Chapter 144 Future? Isn't money more important?
Zhao Ke continued.
"The production capacity of the bullet workshop has been expanded from 150,000 rounds of rifle bullets per month to 400,000 rounds."
"The production capacity of the artillery workshop has reached 10,000 solid artillery shells of various specifications per month."
"The rocket workshop has a production capacity of 2,000 rockets of different calibers per month."
"The grenade workshop can produce 5,000 grenades per month."
"The protective gear workshop mainly produces steel helmets, with an output of 6,000 helmets per month."
Speaking of helmets, this is a new gadget that Li Yi recently developed.
Since the world entered the era of firearms, the accuracy of firearms has become increasingly higher, and their power has become increasingly greater, and protective gear such as armor has gradually begun to withdraw from the stage of history.
However, it is not without exception.
That's the helmet.
Throughout history, whether it is World War I or World War II, even in the 21st century, military helmets still have their value.
And it plays an extremely important role in military supplies.
Facts have proved that on the battlefield, a helmet of qualified quality can indeed effectively reduce military casualties.
Besides, even if this thing has no practical effect, it is worth it as long as it can bring some psychological comfort to the soldiers.
Therefore, Li Yi instructed the arsenal to start producing steel helmets.
Moreover, this thing is not difficult to produce and the cost is not high.
Make the mold, then die-cast it with molten steel, and finally fine-tune it and paint it.
Therefore, Li Yi prepared to replace the helmets of the Restoration Army.
After listening to Zhao Ke's report, Li Yi nodded slightly.
"Yes, you did a great job. It turns out that it was the right choice for me to entrust the Armory and Arsenal to you."
"But this alone is not enough. The current production capacity of the arsenal is still insufficient to meet the needs of our army."
"The Arsenal still needs to continue to expand production!"
Zhao Ke continued.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. The Arsenal has already opened a craftsman school in accordance with your instructions."
"This has helped us to train craftsmen who are proficient in the use and maintenance of various types of machinery and equipment, and the results have been very good."
"I can issue you a military order to ensure that the production capacity of the Foshan Arsenal can be increased by at least 20% every month in the next year."
"If you can't achieve it, I will bring my head to you!"
Li Yi heard this and nodded slightly.
"No need to do that, just do your best."
"Also, the Arsenal cannot just focus on production without considering quality."
"Quality also needs to be strictly controlled. Otherwise, I will still be the one to blame."
Zhao Ke nodded quickly to show that he understood.
Afterwards, Li Yi took Zhao Ke to continue inspecting the arsenal.
Li Yi led the team to inspect the production workshops, warehouses, canteens, dormitories and other places one by one.
He spoke to every craftsman with a gentle expression, asking them what they needed, and whether they were satisfied with the salary and living conditions offered by the arsenal...
Isn’t this what leaders do when they conduct inspections?
Li Yi has never eaten pork, but has he never seen a pig run?
Afterwards, Li Yi went to inspect the craftsman school opened in the arsenal.
And I attended a class in person!
The content of the course is very simple. A master teacher teaches a group of apprentices how to repair and use the equipment step by step, and provides students with opportunities to practice.
Since there is no need to do theoretical research, there is no need to study the significance and impact of the invention and use of advanced machinery and equipment, and there is no need to write maintenance and use experience and other theoretical content.
Therefore, the craftsman school produces masters very quickly.
On average, a group of craftsmen who can skillfully use and repair equipment are trained every month.
Although in the long run, due to the lack of theoretical research and learning, the craftsman school can only train craftsmen but not engineers, and it is definitely unqualified.
However, what Li Yi wants now is what is in front of him.
Now is not the time for him to seek the long term.
The most urgent thing for Li Yi now is to quickly train a group of qualified craftsmen to increase the production capacity of the arsenal.
As for the rest, we’ll talk about it later!
It is worth mentioning that the craftsman school also hired a number of foreign craftsmen as foreign teachers to guide the craftsmen in learning how to operate the equipment.
Unlike those rubbish foreign teachers in later generations who know nothing but come to China to make money with a foreign face, harm young girls, and have a bunch of easy girls actively throw themselves at them.
Most of the foreigners who were able to come to China in this era had some talent.
At least they can be worthy of the high salary offered by Li Yi!
At noon that day, Li Yi also accompanied the workers for lunch and skillfully prepared plans for the workers in the meeting.
"Work hard, and you will have money, land, and a house!"
At the conference, Li Yi publicly commended several advanced individuals who made outstanding contributions to the development and progress of the arsenal. In addition to verbal commendations, he also awarded them medals and bonuses.
Although Li Yi is a feudal remnant, he also understands that one cannot just draw cakes without making them.
