When Zhou Huaian dealt with Wang Poxian, a big businessman with a grateful face, and Liu Zhiqian, a representative of the Cantonese Tea Company who swore to be satisfied with his chest on the spot, after a brief meeting; he also took the opportunity to check the recent corresponding production reports and income and expenditures. Accounts.
Except for food and related crops, the Taiping Army’s production capacity in all aspects is still constantly being superimposed. However, a large part of it has been diverted, absorbed and digested by various demands within the system and expanded reproduction. ；
Therefore, whether it is the market potential tapping that is gradually recovering after recuperation, or the corresponding foreign trade channels and benefits, it has not yet reached a critical point of saturation.
The only thing that is more dazzling in this is a deficit project that has always been called a bottomless pit. That is, the military production and research and development related to the Taiping Army have long been net expenditures. Compared with the military-civilian logistics production system, there is a serious lack of stable sources of realization and direct feedback.
So a few days ago, when the place was not completely settled and the manpower and material resources were relatively tight, we still allocated troops and horses to open the Wuguan-Jinshang Road, to seize the opportunity of Huangchao to go north to the Central Plains, and strive to expand the market in the Guan and the Kwantung Rebels. .
This is also the only force and camp that can sell large quantities of military products and obtain relatively rich returns and long-term influence. Of course, according to the charts listed on the report, the best sellers nowadays are not those durable knives, guns and swords, but crossbows and their matching arrows.
That's right, it is the crossbow and arrows, especially the various crossbows that are relatively easy to use; whether it is a stretched crossbow, horned crossbow, wooden single crossbow, bamboo crossbow used by individual soldiers, or two or even several people to operate together. Large wooden single crossbow, large bamboo pole crossbow, Fuyuan crossbow, and even large winch crossbow and so on.
The reason is also very simple, this is a consumable project with a long flow in a sense. Judging from the accounts of the Donghai arsenal of the Han Dynasty unearthed in later generations, there are only 30,000 bows in a county and 450,000 crossbows. This is not accidental, but represents a certain kind of spare parts base that has to be maintained under relatively high losses.
Why ancient crossbows have a higher loss rate than bows? On the one hand, the relatively complex components of crossbows greatly increase the cost of mass manufacturing and maintenance, while also reducing the adaptability and fault tolerance to various environments;
On the other hand, after it was sent to the soldiers, there was no stable and effective long-term management, maintenance, and maintenance system. Often a fairly objective proportion of damage or abandonment will be overused in a battle.
At that time, the Taiping Army was not the same anymore. Although it was still the ultimate model of traditional cold weapons, it had already tried its best to move closer to the level of primary industrialization in later generations in terms of corresponding materials and standards.
Therefore, unlike these "monkey versions" that simplify export sales, the bows and crossbows currently equipped by the Taiping Army are all in large hydraulic factories. The planning of the assembly line production touches on industrial products; a large proportion of cast iron components and even small forged steel parts are used. , To ensure the corresponding overall strength and lethality.
Therefore, soldiers once reacted by directly using the shot crossbow to block the sword and cutting, or after being thrown in the mud and stepped on repeatedly, they picked them up and adjusted the examples that were still usable; and the corresponding production and maintenance costs, It is even cheaper than traditional crossbow production areas such as Xuanrun, Huaiyang, and Lingnan.
This is the reality and long-term bonus of the power of steel brought about by the large-scale industrial output; perhaps in the near future, there will be more gunpowder that is enough to crush the chemical power of castles and knights.
You know, the monthly output of iron products in Nanhai County near Guangfu alone has reached 11.4 million catties; among them, the output of various steel materials and steel ingots is 2.78 million catties. ; The various ordnance products produced by this part alone are more than enough to arm a standard military order.
In addition, the iron mills expropriated and taken over in Guizhou, Lianzhou, Shaozhou, Chenzhou, Tanzhou, Hengzhou, Ezhou, Hongzhou and other places also have a monthly output of about one million catties to several million catties. Unequal
Only in terms of fineness and craftsmanship, it is slightly behind Nanhai County, and only a small part of it can be used as qualified military materials, and it is mainly for the civilian market and internal supply and marketing systems that require low production costs and are not so demanding.
After all, although the Taiping Army has promoted the transformation and construction of various hydraulic workshops and workshops in various places, there are still a lot of handicraft factors remaining. This is also no way. After all, it seems that hydraulic transmission mechanisms are not built everywhere.
Moreover, even hydraulic workshops are also affected by the fluctuations of the tides in the four seasons, and have to recruit a large number of manpower during the dry season, or use animal power to control a sufficient scale of construction.
At least one of the key nodes of the primary industrial incubator, steam engine technology using coal and other plant fossil fuels, can only be semi-mechanical and semi-manualized in a simple way before it is fully upgraded.
Therefore, these productions together seem to be a lot in this era; but converted into tonnage for later generations, it seems a bit pitiful. Even the production capacity of one of the "five small industries" in the 1960s and 1970s that the government closed down for rectification and shutdown is far inferior. .
But in any case, these factories and mines, outside of the traditional agricultural economic system, have absorbed and accommodated a large amount of social spare labor, which on the one hand reduces the cost of maintaining social security;
On the other hand, it is also training and maintaining a large number of potential soldiers who have a certain degree of military mobilization and organization through the running-in of collective life and production cooperation. The skilled workers selected step by step are the essential conditions for industrial upgrading and quantitative change to qualitative change.
