The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 23 Work Schedule
After the frame of the hearth furnace was basically set up, Zhu Linmi realized that there was only manual blasting equipment in the iron yard when she saw the blast vent.

Fortunately, it will take some time for the hearth furnace to be fully completed. He called Chanyi and told her to contact the merchants who had cooperated with the iron yard in the past to buy a set of animal-powered blower equipment.In addition, she was asked to buy more coke reserves. If the supply of coke was insufficient, she could even consider building a coke oven by herself.

The thermal efficiency of crucible steelmaking is less than [-]%, and the fuel consumption is quite considerable.

It was nearly dusk when Zhu Linmi returned to the barracks.He just felt that things were too complicated recently, so he simply made a work schedule for himself.

At the top of the list, of course, are matters related to steelmaking.If there is no steel mill, there will be no money. If there is no money, let alone training troops, it is estimated that the army will mutiny in a few days.

Then there are teaching materials related to military training. He has already compiled a small part on the way to Longnan. This must be completed quickly, after all, the large army is coming soon.

The guiding plan for the construction of military ideological work must also be compiled as soon as possible. The establishment of a soldier's sense of mission, honor, and responsibility is even more important than weapons and equipment.

When it came to weapons and equipment, he remembered that the craftsmen such as Lu Ning brought by Fujing were all helping out at the military camp construction site, and he was too busy to take care of them recently.It is too wasteful for these talents to let them do the work of ordinary blacksmiths and carpenters. They can start trial production of medium-caliber flintlock guns and strive to start mass production as soon as possible.

He immediately thought of Serio again.When he first came to Longnan, he told the watchmaker to choose a site to build a watchmaking workshop, but he hasn’t heard back from him after several days. Could it be that he is being lazy?I'll have to ask about it tomorrow.After the workshop is completed, a group of apprentices must be recruited. The watch industry is the first teacher of industrial finishing. These apprentices will become an important force in the processing industry of the Ming Dynasty.If Serio knew that Zhu Linmi planned to let him train hundreds of apprentices, he would definitely regret it because he agreed to Zhu Linmi.

In addition, there are many important things that have to wait for Longwu's order, and Zhu Linmi can't decide these things by herself.

He reviewed his work schedule, asked the guards to wipe his face with a cool towel, picked up a bamboo pen, and continued to write military training materials based on the modern military training subjects he remembered.I guess tonight will be another sleepless night.

The next day, Zhu Linmei took Lu Ning and other seven firearms craftsmen to the "Suji" iron yard together with their apprentices.

There were plenty of ready-made wrought iron sheds, so Zhu Linming picked one with better conditions and handed it over to Lu Ning and the others.This is the first firearms workshop of "Su Ji".

He ordered the firearms craftsmen to tell Mr. Shen, who was in charge of the iron yard, about the tools they needed to prepare, that it was actually Chanyi, and then resumed the production of flintlocks.

However, the gun barrel needs to be remade, and the light-weight fire guns that the Ming army used to fire three-dollar bullets are too adaptable to the battlefield.Zhu Linmi set the new firecracker to shoot lead bullets of six to six five cents, and use four to five cents of gunpowder.

Let Lu Ning and the others try to manufacture the gun barrel first, and repeatedly told them to make the tube wall thicker at the beginning, so as to ensure that the barrel will not explode first, and then gradually reduce the thickness and weight when the process is mature.

Then he left another thousand taels of silver to Chanyi, which must have cost a lot in the initial stage of construction, and the 1000 taels are estimated to be far from enough.

The ground furnace is still under construction, and the refractory bricks have basically been laid and are being ignited and dry-burned.The air inlet and outlet ducts and chimney are still under construction, but depending on the situation, they should be put into use within a day.

The newly-purchased animal-powered blower device has already begun to be installed.A row of wooden frames is connected with bellows as high as half a person. One or two donkeys drag the turntable and drive the bellows through a set of levers.This thing is not expensive, but the main cost is 90 taels for the two donkeys.

After Zhu Linmei learned about the construction progress of the ground furnace, she rushed to the porcelain kiln without stopping.

The first crucible has finished cooling and is standing in the courtyard.

However, after a careful inspection, he couldn't help being greatly disappointed. There were many small cracks distributed inside the crucible, especially the bottom.

Although the fine lines can only be seen when they are attached to the eyes, Zhu Linmi is very aware of the danger of these cracks under high-temperature barbecues above 1500 degrees.

He immediately ordered to burn the preparatory crucible blank, and repeatedly told the cooling speed to be slow and to extend the cooling time.The craftsmen of the porcelain kiln were also experts, and they knew what to do as soon as Zhu Linmi told them, and they patted their chests to ensure that the next crucible would be fired.

After a busy day, when Zhu Linming's carriage drove to the gate of the barracks, she saw that the large rock, which was as tall as a person, had been moved to the center of the gate, with four big characters engraved on it—Longwei Xinjun.It was the number of the new army bestowed by Longwu in the secret decree.

The stone has not been modified, and still maintains its original and simple appearance. Adding the red words "Dragon Guard New Army" and the four guards with swords standing on both sides, a majestic and mighty aura rushes towards the face.

The barracks of the new army finally has a taste!
Shi Lin was anxiously wandering back and forth at the gate of the camp, when he saw Zhu Linming coming back, he quickly greeted him, "Master, someone from Tianxing Mansion has arrived! I have been waiting in your camp for a long time."

Zhu Lin quickly walked towards her new barracks.

Along the way, Shi Lin reported to him about the recruiting situation.

Generally speaking, it was not smooth, and less than 20 people were recruited in the past five or six days.But this is not what Zhu Linming expected.

The military system of the guards in the Ming Dynasty was extremely rigid, causing the number of deserters to repeatedly break new highs.The imperial court had no choice but to stuff all the messy people into the army, mainly heavy prisoners.At that time, people thought that being a soldier was something that porcupines and low dogs would do. The saying "good men don't serve as soldiers, and good iron doesn't hammer nails" was a common consensus in the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, as long as it is not really hard to live, no one wants to be a soldier.And those who are really struggling to live have long been recruited by Yang Tinglin and Yang Butang.

Zhu Linmi was not very worried about this, after the emperor replied to his secret performance, he had his own means to solve it.

Zhu Linmi's new general camp has been built, it is a two-room hut with civil structure.As soon as he opened the door and entered, a person inside who had been waiting for a long time jumped up from the chair. It was the middle-aged eunuch who passed the secret decree to Longwu last time, and it seemed that he should be the emperor's confidant.

The eunuch came over anxiously and said: "Your Highness, you are back! The Holy Majesty ordered our family to hand over the secret decree to you. Our family has been here since morning..."

"Thank you, father-in-law." Zhu Linming took out a piece of silver and handed it over calmly.The people around Longwu, it is better to invest in those who can make friends.

The middle-aged eunuch collected the money with a smile on his face, and handed over the wax-sealed edict to Zhu Linmi, "Our family will return to the Holy Spirit." After speaking, he left in a hurry.

(End of this chapter)