"The arms dealers are not in a hurry to do it. [Read the full text]" Zhang Bolin said, "Can we also equip ourselves with smoothbore cannons? There are too many blank spots in firepower now. The three gun towers on the Bobu Highway do not have cannons. Rencheng also doesn’t have a single cannon. In addition, we must establish an indigenous army. The indigenous army can use smoothbore cannons to form artillery units. In this way, they can be converted into armstrong cannons in the future and a group of qualified gunners can be trained."
Zhang Bolin, a major artillery member, was most concerned about the artillery team he dreamed of. No matter what kind of artillery it was, it was better to have it than not have it.
Everyone thinks this suggestion is reasonable. Even if we ignore the manufacturing cost and the need to arm the indigenous army, the cost of using smoothbore cannons is much lower. Because smoothbore cannons have no rifling, the shells can theoretically be anything that can fit into the bore. There is no need for carefully manufactured artillery shells, the simplest ones are just solid iron balls. Even in the 19th century, the lethality of this kind of artillery shells at sea and sea was still acceptable - in fact, solid shells continued until smoothbore cannons were withdrawn from the war. The stage is still the most shot of cannonballs. Much more reliable than grenades with questionable killing power.
"Well, we can also fire some special spherical projectiles, such as grenades and incendiary bombs."
"There is another benefit that you may not be aware of." Wang Luobin said, "Mr. Wen's theory of generation difference."
"Generation theory?"
"In this time and space, at least in our lifetime, we are all outsiders. And in order to conquer and rule, we have to rely on the help of local people. So sooner or later, we will establish an indigenous army."
Once an indigenous army is established, it will inevitably become the main armed force across the country because of its large number.
No matter how much effort you put into brainwashing, political work, and control, the military, as a violent machine, will become greedy once it realizes its power, and they will strive for more power and interests, while the time traveler itself Power is limited. The only way is to maintain the technological generation gap.
The 2omm flintlocks equipped by the indigenous troops, the traversers must have bolt-action rifle-level weapons to fight against them. This ensures that a very small number of people can suppress a large group of people. In the same way, if the time traveler can make a 92mm infantry cannon, the best artillery equipped for the indigenous army cannot exceed the 37mm retractable gun.
This theory has not yet been perfected by Wen Desi. He is now thinking about the future military institutions and political organizations every night - "the eternal stability of the time-travelers" is his goal.
After several days of preparation, the cannon-casting work began. As a technical reserve and exercise, the artillery team will first cast a traditional smoothbore cannon. Generally speaking, smoothbore cannons are best made of copper, and their lifespan can reach almost 1,000. In comparison, the lifespan of cast iron cannons is only 6oo. However, copper is much more expensive than iron, and it is a precious industrial raw material for travelers. The pig iron Deng Yingzhou bought from Guangdong has excellent texture and a very low sulfur content. Great for casting cannons.
Historically, pig iron from the Fujian and Guangdong regions in the Ming Dynasty was known for its superior quality. Because the iron-making factories in this region used charcoal as fuel to make iron, the sulfur content was much lower than that of pig iron made from coal in the north. Sulfur is a major factor that makes pig iron brittle and reduces its quality. People in the Ming Dynasty could not understand this reason, but it became a consensus at that time that artillery made in the south was stronger than that in the north. So much so that in the late Ming Dynasty, large-scale cannon casting was carried out in Guangdong. In the 47th year of Wanli Period, when Xu Guangqi was ordered to train troops to defend the capital, he suggested that the imperial court recruit craftsmen from Fujian and Guangdong to come to Beijing to cast cannons. In the third year of Chongzhen, he invited himself to Guangzhou to cast cannons. The reason was: "There are many craftsmen, the iron materials are particularly fine, and the price can be saved by one third..." In the early years of Chongzhen, Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, made cannons at once. Two hundred cannons were cast.
Wang Luobin suggested recruiting several masters who are good at casting cannons from Guangzhou to demonstrate the traditional Chinese cannon-casting technology. After everyone has an intuitive concept, they can make improvements. Lin Shenhe said that it was not necessary: let alone the level of Chinese gunsmiths in 1628, even the level of cannon-casting craftsmanship of the Europeans who followed the method at that time was not much higher. There is absolutely no need for time travelers to learn from them.
Matteo Ricci mentioned in the book that the problems of Chinese cannon at that time were: small charge, short range, no front sight, and unable to aim. The outer mouth of the artillery bore was wide and the inside was small. It could not effectively collect gunpowder gas, and the inside of the gun bore could not To achieve a qualified round shape, the barrel is not bored. Cannonballs can be of any size and even shape. The ball play is too large. The artillery has no lugs and is top-heavy. If the charge is too dense, it will explode when it is fired.
