Steel Dynasty - Chapter 303

[Chapter 303 Rotating Drilling Press]

It was another sunny day. As the spring breeze dyed the vegetation on both sides of the Xiaoqing River green, more and more people went out for a spring outing outside the city.

After Wang Xuan left yesterday, four foreign merchants and six foreign refugees were arrested in Qingzhou City that night.

In order to increase the labor force in the fiefdom, Xiao Ming’s refugee policy seems to have become a target for various forces to install spies.

These restless refugees were naturally executed according to the laws of Qingzhou. At the same time, Qingzhou newspapers reported this incident, which served as a warning to the refugees who continued to pour into Qingzhou from other places.

It’s just that although Xiao Ming knows that absorbing refugees will inevitably lead to some people with evil intentions, he can’t keep silent about this matter. After all, the refugee policy has a demographic dividend for Qingzhou in general.

In the construction of roads in Qingzhou City this time, many businessmen used cheap refugees with no livelihood.

“Your Highness, we’re here.”

Today is the day when the Equipment Department hands over the cutting tools to the hydraulic lathe workshop. At the same time, the craftsmen in the lathe workshop will use the cutting tools to produce hollow barrels for the first time, providing the final accessories for the flintlock gun.

Zhao Long held the horse, and Xiao Ming jumped off the horse. At this time, Zhang Liu had already arrived in the workshop and was installing the drill bit into the hydraulic drilling machine with the craftsmen in the workshop.

One end of this kind of hydraulic drilling machine is a water wheel. In the rapids of Xiaoqing River, the water wheel rotates rapidly and drives the circular stone plate fixed on the water wheel to rotate. This stone plate acts as an inertial wheel, and in the middle of the stone plate It is the drill bit. The rotation of the stone plate drives the drill bit to rotate. This is the hydraulic drilling machine that Xiao Ming asked the craftsmen to produce.

In the Ming Dynasty, this kind of drilling machine was already available among the people, but Xiao Ming just used it as a doctrine.

“Your Highness, we are already trying to drill the barrel of the gun.” Zhang Liu wiped his sweat and said to Xiao Ming.

At the other end of the drill bit, a wooden support holds the steel rod sent from the steel mill. The production of such steel rods is very simple for today’s steel mills and can be produced at any time.

Zhang Liu also stopped by to pick up a few and then went to the lathe workshop.

“The effect is not bad.” At this time, the hydraulic lathe was rotating rapidly driven by the rapids. This natural force was much more powerful than human power. The drill bit drilled the steel rod effortlessly, looking unstoppable.

With the contact between the two, the drill bit has penetrated a little deeper, but only a little.

According to the normal working efficiency of the hydraulic lathe, it would take at least six days to drill out a gun barrel, which was a record of the Ming Dynasty. However, the high-quality tools provided by Xiao Ming can greatly reduce this time.

Because the hydraulic lathe tools of the Ming Dynasty were damaged very quickly, they were not as good as him in this regard.

According to his estimate, it would take three or four days. After all, the location of the workshop is the most turbulent section of the Xiaoqing River, and his cutting tools still have advantages.

According to Xiao Ming’s order, Zhang Liu sent over the two drill bits that were ground out by the Equipment Department yesterday, plus the two that were ground out at night.

Four hydraulic drilling machines were started at the same time, and he could have four barrels in three or four days. If the barrels were made of rolled iron, it would take a month.

That is to say, cutting tools and hydraulic drilling machines shorten the production time of gun barrels to one-tenth of the original time.

“Your Highness, you are really far-sighted. This drill press has been prepared for a long time, and now it is a drill bit. This makes the production of gun barrels simple and labor-saving. Moreover, the drill position of this hydraulic drill press is fixed, and the drill will not be crooked. Moreover, one craftsman can take care of four or five drill machines at the same time, saving manpower. It really kills three birds with one stone.” Zhang Liu looked at the current drill machine and felt a sense of accomplishment.

Another advantage of the hydraulic drilling machine is the accuracy issue mentioned by Zhang Liu. Manual errors are easy to occur, but this one will be much better.

Being praised by an honest craftsman like Zhang Liu made Xiao Ming smile. This showed that the craftsmen were very satisfied with the drilling machine, which also meant that his efforts during this period were not in vain.

Xiao Ming smiled and said: “Although it is much more convenient, the quantity must keep up. There are only 200 drilling machines in the workshop and only four drill bits. You must work harder.”

Zhang Liu Said: “Your Highness, Chen Bingcao has transferred 500 people from the steel workshop, and the remaining drill bits will be replaced soon.”

Xiao Ming nodded, and once again looked at the drilling machine that was constantly drilling steel rods, and his heart became more and more Stable.

Two hundred drilling machines are enough for him now. One barrel takes three days, and he can get 2,000 barrels in one month, and 20,000 in ten months.

If he is willing, he can turn the Qingzhou Army from a cold weapon army to a hot weapon army before the end of the year.

And this was exactly his plan, but for this plan, he had to invest millions of dollars, which was enough to consume all his meager savings.

But now he is surrounded by crises and has to increase his investment in the army. Even so, he is still cautious.

After all, he was using a fiefdom with a population of 600,000 households to deal with a homeless nation with a population of 2 million households.

The cavalry of this nation have lived on horses since childhood. Everyone is an extremely elite and experienced cavalry, and the barbarian cavalry is highly disciplined and fearless of death.

A group of well-disciplined and experienced cavalry would have been extremely formidable even between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and the enemy was still outnumbered.

Xiao Ming always gets chills every time he thinks of this.

The drilling machine was officially put into drilling. Xiao Ming went to the military workshop with a satisfied mood. The last problem of the flintlock gun was solved.

However, there are still several problems that need to be solved, one is the bayonet problem on the flintlock gun, and the other is the problem of the flintlock gun’s purge.

Now that he has the experience of his previous life, he will naturally not make the mistakes that the flintlock made when it was trying to move forward after its birth.

When the bayonet first appeared, the handle of the bayonet was stuffed into the barrel of the gun. This made it impossible to shoot when the bayonet was attached, and the bayonet could not be attached when shooting.

So when faced with a cavalry charge, the infantry became lambs at the mercy of the cavalry.

It was not until the emergence of the sleeve bayonet that this situation changed. This bayonet could be directly attached to the flintlock musket without affecting shooting.

So since he has mature experience, he naturally wants to avoid this mistake.

As for the second issue of pipes, he decided to use iron pipes instead of the original wooden pipes.

Because the iron bars are not easy to break, this helps to increase the firing speed. The Prussian army once fired five bullets in one minute because of the first use of iron bars and the proficiency of the soldiers.

The last one is about ammunition, but this requires the cooperation of the military workshop and Lu Tong’s gunpowder workshop.

He planned to use oil paper to pack bullets as ammunition for the flintlock musket. The oil paper pack was equipped with enough bullets and gunpowder for one shot. During the war, he only needed to bite it open and pour it in.

(End of chapter)