Chapter 329

Although the flintlock has this series of flaws and its cost-effectiveness is far inferior to the matchlock, a technology already quite mature in this era, history proves the flintlock is the future trend of firearm development, so Wang Dou still decided to develop it vigorously.

With the flintlock, one can consider replacing pikes with bayonets, which is also the general trend.

However, the initial installation and processing of bayonets is not so easy. Manufacturing bayonets demands extremely high steel quality, and the related metallurgical production is exceedingly difficult. Without high-quality steel, the bayonets produced will break after just a couple of thrusts or upon striking a shield, and then the user will be hacked or stabbed to death by the opponent.

There is a precedent: in the late stages of World War II, the Japanese army's lack of steel caused the quality of their bayonets to plummet rapidly; after stabbing into a human body, they would quickly bend or snap.

Without high-quality steel, substandard bayonets offer no advantage whatsoever in hand-to-hand combat. Moreover, manufacturing bayonets requires extremely high precision for the matching components on the firearm, such as sleeves and locking seats, posing a severe challenge to the current production at the Shunxiang Fort manual workshops.

The bayonet must be quickly attachable and detachable, and the relatively precise parts of the attachment mechanism are prone to damage, increasing costs. Bayonets are more easily damaged than weapons like greatswords or pikes, because before being attached, they are at best merely a light dagger...

Of course, using bayonets on firearms also has an advantage, because dedicated pikemen are no longer needed.

Weighing these pros and cons, Wang Dou has not yet decided whether the army should use bayonets, or whether to postpone for a few years until the technology matures.

With these thoughts in mind, Wang Dou meticulously inspected the various military workshops along the Yaozi River.

Compared to the ninth year of Chongzhen, the scale of each workshop has now expanded considerably.

Since the beginning of this year, the craftsmen at the firearm workshop have increased to over three hundred, and the armor workshop's craftsmen to over two hundred. The firearm workshop has already established two hundred hydraulic drilling machines, capable of drilling one thousand gun barrels a month with only fifty men needed. The remaining craftsmen are all forging other components, enabling a monthly production of nearly one thousand firearms.

Due to the increased manpower and the newly established dozens of hydraulic forging machines, the armor workshop can easily produce two hundred sets of full armor per month.

The expansion of each workshop's scale has led to a rapidly soaring demand for iron materials. Forging one thousand firearms requires forty thousand jin of wrought iron. Forging two hundred sets of fine iron armor requires over thirty thousand jin of wrought iron. Additionally, forging weapons like waist sabers and pikes means the iron material needed from all sides is an astronomical figure — relative to the Great Ming of this time.

Driven by this vigorous demand, the miners at the Huiyao Fort iron mine have rapidly increased to one thousand men. They extensively use gunpowder for mining, causing the craftsmen at the gunpowder factory to also rapidly increase to over three hundred. As the manager of the gunpowder factory, Saltpeter Collector Li Da, the saltpeter collection sites under his factory have already increased to multiple locations. Due to his outstanding performance, he has been honored with becoming one of the deputy heads of the Military Industry Section.

In terms of production capacity, Wang Dou's current Military Industry Section stands out as exceptional within the entire Great Ming.

However, Wang Dou also discovered a problem: even with his extremely outstanding productivity, as for firearms, fine... but from the seventh year of Chongzhen until now, over these several years, the armor forged under his command actually cannot compare to the number of armor sets seized from the Qing soldiers in a single campaign.

In this battle, he seized nearly ten thousand sets of various armors, equivalent to the number of armors all his craftsmen would forge working day and night for five years.

Although surprised by this discovery, Wang Dou would not therefore halt the forging and development of weapons in his army. "Seizing is better than making" is bandit thinking, which Wang Dou has always despised.

Calculating the original armor in his army, plus the armor seized from the Qing soldiers, and the armor allocated by the imperial court, Wang Dou now possesses over sixteen thousand sets of armor. Among them are about two thousand five hundred sets of iron armor, along with numerous cotton armors and mail armors.

After the armor seized from the Qing soldiers was transported back to Bao'an Prefecture, the craftsmen of the Shunxiang Fort armor workshop and military uniform workshop worked day and night to alter them into the armor style of the Great Ming army. If all this armor is used to equip the army in the future, the Shunxiang Army's luxurious equipment lineup will firmly rank first among all Great Ming generals.

……

"The imperial court has allocated one thousand Lumi muskets. This general intends to convert five hundred of them into the flintlock style and first test them in combat within the army. If we make this modification, what difficulties would the Military Industry Section face?"

As Wang Dou inspected, the craftsmen inside the firearm workshop beside him were all immersed in their work, too busy to spare him, the State-Stabilizing General, a glance.

Regarding work enthusiasm, the craftsmen of the various Shunxiang Fort workshops have always been very high. For their management, Wang Dou adopts a method of base salary plus commission plus bonuses — more work, more pay. However, if a firearm's quality has issues, it is a very terrifying matter, and they will face extremely severe punishment.