Compared to the bright future you talk about, the people below care more about money!
After lunch, Li Yi continued his inspection under the leadership of Zhao Ke.
He went to the research and development department of the Foshan Arsenal.
Prepare to inspect the current work progress of the R&D department.
The R&D department of Foshan Arsenal is currently focusing on the following projects.
The first is picric acid, also known as TNT, which has military applications.
The reason why it is called application rather than invention is mainly because picric acid was invented by the British in the last century.
However, at that time it was mainly used as a yellow dye.
It was not until 1885 that the French first applied it for military purposes, and the famous yellow explosive appeared on the stage of history.
What Li Yi wants to do now is to apply yellow explosives to military applications before the French.
Then, let the foreigners see what a fucking surprise is!
A foreign researcher with a full beard came up to report.
"Your Majesty, you are truly a genius."
"It's amazing that something like picric acid can be used as an explosive and applied to the military."
This man was called Old Pete. He was originally a dyer in a European textile factory and had a lot of experience in the preparation of picric acid.
Later, the factory went bankrupt and he came to the Far East to make a living.
Then Li Yi hired him to work as a researcher at Foshan Arsenal with a large salary.
Responsible for guiding the staff of the arsenal in the preparation and production of picric acid, and cooperating with them in experimental work.
Li Yi heard this and said with a smile.
"Old Pete, if you want those yellow, shiny little cuties, kissing my ass won't do any good."
"You have to produce results for me!"
Old Pete said with a shrug.
"Of course! My dear king."
"We have already conducted experiments on the use of yellow explosives."
"The power of the explosion was astonishing, almost dozens of times that of the same weight of black powder."
"If your army could use dynamite as a weapon, I believe they would be invincible."
Old Pete said with some exaggeration.
As he spoke, he led the way, preparing to take Li Yi to the test site to see with his own eyes the power of the yellow gunpowder explosion.
On the way, he was still introducing to Li Yi the preparation and use of yellow gunpowder, as well as the precautions.
Soon, the group arrived at the testing site.
Li Yi led his men into a semi-exposed bunker next to the test site and said.
"let's start!"
Old Pete responded with some excitement, then turned around and went to prepare.
Soon, two Tang army soldiers, each carrying a box, walked into the testing ground.
Old Pete stood beside Li Yi and introduced him.
"Your Majesty, these two boxes contain one kilogram of black powder and one kilogram of yellow explosive respectively."
"Next, we will conduct detonation tests on these two types of gunpowder separately."
Li Yi nodded and motioned Old Pete to do it.
Soon, accompanied by two roars, one large and one small, smoke billowed out on the test site, and two holes of different sizes appeared.
Facts have proved that the power of the explosion of yellow gunpowder is indeed far greater than that of black gunpowder.
Li Yi pondered for a moment, then continued to give instructions.
"Drag the cannon out and try firing two explosive shells filled with yellow gunpowder..."
"Just watching the explosion is not intuitive. If you want to see the real effect, you still have to fire two shots."
Most artillery these days fires solid bullets.
The reason why explosive bombs are not used is that they are expensive to produce and have high process requirements.
The main reason is that the explosion of black powder is not powerful enough.
It's okay to be used as a propellant, but it's not so good as an explosive.
Therefore, solid bullets can become popular!
But as the more powerful dynamite came onto the historical stage, the elimination of solid bullets was inevitable.
Zhao Ke and Old Pete responded and went to make arrangements.
Soon, a cannon was pushed up.
The gunners began the skillful loading work.
It is worth mentioning that this artillery is not a traditional muzzle-loading gun, but a breech-loading rifled gun.
The inner diameter of the gun muzzle is 5 cm, the barrel is meters long, the gun weighs kg, and the effective range is meters.
Like TNT, this is also a typical technology verification product.
In fact, this is a typical Armstrong breech-loading rifled cannon, with a spiral breech block, internal rifling, and a breech-loading mode...
This gives the artillery an extremely high rate of fire and accuracy.
If it is verified that the explosive bomb can be applied to breech-loading rifled artillery, then this type of artillery can definitely produce a terrible fire suppression effect on the enemy on the battlefield.
Of course, in this time and space, this type of artillery will most likely be renamed "Zhaowu Year One Breech-Loading Rifled Cannon".
Who asked the British not to invent this type of artillery yet?
In that case, don’t blame Li Yi for borrowing from it.
How does the saying go? Can it be called stealing if it is something that scholars do?
Under Li Yi's gaze, several gunners began to operate.
First, open the breech block at the rear of the gun, clean the barrel, then load the shells, load the propellant, close the breech block, and prepare for ignition.
"Aim at the target!"
"ignition!"
"emission!"
(End of this chapter)