After conquering the three states, Shengjie's army seized a large amount of gunpowder, as well as rockets, fireballs, fire caltrops and other firearms from the Jin army's arsenals in various places.
However, Su Yonglin did not see any tubular firearms among these seizures.
Shandong is located on the front line of the Jin-Song war. If there are no storage of tubular firearms, it can only mean that at the moment, at least in the Jin Kingdom, there are indeed no tubular firearms that can be used.
As for whether there was one in the Southern Song Dynasty, Su Yonglin didn't know. He had never seen it, and his grandfather had never mentioned anything similar to him before his death.
However, it is certainly a good thing that the Jin army does not have usable tubular firearms. This shows that the Jin army currently uses relatively few firearms and does not pay much attention to them.
Perhaps because the current national defense pressure is not too great and the country's military posture has not fully shifted to defense, firearms, which are mainly used for defense, are not taken seriously.
In the future, when the rising Mongol tribes are overwhelmed and unable to fight in the field, they will probably start to pay attention to firearms like the Southern Song Dynasty.
Judging from the types of firearms seized, in addition to early Northern Song Dynasty standard firearms such as fireballs and caltrops, the ones Su Yonglin saw most were rockets. Therefore, it seems that the mainstream combat firearms of the Jin Army should be fire starters such as rockets.
Judging from this configuration, Su Yonglin believed that at this time, the biggest use of Jinjun's firearms was to start fires, rather than to explode and injure people. The previous gunpowder explosion in Xintai County that killed people should have been an accident.
Thinking of this, Su Yonglin realized that during this period, Jin Army's firearms had not yet evolved further and were not developing in the direction of tubular firearms.
Su Yonglin's head was full of the history of the development of firearms, from the era of fire gate guns to the era of matchlocks, from the indiscriminate use of guns to the distinct guns, from the smoothbore era to the rifled era. He knew all the most representative firearms. .
But what's the use of knowing?
Even in modern times, cavalry still has a huge advantage.
What really put an end to cavalry was machine guns and steel chariots. That was not until the First World War. Even during World War II, the cavalry performed very well on some battlefields.
It can be seen that the superiority of cavalry over infantry is unquestionable.
Su Yonglin didn't think that with just a few decades of hard work, he would be able to free up the machine guns and tanks that would be available more than 800 years ago, directly ending the era of cavalry.
If he really could do that, he could directly dominate the world and become the leader of the world. The Jin Kingdom, the Mongolia, the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Xixia Kingdom would all be like paper in front of him.
Unfortunately this is not possible.
Now, what he will face is an extremely severe war situation, a crisis situation where the enemy is strong and we are weak, and we are surrounded by enemies on all sides.
Under such circumstances, there would not be much room for him to endlessly invent and test the performance of firearms.
It took time for early firearms to go from invention to practical use. Even if slightly more advanced weapons could be made by hand but could not be fielded, the input-output ratio would be appallingly low.
Not to mention that a skilled firearms unit also needs to undergo very strict training, and even popularize mathematical knowledge, compile new tactics and tactics, and find terrain that can be used for combat. It is by no means easy to use.
Not to mention defeating the highly mobile cavalry.
He must first ensure his own survival, and then the rest.
There is no doubt that what allows him to survive in the current situation is the mature tactics and tactics, the elite infantry formation, the long-range and high-precision divine arm bow, and the ever-increasing elite cavalry corps.
The price/performance ratio of firearms was too low for him.
It can only be said that we should make some small and beneficial innovations based on the existing foundation, rather than investing limited energy and resources into a bottomless pit of invention and creation.
The invention and creation of firearms was very tempting to him. However, it was only after he had completely established a foothold in the Central Plains and even successfully destroyed the Jin Kingdom.
Only then will he have enough resources and manpower to invest in the bottomless pit of invention and creation.
Not now.
Of course, Su Yonglin also considered the effectiveness of firearms for the possible battles with the Jin cavalry in the future, and ordered the arsenal to manufacture a new type of weapon.
This should be the first one used by the Jin Kingdom, but I haven't seen it yet, and it may not have been invented yet.
This weapon is called a flying gun.
The principle is actually very simple. It is to tie a bamboo tube or iron tube to the front end of the spear, which contains gunpowder, iron slag, arsenic and other substances. When it is ignited when contacting the enemy, the gunpowder will ignite and emit a large number of sparks and other things that can hurt people. It erupted more than ten feet away.
After the gunpowder burns out, the flying musket becomes an ordinary spear and can continue to fight and stab.
In fact, it is equivalent to adding a magic damage skill to the physical infantry approaching the enemy.
Su Yonglin felt that this thing might have a good effect whether it was used against the same infantry formation or against cavalry who dared to charge into the formation.
So when he was in Jinan, he ordered the arsenal to use existing gunpowder and infantry long guns to produce flying muskets.
This time when he came to the arsenal, he saw a batch of flying muskets that had been produced.
Su Yonglin took out a stick and looked at it carefully.
The spear is more than one foot long, with an iron or bamboo tube of about two feet tied to the front end, with gunpowder built in, and a lead and package in front.
"Have you ever tried it?"
"After testing, after the gunpowder is ignited, the fire can erupt more than ten feet away, and the eruption is very violent."
Su Yonglin nodded.
"Let me try."
So Su Yonglin held a spear more than ten feet long, and a craftsman took out a fire from a small iron can and lit the fuse.
The fuse burns for a moment, and the gunpowder contained in the iron cylinder burns violently, and then ejects a large amount of sparks and smoke. The eruption is quite powerful. It is really more than ten feet away. A person has to stand in front of the flying musket without being burned to death. Severe burns.
Unfortunately, it doesn't last long, it only feels like a minute or so, but this effect should be guaranteed.
After burning, the iron cylinder is not damaged. After a little cleaning, it can be filled with gunpowder and continued firing. It can be recycled many times with little loss.
Su Yonglin then tried a bamboo tube-style flying fire gun, and found that the wear of the bamboo tube was relatively serious and could not be used too many times. However, the material cost was low and it did not require reprocessing like the iron tube, so it was also a good choice.
Therefore, launch tubes of both materials can be used.
The spear itself was more than ten feet long, and the flying musket extended the attack distance further by more than ten feet. When the two armies met the enemy, this round of eruption was enough to cause chaos and considerable damage to the opponent's front row of soldiers.
If the opponent does not have enough defenses, the formation may even be broken directly.
"The effect is good. Judging from the current situation, we can concentrate manpower to manufacture more, starting at 10,000, and hand them over to the army for trial as soon as possible."
Su Yonglin was very satisfied with the lethality of this flying fire gun and expressed that he was very satisfied and planned to equip the army as soon as possible to increase the attack power of the infantry.
After the matter was settled, Zhao Guangsi talked about funding issues.
Regarding this issue, Zhao Guangsi hopes that the arsenal can receive more funding.
However, Lin Jingchun, who is in charge of Shengjie Army's finance, said that finances are tight and it is very difficult to allocate more funds.
"There are too many ways to use money now. It's not that I don't want to give it, but there really isn't that much money. Alang, the accounts have been clear since the beginning of the army and can fully withstand inspection."
In front of Su Yonglin, Lin Jingchun showed his innocence openly.
Su Yonglin had no doubts about this.
