Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 534 Meeting 2
In Yang Menglong's plan, the Transformers fleet was divided into two, leaving 76 warships to maintain the blood transfusion to Dongjiang Town and maintain pressure on Houjin, and another 27 ships were transferred to Huguang, becoming the first batch of warships of the Huguang Navy .After the Wuhan Shipyard is put into use, a large number of new warships will be delivered continuously to replace these old warships.In order to ensure that the Heluo New Army can effectively control the major water systems in Huguang, the Huguang Navy must have more than 250 warships, divided into five squadrons, which is the minimum standard.

Shen Tingyang was overjoyed, and said cheerfully: "To tell you the truth, Xiaguan's Shachuan Gang has a large number of excellent sailors. As long as Xiaguan sends a letter, they will immediately respond and join the navy! If not enough , you can also go to Jiangsu and Zhejiang fishermen to recruit, anyway, there will be no shortage of sailors if you lack anything!"

Yang Menglong said: "That's good, I'm really afraid that there will be no one on the boat!"

Fang Yizhi pondered and said: "There are so many rivers and rivers in Huguang, it is of course necessary to form a navy, but the manpower and material resources needed to form a navy are a very astonishing figure, I am worried that Huguang cannot afford it with its financial resources. "

Yang Menglong didn't care: "If we don't have enough money, we'll go to foreign countries to rob it. We're afraid of nothing! Besides, aren't there a bunch of foreigners trying their best to help us get money?"

One sentence made everyone laugh.That’s right, those foreigners are so obsessed with Daming’s porcelain and silk, the steel, black tea, sugar, cement and other products produced in Nanyang are also very attractive to them, and the demand is almost unlimited. As long as these foreigners can't make the same product for a day, they are not afraid of helping Nanyang find money dishonestly!

After some negotiations, everyone unanimously agreed to establish the Wuhan Shipyard and the Huguang Navy. After all, Huguang is not a peaceful place. There are so many bandits and water bandits in the lake. Without a strong navy, it is difficult to guarantee the safety of shipping.If shipping safety cannot be guaranteed, economic development will definitely be hindered. Everyone can understand such a simple truth.

Xue Siming and Han Peng looked at each other, and both sighed in their hearts: "Oh, there is another one who grabs military expenses!"

But fortunately, the 250 warships cost more than 1 people to death, and it is still possible to support [-] of them with the financial resources of the entire Huguang and Heluo area.

Yang Menglong had almost finished speaking, Fang Yizhi coughed, indicating that he had something to say.He said: "Just now the champion Hou has said almost everything. His plan is very comprehensive. If it can be realized, Huguang will be as safe as Mount Tai, and the fertile soil of Jianghan Plain will become the real granary of Ming Dynasty. The people of Ming Dynasty can also breathe a sigh of relief. What I want to emphasize is that it is not easy for us to develop to where we are now, and it is even more difficult for us to continue to develop. Everyone here, including those who will succeed you, must stick to their principles and not be affected by Influenced by the outside world, continue to walk along the path you have chosen, otherwise all previous efforts will be wasted!"

Everyone nodded vigorously: "My lord reminded me!" As the development momentum of the Heyi area is getting stronger and stronger, the pressure that these officials have to face is also increasing. Many scholars named them in the article Daoist criticism, ridicule, and abuse all made them realize that reform is not an easy task... Fortunately, the Huguang Rebel Army swept Huguang with thunderous force, attracting firepower for them, otherwise their current situation must be even more difficult.

