From Chief to Ball

"After finishing this time, the mandrel can be taken out, but the inside is not smooth at all. Holding a long and thin iron rod, one end is red-hot. Look inside by the light of the red-hot iron. There are many trachoma, which is not good at all. It has to be changed again.”

"I kept tossing like this until 38, and finally got a red-hot iron rod to stick into the gun bore where the trachoma could not be seen, but this was not enough. The inside of the eye looks smooth, but in fact it is not flat at all."

"It was filled with gunpowder. I tried it once, but it didn't blow up. The king was very happy at that time, and said that it could be used if it didn't blow up."

"Afterwards, an iron or hard copper revolving knife should be produced, and it should be carefully rotated in a little by little. It is a big wheel-shaped thing, and the axle is an iron rod, and the revolving knife is installed at one end of the iron rod, and the big wheel is turned. Drive the thin iron rod, and the rotary knife will also rotate once the wheel turns, but how thick is the wheel and how thin is the rotary knife? So it can cut copper."

"I can't spin it too much every day. I have to cover the outside of the copper cannon with wet wool felt little by little, and I have to change it at any time. Once the inside is turned, it gets hot, and I have to stop when it gets hot."

"After spinning for a long time, I finally finished spinning, and I still need to drill the fire door. Otherwise, how do I light the gunpowder inside? It's not easy to drill the fire door. You have to get to the innermost part of the gun bore. A little forward, a little gunpowder, the fire When the gunpowder exploded behind the door, the gun went crooked."

"Add oil to the fire door little by little. Don't be in a hurry. Other cities can use wood to drill jade. Of course we can use iron or bronze to drill guns, but it's too slow."

"While we were making cannons here, the carpentry department was also busy making cannon frames. Your Majesty was going back and forth between the smelting department and the carpentry department every morning at that time."

"At that time, the whole city of Yucheng revolved around these two workshops, and all the good things were given priority to these two workshops. Except for some iron-making agricultural tools left behind, the people from the smelting department basically gathered around here to watch. Every veteran has to bring three or five people to work together."

"I remember that I started making molds in 36, and it wasn't until September of 38 that the first small cannon was finished. How big was it? Think about how big a three-jin iron ball is? How thick can a catty of small iron balls be?"

"At that time, the gunpowder was installed, and the gun mount was finished. A mound of soil was dug behind to support it. The rest of the people who used the ignition rope ran to a distance. It was aimed at a wall 150 steps away, and there was a bang. The wall was blown down! We all cried out at that time, think about it, what would it be like if it hit a person? Later, I tried again, and the three-pound iron ball could hit three or four hundred steps It can penetrate three or four people at a distance of about 150 paces."

"At that time, everyone was crazy with joy. You must know that the Dongyi people were very good at bows and arrows, and the Xia people were not good at archery at that time. They all thought that if they made a hundred of these small cannons, what would they be afraid of?"

"As a result, the king poured a ladle of cold water on our heads. He said that this cannon was made twenty times, and only one was usable. It took more than two years and 7 people in the Xia Kingdom supported it. The city’s copper, tin, people, food, etc. are raised, and then they are produced. Let alone a hundred gates, ten gates can’t be built.”

"We were all surprised at the time. We thought that if we didn't make so many, why did most of the veterans of the smelting department have to learn this? It's different from the king saying that we can't make so many."

"So from then on, only a part of those who made cannons remained. In addition to making these three-jin cannons, they also had to build a batch of smaller ones that could make about one catty of iron balls, which could be carried by two or three people. Running cannon."

"After reading it, the king chose some people to be in charge of casting cannons, but he didn't choose me."

"At that time, coal could be burned like charcoal. The original iron smelting furnace still used charcoal, but the furnace for turning pig iron into wrought iron had to use coke. The furnace that used pig iron to fry wrought iron did not work at all, and the temperature was not enough. Stir the iron until it hardens, and when you take it out there is still a pile of impurities that need to be smashed out little by little.”

"The coke was changed. It is said that the heat is enough this time, but the wall of the furnace was burnt! Those bricks can't withstand the heat of the coal coke. There is no way. The king asked Yuemei to return to Yueyi to help A furnace for firing better and smooth pottery was built there, and a workshop for firing clay bricks was built, and it took half a year to go back and forth.”

"When all this is done, it will already be the summer of 39. Your fourth grandfather was selected to practice shooting cannons at that time, and we are still digging the earth to build the stove."

