Di Ming

Chapter 181 Daishan Manufacturing

As soon as Zhu Yin's ship docked, it was immediately greeted by a line of regular troops on the island.

Of course, the standing army that lined up to welcome them consisted only of the Daishan Battalion and the Yawei, a mere six hundred armored soldiers.

Because the Qushan Camp was stationed on Hengshan Island, and the Xiushan Camp was stationed on Xiushan Island, neither of them were on Daishan Island.

But in addition to the regular army, the island's militia and civilians also rushed to welcome them upon hearing the news, and soon thousands of people gathered, cheering loudly.

Even now, apart from the generals, the soldiers and civilians on the island do not know Zhu Yin's real name and have always thought that Zhu Yin's surname is Zhi and Ning Caiwei's surname is Cai.

The names of Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei are a secret on the island.

As soon as Zhu Yin and his men landed, hundreds of armored soldiers knelt down and roared, "Greetings, Commander!"

Zhu Yinxu helped him up, saying, "No need for formalities! Rise!"

Her voice was clear and childlike, yet it possessed a commanding and unrestrained spirit.

The personal guards of the military commander immediately surrounded and escorted Zhu Yin and his entourage onto the island.

These one hundred guards were the most elite soldiers of the Jinghai Army, but they were rotated every three months.

"This humble general greets the Commander!" Ding Huogen, Zhang Cha, and other generals and flag commanders came forward to pay their respects.

"Generals, you may rise!" Zhu Yin returned the greeting with a cupped hand, and then bowed to Qi Jiguang, saying, "Your son greets you, sir. May you be well."

"I'm fine." The burly Qi Jiguang helped the short Zhu Yin to his feet and chuckled, "I thought you should have arrived by now. Hmm, it's been several months since I last saw you, and you've gotten even stronger and taller."

Ning Caiwei also bowed gracefully and said, "Your child greets your godfather."

Ning Qingchen also pretended to bow.

Qi Jiguang said to Ning Qingchen, "Why are you here too? Why don't you stay in Nanjing? Why are you being so clingy?"

Ning Qingchen said in a childish voice, "I have missed you very much, sir, for many days."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang and the others burst into laughter.

The first thing Zhu Yin did upon arriving at Daishan Island was to inspect the three major factories. This was a significant achievement of the past year, and he was there to review it.

He compiled the technical secrets of iron smelting, shipbuilding, firearms, telescopes, sextants, granulated gunpowder, clocks... and handed them over to the craftsmen.

It's been almost a year, and it's time to get something done.

The three factories have more than three thousand craftsmen and apprentices, all working with great enthusiasm.

Zhu Yin's first stop was the shipyard, because he was immediately drawn to the enormous warships.

One sailing battleship has been completed at the shipyard, and construction of the second one has begun.

Looking at the colossal sailing battleship, Zhu Yin felt a surge of pride.

Thanks to the time traveler's cheating, the craftsmen of Daishan Island built the most advanced sailing warship in the world. It had three decks, was thirteen zhang long, and four zhang wide.

By Zhu Yin's standards, this ship had a displacement of 1,000 tons and could carry 500 sailors and 60 cannons. But in reality, it was only a third-class sailing battleship.

According to later classification standards for sailing battleships, 1,000 tons was only a third-class warship, and 1,800 tons was considered a second-class warship. First-class battleships started at 2,500 tons.

However, this ship is indeed the most advanced warship in the world today, developed fifty years ahead of the West.

Significant improvements were made to the internal structure, sail and mast design, and hull shape. Not only did it utilize the most advanced clipper sails, but the navigation system also employed the newly invented sextant.

This warship, after being resupplyed with food and water, can sail at sea for three months.

Zhu Yin climbed to the top deck, looking down at the island with high spirits.

"General," Ding Huogen said, "more than a thousand people worked for half a year to build this first new warship. If you factor in all the labor and material costs, it costs 12,000 taels of silver per ship."

Zhu Yin nodded. The cost was roughly in line with his estimate.

Zheng He's treasure ships from the early Ming Dynasty were larger in tonnage than this ship, but each ship cost only five or six thousand taels of silver.

But that was in the early Ming Dynasty, when silver was still very valuable. Now it's the Wanli era, and silver has depreciated by more than half, so it's not surprising that such a large warship costs more than ten thousand taels of silver.

It was indeed expensive. A small to medium-sized naval fleet of 5,000 men, equipped with ten of these warships, would require over 100,000 taels of silver just for shipbuilding.

"Although the cost is high, it is truly a fine ship," Zhu Yin said with a smile. "This is not even the largest ship. After a few are built and the craftsmen are familiar with the process, we will build a giant ship twice the size."

Ding Huogen and the others were also very much looking forward to it, finding it hard to imagine what an even larger giant ship would look like.

