This is not the first time that everyone in Baoxiang Camp in Funiushan has played artillery, but when others saw that in order to maintain only two 600-pound cannons, they needed to use sixteen horses, and they couldn't help but feel the huge expenses of artillery.

"As long as we do, we don't have so many horses!" Zhang Malin, the artillery whistle's whistle, was worried.

"The previous two hundred kilograms of artillery were enough to beat four horses. If you were to go out of the mountain and go in a flatter place, you could save another horse. If you need to, it would be impossible to resist the ammunition directly by man."

"The one hundred kilograms of light cannon seized is easier. Two horses can walk by pulling them. When there is no horse, you don't need a horse. You can walk by pulling them by pulling them by pulling them by pulling them."

"But these six hundred pound cannons are not easy to do!"

Artillery sentry has now become the second largest horse operator in cavalry sentry. Two 600 kilogram cannons, two 200 kilogram cannons, three 100 kilogram cannons, and thirty horses have been used to pull the cannons and pull the ammunition carriages.

Although there are many mules and horses in Baoxiang camp, the big heads are all on the side of the cavalry post. Apart from the more than 100 mules and horses used at the cavalry posts, there are only more than 50 mules and horses left.

More than half of these more than fifty mules and horses were used by artillery posts, and only more than twenty mules and horses were left for transportation.

Even if the mules and horses that do not care about transporting supplies later, it is impossible to continue to expand the artillery post, because it is impossible to free up more mules and horses for the artillery posts to be used.

Luo Zhixue is naturally very clear about Zhang Malin's concerns, and he has been solving this problem. The first and second posts he sent out before came out, in addition to recruiting food, he also shouldered the important task of requisitioning various strategic resources such as mules, horses, iron tools, etc.

So Luo Zhixue said: "Wait patiently, I believe Brother Lin and Brother Wang will bring us good news."

"However, even if there is a shortage of mules and horses, the training of artillery whistles still needs to be stepped up. More artillery must be trained as much as possible. The weapons workshop has begun to manufacture molds for artillery making, and four 600 kilograms of artillery and four 200 kilograms of artillery have been scheduled. Before the artillery is built, the artillery whistle must prepare gunners in advance."

Hearing this, although Zhang Malin looked happy, the more artillery, the larger the size of his artillery whistle, which also means that he has a greater voice in the Baoxiangying group.

But he was still worried: "If so many shots, will our pressure be too great."

Luo Zhixue didn't care: "It's hard to say what will happen in the future, but it's always right to get the cannon out first."

The construction period of the artillery is too long, and it takes several months for a cannon to start from construction to completion.

Luo Zhixue was extremely determined to build and expand the artillery troops. No matter whether there were enough mules and horses, Luo Zhixue would first make the artillery.

"We will get the cannons out first. There are no mules and horses now, so we can wait, and we can also fix the cannons and deploy them directly..."

"If the Ming army does not attack in large quantities later, we will stay in the Funiu Mountain area. More artillery cannons will be placed on Songshan, so it will be easier when the Ming army attacks!"

In Luo Zhixue's plan, the Baoxiang Camp will focus on defense operations in the future, and at most some small-scale troops will go out to attack and collect grain and other unconventional operations.

In defense operations, the artillery troops of Baoxiang Camp naturally do not need to perform any maneuvers. They just need to place the artillery directly on the turret for fixed deployment. This fixed deployment can be used without mules and horses pulling artillery all over the world.

Not only artillery, but also the transportation of baggage does not require any mules, horses and carriages. After all, defense operations are carried out at the doorstep. Food, ammunition, etc., can be transported up directly by the civilians' shoulders.

In other words, during defensive operations, Baoxiangying actually did not have a great demand for mules and horses.

The continuous increase in artillery is the cost of casting artillery and ammunition, plus the maintenance costs of artillery.

And this kind of cost is affordable in Baoxiang Camp today.

The ammunition costs are mainly the gunpowder purchased by the outside world. The price of this gunpowder is naturally very expensive. However, if there is no war, the artillery whistle rarely conducts live ammunition training, so daily training costs are not large.

As for the time of war, who cares whether gunpowder is expensive or not, naturally, it is enough to fight as much as you want.

The cost of casting cannons is actually not high. The price of a 200-pound short-barrel cannon is only more than twenty taels of silver, and not a set of armor is expensive...

A six hundred kilogram cannon costs only 140 taels of silver, which is generally equivalent to the price of three war horses.

Although it is difficult to calculate the cost of the self-made artillery in Baoxiangying, well, the artillery and other weapons in the Baoxiangying weapon workshop have no ex-factory price. They are all made and used by themselves, and even the raw materials are purchased by the caravan and prepared for them.

At the same time, the craftsmen in the weapons workshop do not get their salary. They are all food, accommodation and clothing. Not only them, but also all the daily necessities of their families are directly distributed for free.

