In the military camp outside Sujiacun, officers gathered together in the camp command room.
"All the groomsmen, please keep your hearts in mind, time is not waiting for me.
The reconnaissance camp found out that King Jinshi of Yimenbao was consolidating the power of the gentry in the county.
Now the gentry has begun to transport grain to Yimen Fort, and they are recruiting young people.
If Yimenbao is allowed to integrate all the gentry, we will be in danger."
Su He knew that the militias formed by the gentry and landlords were more powerful than the official army when it came to defending their own interests.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Rebellion led to the collapse of the Green Battalion and the Eight Banners' combat effectiveness.
It all relied on the gentry and landlords to train their armed forces to suppress the Taiping Rebellion.
He opened a simple map and issued a combat order: "Su Xiong is responsible for commanding the frontline of the battle and coordinating various combat units.
Su Hu led a regiment to attack Guanyintang. After capturing Guanyintang, he stationed himself there to monitor the Dashan Pass garrison.
The second regiment detoured from the west, attacked all villages, dealt with the gentry according to our normal methods, and finally surrounded Yimen Fort from the west.
The third regiment detoured from the east, with the same mission as the second regiment, and finally surrounded Yimen Fort from the east.
The reconnaissance battalion protects the logistics channels and at the same time cuts off the connection between Yimen Fort and the outside world."
Su He issued the combat order and the troops immediately began to take action.
The veterans are eager to try, ready to be rewarded for their meritorious service.
The new recruits looked nervous, wondering whether they could adapt to the battlefield.
Su He watched the large troops walking out of the military camp, hoping that the war would go well.
Su Xiong and others grew up rapidly, and Su He began to slowly let go of frontline command. He was only responsible for strategic direction.
Su He wanted to take over everything, and without Su Xiong and others taking personal command, they would never have the possibility to grow.
Only with talent and training in war can he grow into a famous general.
Liu Bang's Peixian Group helped him conquer the world.
With Xiao He in literature, he can bring peace to the world, and in military affairs, Lu Ze, the god of war.
Lu Ze helped Liu Bang conquer most of the world, and he was no worse than Han Xin.
His deeds were destroyed by Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty after the Zhulu Rebellion. There are still some things that cannot be deleted and are recorded.
Zhu Yuanzhang had the Huaixi Group to help him conquer the entire world.
There is Liu Bowen in literature, and Xu Da in martial arts.
During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bei recruited more than a hundred young men, and two men stood out in the end. They were named Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
Su He understood these historical common sense, and he knew that as long as he gave his generals room for development, these people would definitely bring him big surprises.
Su Que knocked on the door and walked in, reporting: "Commander Su, the director of the firearms factory Zhang Dezhi sent someone to report that he has cast a qualified bronze cannon."
When Su He heard that Zhang Dezhi had succeeded in casting the cannon, he immediately rushed to the firearms factory.
The participation of Zhang Dezhi and a large number of craftsmen from the Wei Institute greatly improved the skills of the rebel team.
In order to accommodate Zhang Dezhi, Su He divided the original weapons factory into two parts.
Uncle Su Wuniu is in charge of a granular gunpowder factory with a simpler process but a very important status.
Zhang Dezhi is in charge of the firearms factory that specializes in casting muskets and artillery.
The smelting plant became independent and was managed by Wei Shiming, Zhang Dezhi's eldest apprentice.
Su He came to the west of the village, which was already a large factory area.
The villagers moved to a nearby place and built new houses.
Here on the Loess Plateau, a hole is dug in the ground, and that is a house.
Zhang Dezhi saw Su He approaching and said excitedly: "Commander Su, the coke you mentioned really works.
The temperature is far higher than that of the original charcoal, and it can melt molten iron directly.
But now we haven't found a method to smelt iron ore, and the iron produced is still very brittle and not suitable for cannon casting.
But the molten iron can be poured directly into the mold to form a fixed shape.
Use them to make mine and grenade casings with very high yields.
We use coke to smelt bronze, which is much simpler than using charcoal before, and the smelted bronze contains very few impurities."
