Granular gunpowder is a step up from powdered gunpowder. Powdered gunpowder easily absorbs moisture and gradually breaks down due to bumps during storage and transportation, resulting in more charcoal powder in the upper layer and more sulfur powder in the lower layer. [Read the latest chapter] It causes uneven mixing, which is detrimental to the power and safety of gunpowder.
Li Modao watched the craftsmen's granulation with interest and inquired about the details. It turns out that this technology was also introduced by Westerners. Craftsmen said that such gunpowder not only explodes reliably, but is also less susceptible to moisture, which is much better than the powdered gunpowder originally used.
"This is another Westerner's idea." Li Modao had a hope in his heart, hoping to meet a Westerner and ask him face to face about the uses of these Western firearms.
"How much gunpowder was made?" he asked.
The steward of the Gunpowder Bureau reported: "Replying to the master, we have now made ten thousand kilograms. Most of them are powder, but also a small amount of explosives. There are also poisonous gunpowder and medicine cakes."
"This is too little. Ten thousand kilograms is not enough."
"Yes, it's just that the hemp charcoal we need is hard to find, so we're switching to willow charcoal." The manager said, "Making gunpowder today is different from before. Saltpeter and sulfur must be purified before they can be used. To make sulfur for light, use butter. Ten kilograms of lard will cost two or three kilograms, so it takes a lot of time to raise it."
Coming out of the gunpowder station, black smoke towered into the sky three or four miles away. This is where the blacksmith camp is located. Most of the weapons in the army are made of iron. Although the government has a special bureau to manufacture weapons, the army still has some blacksmiths. Tools, iron materials and charcoal are used to repair weapons at any time. When necessary, they can also make some expensive weapons, such as arrows and iron. Now the blacksmith camp is busy making cannon pellets day and night.
In the camp, swords, spears and guns were being forged and repaired in a shed, while there were seven or eight iron-melting furnaces in the open air, with blazing fires melting pig iron and pouring cannons. The ground is covered with clay molds, large and small.
Li Modao saw that the stockyard on one side was filled with all kinds of iron materials, including iron bricks and iron rods bought from the iron yard, as well as various weapons and objects replaced by the army. Used crucibles and broken clay molds were piled into a hill several feet high. Various newly cast cannon pellets are placed in rattan baskets and have been piled up on several acres of land. Li Modao knew that the small baskets contained cannons and the big baskets contained cannons.
When General Manager Guan Yingqian saw him arriving, he quickly came out to greet him. Like gunpowder, Li Modao had an urgent need to produce more cannon pellets as quickly as possible. During the war, artillery consumes a lot of money, not to mention that this time he is still preparing to surround the enemy. If the firearms camp is out of artillery pellets and misses the opportunity to fight, his head will be at risk.
He looked at the cannonballs in the basket. The cannonballs were cast at uneven levels, some were very round, and some had very different diameters. The finish of the projectile body is also different. The surface of some cannons is very rough, almost honeycomb-like. What's even more terrible is that the same five-pound cannons are actually slightly different in size. Some are very different. There is a big error in the size at a glance.
"This cannon scores one point." He said to Mr. Qian who was in charge of the blacksmith camp who greeted him. "The roundest and brightest cannon can be used by the Hongyi cannon. The others can only be used as seals. And there is this size. , big ones are big, small ones are small. Score some points too.”
Li Modao knew that such a big cannon would not have a big problem when used as a door seal for old-style artillery such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon, but when used on artillery such as the Folan Cannon or the Hongyi Cannon, there would be a serious problem of lag in shooting. Sometimes it may even cause an explosion.
Years of experience with point igniters told him that if the projectile is not smooth and round enough, no matter how well-cast the artillery is, there will be air leakage, the shell will not be able to travel far, and even more terrifyingly, the barrel will explode.
The next day, He Rubin was talking to his staff in the big tent. Suddenly someone came to report that someone from Qiongshan had applied for the army. He claimed that he was a native of Lingao. He had fought against the Kun bandits and knew the details of the Kun bandits very well. Report your service before coming to the army.
"Okay, let's send this person to Guangzhou." He Rubin cheered up. So far, he has not recruited a Lingao native, let alone this person who claims to have fought with the Kun bandits.
"According to the Qiongzhou Prefecture's report: This person's name is Gou Chengxuan. He was once stripped of his honor as a scholar by the province for being a 'traffic bandit'. He is also wanted by the county. I'm afraid he is not a kind person."
