the world is at stake

"The rebels used money." Zhao Mazi sneered and said: "The master above sent us here, and we have to come if we don't want to. But I heard that the Xinhua rebels are very powerful, and they also give extra money. Even if it's not good, we can be killed Zhaoan. I didn't say anything."

"Recruitment?" Hu Dayan was first angry and then happy, and waved his hand, "Zhao Mazi, you are wrong, you are wrong. Come on, I will take you to open your eyes and see who is recruiting who?"

Zhao Mazi didn't move, "What do you mean by that?"

"My Xinhua is so strong that I am invincible in the world.

The masters in charge above are all capable people, and all of them are skilled in smelting and forging.The masters are not only knowledgeable but also private, and they teach all skills.

I, Hu Big Eye, have never convinced anyone in my life, but I have to obey many leaders of Xinhua.They are benevolent people who are truly wise and compassionate.

Zhu Ming has been in power for nearly 300 years. Now that the emperor is fatuous and the officials are greedy, it is time for the world to change. "

Zhao Mazi was dumbfounded when he heard it, thinking that it was indeed the territory of the rebels, so he could say whatever he wanted to lose his head.

Hu Dayan grabbed Zhao Mazi's hand, "Don't you believe me? I'll take you to see the latest drilling machine. If you are not convinced, you can also go to the blast furnace and hydraulic forging machine.

In this land of Xinhua, there are many unique skills! "

Zhao Mazi was dragged away, and took his two sons into a carriage.The rest of the people stayed for the time being, and Hu Dayan arranged for another person to come to class.

After getting into the carriage, Hu Dayan patted the cowhide cushion and said triumphantly, "How is it? Have you seen this carriage before?"

When he arrived at Wusongkou, Zhao Mazi took a four-wheeled carriage. At that time, he was surprised that the carriage was exquisite and comfortable, but now he said with disdain: "It just looks big, it's not as convenient as the two-wheeled carriage."

Hu Dayan stared furiously, "This four-wheeled vehicle can pull and carry loads, and it runs briskly. Ball bearings are used on the hubs, and universal joints are used on the frame. How can it be inconvenient?"

Zhao Mazi was still stubborn, "You can't run this thing on the dirt roads in the country."

Hu Dayan was amused, "The roads in my Songjiang have all been repaired. The leaders of Xinhua have been working for relief since April to overhaul the roads. The road network of more than [-] villages and towns in the two counties is connected, and the transportation is very convenient now. "

Zhao Mazi still curled his lips, "So what? You won't be able to use it outside of Songjiang, and it's too expensive."

Hu grinned angrily.

The carriage didn't take long and stopped outside a heavily guarded workshop.This place is far away from villages and towns, close to the river bend, surrounded by guards, guarded by high walls, and spikes are pierced on the top of the walls.

Outsiders, let alone entering, will be expelled if they approach.

Hu Dayan handed over his certificate to the guard, explaining his purpose.

Not long after, a person came out of the workshop, wearing glasses and a uniform with four pockets. He had a good appearance, but he shaved short hair no longer to hide it.

When Hu Dayan saw this person, he was very respectful, bent slightly, and introduced: "This is Liu Fuyang, head leader Liu, the director of the gun project of the Xinhua Machinery Group."

He turned his head and pointed at Zhao Mazi again, "Boss Liu, this is Zhao Mazi from the Firearms Bureau of the Nanjing Ministry of Industry.

This person has a very arrogant temper, but his ability to make firearms is actually mediocre.But he taught his apprentices to be very capable, and he has many disciples and grandchildren. If he can subdue him, he will also have a few more firearm-making craftsmen. "

Liu Fuyang smiled, said "yes" a few times, and stretched out his hand: "We are short of people, and we need a craftsman with outstanding ability and charisma like Master Zhao."

In normal times, Zhao Mazi would jump up and scold him with an 'average' evaluation.But he had also met high officials before, and this leader Liu in front of him had an extraordinary bearing, by no means ordinary.

Liu Fuyang stretched out his hand, but Zhao Mazi called "little old man" and knelt down with his two sons, embarrassing the former until Hu Dayan helped him up.

Liu Fuyang was busy, and asked Hu Dayan to lead the tour and teach the rules by the way. He counted Zhao Mazi as a staff member of the gun project——'Sacred Light' was extremely short of people, and all projects were recruited by robbing.

After Liu Fuyang left, Hu Dayan took Zhao Mazi into the gun workshop.

The [-]-horsepower steam engine has been completed, but the first few are either used to power ships, or used to build machines and expand production capacity.

Xinhua's military pressure in Songjiang Prefecture is not great, and the surrounding area is weak chickens, which can be dealt with with spears and armor.Therefore, the gun workshop is built by the river, and its level is not high, so it can only be powered by water flow.