However, through the expenses of purchasing various materials such as iron and other materials, the daily expenses of craftsmen and purchasing personnel, it can be roughly inferred that a 600-jin cannon built by Baoxiangxing, with the gun stand, costs about 140 taels of silver...

The Ming Dynasty imported several thousand kilograms of red cannons, but one was actually only about a thousand taels of silver. The self-made red cannons were basically around a few hundred taels of silver. This price was still reported to the court, including non-production costs such as "flooding or not", and the pure cost was even lower.

The real price of iron cast cannons these days is a long-barrel cannon of about three pounds. Well, it is almost the same as the 600-pound long cannon in Baoxiangying. It is equivalent to the price of two sets of good armor or three war horses, more than one hundred taels of silver.

The price of a twelve-pound iron cast long-tube cannon doubled on this basis, about three hundred taels.

It is worth noting that if it is a large-caliber long-barrel heavy artillery, its price will rise rapidly. The price of a 32-pound cannon cannon can buy dozens of three-pound field cannons, and it can be several thousand taels at any time. This is mainly caused by the extremely high scrap rate of a large-caliber long-barrel cannon.

The Baoxiangying itself is actually quite expensive in the price of artillery. The main reason is that their iron materials are expensive, and the scale of small-scale fights has not increased, and this is the first time to build artillery, so the cost is relatively large.

Then we count the food for the personnel. In today's Henan, the food prices have long risen...

There are many kinds, and in the calculation, the price of the self-made artillery in Baoxiangying should be higher than the actual price of artillery making in the Ming army.

However, the price of the Ming Dynasty purchasing imported goods and self-made artillery is definitely much higher than that of the Baoxiangying self-made artillery, and it is easy to double it.

Don’t ask why, ask is that the Ming Dynasty has its own national conditions!

The cost of a 600-pound cannon is only more than 100 taels of silver. This price may be very expensive to others, but in Luo Zhixue's view, it is a price that is completely acceptable and even cheap.

One hundred cannons cost only more than ten thousand taels of silver. This is not cheap, what is it?

Considering that the cost of the cannon itself is not high, Luo Zhixue planned to make the cannon first. If there are mules and horses, use them as field cannons, and if there are no mules and horses, it is fixedly deployed as city fire cannons.

In short, no matter how you use it, you must have artillery and have to have more!

As for the mule and horse problem that Zhang Malin is worried about, it depends on how much Lin Dongsheng and Wang Dazhuang have gained outside the mountain.

Most of the mules and horses in Baoxiangying were brought by Sun Cheng during the reign of the times, and some of them were collected from surrounding villages in the past few months. The Funiu Mountain area was originally barren, and the mountain people did not have many mules and horses, so they could not recruit many even after they were recruited.

As the scale of Baoxiang Camp continued to expand, especially the scale of cavalry increased from more than 60 cavalry to 100 cavalry, the demand for mules and horses has become increasingly greater since the establishment of artillery troops, which has led to the serious shortage of mules and horses in Baoxiang Camp.

This problem cannot be solved within Funiu Mountain. I can only hope that Lin Dongsheng's troops and Wang Dazhuang's troops who came out of the mountain can bring back enough mules and horses.

Luo Zhixue didn't ask them to get back a large number of excellent war horses, as long as they could bring back some mules and horses for service.

Even a donkey is OK...

Before they came back, Luo Zhixue was not idle either. He continued to focus on all aspects of the camp. After seeing Zhang Malin and hearing about the construction of the artillery troops, he ran to the weapons workshop that had just been fully moved to Songshan Village for a new round of inspections.

Song Blacksmith, who had been promoted to the manager of the weapon workshop, stood respectfully in front of Luo Zhixue and introduced the situation in the weapon workshop to Luo Zhixue.

"General, all the people in the weapons workshop have come from Sanshui Village. Because the general in front of you, you have ordered the establishment of an iron smelting furnace and water hammer in Sanshui Village in advance, so our resumption of work is very fast and we have started full production now."

"General, this is the water hammer you ordered before. This thing is very useful. Not only does it have more strength to hit iron than we use handmade tools, but it also uses even force. The iron is better. It is not only better, and it keeps going day and night. This water hammer is comparable to a dozen blacksmiths."

Luo Zhixue looked in the direction he pointed, and there was a factory building in front of him. Outside the factory was a stream. The stream was directly dammed, and the overflowing river water rushed down from a high place, which led to a water truck behind the dam to rotate continuously. As the water truck rotated, you could hear the sound of hammers coming from the room.

"Let's go and have a look!" Although this thing was personally guided by Luo Zhixue, and even the craftsmen discussed drawings together to make things, this was the first time Luo Zhixue saw the real thing.

Luo Zhixue is still looking forward to this.

After all, this is his first attempt to promote industrialization. Although it is only hydraulic industrialization, it still means a lot.

As long as you can succeed, who dares to say that Funiushan is not an industrial country...

Alas, there seems to be some problems. Luo Zhixue has not yet established the country...
Chapter completed!