Liu Yan went to Lingshan Guard and Jimo Camp to visit Shangguan this time. It can be said that he gained a lot. Not only did he harvest a large amount of iron materials, gunpowder and other materials, he also took away the population of fifty craftsmen households, and also obtained a batch of armored soldiers. , although the style of these armors is different from the full-body armor currently equipped by the new army in Xiahe Village, this does not affect the overall situation. After returning, just let Xu Le lead someone to modify it.
In addition, what makes Liu Yan most happy is that among the weapons brought back from Lingshan Guards, there is also a big killer weapon called Zhentian Lei.
The Sky Thunder that Liu Yan obtained was actually the prototype of the grenade of later generations. This kind of gunpowder weapon first appeared in the late Northern Song Dynasty. After hundreds of years of development, it had been basically finalized by the Ming Dynasty and had considerable lethality.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty's Thunder Thunder contained gunpowder, and the outer shell was wrapped in pig iron, with a fuse attached. When using it, soldiers would determine the length of the fuse based on the distance of the target to calculate the time to detonate.
After being detonated, the Thunderbolt can blow the pig iron shell into pieces and penetrate the armor; at the same time, it can also be filled with some iron rods, broken porcelain pieces and other objects to increase its lethality.
There are generally two types of thunderbolts equipped in the Ming army: one is launched by a trebuchet and explodes at a distance; the other is thrown by soldiers and explodes.
For example, the thunderbolts thrown from the city wall by the Ming army when they were defending the city belonged to the second type, and their effect was equivalent to the grenades of later generations.
The thunder that Liu Yan got this time is the latter. It is about ten kilograms in size. If you want to throw it, the distance will be very close. Strong soldiers can only throw it about ten meters. It has little effect on the battlefield. , mainly used to defend the city.
However, Liu Yan was confident that he could reduce the size of this thunderbolt, which was to use granular gunpowder instead of the ordinary gunpowder used at this time. However, the matter of granulated gunpowder has not yet been put on the agenda. Liu Yan has more urgent things to do. The improvement plan for the reduction of Zhentian Lei will also be carried out later. For now, the main focus is on imitation, and he will first create some There are military forts everywhere, used to defend the city.
Liu Yan and Xu Ming did not return directly to the Qianhu House in front of Xiahe Village, but rode their horses to Wangjiazhuang.
The team officer Chen Xun received the news from the cavalry chief in advance, so he led hundreds of households Yue Ming, the officer in charge Zhang Lei, the officer in charge Tan Xiaoda, the officer in charge Xu Le, the medical officer Bao Xuezhen, and the copywriter supervisor Zhao Minyi Everyone came out of the city to welcome him.
Liu Yan came to the gate of the city, laughed loudly, got off his horse, and greeted everyone warmly. Xu Ming also laughed and hugged Chen Xun in greeting.
Looking at all the familiar faces, Liu Yan felt warm in his heart. No matter when the time comes, this is his retreat and the confidence to conquer the world.
"My lord, it's cold, let's go in and talk."
"good!"
Everyone entered the city and came to the Baihu Official Hall. Liu Yan took the seat at the top without hesitation, Chen Xun and Xu Ming sat on the left and right respectively, and the rest of the people took their seats in turn.
Liu Yan first greeted everyone for a while, and then ordered Xu Ming to take out the Sky Thunder and hand it to everyone for circulation.
"This is..., Sky-shaking thunder!"
Tan Xiaoda immediately exclaimed: "This thing is generally only found in places above the Acropolis. Where did you get it?"
Liu Yan then gave an important account of his selection process for going to Lingshan Guard, and then asked Tan Xiaoda: "Can the Firearms Manufacturing Office imitate this thing?"
Tan Xiaoda nodded and said: "It is actually not difficult to imitate Zhentian Lei. My subordinates have also heard of the name of Zhentian Lei, but now the Zhentian Thunder equipped in the army only weighs more than ten kilograms." It's a heavy iron lump that can't be thrown very far. Apart from being useful when defending a city, it can only blow up one's own people in a field battle, so it's of no great use!"
