The reason why Yang Zhen attaches so much importance to the production of guns and ammunition is because this time he went out behind enemy lines, which made him further realize that once relatively handy firearms are available, the quality and personal bravery of the individual soldiers in the advance battalion for the East Expedition will no longer be the same.

It's no longer as important as it used to be.

Even if a person's physical fitness is a little worse or weaker, as long as he can still throw a grenade and shoot a flintlock, with a little training, they can go on the battlefield.

Especially, in the city defense battles and ambush battles that our side has prepared in advance, as long as the number of such people is sufficient, the damage caused to the enemy will not be much worse than that of well-trained soldiers with cold weapons.

At present, in offensive battles or pursuit battles, Yang Zhen has Zu Keyong, Xu Changyong, Xia Chengde, and Lu Pinqi's light and heavy cavalry, which is almost enough for the time being.

Anyway, as far as the current situation is concerned, Yang Zhen has no idea of ​​commanding all his subordinates to confront the Manchu Tatars head-on. He has never thought about confronting the Manchu Tatars face to face on the Songjin front.

His main strategy at the moment is to avoid the real situation and attack the weak, and defend and counterattack. Either take a boat to sea and attack the Manchu Tatar enemy rear, or rely on the favorable terrain to fight an ambush.

However, in this way, the biggest constraint at the moment in building the advance camp for the Eastern Expedition according to Yang Zhen's ideas was immediately highlighted.

That is the problem of the production of advance campfires, or a serious shortage of production capacity.

The problem of manpower resources is actually relatively easy to solve. With Jin Shijun, the two newly established sentinels after Anqing, and the two Tatar Ahabs brought back by Li Lu from Tu'er Island, the advance battalion's own manpower shortage problem has been solved.

relieved.

When Yang Shen returns from recruiting troops from the Xuanfu, especially Yang Zhan'ao, Yan Shengsan, and Guo Xiaowu return from Denglai, the problem of troop sources will be easily solved.

Therefore, the top priority now is the issue of the number of muskets, the number of ammunition, and the issue of firearms and equipment sufficient to equip the newly formed soldiers.

If the problem of firearms and equipment is not solved, it will be useless no matter how many soldiers there are. Cold weapons such as gun and stick martial arts, sword and shield phalanx, and bow and horse riding and shooting cannot be trained into an army in three to five months. He also

I dare not think so.

For those newly recruited refugees from the pass, if they are only given some spears, broadswords, clothes, armor, bows and arrows, they will be considered to have become soldiers, and they will be sent to fight against the Manchu Tatars who have experienced hundreds of battles.

, that would be like asking them to die.

No matter how many such soldiers there are, they are of no use. Instead, they will add an unbearable burden of food and wages to the advance battalion and Songshan City.

Yang Zhen recruited Zhang Degui, Li Lu, Pan Wenmao and Wang Shoutang this time, just to inquire about the production capacity of the ammunition factory and ironmaking plant, and to estimate the approximate equipment gap in the advance battalion.

This time, Yang Zhen took advantage of the opportunity that the imperial envoys Zhang Ruoqi and Yang Chaojin came to the front line of Songshan. He asked them both for guns, cannons, gunpowder, sulfur, and Glauber's salt, everything he could think of.

, basically all of them were raised.

As for how much I can get, it’s hard to say, but I will definitely give some.

However, even if the imperial court can allocate some, in the future the war will be fierce and the advance battalion will not be able to always ask for these things from Ningyuan, Shanhaiguan, or the capital.

In the next two or three years, the situation on the Songjin Front can be said to be changing rapidly. If the supply of firearms is completely dependent on the imperial court's allocation and transfer, it would be tantamount to handing over one's destiny to others.

This is a situation that Yang Zhen, a man of two generations, cannot accept.

Because he knew very well that in the next few years, the internal and external troubles of the Ming Dynasty would only become more and more serious. The government's finances would be extremely difficult, and the most basic food and salary issues would no longer be solved. Where would they go to give it to him?

Unlimited supply of guns and ammunition!

Therefore, if you want to change this situation and control your own destiny, you must find a way to solve the problem of firearms production and capacity.

Yang Zhen was thinking about these issues when he saw Pan Wenmao pondering for a moment, and finally said: "Master General! After you left Songshan, we all know that it is hard to say how much victory you will achieve in the end, but if you escape unscathed, there will definitely be no problem!

"At the same time, General Zhang also went to the ammunition factory every three days to urge the subordinates to step up production. Therefore, except for the saltpeter making room, which was shut down for a few days due to a temporary shortage of saltpeter and soil, the other buildings in the ammunition factory did not stop work!"

Pan Wenmao was in charge of the ammunition factory of the advance camp. Before Yang Zhen left, he had repeatedly warned him not to stop work. After Yang Zhen came back this time, he wanted to report the situation, but he never found the opportunity. Today Yang Zhen came to see him specifically.

