With the hard work of old cannon craftsman Old John and his assistants, the matter of casting iron molds has finally made significant progress. Marin told Old John about Gong Zhenlin's iron mold casting method in his memory, and Old John led people to try it.
In fact, the specific method is simple to say, but some details still need to be paid attention to. For example, in the original iron mold casting method, the first layer of paint on the inner wall of the mold is made by mixing fine rice husk ash and fine sand with water. After painting, it needs to be dried.
Except for southern Europe, the northern half of Europe has only wheat and no rice. So, Old John had to find wheat husk ash instead. Moreover, the specific ratio, how to make the ratio most convenient to peel off the barrel, also needs to be tested. As for the second layer of soot, it is easy to find, just go to Texel Island and get some. Marin especially emphasized that after the two layers of paint are painted, they must be dried to ensure that there is no moisture. Otherwise, when molten iron or copper is poured, the water vapor will easily evaporate and form a honeycomb inside the barrel.
Old John led people to try many times, and finally mastered the method of casting cannons in iron molds. Of course, when he mastered the method of iron mold casting, that is when he was going to be free. From then on, it was basically impossible for him to return to England. However, his salary has been improved a lot, it can be regarded as compensation for going to freedom...
Old John's experiments have always been with pig iron. Seeing how quickly pig iron could be turned into a cannon, Old John also suggested using iron to cast a three-pound cannon. However, Marin asked him to fill the gun barrel with a lot of gunpowder. After a trial blast, he found that the gun barrel was easily burst by using the gunpowder at the critical point of the original clay model gun. That is to say, the iron cannons cast by iron mold casting cannons are relatively brittle.
However, there is no problem in casting bronze cannons using the iron mold casting method. The detection effect of the bronze cannon cast by the iron mold casting method is similar to that of the bronze cannon cast by the clay mold casting method.
However, in the clay mold casting method, it takes at least a month for the clay mold to dry, and it takes more than three months to dry in rainy weather. Therefore, the efficiency of mud casting cannons is very low. As for iron mold casting cannons, a team of craftsmen can cast several cannons in one day, which is very fast.
When the casting method was determined, Old John and his apprentices began to "explode" to quickly produce three-pound bronze cannons...
Moreover, under Marin's guidance, these new rear-mounted three-pound bronze guns not only added the same gun ears as the French, but also left a place for the recommended sight-Wangshan. The so-called Wangshan, the knight is a very simple thing. It is a copper ruler perpendicular to the barrel. It's just that there is a round hole in the middle of the copper ruler, allowing the gunner's eyes to aim at the target through the round hole. The circular hole and barrel are facing parallel. Seeing the target through the round hole is equivalent to pointing the barrel at the target.
In addition, Marin also ordered the blacksmiths to build enough caster-type gun mounts that are popular in later generations. This gun mount is simple in structure, light in weight, easy to transport and easy to use. When in use, two metal "rear feet" rest on the ground. Generally speaking, if no changes are made, the muzzle is forward. And if you want to pursue the shooting angle, you can raise the wheels so that the rear legs can be lowered to facilitate the lifting of the muzzle. Moreover, there are "foot spikes" under the soles of the two metal "rear feet". In this way, when the cannon is fired, although the cannon carriage recedes due to the recoil, the "shoe spikes" under the "rear feet" rub against the ground, which can prevent the cannon carriage from retreating too much, so that it can be easily reset.
Seeing that the manufacture of the three-pound gun was on the right track, Marin was naturally happy. But before he was happy, someone came down to spoil the atmosphere:
"My lord, the island of Texel has come to report that a ship of briquettes has been seized by the Geddes..."
"What? Why is that?" Marin was a little confused. Didn't Charles II form an alliance with him? Why seize his collier
"It's because the Geddesian tax officer believes that we have passed too many coal ships on the Rhine, but we haven't paid a transit tax to the Geddesian state..."
"Didn't you pay it before? Why are you talking about it now?" In the past, Marin's coal ship sailed directly in the middle of the Rhine River, never pulled over, never paid taxes to anyone, and no one intercepted the coal ship. .
The coal ships mainly passed through the counties of Mark, the Bishop of Münster, the Duchy of Berg, the Duchy of Criever, the Duchy of Gedes and the Count of Zeeland at the mouth of the Rhine. Among them, the section passing through the Principality of Berg is relatively short, and the section of the Bishop of Münster is not too long. Moreover, these two countries are relatively mild and have never blocked roads on the river.
The Earl of Zeeland is actually an area controlled by the Habsburg family. Marin once sent someone to say hello, so naturally there will be no embarrassment there.
Only the Principality of Geddes, Charles II needs a lot of taxes because of his ambition. Therefore, Charles II, Duke of Geddes, tried his best to levy taxes on the ships passing by the river in the territory. However, the Geddes Company is located at the most important section of the Rhine Estuary. Therefore, if you want to use the Rhine River to transport to the sea, the Kingdom of Gerdes cannot bypass it.
Although Marin formed an alliance with Charles II, he did not tell Charles II that he had made a fortune by cooking salt with coal. Moreover, this matter cannot be said, and others will imitate it.
In the past, although there was a scale of boiled salt on Texel, it was not too eye-catching. But since Marin opened up the salt trade route of the Teutonic Knights, the salt production on Texel began to double.
If the amount of salt produced is doubled, the amount of coal required will also be doubled. Therefore, Marin has increased its coal transportation efforts. In this way, many coal carriers belonging to Marin appeared on the Rhine River.
