This number sounds like a lot, but compared to modern China, it is simply not worth mentioning.

You should know that in contemporary China, as early as 2007, the total steel output per year was 489.66 million tons. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a difference between heaven and earth.

Now, the steel production of one day is 720,000 kilograms, which is 36 tons. So, based on the monthly production of 20 days, the monthly production is 720 tons, and the annual output can reach 8,640 tons!

Although Li Xiao’s Iron City has a yearly steel production, although it is as small as a mustard in modern China, it is enough to look down on the iron farms and workshops throughout the Ming Dynasty.

According to modern China, the iron ore reserves in Shanxian County are 150 million tons of ore veins alone, which is enough for his own mining for dozens of generations. Li Xiao does not have to worry about insufficient ore.

While Li Xiao was smiling and pondering, Wu Liang still happily added: "Mr. Li, now in my Tielong City, the manpower arrangements are roughly 6,000 mining teams, 4,000 mine grinding, washing, screening and transporting personnel, 6,000 male workers operating blast furnaces and fried furnaces, and more than 18,000 male workers and nearly 10,000 female workers. There are also 500 male workers in the ammunition factory, 500 female workers, 500 male workers in the trench manufacturing factory, and 300 male workers in cooperation with the development of artillery guns."

When Yan Jun talked about the development of cannons and muskets, Li Xiao's eyes lit up.

He thought to himself that he had been paying attention to other matters, but he didn't know how the current development progress of artillery and muskets was progressing.

Next, Li Xiao issued a regulation for Yan Jun, requiring him to start producing steel in large quantities from now on. Calculated by one crucible, one crucible can produce 50 kilograms of steel, each time, the output can reach 2,000 kilograms at a time, which is 1 ton of production. Because the crucible is a consumable, it takes time to re-made the crucible. One month is calculated based on the 15-day production time, so that the monthly qualified high-carbon steel output reaches the minimum production standard of 15 tons.

Li Xiao emphasized that all the high-hard and high-strength steel produced now are used to make and replace the original spearhead steel gun tips to make the gun tips sharper and more durable.

Then, use this type of steel to replace the shield soldier's large shield skin, making the shield lighter and more efficient, but its defense can be enhanced several times.

If there is still excess steel, it will be supplied for artillery and musket research and development. Because the ductility and durability of steel can be much stronger than making guns with cooked iron. Li Xiao planned to directly jump through the stage of using cooked iron to make cannons and muskets with cooked iron, and use steel for production.

Yan Jun agreed to Li Xiao's request, and he promised Li Xiao that he would do the steel production work well with quality and quantity.

After leaving the steel smelting area, Li Xiaozhen took the cannon and musket research and development base in the northwest area of ​​Tielong City.

At this time, Zhao Jie, the head of the firearm, brought Fulang Yaranda, Amier, Sacon, and a group of craftsmen who exchanged the salt form from Dongjiang Town, were preparing to test the casting of a light red cannon.

According to Li Xiao's original instructions, Zhao Jie and other R&D craftsmen should give priority to the development of cannons and then develop muskets.

This is because the current Tiger Army has a desire for artillery with good performance and powerful firepower far exceeds that of muskets such as Lumi Guns.

In this era, muskets, including Lumi guns, had unstable performance, high chance of punching or blowing up the chamber, and the power of muskets was far inferior to that of later army infantry. Taking Lumi guns as an example, an average service life of only about 50 rounds will be scrapped due to cracked barrels. Therefore, it did not have particularly important help to the army that was still in the transition from cold weapons to hot weapons.

In the Tiger Army, there are more than forty Lumi guns left now, because they are close to the service life of Lumi guns. In the next battle, Li Xiao really doesn't plan to send them to the battlefield again.

The biggest weakness of the current Tiger Army is actually the lack of siege means.

The last time I attacked the border town, if it weren't for the city's lack of bricks and the disrepair, the rammed earth in the city wall would have been soft, and it would have been impossible for Li Xiao's catapult to throw the thunder in the sky.

If the Zhenbiancheng could not be captured, Li Xiao's series of plans would be nothing more than empty talk.

The best way to conquer a heavy city is of course to bombard the city with heavy artillery, and use a very impactful solid artillery shell to break the city walls and gates. In this way, it can greatly reduce the time of siege, reduce the number of soldiers and crush the enemy guarding the city from its momentum.

For example, in real history, when Li Zicheng was guarding Tongguan, the Qing general Duoduo, in order to successfully capture Tongguan, would rather spend nearly a month waiting for the red artillery to be transported, than let his subordinates attack the city, thus causing unnecessary death.

Because considering that artillery such as Franc, Tiger Squat Cannon, and Divine Power General Cannon are insufficient in terms of siege or guarding, and there are stone siege and thunder that can replace some of their functions, Li Xiao asked Zhao Jie and others to imitate the Red Barbarian Cannon with limited number of craftsmen, so that the Tiger Army can also have the ability to attack the city.

Seeing Li Xiao coming, Zhao Jie hurriedly asked everyone to stop their work and greet Li Xiao. Li Xiao warmly condolences them, especially to the three Portuguese people. Li Xiao asked them in a caring tone and asked them about their current situation.

"Mr. Li, we live very well in Tielong City. In order to make us live accustomed to life, General Manager Wu Liang made very thoughtful arrangements for us from housing to food." Fu Lang Yaranda said to Li Xiao with joy.

