After Xiao Feifei came here, he was very interested in everything around him. The "yard" here is very large, the rows of houses are built very neatly, and countless workers are working in each room. Those workers are all wearing neat uniforms
, like a soldier, but making weapons instead of using them.
This was the first time she had come to such a place. The little girl had a psychotic attack and her eyes were filled with excitement.
As for the noise here, she had automatically ignored it. She was only curious and wanted to explore this place thoroughly.
Wu Dong and Ling Zhen walked in the front. After walking for about a mile, a row of houses appeared in front of them. Ling Zhen said: "Grand Governor, this is where crossbows are produced! There are now more than 3,000 workers here!"
Wu Dong was stunned and said: "Are there so many workers here?"
Ling Zhen explained: "Grand Governor, crossbows are too important in the war, so there are more workers here in order to produce crossbows faster."
After entering these rows of rooms, you can see that the workers inside are extremely busy. Here, the main product is still the God's Arm Bow. Speaking of which, the God's Arm Bow is already the pinnacle of crossbows in the cold weapon era.
The penetrating power is extremely strong and the distance is extremely long. Other crossbows in the Cold Weapon Age cannot keep up with the Divine Arm Bow. Craftsmen in Liangshan have been constantly trying to improve the Divine Arm Bow over the years, but the skill of the Divine Arm Bow has reached the pinnacle of technology.
, it is almost impossible to continue to improve.
Therefore, until now, the craftsmanship of the Divine Arm Bow is still that of the Song Dynasty, but the production method of the Divine Arm Bow has improved countless times compared to the Song Dynasty.
Here, the entire production process of the God's Arm Bow is refined into 120 processes, and a true streamlined operation is implemented. Each worker is only responsible for one of the processes. The overall production speed of the God's Arm Bow is more than ten times that of the Song Dynasty.
More than 3,000 workers work overtime and can produce an average of 5,000 divine arm bows a month. Since the establishment of the ordnance factory, it has produced 20,000 divine arm bows.
This production speed is extremely astonishing. In the most prosperous era of the Song Dynasty, the annual output was not so much. By the end of the Song Dynasty, the output of divine arm bows had dropped to about a thousand a year, and the vast majority of them
Some of them are crudely made, some simply cannot achieve the strength and distance they should have, some will break after just a little use, and some cannot be used at all.
"In the past, when the Imperial Court was in charge of the imperial court, only the best and most skilled craftsmen could make divine arm bows. At that time, there were only a few hundred craftsmen. Now our factory workers only need to be familiar with one of the processes.
, so the requirements for recognition are much lower than those of Du Zuo Yuan. They only need one or two months of training before they can work with other workers to produce the divine arm bow." Ling Zhen said with a smile.
"This is the advantage brought by industrial production." Wu Dong nodded.
They walked all the way and finally came to the God's Arm Bow Inspection Workshop. Here, workers would inspect the God's Arm Bow that had just been made to see if it met the standards. If it did not meet the standards, they would return it for repair or destroy it directly.
In Liangshan, crudely made weapons are absolutely not allowed to enter the army. They have extremely strict requirements in this regard.
"Grand Governor, this is the divine arm bow that was just produced." Ling Zhen handed a divine arm bow into Wu Dong's hand.
Wu Dong took it, and his first impression was that it was very delicately made and the craftsmanship was very good. He pulled out the divine arm bow, mounted the crossbow, then aimed at the target in front and opened the bow to shoot.
Whoosh!
There was a sharp sound, and the target more than 200 meters away in front was shot. Wu Dong led Ling Zhen and others towards the front. After arriving at the target, they found that it was a 3 mm thick steel plate. At this moment, the steel plate had been penetrated.
, the arrow shot far away after passing through the steel plate.
"It's really awesome! I have collected this divine arm bow." Wu Dong said with a smile.
"Grand Governor, we are now preparing to continue to expand the production scale of the God's Arm Bow. We now have 3,000 workers and are planning to recruit another 2,000 workers to bring the number of workers here to 5,000, so that we can produce 8,000 God's Arm Bows a month.
These many divine arm bows can definitely meet the needs of the army." Ling Zhen said.
"8,000 is really a lot! If the number of divine arm archers in the army can reach 100,000, their power will definitely be extraordinary. I am afraid there will be no problem in dealing with cavalry head-on?" Wu Dong said.
Although the Divine Arm Bow was invented by the Song Dynasty, the number of Divine Arm Archers assembled in the Song Dynasty never exceeded 20,000, and they were distributed among various armies. The battles in which Divine Arm Archers participated can be seen in historical data.
