If Zhu Xiaosong, the great leader, had only asked for the creation of flintlock guns, Liu Huaiwen could have produced the finished product in two days—among the craftsmen "invited" from the Quanlin imperial palace were experts who had built firearms for Qianlong the old dog. Creating a simple flintlock gun would have been incredibly easy.
Indeed, it was easy for my Qing dynasty to develop flintlock guns, because when Qianlong the old dog sent people to attack Burma, they had already witnessed the power of flintlock guns and could imitate them. However, Qianlong the old dog felt that it was better to go south to find young ladies than to spend money on guns, so he demanded that my Qing dynasty's army continue to maintain the excellent tradition of "taking archery as the foundation."
In addition, Qianlong the old dog once prohibited civilians from possessing firearms like bird guns. Although an order was issued in the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong to ban bird guns, fire lances, and the like, its implementation was completely inadequate, and it ended up being a futile effort. Civilians still cast bird guns and other firearms.
However, what Zhu Xiaosong, the great leader, demanded was not just bird guns, nor even just muzzle-loading smoothbore flintlock guns, but muzzle-loading flintlock guns with rifling. Even the bullets were no longer the old-fashioned ball but a type of bullet called the Menglianggu bullet by the great leader.
The Menglianggu bullet required threads around the projectile to match the rifling, with animal oil packed between the threads. The base of the bullet was made of cork, and each bullet weighed about six qian. It could maintain shooting accuracy within two hundred paces and had a certain lethality within five hundred paces.
Whether it was the requirement for flintlock guns or the Menglianggu bullet, at first glance, they both seemed quite simple. But when it came to actual production, it was discovered that neither of these two items was simple. Moreover, the great leader demanded that these guns and bullets must be mass-producible with interchangeable parts.
This made the imperial palace's master craftsmen cry out in distress—it was easy to build a flintlock gun according to the great leader's requirements, but to mass-produce it and demand interchangeable parts, wasn't this making things difficult for people!
If they weren't in Menglianggu, with their lives in the hands of the Menglianggu rebels, these master craftsmen would have already quit!
Fortunately, Liu Huaiwen had a good temper and could always pacify these master craftsmen.
However, Zhu Xiaosong did not think that creating rifled flintlock guns and Minié balls was difficult—rifled flintlock guns had already appeared in 1476, and the Qing soldiers had also seen flintlock guns. Now, he was only demanding the addition of rifling. Wasn't this a normal thing?
As for the Minié ball, although it appeared a bit later, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army was equipped with Minié balls in 1851. Now, it was the forty-ninth year of Qianlong, which was 1784. It was only about seventy years before 1851, and the technology was not yet at a stage where it could not be completely overcome.
Therefore, upon hearing Liu Huaiwen say that he couldn't produce the flintlock gun he requested anytime soon, Zhu Xiaosong suspiciously asked, "Isn't it just a flintlock gun with a Menglianggu bullet? What's so difficult about this?"
After Liu Huaiwen explained the difficulties, Zhu Xiaosong realized that he had underestimated the situation—the Qin Dynasty had already achieved assembly line production technology with interchangeable parts, but the Qing Dynasty completely lacked it!
More importantly, although there were masters among the craftsmen who were equivalent to seventh or eighth-grade fitters, relying on these few craftsmen to manually produce parts with unified standards and equip the entire Menglianggu was sheer nonsense.
After understanding the matter, Zhu Xiaosong couldn't help but feel a headache.
Indeed, it wasn't difficult to make flintlock guns, nor was it difficult to make Menglianggu bullets. Metallurgy and lathes were also not difficult. The "Tiangong Kaiwu" had relevant records, and the remaining "Qiqu Tushuo" also had related records.
The difficult part was how to achieve large-scale assembly line production, preferably to the extent that the great craftsmen wouldn't have to personally handle the making of a flintlock gun.
In any case, he couldn't count on steam engines. Although Watt was improving the steam engine at this time, Zhu Xiaosong had neither the Embroidered Uniform Guard nor the Secretarial Bureau. It was impossible to invite Mr. Watt to Menglianggu.
After pondering for a moment, Zhu Xiaosong simply said to Liu Huaiwen, "Let's go and take a look together."
When Zhu Xiaosong and Liu Huaiwen arrived at the so-called Menglianggu arms factory, the master craftsmen invited from the Quanlin imperial palace were gathered together, pondering how to meet the great leader's requirements.
When they first came to Menglianggu, these craftsmen were thinking about how to escape back. However, as time went by, these craftsmen gradually gave up the idea of escaping and even asked Liu Huaiwen to send for their families.
After all, working for the Manchus not only yielded little money but also carried the risk of losing one's head at any time, and they often had to endure the scolding of their superiors. It was only after coming to Menglianggu that these craftsmen experienced the feeling of standing tall and proud, and they decided to dedicate themselves to Menglianggu.
Among them, a craftsman said with a dark face, "If you talk about exertion, don't we know it? It's just that the Bailiang Cliff is now just a urinating cliff. It will take at least until mid-February for it to fully thaw."
"Moreover, there wasn't much snow last year, and it's estimated to be a severe drought this year. It's unknown if the Bailiang Cliff can even produce urine, let alone rely on it to drive the boring machine?"
"To store water, you need to dig a large enough pit and connect pipes. This frozen earth is like this, who can dig it? You dig? Or I dig? Or let those young men dig?"