"Traffic gangster?" He Rubin wondered, could this person have done something for a gangster before? It would be more manageable if it were this way. If he was a scholar, he would have to be polite. Since he was a fugitive from traffic gangs, he would do whatever he wanted, and he would do whatever he wanted. "Ask Qiongzhou Prefecture to send him as soon as possible."
Gou Chengxuan escaped from Lingao a few months ago. During the Qiu Fu period, he was expecting the gentry and landlords to take advantage of the troubled waters and make a big fuss so that the thieves would suffer a lot, but he did not expect Huang Hankun to disdain to form an alliance with him. He started doing it himself, but failed miserably, allowing the thief's Zhang Tian's plan to come true.
The attempt to cause trouble by taking advantage of the situation failed, and he could no longer stay in Lingao County. As Chuanchuan Group took over the county government, large-scale cleanup and rectification of Lingao County began. All the beggars and vagrants who were living in the city were arrested. Gou Chengxuan knew that it was no longer possible to continue pretending to be a beggar and stay in the city. If he was caught by the bandits, even if his identity was not exposed, he would be arrested and quarried sand, and would be whipped by Fu Youdi. Immediately, he quickly took out his clothes and a small amount of silver from his hiding place, and escaped from the county town under the cover of the Lai brothers.
Seeing that she could no longer stay in Lingao, Gou Chengxuan could only prepare to flee. He asked Lai Xiao, who was working in the county school, to continue to lurk in the city, and he took Lai Da to Qiongshan County to temporarily settle down. But Gou Xunli, who went to hug Pangshan to join his sworn brothers, was never found. With no news about her father, all her family wealth, and no way to take revenge, Gou Chengxuan almost wanted to commit suicide by drowning in despair. Fortunately, Lai Dasui was always by her side to persuade her.
When he heard in Qiongshan that the imperial court was going to attack Lingao, Gou Chengxuan, who was already desperate, finally felt that God's eyes were open. When he saw that someone who knew the inside story of the Kun thief was being recruited, he immediately applied.
After Gou Chengxuan was interrogated for a while in Qiongshan, he and Lai Da were sent to the camp in Guangzhou by the Qiongshan County Magistrate.
He was sent to the Humen camp in shackles and chains like a prisoner. After getting off the boat, he was unshackled and asked to wait in a tent.
Gou Chengxuan was in a state of confusion. It seemed that the government was very rude to him. I wonder if it was because the government knew that he was guilty of "traffic banditry"? This matter must be defended no matter what.
Before he could take a breath, a soldier came to say:
"The Commander-in-Chief has an order: Gou Chengxuan comes in."
"Yes, please lead the way, deputy master." Gou Chengxuan felt nervous - this was his first time seeing such a big official.
He couldn't help but tremble all over, hastily adjusted his clothes, and followed the soldiers towards the central army. A group of soldiers standing at the gate of the camp blocked him with their swords drawn horizontally. A small leader of the soldiers looked him over and asked:
"Are you Gou Chengxuan?"
"Yes, the villain is Gou Chengxuan." He replied in a low voice, his voice a little trembling.
"Do you have a sword with you?"
"The villain is a scholar..."
"Stop talking nonsense, do you have any clothes?" The leader of the guards at the door looked impatient.
"No, really not." Gou Chengxuan quickly defended.
The leader of the soldiers was still worried and searched his body before letting him enter the camp gate. The Chinese army brought him to kneel down in front of He Rubin's case. His heart was beating like a drum, he didn't dare to raise his head and said:
"Little citizen Gou Chengxuan meets Master Zhentai"
"You were the one who announced the application list and said you knew the inside story of the Kun thief?"
"Exactly the villain."
"You said you know the inside story of the Kun thief, so you must actually serve the court, and the court will naturally put you in high regard." He Rubin looked at him and felt that this man had a cunning face and was not a kind person. He didn't ask Gou Chengxuan to get up. He just drank the tea slowly and asked after a while:
"You know all the details about you calling yourself a thief. Who are you?"
"Sir, my surname is Gou..." Gou Chengxuan first told her life experience, but of course she didn't dare to talk about the glorious history of the Gou family in Lingao - the home of pirates and local bullies. He didn't even dare to say that he was once a scholar, for fear of asking about his dismissal of honors - you should know that he is still a wanted criminal named by the government. It is only said that the Gou family is an ordinary local tycoon. When the bandits came to the country, they had no food or young men in their hands, so they took the idea of the Gou family village. They gathered people to break up the village, killed his uncle's family, robbed the food and property, and hijacked all the villagers. Only he and his father escaped alone.
