The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 97
After arranging the production of military equipment, Zhu Linmi hadn't closed her eyes for nearly two nights, and her eye circles were dark.

Chanyi brought him an iced towel and hot tea, and said distressedly: "Master, with Mr. Song and Siwu Xu watching, you should go and rest for a while, your body will not be able to bear it if you continue like this."

Qiao Qian immediately answered: "Yes, you can rest assured to sleep, I will call you immediately if there is anything to do."

Zhu Linmi wiped her face with a towel, and felt that she was much more refreshed.

He shook his head, now that the great burden of life and death of the entire Ming Dynasty was on his shoulders, he couldn't care about rest at all.Apart from the Dragon Guards, he had to worry about the equipment of the other Ming troops.

After this expansion, the Dragon Guards only had more than 6000 people. Although they were elite troops, it was still very dangerous to deal with Boluo's [-] to [-] Qing troops alone.

First of all, it is easy to be surrounded by the enemy's large number of people when you are on the battlefield.In addition, if Boluo divides his forces to attack, the Dragon Guards will also face a situation where they will be at a loss.

Therefore, it is necessary to rely on the unity of the entire Ming army to win this life-and-death battle.

At present, the main force of the Ming army only has blunderbusses of more than [-]%, and cannons are even scarcer. On average, there is not one cannon per thousand people, and knives, spears, bows and crossbows are still the main equipment.Even the weapons of the Polu Camp are fantastic in their eyes.

Zhu Linmei heaved a long sigh. These troops themselves had relatively poor fighting will. Coupled with the simple weapons, it would be difficult to fight against the Eight Banners of Han Dynasty like Jin Shenghuan.

However, he has plans for this. The most urgently needed weapon for the Ming army is the medium and heavy blunderbuss.The three-coin bird blunderbuss generally equipped by the Ming army has weak firepower, and its armor-piercing ability is very problematic, and the number is too small.

If a large number of bird guns of six to ten coins can be added, the Ming army's bird gun equipment rate will increase to [-]%, and a large number of spear weapons will be supplemented, and it will have the power to fight against the Qing army.

At present, there are more than [-] six-dollar gun tubes idle in the iron yard, which can be allocated to the Ganzhou Arms Bureau to assemble them into bird guns.The most difficult and time-consuming part of making guns is the barrel. As long as the barrel is done well, a skilled craftsman can assemble a bird gun in half a day.

In addition, there are more than ten gun barrel boring machines in the firearms workshop. Zhu Linmei plans to use these boring machines to process a batch of bird guns imitating Spanish heavy muskets.

Although the Spanish heavy muskets have a slow rate of fire and are troublesome to operate, they are extremely effective against Jianlu double-armored heavy cavalry.You know, this kind of musket is used to deal with three millimeters thick plate armor in Europe.Zhu Linmei reckoned that the gun could penetrate double cotton armor at a distance of ninety paces.

If the trump card of the Jianlu double-armored heavy cavalry can be effectively cracked, it will have a very significant effect on the morale of the enemy and at the same time boost the morale of the Ming army.

In fact, in the last years of Wanli, the Guangdong Military Bureau had already imitated a heavy musket called the Turtle Dove Gun.But as always, it was not taken seriously, and after more than a hundred branches were produced, it disappeared.

Zhu Linmi sighed again and shook her head. Daming just wasted a lot of similar opportunities, and in the end it was hard to get back, so Hou Jin took advantage of it.

After he seized Ke Yongsheng's Spanish musket last time, he drew the blueprint accordingly.He asked someone to bring the drawings to Song Yingxing, and ordered him to bring a few craftsmen to make imitations.

In addition to firecrackers, grenades are also a weapon that can be effective immediately.Zhu Linmi had considered equipping the Dragon Guards with grenades before.But the grenade of this era had to use a kindling rope to ignite the fuse, while the Dragon Guards used flintlocks and needed to form a dense formation. Carrying a matchlock with them would cause a lot of trouble, so they had to give up in the end.

But for the main force of the Ming army who used bird guns, the matchlock was a necessity.In fact, Daming had made grenades a long time ago, but due to the crude craftsmanship and average power, most of the time they were used to scare war horses.

Some of the blacksmiths in Suji Iron Works made Zhentian Lei—the grenade of the Ming Dynasty.

In less than half an hour, two blacksmiths cooperated with each other to make the shell of a thunderbolt.In fact, it is a hollowed out iron ball, filled with gunpowder and a fuse to complete it.

But what Zhu Linming didn't want was this thing, he ordered the craftsmen to make the shell of Zhentianlei thicker, and also cast several criss-cross grooves on it.

This is very much like the grenade of later generations.Due to the insufficient detail of the ancient casting process, the thickness of the shell of Zhentianlei varies greatly, so when it explodes, it often breaks in the thin place and does not produce too many fragments.

But after the grooves are carved on the shell, the carved position must be the thinnest, and the grenade will explode into dozens of pieces along these vertical and horizontal grooves, greatly improving the lethality.

After another day of trying, a Zhentianlei weighing four catties with 28 grooves in four horizontal directions and seven vertical directions was finally produced.

Right now, the blacksmiths have no other tasks for the time being, so Zhu Linmi asked them to mass produce this new type of Thunderbolt.

The next day, all the craftsmen from the Ganzhou Ordnance Bureau arrived.Most of them are gunsmiths, and some gunsmiths.

At this time, nearly [-] gunsmiths had gathered in the gun-making workshop of Suji Iron Works, and the production efficiency was greatly improved.

Half a month later, the clay models of the six-pounder and nine-pounder guns had been fired.

Ever since Xu Erlu saw the "miracle" of Zhu Linming's iron fan cast cannon last time, he has always wanted to practice it himself. How could he let go of this good opportunity.

Of course Zhu Linming was happy and relaxed, and he also had great trust in Xu Erlu's ability.

He watched Xu Erlu skillfully instruct the craftsmen to cast the iron form. After the iron form cooled, brushed the insulation, and tightened it, Zhu Linmi took over again until the casting was completed.

Under Zhu Linmi's order, the newly cast iron cannon was set up in a calciner made of refractory bricks. The bottom was heated with charcoal fire, and someone else kept turning the bracket to make the cannon body heated evenly.

Calcination lasted for most of the day.After cooling and annealing, the carbon elements in the cast iron of the gun body have been rearranged and turned into tough and durable gray iron.

The craftsmen carried out finishing work on the newly cast six-pound iron cannon, such as drilling the fire door, and finally handed it over to Anthony to drag it to the river beach behind the iron yard to test the cannon.

Zhu Linmi still had great confidence in this cannon, and she was too tired, so she didn't go to watch the cannon test process.Sure enough, in the afternoon, Anthony came back from the test and reported to him that there was no problem with the artillery, and it withstood more than ten double-charge shots without any signs of explosion.

And although the barrel of this cast iron cannon is thicker than the bronze cannon, since the density of iron is lower than that of copper, the weight of the whole cannon has not changed much.

But the cost of the cast iron cannon is more than [-]% cheaper than the expensive bronze cannon!
With a successful casting experience, Xu Erlu began to gradually take over the entire casting process.After that, it took only five or six days to cast all the eight six-pounders and four nine-pounders required by the Dragon Guards.

On the other hand, Anthony was overwhelmed by the heavy task of testing guns, and there were still 6 guns waiting for him to test.

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(End of this chapter)