Take the mall to Datang

"Yuan Zhengjian, I still need to go and count the accounts. Let's stop here today." Seeing Yuan Shan refused to let him go, Xin Liangchou said immediately. After the completion of the first horseshoe business, the situation has become like this A fourth-rank supervisor dragged a supervisor to play chess every day. Xin Liangchou had a lot of fun at the beginning, but it was annoying enough to play like this every day.

On the contrary, Yuan Shan was still enjoying it, and it was obvious that he would be able to get away today, and then Xin Liangchou said: "My chess skills are really too bad, it is said that Lian Jia is quite good at chess, why don't I ask him to come and accompany Yuan Zhengjian. "

"Okay, if you have a master, don't tell me earlier, let's forget about it today, and go to Lian Jia tomorrow, you can play a game every time, so don't bother." Yuan Shan said, in fact, what he was thinking was After one more set, I'm off work, and I'm going to call someone.

"By the way, Xin Jiancheng, the horseshoes are selling well now, but these are small money. If you want to make a lot of money, you might as well ask the court for money." Yuan Shan suddenly changed the subject.

"What does Yuan Zhengjian mean?" Xin Liangchou asked suspiciously.

"Shouldn't our job be to make weapons? Now that we have the business of horseshoes, why don't we make it bigger, and then apply for funds from the court to develop weapons." Yuan Shan said.

"Yuan Zhengjian, what should we do?" Xin Liangchou said.

"It's very simple..."

In the days that followed, the Military Weapons Supervision became lively. Yuan Shan's idea to Xin Liangchou was to distribute the work, and the blacksmiths in Chang'an and Chang'an's surrounding areas would try their best to make horseshoes.

In order to ensure that he can purchase horseshoes from blacksmiths at a low price, Yuan Shan decided to provide iron ore to the blacksmiths, so that the cooperation between the two parties can be established.

In this way, the blacksmith's shop became the production workshop of the Armament Supervisor, and the repurchased horseshoes could earn a lot of profit at the selling price. In addition to the income from the sale of iron ore, the money earned was not much, but it was very stable.

But they didn't expect that the demand for horseshoes was a blank in the market. When a small part of the products were put into use, they immediately attracted people's attention, and businessmen began to have the idea of ​​horseshoes. Horseshoes began mass production.

Yuan Shan had thought about all these situations, but he didn't expect that this small horseshoe would cause such a big storm. Iron is needed to produce horseshoes, and some businessmen started to think about iron mines.

Everything was going on subtly, but the horseshoe incident really spread in Chang'an City.

In Xiande Hall, Li Shimin was a little bit burnt out, he patted the table and shouted: "Yuan Shan, you have ruined my great affairs."

"Your Majesty, the current situation cannot be stopped. The most urgent thing is to buy horseshoes from a blacksmith's shop to equip our Great Tang war horse." Du Ruhui said.

"Maybe it's the only way to go, equip the horseshoes with the cavalry as soon as possible," Li Shimin said.

Chapter 212 Artillery Project

Yuan Shan didn't know that the horseshoe incident actually ruined Li Shimin's plan, but it wasn't a problem for Yuan Shan. These blacksmiths were busy, but the blacksmiths who cooperated with the military supervisor were still paying for it at a low price. The Warden produced horseshoes, for the blacksmiths had a new business, that of selling iron.

Undoubtedly, they were all bought from the Military Arms Supervision, and Yuan Shan was very happy to see this. Their cooperation would be stronger if they had interests involved, and the support of the Military Weapons Supervision mainly relied on the production of these blacksmith workshops.

"Yuanzhengjian, the blacksmiths in Chang'an and surrounding villages are now producing horseshoes. What should we do now?" Xin Liangchou asked.

"It's just a little impact on some income. It's not a big deal. Maybe it's not a bad thing. The iron ore in the warehouse has been shipped too much recently. We need to coordinate with the Ministry of Industry as soon as possible." Yuan Shan said.

"Yes, I'll do it right away." Xin Liangchou said.

While Yuan Shan was discussing with Xin Liangchou, someone from the East Palace came.

Soon Yuan Shan was called to the East Palace again. Li Shimin looked very irritable in the main hall, and Yuan Shan was also very irritable, so he was called over if there was anything to do.

"Join Your Majesty." Yuan Shan said.

"Do you know that you have spoiled my great affairs?" Li Shimin said angrily.

"Your Majesty, I have been working steadily in the Military Weapons Supervisor for the past few days. Why is that?" Yuan Shan said.

"You asked the military supervisor to cooperate with the blacksmith workshop to make horseshoes, and now the whole Chang'an knows the function of horseshoes. I thought I could delay the use of horseshoes among the people and try to equip the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty first. It would be very difficult for you to disturb the Turkic people like this. You will soon learn about the horseshoes, and on the premise that both sides are equipped with horseshoes, the Turkic people will be better at riding. Where are you putting the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty?" Li Shimin said.

What does it have to do with me that the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty is not as powerful as the Turkic people? This kind of thing is not easy to blame, Yuan Shan thought so in his heart, but he thought that the appearance of horseshoes would really have an impact on the war.

