui, the craftsmen of Shunbao, if it is easy to build a Flang cannon. It's just that although the Hongyi cannon has real objects but no blueprints, it is built according to the pattern. I'm afraid that painting a tiger will not be an anti-dog... Yes Worry about bombing."

Wang Dou was silent. When he returned to Baoanzhou, Emperor Chongzhen not only pulled out a thousand Lumi blunderbusses, but also drew ten Hongyi cannons, eight Hongyi three-pound cannons, and two six-pound cannons.

These cannons are of good quality. After all, there are design drawings for all kinds of cannons in Ming Dynasty. The length of the cannon and the thickness of the tube are strictly determined. It is difficult for craftsmen and supervisors to shoddy and cut corners.This ensures the quality of all kinds of cannons in Ming Dynasty.

In particular, the self-made Hongyi cannons of the Ming Dynasty were excellent, using the boring and milling process, with good air tightness and high muzzle velocity. At that time, Spain and Portugal both bought cannons from Daming nearby.

Of course, this is based on the fact that Daming has all kinds of rich gunpowder paper and a large number of cannon-casting craftsmen.

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, all kinds of artillery designs were either destroyed in the war, or were listed as banned books by the Qing Dynasty and burned, so that during the Opium War, the Qing army’s self-made cannons became experts in bombing. It is not uncommon for the newly cast cannons to explode as soon as they are fired However, it was extremely rare in the Ming Dynasty that similar artillery bombs were fired.

This is also a warning to Wang Dou. Without relevant craftsmen and authentic blueprints, if he insists on making cannons, the tragedy of the Qing army's self-made cannons will be repeated in large numbers.

However, the Hongyi cannon had to be built, and the fourteen Hongyi cannons in Wang Dou's army were far from enough, so he was always worried.

After the Battle of Pinggu, Huang Taiji must have paid great attention to his own army, and there may be a large number of firearm battles in the future.Don't worry about the firecrackers vs. Wang Dou, but the artillery... After Kong Youde surrendered to the enemy, the Qing Dynasty already had the ability to make its own red barbarian cannons.After the Songjin War, the number of red barbarian cannons used in its army exceeded that of Ming Dynasty for the first time.

Wang Dou attached great importance to Kong Youde's artillery force.That army turned out to be the only qualified artillery unit in Ming Dynasty, with a large number of well-trained gunners.As early as the second year of Tianqi, Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua hired a large number of Westerners to teach for more than ten years, and fought side by side with the hired Portuguese gunners many times, which should not be underestimated at all.

Their artillery used a large number of distance measuring tools, and this kind of distance measurement was considered a secret method in the Ming Dynasty at this time, and those who were not reliable in artillery were not allowed to learn it.Wang Dou didn't have the relevant tools yet, and he had figured out a set of distance measuring methods with a lot of ammunition. He didn't know what the situation would be when the two sides confronted each other.

In the 11th year of Chongzhen's war, he lost nearly [-] soldiers, and it was still based on the Qing Dynasty's contempt.But in that battle, each of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty suffered a lot under their own guns, and they were disgraced, and it was impossible not to take it seriously.

The future opponent must be a strong enemy, and I must plan ahead.

……

When Wang Dou returned to Baoan Prefecture with the guard of honor, not far from his mansion, he was watching a man dressed as a scholar being stopped at the door. His first feeling was that the scholar had a big head.He was talking to the gate guard rather displeasedly.

Around the gate, a circle of onlookers gathered from afar, listening to the scholar's speech with great interest.

Seeing Wang Dou's guard of honor, everyone said, "The general is back."

Hearing the movement, the scholar looked towards Wang Dou in surprise. Wang Dou noticed that his face was round and white, with a short beard under his chin, and he looked less than forty.Wearing a Confucian shirt, a saber is very obvious at the waist.

Xie Yike rode his horse forward, and after a while, he came back and quietly reported to Wang Dou: "General, that poor saber went straight to the general's mansion and was stopped by the guards."

Wang Dou let out a cry.

As he said, the scholar came striding over. From a distance, he saluted Wang Dou, and then shouted: "I know what you mean, but you can't do without me if you want to achieve great things!"

Everyone around laughed, Wang Dou frowned slightly, thinking: "Crazy one."

(End of this chapter)