Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 737 Inspection of Military Factory

Of course, the biggest expense was the two battles with Song before and after Ye Chen came to the northwest.Every time the whole army is exhausted, every time the army is out, people eat horse chews, the consumption of supplies and weapons, etc., these costs are too great.If it weren't for the solid foundation accumulated by the Huaxia Weifu in the past three years and the gold mines in the Sancha Valley, another country with similar national strength like the Hexiang Fu Kingdom would have been unable to provide food and grass for the army. At that time, there was not much food left for the people.

As a matter of fact, if Song State did not try its best to suppress the business belonging to Xiangfu State in Song State, even if Ye Chen spent so much money, he would still be able to roughly balance his income and expenditure.But now Xiangfu Kingdom's business in Song Dynasty is less than two or three tenths of the original, and the loss is not insignificant.

As a result, Xiangfu Kingdom suddenly fell into a financial crisis.

After hearing this, Ye Chen pondered for a while and said, "I told you last time that the mint department under your household department should mint and issue our Xiangfu country's own coins as soon as possible. How is this going? gone?"

Jia Xian said: "Your Majesty, if you just cast copper coins like the Song Dynasty, all preparations have been made by the mint craftsmen and equipment, but the coins that your Majesty said will be different from the coins in the past. The material is not limited to iron and copper. Gold and silver must be cast into coins, and this matter is still under study.”

Ye Chen thought for a while and said, "Let's go, you can accompany me out of the city to see how far my civilian workshops and military factories have developed. Well, Xin Shi! Go and inform Yu Wenye, the head of the Armament Department of the Military Shuttle Department. Come with me."

On the Yingu River outside Xiazhou City, many canals are drawn along the bank, and dams have been built beside the canals. Some of the simplest hydraulic machines designed using the knowledge of hydraulic physics are running, and the sound of water hammers jingling can be heard endlessly. .

Yu Wen proudly followed Ye Chen and Jia Xian, introduced them all the way, and said at this time: "Your Majesty, the weapon branch of the military factory now has more than a thousand people, and it can usually make three thousand swords every month. If it is urgent, we can make [-] per month."

Ye Chen asked casually: "A person only has three sabers on average, what is the most labor-intensive thing now?"

"Nowadays, not many people are needed to shape knives. They all use flowing water models, and only a few people need to look at them. Now the most people are used are wrought iron plate making and blade grinding. There is no way to improve the blade grinding for the time being. Wrought iron The board uses a water hammer, but even if some water hammer is used, it still requires a lot of labor. Last time, His Majesty proposed an idea and asked people from the Weapons Research Department to try to develop a hydraulic roller machine. His Majesty said that several pieces were pressed at the same time. For wrought iron plates, I have dispatched some of the most outstanding craftsmen to study them. They have produced a sample. There are still a lot of problems and are being improved. According to our calculations, this machine is very useful. If it can be researched, it can still be used. In order to suppress the copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins that His Majesty said, in this way, the cost of minting coins under the Mint Department of the Ministry of Finance under the command of Lord Jia will be greatly reduced in the next step."

Ye Chen nodded, and asked Yu Wen: "The output of swords in the armory factory is enough now, but in the next step, I am going to modify the infantry's drills and battlefield formation methods, and make most of them equipped with iron spears. This way, it doesn't matter if you deal with them or not." Both infantry and cavalry work well."

Yu Wen bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, iron guns are all made by hand, and it is not easy to make a qualified one. If the roller machine can make it, the error of the gun tip will be smaller, but the iron gun still has to rely on training. skilled craftsman."

Ye Chen knew that there were some things that could not be rushed, so he just sighed and said, "How is the armor as I said a month ago? Go to the armor factory to have a look."

Then Yu Wen took Ye Chen and Jia Xian to the armor factory to have a look. A month ago, Ye Chen told the equipment department about a kind of armor structure, and asked them to try to build it after perfecting it. Yu Wen asked a group of top armor craftsmen After researching, Ye Chen's method was refined. This month spent a lot of materials, and finally made twenty pairs of this armor, each of which cost as much as 50 taels of silver.

Liu Dongming is the top craftsman of the armor factory, the main person responsible for making these twenty pairs of armors, and he is also one of the group of craftsmen who followed Ye Chen four years ago and was in Ye Mansion. Even Ye Chen remembers him name.In the past three or four years, he and other craftsmen first worked in the Weapons Department of the Huaxia Weifu, and then in the Weapons Research Department of the Armament Department of the Xiangfu Kingdom.

At this time, after Yu Wen arranged for someone to call him and other master craftsmen, Liu Dongming bent down deeply, handed a pair of iron scale armor to Ye Chen with both hands, and said, "Your Majesty, this iron armor weighs 32 catties. Among them, 21 catties of fine iron are used, and nearly [-] catties of wearing a bright helmet and iron arms."