Usually there are around a thousand people, at most a few thousand people, rarely more than that.
Wu Dong could imagine that after 100,000 people were equipped with divine arm bows, the feeling of arrows raining down would definitely be able to destroy all frontal enemies. Even if the cavalry had a speed advantage, they would not be able to fight such an army. The horses used by the cavalry
The bow is far inferior to the God's Arm Bow in terms of range and penetration.
"If the Divine Arm Archers can be equipped with good armor, like plate armor, then the powerful attack and defense will be integrated into one, which will definitely be a nightmare for cavalry. However, the plate armor is too heavy. If you want to equip infantry, you need to streamline it.
, As long as it can block the vital points of the chest and back, and then wear an iron helmet, it will be fine." Wu Dong held the divine arm bow in his hand and thought secretly.
After a while, he expressed his thoughts and asked the members of the Academy of Sciences and the soldiers around him to discuss the issue. Everyone thought it was a good idea. But it didn't take much time to make such a simple plate armor.
Short. The method of making plate armor has just been discovered. The production process is still very immature and cannot be mass-produced at all.
"Let the workers in the armor workshop study this problem with all their strength, and they must come up with a way to mass-produce simplified plate armor. By then, with the plate armor and a large number of divine arm bows, they will definitely be able to change the future war situation." Wu
Dongdao.
The heads of the Academy of Sciences and the factory carefully wrote down Wu Dong's words with pen and paper, not to mention this.
******
After spending the whole morning in the crossbow production workshop and having lunch here, Wu Dong and others rushed to the artillery production workshop in the afternoon.
The place where artillery is produced is actually not in the ordnance factory. Because the space needed for artillery experiments is too large and it is also very dangerous, the artillery workshop is placed more than ten miles east of the ordnance factory.
Wu Song and others rode there. He was afraid that Xiao Feifei would fall off the horse again, so this time he just hugged Xiao Feifei and rode forward together. Xiao Feifei's face turned red, and he felt very warm in his heart. He bit his silver teeth lightly, his eyes were blurred, and he didn't know.
What are you thinking about.
People in the artillery workshop had long known that Wu Dong and others were coming, and dozens of workers were already there to welcome Wu Dong.
"Grand Governor, I have spent most of my time here in the past. I personally participated in the design of the artillery here and personally watched them produce it." After Ling Zhen arrived at this place, he was extremely excited and said with a smile.
.
They did not enter the workshop, but went directly to the testing site. There were more than a dozen gun barrels stacked here. Ling Zhen strode to a bronze gun barrel and said: "Captain, this is our latest development.
The artillery is much lighter than before, only weighing 800 kilograms!"
Wu Dong and others also came to this artillery. He squatted down and stroked it slowly with his hands, feeling the bronze texture. This artillery was very similar to the ancient bronze artillery that he had seen online. The whole identity of the artillery
It has three sections, with a firing line at the bottom and a place for ammunition at the top.
Although 800 kilograms is still extremely heavy, it is still much lighter than the one or two thousand kilograms at the beginning, and the shape does not look as rough as before.
"Grand Governor, let's give it a try now! Do you want to light the fire yourself?" Ling Zhen asked with a smile as he was extremely excited.
"That's fine." Wu Dong nodded and said.
Ling Zhen looked at Xiao Feifei again. At this moment, Xiao Feifei's face had long been covered with a layer of tulle. However, her face was too beautiful, and the tulle could not cover her face at all. Ling Zhen did not dare to look at it more, and just said: "Mother, still
Please cover your ears. When the artillery is fired, it is earth-shattering. If you don't cover your ears, your ears will be damaged."
Xiao Feifei was extremely surprised. She had no idea what this so-called "artillery" was. No matter it was the Song Dynasty or the Khitan Kingdom, such a weapon had not appeared in this era. It's just that the appearance of this thing was too weird, like a stick.
Like a copper pillar. When she heard Ling Zhen speak so solemnly, she quickly covered her ears.
At this moment, Wu Dong was ready to light a fire, and the people around him retreated back, only to see that the torch in Wu Dong's hand had already lit the fire line.
boom!
There was an earth-shaking loud noise, and a tiny "cloud" appeared in the distance, which was formed by flying dust. The surrounding land was shaking constantly. The workers in the factory were okay, they had experienced such things before.
Many times, the expressions of the soldiers who followed Wu Dong changed drastically.