In Shunxiang Fort, every weapon produced by the workshops — whether firearms, armor, waist sabers, or pikes — has a serial number, and also notes the craftsman's name, the manager's name, and so on. If a problem arises, the responsible person can be found very conveniently. This ensures that the quality of weapons produced by Shunxiang Fort has always been very good.

Actually, the weapons produced by the Great Ming's Ministry of Works and various guard battalions are also like this; there is no problem with the system as designed.

It is just that pervasive corruption and failure to abide by the law have turned their designed system into a dead letter.

After observing for a long time, Wang Dou was still satisfied with the craftsmen's work attitude, and he inquired of Lai Yuanlong, the head of the Military Industry Section, beside him.

When Wang Dou led his army back to the prefecture, the one thousand Lumi muskets and ten Hongyi cannons arranged by the Chongzhen Emperor through the Ministry of Works and the two Armory Bureaus were also brought back to the prefecture with the army.

Except for cannons, the Great Ming's weapon production has always been strange: sometimes the quality is very good, sometimes very poor, depending on the supervising official. In the Tianqi era, the Ministry of Works escorted three thousand Lumi muskets to Shanhai Pass, and only a few dozen substandard products were found upon inspection. Wang Dou's luck was not bad; among these one thousand Lumi muskets, fewer than fifty had defects, and the rest were mostly of fine quality.

In Wang Dou's view, aside from the unreliable quality of weapons submitted as tax-in-kind by local prefectures, counties, and guard battalions of the Great Ming, the quality of weapons produced by the Ministry of Works and the two Armory Bureaus is still decent. The Great Ming's firearm research flourishes, with high-end new firearms emerging endlessly, yet because firearm inventories are controlled by literati and eunuchs, military commanders in various regions would rather purchase cold weapons.

— For them, issuing several thousand pikes is enough to raise an army. Compared to expensive firearms that require continuous investment and whose quality is often unreliable, this is cheap and practical, but it has greatly hindered the promotion of the Great Ming's new firearms.

"General, changing the ignition and firing mechanism of five hundred Lumi muskets to the flintlock style poses no problem for my subordinates. However, the misfire rate of the flintlock is as high as thirty percent, while the misfire rate of the bird muskets currently used by our Shunxiang Army is less than ten percent. Is the General truly decided on this modification?"

Regarding Wang Dou's decision, Lai Yuanlong was somewhat apprehensive.

Back in the tenth year of Chongzhen, Lai Yuanlong had successfully developed the self-igniting musket, that is, the flintlock. After two years of research, he still felt that the misfire rate could not be reduced, and its reliability was far inferior to the matchlock.

Wang Dou said: "This general has weighed the pros and cons. Using the flintlock is the general trend; we must not give up eating for fear of choking and abandon its use due to its defects. For the sake of prudence, we can modify a portion of the army's bird muskets and gradually perfect this fine weapon."

Lai Yuanlong accepted the order, feeling pleased inwardly. From the State-Stabilizing General's words, he could see that he was an open-minded person, which was good news for a weapon enthusiast like him.

Last year, Lai Yuanlong expended great effort to collect volumes such as the "Catalog of Divine Tools" and "Illustrated Treatise on Military Equipment" compiled by Zhao Shizhen, and he has been diligently studying fine weapons like the Winged Tiger Musket, the Soaring Hawk Musket, the Thunderclap Musket, and the Rocket Groove. If successful, they would surely provide the Shunxiang Army with several more options, adding wings to a tiger.

Subsequently, he probed: "General, the court has allocated quite a few Lumi muskets. Should we order the craftsmen to imitate them on a large scale?"

Wang Dou pondered for a long while. The power of the Lumi musket is quite considerable; it can penetrate heavy armor at a hundred paces. Even if the Qing soldiers wear double-layered heavy armor, it can penetrate their bodies at a hundred paces, punching two holes at once, making it even more formidable than the firearms used by the Shunxiang Army — the Shunxiang Army's firearms can only breach the multiple layers of heavy armor worn by Qing soldiers at seventy paces.

This long-range firearm would certainly hold a great advantage in future battles, but the Lumi musket also has its drawbacks. Firstly, it is too long. The total length of a Lumi musket is five to seven chi; seven Ming chi is equivalent to 2.1 meters in later times. Such a long muzzleloader is extremely inconvenient to load.

The Lumi musket not only has a long barrel, but the gun body is also very heavy. It also uses an integrated double-layer barrel, which demands high technical requirements and costs, making it troublesome to manufacture.

Of course, the Lumi muskets used in the Ming army are mostly five chi long, about 1.6 meters in later times, and the batch of Lumi muskets allocated to Wang Dou by the Chongzhen Emperor is the same. However, the difficulty of manufacturing and the high cost of the Lumi musket are realities. For Wang Dou, he needs weapons that can be mass-produced, are cheap, and practical. The Lumi musket, though good, is not practical.