Zhang Jia said, "Once we run out of the foreigners' timber, it will be very difficult for us to buy timber even if we have the money."

"What's there to be afraid of?" Zhu Yin said nonchalantly. "There are plenty of large timbers in Luzon and Taiwan. We can just let the natives cut them down when we get there."

Zhu Yin has decided that the Jinghai Navy will take over all four major islands—Luzon, Dayuan, Zhoushan, and Jeju—within a few years.

From the North Sea to the South Sea, the entire island chain must be under our control: locking the imperial court in the west, Japan in the east, Korea in the north, and the South Sea in the south.

The force controlling this island chain is the Eight Banners of the Sea, which integrate military and civilian elements.

With sophisticated equipment and a tight organization, even a small force of only tens of thousands of people, known as the Eight Banners of the Sea, could firmly control this noose and dominate the seas!
Zhu Yin said, "The army will soon be launching another campaign against Luzon. Please, Godfather, name this warship."

Qi Jiguang laughed and said, "Alright, you are the military governor of Jinghai Army, and this ship was built according to your method, so you should name it."

"Yes!" Zhu Yin said without hesitation. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Although my Jinghai Army roams the seas, we are not pirates. Our purpose is to protect the maritime borders of China."

"In my opinion, we can name them after the capitals of the various Xia states, such as Xianyang, Daliang, Handan, Gusu, Kuaiji, Jicheng, Yingdu, Linzi, and Xinzheng."

"We are closest to Zhejiang, and most of our soldiers are Yue people. Let's take the name of the capital of Yue and name it 'Kuaiji'!"

"Excellent!" Ding Huogen couldn't help but clap his hands in approval. "We are very close to Shaoxing, and Zhoushan originally belonged to the Yue Kingdom. It is named after Kuaiji, which is wonderful!"

Qi Jiguang nodded and said, "The Kuaiji is indeed very suitable."

Zhu Yin continued, "Build another ship of the same size, and use the names Linzi, Xianyang, and so on."

"A few years later, when larger ships are built, they will be named after the nine provinces. In the future, when the largest warships are built, they will be named after Chang'an, Luoyang, Nanjing, and Beijing."

Upon hearing this, everyone greatly agreed with Zhu Yin's idea.

Thus, the first sailing battleship that had just been built became known as the Kuaiji.

As soon as Zhu Yin disembarked, he saw Xu Wenchang looking refreshed and energetic.

After several months apart, Xu Wei looked even better, not only more energetic but also seemingly younger.

"My lord," Xu Wei said with a beaming smile, bowing slightly. "Xu Wei has been waiting for you for a long time."

"Mr. Wenchang, there's no need for such formalities," Zhu Yin said with a cupped hand and a smile. "You've been on the island for several months now, are you getting used to it?"

Xu Wei laughed and said, "Although I get seasick, I can get used to seafood. For the past few months, I've been enjoying it like a fish in water. I'm having a great time with seafood and rice wine every day."

"To be honest, what I drink with isn't seafood, but rather..."

He pointed to the large ship and the chimney of the ironworks not far away, saying, "What truly makes me want to drink is the shavings from the shipyard, the chimney of the ironworks, and the clanging of the arsenal."

Qi Jiguang frowned and said, "Alright. Brother Wen, I don't believe you can really rely on these to accompany your drinks. Tonight, I won't give you any dishes, let's see if you can still have them to go with your drinks."

In the past few months, he discovered that Xu Wei's attention to the three major factories was even stronger than his own, to the point of being somewhat fanatical.

He even suspected that Xu Wei wanted to rebel.

"Let's go! Let's go check out the ironworks and the arsenal!" Zhu Yin knew from Xu Wei's expression that the ironworks and the arsenal had also made great progress.

The Daishan Ironworks now has eight hundred craftsmen and apprentices. As soon as Zhu Yin and his entourage arrived, the factory director and other master craftsmen immediately came out to greet them respectfully.

Several tall chimneys, four or five zhang high, were seen emitting hazy, gray smoke. Outside the factory, charcoal was piled up like mountains, mainly from old ship scrap.

Not far away, there were several charcoal kilns, and groups of charcoal burners were unloading charcoal.

Indeed, Zhu Yin rejected the old method of buying coal and smelting iron on the mainland, and instead went back to the Tang people's way of smelting iron with charcoal.

At first, the old craftsmen didn't understand. Nowadays, charcoal is rarely used for iron smelting; it's too wasteful, and coal is much cheaper.

However, although using charcoal to smelt iron increased the cost significantly, the iron produced was indeed different.

As soon as everyone entered the ironworks, the temperature rose considerably. Hundreds of craftsmen and apprentices, dressed in identical gray robes, surrounded rows of enormous iron-smelting furnaces.