My heart is not good, it seems that Li Shimin is really popular this time, the horseshoe still has this certain advantage in the early stage when it just appeared, now it has completely lost this opportunity, after thinking about it, I can only bite the bullet .

"It's my minister who didn't think carefully, but my Tang soldiers are brave. Even if both sides are equipped with horseshoes, the combat effectiveness will not be stretched too much. Therefore, the hard work of the soldiers and the research and development of new weapons are the most important. The cavalry officials thought they should use artillery to attack them," Yuan Shan said.

"Use cannonballs to explain it in detail." Li Shimin asked doubtfully.

"According to my design, this cannon uses gunpowder to assist and then shoots the stone pellets hundreds of meters away. If it can reach a certain number, it can completely prevent the Turkic cavalry from charging, and this cannon is more defensive. Sharp weapon." Yuan Shan said lightly.

"Is there really such a weapon? Yuan Shan, don't lie to me." Li Shimin said.

"How could it be? Hasn't Your Majesty seen the grenade made of gunpowder? The power of the artillery is much, much greater than the grenade." Yuan Shan said.

"Really, if you can really make such a cannon, I will definitely reward you well." Li Shimin said excitedly.

"Your Majesty, the Military Weapons Supervisor currently lacks research and development funds, and there is not enough manpower to make artillery. It may not be ready, so a lot of financial support is needed, and this research and development will take time." Yuan Shan said.

"Crack!" Li Shimin knocked on the table directly.

"Yuanshan, tell me how much it will cost to develop the artillery you described." Li Shimin asked.

"Ten thousand coins, and guarantee the supply of various ores." Yuan Shan said.

"Okay, I'll give you a month, and I want to see the powerful cannon you mentioned." Li Shimin said.

After returning to the Military Weapons Supervision, Yuan Shan's attitude changed a lot. After seeing it, Xin Liangchou asked, "Yuan Zhengjian, what's wrong with you."

"Haha, we are rich. His Majesty Xin Jiancheng promised to allocate [-] yuan to come over. You can handle this matter. In addition, the sales of horseshoes and other matters should be run by the company chief bookkeeper. The others will devote themselves to the artillery project. Come." Yuan Shan said.

"The artillery project?" Xin Liangchou asked.

"That's right, it's the cannon project. The money allocated by His Majesty is used to make cannons. His Majesty will see this thing in a month, so everyone may have to work harder in this month. Xin Jiancheng Go and inform other people to come over for a meeting, including artisans and guards." Yuan Shan said.

"Yes, I'll go right away." Xin Liangchou said.

Soon a group of people arrived. Yuan Shan first gave orders to the twenty guards, but did not tell them what the military inspector was going to do next, but from this moment on, the military inspector began to strengthen his guard and let the guards pay attention More details.

Then came the craftsmen, the technical confidentiality work was ordered, and then the iron and steel smelting started according to Yuan Shan's intention. After the work of the guards and craftsmen was explained, the matter was explained to the supervisor and the chief bookkeeper, and everyone was assigned a task. After that, the project officially started.

Yuan Shan provided the blueprint of the artillery, and the rest was handed over to the craftsmen for construction.

Casting a cannon barrel is actually not difficult at all. Yuanshan used the method of adding a ring to the outside to dissolve the cannon body twice. The need is too large, and the caliber of ten centimeters is enough. It looks like an enlarged version of the firecracker. The gunpowder is loaded from the muzzle. According to the original plan, this artillery fires solid projectiles for attack.

However, the current artillery can't satisfy Li Shimin's explanation, so Yuanshan made adjustments in the artillery shells. Instead of using solid ammunition, he used iron-wrapped shot ammunition.

In this way, the shooting area can make up for the lack of some artillery distance, and some adjustments have been made to the composition of the gunpowder, so that the lethality can be increased when the artillery is used, but the same shortcomings are quickly exposed. After the improved gunpowder, the life of the gun barrel will be greatly reduced.

This is already the most adaptable cannon that can be produced by Datang Iron Smelting Technology.

A small cast iron cannon was completed in ten days. The cannon body is like an elongated popcorn boiler. It is erected on a two-wheeled cart, with a matchlock hole at the back and a wooden stick for filling gunpowder. The gunpowder at the bottom is directly compacted into.

The production of projectiles is relatively complicated. First, the processing of iron sheets and projectiles. The model cast iron is used to make iron balls. After thinking about it, Yuan Shan came up with this method to share. Making projectiles is no different than making bicycle bearings. To be honest, if this Let Blacksmith Lu make the cannon, which may be much better than the military inspector in all aspects, but he can't do that. After all, this is making weapons, and it's not a joke.

Chapter 213

In a clearing in the forest, a group of people gathered in front of a cannon.

All the staff of the Military Weapons Supervision are here, twenty guards have put the surrounding area under martial law, Xin Liangchou is still holding a torch, the artillery is already in good condition, and now it is time to test the cannon.

"Light it up." Yuan Shan said.