However, Shang Yi's current focus is still on preparing for the war to quell the rebellion in the south. Therefore, after all administrative and production work was gradually arranged, Shang Yi began to pay attention to the craftsmen's workshops of the Arms Department.
Before Shang Yi went to Beijing, he told Sun Heding the principle of the iron mold casting method. However, to make the iron mold, you still need to make a clay mold for the iron mold at the beginning. At this time, the clay mold has not yet dried completely. , so it is not possible to make molds to cast cannons for the time being. However, before that, Sun Heding made ten clay molds for casting cannons with the scriptures. At this time, the scriptures were all dry, so don’t waste them, use them first. This At that time, Sun He Ding Yi Jing began to break ground to melt the iron. It is expected that before Shang Yi's men set off, the first batch of cannons cast by Mulingguan will be ready.
In the workshop that manufactures muskets, Yang Mano is carefully observing the two drilling machines, looking for areas that can be improved. However, if the drill bit problem cannot be solved, no matter how much improvement is made, the production efficiency may not be significantly improved. And Shang Yi did not tell him that he had sent people to mine sapphires according to the scriptures, which could be used to make drill bits, because it was not yet clear whether they could be mined, and we would wait until the results were obtained.
In addition, according to Shang Yi's expectation, the muskets of the Merchant Army should be half flintlocks and half matchlocks. Therefore, all musket production was suspended at this time, and all efforts were made to transform existing muskets. At the same time, a batch of Temporary replacement accessories can be used on the battlefield.
Shang Yi walked around the blacksmith shop and was very satisfied with Sun Heding's work. The future development of the merchant army will depend entirely on the support of these small workshops.
However, artillery and artillery alone are not enough, because without gunpowder, artillery and artillery are just piles of scrap iron. Therefore, the importance of gunpowder production is no less important than the production of guns and artillery.
Now in Muling Pass, not only muskets use fixed bullets, but artillery also uses fixed ammunition. The filling of artillery is far more complicated than that of muskets. First, the detonating gunpowder is filled in, and after compaction, a mud cake is filled in, and then the Artillery shells are generally fired after being heated red by fire in order to achieve the maximum killing effect. Therefore, the detonating gunpowder must be separated from the artillery shell so as not to cause an explosion of gunpowder immediately after the artillery shell is filled. And the artillery shell For custom-loaded ammunition, you must first test the filling amounts of various artillery pieces and make shells of corresponding sizes. Then the shells, gunpowder, and mud cakes are all packaged together. When used, they are disassembled and filled separately.
Moreover, gunpowder is a consumable. The biggest disadvantage of using firearms as the main combat weapon is that it consumes too much. Even if there is no war, in order to ensure the normal training of soldiers, a large amount of ammunition must be consumed every day.
According to Shang Yi's requirements, each new musketeer must ensure fifteen to twenty live-fire shooting trainings every day, the veteran musketeers must ensure ten live-fire shootings, and each group of gunners must ensure eight to ten live-fire shootings every day. Training must not be careless.
Since the number of firearms has more than doubled, the amount of gunpowder consumed every day has reached more than three thousand kilograms. At the same time, grenades, rocket launchers and other projectile weapons must be produced, so although Shang Yi brought back a large amount of gunpowder from Beijing, The raw materials for production cannot withstand much consumption. However, Shang Yi also knows that he cannot be stingy on this point. The sharpshooters and marksmen in the era of hot weapons are all fed with bullets.
Sun Heding also introduced to Shang Yi that the gunpowder workshop has now become the largest craftsman workshop in Mulingguan, with eight senior technicians, 26 assistant technicians, 93 junior technicians, and 257 apprentices.
. I work overtime every day to make all kinds of gunpowder. Even if I can't prepare gunpowder at night, I still do the work of burning charcoal, making nitrate, and purifying sulfur. But that's it, the output of gunpowder every day is less than
Four thousand kilograms is only enough to maintain daily training. The gunpowder currently in stock in Guancheng is only enough to cope with one battle. Therefore, the gunpowder workshop must immediately expand its scale.
After Shang Yi learned about these situations, he immediately ordered to double the size of the gunpowder workshop and recruit temporary apprentice craftsmen to increase the output of gunpowder. Expanding the scale is easy, as long as there is a factory. Now the people
They all moved out of Mulingguan and settled in various villages. Soldiers were stationed outside the city. In Guancheng, there were mainly families of generals and craftsmen, so there was still some space. And now the busiest sowing period has passed.
The dry season is still more than a month away, and when we enter a relatively slack period, recruiting craftsmen is not a problem.
After receiving Shang Yi's order, Sun Heding immediately began to expand the business of the gunpowder workshop.
At the same time, we need to prepare more than just guns and ammunition for this dispatch, because this is the first long-term long-distance battle for the Merchant Army after it was formed. The battle will be nearly two thousand miles away, and it is difficult to determine how long the battle will last.
Therefore, although Shang Yi had prepared men and horses to transport logistics supplies, it was impossible for the army to travel lightly when setting off, and it would carry a large amount of baggage supplies. Therefore, various vehicles were indispensable.
In fact, all kinds of military vehicles were very developed in the Ming Dynasty. Not only did each large and medium-sized artillery have its own dedicated vehicle, but there were also many other types of vehicles, including logistics and transportation, as well as auxiliary operations.