Liu Yan knew that what Tan Xiaoda said was the truth, but this did not mean that the Thunderbolt was a useless firearm. It only meant that the Ming army's craftsmanship in manufacturing the Thunderbolt was not sophisticated enough at this time. The size is too large and the power is too small, which is why it is so useless.
Before traveling through time, Liu Yan had read some historical materials:
As early as the eighth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty used thunderbolt artillery when it attacked the Southern Tang Dynasty. This was the most primitive thunderbolt.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, gunpowder workshops were established in Jiankang Prefecture, Jiangling Prefecture and other cities at that time, and firearms called gunpowder Yaozi were made.
At this time, the projectile can explode with a sound like a thunderbolt, so it is called a thunderbolt cannon. In the first year of Jingkang, the Jin people besieged Bianjing. When guarding the city, guard Li Gang used thunder cannons to repel the Jin soldiers. "They fired thunder cannons at night to attack the thieves, and the troops all exclaimed."
Later "History of the Jin Dynasty" records: In the first year of Jin Tianxing, when Chizhan Hexi was guarding Bianjing, the defender of the city had a cannon named "Zhentian Lei". He filled the iron can with medicine and lit it with fire. The cannon set off fire and the sound was heard. Like thunder, you can hear fire a hundred miles away, covering half an acre of fire, igniting armor and iron.
This is probably the earliest record of Zhentian Lei being used in actual combat.
Liu Yan said: "Master Tan, Zhentian Lei has been used in actual combat as early as the Song Dynasty. It can be called a field weapon. Our Xiahe Village must also equip it!"
"But……"
Liu Yan smiled and waved his hand, stopped Tan Xiaoda's words, and continued: "Mr. Tan, the reason why the thunderbolts equipped by the army are large in size and weak in power is because the gunpowder used by the army is not as good as that of Xiahe The pig iron used in the village is not as good as the pig iron refined by our firearms manufacturing department!"
"And after a period of time, I will give you a more powerful gunpowder. This is all for later. With the high-quality pig iron produced by our Firearms Supervision Department and this more powerful gunpowder, we will definitely be able to create Create a smaller and more powerful Thunderbolt! I believe that the Thunderbolt created by our Firearms Supervision Department can kill the enemy by being thrown by the generals in the field, and it will definitely be a weapon on the battlefield!"
After listening to Liu Yan's words, Tan Xiaoda felt confident and no longer objected.
After all, Liu Yan has always been able to bring surprises to people, and it must be the same now when he builds Zhentian Lei. Liu Yan will definitely succeed!
At this time, in Tan Xiaoda's heart, he was already full of trust in Liu Yan, and it was unconditional trust.
So Tan Xiaoda took the thunder and looked at it carefully, and basically understood its structure, so he said to Liu Yan: "Master and everyone, please wait here for a moment. I will ask someone to make one quickly." Here comes the sample!”
After finishing speaking, Tan Xiao left happily without waiting for Liu Yan to speak.
Liu Yan didn't take it seriously, so he and everyone continued to drink tea and chat in the main hall. Anyway, it just happened that everyone hadn't had such a good time to reminisce about the past.
About an hour later, Tan Xiaoda hurried back and said, "Sir! It's done!"
Liu Yan did not expect that the efficiency of the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Office would be so high now. It took more than an hour to create a sample of Zhentian Lei, and he hurried to the testing site with Tan Xiaoda.
This test site is outside Wangjiazhuang Fort. It is originally a wasteland with no homes around it, and there is a new high wall to shield it from people's eyes and ears.
At this time, the director of the gunpowder workshop, Zhao Hao, came over with a thunder sample in his hands. It was a round iron ball slightly smaller than a watermelon. There was a slightly raised platform on the sphere, with a small hole on it. Insert the medicine twister.
