The blacksmith was not affected by Zheng Ying and the soldiers' enthusiasm. Instead, he rolled his eyes.
"There are a total of 50 flintlock guns in this batch. The first 40 flintlock guns were manufactured over the past two years, and the last 10 flintlock guns were manufactured by Chief Xu 3 months after he arrived. These bullets are our painstaking efforts for the past two years, and there are only 50 of them. You want 10,000? Sure. Just wait for 100 years! "
As soon as these words came out of his mouth, the murderous soldiers almost choked to death.
Zheng Ying was also depressed for a long time before he could calm his emotions. He resisted the urge to punch this bastard to death.
"No, why can't it be? So slow? Are you all trying to keep us in suspense?! Since you all can make it, why can't you make more? Do you know that with these flintlock muskets, we can save a lot of our men? The current muskets can only fire at a maximum distance of 70 steps. After a few rounds, the enemy will be right in front of us! "
The blacksmith shook his head.
"My dear General Zheng, do you know how much effort we had to put in to make a rifling? This rifling is made by experienced and experienced blacksmiths. This rifling is different from what we are using now. Look at it yourself! "
The blacksmith passed the musket to Zheng Ying, and Zheng Ying stared at it.
"Hey! It's really different. Round after round. We are using much less bullets than this! How did you do it? "
"What do you mean by how? It's very difficult! It takes a lot of effort to make a rifled rifle like this, not to mention this lead bullet. Look at this lead bullet, it was also made by us with great care. Not only do we need to polish it, but we also can't guarantee that every bullet can be used, and we can't guarantee that every bullet will be suitable for the gun.
Because these muskets are not made by the same person, the lead bullets used in each musket are different. You might look similar, but the numbers are different. Every bullet has a slight difference, and this lead can only be used for this musket and not other muskets. If not, the musket will explode.
This is very meticulous work. If it wasn't for the General giving us calipers, we might not even be able to make these lead bullets! Although we are also making molds to produce standard lead bullets, it is hard for us to make molds that are durable! "
Zheng Ying and the soldiers could not understand some of the jargon, but it seems like it is difficult to make molds.
"Is it really so difficult? You all only made 50 muskets in 2 years? Can't you all be faster? At most, we can make fewer muskets. "
Zheng Ying decided to settle for the next best thing, and get an elite team of sharpshooters like Xiao Ruxun's personal guards. They would be able to bring up the rear on the battlefield at a critical moment, and they would be able to play a very good role.
"This is not a problem that can be solved by having more people. If we can solve it with more people, we will be able to make a lot of them in 2 to 3 years. Now, we need to make a lot of techniques. We have used a few hundred thousand sils to make 50 muskets. How much will it cost to make 10,000 muskets?"
When the blacksmith said a few hundred thousand sils, the soldiers all backed off.
"Based on our current speed, even if the entire Firearms Manufacturing Bureau stops what they are doing to make these muskets and lead bullets, we still need to familiarize ourselves with what we are doing and practice before they can start making them. We can only make 3 to 5 muskets a month, and we can't guarantee that all of them will be of high quality. The rate of failure is very high.
Not to mention, there are very few suitable steel. It is difficult to make steel that can be used on these muskets. The steel used for muskets cannot be used on these muskets. It will explode after a few shots. We have already lost many blacksmiths. It is not that we don't want to do it, but we also want our brothers to survive! "
Zheng Ying kept quiet, and the rest of the soldiers did not say anything.
"The general has always been supporting us. He gave us money and materials, and he spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. We also want to repay the general's kindness with the best things we have. The craftsmen of the Firearms Manufacturing Bureau are not any worse than you, so we worked hard to make these dozens of flintlock muskets. However, I really don't know how long it will take for all of us to equip them."
The blacksmith sighed and looked at the musket in his hand.
Zheng Ying's main musket commander, Xie Lin, walked to the blacksmith and patted his shoulder.
"Enough. You guys have done a good job. In the past, we had to worry about the barrels exploding when we used muskets. Now, we can use the muskets you make without any worries. Basically, the barrels will not explode. It is the same for the cannons and other firearms. You guys have made enough. Our brothers can see it."
The blacksmith looked at the soldiers and saw the approval in their eyes. He couldn't help but feel relieved. His eyes turned red, and tears rolled down his cheeks uncontrollably.
During dinner, Zheng Ying specially asked Old Huo to make a special stove for the blacksmith. He treated him to a meal of stir-fried meat with chili and white rice. He then pulled the blacksmith to sit with him and asked him all sorts of questions. He seemed to be very interested in the manufacture of firearms.
"Tell me, how long did the general ask you guys to make these muskets? What kind of preparation did you guys make?"
"A lot of preparation. From the beginning, we have to prepare the materials. Different types of muskets use different types of metal. Some metals are hard, some are soft, some are easy to rifled, some can't. Even now, some people are still thinking about how to rifled the barrels to increase the shooting range of the Francis and Hongyi cannons."
Zheng Ying was very surprised.
"Rifled the barrels of the cannons? Now that the Hongyi cannons can shoot two miles away, if they are rifled, can't they shoot seven to eight miles away? Wouldn't that be terrible? "
The blacksmith nodded: "That's what they say, but they haven't gotten any results yet. Even if they do, the Hongyi cannons can only fire solid bullets, and they don't have enough firepower. That's why I feel that not only do we need to think about rifled, we also need to think about how to make more explosive bullets."
Zheng Ying nodded in agreement.
"Yes, I've always felt that it's a pity that the Hongyi cannons can't be used for explosive bullets. If it could, it would definitely be better than the Francis cannon. But the explosive bullets we have right now aren't powerful enough to kill a few people. I feel like it's not much better than a catapult."
The blacksmith ate a few mouthfuls of rice.
"Yes, that's why General Xiao said that the current gunpowder isn't strong enough. He wants us to make the gunpowder more explosive. That way, we can make more explosive bullets."
"Gunpowder can be made even more effective?"
Zheng Ying couldn't believe it.
"Not only gunpowder, but also iron, lead, and rifling. Nowadays, the more we try to improve the power of our weapons, the more things we have to do. Everything has to be considered. Better iron, better gunpowder, better rifling, better lead, more money, and more effort. No matter which one it is, we have to spend a lot of time and effort to study it. It's really, really difficult."
After listening to the Blacksmith's explanation, Zheng Ying had a better understanding of the weapon he was using.
But soon, he thought of something interesting.
"Our 10 flintlock muskets should be able to be used on the battlefield, right?"
The blacksmith chewed the rice in his mouth.
"Yes."
"Good. Let's give the people in the city a good scare. Tomorrow morning, I will pick 10 accurate musketeers, and we will show them what we're made of. Do you want to see? "
The blacksmith thought for a while and felt it was a good idea.
"What's the use of making firearms if they can't be used in wars? You all can test the speed and accuracy of the bullets, and I can report to Chief Xu. "
Zheng Ying was overjoyed.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
