"Well——, little old man, thank you, Commander-in-Chief, for your compliments on the short-barreled firecracker built by Quan Zi!"

When Wang Shoutang saw that Yang Zhen asked about the affairs of the ironworks, he first said politely to Yang Zhen, and then said with a troubled face: "However, the homemade muskets and self-cast cannons that your Excellency entrusted to you before are not as easy to make as short-barreled muskets."

Got it!"

After saying this, Wang Shoutang looked at Yang Zhen's face, and seeing that there was no change, he immediately continued: "Pan Tiju mentioned something before when he talked about the shortage of iron materials, that is, the production of large and small blunderbuss tubes requires precision and precision.

Hundreds of steelmaking!

“Twenty kilograms of fine iron was repeatedly fired and softened, folded and forged repeatedly for three days, and only eight or nine kilograms of steel was left to be used for steelmaking. Then it continued to be fired and softened, and finally it was forged into a tube!

"You also have to put it on a milling machine and use a good hard steel milling cutter to repeatedly polish the inner wall of the barrel until the inside of the bore is as smooth as a mirror and there is no obstruction!

"Then polish the outside of the blunderbuss tube. Only when the thickness of the blunderbuss tube is the same inside and outside can it be used! After cooking in this way, twenty kilograms of fine iron are used to make the blunderbuss tube, only six and a half kilograms are left!"

Having said this, Wang Shoutang stopped and looked at Yang Zhen again. Seeing that the other party had no intention of answering, he seemed to be waiting for him to answer the previous question, so he simply said:

"Before you left, we made two short-barreled muskets. After you left, we tried the long-barreled muskets according to the method you told us. So far, we have made a total of five flint-haired long-barreled muskets, and some without milling tools.

Six long gun barrels milled through the inner wall!

"As for the self-cast artillery that your Excellency mentioned, we have cast a total of seven big-bellied mortars like your Excellency mentioned! Five of them are made of bronze and two are made of cast iron!"

While Wang Shoutang was talking about the condition of the big-bellied mortars cast by the ironworks, he used both hands to indicate the thickness of the barrel and caliber of the big-bellied mortars.

Yang Zhen looked at Wang Shoutang and saw that he made the caliber of the mortar as big as a washbasin, and finally nodded to him.

The name "mortar gun" was deliberately chosen by Yang Zhen based on the sayings of later generations.

Of course, Yang Zhen knew nothing about forging cannons, but as a man of two generations, he did know some common sense.

When the artillery barrel is determined, the size of the artillery caliber is basically inversely proportional to the size of its bore pressure. The larger the caliber, the smaller the bore pressure, and the lower the risk of the bore exploding.

However, the risk of exploding the barrel is reduced, but his range is also reduced.

Correspondingly, when the caliber of the artillery is determined, the length of the barrel of the artillery is proportional to its chamber pressure. The longer the barrel, the greater the chamber pressure, and the higher the risk of the chamber exploding.

However, in this case, although the risk of bombing the barrel is higher, the muzzle velocity of the projectile leaving the muzzle is increased, and the range of the artillery is also greatly increased.

Then, the ideal situation is to take into account both the length of the barrel and the size of the caliber. The ratio between them is called the caliber of the artillery.

For artillery manufacturing in this era and hundreds of years later, the diameter of the artillery is neither bigger is better nor smaller is better, but depends on the purpose of the artillery to find the most appropriate ratio.

Of course, this situation is a bit too complicated for Yang Zhen. Now that he has no experts in cannon casting, he cannot make too complicated requests.

If you ask the ironworks to cast something for you that you cannot explain clearly, the result will probably not be much better. Instead, manpower and material resources will be wasted.

Therefore, he did not put forward any excessive demands on the iron and steel works. On the contrary, the demands he put forward were the minimum requirements.

The so-called artillery that Yang Zhen called the Iron Works was a mortar that he knew more or less.

In fact, the large-caliber tiger squatting cannon loaded with stone bullets used in this era already looked a bit like the mortar cannons of later generations.

The coopers and bell makers of this era were able to make such a mortar, because to put it bluntly, this kind of mortar has nothing in common with a large iron barrel that goes straight up or down, or a copper bell hanging on a bell tower in a temple.

difference.

At the same time, this large-caliber mortar is just like the bowl-mouth gun once equipped in the Ming Dynasty army. It only expands the diameter of the bowl-mouth gun several times, making its diameter ratio smaller.

That’s all.

The so-called mortar forged by Yang Zhen's organization is actually an improved squatting gun with a larger caliber, or a bowl-mouth blunderbuss. It has a thick and short barrel, a low muzzle velocity of the projectile, and is fired at an elevation angle.

Short-range artillery with parabolic trajectory.

Of course, this is also a dual-purpose gun.

Before Yang Zhen came up with usable explosive shells, he would use this larger-caliber mortar to replace the Tiger Crouching Cannon, which would be used to load a large number of shotguns to shoot at the enemy in ambush battles on plains or mountains.