The Hongyi cannon introduced at that time was essentially the same as the various traditional artillery manufactured and equipped by the Ming army. They were smoothbore front-loading cannons that used black powder and solid shells. However, thanks to the understanding of science, European artillery has some obvious advantages in design, such as thicker barrel walls, larger diameters, and thicker barrels from front to back. Therefore, it has advantages in range, lethality and safety. The gun body generally has a front sight and a rear sight, and the gun body is cast with lugs, which is convenient for setting up on the gun carriage, adjusting the shooting angle and moving easily.
The smoothbore cannon that the time traveler wants to make can be roughly regarded as a kind of red barbarian cannon, but the prototype is slightly more advanced and is copied from the French 6-pound cannon in the early 19th century. The effective range of this gun is 5oo meters, the maximum range is 15oo meters, and the gun body weight is about 25okg.
Lin Shenhe and Wang Luobin decided to first use a Western cannon-casting method from the 17th to 18th centuries, which also required making clay molds.
They asked wood processing plants to process a batch of special wooden molds: tapered materials used as supports and turned gun tail molds. After completion, the first thing to start with is the blank of the male mold. First, use straw rope to tightly wrap the cannon shape around the tapered wood as the support. At this time, the male mold has a margin of about 25cm from the final size. Then use putty mixed with clay and water and apply it evenly layer by layer on the male mold. Wait until the previous layer is completely dry before applying the next layer.
When painting, they made the entire male mold a little larger than the actual size of the cannon because the casting would shrink. After the last layer of plaster has dried and the shape has been corrected, a layer of wax is applied to the outside of the male mold. If paraffin wax is lacking, beeswax is used instead. The surface of the male mold will be smooth and the female mold will not stick to the next process. The breech of the gun is a machined wooden mold, which is fixed on the male mold with screws.
After the positive mold is completed, it is used to make the casting mold for the cannon. The mold is made by coating the positive mold layer by layer with semi-liquid putty mixed with clay, clay, fine sand and water. Also apply the next layer after one layer is completely dry. After it is completely dry, add iron bars to the outside of the mold to reinforce it.
After the mold is completely dry, the male mold must be taken out by cutting the head and tail of the mold, taking out the tapered wood in the inner core of the male mold, and then pulling out the wrapped straw rope. Because there is a layer of wax between the male mold and the casting mold, it will be easier to take it out. If it is really difficult, you can also melt the wax surface by heating to cause the gap to come out. The mold for the breech is made separately.
The third part of the mold is the core, which is made of clay attached to an iron bar. It is usually a cylinder, but may have a special shape where the gunpowder is contained. The core is loaded into the master mold, which is held in place by an iron core brace at the end of the master mold and a clay ring at the muzzle.
The separately made female breech molds and female molds for the gun body are reassembled together. After the three molds are firmly assembled, the molds must be baked to be completely solid. Finally, the molds are buried with the muzzle facing upward and are filled and compacted next to the furnace. In the pit. Jiang Ye designed and installed a wooden hanger that could hoist the entire mold. Because the need for cannon casting was not considered when building the iron furnace, the floor of the steelmaking workshop was hardened. As a last resort, we had to build another iron melting furnace in the foundry. However, since there was no need to make iron, it was just a matter of simply melting the metal, and the furnace did not use a regenerative furnace. The flow channels are one out and four out. Ji Wusheng personally came to guide, and Zhan Wuya also had some casting experience, so the first casting was a success.
After the casting is completed, it is kept warm for 24 hours before being dug out of the mud pit. After further cooling, the reinforcing ribs on the outside of the female mold were removed, the mold was smashed, and the artillery team used hammers and chisels to remove the remaining ash from the gun body.
Finally, the cast iron 6-pound cannon is completed. It also requires further processing to bore the barrel. The mechanical team built a simple boring machine to process the gun barrel. The power did not even use an electric motor or diesel engine, but a donkey. The donkey drives a winch that drives a boring bar topped by a high-carbon steel bore cutter.
Boring operation can greatly improve the smoothness of the inner wall of the gun, but after measurement, it is found that the boring process cannot actually cut a cylinder or correct the deviation of the core during the casting process. In the whole process, hard residues also cause great harm to the boring bar. In other words, this process consumes too much money.
"No wonder it was changed to drilling method in 1713." Lin Shenhe was a little frustrated. The drilling method is to cast a solid iron rod first, and then use a drill to drill out the barrel. This technology was first used by the Dutch, but it was not fully promoted until the late 18th century. The British Naval Arsenal was still using the above-mentioned casting method to manufacture naval guns until 177o.
