I want to be emperor

Chapter 197 Inspecting the Arsenal

Along the Hanshui River in the western suburbs of Xiangyang City, the original wilderness was leveled in just over a month, and many buildings rose from the ground, surrounded by simple walls. garrison.

This area is where the Xiangyang Arsenal is located.

Luo Zhixue took many military and political officials to Xiangyang Arsenal for inspection early in the morning.

He has already learned that Xiangyang Arsenal has now established a series of core factories, but they are still very simple and relatively small in scale.

Yuan Gaofeng from the Ministry of Industry and Ding Gangyi, the supervisor of the Xiangyang Arsenal, followed him, explaining the situation of the Arsenal.

Ding Gangyi, who is the supervisor of the Xiangyang Arsenal, said: "In order to put the Arsenal into production as soon as possible, our construction department has hired more than 5000 workers. In addition, the engineering department of the logistics department has also dispatched a total of more than [-] construction battalions to invest in the foundation of the factory. construction work."

"In order to catch up with the work, we adopted the method of building a factory on a flat site. The iron factory was completed first, followed by the machinery factory, and then we successively completed the artillery factory, gun factory and armor factory."

"Some of the machinery and equipment were built by us on the spot urgently, and some of them were relocated from Liqingdian one after another."

"Up to now, we have preliminarily completed the first phase of the project. Major branch factories such as guns, armor and cold weapons have entered the trial production stage one after another. According to your instructions, General, our artillery factory has directly abandoned the production of cast iron long-barreled artillery. In the future, the production of long-barreled artillery will be directly changed to bronze artillery."

"Now we are planning to start production while continuing to build the factory building to build the second and third phases of the project."

"After the completion of all three phases of the project, the designed production capacity of the Xiangyang Armory will reach three times that of the original Liqingdian Armory at its peak, provided that we work overtime and have enough craftsmen and skilled workers."

"However, we are still in short supply of middle and high-level technicians. Even if all the technicians from Liqingdian Arsenal are transferred to Xiangyang Armory, it will not be able to meet the needs of the factory. At the same time, the training of low-level technicians and ordinary workers will take time. "

"So in the last three months, our production capacity has not been able to reach the designed production capacity, and considering the current shortage of guns in the army, we plan to produce guns with all our strength first."

"If we go all out to produce, we will be able to produce [-] muskets and ten [-]-jin bronze cannons a month until next month, that is, in July."

"By August, our musket production capacity will increase to [-] pieces and [-] pieces of [-]-jin bronze cannons."

"After September, our third phase of the project will be completed, and a large number of technicians and skilled workers will be trained. Our output of muskets will be more than [-] pieces, and more than [-] pieces of [-]-jin bronze cannons will be produced. "

Luo Zhixue listened to these words, and Ding Gangyi didn't need to say that he knew that the data was actually worthwhile.

Because Ding Gangyi's gun production data is based on a premise: to produce guns with all our strength!
The implication is that other ordnance can't be taken care of!

But in fact, it is impossible for the Xiangyang Arsenal to produce only [-]mm matchlock guns and [-]-jin bronze cannons in the next few months. Large field artillery, large short-barreled siege guns, and a large number of cold weapons.

There are only so many technicians and skilled workers, and training will take time. At the same time, those medium and large hydraulic equipment are also limited. If they are all transferred to produce guns, other ordnance will not be able to be produced.

Once the production capacity of other weapons is taken into account, the production capacity of guns will inevitably decline.

For the current main force of the rural protection army, the status of the heavy armored spearmen and the musketeers are equivalent, and both are indispensable. It is impossible to only arm the musketeers and give up the heavy armored spearmen.

However, Luo Zhixue didn't say it out on the spot. There was no need to undermine the confidence of the Ministry of Industry and deny their efforts on such an important occasion.

On the contrary, Luo Zhixue smiled and said, "Okay, the construction and production of the Xiangyang Arsenal went even more smoothly than I expected. The Ministry of Industry has done a good job in this matter. The Ministry of Industry will cooperate with other ministries in the future to implement it as quickly and optimally as possible." Good Phase [-] and Phase [-].”

"After September, the factory's production capacity of various ordnance can be able to arm two infantry brigades and one artillery battalion."

Luo Zhixue did not directly say how many guns, but used two brigades and one artillery battalion as the unit of measurement.

When Ding Gangyi heard it, he couldn't help crying secretly in his heart.

The eighteen artillery pieces required by that artillery battalion are all okay, within the estimated production capacity.

But two main force infantry brigades?
According to the establishment of the main brigade of the Rural Protection Army today.

Each infantry brigade consists of three infantry battalions, one heavy post, one heavy armored assault post, and one mounted infantry reconnaissance post, plus officers, guards, and messengers at the brigade headquarters, with a total strength of about 2000 or two hundred people.

In this way, each brigade needs more than [-] muskets.