However, fortunately, the three basic elements of the original steam engine: high calorific value fuel source (Jiaozhou open-air coal field), sufficient strength pipe and bearing materials (South China Sea forged steel), and heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant sealing means (Eucommia gum, palm, etc.) Sisal fiber); have already begun to take shape under laboratory conditions.
Therefore, it is only a long process of trial and error and calculation of the largest trade-off between the experimental molding and the sample put into use, and finally the best ratio and design plan.
Therefore, the time right now is not to participate in the chaos in the north, but to complete its technological tree and prepare for the upgrade of military equipment and tactics.
Of course, being able to get in touch with Meng Kai was totally a surprise. Although there were many people who secretly exchanged tunes with the Taiping Army in the previous rebels, most of them were exchanges of interests. And most of them gradually alienated and disconnected after entering the Central Plains and the Huangchao army gradually gained power.
After all, the relationship maintained by interest will eventually change with the passage of time in the environment, but the relationship maintained by a certain potential common idea and goal can be managed and supported for a longer period of time while optimizing the situation.
—I am the dividing line —
At this time, far away in Chang'an City within the Guan, Meng Kai, who was called the "Zhijinwu" of Daqi, also seemed to feel that he couldn't help but sneezed severely; then he couldn't help but froze when he looked at the gloomy sky.
Because compared to the Jingxiang area where the weather is still warmer, the land of Guannei has already entered the rustle of late autumn. Most of the rebel units at the forefront hadn't prepared the winter clothes and blankets, so they had to find ways to buy them from the south.
The battles in the pass were also often unsuccessful. Although the defeats sent back from the front always claimed that they could defeat the official army only one more time, but in fact, whether it was Fengtian or Dasanguan, the remnant army of the imperial court They all continued to hold on, motionless.
However, even in the relatively comfortable city of Chang'an, Meng Wei's worried mood did not improve much. Regardless of his enviable and terrifying Jing Zhaoyin and various guard ambassadors, he misses the days he fought even more.
After all, after the initial freshness and enthusiasm, most people are left with numbness and slack day after day; because the government that is the patrol envoy has to deal with a huge amount of trivial affairs every day.
Most of them are trivial things like sneaking, arguing and fighting. The most serious thing was that the two rebel generals were jealous of fighting for the wind in Pingkang, and each of them called their troops to stage a full-scale martial arts trip that stretched several streets in the day.
In addition, there are endless rumors and rumors against the rebels, which are always banned repeatedly in the streets and alleys; although it has been repeatedly mentioned that this is a conspiracy of the remnants of the court, it cannot be indiscriminately arrested and murdered; but in the case of Taiwei Shang, it is Is gradually losing patience and beginning to put pressure on.
Meng Kai only knew how to save time and worry when he was in Guangfu. Because most of the trivial matters and general affairs are taken up by the "virtual monk" and other selected personnel. As a left-behind envoy, he only needs to accept the final result and decide the corresponding rewards and punishments.
But here, almost everything has to start all over again. Relying only on the manpower arranged and dispatched by the Rebels, there is a certain degree of certainty in the battle to kill the enemy, but it is a little bit narrow to bury your head and do things, and you don't even know what to do or where to start;
And relying on the officials and old officials who were originally used in the yamen are not very easy to use, or they are simply fearful and moral, but they can't drive three or four points. What makes this situation worse is the constant influx of refugees inside the customs.
After years of famines and current military fires in the huge Guanzhong area, it seemed to be a bleak situation with no harvest. Although the city of Chang'an still claims to have a lot of reserves, it is more expensive and more expensive in all aspects. At the same time, many hungry people who have been hit by the disaster have poured into Chang'an to find stuttering.
Therefore, in order to compete for the losing quota from Chang'an, there have been some boycotts and dishonesties among the outlying rebels in some garrisons. At the beginning, someone proposed at the North Korean meeting to start an idea from the guards and generals who stayed in Kanto.
Just last month, it happened that Huang Wang’s newly appointed southeast camp, Yuhou Zhu San, because of the equipment being robbed halfway, he brazenly breached the Luyang Pass, the transportation hub between the Heluo and Nanyang Basins, and defeated both of them. An incident involving thousands of people under the strict election of Qi.
In the face of this gradual severity of the situation, the one who was also influenced by the southern one and openly communicated with him, obviously there was also the transfer agent Liu Tang of the Daqi court. However, his actions are more justifiable and public.
Therefore, after sending away those literati and scholars who traveled the streets all day long without doing anything, only showing off public opinion and clamoring articles; he has already begun to take precautions against the poor in the city, young and strong among the refugees, in order to copy himself Various workshops and artisan bureaus in the government and palaces arranged labor for their livelihood.
In the next step, he planned to restore the system of separate camps for men and women of the insurgent army since Lingnei; however, this plan was met in the Daqi court, and the old and new vassals led by Cui Miu vigorously opposed and resisted;
Although Zhao Zhang supported the matter, the other party also persuaded Taiwei Shang to stand on their side. Therefore, when King Huang couldn't handle it, he denied the plan in disguise to avoid the intensification of contradictions in the court.
This involuntarily made Meng Wei even more worried, because after the rebels entered this Chang'an city and established the dynasty, from the Yellow King to the bottom big guy, many people did not know the good and bad trends. The change. (End of this chapter)