Come here, he will naturally know what you are looking for.

Therefore, he first talked about the overall situation, then took out a greasy account book from his arms, turned to one of the pages and continued:

"Sir, you set out on April 22nd and came back on May 16th. Today is May 20th. This makes a total of twenty-eight days!

"Before you left, your Excellency, you had emptied out all the finished products produced by the ammunition factory and took them away. Yesterday evening, I finished my work and inspected the finished products. In the main warehouse of the ammunition factory, there are currently 3,624 flying generals.

, the new medicine can defeat 100,000 people with 125 pills!

"There are also twelve thousand and fifty small packages of various types of gunpowder, and 4,400 large packages of various types of gunpowder! All kinds of black tin lead, iron bullets for guns, lead and iron shot for cannon, large and small

A total of sixteen thousand four hundred and fifty!"

"Black tin and lead?! What black tin?! Where did the black tin and lead come from?!"

Pan Wenmao was holding a thick accounting book and reporting to Yang Zhen. However, he did not expect that he was interrupted by Yang Zhen in the middle of his words. Moreover, Yang Zhen was the most interested and started to speak.

Guess the first question he asked was actually this.

"Sir! The black tin that Beizu refers to is what is commonly known as lapis lazuli. They make iron and iron, and some people call it lead spirit! The black tin that Beizu refers to is lead!"

"Black tin?! Lazuli?! Lead essence?! Lead?!"

Yang Zhen just heard what Pan Wenmao said about black tin. He was really confused. Then he suddenly heard him say that black tin is lead essence. He instantly realized that lead essence is lead and black tin lead bullets are lead bullets.

"Oh, it turns out that the black tin lead bullets you mentioned are lead bullets! But I remember that our army seems to have always used iron bullets. Why are lead bullets suddenly used?!"

Previously, the musket projectiles used by Yang Zhen were made of iron, so he always thought that the musket projectiles of this era were all iron bullets, and did not consider the use of lead bullets at all. At this time, he unexpectedly heard

When Pan Wenmao talked about the black tin lead, he couldn't help but be very surprised.

Of course, he also knew that in the history of the development of muskets, lead bullets had flourished for a while, but they only flourished in an era when armor protection had basically disappeared. Now that everyone uses armor, can lead bullets work?!

Sure enough, just as Yang Zhen's question was raised, he heard Pan Wenmao, who was relatively familiar with the military's knowledge, say: "Your Excellency, you don't know something! The fire blunderbuss used by our Ming army guards were all made of lead from the beginning! Because of the black tin

It is easy to change, lead is easy to get, on the contrary, iron bullets are used less!

"Until the Donglu Incident, the Manchu Tatars were wearing heavy armor, and some infantry were wearing double iron sheet cotton armor. They used lead, which was impenetrable. Even if the Tatars were shot, it didn't matter. Therefore, the Manchu Tatars were

We are not afraid of our shotguns and blunderbuss at all!

"In this way, the muskets and muskets in the Liaodong Army were gradually changed to iron bullets. Compared with the lead bullets, the iron bullets were slightly lighter, but they were better because of their hard texture and could penetrate all the Tatars.

Iron armor!

"As a result, our army's firearms gradually relied on iron bullets. After that, the imperial court supplied mainly iron bullets to the Liaodong Army! However, you must know that iron bullets are much more difficult to make than lead.

ah!"

Yang Zhen listened to Pan Wenmao's words, thought about it carefully, and nodded. He finally understood that lead bullets were originally supplied by the army, but the Tatars had iron armor. The texture of the lead bullets was relatively soft and could not penetrate the iron armor.

That's why the Liaodong front line switched to iron bombs.

But thinking of this, doubts arose in his mind: "Old Pan! When you said this, I also briefly remembered something, but now we are in front of the Liaodong Army! If we change it to lead, what if we can't penetrate it?

Mannu Iron Armor, don’t our muskets and blunderbuss become fire sticks?!”

At this time, Pan Wenmao looked at Yang Zhen's face full of doubts, closed the accounting book, and looked at Wang Shoutang who was sitting next to him waiting for questioning, and then said to Yang Zhen:

"There is nothing we can do about this! How could you not know this, sir? The iron materials in our Songshan City are used in a wide range of applications. It is used to cast the iron shell of the air general, and it is also used to make the bayonet head that your Majesty mentioned! Especially, especially

The kind of fire blunderbuss tube that your Excellency has assigned requires hundreds of steel smelting, especially iron materials to make it!

"There is only so much iron material in our city, but there is no big source at the moment! Therefore, Wang Tiju discussed with me whether we could use black tin lead instead of the musket pellets that were used in the past.
Chapter completed!