Southern Ming Rebel Army

Meng Jun arrived at Zhoushan Island and, accompanied by Shen Tingyang, went straight to the Firearms Bureau. On this island, there was no need to worry about the craftsmen leaking secrets.

The Military Equipment Bureau is located in the north of Zhoushan. There are strict guards around the Military Equipment Bureau. As soon as Meng Jun arrived at the outskirts of the Military Equipment Bureau, he could hear the roar of hammers hitting. As soon as he entered the Military Equipment Bureau, the craftsmen were busy forging firearms. The fire was blazing, sparks were flying, and it was full of hot breath. The craftsmen were naked, sweat dripping like rain, but they didn't care.

At this time, Zhu Tu hurried over. When he saw Meng Jun, he frowned and complained, "Governor, you are finally here. Why did the Military Equipment Bureau have to be moved from Suzhou to Zhoushan Island? Everything here is inconvenient. Pig iron, coal, everything has to be transported here..."

Meng Jun listened to Zhu Tu's complaints quietly. Zhu Tu spoke for a while and then stopped talking when he saw that Meng Jun did not respond. Meng Jun looked at Zhu Tu and said, "Moving to Zhoushan is naturally my consideration. Let's go and see how the firearms are being made."

Zhu Tu nodded and said, "Commander-in-chief, when you led the army to war, I found an old man with a bad temper. His name is Liu Guaizi, but he makes very good firearms. I promoted him to be the manager of the firearm workshop."

Zhu Tu then accompanied Meng Jun to the firearms manufacturing place, where there were already four or five hundred craftsmen making firearms. At this time, an old man came out and saw Zhu Tu leading a young man. Liu Guaizi had only been in charge of the firearms for a few months and had never seen Meng Jun. Naturally, he could not recognize that this man was the biggest leader of the Meng army, General Meng.

He just came over and shouted at Zhu Tu: "Manager, why hasn't the 10,000 kilograms of pig iron you said you would ship over last time arrived? How can we make cannons and guns without iron?"

"It will be there soon, it will be there soon, Master Liu, just wait for a few more days." Zhu Tu knew Liu Guaizi's temper and hurriedly comforted him.

At this time, Meng Jun walked forward, smiled at Liu Guaizi and said, "Hello, Master Liu."

Liu Guaizi took a closer look at Meng Jun, confirmed that he did not know him, and said unhappily: "What are you talking about? What do you do? Are you an apprentice? An apprentice..."

Before Liu Guaizi could finish his words, he was interrupted by Zhu Tu, who said anxiously, "Liu Guaizi, forget about talking nonsense to me, this is the governor, Governor Meng, don't talk nonsense!"

"Meng Jun? Grand Commander? Oh, I am rude. Please forgive me, Grand Commander." When Liu Guaizi heard Zhu Tu's face straighten, he saluted towards Meng Jun.

Nowadays, Meng Jun's name is well known in all parts of Jiangnan, and Liu Guaizi is no exception. The halo of defeating Bolo and recovering Zhejiang is too dazzling, so Liu Guaizi's bad temper has naturally been restrained a bit. He cheered up and said, "I wonder what the commander-in-chief has to say?"

"It's not really an order, Master Liu, but how long does it take to make this self-propelled musket?" Meng Jun was quite friendly to the craftsman.

By this time in the Ming Dynasty, self-propelled muskets had already been invented. In the eighth year of Chongzhen, Bi Maokang's "Illustrated Explanation of Military Equipment" had already recorded in detail the self-propelled muskets using flintlock mechanisms. In fact, there was basically no difference in structure and performance between them and ordinary matchlock guns. The only difference was the improvement in the ignition device. The matchlock on the musket was replaced with flint, and the flint would ignite by friction when the trigger was pulled. However, such a small improvement was a major innovation in firearms.

When Meng Jun returned to Suzhou, he found that the Military Equipment Bureau had not been lazy during the past few months of the expedition and had produced batch after batch of muskets, with a total of more than 800. However, these were matchlock rifles, and Meng Jun decided to convert them into flintlock rifles and expand and build them, aiming to collect 3,000 flintlock rifles by the end of the year and form a musket battalion.

What Meng Jun doesn't know now is whether such an improvement is too complicated for Liu Guaizi, and whether there is enough time. Meng Jun looks at Liu Guaizi with some expectation, hoping that he can give him a satisfactory answer.

After listening to Meng Jun's words, Liu Guaizi remained silent, weighing the feasibility in his mind. After a moment, he said in a hoarse voice: "It should be feasible, but I'm afraid it's too late in time."

When Meng Jun asked again how many muskets could be produced in a day, Liu Guaizi just stretched out a hand and added two fingers.

"Only seven!" Meng Jun was disappointed. He came to the musket workshop and saw that the number of people had increased so much. He thought that the output could be increased several times. Who knew that there were only seven muskets a day. It would take more than half a year to collect 3,000 muskets, and this also included the training time of the soldiers. Who knows what the situation will become by then.

Thinking of this, Meng Jun said again: "Is there any way to increase production? We need manpower and material resources, and the whole governor's office will meet the requirements to the maximum extent possible."

Liu Guaizi rolled his eyes when he heard this and said, "A skilled craftsman cannot be trained overnight. Seven shots a day is still an optimistic statement by me, Old Liu. Everything must go smoothly and all supplies must be complete. Judging from the current production, two hundred shots a month is the maximum."

Meng Jun touched his head and said, "Can we produce it on an assembly line? It would be too slow for one craftsman to produce it from start to finish, and the quality cannot be guaranteed."

"What is assembly line production?" Liu Guaizi asked with some confusion.

Meng Jun patiently explained for a while how many steps a musket can be disassembled into, and each step is assigned to a specific person. Even simple tasks can be performed by more apprentices.

Liu Guaizi didn't refute after hearing this, but just said: "This method can be tried, but don't think too quickly, the commander-in-chief, the manufacture of this fire gun cannot be sloppy. If the quality is not up to standard, it will explode on the battlefield. That's no joke."

Meng Jun nodded and smiled, "Of course, Master Liu can give it a try, but you have to modify the matchlock gun first, and then speed up the production of a batch of them. First, you can get us a thousand self-propelled muskets."

Liu Guaizi frowned when he heard this and said, "When will the governor want this?"

"In half a month, a thousand muskets must be transported away," Meng Jun said immediately.

Liu Guaizi frowned again, looking hesitant. Meng Jun hurriedly said, "Master Liu, give us the people and the things we need. Time is urgent."

Liu Guaizi had no choice but to nod his head to show his agreement. After Meng Jun and the others left, Liu Guaizi tapped his head and said, "Oh, such a rush is life-threatening. What are you guys still standing there for? Why don't you start working? Haven't you heard it? Half a month, half a month..."