As soon as Qu Shisi finished speaking, the old man and the women in the workshop stopped their work and turned to look at the three of them. An old man with gray hair and spirits came forward, staring at Qu Shisi with disdain and said angrily: "Where are the lazy guys coming from? I'm talking nonsense here! Old man, I'm already sixty-eight years old this year, I can't wave my hoe, I can't help the plow, and I have nothing to do at home. Fortunately, Manager Li saw that I was quite flexible, so he arranged this job for me. The way to live is not heavy, and I still have 500 million yuan in salary per month. Where can I find this job?"

The women were shattered and accused Qu Shixi: "It was obvious that they were born from a wealthy family, but they didn't know the difficulties of the common people..."

"Look at his kind-hearted look, but his heart is vicious, and he wants us to have nothing to do!"

"That's right, without this work, how can I support my small town?"

"Twist these three lazy guys out and don't let them disturb us in the work!"

...

The workers did not know Qin Wuchao and Lin Chunhong. Qin Wuchao was about to come forward to reveal his identity, but was stopped by Lin Chunhong's eyes. The women were in power and refused to forgive themselves, shouting: "Isn't leaving yet... Could we use a broom to drive it?"

Qu Shizi's face was flushed. After escaping from the workshop, he murmured: "These people are ungrateful, they are talking to them, and they are scolding people. Alas, ignorant, sad..."

Lin Chunhongqiang resisted the urge to laugh and said, "The chaos in the north should be that the court and local governments do nothing all day long, and they don't know what the people really need..."

Qu Shixi was extremely ashamed and hurriedly changed the topic, "What is that when the workers put black things into the kraft paper?"

Qin Wuchao laughed and said, "That's gunpowder. It is packed in a paper bag according to different weights. When the cannon is fired, it can be poured directly, and there is no need to weigh it."

Qu Shixi was shocked: "Isn't gunpowder powder?"

"After making granules, it is even more powerful. After long-distance transportation, there is no need to stir and it can be used immediately." Qin Wuchao's answer was quite simple, and he only explained the effect of gunpowder granules in just a few words.

How could Qu Shixi understand the exquisiteness of it? His face was full of confusion. After a while, he asked, "That kraft paper does not seem to be the usual kraft paper, and the surface is very smooth. What is it?"

Qin Wuchao replied: "It's kraft paper, but the surface is covered with wax, which can be waterproof and not easily torn apart..."

Qu Shisi asked, Qin Wuchao answered, and the three of them came to the gunpowder pelletization workshop without knowing it. The workers were busy sipping the black solution over and over again. Qu Shisi couldn't see any name, and felt it was boring, so the three of them went to the fire and salt purification workshop.

The stinky purification workshop is the source of the stench, far from other workshops. As soon as the three of them were halfway through, Qu Shisi stopped and said it would be fine if they didn't watch it. Lin Chunhong and Qin Wuchao did not force it, and took Qu Shisi to leave the gunpowder workshop and headed towards the forging workshop.

The forging workshop had been moved five miles away from Bamutan. At first, the forging workshop shared a water truck with the water lift pump. Later, after the new water truck was built up the upstream of Bamutan, the forging workshop was moved.

Still far from the forging workshop, I heard all kinds of uncomfortable sounds: the violent impact between metals, the squeaking sounds of metal friction, and the squeaking sounds of water wheels when they rotate... All kinds of sounds intertwined, almost making people suspect that their hearing was damaged. However, Qu Shili did not show any disgust at all, but looked full of anticipation. It seemed that the forging workshop's strength was just right for Qu Shili's appetite.

When he arrived at the entrance of the forging workshop, Qu Shili found that ox carts were coming and going, and the shouts of the drivers and the mooing of the cows were heard one after another, making it very lively. All the steel materials were shipped, and all the parts and finished materials were transported. After loading them on the boat at Liuxiang Wharf, they were transported to various workshops. What Qu Shili liked was the lively atmosphere of people coming and going, and only here could he intuitively experience Bangtai's production strength.

After entering the workshop, Qu Shixi felt that his eyes were not enough.

In the cold forging workshop, workers took advantage of the gap between the hammers and put the steel ingots on the anvil. The steel ingots were instantly smashed into thin plates by the hammers flying up and down, just like rolling dough with a rolling pin. The workers picked up the thin plates with iron pliers and put them into the mold. As the huge punch fell from a high altitude, the thin plates were instantly pressed into molds and turned into parts.

After stamping, the parts were taken to an iron lathe by the workers, and the parts were fixed by rotating the wheel, and then the other wheel was rotated to send the parts to the rapidly rotating grinding wheel. The parts were quickly processed to the required accuracy, and were polished to be extremely smooth, shining with dazzling light.

