Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

When Liang Zicheng returned to Fenglingtou Town, he discovered that all four blast furnaces had been damaged to varying degrees.

After circling the blast furnace, Liang Zicheng muttered to himself, "This doesn't seem like simple destruction; it's more like... dismantling!"

The four blast furnaces suffered varying degrees of damage, and the remaining undamaged structures were all intact, leading Liang Zicheng to believe that this was more likely a deliberate dismantling.

While inspecting the steel plant, Liang Zicheng sent people out to inquire.

After sending out men to inquire around, they learned that Zheng Jun had been there. Liang Zicheng understood that Zheng Jun's commander would definitely send people to investigate such a large target as the steel plant.

Liang Zicheng clung to the bricks and stones, his expression grave. Although he had taken all the tools and equipment he could, he didn't know what Zheng Jun's men would figure out.

The guard captain of Liangzi City reported: "Commander Liang, one of Dong the tile maker's apprentices did not enter the city with us. He was found and captured by Zheng's army."

Dong the tile maker had participated in the construction of steel mills and blast furnaces. At that time, he also brought two apprentices to work as helpers. When he retreated into the city this time, one of his apprentices did not come with him.

The one who was kidnapped was the apprentice who had not entered the city.

Liang Zicheng frowned and said in a deep voice, "Go and call Dong the tile setter over!"

A moment later, Dong the bricklayer came running over with a long face. He knew he had probably gotten into trouble, so he knelt down and slapped himself as soon as he arrived in front of Liang Zicheng.

While slapping himself, Dong the bricklayer said, "Commander Liang, it's my fault. I didn't keep an eye on that unruly brat. I forgot to bring him into the city..."

Liang Zicheng stopped Dong the tile-maker from slapping himself, shook his head, and asked the guard captain, "What did you say to him that scared him like this?"

The guard captain quickly bowed and hurriedly said, "I called Dong the bricklayer to see you. He asked what it was about, and I told him it was about his apprentice..."

Liang Zicheng waved his hand to interrupt, saying, "Go and collect your fifteen strokes of the military rod. Don't talk nonsense. Learn your lesson this time!"

Upon hearing this, the captain of the guard breathed a sigh of relief, replied loudly, "Yes, sir!", and then silently retreated.

Having only recently become the guard captain and lacking experience, he had indeed made a mistake this time; his words had caused trouble, and the punishment of fifteen strokes of the military rod was considered lenient.

If Liang Zicheng were stricter, he should have kicked the guard captain out this time and never reappointed him. Giving him fifteen lashes was to give him another chance.

Liang Zicheng was very strict with the guard captain, but he changed his attitude towards Dong the bricklayer. He helped Dong up and said, "Get up, get up quickly! What kind of behavior is this! Kneeling is not allowed here, nor is it allowed to call anyone 'sir'!"

Dong the bricklayer stood up shakily and said, "Sir... Commander Liang, please give your orders."

Seeing his reaction, Liang Zicheng shook his head inwardly and stopped trying to persuade him. Instead, he inquired about his apprentice.

Dong the tiler clearly knew that his apprentice had been captured by Zheng's army, so he told him everything about his apprentice in detail.

The apprentice had only been with Dong the tiler for a short time and hadn't started working yet, but because he knew some characters, he helped Dong with tasks like stringing and marking.

Liang Zicheng understood. Dong the tiler's apprentice had watched the blast furnace being built. He might not know the specific structure and function, but he could record it.

In other words, the structure of the blast furnace was very likely recorded and taken away.

Liang Zicheng sighed and instructed Dong the bricklayer, "These four blast furnaces have all been destroyed. Tear them down and rebuild them. This time, we need to build six blast furnaces! Do a good job, and you'll be well paid and rewarded."

Seeing that Liang Zicheng did not punish his apprentice for leaking the secret, Dong the tiler thanked him profusely and left.

Liang Zicheng shook his head, no longer thinking about anything else. He didn't punish anyone for the leak, because ultimately it was his fault. It was his decision to evacuate everyone from the steel plant, and it was his oversight that one or two people didn't enter the city, which was unavoidable.

