Each cannon was arranged with five or six gunner apprentices, and the ordinary Portuguese gunner who was proficient in artillery was personally directed to set off the cannon. After two rounds of dozens of guns were shot, many of them hit the target, which made Zhu Youlang quite happy.

All kinds of artillery in the Ming Dynasty have design drawings, and the length of the gun and the thickness of the pipe, all have strict standard sizes. It is not easy to cut corners by using inferior products. Unlike musket manufacturing, you can do whatever you want, so the quality of all kinds of artillery in the Ming Dynasty is barely enough.

However, the guns at this time are not strictly standardized after all, and the inner diameter of the same type of gun bore is difficult to be consistent, and the difference between the shell and the barrel is inevitable. After the shell is out of the barrel, it cannot fly in a theoretical straight line, which brings a lot of trouble to the gunner's aim.

Moreover, the artillery of the Ming Dynasty did not have a ruler, and even had basic ranging tools. The gunner fired within a direct range and relying on each person's years of artillery operation experience, it was rare to have a skilled gunner. The shells needed to train a qualified artillery soldier were in the sea. At this time, the lifespan of the artillery was only a few hundred bullets. It would take a long time to train a group of qualified gunners, and the cannon would be destroyed. It would take a long time, perhaps as many years, which was really unimaginable.

Fortunately, there were a group of Portuguese mercenaries, and many of them were proficient in artillery operations. They knew how to use regular ranging measurements and also specified the size of each type of artillery, which greatly shortened the time and cost of cultivating qualified gunners.

The only thing that is more pitiful is that aiming and shooting artillery is difficult, and requires a series of basic mathematical knowledge. Most of the gunners in the Ming Dynasty are illiterate and cannot recognize words, let alone arithmetic. So while they are letting them use gunners, they also have to teach gunner apprentices to read and read, teach some simple arithmetic. It takes a lot of time to cultivate new gunners, so it is impossible to make them qualified gunners, so they can only take their time.

After watching the gunners operate the cannons, Zhu Youlang rode his horse away from the barracks and headed to the craftsman's weapons workshop next to the docks.

After leaving the barracks, the vision suddenly became wide. An official road four or five meters wide led directly to the Xijiang Wharf several miles away.

It was in the middle of the day, and there were few people on the official road. Apart from some ragged beggars, there were only some merchants who were transporting goods.

There are many low and dilapidated houses on both sides of the official road. The houses are surrounded by folk fields, some of which are planted with rice or fresh seasonal vegetables, and some are covered with decaying grass, which is obviously abandoned for a long time.

Xijiang Wharf is a civilian wharf. There are all kinds of merchant ships parked in the port, with many merchants coming and going, and even a few Thai Red Hair Fans can be seen occasionally.

This is all the credit of the Jingying Navy. Before this, due to the weakening of the Ming Dynasty's rule, water thieves often appeared along the rivers of Guangdong and Guangxi, robbing merchants, resulting in fewer and fewer merchants going to and from Zhaoqing transactions.

After Zhu Youlang repelled Li Chengdong and returned to Zhaoqing, he ordered Yu Long to clear out the water bandits and maintain the public security of Guangdong and Guangxi. So Yu Long led his navy fleet to suppress the bandits everywhere. In a few months, several large water bandits upstream and downstream of the Xijiang River were wiped out one after another, and the rest rushed into the crisscrossing rivers around the Sanshui River. It was no longer a weather, and the water security immediately improved a lot.

At this time, the river bank of the dock was full of force rods, and hundreds of force rods surrounded the dock. In addition to dozens of large and small merchant ships, there were also many flower boats next to the dock. The girls on the boat stood on the bow of the boat, waving their hands to attract business.

The prostitutes in Guangdong and Guangxi are mostly open on boats, and their boats are mostly pleasure boats, so they are also called "flower boats". In fact, the start of the flower boat is Yanhu (also known as egg houses and danmins) in the water-borne residents in Chaozhou and Jiayingzhou (now Meizhou City). Because they are discriminated against, their adopted daughters are mostly ship prostitutes. They regard the boat as houses, pretend to be wives and daughters to serve guests, and make a living. Over time, all the people in Guangdong and Guangxi gradually formed such a fixed mindset, as if they had to go to the boat. So, flower boats became popular.

Zhu Youlang was wearing a Confucian robe and casual clothes, standing on the dock. The gust of river breeze blew, blowing his robe soaring, blowing away his body's tiredness a lot, and his spirit couldn't help but feel refreshed.

After passing the pier, he went west along the river bank. Less than five miles away, he saw the weapons workshop of the craftsman camp.

The weapons workshop is located along the water, built along the water, hundreds of temporary expanded houses and dozens of large factories, covering a large area. As soon as you enter, a strong smell of smoke came to your nose. More than a dozen rivers with gates flowed happily, impacting the water truck, and through gear transmission, changing the direction of force, flowing into each workshop.

The emperor's plain clothes came to the workshop, and the leaders of the various craftsmen came forward to pay their respects. After the ceremony, Zhu Youlang asked them to settle in their positions without waiting, and then he went straight into the iron smelting workshop not far away.

In Zhu Youlang's sight, a forged hammer hit the red-hot iron evenly and vigorously under the influence of hydraulic power. A rough-looking blacksmith next to him was scooping a spoonful of liquid pig iron with a wooden iron spoon and pouring it on the iron. Zhu Youlang could see at a glance that this was the steel filling method passed down from Qi Wuhuaiwen.

In his impression, although the steel filling method is good, it is not as good as the Su steel method in his previous life.