Then, the three of them entered the heat treatment workshop again. Qu Shili kept appreciating the fiery red steel being placed in the water, making a sizzling sound, and a large cloud of water vapor emerged. The scene was spectacular and exciting, and even Lin Chunhong and Qin Wuchao could not move away. The steel after quenching was processed into wear-resistant parts such as gears and axles through various processes such as heat forging and stamping, and was transported to other workshops.

Amid the harsh noise, Qin Wuchao pointed at Qu Shisi's ear and shouted: "In addition to forging various parts, the forging workshop can produce 120 pairs of plate armor in a month! There are five more forging workshops like this in Bangtai, which means that Bangtai can produce more than 700 pairs of plate armor in a month! As for steel crossbows, as long as there is elastic steel, it is no problem to produce more than 1,000 sets of plate armor in a month! As for the gun head, it is simply too easy, and there is no problem to have thousands of pieces a day!"

Qu Shisi was silent in his heart, turned to Lin Chunhong and shouted: "So, Bangtai has the ability to increase more than 10,000 elite soldiers in one year?"

Lin Chunhong was stunned for a moment and nodded to say yes.

Qu Shixi nodded with a smile, and did not speak. Lin Chunhong was shocked, and his heart was up and down, thinking in his heart: This old fox actually saw that Bangtai could not produce tens of thousands of plate armors a year!

The crux of the problem lies in the supply of steel, and the root cause of insufficient steel lies in the insufficient iron ore. In fact, the forging workshops on weekdays are not inadequate at all. The so-called parts production has actually been paused for several months. The forging workshops lack raw materials, and the parts produced are also useless. Originally, four-wheeled carriages could drive the rapid development of the forging industry, but unfortunately, steel even forging weapons and plate armor are insufficient. How can it be used to produce carriages?

Lin Chunhong would never be underestimated by Qu Shisi. He immediately pointed at Qu Shisi's ear and shouted: "Wuchang Prefecture Daye is on the Yangtze River. A ship of silver is transported over. How can you not buy iron?"

Qu Shixi smiled and said perfunctorily: "Deputy General Lin is right. Daye is such a good place. It not only has iron, but also produces copper. It is a treasure land..."

The three of them looked at each other and smiled. As for what kind of ulterior motives they had under their smiles, no one knew.

After leaving the forging workshop, Lin Chunhong and Qin Wuchao brought Qu Shili to the artillery workshop again. Everything in the artillery workshop looked calm and lacked passion, but the test gun was shocking. Even if Qu Shili was not in the military, he fully realized the status of the thunder cannon in the war.

Accompanied by bursts of thunder, iron balls flew out of the gun mouth, making a sharp sound of breaking through the air. Flames kept coming out of the gun mouth, and the entire launch site was immediately shrouded in smoke. Almost no one was seen across the opposite side, and only the rumbling gun sound was heard constantly coming.

The drill for the earth-shaking mountain rocked lasted only a quarter of an hour, and a thunderbolt cannon threw sixty or seventy iron balls weighing more than ten kilograms to two miles away.

After recovering from the initial shock, Qu Shishihu kept calculating in his heart: In a quarter of an hour, a cannon consumes 700 kilograms of iron, and the Pili Camp is equipped with twenty Pili Cannons. If all of them are used to attack the city, the iron cannons will be consumed in a quarter of an hour! This is not the steel consumed by casting cannons. Lin Chunhong, a kid, has no ability to support artillery combat!

Qu Shisi is worthy of being a famous scholar in the world. His agility is extremely agile. He infers the shortcomings of the entire Bangtai from clues: iron deficiency! When he was forging the workshop, Qu Shisi was not sure whether his inference was correct. Now after witnessing the launch of the cannon with his own eyes, he was more confident in his judgment and thought that he had grasped Bangtai's pain point, which was much more valuable than Yan Jiehe and Shen Wenlin.

Qu Shixi admired his teacher Qian Qianyi very much. Although Qian Qianyi had never passed Jingzhou and was not very familiar with Lin Chunhong's affairs, he inspired him from a strategic perspective. After experiencing one after another, his mood finally calmed down and thought to himself, since he had found Bangtai's shortcomings in military equipment, what about money and grain?

The smell of gunpowder on the launch site was pungent, and Qu Shizi was very unaccustomed to it. He kept slapping the thick smoke in front of him with his hands, and his mind was running rapidly, thinking about where to start to understand the money and food status of Bangtai.

Seeing Qu Shisi's actions were ridiculous, Lin Chunhong couldn't help but laugh and said, "Kidnapp Qi Tian, ​​when talking about the battlefield, it was like a word like gold and iron horses. From then on, it was supposed to be filled with smoke and the sound of cannons rumbling... This cannon is really worthy of being the god of war. It's a pity that this god doesn't eat food and grass, just like a monster, and needs to swallow a lot of gunpowder and iron."