Another craftsman also had a dark face, "Your problem is easier to solve than mine. Your problem is just a dream—without coal, how can you smelt iron! Without iron, what good is it to make flintlock guns!"
Another person exclaimed, "It's easy to get coal. Just ask the great leader to go to the imperial palace and the county town to rob them. Anyway, we are bandits now, isn't it natural to go down the mountain and attack?" xxs
Seeing that the craftsmen hadn't noticed his arrival at all and were getting more and more outrageous, Zhu Xiaosong coughed and said, "Robbing coal is easy to say. We'll go and rob it back later."
When the craftsmen heard Zhu Xiaosong's voice, they stopped complaining and got up with sheepish smiles, cupping their hands to Zhu Xiaosong, "Greetings, Great Leader."
Zhu Xiaosong grunted and said, "What were the problems just now? Do you need to dig pits to store water?"
The craftsman who had called the Bailiang Cliff a urinating cliff cupped his hands and said, "It was me talking nonsense. Please, Great Leader, do not take it to heart."
Zhu Xiaosong, however, squatted down first, gestured for the other craftsmen to squat down as well, and then said, "The idea of digging pits to store water is correct. How did it become nonsense?"
Picking up a few wooden boards from the ground and gesturing with them, Zhu Xiaosong looked at the craftsman and said, "Your idea is to store water, then lead it to a water wheel with pipes. The water wheel is connected to the boring machine, so that the speed of the drill bit remains uniform and does not fluctuate, is that right?"
The craftsman chuckled sheepishly and said, "Yes, the Great Leader is wise."
Zhu Xiaosong laughed and said, "I'm not that old Tatar Qianlong, so you don't need to flatter me like this. Anyway, you won't get paid more for flattering me."
After laughing, Zhu Xiaosong continued, "I will assign people to dig the pits. The coal you need, I will also lead people to rob it from the county town. You were right just now, if we don't have it, we'll rob the Tatars!"
"And you all, don't keep your problems to yourselves. If you need any help, just tell Uncle Huaiwen. We have plenty of young men on Menglianggu, all with strength. Digging a pit or something is not a problem at all."
...
"Clang!"
The sharp pickaxe struck the frozen soil, sinking less than an inch. The hand holding the pickaxe handle of young master Lin was so shaken that it went numb.
Seeing young master Lin constantly shaking his hands, Xu Shitong couldn't help but laugh from the side, "I say, young master, you're not holding the pickaxe handle like this. If you keep holding it like this, your hands will be full of blisters tonight."
After saying that, Xu Shitong raised his pickaxe and fiercely dug into the ground. Although it only sank an inch into the soil, Xu Shitong did not shake his hands like young master Lin. Instead, he dug a few more times, and then said to young master Lin, "See? You can't grip it too tightly. If it's too tight, it will shake your hands. You have to hold it a bit loosely."
Young Master Lin thanked him, and as he imitated Xu Shitong's way of digging, he asked, "Say, we just fold quilts, run, climb walls, jump into pits, practice formations, and throw stones every day. Now we're also asked to dig pits. We're not being trained to fight the enemy. What is our great leader thinking?"
"We came to Menglianggu to fight the Tatars, but instead of fighting the Tatars, we practice these inexplicable things every day. Now we're digging pits here. I don't know when we'll be able to follow the great leader to raid a county town, or even raid an imperial palace?"
Xu Shitong shook his head and said, "I've only been in heaven for less than ten days longer than you, young master Lin. How would I know what the great leader is thinking? However, I've heard that our great leader doesn't like to fight with swords and knives. He likes to throw grenades to blow people up. It seems that practicing throwing stones every day is preparation for throwing grenades in the future."
Young Master Lin hummed, his face full of longing, "It would be great if we could fight the enemy with the great leader sooner."
Xu Shitong looked at young master Lin and said, "Speaking of which, what's going on with you? Why are you giving up being a young master and coming to the mountain like us commoners?"
Young Master Lin snorted and said, "Do you think my family is that rich? Yes, my family has some land and some money, but this money and land were saved by my ancestors with their sweat and blood, not obtained by those corrupt gentry through extortion and plundering."
"With my family's fortune, we can at most eat and drink without worry. To live a life of luxury every day is pure fantasy. And young master, what kind of young master is it!"
"By the way, before I came up the mountain, I heard that the government was talking to the gentry families who hadn't joined the farmers' associations, saying that they intended to have these gentry families recruit more retainers and organize local militias for self-defense. I don't know if this will affect the farmers who are organizing farmers' associations."
Xu Shitong was startled, put down his pickaxe, and asked, "What did you say? The government intends to have the gentry families recruit more retainers and organize local militias?"
Young Master Lin hummed, "What's wrong?"
Xu Shitong didn't have time to explain to young master Lin and rushed to find the squad leader of his and young master Lin's squad, relaying the information provided by young master Lin.
Zhu Xiaosong also soon learned about the news of the gentry organizing local militias.
However, Zhu Xiaosong did not take this matter too seriously—after all, local militias also appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, so it was not something new. Now that the local Green Standard Army was incompetent, and the Manchu Tatars were in a desperate situation, it was quite normal for them to organize local militias.
But!
Even if these gentry families could successfully organize local militias, it was not certain that they would not be inferior to the local militias, considering that each estate had its own assembled guards.
Moreover, would these gentry families who organized local militias contribute their hard-recruited and trained local militias to the Tatars?