But even if it is water flow, there are skills in how to use it.

The construction team chose a river bend in Qinglong Town to build a small dam, raising a section of the Wusong River by half a meter.The mere half-meter of water storage not only brings certain irrigation advantages, but also creates a water flow drop.

The gun workshop was built near the dam, and the drainage impacted the waterwheel, increasing the mechanical power from five horsepower to twelve horsepower, which was specially used to provide power for lathes and drilling machines.

These processing equipment are very primitive and the precision is not high.The cast iron used for the bed frame, the high-carbon steel used for the tool, and the key components such as the screw are polished step by step by the mechanical group through iterative processing.

Anyway, let’s make do with it, now the solution is whether there is a problem.After all, the equipment of the first industrial revolution is like this, and the phenomenon of "running, emitting, dripping and leaking" is very common.

The forging workshop sent one hundred patterned steel barrels forged with raw and wrought iron, with an outer diameter of eighteen millimeters.Zhao Mazi grabbed two of them and tapped them against each other. Hearing the clear and clear sound, he said in surprise, "This iron material is not bad."

"Of course, it's the best iron, which has been honed over thousands of years." Hu Dayan said happily.

Each gun barrel is heavy, and a hundred of them can be sold for hundreds of taels of silver elsewhere.Zhao Mazi was very satisfied with the material of the gun barrel, but asked in puzzlement, "Why is it solid?"

Hahaha... Hu Dayan led Zhao Mazi to continue watching, especially showing a newly assembled hydraulic drilling machine.An apprentice works the machine, clamping the barrel into a jig and drilling it.

Because there is no suitable cold cutting fluid, the drill bit made of tool steel has to stop from time to time, so the drilling speed must be well controlled.Apprentices must be careful.

Standing by the side, Zhao Mazi understood it at a glance, and said loudly, "Isn't the barrel of this firecracker rolled? You can actually drill holes in iron?"

Early firearms used iron to forge and roll the barrel, which was time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the tolerance was not well controlled.The inside of the barrel is often pitted, even crooked.

It's no wonder this gun is accurate.

After the emergence of high-hardness tool steel, drilling machines and boring machines also appeared, which were specially used to process the inner chambers of guns.Both speed and precision are much better than rolling or casting.

Zhao Mazi needed two or three apprentices to help him roll the barrel of a firecracker, and he could not do it in less than ten days and half a month.The whole process is tiring and troublesome.If you don't pay attention, it will be scrapped.

Drilling is much simpler, the fixture tool is fixed, remember to measure at all times, and the rest is patience.Even an apprentice, as long as he masters the essentials of operation, he can drill a one-meter-long barrel within 24 hours.

In fact, the gun workshops are making barrels that are only eighty centimeters long.Because it will have two simple riflings, and use a Minie round with an inflated tail.

This will greatly improve the shooting accuracy of the finished product, and it will not require a too long barrel.

Drilling and rifling are technologies that were developed only a hundred years later. Zhao Mazi stood beside the drilling machine in a daze for a long time after listening to Hu Dayan's explanation.He couldn't help but want to operate it himself, but the working apprentice refused.

Hu Dayan explained next to him, "Now there is only one drilling machine, which is very precious. In order to avoid accidents, you can't change people during work. This is the rule set by Liu Touling."

After the barrel has been drilled, the rest of the process is much simpler.

The design of the whole gun refers to the experience of many famous flintlock guns in later generations, as well as the experience of 'modern' bolt-action rifles.The barrel is firmly fixed on the wooden butt, with a flint hole on the side and a flintlock.

"It turns out that you are making self-generating firecrackers, and they are so good. No wonder you are not afraid of the court."

Zhao Mazi saw a few newly produced flintlocks in the assembly room of the gun workshop, and tried firing a few rounds in the shooting range behind the workshop. It can be said that they are quite accurate within two hundred paces.

As a person who actually works, he will naturally understand that behind a mere "self-generating firecracker" is not just a drill press with advanced functions, but the manufacturing ability mastered by the rebels has obtained the advantage of crushing level.

"In the last month, Xinhua cotton cloth was sold to Nanjing. Its cheap price and the beauty of the cloth attracted people from all over the city to rush to buy it. The little old man thought that there would not be many such cheap cloths, and they would be gone after they were snatched up.

Unexpectedly, Xinhua cotton cloth was shipped in a continuous stream.The goods of the original cloth merchants on the market seem to be too small in width and expensive, so they cannot be sold at all.

Many cloth merchants borrowed money everywhere, desperately buying and hoarding goods, intending to buy all the Xinhua cotton cloth, hoping to sell it slowly and make huge profits.