Ultimately, it was because the Restoration Army was not strong enough to spare troops to defend the steel mill.

Although Zheng Jun learned about the structure of the blast furnace, Liang Zicheng did not believe that they could produce molten steel.

To produce qualified molten steel, the blast furnace, the process, the operation procedure, and the raw materials are all indispensable. Even if the blast furnace here could be completely replicated, the quality of the molten iron produced could only be slightly improved. It would be virtually impossible to produce such high-performance carbon steel.

After Xiao Gongchen was defeated, he led a small number of his men to flee towards Fenshui Pass. At that time, Feng Erlei was stationed in Ehu Town. Since there was no walkie-talkie, he could not be notified to intercept them.

Xiao Gongchen brought the structure of the blast furnace back to Fujian. When Zheng Zhilong learned of this, he organized a large number of craftsmen and successfully replicated the blast furnace in Fenglingtou Town, which also improved the efficiency of iron smelting to a certain extent.

However, they were unable to produce molten steel. The craftsmen studied it for a long time but still couldn't figure out why, or they thought it was impossible to produce molten steel. In the end, the matter was left unresolved.

Of course, what happened in Fujian is another story.

What Liangzicheng needs to do now is to quickly rebuild the blast furnace and start steelmaking again.

The four blast furnaces have been dismantled and are no longer usable. Liang Zicheng plans to improve the structure of the blast furnaces and then rebuild six blast furnaces to increase efficiency and speed up the steelmaking process.

Liang Zicheng also sent people to search for manganese and nickel mines, and planned to develop alloy steel in the future, so as to make preparations in advance.

The steel being produced now is carbon steel, which is inferior to the alloy steel of later generations in all aspects. If we could produce an alloy steel of manganese, nickel, and iron, and then plate it with chromium, there would be virtually no problem in manufacturing modern firearms.

In order to manufacture modern firearms, in addition to refining high-performance steel, the most important thing is to formulate modern gunpowder.

In terms of modern gunpowder, Huang Longkun is in charge of its production. The production of modern gunpowder is inseparable from sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Once sulfuric acid and nitric acid are available, the next step is to produce nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose, and mercuric fulminate primer.

Sulfuric acid is relatively easy to produce. It is produced by burning sulfur in the air to produce sulfur dioxide, then reacting the sulfur dioxide with oxygen at high temperature to produce sulfur trioxide, and finally passing the sulfur trioxide into water to produce sulfuric acid.

Sulfur is the raw material for producing sulfuric acid, which is relatively easy to obtain, so preparing sulfuric acid is not technically difficult for Huang Longkun.

The problem lies in the production of nitric acid. The original plan was to use saltpeter and concentrated sulfuric acid as raw materials to produce nitric acid using the "double decomposition nitric acid production method". However, this reaction step requires heating, and if the temperature is not controlled properly, it is easy to explode.

When producing small amounts of nitric acid, the temperature is relatively easy to control, so there is not much of a problem. However, when producing large amounts of nitric acid, the temperature is difficult to control, and an explosion can easily occur.

This is the dilemma Huang Longkun faces.

In the end, Li Chengming came up with a solution: first, develop a mature process for producing nitric acid on a small scale, ensuring safety; then, increase the number of workers and scale up the production, training dozens or even hundreds of skilled operators to produce nitric acid separately. This would ensure the safety of large-scale nitric acid production.

The downside is that the utilization rate of raw materials is relatively low, and it requires a lot of manpower and resources, but there is currently no better way.

To improve efficiency, we need to gradually summarize experience in practice and continuously improve tools and processes.

Huang Longkun accepted Li Chengming's suggestion and planned to start small-scale production of mercuric fulminate and nitrocellulose, using mercuric fulminate to make primers and nitrocellulose to make propellant, and to try reloading bullets with the bullet casings he had collected before.

As for explosives? The amount of explosives needed is too large, and it is not practical to replace black powder with nitrated gunpowder. For the propellant and explosives used in cannons, let's use black powder for now.

Currently, there is a considerable amount of black powder seized and homemade, enough to satisfy any hunger; if the power is insufficient, quantity will make up for it!