Fang Yizhi knocked on the table, and continued: "Everyone knows the situation in Huguang, so I won't say much. The champion Hou said that he wanted to increase Huguang's grain production by ten times. Huguang’s taxation has increased by five times, but I want to say that everyone must not breathe a sigh of relief, it must be increased by ten times, otherwise it will be difficult to stop everyone’s mouth! It is not easy to increase by ten times, first of all The Huguang rebels have already done this work for us by scoring farms from households to ensure that every household has farmland. What we need to do is to do it more thoroughly. The second is to ensure that farmers can get enough fertilizer, which was not enough before. The production of phosphate rock and phosphate fertilizer cannot be guaranteed. Now the Yiling phosphate rock is under our control, and Xiyi is also transporting phosphate rock and sea guano from overseas. The supply of raw materials is no longer sufficient. There is a problem. I hope to build a phosphate fertilizer plant in Yiling area, and the monthly production of phosphate fertilizer should not be less than [-] shi!"

All the officials could not help but gasp.Twenty thousand stones are produced every month, that is more than 1000 tons!This number is too scary!
Fang Yizhi said in a deep voice: "Do you think it's a lot? Have you ever counted how many farmers in Huguang need fertilizer? Have you ever counted how much arable land there is in Huguang? Twenty thousand shi is already the bottom line. If it is lower than this output, its The price will become very expensive, and most farmers can't afford it, so what's the point of us producing it?"

All the officials showed a thoughtful look.In fact, those phosphate fertilizer plants and sulfuric acid plants in Nanyang experience more or less losses every year, and these losses have to be smoothed out by government appropriations.Of course, this is not to say that these factories are not profitable, but that the prices of their products have been deliberately lowered.If the Yi Phosphate Fertilizer Plant wants to produce more than 1000 tons per month, the loss will be even greater, and they can only bear it. Who let them monopolize this unprofitable industry?
Forget it, with the continuous improvement of the process and the maturity of the production technology, the cost will come down sooner or later, and then there will be no more losses...

Up to now, the meeting should be divided into two groups, civil officials open civil officials, military generals open military generals.Fang Yizhi was on the rise, and he repeatedly emphasized that everyone must be a loyal industrial party. You have already seen the power of industry. A pile of sand is passed through an industrial machine and it becomes a valuable glass. A pile of inconspicuous The stones passed through the industrial machines will become the fertilizers that feed the people. The productivity that the industry can produce is almost endless. They have already put one foot into the threshold, and no matter what the reason is, they can no longer shrink back. Otherwise, they will live in vain in this life.A group of officials nodded repeatedly, such as Feng Lunyin, those who can sit here are not idiots, they all realize that as long as they persevere, they will start a new era, and they will be the forerunners of this era. glory!
Yang Menglong took his generals to another conference room to avoid Lord Fang's ferocious firepower.When Mr. Fang talked about being happy, he forgot about his demeanor, and he had to open an umbrella when sitting opposite him, otherwise he would be smeared in the face.

Several people from the military industry system were also allowed to attend the meeting. After all, they were also an indispensable part of the Heluo New Army.

Yang Menglong stretched his waist and said to Qi Hu: "Old man, come on."

Qi Hu coughed, and said majesticly: "This time in the Battle of Lushun, everyone has seen the strength of the Tianxiong Army's weapons, right?"

The generals who failed to participate in the Battle of Lushun looked aggrieved, while Xue Siming and others nodded vigorously.To be honest, like Yang Menglong, they used to be disdainful of muskets, but in the Battle of Lushun, the performance of Tianxiong Army musketeers shocked them. Three rows of more than 2000 musketeers opened fire in turns, raining bullets continuously. The muzzles of the guns were directed at them. The Houjin soldiers fell in pieces. Most of the Houjin soldiers died without being able to attack the musketeers who were not even wearing armor. Swinging a knife or shooting an arrow, their superb martial arts skills can't be used at all. The rows of bullets kill all the space for them to show their personal bravery. For a person who has practiced martial arts all his life, this is so sad. matter.In the night battle outside Fuzhou City, the Tianxiong Army's musketeers broke away from the protection of the pikemen for the first time and faced the trapped beast-like army of Hou Jin alone. As a result, in the area under their control, thousands of Hou Jin people fell, most of them Many of those who were killed on the spot by bullets managed to rush into the middle of their formation, but were stabbed through their bodies by the Sanlian Army in the blink of an eye. The number of casualties in the Tianxiong Army was only 150, six to one!Such a disparity in the number of casualties made the Heluo New Army realize that with the first cry of flintlock guns on the battlefield, the time for firearms is coming. The era of cold weapons dominating the battlefield will never return, and they must throw away their hands. The best crossbows, swords, guns, and armors, keep up with the trend, otherwise you will be eliminated by the times!