The [-]-jin light artillery directly below to the infantry battalion also needs nine pieces.

Recently, the Township Protection Army has increased the light artillery firepower of each infantry battalion from two [-]-jin tunics to three [-]-jin light artillery to strengthen the infantry firepower.

In addition to firearms, there are also many cold weapons.

In an infantry brigade, at least [-] sets of full-body heavy armor, [-] sets of full-body ordinary armor, and more than [-] sets of half-body light armor for musketeers are required.

Then there must be at least [-] spears, more than [-] one-handed ordinary waist knives, more than [-] short knives for musketeers, [-] one-handed fine steel waist knives, and [-] one-handed round shields.

There are also materials such as pickaxes and shovels for building fortifications.

With two infantry brigades down, the above requirements would have to be doubled directly.

And with so many things, the production pressure of more than 2000 muskets and twenty [-]-jin cannons is much greater.

Just looking at the way Luo Zhixue said this now, Ding Gangyi rationally did not say anything to evade it, but was thinking about how to further increase production capacity.

The limitation to increase production capacity is not the plant, but the equipment and skilled workers and technicians.

It seems that I still have to speed up the training of skilled workers and technicians, or else I won't be able to produce so many things by then, and the general will be hard to explain.

When Ding Gangyi thought this way, Luo Zhixue himself was more casual. He didn't say that Xiangyang Arsenal must reach this production capacity after September, and he could accept less.

But, regardless of whether it can be achieved or not, let's set a goal first, at least let Ding Gangyi and the others feel pressured.

Only when there is pressure can there be motivation!
Following everyone's introduction, Luo Zhixue also walked into the artillery factory. Ding Gangyi had put away the pressure in his heart, and continued to explain to Luo Zhixue: "Now the artillery factory is processing and producing six hundred catties of iron cast long pipes. For artillery, we started building the first batch of iron cannon mud fans when we first arrived in Xiangyang, and now that the artillery factory’s machinery and equipment are in place, it’s just time for casting and processing.”

"However, after we finish the production of this batch of iron-cast [-]-jin cannons, the clay model and equipment modification of our bronze cannons will be almost finished. At that time, we can directly connect to the production of bronze cannons. The first batch of bronze cannons is expected to They will be ready to leave the factory in mid-August."

Although Luo Zhixue had instructed that the [-]-jin long cannon should be converted from cast iron cannons to bronze cannons, the manufacture of cannons takes time. Basically, it takes at least two months for a cannon from the mold making to its appearance. This is still based on good weather or auxiliary means to assist the mud fan to dry.

Xiangyang Armory switched to producing bronze cannons, and it went very steadily. It didn't say that after switching to bronze cannons, it stopped making all iron-cast cannons.

At this time, Ding Gangyi walked up to a bronze cannon and explained to Luo Zhixue: "This is a bronze cannon we trial-produced in the Liqingdian Armory before. , we also call it a two-jin copper cannon."

"Although the shells fired are the same, this kind of bronze cannon can use more propellant, the shells fired are more powerful, and the barrel is more durable. If it is used normally, it can fire eight or nine hundred shells. question."

Luo Zhixue felt that the barrel of the bronze cannon was about the same size as the original cast iron cannon, so it wouldn't be too troublesome for the gunner to change the gun.

Instead, the gun mount has changed.

Ding Gangyi said: "Before, our gun mounts were still made of iron and wood. The artillery director reported that the wooden gun mounts were still a little unsafe and cracked, so this time we plan to build An all-iron carriage is directly used on the bronze artillery."

"The weight is equivalent to the original gun mount, but it is stronger and less likely to be damaged."

Luo Zhixue went up and took a closer look. This two-jin long-barreled bronze cannon was actually a very small type of cannon. On the big double-wheeled iron carriage, there was a small and slender barrel. This was replaced by a foreigner. According to the statement over there, it is probably between three pounds and four pounds.

It was because this artillery was too small and its power limited that Luo Zhixue asked Ding Gangyi to lead the development of a larger field artillery.

Soon, Luo Zhixue also saw the wooden model of the new field gun produced by the Xiangyang Arsenal.

Ding Gangyi pointed to the wooden cannon model in front of him and said: "This is a five-pound bronze cannon developed based on the existing two-pound bronze cannon. It uses the existing technology and technology, and can directly use the current equipment. in production."

"Although there is no sample gun for testing, we believe that this kind of artillery can definitely surpass the two-jin artillery by a large margin in terms of power, and at the same time, it will not be too heavy. The combat weight is about 1000 jin, and the total weight is [-] two hundred Up and down!"

"In addition, we are still designing a larger nine-pound artillery, but the weight will be relatively heavy. It is estimated that the combat weight will reach about 3000 jin. Can the troops accept it?"

Luo Zhixue didn't speak directly, but looked at Zhang Malin, director of artillery.

(End of this chapter)