"Instead of the burnt clay bricks, here is the charred fire, and the wall in the middle, the fire and smoke go through it, heating the pig iron through the wall."

"Under the pig iron is paved with iron slag. After the pig iron melts, stir it with an iron rod in a place that can burn people to death. I drink three or five cans of salt water a day, and I can't breathe because of the heat."

"It's strange to say that when the melted pig iron was stirred for a while, it became sticky like porridge, and it couldn't be stirred anymore. The heat is still the same, but it just can't be turned into water anymore."

"It's much easier to take out the iron. After removing the dross below, it's wrought iron. It can be smashed, and you can't stop smashing it no matter how you smash it."

"At that time, there were two groups of people. One group used small pieces of wrought iron to smash the armor, and we used these wrought irons to smash the barrel. With a water hammer that can smash the armor, the armor can be made much faster, but We, the barrel-rollers, can only tap a little bit with our hands."

"At that time, I didn't know that it was smashing the barrel of the gun, but I just smashed it."

"I have two people under my command, an anvil with a semicircular groove on it, a big hammer, a small iron stove with a bellows, a pair of pliers for holding iron, and a piece of iron with a length of one foot for each person. An iron plate, a round iron rod one step long."

"Just for this thing, first beat the wrought iron into iron plates, put them in a bellows furnace and burn them red, then bend them on the anvil while it's hot, put the iron rod in, and continue smashing. Standing in a circle with iron rods, it's over."

"I received the first piece of wrought iron in October of 39, and in June of 40, the entire smelting department was the first to smash out a one-foot-long round pipe. Eight months! After eight months of smashing, put From the perspective of the current blacksmith, I am afraid that we must laugh at us for being too slow, but at that time, the king rewarded me very much."

"The barrel of our gun is very thick. Let's put it this way, it is half a circle thicker than it is now, because it is afraid of being blown up. Another group of people also shot some one-foot-long ones. The iron rods inside are as thick, but only one side of them It was a bit thicker, the two iron pipes were hot red, the thicker piece was put on ours, and then smashed together hard, it became a two-foot-long piece."

"We are only in charge of punching the barrel. Others are responsible for drilling the barrel, some are responsible for making wooden supports, some are grinding gunpowder, some are boiling lead pellets, some are drilling fire doors, some are twisting matchlocks, and some are making taps. Each has its own work. Who does it? You must engrave your number plate on the things you make... Otherwise, your fourth grandfather will not know that I made the gun barrel that blew his eyes."

"I figured it out. Based on the situation at the time, not counting gunpowder, wooden supports, and tinder boxes, but just drilling and drilling the barrel, six people might be able to produce one after half a year's work. That's three people working together. You don’t have to do anything in the past year, just punch and drill out a gun barrel. And among these three people, there must be a veteran of the smelting department.”

"How is this a weapon? It was clearly made with money. At that time, the family didn't understand that with so much money, so much iron, and so much food, they could actually support more soldiers, even if these people went to fight One piece of iron armor for each person. If each person wears an iron armor, who can beat it? What do you need muskets for?"

Li Silang sighed, took the words over and said, "It's not just you, those of us who were the first to touch the muskets are also full of resentment."

"A bow weighs two or three catties at most, and how much does a long dagger weigh? Do you know how much that heavy musket weighed? Ten catties!"

"Shen is easy to say, but the most difficult thing is to load and ignite the fire. There is a fire door behind the gun. There is a small fire box outside the fire door. Gunpowder is poured into the fire box. The matchstick ignites the fine powder inside, and then burns to Light the gunpowder inside the door to shoot out the lead pellets."

"Everyone carried a ten-jin gun on their backs, a bronze sword hanging from their waists, eight cans of gunpowder, a plate of matchlocks, lead pellets, and each of them had a wooden fork on which to shoot the musket."

"Can't use it in the rain, can't use it when it's windy, can't use it at night..."

"When queuing, there is a long distance between people. If you get closer, it may be that my matchlock ignited the gunpowder on your back, and it burned up with a whistling. I am the gunner. You only need to know this You can use the thing as you want, and there are very few opportunities to touch this thing, otherwise I can't stand it."

The children asked strangely: "Then how did you get injured by the gun?"

"In 41, muskets were part of the skill competition at the Caohe Festival. I wanted to try it. Anyway, everyone was the same. They had never touched it before, and then the gun exploded..."