Ye Chen took it over and took a look. This pair of scale armor is made of square iron plates, each piece is a square with a size of about two inches and a little more than two inches. The two adjacent pieces overlap partially, and there is a big round heart guard in the middle. The nails are slightly bulging outwards, with a certain range, not just a single piece, it should have a good effect of unloading force, basically reflecting the idea I said at the beginning, it can be seen that the people in the armor factory really I am doing it with my heart.

Ye Chen mentioned it, and secretly estimated it based on the physique of an ordinary soldier. It is indeed heavy enough, but soldiers usually carry weights during training. If it is only worn during combat, it should not be a big problem.

"Liu Dongming! You have done a good job with the iron armor. Are the helmets of the soldiers ready?"

After being praised by Ye Chen, Yu Wen, Liu Dongming, and a group of master craftsmen and officials of the arsenal were overjoyed, especially the craftsmen who participated in making this pair of armor were trembling with excitement.Yu Wen immediately replied to Ye Chen: "Your Majesty, half of the helmet is still under construction, and the rest can be finished in five days at most."

Ye Chen nodded in satisfaction: "You have done a good job, you have worked hard. What is the biggest difficulty for the armor factory now?"

Liu Dongming glanced at Yu Wen, the latter indicated to the former what to say, Liu Dongming immediately said: "Your Majesty, the manpower still feels a little short." The craftsmen were exhausted enough to build it. Although the salaries and bonuses were extremely generous, it still felt a little too hard.

Ye Chen glanced at all the master craftsmen, and said: "I can add people to you, but you can't just let them do it, you have to teach them how to make it."

Liu Dongming was stunned for a moment, and all the craftsmen behind Yu Wen were stunned for a moment. If it wasn't for Ye Chen who said this, if it were someone else, they would have scolded people, or even showed anger.Each of them's craftsmanship is what they eat for themselves. If everyone knows it, they will not be popular.It's just that Ye Chen spoke, and they didn't know how to refuse, and they didn't dare to refuse.

Ye Chen knew the virtues of people who mastered a skill in ancient China, so he naturally knew what these people thought, smiled, and said: "Don't worry, everyone, I know that you all rely on your skills for a living, and I won't let you teach them for nothing. "Ye Chen glanced at each master craftsman, saw that everyone was listening carefully, and continued: "In the future, you will calculate the bonus commission income, and you will be charged on a piece-by-piece basis. No matter how much you do alone, how much can you earn Yinzi, I will give you a way to earn more with apprentices."

Yu Wen hurriedly continued: "Your Majesty, please tell me, the equipment department will obey."

"Right now, what you are looking for is junior craftsman, intermediate craftsman, senior craftsman, and master craftsman. These are your craftsman levels. Each level has different treatment. As long as you are not punished, the basic monthly salary of each level will remain the same, and it will always be there. If you can bring apprentices, I will give you an additional master's monthly salary. The more apprentices you bring, the higher the master's monthly salary. For example, Liu Dongming will be responsible for armor making alone in the future. The more armor you produce, the more rewards you will receive. There will be more, and it must be far more than the piece of silver you forged."

Liu Dongming and other craftsmen heard that it was such a good deal, but they didn't want or dare to disobey Ye Chen, so they quickly agreed.

Ye Chen said with a smile: "Liu Dongming, you guys are in your prime now, and you can make a good job. If you are old, you can't compare with those young people. I will give you a monthly salary as a master. Just add it. From now on, just guide your apprentices, and you can use your mouth." It can earn a good income, wouldn’t it be more cost-effective than making it yourself.”

Yu Wen said hastily: "Don't hurry up and thank me."

Liu Dongming and the others quickly knelt down and said, "Thank you for your majesty's grace, for being considerate of us craftsmen and setting such a rule."

Ye Chen smiled and let all the craftsmen die.He specially set master salaries for them, just to let them bring apprentices, and share their skills, and gradually set a standard, otherwise each person will build according to their own experience, the assembly line model of the arsenal he planned will never be realized.

Yu Wen said at this time: "Your Majesty, the most important issue of the two military factories now is steel. The output of the original steel workshops was too low, and the quality was different. We now use a lot of steel, and everything is made of war knives and iron guns." Consumables, the following legions have just reported their statistics today. In this war, [-]% of the weapons in the whole army need to be replaced. I plan to expand the weapons research room and focus on iron and steel making this year and next year, but there are not enough researchers.”

Ye Chen thought for a while and said, "Set up a training class soon... Well! Let's start a school directly!"

Yu Wen was stunned for a moment, and asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, I am stupid, please give me some advice."

Ye Chen thought to himself: Naturally, you have never heard of the training models of various technical schools and university sciences in future generations, and you have never dared to think about them.And as long as I refer to the school model that has been tried and tested by later generations and has been verified by facts, the effect should be good.

(End of this chapter)