I want to be emperor

Chapter 69 The Ambition of Plate Armor

Luo Zhixue stepped into the factory building, and he could feel the heat wave coming from inside even before he entered.

Because there is an iron-smelting furnace in this workshop.

This stove is not too big, but the overall structure looks simpler than the previous iron stoves in Sanshui Village.

There is a huge bellows in front of the iron stove, and a mule is constantly turning to drive the internal structure of the bellows to blow air to the iron stove.

The iron stove was burning red, and the high temperature made the whole workshop warm, and it didn't look like winter at all.

Not far from the iron stove, there was a water hammer. Two strong men in single clothes held a piece of red iron with iron tongs and placed it on an iron table. Falling down, continuously hammering the iron block into different shapes.

After a while, the entire pair of iron blocks turned into a flat shape, and the appearance was no longer red. Two craftsmen lifted the iron block and put it back into the stove for burning. The red iron block continued to be forged.

Luo Zhixue watched from behind, and didn't bother the work of these craftsmen too much. After watching for a while, he nodded slightly: "Okay."

Blacksmith Song also picked up the conversation at this time: "It's all thanks to the general's guidance. Without the general's guidance, we would not be able to make such a useful water hammer. With this water hammer, it will be much easier for us to build weapons and armor." gone."

"Use this water hammer to do the initial beating first, and then we will do the fine beating later, which can save a lot of effort."

Forging various iron products, one of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive processes is repeated forging, such as knives, from iron blocks to knives, I don’t know how many forgings are required. And most of all this required manpower to do it before, which was extremely time-consuming, and this kind of forging required a lot of craftsmen, and the force must be even.

If it is replaced by a water hammer, it will be simple, because the forging force of the water hammer is directly constant, and the position where the hammer falls is also unchanged, so there is no need for skilled craftsmen to forge it. Apprentices can forge with a water hammer, and the quality of forging is not much worse than that of skilled old craftsmen.

In this way, the precious time of skilled craftsmen can be saved, allowing them to specialize in some more delicate processes that cannot be replaced by water hammer or apprentices.

Luo Zhixue naturally knew this, and this was also the reason why he tried his best to promote the construction of the water hammer before, in order to liberate the productivity and increase the output of the weapon workshop.

Now it seems that this water hammer has perfectly met his expectations.

Looking at the water hammer, Luo Zhixue thought for a while and said: "The effect of the water hammer is huge. The workshop will build a water hammer in the future to further increase the production capacity of the workshop."

As he said that, Luo Zhixue glanced at the crowd again, and then said: "The success of the water hammer also means that water power can be used in more ways, besides forging, can it also be used for grinding? Isn't it Can it be used instead of this mule to push the bellows? Can it also be used for drilling?"

Blacksmith Song bowed at that time and said: "The general is well-informed, he can think of many things at once, I admire him!"

Luo Zhixue waved his hand lightly: "I'm just saying a few things casually. It's a good idea. You can think about it later to see if our water truck can do this. Apart from these, other things can be done, and how to do it. !"

"Don't be afraid of being laughed at by others, and don't be afraid of failure. If you have a good idea, you can try it later. If it succeeds, we don't lose anything!"

Blacksmith Song immediately said: "The young one must think more about it in the future, and strive to get these out as soon as possible."

Luo Zhixue nodded slightly, did not speak any more, but walked out of this factory building, and then walked into another factory building, Blacksmith Song immediately stepped forward and introduced: "This is where we use to forge and repair knives and spears. "

Luo Zhixue looked inside, and there were four or five people busy here. These people directly reprocessed the rough parts made by the water hammer nearby, instead of building from scratch.

This is the direct impact of water hammer.

Luo Zhixue took a closer look and knew that they were making sabers for the cavalry to replace the existing knives.

The saber used by the cavalry post is different from the one-handed waist knife used by ordinary infantry. Even if it looks similar, the actual difference is quite large.

Cavalry knives are usually thicker and heavier on the back, mainly because the cavalry has a very strong impact when they charge. If the cavalry knives are too thin, they will easily break during combat.

At the same time, the thicker saber back can also increase the lethality of the saber when the cavalry rushes to fight.

After the continuous expansion of the cavalry post before, the original special sabers were not enough. Many old thieves who joined later used ordinary waist sabers, which were at best high-quality steel knives. According to the second Songshan Judging from the feedback of the cavalry after the attack during the battle, even if it is a steel knife, the traditional one-handed waist knife is still unusable, so building a batch of at least dozens of special sabers has become one of the recent tasks.

Luo Zhixue also participated in the creation of the new saber, and put forward some suggestions for the craftsmen to refer to. In the end, the craftsmen combined some of the opinions put forward by Luo Zhixue based on the existing saber. Of course, it is actually more important. The most important thing is to refer to the opinions of the cavalry themselves.

In the end, some small adjustments were made to the sabers they originally used, and a new saber was made. From Luo Zhixue's perspective, this saber was similar to the modern cavalry saber in his image.

