After hearing He Xi's words, Fu Zhong breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, Fu Zhong is not willing to offend He Xi. No matter whether He Xi is Zhu Yuanzhang's illegitimate son or not, one thing is certain. That is He Xi is now favored. There is no benefit in offending this person. However, there are some things that men cannot let go.
It's not that Princess Anqing is so good, but that Fu Zhong's mother has already said it. If Princess Anqing is taken away by someone, it will be the hatred of taking away his wife, and no man can swallow this breath.
Now Hexi has made his position clear. Fu Zhong will naturally reciprocate the favor.
Fu Zhong said: "Good brother, you are not responsible for supervising the manufacture of weapons. I will lead the way for you. I am very familiar with this weapons bureau. I have supervised the manufacture of weapons with my father several times. I am very familiar with it." He said that he was like a bear's paw.
He Xi's hand patted on He Xi's shoulder. He Xi felt as if a nail was being driven into the ground, and his shoulder hurt.
However, Fu Zhong had to accept the kindness and said, "Thank you so much, Brother Fu."
-------
The Ordnance Bureau is very large.
There are tens of thousands of craftsmen in the Nanjing Ordnance Bureau alone, divided into four large factories, and there are even several workshops outside the city. In terms of scale, it is no smaller than some enterprises of later generations.
He Xi came here specifically to visit the armor-making site.
With Fu Zhong leading the way, He Xi quickly figured out the way. Fu Zhong called a little old man to He Xi and said, "This is Foreman Ge. He has been with the Ordnance Bureau for many years. He is very interested in making weapons.
, the most familiar. If you have anything, just ask him, don’t ask those big turbans, those big turbans don’t know anything.”
After He Xi heard this, he took a peek and saw that the officials from the Ministry of Industry who were following him, ranging from the director of the Ministry of Industry to the ambassador of the Ordnance Bureau and other officials of all sizes, all looked unhappy. But no one dared to speak.
.
Because they know that although it doesn't sound good, it is true.
They secretly murmured in their hearts that this kind of craftsman's work is not the way to treat Confucian ministers. They are Confucian ministers, why should they understand it. But by saying this, Fu Zhong, a soldier, obviously does not understand. It is reasonable for a scholar to meet a soldier.
I can't tell. I have no choice but to say nothing.
This was also the norm during the Hongwu period. Fu Zhong was just the son of a marquis, and he overpowered officials below the Minister of Works. He did not dare to take a breath.
He Xi saw this and didn't care. After all, business was more important.
He Xi said to Foreman Ge: "Old man, could you please lead the way? Let me see how the armor is made."
Just by this sentence, Foreman Ge felt something different. He was an old man in the Ordnance Bureau. It can be said that before the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang was still the King of Wu, Foreman Ge was already working in the Ordnance Bureau. So
Over the years, I have met countless people.
I have seen honest and honest officials, I have seen ruthless corrupt officials, I have seen vulgar generals, but I have never seen anyone like He Xi.
No matter what kind of official he was, no matter how he spoke to him, there was always a feeling of condescension inside. He could feel that He Xi was also arrogant. But there was not much condescension in this sentence.
After all, He Xi is a modern person. With different knowledge systems, it is normal for He Xi to have some arrogance. But He Xi is deeply influenced by the idea that everyone is equal. Whether it is fake politeness or true politeness, he definitely does not look down on others.
This feeling was clearly grasped by Foreman Ge.
Foreman Ge said: "Yes."
Then He Xi and his party were led to a blacksmith furnace.
The fire was burning, much stronger than the fire in the bank. A young apprentice, shirtless and only wearing shorts, said "ouch", swung the heavy hammer and smashed it down. Then, a gray-haired apprentice,
The old craftsman holding a fire tong in one hand and holding a red-hot iron bar was also shirtless, wearing only calf pants, but wearing a leather apron in front of him, holding a small hammer, and smashed with a sledgehammer.
After that, the small hammer immediately hit it.
While tapping, the fire tongs also slightly change their position to ensure that the tapping is accurate and even, leaving no dead ends.
There was also an apprentice who was pushing the bellows desperately. The flames flew into the sky, but they were tightly held by the furnace. They could only struggle.
Just like this, the sound of fire, the sound of bellows, the sound of harmony, the colorful sounds of hammers and hammers falling, and even the sound of sparks flying around, seemed like a symphony.
Under He Xi's watch, the iron ingot was hammered into pieces of armor. Then, the old craftsman took an iron cone, pointed it at the armor pieces that had not completely cooled down, and made a few small holes with a few jingles.
Just come out.
Then he held the piece of armor and went deep into the water. Suddenly there was a sound of "------" and a large piece of white smoke came out.
After the nail plate stopped emitting white smoke, a dark piece of nail plate was taken out of the water and put aside.