When they found that there were too many sources of goods, the cloth merchants sent people to block the pier to prevent the unloading of Xinhua cotton cloth, and even smashed the shops that sold the cloth, and sent the sellers to prison in the name of thieves.

But so what, Xinhua cotton cloth is still shipped in, overwhelming.Correspondingly, the seed cotton from various prefectures was shipped away, and there was not a single grain left.This is like a raging sea, with the ebb and flow of the tide, and the market is in chaos. "

Alas... Zhao Mazi sighed and sighed, looking at the flintlock gun in his hand, "Old man, I have lived for more than [-] years, and I have seen through the world. I thought cotton cloth was the strongest weapon of the Xinhua rebels, but I didn't expect..."

The powder cover of the flintlock was opened, and a paper shell Miner bullet was caught, and the powder bag was bitten, and the primer was poured into the medicine pool, and the powder cover was covered.Put the remaining projectile and propellant powder into the muzzle and compact it with a cleaning rod.

Then turn on the gun, aim at the target, and lightly pull the trigger.With a bang, a small hole was made in the humanoid target two hundred paces away.

"I didn't expect that the kings of Xinhua have so many tricks. With such a murderous weapon, who can take the head of the enemy from a hundred steps away?"

Chapter 31

Zhou Qingfeng still remembers when he was in high school, he liked to chat with his classmates about history and politics after class.

A few boys with the same interests ate fried rice noodles with shredded pork in the cafeteria, glanced at the thighs of beautiful girls, stared at the breasts and buttocks of sexy female teachers, and talked about national events and historical allusions.

Talking about the troubles in the Northwest, I was very angry;

Talking about the sale of arms to Taiwan by the United States, I was filled with righteous indignation;

Talking about being broken by the great powers in modern times, full of humiliation;

Speaking of the wars and massacres in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, I wish I could hang all the Donglin Party members to death.

Now, Zhou Qingfeng is standing on the bow of the steam ship sailing north, with the smoking chimney behind him, and the vast sea in front of him, thinking to himself...

"What are the nonsense friends doing? They should be thinking about getting married and having children, striving for a career, or killing edges and corners, and laying down lazily. If they knew that there was a chance to kill 'wild boar skin', would they join the group regardless of life and death? ?”

In mid-March of 1617, after several rounds of inland water transport routes from Songjiang to Nanjing, the military group of the 'Holy Light' team verified the operation and maintenance of ships and equipment.

Team leader Chen Ding officially announced that the world's first steamship 'Liaodong' joined the People's Navy.

The first task of the 'Liaodong' after entering service is to open up the coastal base to Dandong.Its first captain is Fang Bo, the only navy member in the team, who once served in a flotilla.

Theoretically, the 'Liaodong' can cross the Yellow Sea and sail directly from Songjiang to Dandong. The whole journey is less than [-] kilometers and only takes three days.Fuel in the coal bunker is sufficient.

After all, Columbus circumnavigated the earth with three sailing boats of tens of tons and hundreds of tons. There is no reason why the 'modern' Xinhua Navy cannot run a thousand kilometers.

But for the sake of safety, or because they don't trust the reliability of their own steam engines after all, the 'Holy Light' team decided to build a coal water base along the coast of the Yellow Sea.

Coal is actually easy to deal with, but the water in the boiler is quite troublesome, not all water can be poured into it.When encountering irresponsible engineers, big troubles will happen.

At the end of March, commanded by Fang Bo and led by Zhou Qingfeng, the 'Liaodong' started heading north with [-] commandos and [-] craftsmen.

Along the coastline, the team will dock every [-] kilometers and choose a place to establish a base.

The reason why it is two hundred kilometers is that the 'antique' radio produced by the team's chemistry group and electronics group only has this working distance.

The transmitter was the earliest Marconi-style spark telegraph, powered by a voltaic pile.This most primitive battery uses silver and tin as the poles, dilute sulfuric acid as the electrolyte, and stacks fifty layers.

Dilute sulfuric acid is easy to solve, calcined pyrite plus lead to catalyze oxidation, or distilled bile vitriol or green vitriol can be used to obtain concentrated sulfuric acid - pollution and so on are ignored, and the amount is not much anyway.

That is, the chemical team must pay attention to protection, otherwise the acid mist will disfigure it.

With sulfuric acid, you can do many things, react with salt to get hydrochloric acid, and react with potassium nitrate to get nitric acid.As for the 'two alkalis', soda ash has natural minerals, while caustic soda relies on electrolysis of salt water.

Just pay attention to ventilation, don't let the hydrogen gas from the electrolysis explode - chemical stuff can easily kill people.

As for radio reception, it is even simpler, and the ore radio does not even need batteries.