After all, for inland waterway transportation, ships cannot be too large. If you want to transport so much coal, you can only increase the number of coal ships. Generally speaking, an inland riverboat can carry at most one or two hundred tons of coal, and more often, it is a small boat carrying a dozen tons or dozens of tons of coal...
But the number of ships suddenly increased, and the shape was similar, which attracted the attention of the Geddes Company. Before that, the Geddes Company also levied taxes on ships that docked. But Marin's boats all go in the middle of the river, and generally do not levy taxes. But this time, the tax officer patrolling the river of the Gedes Corporation specially organized several boats full of soldiers, intercepted one of the boats loaded with dozens of tons of coal, and demanded to pay back taxes...
In fact, the tax official of the Gedes Company, who is responsible for patrolling the river to collect taxes, does not know how much tax the coal ship owes. In fact, he didn't care about the exact amount, he was just here to blackmail... Even, the tax officer just wanted to keep the money for himself...
Marin frowned after learning about the situation. Before, he let the coal ship go in the middle of the river, not just to evade taxes. Among them, there is a bigger reason, which is to not attract attention.
Because, once the tax is paid normally, although it will not cost much. However, one's own commercial secrets will be disclosed through taxation.
For example, if all the coal ships passing through the Geddes Company pay taxes, it will inevitably reveal the amount of coal transported by Marin to Texel Island. This quantity is very large, and when other people learn about this transportation volume, they will have doubts—why does Texel need so much coal? Then, someone who cares will investigate. Once investigated, the fact that Marin made a fortune by cooking and selling salt will be exposed.
Once such a situation occurs, it will be difficult for Marin to guarantee whether other coastal countries will imitate handwriting. Among other things, it is too easy for the Dutch region to imitate itself. Maximilian I was also very interested in money. Moreover, knowing that I am getting rich, and the several princes and states along the way, it is inevitable that I will try to blackmail myself for a little toll...
Therefore, Marin has a headache for the matter in front of him...
Marin obviously didn't want his secret of making a fortune to be exposed, and the profit would only be maximized when the family enjoyed it exclusively. However, if you want to transport coal from the Ruhr area to Texel, there is only one route on the Rhine. If you go by land, it's better to go by water. Not to mention the high cost of traveling by land, you must pass through those tax cards when traveling by land, which is easier to expose than traveling by water. Unless, coal is no longer imported from the Ruhr area...
"Huh? Don't import coal from the Ruhr area?" Marin's eyes suddenly lit up...
Western Europe mainly consists of two major coal-producing regions - the Ruhr area and the United Kingdom. There are also some coal mines in other areas, but none of them are large-scale.
The best way not to import coal from the Ruhr area is naturally to import coal from the UK...
Marin has also inquired about the price of coal in the UK. In London, each Chaltron coal sells for about 6 shillings. But at the export port of Newcastle, as long as 4 shillings, there is no Chartron. This is still due to the high prices in the UK. The market price in the Ruhr area, where coal is exported, is only 3 shillings per Chartron. And Marin bought coal from his own coal mine for only 2 shillings per Chartron.
However, even if coal and boiled salt are purchased at a price of 4 shillings per Chartron, Marin's profit is still very large. After all, boiling salt is a huge profit, and Marin also used a sharp tool for cooking salt such as a wood-saving stove.
After thinking about it, Marin finally decided to reduce the amount of coal imported from his hometown to the previous level. Such a level does not seem too compelling. Moreover, Marin also decided to stop using small coal carriers and use large coal carriers. In this way, the number of times coal can be transported can be reduced and become more unobtrusive.
Then, send people to Newcastle, the British coal export port, to order large quantities of coal. Newcastle is just northwest of Texel, across the sea. Although, the straight-line distance is definitely farther than Bochum. However, Newcastle is by the sea and is a seaport. The collier leaving Newcastle must have been a sea-going ship. Sea-going ships have a large loading capacity and can transport a lot of coal at a time, which is conducive to reducing transportation costs.
Moreover, sea transportation can also be conveniently kept secret for Marin. Because, as long as a sea-going ship leaves the harbor, God knows where it will go...
Marin can order a large amount of coal in Newcastle in the name of another country. Then, it was shipped to Texel, where it was used to cook the salt. Even if Newcastle coal is a little more expensive, it's nothing compared to the windfall profits of cooking salt and the importance of secrecy...
Thinking of this, Marin finally made up his mind. He got Kohler:
"Kohler, you send someone to bribe our collier with money first..."
After listening to Marin's explanation, Kohler shook his head and said:
"Master, there's no need for me to do such a trivial matter, right?" Indeed, it's just a matter of redeeming someone, and any subordinate can be assigned to do it.
"Of course it's not that simple. You know, our collier was intercepted for the first time. And as far as I know, it was the personal behavior of the tax collector who patrolled the river. Others don't even know..."
"what do you mean?"
"Let that tax official have an accident... Also, wait for a while after redeeming the person before doing it, don't let people associate the two things together... In short, don't attract attention..." Marin didn't want to cook salt by himself The secret of getting rich is exposed. If everyone knows that coal is used to boil salt and learn from him, then the price of salt will definitely plummet immediately, which will seriously damage Marin's interests. Therefore, Marin can only shut up the troublesome river patrol tax officer...
"Understood, I'll make arrangements now!" Kohler immediately left the palace, and arranged for people to redeem people and "make accidents" respectively...