Qi Hu said: "As far as I know, the effective range of the muskets of the Tianxiong Army has reached [-] paces, surpassing the bow and crossbow for the first time, and their power is extremely powerful. Within [-] paces, no matter how heavy the armor is, it is one shot. Eye!"

Yang Menglong said: "And it's a small one and a big one. If the bullet enters through the chest, it's dead."

Xue Siming said: "The power of the formation-breaking crossbow is far less than their muskets!"

Everyone was frustrated for a while. In order to break the formation crossbow, they spent a lot of effort, but it turned out to be outdated shortly after it was installed. This is so disappointing.Of course, the formation-breaking crossbow has brought the power of the crossbow to its limit. With a range of more than 500 meters and a rate of fire of five arrows in one minute, it is the top single-soldier projectile weapon in the world, as long as you don’t encounter such a perverted Tianxiong army. Musketeers, they can all walk sideways on the battlefield.Once you meet...then there is nothing to say, you can only fight head-on, everyone shoots at each other six to seventy meters apart, whoever can't stand it first will collapse, anyway, no one can take advantage.

Qi Hu said: "So, we must have our own musketeers!"

Everyone sighed.In the past, the Heluo New Army had musket troops equipped with electric guns. When the enemy was close to the enemy, they suddenly opened fire and killed the opponent with intensive and fierce firepower. However, with the increasing maturity of the crossbow, this The Musketeers were also withdrawn.

Shrugging his shoulders, Yang Menglong conjured up an [-]-centimeter-long barrel as if by magic, and smiled for everyone: "Let's take a look at the latest product from our arsenal."

Xue Siming was the first to take it, looking at the port of the barrel with his eyes, and shouted in surprise: "Rifling!"

Han Peng grabbed it, put his finger in it and turned it, shouting: "Full rifling!"

That's right, this nearly three-foot-long barrel has complete rifling from the beginning to the end!Everyone scrambled to admire the wonderful rifling, overjoyed.After all, they were not thrown too far. The Tianxiong Army's flintlock barrels were only half-rifled to hit the gold and cry. Now they have full-rifled barrels and can create longer-range guns. Far, a musket with higher accuracy, and it still doesn't make shit out of Houjin!

Yang Menglong snatched the gun barrel back and said, "Be gentle, don't break it! It's made of steel, and it cost thousands of taels of silver to make it. It's very expensive!"

Han Peng grinned from ear to ear: "It's only a few thousand taels of silver. It's worth it. It's so worth it!"

Xue Siming asked curiously: "By the way, my lord, how did you solve the problem of drilling the barrel and pulling the rifling?"

The benefits of steel barrels are self-evident. Since the strength of steel is much higher than that of iron, the wall of steel barrels does not need to be too thick to achieve the same effect as iron barrels, or even better. In this way, The entire gun barrel was greatly reduced, and the musket was naturally much lighter and safer.Nanyang has no shortage of high-quality steel, but what it lacks is processing technology. In order to solve the problem of drilling gun barrels and rifling, I don’t know how many technicians have lost their heads, let alone how many people shouted that they can’t do it and they are going to jump off the building.Now, this seemingly impossible big problem has been solved, everyone is so excited, don't mention it!
Yang Menglong smiled and said, "It's simple, just use a softer steel pipe to pull the rifling, and then carburize and quench it to harden the entire barrel, just like we forge knives."

He said it lightly, but everyone knew that it was not that simple. Just controlling the strength and rifling of the steel at different stages was enough to make countless skilled craftsmen despair.Alas, military industry, you have really worked hard!
(End of this chapter)