Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 114 Guns and Steel

Many military craftsmen, like the Huangs and their sons, who had left their craftsmanship, still chose to be recruited by the imperial court and join the newly established "Southern Arsenal."Because although these craftsmen do private work and do not make weapons-related things, their skills are naturally subject to strict restrictions.Moreover, the salary offered by the Southern Arsenal is much higher than that of doing their own work, not to mention that their personal restraints have been lifted now. Most of the craftsmen have signed short-term contracts, which means they can choose another career after a few years, or they can choose to join Established by the enterprise and hired for life by the arsenal.

Only now did Bai Mingxiu feel the great advantage of returning to China and controlling a large province.Whether in Myanmar or Australia, Bai Mingxiu felt that there was a lack of manpower and he couldn't do anything. In many cases, he had to choose to give up or see if he could recruit people from the system.

But after mastering Guangdong, he has been able to use Guangdong's manpower.Although Guangdong is not a populous province with a population of more than 500 million in later generations, it has experienced wars, relocations and other changes. Guangdong now has a population of more than [-] million, which cannot be compared with some populous provinces.However, the commerce and handicraft industry here are well developed, and there is already a lot of capital to jump into the next era.

This time he opened the Southern Ordnance Industry Group. In addition to a hundred or so technicians and designers selected by lottery, he recruited [-] craftsmen just through the adaptation of craftsmen's books. Although many of them can only build old Bird guns, but after all, they are regarded as colleagues in the same industry. After training, they should be able to get started quickly.

In addition to the old craftsmen's households, the arsenal also hired hundreds of other craftsmen and refugees. Guangdong has never been considered a large farming province. The land conditions are much worse than those in the Jiangnan and Lianghu regions, so the population is more accustomed to making a living through other industries. , which avoids Bai Mingxiu from having to pull labor from the land.

The arsenal was built at a very fast speed, and the production lines for all kinds of existing standard weapons of the Great Ming Fuguo Army were also set up.

Huang Ying, the chief engineer of the Australian Ordnance Bureau [-], was brought by Bai Mingxiu from Australia. He originally considered building an arsenal from scratch, but he did not expect to get a gift package from the arsenal.However, Huang Ying was considered to be experienced, so Bai Mingxiu directly appointed Huang Ying as the general manager and chief engineer of the Southern Ordnance Industry Group.

Huang Ying is young, vigorous and full of energy. When he was in Australia, he constantly organized scientific research and model acceptance work. He is a talent that Bai Mingxiu can rely on.

"The production of the M1 percussion gun is not difficult. In essence, compared with the shotguns that the craftsmen used to make, the progress is very limited. I am sure that the production capacity will be increased in a short time. In fact, when I was in Australia, I have already started to produce Research on bolt-action rifles with fixed-loaded metal ammunition, but it is a pity that it will not be possible to equip the entire army on a large scale."

Bai Mingxiu nodded and said, "It must be because of the brass bullets."

In fact, Bai Mingxiu's military technology tree has been able to produce smokeless gunpowder, and the technology of manufacturing metal fixed ammunition is actually not a big problem. The problem is that just like the later Republic, it has the largest army in the world, but it is still difficult to make bullets. Not brass, but lacquered or copper-plated steel.

Daming Australian Province and Myanmar Xuanwei Division actually have large copper mines, but they have to be transported to the mainland after a lot of trouble, so we can’t count on it for a while. From this point of view, paper shell bullets are more economical and affordable, let alone M1 paper shell bullets. The gun is already enough to hang all enemies.

It's not that Bai Mingxiu doesn't have weapons that use brass bullets. The M2 heavy machine gun is loaded with metal bullets. His bullets are all brought from Australia. Australia has no shortage of copper.Sometimes the machine gun consumes too much, and Bai Mingxiu will use Gold Finger Coins to buy some from the system.

However, the use intensity of machine guns is not as strong as that of rifles that can equip tens of thousands to 10 people. Bai Mingxiu still cannot afford to equip standard rifles that use brass bullets.

Huang Ying continued: "The most important work in our factory now is the modification of Brown Bass and other muzzle-loading guns."

Bai Mingxiu is a person who cherishes things. The last time he brushed a dungeon, more than [-] rifles of various types were produced. The largest one is the brown bass, with as many as [-] to [-].Bai Mingxiu directly asked Huang Ying to lead the southern arsenal to start the work of changing the chamber and bolt of these front-loading muskets.

The rifling was drilled out with hydraulic and steam boring machines, the flintlock was changed into a percussion bolt, and the front loading was changed to the rear loading.This workload is not small, but it is relatively not difficult to achieve.During the Civil War, both the North and South armies converted a large number of front-loading muskets that had fallen behind the times into breech-loading guns.

The newly remodeled weapons, together with new machine guns, artillery and other weapons, will be equipped to the new troops that are taking shape in the Guangzhou Prefecture Army Training Base.

Bai Mingxiu asked Huang Ying again: "Is the steel supply in Foshan available?"

Huang Yingdao: "It should be no problem. I went to Foshan the day before yesterday to see the newly built Foshan Iron and Steel Plant and Lingnan Iron and Steel Plant. Just like us, the new plants are organizing the original blacksmiths and craftsmen to join the new company. Several large furnaces are almost fully installed, and molten steel should be ready within the next few days. With steel, the quality of our new gun barrels will be better than before."

Fujian and Guangdong were the two major iron-making centers in the Ming Dynasty, and Foshan was known as the iron capital of the southern country. Some studies believe that the iron output of Guangdong in the Ming Dynasty was equal to that of a country in the Song Dynasty.The restrictions on iron smelting in the Ming Dynasty were not as strict as in previous dynasties. Many iron smelters sold private iron tools, mainly iron pots and agricultural tools.

Bai Mingxiu came here with Australia's iron and steel smelting technology. His Royal Highness built two steel factories in Foshan. He also bought several open hearth furnaces and blast furnaces from the system with Goldfinger coins. Technical backbones and management talents from Australia are preparing to smelt steel in Guangdong.

Iron and steel is undoubtedly the most basic material to support a country's industry. With this, Daming will start more industrial manufacturing. Bai Mingxiu can already foresee batches of new machines, urging the giant beast of Ming to continue to grow and develop. At that time, crushing wild boar skin would be as easy as lifting a finger.

While waiting for the Tartars to find trouble for him, Bai Mingxiu was training new troops while building construction. No one could have imagined that a boy who was only fourteen or fifteen years old had the kind of supernatural ability to conquer the world. Make a mess.

Many people simply don't understand what His Highness the Crown Prince is doing in Guangdong, but it seems that under the calm water, a dormant monster is ready to move.

　Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, so I wish you all a happy new year, read this book while reuniting with your family, don't forget to vote

　　
　
(End of this chapter)