"Let's go over and take a look." Wu Dong turned his head and said to everyone.
Only then did he realize that Xiao Feifei's face was pale, and he hurriedly walked over.
"What's wrong with you?" Wu Dong took her hand and asked.
Xiao Feifei only saw Wu Dong's mouth opening and closing, but could not hear clearly what Wu Dong said. At that moment, she was anxious and scared, and was about to cry.
Wu Dong looked at her and probably understood what was going on. He couldn't help but laugh. He stretched out his hand to cover Xiao Feifei's ears, and then rubbed them gently. After a while, Xiao Feifei finally recovered his hearing.
.
"Husband, was that thunder that exploded just now?" Xiao Feifei asked with a pale face.
"It was an artillery launch just now. Come on, let's go to the front and take a look." Wu Dong said.
At this moment, the war horses were restless and obviously could no longer be ridden. Everyone was walking forward, while the workers were running forward.
When we arrived five or six miles ahead, we saw a huge crater on the ground. There were countless dust and debris around the crater. There were also many experimental armors in the crater. At this moment, these armors were covered with
All are small holes.
This time, what Wu Dong fired was no longer the previous physical bullet, but a real explosive bullet, which is what later generations called a grenade. Wu Dong's visual inspection of the range of the shrapnel was about ten meters. In other words, if within ten meters,
If there are enemies, they will basically be killed or injured.
This kind of destructive power is naturally much inferior to that of later generations of artillery shells, and the difference is huge. But with the technical level of this era, it is already very good to be able to do this, and Wu Dong is quite satisfied.
"Grand Governor, we have just developed this explosive bomb not long ago. It is extremely powerful. We have decided to fully produce this kind of artillery in the future. What do you think?" Ling Zhen said.
"That's right! When I was looking at the information yesterday, you also produced a small artillery piece. Where is it? I want to take a look too," Wu Dong said.
Ling Zhen nodded hurriedly and asked someone to bring the small artillery. Half a quarter of an hour later, two people came towards this side carrying an artillery piece. The artillery looked very delicate, only one meter long and 1 meter in diameter.
Less than 10 centimeters, it is almost a mini version of the cannon. It is so small and only weighs a few dozen kilograms. No wonder two people can lift it.
"So light!" Wu Dong was surprised. When I read the information yesterday, I only knew that it was a small artillery piece, but I didn't expect it to be so small.
"Grand Governor, this small artillery was developed not long ago. Its power is far inferior to the previous artillery. It can only fire some lead bullets. The distance is not very far." Ling Zhen said.
"Which one of you will give it a try?" Wu Dong said.
At that moment, Ling Zhen and a group of workers fixed the artillery and put lead bullets on it. Soldiers came over to light the fire line. After a muffled bang, the lead bullets flew out like lightning, and a cloud of smoke appeared in front of them, but it was obviously not as good as
The huge power just now.
Wu Dong and others rushed over again and found that the crater was much smaller. The distance of this small artillery was less than five miles, which was much worse than before.
But Wu Dong was more interested in the artillery in front of him. The previous artillery was too heavy, weighing more than 800 kilograms. It was too troublesome to transport. It didn't have much mobility on the battlefield. It was very effective when used to attack or defend the city.
, but if it is used in field operations, it has too many limitations. On the contrary, this small artillery has certain field performance.
"Can't such a small artillery fire explosive shells?" Wu Dong said.
"It should be possible. It's just that we just developed this small artillery not long ago, and we haven't developed the special shells for it yet," Ling Zhen said.
"In war, the role of such small artillery is more important. Ling Zhen, I think you can focus on these small artillery. Even if these small artillery are not as powerful as large artillery, if there are more of them, the effect will be extraordinary.
." Wu Dong said.
"Yes, Commander-in-Chief. However, the smaller the cannon, the more difficult it is to produce the barrel. The larger the cannon, the easier it is to produce. We can't produce many of these small cannons in a month," Ling Zhen said.
"Can you give me an approximate quantity?" Wu Dong said.
"Five to ten can be produced in a month, mainly because most of the gun barrels are scrap, and only a small part can be actually used." Ling Zhen said.
Today's artillery technology is very backward. Most of the barrels produced cannot be used, and a large amount of bronze is wasted. It can be said that the development of artillery is a very money-consuming task.
"Five to ten, that's a lot! You go all out to produce them, and then transport them to Liaodong! Those large artillery pieces are also transported to Liaodong. Now Hua Rong is defending Wanyan Aguda, these can all play a role."