In particular, now that black tin lead is available, the advance battalion has a large amount of lead shotshells to use. A large-caliber mortar can load hundreds of shotshells at a time, and at the same time, there is no need to worry about excessive chamber pressure.

Exploding the chamber is simply a match made in heaven.

Thinking of this, Yang Zhen's mood recovered from the disappointment of hearing that the ironworks had only produced a few muskets. He smiled and said to Wang Shoutang:

"Mr. Wang, the problem of our advance battalion's self-made guns is going to fall on your ironworks! Judging from the gun tubes you just talked about, you are very attentive. Judging from the use I made this time,

The short-barreled firecrackers you made look very sophisticated!

"The output of five muskets per month, plus five blunderbuss tubes without milled inner walls, is a bit small! Including the mortar I mentioned, it is actually not difficult to cast! The caliber is large and the barrel is large.

It’s short, so this is a job that even bell makers can do!”

After Yang Zhen said these words, he remembered the bronze cannon that Wang Shoutang had just mentioned, and then said to Wang Shoutang: "This time, Li Lu brought back several large and small bronze bells from Xiong Yue and Gaizhou City!

I handed it over to your ironworks today. The copper is ready to be melted. You can cast a few more copper cannons later!"

When Yang Zhen said this, an idea flashed in his mind, and he suddenly remembered something, and immediately said to Wang Shoutang excitedly:

"Now that we are talking about casting cannons, let me remember a method! Mr. Wang, please tell me first, how do you usually cast copper cannons and iron cannons?"

Wang Shoutang had seen that Yang Zhen had no expression on his face before, and knew that he thought that the output of the ironworks was too small for the output of muskets and artillery, and was not satisfied with the performance of the ironworks. He was thinking of how to explain it, but now he saw him suddenly excitedly asking

When asked, he immediately replied:

"What else can we do? The method used to make iron is the most effective method in our Ming Dynasty army! First, find a log, remove the core, and polish it smooth inside and outside. The thickness is equivalent to the caliber of the gun you want!

"Then two sets of clay molds, inside and outside, are made using logs as shapes. The clay molds are dried in the shade, and then molten copper and molten iron are melted in a small blast furnace and cast on the clay molds! This is called the mold casting method! This has been done since ancient times!"

Having said this, Wang Shoutang saw that Yang Zhen was looking at him with a smile, and he bravely explained a few words to himself and the iron and steel factory:

"Sir! It is very difficult to make a blunderbuss tube, and it is not easy to cast a cannon! Traditionally, the clay model can only be used once. How long do you think these sets of clay models will take? You can't do it without half a moon!

"Of course, sir, if you just want to be quick, we can get up quickly, but once it is almost up, if the clay mold cannot be dried in the shade, or there are some impurities in it, the artillery will be cast, and it will be a waste product, and it will explode as soon as it is used.

On the contrary, it’s not just one door after another!”

Hearing this, Yang Zhen already knew the reason.

The clay model casting method is indeed slow and inferior. It is neither efficient nor quality-guaranteed. It relies entirely on the so-called experience that practice makes perfect. If you are not careful, the result will be scrap.

"You're right! Mr. Wang, I don't blame your ironworks at all! But I happen to have a method here that will help you get twice the result with half the effort! You no longer have to worry about the clay mold not being reusable!

"

As soon as Yang Zhen said these words, not only Wang Shoutang stared at him with wide eyes, but also Pan Wenmao, Zhang Degui and Li Lu looked at him in surprise, as if to say, where could such a good idea be possible?

?!

Seeing everyone staring at him for a moment, Yang Zhen said with a smile: "Fan Zhufa is still Fan Zhufa! But from now on, we need to change the clay model to iron model!

"After changing to iron mold casting, as long as there is a set of iron molds, your ironworks can use the mold casting method to continuously cast countless mortars with exactly the same caliber!

"Moreover, after using the iron mold to cast the cannon, we no longer have to worry about the clarity of the mud mold and impurities. We no longer have to worry about the problem of blisters and cracks in the mud mold, which will lead to the failure of the cannon casting!"

"Iron Fan?! Change the Clay Fan to Iron Fan——"

After hearing what Yang Zhen said, Wang Shoutang was first surprised, then happy. Then he sat on the stone bench and kept repeating the word "tie fan" as if mumbling to himself.

Yang Zhen and others did not disturb him, and drank tea while waiting for Wang Shoutang to calm down.

After a while, Wang Shoutang suddenly stood up, walked around the side of the stone table, bowed to Yang Zhen, bowed to the ground, and said:

"The little old man has been engaged in iron smelting and forging iron tools for generations. He has also cast several guns and cannons for the garrison in Ningyuan City, but he has never thought of using iron models! Today, the Commander-in-Chief said,

It's like waking up someone in a dream!

"This skill may not seem very impressive at first glance, but if the iron cannon is successfully cast, it will be enough to make Xiao Laoer and his son famous in the history of craftsmen! Your Excellency has no secrets about this secret skill and bestows it on Xiao Laoer.
Chapter completed!