If a weapon were to be looked at from the raw material stage before it was smelted, it would take a long time to reveal the true face of Mount Lu.
But fortunately, the weapons workshops in [Hematite City] are all assembly line production. The kilns and workshops with different processes are arranged under a connected passage. The finished products of each process can be directly transported to the next process nearby. Following this passage that turns from time to time, you can browse the entire process of the birth of a new and disruptive weapon as quickly as possible!
The fine charcoal coming out of the charcoal kiln is crushed into granules and sent to the iron-smelting blast furnace together with the brown-red high-grade iron ore that is also granular.
The small blast furnace of unknown size buried in the soil emits far more heat than the charcoal kiln. The physical condition of the worker ants working here is also obviously worse, even if the material rations they enjoy are the first among worker ants. There is no way to offset the cost of life in this working environment. Basically every one or two years, the number of worker ants engaged in this work has to be replaced, and the retired worker ants can only be sent to other nests to engage in some less-intensive work in the nest. There are also many workers who died on the job.
The big worker ants who master the main crafts are well protected and stay away from the site most of the time. They are only responsible for guidance and supervision. They are the core of the iron smelting industry here, not physical consumables.
This small blast furnace is tapping iron, and the molten iron flowing out of the opened hole is more red than other blast furnaces. This indicates that the temperature in this furnace is higher, and the corresponding carbon content of the molten iron is also less. Some. Although it is not as high as wrought iron, it has a much lower carbon content than pig iron produced in other blast furnaces, and the finished iron is also stronger in toughness.
The flowing molten iron is directly introduced into the mold, and nothing can be seen from the appearance of the mold. But in the smashed mold of another blast furnace, slender iron rods appeared in front of the observer's eyes. As many as 36 iron rods were exposed in a 6X6 arrangement.
Each of these iron rods is about the length of three big-headed soldier ants, which is about 1.5 centimeters. The diameter is very small, about 2 millimeters. It is hollow inside and has a hole diameter of less than 1 millimeter. The rear structure is a style that artillerymen are very familiar with. This is clearly an artillery that has been reduced many times, or in other words - a musket!
Yes, the identity of this new weapon has been revealed since then, although other accessories have not yet been installed and necessary follow-up processes such as clearing the chamber have been carried out. But this is indeed a gun!
After the Legion of the God Envoy King possessed firearms, a major killer, artillery, the king of war, played an irreplaceable role in all previous wars, and was also a mainstay in the war with the Destroyer.
However, artillery can only play a role of suppression and cover after all, and cannot completely replace a large number of ordinary soldiers to carry the line. It also lacks mobility and can be used for defense. However, when moving to large-scale battles, its mobility flaws are fully exposed.
Most of the infantry soldiers of the Divine Envoy Army are still using relatively primitive cold weapons such as jaw knives, and they have not been improved for more than ten years.
It's not that Zhu Jue doesn't want to improve the equipment of ordinary infantry, but the body structure of ants determines that they cannot use particularly complex weapons. For example, Zhu Jue tried to train a group of troops to walk on all fours, with the front two hooks holding a spear with an iron tip, and stabbing instead of biting with a jaw knife, just like the lance of a flying knight in the air. .
However, the strength of the front two limbs of ants is too weak. It is difficult for the spear to produce enough lethality based on limb strength alone. It cannot even pierce the carapace of ordinary ants. It is far less practical than the jaw knife. The reason why the flying knight continues to use the lance is because the lance is only used as a secondary weapon and can use the speed of the mount to generate additional impact.
So to this day, the infantry of the God Envoy Army still have a jaw knife and a set of crude armor that can only cover part of the head, chest and back. It is not a problem to use it to fight other ant tribes, but it must be destroyed with force. It is no different than hitting a stone with an egg.
After many years of fighting against the Destroyers, Zhu Jue has deeply realized that infantry units must also be weaponized. However, because the development of miniaturized firearms is not that simple, human civilization did not have practical guns until hundreds of years after the invention of the first cannon.
Zhu Jue could only take the tank route at the beginning, using beetles as artillery carriers. Large beetles carried mung bean cannons, and small and medium-sized beetles carried millet cannons. These artillery had shortened barrels and reduced charges, and served as fast-moving close combat vehicles. strength. In addition, there are self-propelled artillery beetles and towed artillery beetles that carry normal artillery on camels, which are supplements to the artillery force.
However, even if the Ant Alliance has devoted all its national power, it has only formed a small number of tank troops and mobile artillery units so far. They can only be concentrated as strategic and tactical reserves, which are still not enough to completely replace infantry and ordinary artillery.
It was not until some time ago that the musket was successfully developed and tested, put into mass production, and handed over to a test unit for training tactics. Zhu Jue realized that the age of firearms for infantry units was finally coming!
Just like in human history, mature muskets are the cross-era weapons that completely eliminate cold weapons. This musket that embodies the technological crystallization of the Ant Alliance will also become a subversive artifact!
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Outside [Hematite City], near an empty hill, the faint smell of gunpowder smoke continued to fill the air! Here, you can see training footage of troops using experimental muskets.
This kind of musket is currently named the Three Ant Carrying Gun Type 1. As the name suggests, this weapon requires three ants to operate at the same time.
Three ants form a fighting group and use a musket. None of them wear armor to reduce the weight as much as possible. After all, the weight of a musket already exceeds the total weight of three sets of ant armor jaw knives.
In the combat group, one of the big-headed ant workers has a metal base on the back, with the middle end of the gun fixed on it. The muzzle of the gun extends far in front of her head. There is also a baffle under the muzzle to prevent the heat flow from impacting the worker. Raise your hand.
The end of the gun is the shooter responsible for firing. She is also the leader of the three ants group and is responsible for commanding, aiming and shooting. When marching, she also carries the end of the gun to reduce the burden of raising the hand.
"The First Clan"
The last one is the loader. She carries 12 rounds of ammunition. The ammunition is a whole preloaded bullet that is combined with fiber-rolled warheads and propellant. In addition, there are some long rods necessary for loading muzzleloaders.
This kind of weapon is similar to some heavy muskets in the history of human civilization that require two people to operate. However, the weapons of human civilization are enlarged and designed to increase their power, but the ant civilization has to do this because its ability to miniaturize firearms has reached a bottleneck!