When Gou Chengxuan mentioned the painful part, she secretly shed tears. But inside this Zhongjunyuanmen, he did not dare to cry. It just taught the cause and effect.
He Rubin gritted his teeth and his eyes turned red when he saw what he said. Knowing that what he said was true, it was unlikely that he was an undercover spy sent by the thief, so he asked:
"Both your father and son are the key criminals named in Lingao County's arrest of 'traffic gangsters'. What do you have to say? Tell the truth."
Gou Chengxuan's head was pounding. This was what he feared the most. He composed himself, then kowtowed and cried:
"You are really unjust." When he said this, he had countless thoughts in his mind. The first one was whether to tell the story about Wu Mingjin's collusion with the Kun thief? He wanted to bite the county magistrate hard, but he didn't dare. As the so-called officials protect each other, who knows what kind of background Wu Mingjin has. If he starts to bite him, it would be easier for an official to kill him than to kill an ant.
Now he can only put all the blame on the thief Kun, and wait until he can win the full trust of the government before seeking revenge.
"The villain was wronged by the thief." Gou Chengxuan sadly made up a story, saying that after the thief broke his village, he was afraid of the government's investigation, so he bribed the bad officials in the county and deliberately used the pirate's flag, documents and seals. Framed on him and so on.
It doesn't matter who this bad official is. Anyway, the subordinate officials in the county were either killed by the thieves or they became thieves outright, so I'm not afraid of them biting back.
"Master Wu misunderstood Xiao Xiao's words and thought that the villain's family was colluding with the pirates. The villain was indeed wronged, and I hope you will learn from it." He kowtowed repeatedly.
He Rubin didn't care whether he was wronged or not, but he just used this opportunity to beat him and make him obey and obey. Seeing him kowtow like pounding garlic, he said:
"Whether you are unjustly accused or not, I will give you an explanation after the thief is defeated. But you have to do your best. Even if you have to deal with the crime, you can still get rid of the crime. If you really have great merit, it is not difficult to gain a good background."
"Thank you, Commander-in-Chief, for your kindness." Gou Chengxuan heard that not only did he no longer pursue his charges, but if he had meritorious deeds, he would be able to gain fame. He couldn't help but shed tears of gratitude and banged his head on the ground. "I will definitely do my best to repay you for your great kindness." Grace"
"Kun Thief's firearms are said to be sharp, have you ever seen them?"
"My lord," Gou Chengxuan said cautiously, "The firearms of the Kun thieves are indeed sharp. The sharpest ones are their blunderbuss and volley guns."
At present, it is said that there are two types of blunderbuss, one is for use by the fake Kun, and the other is for the real Kun's own use. Regardless of whether it is a real gun or a fake gun, the bird gun it comes with does not require a match rope. You can fire the gun by raising your hand.
"The gun used by the fake Kun is named Mi Ni. It is similar to the muskets used by officers and soldiers. It only does not use match ropes or fuse sticks when firing the gun. Just put a copper piece on the fire door to shoot, even if it is windy and rainy. It can be used to fire blunderbuss. Each blunderbuss only uses one stick, but it is extremely powerful. Not only can it penetrate iron armor, but its range is also 400 steps away."
Everyone in the Chinese army's tent showed disbelief. If a blunderbuss can be placed four hundred steps away, can it still be called a blunderbuss? Not even the medium-sized Folan cannon can hit this far.
Then Gou Chengxuan said that the bird gun used by Zhen Kun was more powerful and could be loaded once without having to use it once. All the ammunition and medicine are stored in the iron box of the gun body, and the soldiers can put them away casually, which is called the continuous gun.
Now everyone didn't believe it even more. Gou Chengxuan knew that everyone did not believe what he said, so he quickly confessed:
"On the 6th day of the Kun thief's attack, Wu Ling ordered thousands of warriors from all over the county to attack the enemy camp. However, the enemy's bullets rained down like bullets. Most of the warriors were killed or injured before they could get close. Everyone in Lingao knew about this. It was not a trick by a villain. My lords."
"What's a volley of guns?"
"A volley of guns is made up of more than ten bird cannons connected into one. The cannons are held in place by the hand, and the bird cannon can be fired three or four times in a row, or seven or eight times in a row. The power of the projectiles is no different from that of dense mud. ——Iron armor can be penetrated at a distance of four hundred paces."
There was a burst of surprised sighs in the big tent. Although Akito had never seen a rifle, he was still aware of the power of shooting weapons.
