This time, Shang Yi did not personally direct the battle to wipe out Majiazhai, which was indeed because he couldn't get away. There were too many things he had to worry about now. After the shipbuilding and reorganization of the army were dealt with, Shang Yi continued
What you need to pay attention to is another key project in your hands, the arsenal.
In fact, the construction of the arsenal has always been under the command of Sun Heding, and it is proceeding step by step. Because the merchant army is now in sufficient labor force, the project is also progressing very smoothly. At this time, all the prisoners of the Spanish Expeditionary Force were organized into the arsenal.
The construction team also includes commanders Dela Pena and Earl Joaquin.
Now the entire arsenal is based on the scale of the first economy. The outer walls are erected more than four feet high. Some partial walls have been completed with the meridians, and several guardhouses have been completed. The trenches outside the walls are also under construction.
The construction of the arsenal is also about to end the project of a work area. Rows of newly built brick and tiled houses are erected. Sun Heding has now begun to draw up the work area and arrange craftsmen brought from Muling Pass
Carry out equipment installation and debugging, as well as preparations for some production materials. After the beginning of the year, the arsenal can start partial production. Because time is tight now, it is impossible to wait until the arsenal is fully built before starting production. It can only be one side
Construction while production.
Among the craftsmen captured from the Spanish army were more than 120 gun manufacturers and more than 50 gunpowder manufacturers. At this time, they were all installed in the arsenal, and they were all under the jurisdiction of Sun Heding. Now they are familiar with the environment.
While Aconia sent missionaries to teach them some simple Chinese so that they could communicate with Chinese craftsmen in the future. Sometimes Sun Heding also contacted them to communicate and discuss improving production equipment. As prisoners of war, they could get such treatment.
They also felt very satisfied, so everyone's work attitude was also good.
Because Shang Yi considered that in the future battle with the Qing army, there might be a long time when he would compete with the Qing army with the power of Zhejiang Province. Therefore, the merchant army should not only use tactical methods more.
Work hard and must maintain a leading position in firearm technology in order to withstand the Qing army's attack. Although the outcome of a war is not determined entirely by the technology of weapons, it also includes economy, politics, and strategy
, tactics and other factors, but it cannot be denied that the technology of weapons has a huge role in war, and weapons are also an important factor that restricts strategy and tactics.
Because of this, Shang Yi only has Zhejiang Province, and to be precise, there are only five prefectures, so every advantage must be developed to the maximum extent.
Although the merchant army is much ahead of the Qing army in terms of firearm technology, mainly showing four items: flintlock rifle, bayonet, grenade and thunder rocket. However, these advantages are not obvious, because in addition to flintlock rifle,
The last three items are almost no technical difficulty. It can be said that as long as the Qing army suffered a few losses, they can immediately imitate similar things. Even if they are flintlock rifles, they are not impossible to imitate, because China is now
There are also flintlock rifles. As long as you can get a few samples, with the current technical level of Jingjun, you can also imitate them in large quantities within one or two years.
Although these weapons also require corresponding tactics to play their greatest role, if the weapons are comparable, the advantages of the merchant army will be greatly weakened. Therefore, Shang Yi must develop several weapon technologies that the army cannot imitate in a short period of time. Only by realizing the leading advantage of the merchant army.
But due to the technical level of this era, although Shang Yi had collected many modern weapons drawings before traveling through time, most of them were impossible to implement. If possible, Shang Yi wanted to create ak47, but In this era, even the 38th cover could not be built. Therefore, in the past few days, Shang Yi checked the information he collected on the computer every day, and finally found several technical conditions in this era that could be implemented, while others in the short term Weapons that cannot be imitated. Of course, if you want to make these weapons, you still need the help of Spanish craftsmen, because the Europeans are indeed much more experienced than China in this regard.
Therefore, Shang Yi prepared the drawings, came to the arsenal, and joined Sun Heding to recruit these Spanish craftsmen from the master level. After everyone arrived, there were a total of seventeen people. Shang Yi immediately asked: "I want to know, among you, who can rifle, spiral rifle, and guns and cannons can?"
The craftsmen looked at each other, and a "buzzing" sounded. After a while, a man stood up and said, "Your Excellency, it is not difficult to carve the spiral of the guns and cannons. But special mechanical equipment is needed. I think in your arsenal, there is no such mechanical equipment. You can't do it without empty hands."
Shang Yi nodded and smiled and said, "Of course I know this. If I have these mechanical equipment, then I don't need to ask you anymore. Now my question is, who among you can make mechanical equipment for carving spiral rifling? I'll do it. The bounty of a thousand taels of silver can be made and proved to be effective."
There was a lot of discussion among the craftsmen, which was much louder than the sound just now, because one thousand taels of silver are not a small amount for craftsmen. According to the exchange rate of this era, it can be approximately equivalent to more than six or seven hundred. The Dutch gutter is equivalent to the income of a middle-rich family in Europe for a year. At that time, the Dutch gutter was a gold coin, and a Dutch gutter contained about 7 mg of gold and 6700 Dutch gutters was equivalent to 500 grams of gold. In terms of purchasing power, At that time, 192 Dutch guilds were able to buy two tons of butter. Therefore, the interest of craftsmen also increased greatly.