The most important thing now is to develop reloadable ammunition!

Li Chengming was in charge of designing the muskets. Before enlisting, he was a gun enthusiast, and his attraction to firearms was one of the reasons he decided to join the army.

With the steel available now and the current processing capabilities, it's impossible to manufacture modern firearms, let alone modern ones. Moreover, considering the need for large-scale equipping of the Restoration Army, black powder is the only option.

Nitrogenized gunpowder was intended for reloading bullets and the next generation of firearms.

Li Chengming ultimately decided to produce black powder firearms. If he wanted to produce them quickly and equip them on a large scale, Li Chengming thought of a simple flintlock musket—the Brown Bess!

The Brownbees flintlock rifle, the most famous smoothbore flintlock rifle in history, accompanied Britain in its battles across the globe, ultimately making Britain the British Empire on which the sun never sets.

Brown Bess overall length: 1530 mm, overall weight: 4.5 kg, caliber: 18 mm, effective range: 200 m, muzzle velocity: 240 m/s, rate of fire: 2 to 3 rounds per minute.

Li Chengming had seen the Brown Bess in a museum before. He tried hard to recall the appearance of the gun, first listing the parameters of the Brown Bess, and then drawing a structural diagram.

Looking at the parameters he had listed and the structural diagram he had drawn, Li Chengming frowned slightly. Everything else was fine, but he was not very satisfied with the rate of fire.

Because of the long barrel and the muzzle-loading bullets, standing up to load bullets is the fastest way to increase the rate of fire. In addition, the actual hit rate is terrible, which is why Li Chengming thought the "line-up shooting" tactic was so stupid.

The so-called "line-up shooting" tactic is actually called the line infantry tactic, which is the culmination of the "three-stage attack" tactic. At the start of the battle, soldiers from both sides stand in rows with muskets and fire at each other. After the front row finishes firing, the next row takes over, and the firepower is continuous. The goal is to see which side can hold out for the first time.

The tactic of firing squads in a line may seem foolish, but it requires extremely high standards. It demands that the army have a tight organization, strict discipline, unity of purpose, and a willingness to sacrifice!

Musketeers lined up in rows to fire in order to compensate for the slow reloading and poor accuracy of muskets. When rows of muskets fired a continuous barrage, even cavalry would find it difficult to break through.

The British army relied on this tactic to conquer the world. Apart from a few powerful countries like France that could rival Britain, even large countries like Russia and the Ottoman Empire were no match for Britain.

This shows that while "line-up executions" was a last resort, it was also the most advanced tactic of that era.

However, in this era, no army in China was capable of implementing the "line-up shooting" tactic.

Few armies are capable of employing the "line-up shooting" tactic, and even if modern China had such an army, it wouldn't have a large number of flintlock muskets.

Using brown basses for "line-up executions" was a very advanced tactic in this era.

Li Chengming believes that the firing rate of the brown beetle could be improved.

Gunpowder was replaced with paper-packaged fixed-use guns, and the caliber of guns was strictly standardized. We couldn't be like Britain, which for a long time made the ridiculous mistake of having different calibers and incompatible bullets.

Bullets were made of lead coated with iron, and were produced to uniform specifications.

Then, the gunpowder ignition was improved to a fuse ignition, and the flintlock ignition device was improved.

All the improvements Li Chengming made to the original structure of the Brown Bess were aimed at increasing the rate of fire, which was ultimately expected to reach six rounds per minute!

Of course, whether it can reach a rate of six shots per minute remains to be seen once it is actually manufactured.

Li Chengming brought over a flintlock musket, first having the craftsmen modify it according to his design, and then having the musketeers test its rate of fire.

The musketeer's original maximum rate of fire was three rounds per minute, but the improved flintlock musket increased the rate of fire to five rounds per minute!

I had another musketeer with slower reflexes try it out, and he fired four shots per minute, which was much faster than before.

Li Chengming nodded in satisfaction, and then sent his design drawings to Liang Zicheng.

He instructed Liang Zicheng to produce a small batch first, and then test it. If there were no problems, then mass production could begin!