"Sir, this is the sample of Zhentian Lei. It is made exactly according to the sample you just gave me. It's just that it's the first time I have no experience in making it, so the volume is a little larger. This Zhentian Lei sample is made of ten pounds of pig iron. It is made of a shell and contains eight kilograms of gunpowder. Moreover, iron nails and other objects are added to this sky-shaking mine, so it must be much more powerful than those made by the government army."
After Tan Xiao made the introduction, he saw that there was not much joy on Liu Yan's face.
"The iron shell of this thunderbolt is too smooth and has no grooves. It is difficult to produce fragments when it explodes, which will definitely affect the explosion effect. In addition, the fuse of this medicine is too short. If it burns too fast, it will blow up the New Army soldiers themselves. , but it’s impossible.”
After hearing Liu Yan's words, Tan Xiaoda nodded frequently and wrote them down one by one, preparing to go back and continue to improve.
However, even if there are some flaws at this time, it is still necessary to test the explosion effect of this thunder.
In order to avoid accidental injury, Liu Yan ordered everyone to retreat ten feet away, leaving only a former general soldier with good legs and feet in charge of lighting the fire. 33
The thunder sample was standing in the center of the test site, next to several cloth men sewn with pieces of cloth filled with soil and straw to test the explosion effect.
The New Army soldier walked over cautiously, put an incense stick on the temporarily extended medicine twister, and lit it with a chirping sound. The medicine thread quickly burned, and the New Army soldier immediately used the fastest method in his life. Run away quickly.
Soon, Mars crawled into the projectile along the lead wire like a small insect.
"boom!"
There was a deafening explosion, and the thunder exploded smoothly.
Liu Yan and others felt that everything around Zhentian Lei was being pulled by a strange force, shrinking towards the center, and then rapidly expanding in all directions.
Some New Army soldiers nearby even had the illusion that time seemed to have stopped the moment the sparks penetrated the missile body, and it seemed that the thunder exploded after a long time.
The explosion caused by the eight kilograms of gunpowder instantly formed a shock wave that rushed wildly on the ground, sweeping away everything that hindered their progress. In the deafening roar, everyone felt that the ground was shaking up and down, and the billowing black smoke of the explosion spread to all directions, and finally reached the ground. Under the action of resistance, it rose into the air and formed a small mushroom-shaped cloud.
As for the few cloth men used for testing, they had long been blown away by the shock wave without a trace.
After the explosion, the world became extremely quiet. No one could hear anything except their own heartbeats. It took a while before people noticed that their eardrums were buzzing. Until this time, the innate feeling of A sense of fear came to mind.
Liu Yan rubbed his ears that were ringing with a smile, feeling very satisfied with the power of this thunder.
Tan Xiaoda, on the other hand, looked pale and shocked, obviously frightened by the power of this thunder.
In Tan Xiaoda's impression, the sky-shattering thunder used by the army in the past usually exploded into seven or eight large and small iron pieces after a loud bang, and flew in all directions. More than three feet away.
And on the ground where the thunder sample was placed, a shallow pit suddenly exploded!
Unexpectedly, this thunder that was filled with a large amount of gunpowder and made of fine iron could increase its power to such a great extent.
In fact, Liu Yan knew that the power of the Sky Thunder would be even greater. When the granulated gunpowder is mass-produced in the future, it will definitely shock everyone even more.
Liu Yan immediately issued an order to Tan Xiaoda, requesting that from now on, the Firearms Supervision and Manufacturing Department would start building Thunder Thunder, and first build it according to the number of 100 pieces equipped by each hundred households.
Tan Xiaoda immediately agreed.
Of course, the Thunderbolt to be mass-produced by the Firearms Manufacturing Office will have grooves engraved all over the body, and the plan stipulates that it will only weigh eight kilograms, but it will contain six kilograms of gunpowder, and a grip will be specially installed at one end. The handle is convenient for New Army soldiers to throw.
These were the results of subsequent discussions between Tan Xiaoda and Liu Yan. Liu Yan was very satisfied, and then planned to stay in Wangjiazhuang for a few days to inspect the construction of the armor and complete the goal of wearing armor for the entire army as soon as possible.
Some people died, but not completely...
