"Why?"

Guan Ning said calmly: "Mold making is already very mature. Are there any other problems?"

He and Yuan Wen were discussing while walking.

Yuan Wen was the commander of the firearms battalion, and he also held the position of deputy director of the Smelting Bureau, so he was responsible for the manufacture of artillery, which was more convenient.

"There are a lot of questions."

Yuan Wen said in a deep voice: "The mold pouring is not stable, and there are many defects in the process. It needs to be improved at any time. The cycle of building a cannon is too long."

Guan Ning nodded.

This is indeed a very practical question.

Naturally, pure handwork cannot achieve the accuracy of the assembly line, and the molds made in the first place cannot be guaranteed to be consistent.

If the mold is not good, the resulting artillery will naturally not be good.

Even slight deviations may affect the effectiveness, especially if the medicine chamber, body tube and other important parts are slightly wrong, the chamber may explode!

This was a technical problem that could not be overcome even in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

If the artillery wants to shoot out the shells, it must be loaded with gunpowder. The heavier the shell, the more gunpowder it will have.

If there is too little gunpowder, the impact force generated is not enough to fly the cannonball, and the cannonball may fall to the ground as soon as it leaves the barrel.

Perhaps the greatest power of this cannonball is to hit people's feet.

Think about how embarrassing this is.

But if too much is installed, since the barrel is a closed space, it will explode internally, that is, the barrel will explode!

Exploding the barrel is quite dangerous.

In the use of artillery, many tragedies occurred due to chamber explosion.

Therefore, before each artillery piece is officially put into operation, it will undergo many tests to find the most reasonable range and upper limit of gunpowder usage.

It is very difficult to ensure the power and not explode the chamber at the same time.

In addition, making clay molds is very troublesome and time-consuming. If you finally make it, you may not be able to use it.

Therefore, from the official production of artillery to the present, no more than thirty can be actually put into use.

Exaggeration?

This is not an exaggeration at all, it is reality.

Guan Ning understands.

Like many novels that easily create powerful artillery without any problems after time travel, that is pure nonsense.

They simply don't know that this is not just a matter of words.

Yuan Wen said: "We still have to use iron molds!"

"Iron molds are made with high precision and can be reused, resulting in fewer defects."

Guan Ning looked at the third-generation Yuanwu cannon that had just been fired. It was dark and smooth. He knew that it was really not easy to achieve this level with clay molds.

It was he who came up with the idea of ​​using iron molds.

"How's the iron mold going?"

"It's almost done."

Yuan Wen said: "But there is still one biggest problem, which is the lack of materials."

"According to your request, we used wrought iron to make cannons, but the yield of wrought iron is too low."

Wrought iron is steel.

The earliest materials used to make artillery were copper. Copper has better hardness and fire resistance, so the artillery made is indeed very reliable.

But the cost of making copper cannons was too high.

Copper is the main metal used in coin making, as you can imagine.

Then use iron.

Iron is also divided into pig iron and wrought iron.

Weapons made from pig iron are not very good, so how can we make cannons?

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it seemed that a lot of artillery was manufactured, but in fact they were made of pig iron. The output expanded, but the quality was very poor.

It's a fake product.

Therefore, Guan Ning made wrought iron the first priority, which was essentially steelmaking.

So these are all interrelated.

What you want to do, you must do.

This is the normal law of industrial development.

"Isn't the output of wrought iron high?"

Guan Ning said: "I have ordered the local government to hand over iron ore to the Ministry of Industry. After the establishment of the new dynasty, several iron mines that were originally private properties of the nobles were recovered and fully supplied to the Ministry of Industry. Even if it is insufficient, it will not be so short.

To some extent."

He was very dissatisfied with Yuan Wen's progress.

Production should always be moving forward, not stagnant!

After the war against Liang, Dakang suffered heavy losses and suffered serious troop reductions.

We must face three threats at the same time.

The situation of the northern barbarians is still unknown. The covenant was only signed by the Kled tribe, not all barbarians.

Moreover, the Kelei tribe could not tell when they would break up with Dakang and start another war.

Then there are Liang and Wei.

Needless to say, the Liang State, although the Wei State had united with its own country before, it was a last resort and was in line with the interests of the Wei State.

Liang Guo lost the threat, and then he had to guard against Dakang, or even attack Dakang directly.

The end of the war does not mean peace of mind. In fact, dangers are everywhere, and Guan Ning has a strong sense of urgency.

The Tiance Mansion and the Ministry of War jointly reported that according to their calculations, the country now needs to recruit at least another 300,000 troops.

The Zhenbei Army had been accumulated for many years and suffered many losses in successive battles. After Guan Ning took over, it has not been replenished.

The number of troops was reduced in combat and retired due to old age.

Replenishment is imminent.

And it’s better to do it sooner rather than later.

Because they have to be recruited for training in advance.

But how to levy it?

In the past few years, the country has not settled down. There have been wars for many years, and too many people have died. During the previous dynasty, they were recruited batch after batch by Emperor Longjing.

There is a serious shortage of young and middle-aged labor.

At present, there are ten houses and nine empty houses in six northern states, and if this continues, it may be the same across the country.

Without soldiers, the country cannot be defended. Continuing to recruit troops will, on the one hand, deplete the supply of soldiers, and on the other hand, it may trigger conflicts.

Disaster!

Therefore, Guan Ning adopted the strategy of elite troops.

Replace a large army with a small number of elite soldiers.

To make up for this shortcoming, we must develop firearms.

Not to mention reaching the level of the main force, at least becoming a major support.

Guan Ning's thoughts flashed away.

Yuan Wen said: "There is no shortage of iron ore, the Smelting Bureau has enough in stock."

"Is that a lack of coal?"

Under Professor Guan Ning, the technology of the Metallurgical Manufacturing Bureau of the Ministry of Industry has improved a lot.

It has moved from traditional ironmaking to a more advanced level.

Coal has been used in ancient times, but due to the scale of production, it has not been widely used and completely popularized.

Coal cannot make steel, but coke can.

So this step is to first turn coal into coke, and then use the coke to make steel.

For this reason, Guan Ning just established several coke factories in the suburbs of Beijing, specifically for making coke.

This aspect is not a new technology. There were many coke factories in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
To be continued...