When winter went and spring came, when Li Zicheng burned Luoyang City and Fu Prince's Mansion while joking, he rushed to Kaifeng, and Emperor Chongzhen could only cry angry and helplessly.

There was another spring feeling in the north and south of the country. However, Liaodong is still covered with ice and snow.

However, this year is different from previous years. For the first time in many years, the military and civilians in Liaodong no longer have to worry about the Eastern Reincarnation of the Tartars "robbing the West" and no longer have to worry about their lives in fear all day long.

This year is a good year!

From Jinzhou to Dalian, although it was cold and cold, the faces of ordinary people were smiling. For the people in Jinzhou and other places, they had a stable and warm winter for the first time in many years. Last year, General Zu opened a coal mine outside Jinzhou City and dug a lot of coal. With coal, there is naturally no need to worry about warming in the winter.

Of course, the people of Jinzhou City do not know that this coal mine is also extremely important to Dalian across the sea. Dalian's iron plant requires not only high-quality iron ore from Fangbao Yinsu iron ore in the Yangtze River Estuary of Datong, but also high-quality coal coking produced in Jinzhou.

In this relatively primitive era of metallurgical technology, high-quality raw materials were the fundamental prerequisite for ensuring the quality of firearms, and low-sulfur and low-phosphorus iron ore was the best raw material for casting guns. The reason why the British Navy was able to rule the sea was that Sweden's low-phosphorus iron was one of the most important reasons. When the gunners in Spain and France were frightened and worried that the cannon would explode, the gunners in Britain could fire unscrupulously.

Even the explosion of the chamber was the most worrying thing for the bird gun soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. In order to reduce the possibility of explosion of the chamber, they reduced the charges. Many people blamed the explosion of the bird gun on the corruption of the Ming Dynasty. But in fact, the most fundamental reason was the quality of the raw materials. China's iron ore generally contains sulfur and has a high phosphorus content. As a result, since the Song Dynasty, it has become a "hereth" of coal refining. The sulfur, phosphorus and other impurities in the coal entered the iron, further deteriorating the quality of the iron. The severe excess of the thiophosphorus standard causes the iron to become brittle, and naturally it is easier to explode.

Therefore, after establishing the Dalian Arsenal, Zhu Guoqiang has not relaxed the quality control. He first built two iron and smelting blast furnaces with a weekly output of 100 tons based on the stone iron and smelting blast furnaces in Europe in the early 19th century. Then he built a simple coking oven. The coking coal was initially made of local coal, and later changed to Jinzhou coal, which had a lower thiophosphate content. The iron ore came from Yinli, where the low phosphorus and low sulfhydryl iron ore produced may not be as good as Benxi, but it is far better than other iron ores in China.

High-quality raw materials ensure the quality of Dalian firearms, but sometimes quality is not the first priority.

"The prince, now we use iron molds for cannons sold outside now. We first cast iron molds with sand molds, and then cast iron molds with iron molds. The casting cannons are fast, and the cost is extremely low. However, because the iron of the cast cannons is purchased from outside, it costs 20 cents per pound, and the price of one cannon is 50 taels of silver. If it is replaced with iron we refined ourselves, the cost can be at least doubled..."

In the workshop where the cannon casting was watched as the craftsmen took out the fiery red cannon body from the iron mold, and then used tools to level the cannon body and the cannon chamber, Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile.

"Our iron quality is too good. These cannons were sold to Jiannu and they can't be used that well. Even if it weren't for appearance, there was no need to level the cannon body."

It is quite helpless to have too good quality. In order to ensure "poor quality", even the scrap iron with high quality is even more helpless, but there is nothing we can do about it. After all, these cannons are all "exported goods".

"Criminal Master, our iron-cast cannon can hit 1,000 rounds, and the maximum number of bad iron is 340 or 50 rounds. Oh, the cost is too high, and it is not cost-effective to calculate. I earned a lot of money less!"

Chen Yujie's tone was quite a pity.

