Chen Wang looked at the fire gun in his hand. The fire gun he was holding now was the prototype gun made from the drawings given by Bo Jue not long ago.
The prototype gun in Chen Wang's hand is already equipped with a bayonet, and the bayonet is a sleeve-type bayonet.
The bayonet is not in the shape of a long dagger like the later World War II, but is in the shape of a rhombus, like the stab of a spear, but there are some differences.
Chen Wang gently shook the gun in his hand and raised it with both hands like a spear. After getting familiar with it for a while, he also found a little bit of the feeling of using a spear.
Although a blunderbuss with a bayonet is similar to a spear, there are actually many differences.
After the popularity of firecrackers equipped with bayonets, Chen Wang was also prepared to teach his soldiers how to stab with bayonets and coordinate tactics.
The blunderbuss body and the butt are more than five feet long, and the bayonet is more than six feet long. When converted into meters in later generations, it is almost two meters long.
Compared with the spears in the hands of pikemen in this era, this length is naturally not long enough.
During this period, the spears in the hands of ordinary spearmen were basically more than one foot, more than four meters.
However, the spear in the hands of the pikemen does not deny the ability to shoot at long range. It can neither trigger a shot from a hundred paces away nor penetrate iron armor within fifty paces.
But now this fire gun can do it, and it has the ability of long-range strike and melee combat.
However, today's technology is still not able to mass-produce such firecrackers.
The bayonet part is really difficult, and the craftsmanship requirements are far better than imagined.
The sleeve and bayonet of the prototype gun were hand-polished by craftsmen before they were fully fitted. There are still considerable technical difficulties that need to be overcome for mass production.
The evidence was the five-page professional and technical report sent by Bo Jue. Chen Wang felt that he might not really know Chinese characters.
"How's the spark rate?"
"It is said to be about 70%, but the ignition rate is not high. If granular gunpowder is used as primer, it will be even lower."
Chen Wang frowned slightly. He knew that this ignition rate was already considered good at this stage, but he still hoped it could be higher.
When the flintlock technology was perfected in later generations, the firing rate was basically around 85%.
"What's the range and power like?"
Chen Wang weighed the gun in his hand and felt that it weighed about eight or nine kilograms. It was quite heavy in his hand.
However, Bo Jue also followed his previous request and tied a strap around the lower end of the gun's muzzle and the trigger position.
When marching, soldiers no longer need to carry it on their shoulders. They only need to carry it on their shoulders. This weight is not a big deal, but when facing the enemy in battle, this weight is indeed a bit heavy.
“The Ordnance Bureau tested the gun twenty times, and the data obtained were that it could kill an unarmored target within a hundred steps, break armor within seventy steps, break two layers of armor within fifty steps, and break three layers of armor within forty steps. "
Hu Zhili's tone was slightly excited.
"If we go north to fight with Jiannu in the field, and Jiannu pushes the shield cart within forty steps, he won't be able to gain much advantage by shooting at us!"
It's not surprising that Hu Zhili was emotional. It was because they had suffered such losses again and again when they were in Liaodong.
Jiannu pushed the shield cart all the way, but the muskets could not penetrate and the shells could not damage them.
Ordinary Fran machines and tiger squatting cannons can't cause much damage at all. Only artillery that shoots three or four kilograms of shells can blast away.
When they were fifty or even thirty steps in front, Jiannu's armored soldiers began to bend their bows and set arrows, stepping out from behind the shield chariot and firing heavy arrows in succession.
At this distance, the bird guns and fire guns in their hands would not gain the slightest benefit from shooting against Jiannu's heavy troops.
Most of the muskets produced by the Ministry of Industry and the various military weapon bureaus were substandard products. When fighting the enemy, soldiers often did not dare to load enough gunpowder, so the originally small power became even less powerful.
The three-eyed gun was originally designed to target Mongolian rangers who were not equipped with heavy armor, and its armor-breaking effect was much worse than that of the bird gun.
Only a few servants in the army are equipped with heavy bows, and most ordinary archers hold soft bows. How can a few servants hold up the situation.
Most of the heavy soldiers who established the slaves were born in the white mountains and black waters. They made a living by fishing and hunting for a long time, and their archery was fierce and accurate.
The distance that Jiannu's heavy soldiers stayed was the armor-piercing range of their heavy arrows, and they were completely passive and could not cause much damage to Jiannu's heavy soldiers at all.
When he was in Liaodong, he always lost more than he won in field battles. Hu Zhili felt aggrieved every time he recalled it.
Nowadays, this firegun sent from the mainland of Hanzhong Prefecture can shoot through Jiannu's three-layer heavy armor within forty steps. How can he not feel excited? !
"Break three levels of armor within forty steps..."
Chen Wang held the firegun in his hand and couldn't help but feel a lot more relaxed.
With such a fire gun, when King Qin orders him to go north to fight the Qing army, at least he will not be at a disadvantage in the shooting stage.
"By the way, the accuracy of this gun should not be much different from that of a bird gun, right?"
