In the steel plant in the Jinyi New Military Camp District, Nanjing, Zhao Peng is guiding craftsmen to build gun barrels.

It didn't take long to build three gun barrels that were only more than one foot long. Build a musket, the gun barrel is the most critical and most expensive component. Taking bird guns as an example, it often costs about 40 kilograms of iron, and in the end, it can only be made of a gun barrel weighing seven or eight kilograms. The iron price, the price of charcoal, the craftsman's wages and food, and other expenses. The cost of a gun barrel is five taels of silver.

The bird guns supervised by the Ministry of Works of the Ming Dynasty were used to save costs. The officials of the Ministry of Works cut corners to facilitate their own invaluable money. However, because of their low status and low enthusiasm for work, the craftsmen took advantage of tricks when manufacturing, and their thickness was uneven in thickness, especially when welding the gun barrels, the Ming army's bird guns were very easy to explode.

Now Zhao Peng has greatly improved the treatment of craftsmen, and adopted the Qin system to create a bird gun, Lumi gun and turtledog gun. It is manufactured in segments. The gun barrel is made by a dedicated person, and the gun barrel is welded, the gun barrel is built, the gun machine is built, and the wooden bracket is made separately. Each gun barrel is numbered. Once a chamber explosion accident occurs, as long as it is found that it is not a soldier's operation error, but the quality of the gun barrel is not up to standard, the craftsmen who build the gun barrel can be found according to the number.

Craftsmen who create inferior products will be severely punished. In fact, the Qing army has also adopted this method at present. Once the firearms have quality problems, the craftsmen who create inferior products will be beheaded and their families will be sent to slaves.

Because of strict quality control, the muskets produced by Zhao Peng's factory are of high quality. Soldiers do not need to worry about a blow-off accident when using the muskets.

But quality assurance is all piled up with silver.

This kind of short gun barrel, which is a foot long, is much cheaper. The three gun barrels combined are not as expensive as the barrel of a bird gun. Moreover, the thickness of this gun barrel is much thicker than that of a bird gun barrel, but the diameter is very small.

Wang Xin looked at the short gun barrel that was only one foot long and asked in confusion: "Bo Ye, why is the wall of such a short gun barrel thicker than a bird gun? The thickness is greater than that of a Lumi gun. Isn't this a waste of iron material?"

Zhao Peng smiled and said, "Although the barrel of this gun is short, the charge is not much less than that of a bird gun, so the wall of the gun barrel is thickened to avoid explosion."

Wang Xin said: "The gun barrel is short and the charge is quite large. Wouldn't that be wasted? The gunpowder cannot fully expand in the gun barrel and its power is still insufficient. But if you use a thick pipe wall, wouldn't it be a waste of money?"

Zhao Peng didn't say much, but took three gun barrels and went to the drilling machine he made not long ago. He first put the gun barrel into the stove for heating, then clamped the red gun barrel with a vise, and installed a strange object on the head of the drilling machine. Then he shook the drilling machine and let the object penetrate into the gun barrel.

As the strange object drilled into the gun barrel, the diameter of the gun barrel gradually increased, and it was pulled back and forth several times, and then threw the pulled gun barrel into cold water.

After a while, after the gun barrel cooled down, Wang Xin picked up the gun barrel, but found that the inside of the gun barrel was uneven. He said in surprise: "Bo Ye, ordinary people build musket gun barrels, and the smoother the inside, the better. Why is the inner wall of the gun barrel you built is uneven?"

Zhao Peng had already pulled out all three gun barrels. He stacked the three gun barrels in the shape of a finished font, inserted a half-foot-long iron rod in the middle of the three gun barrels, then bent a piece of iron plate, wrapped the three gun barrels, and then fixed the connection of the iron plates with screws, so that the three gun barrels and the middle iron rod were combined together.

Wang Xin said "Oh": "It turns out that what Mr. Bo built is a short tiger-winged gun."

Later, Zhao Peng handed over a piece of Su Gang refined not long ago to Wang Xin: "Build according to my method and build a flintlock machine."

Wang Xin had learned how to build a dog-lock flintlock machine from Zhao Peng before, so he naturally knew how to build it. However, he felt that using expensive Sugang to build a short gun was too wasteful.

Although Zhao Peng had already built a steel factory at this time, the spring steel with excellent elasticity and high-quality still needs to be made by craftsmen with hammers and iron hammers, and it is refined into steel every time. The steel directly out of the blast furnace is called fallen steel, which is a pure iron with high hardness. Although it is hard, it is not elastic enough and cannot be used to make a dog-lock flintlock machine.