Qu Shizi had a sudden inspiration and immediately smiled: "Deputy General Lin values ​​dead objects such as artillery and plate armor, but Mr. Qu values ​​people more, so money and food are still fundamental. According to rumors, Deputy General Lin has stored millions of stones of grain in Bailizhou. Can this be taken seriously?"

"The rumors in the market are always exaggerating! There is no grain reserved in Bailizhou for one million stones, but there is still 400,000 stones..."

Four hundred thousand stones? Qu Shixi was shocked. Four hundred thousand stones are not a small amount, and they can almost be eaten by more than ten thousand troops for ten years! In addition to being surprised, Qu Shixi was a little disappointed. He thought Lin Chunhong would try his best to cover up the amount of food, and he also conceived various solutions for testing, but he did not expect that he would hit him with one punch, as if he was hit on cotton, without any pleasure.

Qu Shixi decided not to go around the circle and asked directly: "It is reported that Deputy General Lin paid five taels of silver to each soldier under his command every month. The more than 10,000 army needs more than 600,000 taels of military salary a year. I wonder if Deputy General Lin has enough money?"

Lin Chunhong shook his head and said, "In the past, it was five taels, but now there are five taels per month? On average, officers and soldiers are more than three taels per month! But even so, the annual consumption of silver is more than 400,000 taels."

Qu Shizi Daqi: "When the military pay is reduced, the soldiers are not in chaos, how did Deputy General Lin do it?"

"What's the difficulty? How can the soldiers get messy when they clarify the level of the army, pay according to the level, and increase their treatment after retirement?"

Qu Shixi had no intention of discussing military governance and immediately returned to the topic just now: "I wonder where Vice General Lin got 400,000 taels of silver a year to send it to the soldiers?"

Lin Chunhong pretended to be mysterious and said quietly: "Tomorrow, Mr. Tian followed Lin to see two places and understood how Bangtai raised military funds..."

Qu Shixi was very curious, and her heart was like a cat scratching her. She felt so itchy that she wanted to follow Lin Chunhong to see clearly immediately.

On the second day, Lin Chunhong and Qu Shizi took a four-wheeled carriage and walked west along the Yangtze River embankment. They arrived at the westernmost part of Bailizhou. Along a distance, Qu Shizi saw a lined windmill. Qu Shizi counted and there were almost twenty seats.

The windmill is more than ten feet high and has three fan blades that can be automatically adjusted as the wind direction changes. The fan blades are extremely large and five feet long. They slowly rotate under the agitation of the wind.

"Grinding noodles? Can you earn enough military pay by grinding noodles just?" Qu Shisi had seen windmills, but those windmills were much smaller than those in Bailizhou and were generally used to grind noodles.

Lin Chunhong replied: "This is the coin minting workshop of the Finance Department of the Central Secretariat, which specializes in minting silver coins and copper coins."

After saying that, Lin Chunhong took out a few silver coins and copper coins from his sleeve and handed them to Qu Shisi.

Qu Shixi played with it and said in confusion: "Since ancient times, molten silver ingots have been a loss-making transaction. The fire consumption should be more than 20% and it will be a big loss!"

Lin Chunhong smiled and said, "Corrupt officials are working hard to increase the fire consumption to 20%. In fact, it would be great if they can get three points!"

"Even if it's three-minute fire consumption, it's a loss! Besides, it's even more useless to cast copper coins. It has never been minted since the Jiajing period. The fundamental reason is that it's a loss!"

"Don't be anxious when you enter the coin workshop, you will understand."

...

With doubts, Qu Shizi stepped into the coin workshop. Just like the shipbuilding workshop and the forging workshop, it is filled with harsh metal impact and friction sounds, making people's teeth sore. After the rotation of the windmill was transmitted to the ground by the iron shaft, it changed the rotation speed and direction through a series of gears, and became a huge impact force, constantly impacting the mold on the anvil.

Although gears have been widely used in various workshops, Qin Wuchao has not yet found the best shape for gear processing. The gears here are not only very noisy, but also have serious power loss. It won’t take long to overheat the gears and need to stop and cool for a period of time. Moreover, such gears have a short lifespan, and often need to be replaced within two months.

Lin Chunhong also considered reminding Qin Wuchao that the tooth surface of the gear needs to be processed into a hyperbolic surface, but considering that Qin Wuchao didn't even know what the hyperbolic surface was, he gave up this almost crazy leap. Perhaps, it would be more beneficial to let the students of Xingzhishutang slowly figure out the rules than a temporary technical leap.

Qu Shizi took a silver coin that had just been stamped, appreciated it for a moment, and said in surprise: "This is a bad currency! The quality of silver ingots is far from being good... Unscrupulous businessmen exploited the people, and doing such things that harm the country and the people will be punished by everyone!"
Chapter completed!