"Yes, thank God, we met Lord Li. Now here, we have enough salary every month, and we don't have to worry about living expenses, and we can devote ourselves to the development of firearms. This feeling is really wonderful." Sacong blinked his eyes and interrupted from the side.

"Mr. Li, we are thinking that after the artillery is successfully developed, we still want to take our family from Macau. I will tell them that in this eastern country, living conditions are no worse than in our country or Macau, and we can also reunite our family."

Amier made his last speech. As soon as he finished speaking, the three Portuguese looked at Li Xiao with anticipation.

Li Xiao laughed and patted everyone's shoulders intimately: "Don't worry, I promise that you will do your request. After the artillery is developed successfully, you can go to Macau to pick up the family. From now on, the family will be reunited and settle down in my Iron City."

Li Xiao's answer made the three Portuguese very happy. Then Li Xiao greeted everyone for a while and began to watch the light red artillery that Zhao Jie and the others were developing.

The Red Cannon that Zhao Jie and the others are developing is a copper-tired iron-core cannon.

This is an advanced method of casting cannons developed by Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, and others, after obtaining bronze Western Red Barbarian cannons, and after obtaining bronze, they imitated and improved them.

In Europe at the same time, homogeneous copper or iron cannons were cast, without considering mixing two materials to reduce costs. It was not until the popularization of hydraulic machinery in the mid-18th century that solid metal columns appeared in Europe and then drilled holes to form a gun bore to obtain a better-performance gun.

In short, this kind of artillery production method is to cast iron cannon barrels first, then wrap them with mud on it, and then cast a layer of copper cannon barrels. The result is that the outer copper and inner iron double-layer cannon barrels can reduce the weight of the cannon. It also has the advantages of iron cannon bronze cannons, that is, they are durable than iron cannons and cheaper than copper cannons. This cannon is not only sturdy and durable, but has a slightly longer range than pure iron cannons, and its cost is much cheaper than pure copper cannons.

This is the main reason why Sun Yuanhua and others were able to quickly produce hundreds of red artillery cannons in a few years since the late Ming Dynasty.

In fact, the cannons at this time could be made of bronze. Not only was they easy to make, but their performance was better than iron cannons. In fact, until 1850, whether in the East or the West, most of the cannons were made of bronze or brass, especially large-caliber cannons that pursue performance.

But the biggest reason why copper cannons have gradually been replaced by iron cannons in the course of historical development is that because Europe is a copper-deficient area, due to the production and price of copper, the price of each copper cannon is five times that of the same type of iron cannon!

In this way, compared with copper cannons, iron cannons are really cheap. They save money and produce a lot. This is the main reason why Western countries have vigorously developed steel casting technology and fully developed iron cannons over the past few hundred years.

The copper-tire iron-core cannon manufacturing technology invented by Sun Yuanhua is a product of the compromise between the two. Of course, there are also specific factors that China lacks copper. Because like Europe, China is very short of copper and is a famous copper-poor country. If it is to be made of bronze and brass like imported red cannons, because the price of copper cannons can make the iron price much more expensive, and for the financial affairs that were originally difficult in the late Ming Dynasty, it would be impossible to bear it.

If you really want to solve the problem of expensive copper ores, unless the Ming Empire has the ability to occupy Luzon, because the many islands in the Philippines are all areas rich in copper ores. However, for the last Ming Dynasty, this obviously exceeded its capabilities.

It is also Sun Yuanhua's cleverness to be able to combine the durability of copper cannons with the cheap iron cannons.

As for the current European iron cannons, although they are also cast, their performance is still much worse than that of copper cannons with long-term production practices. For example, the current European copper cannon has a lifespan of 1,000 rounds, while the iron cannons are only 600 rounds. Only the iron cannons produced by the British are better in performance, but their price is four or five times that of iron cannons made by other European countries.

But in fact, the reason why the British iron cannons have good performance is also because they adopted a rather luxurious manufacturing method: they did not use the coal iron smelting method that is currently popular in Europe, but used charcoal to make cannons, which was similar to the best quality Fujian iron production in the Ming Dynasty, thus ensuring the performance of the iron cannons.

There are gains and losses. The price of good performance of British iron cannons is that the entire British forest was over-defortified and the forest coverage rate was extremely low. It was not until the 18th century that Britain began to use coking coal to make iron, which partially alleviated this problem. However, it was not until the second half of the 19th century that the method of desulfurization and dephosphorization was invented by the slag-making method, which was truly and completely solved.

Therefore, although Chinese artillery was introduced by foreign countries in the late Ming Dynasty, through imitation and self-research, the performance of the new artillery produced is actually no worse than that of Western artillery. A cast copper-tire iron-core can have an average service life of nearly 900 rounds, and it is better than similar European products in terms of mass production and production speed.

It is said that after Sun Yuanhua made this unique copper-tired iron-core red-barb cannon that day, the Portuguese who participated in the development all sighed that the wisdom and ability of the Chinese would definitely be above the Europeans who were highly regarded.

Therefore, it is normal for Zhao Jie and others to inherit and use this artillery casting technology developed by Sun Yuanhua in Dengzhou.

However, Li Xiao, who was originally busy watching Zhao Jie and the others with a group of craftsmen, did not expect that in the end, he only heard Zhao Jie sigh with regret.
Chapter completed!