Iron Dynasty

Different from the tranquility of the past.

The people of Qingzhou City clearly felt that the atmosphere of the equipment department was a little dignified these days.

Because I don't know when, the number of soldiers guarding the equipment department suddenly increased several times, and all of them were wearing silver full-body armor, murderous, and any civilians who came close to the equipment department would be immediately driven away.

Everyone who enters the equipment department needs to show the token and accept the interrogation. Someone once saw a person who did not have the token trying to infiltrate, and was beaten by the soldiers on the spot and sent to the prison.

Among the various signs, many people are speculating about what happened in the equipment department?

And only Xiao Ming knew this best. At this time, he arrived at the door of the equipment department and handed the horse to the guard at the door.

He came at the right time, and Chen Qi in the equipment department was bringing the craftsmen to prepare to pour the produced molten iron into the iron mold.

Although Qingzhou can produce high-quality steel, not all steels can be used to cast guns.

In fact, in modern times, until the advent of Krupp gun steel, guns were made of only three materials, copper, bronze, and iron.

Of course, copper does not need to be explained. This thing is completely throwing money. In the country of Da Yu, where the mining rate is very low, it is almost like using gold to produce toilets.

Bronze is an alloy and requires different metals, among which lead and tin are indispensable. Similarly, the lack of these metals in Qingzhou is not easy for Xiao Ming.

Therefore, he can only honestly choose cast iron guns. Although this kind of guns has drawbacks, it is still the mainstream of modern artillery from the fifteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century.

After all, relatively speaking, the pursuit of any product is cost-effective, and cast iron guns obviously have a great advantage in cost-effectiveness.

Your Highness, you can pour it right away.

The iron mold of the artillery is erected next to the blast furnace. As long as the furnace door on the blast furnace is opened, the red molten iron will be poured into the iron mold.

However, there are still many things to prepare before that. The casting of artillery is a delicate job. A failure will cause great losses, and it will also delay the casting of the next artillery.

Therefore, before pouring the cannon, Xiao Ming instructed the craftsman to strictly follow the procedure of casting the cannon step by step.

Under his supervision, a craftsman began to paint the inner surface of the iron mold with a mixture of fine rice husks and fine sand. The preparation of these two things was also very strict. The rice husks were crushed into powder and sieved with a sieve for three times. It took more than ten times to get a uniform powder, and the sediment was basically the same, and the particles inside were basically the same size.

This is to avoid holes of different sizes on the gun body, and also to prevent the gun body and the iron mold from sticking together, otherwise the gun and the iron mold will be scrapped together.

After the first coat of paint is finished, the artisan reapplies the second coat, which is made of fine coal powder ground into powder.

The purpose is very simple. It is for carburizing. As we all know, the higher the carbon content in iron, the greater the hardness of the iron. Hard, thereby reducing the rate of fire of the gun.

The brushing of these two coatings is also very particular, be sure to be even and careful.

When the craftsman finished painting, Xiao Ming checked it again and asked the craftsman to deal with some flaws.

Then let the craftsman fasten the iron mold with iron hoops.

At the same time, some craftsmen began to heat the iron mold to prevent the outer layer of molten iron from cooling too fast when the molten iron contacted the iron mold, which would affect the carburizing effect.

After the completion of these tasks, Xiao Ming asked Chen Qi to put the ceramic core specially made into the gun mold.

Generally speaking, the production of artillery requires the use of mud cores, but drawing on the experience of later generations, in order to improve the quality of artillery as much as possible, he decided to use ceramic cores.

In this way, rapid cooling of the inner side of the gun can be achieved by injecting in the middle of the ceramic core, thereby increasing the strength of the inner bore.

This process is also called water tightness.

Let's start. Xiao Ming asked expectantly after the preliminary preparations were completed.

Nodding his head, Chen Qi looked excited. After a busy month, the first artillery piece in Qingzhou was finally born.

At this time, Chen Qi suddenly felt the anxiety and joy of a woman who was pregnant and about to give birth.

With his lips trembling, Chen Qi shouted, Pour in the molten iron!

With an order, a craftsman suddenly opened the furnace door of the blast furnace, and red molten iron flowed down from the tube groove of the blast furnace with a hot breath.

Even though he was five meters away from the blast furnace, Xiao Ming still felt a hot roasting sensation on his face.

And the craftsmen who were close by were sweating profusely, but at this moment, there was a sense of expectation in the eyes of every craftsman.

Chen Qi told them that if the artillery was successfully cast, His Highness said that each person would be rewarded with one hundred taels of silver, which would be an incentive for all craftsmen.

For these ordinary craftsmen, who is not in pursuit of a better life, and money is their greatest encouragement.

The red molten iron was slowly poured into the iron mold, and when the height of the molten iron was almost flush with the muzzle, a craftsman tapped the mold with a hammer.

This is to make the molten iron deposition more uniform.

After the molten iron was completely flush with the muzzle, the craftsman who was also in charge of cooling began to pour well water into the ceramic core of the iron mold.

At the same time, a craftsman stuffed a piece of dried pig intestines into the pottery core.

The water in the ceramic core needs to be replaced continuously until the inner molten iron is completely solidified, and at this time, the cooling water needs to be replaced continuously.

In this era, Xiao Ming obviously couldn't find anything like a rubber tube, so he could only use sun-dried pig intestines instead.

In fact, in ancient times, animal internal organs did replace the role of rubber tubes.

Even in modern meat sausages, pig large intestines are still used. It can be seen that the toughness of pig large intestines is still good, and it can replace the role of some rubber tubes.

The craftsmen above were busy replacing the cooling water.

After waiting for a while, after seeing the molten iron in the iron mold solidify, the rest of the craftsmen immediately began to remove the iron mold under the command of Xiao Ming.

At this time, the outer layer of the cannon was still red and hot, and many raised burrs could be seen outside. The craftsman responsible for cleaning the burrs immediately began to clean it to make the gun body round and smooth.

After the work was over, Xiao Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the rest just waited for the gun body to completely cool down and solidify.

Chen Qi said at this time, Your Highness, is this cannon as amazing as you said? When will you pull this cannon out to test its power? How much more powerful than my Da Yu country's fire cannon?

You don't need to try to know the world. Xiao Ming said to himself.

The guns of the Great Yu Kingdom are only shoddy. Although they basically have the prototype of the guns, they are still not a little bit behind.

The effect is really not as powerful as the Huihui Cannon that the barbarians grabbed from the Western Regions.