Qi Jiguang once praised the bird gun as the first weapon in battle. It can penetrate armor, hit the target when shooting, and cannot be reached by bows and arrows.
Historically, when the Qi Jiajun was training, the requirements for gunners were to set up a five-foot-tall, two-foot broad wooden sign eighty steps away. One hit out of three shots, and seven out of ten shots were considered the best.
The Qi Family Army conducts regular inspections on the skills of sergeants, and gives different treatments according to their skill ratings.
In this regard, when the army was founded in the early days, Chen Wang had directly copied these regulations of the Qi Jiajun and established a technical examination system in the army.
Nowadays, most of the military training is copied from the "New Book of Records" and "Records of Military Training", but of course it is not completely copied, but some changes are made according to the actual situation.
"Not only is it not bad, the accuracy has even improved."
Hu Zhili replied with a rare smile on his face.
"Mr. Bo said that Brother Wang designed this kind of gun holder, which allows the sergeant to provide some support with his shoulders when holding this kind of fire gun. Anyway, the fire gun is more stable and will not tremble too much when shooting. , so the shooting accuracy is much higher.”
"When testing the gun, the target hit data of the test gunner was much better than when using the gun in the past."
"However, it seems that Mr. Bo said that the reason why the accuracy has improved a lot has something to do with the newly made gun bed."
"etc……"
Chen Wang's hand holding the gun froze in mid-air, and it took him a while to come back to his senses.
Not caring about anything else at the moment, he asked quickly.
"Gun bed?!"
Hu Zhili nodded. Seeing Chen Wang's expression, he immediately understood that this matter seemed to be very important.
"Yes, it's the gun bed."
"Mr. Bo made a tool specially used to drill bores, driven by water power."
"Didn't Brother Wang first propose using water as a driving force to drill gun tubes? I remember Mr. Bo mentioned it in his letter."
Hu Zhili asked a little strangely.
"I was indeed the one who brought this up first..."
Chen Wang nodded, he was indeed the one who brought it up first.
When he met Bo Jue in the city, he mentioned to Bo Jue that water could be used to drill out the barrel of the gun.
Because of the water storage and dam raising, the water flow is stable, and using water to drill the gun barrel can undoubtedly greatly improve the efficiency.
Nowadays, the Ordnance Bureau's musket drilling barrels are all made of steel. The steel is not very good, and the loss is very large when drilling the bore.
When drilling the gun tube, it cannot be formed at one time. If the gun is drilled for too long, overheating and deformation may occur.
After drilling once, you must wait for the blunderbuss tube to cool down before drilling again. Therefore, drilling a blunderbuss tube by hand is extremely time-consuming, often taking nearly a month, which greatly restricts the production of blunderbuss.
However, less than two months have passed, and Bo Jue has already been produced, and it is not a product in the experimental stage, but has been used in production.
"Mr. Bo said in the letter that the blunderbuss holes drilled by the blunderbuss machine are straighter than those drilled by the craftsmen's hands, so the accuracy is slightly higher, and the range is therefore much longer. The longest range can be 130 steps, but due to the distance If it is too far away, the damage caused by the projectile will be close to nothing.”
"By the way, this is the drawing of the gun bed designed by Mr. Bo. It was attached to the report submitted."
Hu Zhili took out a blueprint from his sleeve and handed it over.
After all, he had followed Chen Wang for such a long time. Hu Zhili knew that Chen Wang seemed to attach great importance to equipment now. After seeing the drawings, he had someone copy them and then took them with him.
Chen Wang took the drawings from Hu Zhili's hand. He noticed that Bo Jue's gun bed design drawings were similar in many ways to the drawings he had given to Bo Jue before.
The data is labeled in many places and has different views.
Although Chen Wang is not specialized in studying these machines, he has seen many things and can naturally draw inferences.
The physics he learned in middle school was already more than one step ahead of this era, and the books he bought from the south were almost read by Chen Wang during his time here.
In terms of theoretical knowledge alone, Chen Wang himself can be regarded as a master craftsman.
The gun bed designed by Bo Jue is quite long, about ten feet, and is driven by water power. The main work is a drill rod hanging a large metal drill bit.
The hydraulic force pushes the wooden rod through the slot, and then the drill rod starts to do work due to the slot and its own shape.
At this time, the drill bit on the iron drill rod will start to rotate in the fixed gun tube.
"This is the first type of gun machine. You will still encounter some problems when drilling the gun, so the efficiency is not very high, but it is much faster than manual work."
"It only takes ten days to drill a blunderbuss tube using a blunderbuss drill."
"Ten days?!"
Chen Wang couldn't help but look happy when he heard this, his efficiency had almost tripled compared to before.
Using this blunderbuss machine, a craftsman can now drill three blunderbuss tubes in only the time it took to drill one blunderbuss tube, and the output is directly increased by three times.
If we were to go all out to make muskets now, with the original 170 people in the weapons shop, we could make almost 500 bird muskets in a month. This output is already quite impressive.
However, today's new fire blunderbuss takes longer to make than ordinary bird blunderbuss, and due to the problem of insufficient reeds, the output is also quite limited.