This requires the fallen steel to be heated in a charcoal furnace so that the carbon permeates into the steel, and the carbon content of the spring steel is about 0.6% to 0.9%.

There was no new smelting furnace that was later, and there was no computer-controlled smelting alloy technology. The carbon content of steel was controlled to maintain elasticity. It relied entirely on the blacksmiths to penetrate carbon elements into the steel with one hammer and one hammer, so that the elasticity was suitable for use, and then stopped building and quenched and cooled. Therefore, the high-quality Su Steel was hand-made by Bailiang Steel.

Because of this, Su Gang's cost is extremely high. Although Zhao Peng has the technology to make flintlock rifles, he cannot produce flintlock rifles in large quantities, let alone replace all the bird guns in the army with flintlock rifles. This is temporarily impossible.

"Brother, isn't it a waste of resources to use such an expensive Su Gang to make short guns?" Wang Xin asked in confusion, "Su Gang must be used on the Lumi gun no matter how you say it."

Zhao Peng replied: "Wang Jiangtou, just follow my drawings to make it."

With the joint efforts of three craftsmen, the first self-generated tiger-winged gun was soon completed.

Next, Zhao Peng made a pellet. Wang Xin and the others were surprised to find that the projectiles of this tiger-winged gun were not traditional spherical projectiles, but cylindrical projectiles, with a round head and flat bottom. The projectiles had special molds. After melting the lead, poured into the mold. After cooling, open the mold and a lead bullet was completed.

Zhao Peng first poured powdered urination medicine into the muzzle, then poured the granular gunpowder into the chamber, then placed the cylindrical projectile in the muzzle and pushed it hard. However, because the inner wall of the gun barrel was uneven, the projectile was difficult to push to the end. He could only pick up a small wooden hammer and beat the strip through it. It took the boss's efforts to knock the projectile to the end.

After loading the first gun barrel, then loading the second gun barrel; after loading the second gun barrel, then loading the third gun barrel.

"It's very troublesome to reload the three gun barrels in turn." Wang Quan, who was standing next to him, said.

Other members of the Falcon Special Operations Team around them also said that the loading of this kind of tiger-winged gun is indeed very troublesome. But Wang Quan then said: "Although loading is troublesome, it can be fired three times in a row."

After all the loading was completed, Zhao Peng brought the Falcon players and craftsmen such as Wang Xin to the shooting range.

Seeing Zhao Peng standing fifty steps away from the target, Wang Xin said in surprise: "The long-barreled bird gun can only hit the target within fifty steps. Can such a short-barreled tiger-wing gun be able to hit fifty steps?"

Zhao Peng smiled but said nothing. He picked up the tiger-winged gun with one hand and gently pulled the hammer behind the tiger-winged gun with his thumb. As the hammer was pulled, the linkage bolt automatically drove the barrel to rotate. When the hammer was pulled to the bottom, the fire door at the tail of the barrel was aimed at the flintlock machine. Then Zhao Peng raised the gun, aimed at the target fifty steps away, and gently pulled the trigger.

The spring steel drove the flint and hit the iron sheet of the flintlock machine hard. While the iron sheet was pressed towards the fire gate, the flint collided with the iron sheet and sparks emerged.

A deafening sound of the gun sounded, and a tongue of fire was sprayed out from the muzzle of the tiger-winged gun. The white smoke spurted out from the fire gate of the muzzle and the tail of the gun. A gun hole appeared on the target fifty steps away opposite.

"Ten Rings!" The craftsman who reported the target opposite him exclaimed a scream.

"The gun barrel is only one foot long, and it is a miracle that it can hit the bull's eye at fifty steps!" Wang Xin sighed.

Then Zhao Peng pulled the hammer, and the gun barrel automatically rotated with the linkage bolt. The next gun barrel stayed at the flintlock machine, and the fire door at the tail of the gun barrel aimed at the flintlock machine.

Zhao Peng pulled the trigger again, and another gun sounded, and the second projectile was ready to hit the bullseye. Immediately afterwards, he pulled the hammer again, and then pulled the trigger again. The third projectile rotated and flew out at high speed, hitting the bullseye accurately.

"The speed is really fast when it fires three guns in a row." Wang Quan exclaimed.

"It's a pity that the loading was too slow. After loading for a long time, all three gun barrels were shot in an instant." said a Jinyiwei.
Chapter completed!