Thinking of this, Wang Dou said: "Order the craftsmen to imitate a batch, but there is no need for large-scale production."

He said: "This general has also come regarding the matter of cannons. Does the Military Industry Section have the capability to manufacture cannons?"

Lai Yuanlong said: "Replying to the General, for our Shunxiang Fort's craftsmen, manufacturing Folangji cannons should pose no difficulty. However, for Hongyi cannons, although we have the physical objects, we lack the blueprints. If we imitate them merely by appearance, I fear we might try to draw a tiger and end up with a dog... there is a risk of the barrel bursting."

Wang Dou pondered in silence. When he returned to Bao'an Prefecture, besides allocating one thousand Lumi muskets, the Chongzhen Emperor also allocated ten Hongyi cannons: eight Hongyi three-pounder cannons and two six-pounder cannons.

The quality of these cannons is decent. After all, the Great Ming has design blueprints for various cannons, with strict standard measurements fixed for barrel length, tube thickness, and so on, making it difficult for craftsmen and supervising officials to substitute inferior materials or skimp on work. This ensures the quality of the Great Ming's various large cannons.

In particular, the Great Ming's self-cast Hongyi cannons are excellent, utilizing boring and milling techniques that provide good airtightness and high muzzle velocity. At the time, both Spain and Portugal conveniently purchased cannons from the Great Ming.

Of course, this is predicated on the Great Ming possessing a rich variety of cannon blueprints and a large number of cannon-casting craftsmen.

After the fall of the Ming dynasty, various cannon design blueprints were either destroyed in the flames of war or listed as forbidden books and burned by the Manchu Qing, to the point that during the Opium Wars, the Qing army's self-cast cannons became specialists in barrel bursting, with newly cast cannons frequently exploding upon firing — a situation extremely rare in the Ming dynasty.

This is also a warning for Wang Dou: without the relevant craftsmen and authentic blueprints, if he insists on casting cannons himself, he will massively repeat the tragedy of the Qing army's self-cast cannons.

However, Hongyi cannons must be manufactured. The fourteen Hongyi cannons currently in Wang Dou's army are far from sufficient, and he always harbors some anxiety in his heart.

After the Battle of Pinggu, Huang Taiji will certainly pay great attention to this army of his, and there may be large-scale firearm confrontations in the future. Wang Dou is not worried about firearm duels, but cannons... After Kong Youde defected to the enemy, the Qing state already possesses the capability to cast Hongyi cannons themselves. After the Song-Jin Campaign, the number of Hongyi cannons used in their army surpassed that of the Great Ming for the first time.

Wang Dou takes that artillery force of Kong Youde very seriously. That army was originally the only qualified artillery unit in the Great Ming, containing a large number of well-trained gunners. As early as the second year of Tianqi, Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua spent over a decade hiring numerous Western instructors, and also fought side-by-side with hired Portuguese gunners multiple times; they absolutely cannot be underestimated.

Their artillerymen use a large number of ranging tools, and this kind of ranging is considered a secret art in the Great Ming at this time, taught only to artillerymen who are eternally reliable. Wang Dou does not yet have the relevant tools and has been groping in the dark.

In the battle of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, he lost nearly two thousand officers and men, and that was only because the Qing state had underestimated him. But in that battle, every single banner of the Qing Eight Banners suffered bitterly under his firearms and artillery, battered and humiliated — it is impossible that they would not take him seriously now.

The opponent to come will certainly be a formidable foe; he must prepare for a rainy day.

……

Wang Dou’s honor guard escort returned to Bao’an Department. When they were not far from his residence, he saw a man dressed as a scholar being stopped at the gate. His first impression was that the scholar’s head was extremely large. The man was speaking to the gate guards with evident displeasure.

Around the main gate, a crowd of onlookers had gathered at a distance, listening to the scholar speak with great interest.

Seeing Wang Dou’s honor guard, the crowd said one after another, “The General has returned.”

Hearing the commotion, the scholar looked toward Wang Dou with delighted surprise. Wang Dou noted his face was round and fair, with a short beard below the chin — not yet forty in appearance. He wore a Confucian scholar’s robe, and the sword hanging at his waist was very conspicuous.

Xie Yike spurred his horse forward. A moment later, he came back and quietly reported to Wang Dou: “General, that penniless pedant, wearing a sword, tried to force his way straight into the General’s residence and was stopped by the guards.”

Wang Dou gave an “Oh.”

As he spoke, the scholar was already striding over. From a distance, he bowed to Wang Dou, then shouted: “My lord’s intent, I know it all! Yet if my lord wishes to accomplish great things, he absolutely cannot do without me!”

Laughter broke out all around. Wang Dou’s brow furrowed slightly. He thought to himself, “An arrogant eccentric.”