The entire factory was filled with the mingled smells of molten iron and pine smoke from charcoal. Shouts, work chants, the hissing of molten iron, and the panting of blowers created a cacophony of noise. Apprentices, their faces greasy with sweat, cranked the blowers, while others hauled iron materials, shouting commands. The master craftsmen, watching the flowing molten iron, issued a series of instructions.

"Sizzle—" The molten iron flowed into the cooling pool, water vapor churned, and white mist rose.

"Not good enough!" the master foreman shouted. "This batch isn't good enough, go back into the furnace again!"

One of the experienced furnace foremen said, "Alright! This batch of iron is good! Roll it!"

The Ming Dynasty already had a mature iron smelting system. Although the theory was outdated, the technology was still very advanced. Zhu Yin merely improved some key technologies, not completely overhauled the process.

Therefore, these craftsmen can quickly master the improved techniques.

Zhu Yin observed that the qualified iron was rolled into pieces weighing 100 jin each and neatly stacked to one side.

Each piece of iron was branded with the furnace foreman's name.

These qualified finished products are being loaded by apprentices at the arsenal and transported to the arsenal to manufacture firearms, swords, spears, arrowheads, and armor.

For each batch of iron delivered, the arsenal would issue a receipt to the ironworks' accounting office.

Zhu Yin approached and looked at a piece of freshly forged iron. He reached out and touched it; it was still quite hot to the touch. But he could tell it was good iron.

Although iron is not steel, its quality can still be judged by the naked eye.

The color, whether it bubbles, and the crispness of the sound can all reveal clues.

The iron in front of me has a very uniform and fine color, and the surface oxide layer is grayish-black, without any bubbles, and the surface is smooth.

If it's poor quality iron, it won't have this luster; it will either be grayish-white or dark and dull.

"Good iron! It's almost equivalent to five-star wrought iron, isn't it?" Zhu Yin nodded and smiled. "This iron is good enough to make cannons and muskets; it won't easily explode."

Qi Jiguang said, "It's equivalent to five furnaces right out of the furnace, truly exceptional! It's definitely top-quality iron!"

Zhu Yin knew that this quality of iron was the best iron that the West could produce before the 18th century.

He was essentially a hundred years ahead of schedule.

As for steel... China has been able to manufacture it for a long time, and the Ming Dynasty was also able to smelt steel. But nowadays, the cost of steelmaking is very high worldwide, so high that it cannot be widely adopted.

It's no exaggeration to say that firearms made of steel are more expensive than those made of copper. How could the imperial court afford them?
The Ming Dynasty's meager finances made it impossible to manufacture military equipment using steel.

The iron that Zhu Yin developed was not the best material, but it was the most cost-effective and could be widely used.

In the Ming Dynasty, good iron required five repeated forgings after the pig iron was taken out of the furnace. Only when ten catties of pig iron were forged down to three catties was it considered good iron, which was called "five-fire wrought iron".

This process consumes a large amount of labor, time, iron, and fuel, and the price is twenty times that of freshly forged pig iron! The cost per pound is as high as 0.17 taels of silver!
However, this "five-times-forged wrought iron" is only considered qualified military iron and cannot be used to make armor.

If armor is to be made, it needs to be forged twice more to achieve "seven fires," increasing the cost to 0.2 taels of silver per pound of iron.

To make a qualified musket barrel, it needs to be forged ten times, which is known as "ten-times-refined steel." The cost soared to 0.27 taels per pound.

Therefore, when the imperial court manufactured cannons, it preferred to use copper rather than "ten-times-refined steel" because this type of iron, which had been forged ten times, was more expensive than copper!
However, the iron that Zhu Yin made did not need to be forged. It was equivalent to "five-fire wrought iron" as soon as it came out of the furnace. How much cost and labor could be saved?
Costs were reduced by seven or eight times!
That's what makes it so impressive.

Qi Jiguang stroked his beard and laughed, "It's still a bit inferior to the iron from the Western Regions, but it's better than the iron from the Portuguese. We won't need to use copper to make cannons."

The reason why the iron from the Western Regions was so good was not because the iron-making technology was so advanced, but because the raw materials were naturally of high quality. The iron produced from the furnace was good iron without needing to be forged, and it would become steel after being forged a few times.

Ding Huogen reminded him, "General, Commander, we're running out of iron ore. If we start mining in Luzon, it will take a lot of time. If we want to save time, we'll have to buy it from the mainland."

“Buy it,” Zhu Yin said without hesitation. “Go to Foshan and buy pig iron directly. It’s easier and less labor-intensive, but it’s more expensive than buying ore.”

He knew that Luzon was short of iron ore, and that the quality of the iron ore was poor.

The Philippines has abundant copper and gold reserves, ranking among the top in the world. Unfortunately, these are all deep-seated deposits, making mining extremely difficult in ancient times.

For Zhu Yin, Luzon's greatest value lay in its agricultural and forestry resources, population, and strategic location.