He Xi touched it with water, and there was still some warmth, but it was no longer hot. He held it in his hand and weighed it. This piece of armor was about ten centimeters long and five or six centimeters wide, with seven marks on it.
Eight holes, each hole is about three millimeters in diameter.
These holes are not drilled along the sides, it seems that there is some technology in the perforation.
Overall, it is very thin and light, but also has some weight.
He Xi asked Foreman Ge, "Can these armor pieces be used?"
Foreman Ge said: "This still needs to be polished and oiled before weaving."
He Xi touched it and found that the nails were very rough. She said, "Let's go and see how to weave."
Under the leadership of Foreman Ge, a group of people came to another courtyard and saw large wooden tables here. Some women were sitting around the tables. There were several baskets in the middle of the tables. He Xi stepped forward and saw these
The baskets are full of armor pieces. The armor pieces in each basket are different.
Most of the nail plates are rectangular, but rectangles are also different. There are also trapezoids and other shapes. He Xi looked at it at a glance and saw that there were about nine baskets, that is, there were nine different kinds of nail plates. Then look
These women used slender cowhide to weave the armor together to form large pieces of armor.
These different parts of the armor were taken away again.
In the next process, heavy cotton cloth is used as interlining, and the large pieces of armor that have been woven are riveted on. Then the large pieces of armor are tied together and three sided breast shields are installed. The entire armor is basically formed.
It probably looks like a vest. It is open in the middle and tied with a rope. There are two breast protectors on the chest and one breast protector on the back.
Here He Xi also saw a helmet. It was an iron cap made of eight pieces of iron and closed in the middle. It might not look good if it hasn't been painted yet.
Seeing this, He Xi had a good idea. He asked Foreman Ge: "How many pairs of armors does this Ordnance Bureau produce in a day?"
Foreman Ge said: "Originally we could produce a hundred pairs a day. But in recent years, a lot of armor has been accumulated in various places, so there is no need to produce so many."
He Xi nodded. Weapons in the cold weapon age are different from guns and ammunition. Even firearms have a long shelf life. If a pair of armor is well maintained, it should be passed down for hundreds of years without any problems. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom even dug out Wu Sangui's artillery.
, a case that can still be used.
Large-scale wars certainly involve consumption. However, since the Battle of Lingbei in the fifth year of Hongwu, in the past ten years or so, there have been constant small battles but few major battles. Large-scale ordnance production has never been interrupted, but most of it has been shipped to
The northern front line, or strengthening the defense posts in various places.
The armor has such a long shelf life. It is obvious that it does not need to be updated, so the production of armor will naturally be stopped, and it does not need to be so fast. We only need to maintain the basic production capacity and make replacements at the same time.
After all, armor may only be stored for a long time. But once a war breaks out, the consumption will be hard to say.
It's okay to win a battle, but once defeated, it's normal to abandon your armor and lose tens of thousands of armors in a battle.
The Nanjing Ordnance Bureau is the largest weapons production base in the country. At least until the Ming Dynasty moved the capital, it will maintain this scale. Zhu Yuanzhang has always been prepared for danger in times of peace.
He Xi made some calculations in his mind. Even if the Nanjing Ordnance Bureau worked overtime to produce more than 10,000 pairs of armors by the end of this year and replenished 100,000 pairs of armors, it would probably take two or three years. He thought to himself: "The craftsmanship of the armor.
It must be improved. Otherwise, this task cannot be completed."
Then He Xi thought of crossbows again and said, "Foreman Ge, how is the production of crossbows? Is there room for improvement?"
Foreman Ge said: "Sir, let me tell you the truth. The maximum number of crossbows this year is eight thousand. Because what determines the production of crossbows is not the amount of labor, but the amount of materials, cowhide, beef tendon, isinglass, and various bow materials. This
They cannot be produced in one or two years, and it is already autumn. Many materials will not be ready until next autumn due to the wrong season, and it will take several years before the bow can be produced."
He Xi frowned and said secretly: "Why is it so complicated?"
According to Foreman Ge, with this production method, it is impossible to produce a sufficient number of crossbows in three months. He Xi said: "Go over and take a look."
Foreman Ge immediately took the lead. After walking around several courtyards, he came to the bow-making place. Compared with the armor-making place, where the clanging and clanging was in full swing, it was very quiet here and there were many fewer craftsmen.
He Xi only saw rows of wooden shelves. On the wooden shelves, long bows were pressed. To be precise, the molds on the wooden shelves pressed many materials into the shape of long bows.
He Xi leaned over and took a sniff, and could still smell an indescribable smell, which was not very good. He Xi estimated that it was the smell of various materials such as lacquer and isinglass mixed together.
"Actually, you don't have to worry too much about crossbows. After all, most of the troops today use firearms instead of crossbows." Seeing He Xi's dilemma, Fu Zhong said, "And going to the south, crossbows are even more inconvenient. As long as you can add some
The amount of firearms and crossbows can be discharged."