Based on the idea of ​​improving the efficiency of iron smelting and the quality of iron smelting, Zhu Youlang called the head of the iron smelting workshop, an old blacksmith named Ding Er, and taught them the general principles of Su Gang Method as if half-recall.

The old blacksmith followed Zhu Youlang and listened carefully.

"When I was studying, I saw a new method of iron smelting. First, I had to prepare a blast furnace. The blast furnace was shaped like an inverted vase. Use wrought iron as material iron, place it in the furnace, and place the pig iron plate at the mouth of the furnace. When the furnace temperature rises until the pig iron plate starts to melt, use fire tongs to clamp the pig iron plate and move it left and right, and constantly turn the material iron to make the material iron evenly pour the pig iron liquid. In this way, it can not only carburize, but also separate the iron and slag, and produce fine iron with little slag and even composition.

I accidentally learned this new iron smelting technique. I still need to explore the specific methods myself. I will refine a few key points. One is that carbohydrate can be used to refine coke by imitating charcoal. Coke can increase the furnace temperature. The other is to use a blower with a good degree of sealing. When fresh wind enters, pig iron is easier to dissolve, and the iron and slag are separated more thoroughly, and even fine iron can be produced without forging."

Su Gang Method was still used before the liberation of his previous life, and its influence was far-reaching. However, Zhu Youlang knew about this. The principle of steelmaking in small blast furnace soil method was also unintentionally seen when he was in a library in college in his previous life. He was impressed, but not profound. So he did not dare to command blindly, and he let the craftsmen explore it themselves.

Mr. Ding respectfully in front of him, and did not dare to refute the slightest rebuttal. He wrote down the emperor's words half-believingly and half-doubtedly, intending to try it after the emperor left to see if it was really feasible.

Next to the iron smelting workshop is the armor smelting workshop. As soon as I entered, I heard the sound of "ding ding dong dong" forging. Zhu Youlang was watching quietly under Ruishi's personal guard. The emperor passed by the craftsmanship several times. The blacksmiths all knew his temperament, valued practice, and were vain etiquette, so when he saw the emperor coming, he still focused on his armor, and was very respectful when he looked up and met the emperor's gaze.

The ancient armor was never easy to make. The peak of Chinese armor belonged to the Buren armor of the Northern Song Dynasty. It consisted of more than 1,800 armor leaves. These iron armor leaves were made of leather strips or nails, and were cast, coarse grinding, perforation, fine grinding and other processes. There were also masks to be made, and leather was wrapped around the collar, cuffs, etc. to prevent hanging clothes and skin from being damaged. It took many craftsmen to make a pair of armor.

Zhu Youlang has no good ideas on this. At the same time, it was very difficult to make chain mail in the West. It took several months to make a set of chain mail. After the rise of Western plate armor, it would take one month to build ordinary plate armor.

Due to the raw materials and technology, the workshop's armor-making ability is limited, and less than 100 pairs of iron armor are produced in a month. The leather armor and cotton armor are relatively simple in making, and three or four hundred pairs can be produced every month. However, compared with the 40,000 to 50,000 Beijing Imperial Guards, including the former Western Army, it is still a drop in the bucket. Only priority can be given to the Dingbadu, Gongsheng Camp soldiers and the military academies in the towns.

Currently, it is not counted as auxiliary soldiers. The total number of soldiers in the Jing camp in the five towns is more than 30,000, and the armored soldiers in the army are less than 30%. The armored soldiers of the Jing camp who were originally from the Western Army are even lower, just 10% or 20%. As an imperial guard, it is really a bit shabby.

In ordinary Beijing camp war auxiliary soldiers, they are mainly engaged in the battle of the mandarin duck war jackets, but they have added a lot of local protection. The auxiliary soldiers' jackets have a layer of iron mesh protection, and there is a double-layer iron mesh inside the battle jackets, and there is a set of sleeveless single-layer iron leaves outside, all the way to the waist. In this way, although the protection ability is still limited and tight, it is finally better than nothing.

In addition to making various armors and mandarin duck battle jackets, the armor workshop is also responsible for making helmets for the soldiers of the Beijing camp. There are also many types of helmets for the Ming army. Zhu Youlang appointed the eight-petal hat iron-point helmet as a standard helmet.

The reason is very simple. The outer edge of the eight-petal hat-shaped iron helmet is wider, which is better at resisting bows and arrows than the phoenix-wing helmet. Sergeants use this helmet in uniform. During close combat, the sword and shield hands of each team can protect the Qing soldiers' close shooting, while the Qing soldiers' ejection has the eight-petal hat-shaped iron helmet, which can also protect the head well.

After leaving the armor workshop, the next one is the firearm shop. The firearm workshop is the workshop with the largest number of craftsmen, with nearly a thousand military craftsmen and apprentices.

According to the Ming Dynasty, bird guns, commonly known as combroach guns, are not easy to make. They are only part of the drilling barrel, and this process alone takes one month. If you consider other processes such as barrel forging, engaging, trigger sets, etc., it takes about two months to build a bird gun in total. Of course, there are hundreds of military craftsmen who specialize in making bird guns, there is no problem with the monthly output of thirty or fifty shots, but the process for a batch of them will take at least one month.

Zhu Youlang knew that the reason why Ming army bird guns were often damaged is that the materials were insufficient, or the craftsmen took skill when making them, and the thickness was uneven. Especially when welding gun barrels, many craftsmen were not skilled enough, which made the bird guns easy to explode.

However, these problems do not exist in this weapon workshop outside Zhaoqing City. They try their best to satisfy the craftsmen Zhu Youlang for enough food and salary, and they go to the workshop to inspect production and sample inspections at all times. If the craftsmen dare to cheat and cheat, it will be really unlucky to their own lives.
Chapter completed!