There are also tanks that combine several functions and can be used for both transportation and combat.
Because artillery is a very heavy item, especially the Hongyi cannon, which often weighs several thousand kilograms, and the No. 1 Fran machine gun also weighs eight hundred kilograms. The normal transportation and transfer are all carried by the cannon truck, so the cannon
Carts are also an indispensable supporting tool for artillery. A 2,000-jin Hongyi cannon requires four to six horses to pull, while a 1,000-jin Hongyi cannon requires two to four horses.
Since Western missionaries and even Western mercenaries were involved in the cannon casting in the Ming Dynasty in recent decades, the cannon carriages were basically imitating Western styles, using double high wheels and a large oblique tail vertebra at the rear.
The structure is not only a support, but also plays a certain role in fixing it. It is basically the most reasonable design of this era. It only needs some careful modifications and it can continue to be used.
One of the methods of improvement is to add a pair of movable wheels to the rear of the artillery cart, and install the wheels when it needs to be moved. This turns the two-wheeled cart into a four-wheeled cart, and the horses can save much effort when pulling the artillery.
After entering the position, lower the wheels on the tail, and the tail vertebra is still supported on the ground and fixed, and you can start fighting.
At the same time, Shang Yi also attached an auxiliary vehicle to each artillery cart to load a certain amount of ammunition for each artillery. In this way, the ammunition would follow the artillery to avoid confusion due to the use of additional ammunition after entering the battlefield.
.In fact, these two improvements were used by the European armies in the 18th century. They were widely used in the Napoleon era and were now used by Shang Yi more than half a century ahead of schedule.
However, for Shang Yi, except for the special vehicles for artillery, he does not need the vehicles that assist in combat. He only needs to keep the logistics transport vehicles. Firstly, it is because there is not enough time to manufacture these vehicles. Secondly, Shang Yi feels that This type of tank is basically flashy and of little practical use.
Vehicles that assist in combat can be roughly divided into two types. One is to help build defensive positions, and the other is to help attack cities. Qi Jiguang once used a large number of vehicles to assist in combat. However, Shang Yi did not despise Qi Jiguang, but he had four hundred more vehicles than Qi Jiguang. After many years of knowledge and experience, I naturally know that there is a better way, which is to dig trenches and stack earth bags. Numerous factual combat examples in later generations have proved that after entering the era of thermal weapons, the combined use of trenches and earth bags has a great impact on building construction. Defending positions or attacking cities are far more effective than flashy tanks.
At present, there are a total of 800 large and small vehicles in Mulingguan, including more than 200 double-drawn carriages, more than 500 single-drawn carriages, and more than 200 human-powered wheelbarrows. In ancient China, carriages were basically two-wheeled. , although European-style four-wheeled carriages have appeared, they have never become popular.
However, both two-wheeled carriages and four-wheeled carriages have their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is impossible to say who is better or worse. The advantage of a four-wheeled carriage is that it has a larger carrying capacity. At the same time, when pulling, the horses do not need to bear the force of supporting the car body, so it is also It is more labor-saving. The disadvantage is that the steering is not flexible enough and the road requirements are relatively large, which is the advantage of the two-wheeled carriage. However, with the development of the times and the improvement of road transportation, the advantages of the four-wheeled carriage will gradually expand. .
Although Shang Yi once thought about making a large four-wheeled carriage, considering the traffic conditions of the Ming Dynasty at this time, he decided to give up this plan and discuss it later.
This time the troops will be dispatched mainly with single-drawn carriages and wheelbarrows, supplemented by a small number of double-drawn carriages. Under normal circumstances, the load capacity of a double-drawn carriage can exceed one ton, which is about fifteen stones. .The load capacity of a single-drawn carriage is about 500 to 600 kilograms, which is about eight to ten stones. A human-powered wheelbarrow, used by a normal middle-aged man, has a load capacity of about 150 to 150 kilograms. Two hundred kilograms, equivalent to two to three stones.
After calculation, Shang Yi decided that a main battle group would be equipped with 300 vehicles, including 50 double-drawn carriages, 150 single-drawn carriages, and 100 wheelbarrows. The total transportation capacity would exceed 2,000 Five hundred stones, when fully loaded, can exceed three thousand stones. Double-drawn carriages and single-drawn carriages will carry grain, gunpowder and other heavier supplies, while wheelbarrows will carry other light supplies.
A transportation group will be equipped with 500 vehicles, including 150 double-drawn carriages, 250 single-drawn carriages, and 100 wheelbarrows. The total transportation capacity is about 4,000. Under full load, It will be more than five thousand stones.
But as a result, the current vehicles in Mulingguan are only enough to assemble two main battle groups, and there are basically not many transportation groups left. Therefore, Shang Yi also ordered Lu Shi to have the wood workshop speed up the work, but The transport group can start later and still have plenty of time. Fortunately, there are currently nearly 10,000 horses and donkeys in Muling Pass, which is enough to pull carts and livestock.
The last thing is to make new military uniforms and military caps, but this is also the easiest thing, because every woman in this era knows how to make clothes by hand, and among the population controlled by Shang Yi, there are 20,000
There are many young and middle-aged women, so as long as there is enough fabric, it can be completed in half a month at most.