It uses fine metal wire and galena to contact, and uses the unidirectional conductivity of the Schottky barrier formed by the metal and semiconductor contact points for detection.

You can understand the individual words of this sentence, but you can’t understand them together, right?It's okay, most people don't understand.You're not the only one, and I don't understand either.

It's just that the horn is not very easy to produce - using natural magnets, hand-painted coils, and an iron reed can also produce vibrations.

It's good to be able to move, anyway, I don't expect to transmit voice, just transmit the Morse code back.The current electromagnetic environment is very clean and there is no interference.

The only problem is the antenna.

Mr. Marconi's first trans-Atlantic communication, the antenna erected was more than [-] meters high. It is impossible for the 'Holy Light' team to make such a thing, so they can only work harder on the balance feeder.

With a communication distance of [-] kilometers, different radio stations receive transmissions in time-sharing, and messages can be transmitted thousands of miles away.In the seventeenth century, what special request could there be for this thing?

Zhou Qingfeng was busy with this matter in the first half of 1617, arranging bases in Yancheng, Lianyungang, Qingdao, Weihai, Dalian, all the way to Dandong.

Each base uses cheap goods as much as possible to establish a good relationship with the local residents, build fortresses, and leave about a company of troops to garrison - most of them are breastplate spearmen, plus ten Mines flintlocks held by officers .

Generally, the Ming army cannot take down such strongholds.

By June, the Xinhua Navy added three more steamships of the same level, and tried to form a fleet from Songjiang to Dandong, but it was too much trouble to run along the coastline.

As a result, the four ships broke down six times halfway, and Zhou Qingfeng's ship was finally towed back to Songjiang by cables for repairs.

Facts have proved that it is beneficial to be cautious, and the reliability of early steam engines is still a little bit worse.If the single ship "Liaodong" broke down halfway across the Yellow Sea, Uncle Zhou would have to stage "Robinson Crusoe", and I don't know how long it would have to float on the sea.

However, far away from the main base of Songjiang, Dandong, which is a thousand kilometers away, is two or three orders of magnitude difficult in an instant, whether it is living conditions or combat environment.

"Fortunately, I didn't have a fever and went to Liaodong to open a base. There is nothing in this ghost place except silly spores." According to the latitude and longitude determined by the sextant, the two ships 'Liaodong' and 'Liaoxi' slowly entered the mouth of the Yalu River.

The crew members who had spare time stood on the side of the ship one after another, looking at the destination of this mission.

The coastline is a stretch of virgin forest, without any signs of human habitation.The Yalu River protrudes from the forest, as if splitting the land, and penetrates into the rolling mountains.

Zhou Qingfeng boarded a small boat and paddled ashore.When he stepped on the naturally formed river bank, he saw green forests and no roads.

After 400 years of vicissitudes, the coastline and river course are very different from those of later generations.The maps left by the Ming Dynasty have little reference value, and the only way is to take armed expeditions.

"We need a guide."

The place where Zhou Qingfeng went ashore was probably in the revitalization area of ​​Dandong City in later generations, but this was not the real destination of his trip. "We are looking for the Kuandian Fort of Dongningwei, a subordinate of the Liaodong Metropolitan Command and Envoy Division."

Kuandian Fort is the only way to go deep into Hetuala, the lair of slavery from Dandong, and it is also a nominally important town in Liaodong——the concept of "fort" is not big, but the place where hundreds of people live in the mountains is already considered bustling.

According to the maps of later generations, Kuandian Fort goes deep into the mountains on the north bank of the Yalu River, and it is a small open space among the high mountains.The Pushi River, a tributary of the Yalu River, can go directly to its core.

In order to enter the tributaries of the Yalu River, although the two ships 'Liaodong' and 'Liaoxi' are sharp-bottomed ships, they were designed and built under control.Its displacement is only 1.5 tons, and its draft is less than [-] meters.

There is currently no satellite positioning, and the positioning accuracy of the sextant alone is not enough. Zhou Qingfeng does not know where Kuandian is.He can only cut down trees by the river beach in the revitalization area, build a military station, and settle down temporarily.

The boilers of the steamship could not be turned off, and the soldiers ashore held flintlock guns, occupied a high place, and opened the cordon.The accompanying craftsmen cut down trees, firstly as building materials, and secondly to replenish boiler fuel.

The chug-chug of the steam engine seemed particularly incongruous in the primeval forest.It made a sudden and non-stop sound, startling the nearby birds and beasts to flee for their lives.

Zhou Qingfeng led three or four soldiers around, and even rowed a small boat to the south bank of the Yalu River.

During the search process, the team found several forest paths and followed the paths to find an artificial open space on the river bank where a small boat was parked.