Chang Qingyun, who was sitting aside, couldn't help but said: "It's nonsense that there is only one firearm in the world. There is no match rope or fuse, and there is no need for incense sticks to ignite the door. How to ignite gunpowder? Just put a copper piece and it will make a fire. Isn't it a monster?"
Other staff members were also very skeptical. After all, this was beyond the common sense of the time. Lu Yizhong, on the other hand, was more cautious and said: "There are quite strange things overseas, such as crystal mirrors, self-ignition machines, iron clippers, etc. The Kun thieves are also known for their ingenious tricks, so it is not surprising to have such firearms."
Seeing that Gou Chengxuan did not dare to speak, He Rubin said, "You don't have to be afraid, just say it."
"Chengxuan became more courageous when he saw that someone was defending him, and the Commander-in-Chief did not refute his words, "Australia... no, the Kun thieves' firearms actually use the same medicine as the Ming Dynasty, but their gunpowder production is more sophisticated. , and there are several secret medicines that are used on guns and cannons, which can cause fire without fear of wind and rain. "
"Do you know how to make this secret medicine?"
"The secret medicines are all made in Kun Thief's Bairen Village. All the manufacturing is done by the real Kun, and the fake Kun can only do some hands-on work. Therefore, the villain doesn't know how to make it."
Gou Chengxuan then said that all the soldiers of the 6th Division of the Kun Thieves did not wear armor. They only wore cloth shorts and rattan helmets. No one used knives or the like. They all used dense mud quick guns, which were equipped with three-edged short spears. sharp.
"...Kun thieves use gunshots from a distance and stabbing enemies from a short distance with a three-edged short spear."
When they heard that the Kun thief didn't wear any armor, but only wore common clothes and a rattan helmet, several generals couldn't help but laugh with disdain. Because it has long been rumored that the troops of the Kun Thieves do not wear armor - not even cotton armor, and it is even more unusual to wear rattan helmets. Could it be that they are following the rattan armor soldiers in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
"The whole army of Kun thieves uses blunderbuss, don't they practice swords and spears?"
"Yes, I have only seen Kun thieves use blunderbuss and practice stabbing skills. However, some of the people he enslaved are accustomed to using spears."
"I heard that the Kun bandits have a huge cannon on the Bopu beacon, which can be fired up to ten miles away. Do you know?"
"You know, I know, there is one on the beacon, and there is one on the deck of the big iron ship."
"One shot makes ten miles, is this possible?"
Gou Chengxuan had seen the test firing of these two guns. The naval fortress artillery in Bopu fired live ammunition once a month. He had witnessed the astonishing range of the artillery shells with his own eyes, but the officials' reaction just now made him a little hesitant to follow their wishes and reduce the range. However, to put it mildly, when the time comes when the Kun thief fires, his lies will be exposed immediately, and he may be "pushed out and executed" by the army. He thought for a moment and then said, "I have never seen it with my own eyes, but every time I fire it, the sound is heard ten miles away. According to people, it can indeed send the cannon ten miles away."
He Rubin asked again: "How many men and horses are there in each of the 6 Kun Thief Navy Divisions? How many real Kuns are there among them?"
"Sir, the 6th Kunthi Division has more than 10,000 men." Gou Chengxuan certainly knew that the Australians did not have such a large army, but he was determined to exaggerate, so as not to offend the officer by saying less, "The navy also has 10,000 men." People." He quickly added, "There are very few true Kun among them, no more than a thousand, all of them are traitors from the Fujian and Guangdong seas and common people who are hijacked everywhere."
"How many cannons does the bandit have?"
"As far as a villain can see, they are almost everywhere." Gou Chengxuan said that Australian cannons can be seen everywhere in Lingao - many of the turrets along the road have a small cannon. As for the cannons used in field battles, he had seen more than ten. He also told He Rubin and others: Kun Thief's cannon is lighter than Hongyi's cannon. The cannon body is not thick, and the gun mount is also very light and can be easily dragged by horses. The smallest artillery cart can be pulled by a Sichuan horse and run quickly.
"The kun thieves have no mules and horses. They only use civilian men to pull cannons. One shot requires dozens of people, so they only use light cannons in field battles, not heavy cannons."
"So, the Kun thieves no longer have the Red Yi Cannon?"
"As far as I can see, there is indeed no such thing." Gou Chengxuan hesitated and said.
"How powerful is the Kun Thief's cannon?" v! ~!