At this time, the craftsman who spoke earlier said again: "Your Excellency, I am willing to give it a try, but I need a few helpers and some corresponding materials."
Shang Yi nodded and said, "Tell me your name."
The craftsman said, "Domingos, Bruno Domingos."
Shang Yi said: "Very good, Mr. Domingos, I will leave this matter to you. I can provide any materials and help you need, but you have to find your helper, right in your craftsman, you You can choose anyone you want. As long as you can do it well and prove it useful, you will not lose a single point of bounty and will be divided equally by you and your assistant. If you need any help, you can find Mr. Sun, who will help you solve it."
Domingos said: "Okay, sir, I will start making it tomorrow."
The earliest muskets with rifled in the chamber were born in Germany in the early 15th century. But at that time it was just a straight groove, which was to make it easier to load projectiles from the muzzle. After the 16th century, Europe began to carry out the The linear rifle was changed to a spiral. By the seventeenth century, the muskets and cannons with spiral rifles were started to be used in the European army. Therefore, the rifling technology was just a troublesome in the construction process, and it was not a cutting-edge technology in Europe. The mechanical equipment for rifling is not complicated, and Domingos is quite confident about it.
Because Shang Yi certainly knew that spiral rifling technology would be the development trend of guns and cannons in the future, and it was commonly used in later generations. Because spiral rifling was carved into the walls of muskets and cannons, which could make the fire The artillery bullets move in a rotating motion, and maintain stable rotational flight after being released from the borehole. Compared with the storm barrel gun, it can improve the shooting accuracy and increase the range. The famous Minnie front-mounted rifled rifle was made by French soldier Crowe. In the 19th century, De Edirne Minnie invented it weighs about five kilograms and has four screw-shaped rifles engraved in the bore tube, and its maximum range can reach more than 900 meters. Even during World War I, this was amazing. number.
For Shang Yi, although he did not expect his rifle to reach the range of the Minni rifle, he could reach 450 meters even if he had to fight against each other, and his effective range was more than 200 meters. In this era, he would definitely It is an ultra-long range. Currently, the Lumi gun with the farthest range among the merchant army has an effective range of less than 150 meters. Moreover, this technology is probably something that the Qing army cannot imitate in the short term.
However, in this era, the theory of dynamics was just beginning in Europe, and China was even more unaware of it. Therefore, when Shang Yi explained the launch principle of the spiral rifled gun to Sun Heding, Sun Heding was confused and listened for a long time. Later, he still couldn't understand why the projectile range was increased several times after the rifle was carved on the inner wall of the gun barrel. But seeing that Shang Yi was confident, he couldn't help but believe it, regardless of whether Shang Yi said it was true or false. Let’s try it as he said. In ancient China, production technology was only focused on methods and rarely studied the principles of technology.
After solving the problem of rifling, Shang Yi took out a few more drawings and placed them on the table, saying, "You can take a look. Can these two weapons be made?"
Although the sizes marked on the drawings are all Chinese, these craftsmen are all born to build guns and guns, so they can see 60% or 70% clearly. Sun Heding also reads it. The drawings are two types of drawings. Weapons, one is artillery, and the other is on a wooden car, with dozens of barrels arranged in line. It seems that they are similar weapons to Thunder guns.
But at this time, several Spanish craftsmen pointed at the drawings and exclaimed: "Isn't this an organ gun?"
Shang Yi nodded and said, "Yes, this is the organ gun. Who of you has made this kind of gun?"
The organ gun is generally believed to be an original machine gun. The principle is to put multiple barrels together to create the effect of being able to fire continuously in a short period of time. Although China also manufactured Thunder guns similar to the organ gun at this time, it is Europe's experience in this regard is undoubtedly much richer than China. As early as the 15th century, Europe used organ guns and equipped them into the armies of various countries. The disadvantage of organ guns is that the speed of filling the bullets is too slow, but in This is also insurmountable in this era.
And then another craftsman said, "This is not an ordinary organ gun, this is a thunder gun car."
The other craftsmen were amazed again after hearing this. The Thunder gun car was invented by the British William Delumond in 1625, and they loaded many guns in rows on small cars, up to a maximum of one hundred, which can be strengthened. The mobility of the organ gun is also the best organ gun used in Europe. Delumond once claimed that only two people could operate against one hundred soldiers. It is said that this kind of thing was still used until the Napoleon era. Thunder gun car. During the Civil War, this kind of deformation-formed organ gun also appeared. Because the Thunder gun car has appeared less than twenty years ago, it is a new thing even in Europe, and most of them are The craftsmen have only heard of it and have never seen a real guy, and Shang Yi can actually take out its drawings.
Shang Yi also looked at the craftsman and said, "That's right, this is a thunder gun car. Have you seen it? Can it be built?"
The craftsman said, "I have seen this kind of thunder gun car. Although I have not built it, I don't think it's difficult? But I want to know if there is a bounty for building a thunder gun car?"
Shang Yi nodded and said, "What's your name?"
The craftsman said, "Deron Carvalho."
Shang Yi smiled and said, "Okay, Mr. Carvalho, I will leave the Thunder Gun Car to you to pay responsibilities. After the completion, it will be one thousand taels of silver."
Carvalho couldn't help but feel happy and said, "Your Excellency, I promise to complete it."