Chapter 127 Those People, Those Years ([-])

Of course, the children don't know the word "do not die, do not die", but they give Li Silang a similar definition in accordance with the culture of that era and the previous material production.

But secretly I think it's funny, it's not so easy to blow up guns now, especially the heirs of Xia Guoxuan who are "rooted and young" are more likely to come into contact with these things.

After listening to it a lot, it is inevitable that if it is not for my parents and grandparents, I am afraid that Xia Guo would not be able to build it, and I will naturally hear the implication of the difficulty of starting a business for my ancestors, and I will inevitably think that this world is brought down by my parents and grandparents Yes, but now only half of the seats in the academy can be recommended by nobles, which is simply unreasonable.

It's just that too many people have been killed because of these things in these years, and no one dares to say such things as blood lineage is destined.

In fact, they were not the only ones who built the country of Xia. In terms of pure bloodlines, the Li family brothers might not be considered old Xia people.

Therefore, the stability of those five or six years is not only the story of the step-by-step growth of these original Xia people, but also some stories of "people who were not originally Xia people but became Xia people".

It's just that they became a different kind of Xia people, and after the peace and war were over, what they fought for was exactly what those children thought was unreasonable.

A long, long time ago, during the Eastern Expedition to Dongyi, it was not the Xia Kingdom at that time, but the soldiers of Xiacheng rescued a mother and son who were slaves. Later, the mother and son had an infant child and a family of three lived in Xinhua city ​​life.

The mother named the seven-year-old child Chopsticks and herself Bowl to celebrate the right to "want to eat because I'm hungry" from a slave to a human.

Later, at the end of the 37th year of the Chinese calendar, a group of former fugitive slaves and now an army of workshop workers went to Xinhua City to complete the defense change. Because Wan was credited with leading people to attack the city, he was considered a trustworthy person, and thus became a He is half a Chinese, and Chopsticks followed those fugitive slaves to listen to their stories about Yucheng.

In the summer of 38, a large number of workshop workers were mobilized to Xinhua City. As one of the few escaped slaves who could read and write, he was appointed as a general in charge of the military in Xinhua City.

Going to Xinhua City with him, there are also a large number of young people who have completed their education classes.Those who go there have to teach there for three years, and in these three years, they can gain the merits that can only be accumulated in six years. At that time, the child named Chopsticks was already nine years old.

The chopsticks have grown a lot in the past two years, because I was full; I can write a few words, because there are always some words written on those walls, and some people in the army have to be recognized, and my mother cooks in the army. Naturally, people he knew well would always tease him—after all, those people in the army were slaves before, so this kind of emotion is natural.

The man who rushed from Yucheng to Xinhua City knew the mother and son, bowls and chopsticks, but after two years, he was already a big shot in charge of the safety of tens of thousands of people here, so naturally it was impossible to meet this pair as soon as he arrived. To someone who was just an episode in his life.

At that time, Xinhua City had stabilized, and all the cities of the Dahe tribes sent some people to garrison and cultivate here. The children who studied with Chen Jian also completed reforms in their narrow "fiefdom": slaves were banned. , and bring them land rent, or give them surnames to become their own clansmen to expand their strength.

Those Dongyi people who were not replaced did not miss their hometown. Those propaganda teams who taught the workshop workers in Yucheng why to fight and Xiaguo’s public opinion department mainly publicized two things in Xinhua City: The leader is worthless in his eyes, so those people were replaced and you were abandoned. If you recognize him as the leader, does he recognize you as clansmen?You are defeated as slaves, this is what Qiongxi said, it is natural for the loser to be a slave, but as long as you do well, you will be able to get five or six acres of land in three to five years, and you can rent farm cattle and iron tools.

These people who have not been exchanged are probably the low-level people in the Dongyi city. Dongyi has no writing, and there is no indoctrination of the Dongyi tribes as one. In their opinion, not working as slaves to death is the worst. It's a good ending, isn't it the same life after escaping back?

Besides, the life here is much better than in the original city. There is always something to look forward to every day. Some people become free people because of their good performance and learned some languages ​​of the tribes of the river, and they are allotted their own land. , and there is no need to cultivate public land, only need to pay a certain tax.

The slaves liberated from Dongyi are completely different. They have been instilled with hatred and resistance from the very beginning, so they can quickly integrate into the system of Xinhua City, become the first part of assimilation, and become part of the trustworthy.