Calculating the time now, the first batch of new craftsmen should arrive at Hanzhong Mansion around this time.
"There's nothing wrong with Xi'an, right? How many craftsmen can come according to the plan?"
Chen Wang put down the gun in his hand, placed the butt of the gun on the ground, and held the gun like a spear.
"No problem, because there are quite a few people, so we came in three groups."
Hu Zhili naturally knew what Chen Wang was asking.
There were not enough craftsmen in the Hanzhong Guard Ordnance Bureau, so Chen Wang had already sent someone to contact him. At this time, Luo Guizhong had become the commander of the Xi'an Vanguard.
Luo Guizhong himself intended to establish a relationship with Chen Wang. After all, Chen Wang was at the peak of his popularity at this time.
Both Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting valued Chen Wang. Chen Wang's rise through the ranks was smooth. Compared with his promotion from commander Qian Shi to commander, Chen Wang's promotion from Qian Zong to Deputy Guard Chief Soldier undoubtedly had a more prosperous official career.
And Chen Wang offered a high price, and the two parties hit it off immediately. Although Xi'an Siwei was also a guard station in the mainland, due to various reasons, the number of craftsmen was not small. Compared with Hanzhong Guard, their number of craftsmen was much larger. many.
"There are 217 weapon makers in total, 110 armor makers, and more than 130 carpenters and stonemasons. Counting the family members, there are more than a thousand people."
"With so many people, it won't be possible..."
"Brother Wang, don't worry. The four guards in Xi'an have made arrangements and there won't be many waves."
Hu Zhili knew that these things were extremely important, so before Chen Wang finished asking the question, he knew what Chen Wang was asking and immediately answered,
"Tang Shiping and Wang Yuankang were jointly responsible for the Hanzhong Mansion. They took the Ziwu Road in the name of aiding the construction of Shiquan, and they got the letter from Prefect Lin."
The Magistrate Lin mentioned by Hu Zhili was naturally Lin Daoquan, the Magistrate of Hanzhong Prefecture.
The relationship between Chen Wang and Lin Daoquan is quite harmonious. After all, not long after Chen Wang took office in Hanzhong Mansion, Hanzhong Mansion was no longer intruded by bandits as before, and his inspection was therefore rated as the best.
Soon, Lin Daoquan will be promoted to the top, so Lin Daoquan will be able to do many things easily.
The reason why the Ordnance Bureau is able to continuously produce all kinds of weapons is actually because of the convenience opened by Lin Daoquan.
Now in Hanzhong Mansion, Chen Wang has three medium-sized iron mines, one copper mine, and many other mines under his name.
The original mine owners and mountain owners were all eliminated by the bandits, and Chen Wang took advantage of Lin Daoquan's power to directly take them into his pocket.
The largest iron mine is located next to Yang County. It is a magnetite with very little sulfur content and the quality of the iron ore mined is excellent.
Most of the ores mined in these mines are for personal use or storage, and a small part is sold.
In addition to mines, Chen Wang also owned many salt wells.
All in all, Chen Wang can now be considered a quite private salt dealer.
Now Chen Wang is not just sitting on his hands, these are now his important sources of income.
Compared with Chen Wang's current expenditure, these incomes are far from enough.
Moreover, expenditures are still gradually increasing, and new methods of making money must be found. Otherwise, relying only on income from mining, salt, and farming will only maintain the status quo at best, and there will be no way to continue to expand and develop.
"Tang Shiping is in charge of the Arms Bureau. Let him draw up a charter and divide the work."
"By October, I will need a thousand new-style firecrackers, twenty-four three-pound cannons, six five-pound cannons, and three hundred collars each for iron armor, cotton armor, and chain mail."
Chen Wang had a plan in mind and spoke again.
When King Qin went north, he planned to bring 3,000 soldiers and horses, which was almost a battalion. The extra soldiers and horses would be regarded as auxiliary troops.
About one-third of them were holding this new type of firecrackers.
Chen Wang had already figured out how to make money. In the past, he just struggled with not having a stable base, but now, unlike in the past, he could start to develop slowly.
But all this will have to wait until he returns to Shiquan.
"Has this gun been named yet?"
"It hasn't been decided yet. Mr. Bo said that this is a gun designed by Brother Wang, and Brother Wang should be given the name."
"Want me to name it?"
Chen Wang raised the gun in his hand again.
Feeling the weight in his hands, for some reason, he suddenly thought of a poem.
"Let's call it...Oath to Sea..."
"Oath?"
"Yes, sea oath."
Chen Wang raised his head and looked at the rolling mountains in Guanbei.
Autumn sends the new emperor to mourn and destroy the country, and hungry tigers gnaw at the empty forest during the day.
I have an oath in my heart that is deeper than the sea, are you willing to make China sink to the ground?
Translation:
The mournful cries of autumn geese also understand the pain of a subjugated country, and the hungry tigers in the empty forest will come out to bite people during the day.
I have a vow in my heart that is deeper than the sea. How can I let the land of China sink like this?
(End of chapter)