Zhang Zhide held the meter ruler and vernier caliper in his hand and said excitedly: "Commander Su, the ruler you developed is so accurate. In the past, we could only rely on experience to judge, but now we can directly use the ruler to measure."
Su He summarized his previous cannon-casting experience and found that although weights and measures were unified here, the rulers of different craftsmen were all one foot long and had different lengths.
He pulled out the precise system of weights and measures that he had memorized.
When he was teaching Su Xiong before, he estimated the length of one meter based on the size of his own bones and asked them to use meters as the unit of length.
After seizing a large amount of mercury, he created an accurate one-meter-long ruler based on the standard atmospheric pressure equal to 760 mm of mercury, and also created a vernier caliper.
Using the saltpeter ice making method, the ice-water mixture is 0 degrees Celsius and the boiling water is 100 degrees Celsius to create an alcohol thermometer.
One cubic decimeter of water is one kilogram at 4 degrees Celsius. Determine the unit of mass.
Mass is mainly used in formulas in Suhe's handling memory.
In order to take into account the usual usage habits, one kilogram is equal to two kilograms.
Change the currently commonly used one pound and sixteen taels into one pound and twelve taels for easy calculation.
Suhe has unified the weights and measures in the base area through simple methods, which are now only used in factory areas and military camps.
He did not forcefully promote the new weights and measures, but gradually let the villagers accept the new weights and measures through subtle methods.
Zhang Dezhi introduced Su He to the firearms factory and took him to see the bronze cannon manufacturing process.
The coke burns with a blue flame and can easily melt copper coins.
Wei Shiming directed the craftsmen to add appropriate amounts of lead and tin to copper to create a bronze alloy.
Zhang Dezhi called his eldest disciple Wei Shiming over.
"Please introduce the quality of bronze to Commander Su."
He asked his apprentice to perform well in front of Su He and leave a good impression.
Wei Shiming was a little at a loss, but he introduced the bronze very fluently.
"I specially found a group of porcelain craftsmen and asked them to retort coal according to the method given by Commander Su.
The coke produced has a high ignition point and very few impurities, making it very suitable for smelting metals.
After hundreds of experiments, I found the best bronze ratio and smelting time for cannon casting under coke fire.
It is more ductile and tougher than ordinary bronze, and cannons cast from it are less likely to explode."
After hearing this, Su He admired and said, "This invention of yours is very remarkable. I will reward you five hundred taels of silver."
In the future, if the factory has inventions that can improve product quality, I will give corresponding rewards."
Su He was very happy. Talents who could improve the quality of bronze would be very profitable if they could be trained to make steel.
He continued to watch the process of casting the cannon, as the craftsman poured molten bronze into the mold.
Zhang Dezhi said: "According to the iron mold cannon casting method proposed by Commander Su, I finally succeeded after many attempts.
Commander Su, the bronze cannon was poured into the iron mold. It took two days to finalize the shape, and then it needed to be polished.
The whole process takes three days in total. I have the cast cannon here and I will take you over to see it."
"OK."
Su He also wanted to try bronze cannons early and followed Zhang Dezhi to see the forged cannons.
The iron mold casting method was invented by Gong Zhenlin in the Qing Dynasty during the Opium War.
The biggest advantage of this method is that it saves time, unlike the current clay mold cannon, which must take several months to dry in the sun.
Iron-moulded cannons can also standardize the caliber of cannons, and cannon shells can also be produced in a standardized manner.
Due to inherent technical flaws in the clay mold, the calibers of the cannons are not uniform, and each cannon needs to polish its shells independently.
Iron-moulded cannons also have disadvantages: the iron film dissipates heat too quickly, and the outer layer of the cannon cools too quickly.
What is produced is white iron, which increases the brittleness and reduces the performance of the artillery.
In order to increase the tensile strength, the wall thickness can only be increased, making the cannon very bulky.
This shortcoming of iron-moulded cannons is specific to iron cannons.
For bronze cannons, iron-moulded cannons have all advantages.
Su He saw the cast bronze cannons. There were three types of cannons in total.
A small, light cannon, a medium-sized artillery, and a heavy artillery.