After leaving the ironworks, Zhu Yin went to the arsenal.

With high-quality iron available, the arsenal, following Zhu Yin's improved methods, finally produced the most advanced cannons available today.

Four cannons have been cast so far, each weighing over 4,000 jin (approximately 2,000 kg) and firing projectiles weighing 40 jin (approximately 20 kg). They also have early aiming devices.

The cannon's design is based on the historically famous Red-Clothed Cannon, specifically the mature version of the Red-Clothed Cannon.

Zhang Jia said, "We've tested the cannons. They can fire three miles away, and their power surpasses that of the foreign cannons. A skilled gunner can fire six shots every quarter of an hour."

Zhu Yin calculated that it would take about two and a half minutes to fire one shot. This speed was already very fast for a muzzle-loading cannon.

These cannons were too heavy for land battles. But mounted on warships, they were devastating weapons.

Then, Zhu Yin finally saw the newly made flintlock musket, which was almost exactly the same as the blueprints he had drawn before, and it could also be fitted with a bayonet.

The gun barrel was drilled using a drilling machine improved by Zhu Yin. The iron itself was of good quality, and it was drilled using a gun barrel, which speaks volumes about its quality.

With the drilling machine, each skilled craftsman can drill three gun barrels per month, tripling the efficiency compared to before.

The spring plate of the flintlock device was also made using the locksmith's method.

Today, the arsenal can produce two hundred flintlock muskets per month, and has produced over a thousand in total.

The ammunition used was also the fixed ammunition designed by Zhu Yin.

The flintlock musket was actually invented long ago. However, because the flintlock mechanism was immature and unreliable, it did not replace the matchlock musket.

It wasn't until fifty years later, when flintlock mechanisms were perfected, that flintlock guns became widely adopted in the West.

Zhu Yin used a flintlock mechanism that would become mature in later generations, thus creating a highly reliable flintlock gun fifty years ahead of schedule.

Zhu Yin picked up a brand-new flintlock musket, and a sense of security welled up inside him.

Because of the preferential treatment given to the artisans and the lack of expense, the flintlock muskets made in Daishan were of very high quality. Although the cost was certainly not cheap, it was well worth it.

Ding Huogen said with admiration, "Commander, you are truly a genius. This flintlock musket is much better than the previous muskets."

“In the past, the muskets used by the Ming army often exploded, so musketeers dared not use them. If they could be used ten or eight times without exploding, it was considered lucky.”

"It's a musket made by foreigners. Although it's difficult to explode, it can't be used in the rain. You can only fire six shots in a quarter of an hour, and it's also difficult to aim."

"But this flintlock musket is harder to detonate, and it can be used even in light rain. It can fire nine times in a quarter of an hour, and it is more accurate to aim. If you attach a short knife, it can also be used as a spear."

"The cost is only a little over four taels of silver, not much more expensive than the firearms of the Ming army."

Qi Jiguang said, "It is good, but it still cannot replace swords, spears, bows and arrows. It can fire nine times in a quarter of an hour, but in a quarter of an hour, armored soldiers can charge a hundred feet away, and cavalry can charge two miles away."

"But muskets can't penetrate armor at a range of twenty zhang, and they can't hurt the enemy at a range of fifty zhang. Let alone a hundred zhang or two li."

"Moreover, it becomes difficult to use in rainy weather. It also consumes a lot of gunpowder and bullets, requiring many mules and horses to transport the ammunition."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yin immediately fell silent.

My godfather is right. Even if he invented the flintlock musket, the advantages he would gain would be very limited.

It takes at least one minute, or even two minutes, for a musketeer to fire a single shot.

Moreover, it's difficult to penetrate armor beyond fifty meters. Its lethality is also minimal beyond one hundred meters.

What does this mean? It means you only have one chance to fire a shot. By the time you fire that shot, the enemy is already upon you.

Not to mention how dependent they are on logistics.

The so-called three-stage firing is something that can't be helped.

Ding Huogen nodded in agreement, saying, "That's true, but musketeers are much easier to train than archers. Musketeers become proficient in a month, and it's easy to replenish their ranks. Archers, on the other hand, take at least three years. It takes three years to train elites skilled in close combat."

"Even if it's a one-on-one fight, the musketeers can handle it. A farmer trained for ten or fifteen days can also take down an elite soldier. Perhaps, this is the greatest advantage of muskets?"

Zhu Yin sighed. Ding Huogen was right; this was indeed the greatest advantage of black powder firearms.

As for reliability, lethality, and sustained firepower, they cannot suppress the bow and arrow.

Modern guns, not flintlock muskets, replaced cavalry.

P.S.: I'm not very interested in technology or firearms, and I lack much knowledge about them, so this chapter was very tiring and difficult to write. However, I couldn't omit it, so I had to explain it. Sorry, and thank you for your corrections. Goodnight!
(End of this chapter)