He was not only a cannon caster, but also the head of the arsenal. As Xu Guangqi's nephew, although he had not won the imperial examinations, he had not won the fame and fortune in the imperial examinations since he was a child, but he had made great achievements in astronomy and military affairs. Therefore, he entered Beijing in the second year of Chongzhen in the second year of Chongzhen to participate in the editing of the calendar. In history, he was recommended by Shi Kefa to become a doctor of the Imperial Heaven Supervision Department. Li Chuang conquered the capital. After Chongzhen died for his country, he served as the Ministry of War of the Hongguang Dynasty, responsible for the supervision of firearms. However, after the Qing army captured Nanjing, he committed suicide on the observatory of Jiming Mountain to die for his country.

However, his fate has changed now. Last year, he was summoned by Zhu Guoqiang to the army to cast cannons. With the knowledge of casting cannons learned from Xu Guangqi, and some information provided to him, he quickly mastered the knowledge of weapons manufacturing in the book. Unlike Sun Hewu who was good at casting cannons, he was not only good at casting cannons, but also good at making machines. In just half a year, he used to refer to the physical objects and drawings brought by Zhu Guoqiang to create hundreds of various machine tools. Even those machine tools were at the level of the early 19th century, but in this era, it was amazing enough. He even started a labor apprenticeship school with his two nephews, Xu Guangqi's grandson, to teach machine knowledge.

"It's okay, you can earn less money, it doesn't matter. At worst, you can find a few more buyers."

Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile.

In order to reduce the quality of the artillery, in addition to inferior iron materials, the "magic weapon" of iron mold casting cannons was even used. Its only advantage is that it accelerates the production rate. However, the whitening of the iron mold casting cannons is very serious. Due to the fast cooling speed, although it is relatively smooth, almost all white iron plates are produced, resulting in increased brittleness and the performance of the cannons is seriously reduced.

These big guys weighing nearly 3,000 kilograms can only be used on ships, even if they are barely used in field battles, they have no mobility. So Zhu Guoqiang was not worried that Jiannu would use them on land.

Of course, Jiannu's purchase made Zhu Guoqiang find a new way to get rich.

"Buyer? Are there new buyers in our cannon?"

Chen Yujie said in confusion.

"Zisheng, the prince should be referring to the Japanese. Since Jiannu wants to cross the sea to grab the Japanese, as long as they grab them a few times, they will definitely cast guns and build a cannon. We will sell the cannons to them and let them fight Jiannu for a happy time..."

Sun Hewu's explanation made Zhu Guoqiang laugh.

"The arms dealers who do not sell arms to warring parties are not good arms dealers. The more they fight, the better our cannons will be sold. And it doesn't matter if the lifespan of the artillery is low. Only when they buy more cannons, right?"

At this moment, Zhu Guoqiang seemed to have transformed himself into a Japanese businessman in the 20th century - product lifespan? What should I do if my lifespan is so high? Just enough! What? A little low? If it is not low, can you change it frequently?

Anyway, in a word, high prices and poor quality are the king.

Actually, the quality is really good!

And it is definitely of better quality than the cannons cast by the Macau Bujialao Casting Factory in this era. Now the cannons of Bujialao Casting Factory are famous brands in East Asia. If others don’t mention it, Zheng Zhilong once purchased 150 units to arm his fleet.

After leaving the gun factory, Zhu Guoqiang walked towards the gun factory not far away. When he walked over there, he could see two towering chimneys spewing coal smoke without looking up. They were the chimneys of the steam engine. Five months ago, after solving a series of technical problems, the Dalian Arsenal finally entered the steam era - three locally produced steam engines were installed in the rifle factory and the gun factory respectively. Although it was extremely bulky and had only a dozen horsepower, it still provided sufficient power for the two factories.

The use of steam power does not only provide reliable power for the factory. Most importantly, its appearance has increased the speed of the machine tool, not only improved the production speed, but also improved the processing accuracy of the machine tool. It is thanks to this arsenal that has produced qualified universal fuses, which also allows Zhu Guoqiang to purchase grenade fuse accessories from another world for the first time. Although it is not expensive to buy from the other side, it is dangerous. Although they may not know the purpose of those parts, it is always right to be careful and you will definitely have to pay the price.

Of course, the most important thing is that the improvement of processing accuracy makes it possible for factories to produce some industrial products.

"How are our new rifles being made?"
Chapter completed!