At this time, the two cavalry generals behind Luo Zhixue, Wang Xiazi and An Yongduo, also came forward, and each took a newly made saber to try. Wang Xiazi showed a satisfied expression and said: "This saber is good. It's even more convenient than the saber we used before!"

What Wang Xiazi said was not because he just tried it a few times now. In fact, before the large-scale construction of this new saber, there were already samples for the cavalry to test. Wang Xiazi tested it himself. When riding a horse to charge, the new saber is more lethal and easier to use.

Luo Zhixue also picked up a knife himself, which was heavier than the one-handed steel waist knife he was wearing on his waist now.

What Luo Zhixue wears on a daily basis is a one-handed waist knife made of hundreds of refined steels. This kind of swords and swords made of hundreds of refined steels are basically high-quality products, which cannot be afforded by ordinary soldiers or even low-level officers.

In today's Baoxiang camp, there are not many swords made of this kind of steel, there are only five or six in total, Luo Zhixue has one for himself, and the rest are given to several infantry sentinels as guards. body use.

Speaking of the waist knife on Luo Zhixue's waist, this knife also has a history.

On the day of Li Tonglin's mutiny, he killed a thousand households, and seized the fine steel waist saber from the thousand households, and then used it as his saber. Later, after Li Tonglin seized another saber made of the same fine steel, he used it He bought a fine steel saber and gave it to his confidant Sun Chengli.

But Sun Chengli didn't usually wear this kind of one-handed waist knife. He preferred to carry his own saber directly, so after Sun Chengli came to power, he simply gave this knife to Luo Zhixue to use as a saber.

As a result, this knife went through several masters, and finally became Luo Zhixue's saber.

Compared to the one-handed waist saber he was accustomed to using, the saber in his hand was a bit heavy for Luo Zhixue.

After a brief trial, he put it down, and after saying a few casual words to let the craftsmen continue to work, he continued to inspect other factories.

The entire weapons workshop is actually quite large, with a dozen or so workshops of various sizes, and a dozen or so warehouses for garrison and other defenses.

When Luo Zhixue moved the weapon workshop, he classified the interior of the weapon workshop, and it was not too detailed, but divided into multiple branches according to different purposes.

Two workshops focusing on cold weapons, the Knife and Spear Factory and the Armor Factory, were established, and two workshops focusing on firearms, the Artillery Factory and the Gun Factory, were established.

There are also arrow factories, ammunition factories, ironworks, machinery factories, etc.

The main purpose of this classification is to allow craftsmen to specialize in one of the jobs to improve the efficiency of learning and work.

Instead of doing everything and learning everything as before, the efficiency is very low.

After Luo Zhixue looked at the sword and spear, he went to the next door to look at the armor. This one is nothing to look at. It is made of iron sheets and then strung together to be used as a cloth face armor. There are two types of cloth face armor they produce now, one One is an ordinary item prepared for ordinary soldiers.

The other is for important melee units, such as front row spearmen and high-end cavalry. The difference between the two lies in the amount of armor lining.

The iron sheets of this thing are stacked in multiple layers. Well, to put it bluntly, it is a piercing armor, but it is covered with a layer of cloth that looks similar to a cloth face armor. .

The cloth face armor of Baoxiangying is a big basket, adding a layer of cloth can put everything in it...

The iron sheets used to make armor here are still processed with water hammers. What these craftsmen are doing now is only finishing processing, which shows the great role of water hammers.

At the same time, because of the successful application of the water hammer, Luo Zhixue was also thinking about how to make plate armor.

But before engaging in plate armor, he had to solve the material problem first.

To make plate armor, you must have steel materials, this thing cannot be directly made of iron materials.

It is meaningless to directly use iron to make plate armor. Iron armor is too thick for soldiers to wear, but iron armor soldiers can wear it, but it is too thin to block even arrows.

In the past 1000 years, it is not that no one has used iron to make large-area armor similar to plate armor, but it is basically unreliable, and it is only a cheap product for ordinary soldiers.

For plate armor, it must first be made of steel.

First you have steel, and then you can discuss hydraulic equipment for processing. This order cannot be reversed. If it is reversed, it will be iron plate armor of little use... The defense of this thing is not as good as the current Baoxiangying. What about the normal version of the cloth face armor equipped.

Luo Zhixue also tried to think about steelmaking before, but he couldn't figure it out for a while, and then he was busy fighting against the Ming army's invasion, so he left steelmaking behind.

Now Luo Zhixue is already pondering in his mind, and he has to study this steelmaking problem later, and try to figure out a way to mass produce steel materials.

Well, the focus is on the word mass production.

If you just make a little bit of it casually, you can directly make steel, and the steel you get is really good...

But such a little bit of steel produced in this way doesn't mean much to Luo Zhixue.
He is not a small European nobleman, he needs to take a few knights with him to fight in battle, and go into battle in person like canned meat. What he wants is a large amount of steel materials, and what he wants is a steel plate armor that can be deployed on a large scale for ordinary soldiers.

Well, it has to be cheap enough!

(End of this chapter)