Because they were still unsure about the strength of this new batch of cast iron, the craftsmen still used iron cores and copper bodies to cast the cannons.
Finally, ten copper-iron alloy cannons about one foot long were cast.
According to Su Yonglin's request, the barrels of these guns were thickest at the rear, and then became thinner upwards, with the muzzle being the thinnest.
The gun body is cylindrical and is fixed on a thick wooden frame.
And because the cannon is very heavy, nearly two thousand kilograms, if it is to be transported, it requires a very large vehicle with a large load capacity.
When Su Yonglin came to inspect after hearing the news, he saw the craftsmen preparing for test firing.
According to previous experience, due to the huge firing recoil, it is basically necessary to dig a pit and place the gun in the pit when firing, and use the power of the earth to absorb the recoil.
Su Yonglin didn't say anything at the beginning of the test, and the craftsmen didn't care. He just pulled out the gun barrel and tried firing it. As a result, the terrible recoil almost killed the craftsman responsible for firing.
Now they understand that during test firing, they must dig a hole to bury the gun body and reinforce it so that it is safe.
They stuffed five cannons with iron bullets, pointed the muzzles at the test wall built by them about 200 meters away, lit the fuses and fled.
Then everyone blocked their ears together.
The scene Su Yonglin had been waiting for finally appeared.
With a deafening sound, five iron bullets were fired out, flying towards the distant city wall and hitting it hard.
Su Yonglin took a look over there with his clairvoyance. Good guy, five big holes were made in an instant, and the dust was flying.
It was a solid and severe blow. An ordinary city wall would probably collapse at least part of it within a few bombardments. Only a particularly powerful fortress in the world would be able to withstand such a terrifying weapon of war.
But as long as the number of shots is enough, the final victory must belong to the artillery.
Su Yonglin clenched his fists and shouted okay.
The craftsmen and their followers were overjoyed and embraced each other in celebration.
This journey was indeed not easy. They spent a lot of effort to finally complete such a powerful war weapon.
From Su Yonglin's point of view, if the barrel of this cannon could be longer, it would be almost the Hongyi Cannon, a war artifact from the late Ming Dynasty.
Although the artillery at this time was very rudimentary and only showed its prowess, its poor stability and shooting accuracy meant that it could only be used to shoot large-scale immobile targets, such as cities.
Even because of the strong recoil, a lot of soil was shaken out of the launch pit, so that the original shooting direction became biased. After each shot, the design angle needed to be re-corrected, which was very time-consuming to launch.
These problems were major problems with early artillery.
However, compared with the possible explosion problem of a simple iron artillery, the structure of the iron core and copper body makes the artillery much safer.
And it's really powerful.
Its direct shooting method greatly increases the impact kinetic energy, and the explosive kinetic energy generated by the gunpowder explosion is far beyond the elastic kinetic energy of wooden structures.
The construction method of traditional city walls is very effective in dealing with general kinetic energy bombardment and trebuchet-style falling bombardment, so it is difficult for trebuchets to destroy city walls.
However, in the face of direct artillery bombardment, the traditional city wall will face huge challenges. Within a certain period of time, the traditional city wall will be defeated like a mountain and cannot resist the majestic artillery.
The current experiment is proof.
So despite the many problems and difficulties, Su Yonglin decided to continue the experiment, determine its maximum number of shots at one time, and find ways to improve the recoil problem.
Then calculate its maximum range and maximum effective range.
After these are determined, excellent soldiers can be selected to practice. After the excellent soldiers become familiar with the artillery, they can take the artillery to the battlefield.
The mass production plan of the artillery has also been determined, and the Ministry of Finance will allocate special funds to the Firearms Department. Although the Ming Dynasty's finances are far from generous, the Firearms Department does not need to worry about money issues at all.
They only need to worry about whether they can complete the tasks assigned to them by Su Yonglin on time, quantity and quality.
In order to reward the craftsmen and officials of the Firearms Department, Su Yonglin decided to upgrade the Firearms Department to the Firearms Bureau, directly under the Ministry of Industry and not tied to any other department.
Qiu Yuan, the director of the Firearms Department, was promoted to the director of the Firearms Bureau. He had the right and qualification to bypass all channels and report directly to Su Yonglin and ask for a meeting with Su Yonglin.
Craftsmen will also be credited based on their contribution, get opportunities for promotion, and receive generous material rewards.
This was the reward mechanism set by Su Yonglin for the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry. The emperor was not short of hungry soldiers. Su Yonglin knew the importance of science and engineering to the country, so there were science and engineering exams in the imperial examinations.
A large number of students who pass the exam will enter the Ministry of Industry to study new technologies. Currently, more than 30% of the craftsmen in the Firearms Department came from the imperial examination, and the rest are traditional craftsmen.
As time goes by, in the future, the craftsmen of the entire Ministry of Industry will have higher quality, the ability to organize inheritance, and scientific thinking, instead of just relying on the accumulation of experience to promote scientific progress.
The treatment of craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty was quite good. From the time they were first recruited, they already had the status of officials. In the future, they will be promoted based on their respective contributions and achievements, and rely on their skills to become brand new technical officials. .
If you have good inventive and creative abilities and make great contributions, you can even receive normal national rewards like civil servants and military generals, stand out, and honor your ancestors.
Su Yonglin encouraged them with a smile and asked them to keep up their efforts.
However, Su Yonglin will not be satisfied with the current situation.
Now that the quality of steel barely reaches the standard and a quality leap has occurred, we must continue to promote the production of qualified steel, promote the continued improvement of steel quality, and promote the production of more styles of artillery.
Su Yonglin felt that he could start promoting the use of firearms in the army.
"This type of artillery is very powerful and good at attacking fortified areas, but it is short of maneuverability and rapid fire. It is not very useful except for attacking fortified areas. So I hope you can also develop artillery that is lighter and can increase the rate of fire, such as this."
Su Yonglin took out a pen and paper and drew a picture according to the style of the French artillery in his memory. He focused on the settings of the primary and secondary blunderbuss, introduced the concept of fixed ammunition, and informed the concept of the primary and secondary blunderbuss. To the craftsmen.
Su Yonglin hopes that this style of artillery can move along with large troops and can also be used in military field operations.
It is relatively light in weight and can move with the army on a wooden wheel vehicle. It can be loaded and launched relatively quickly during combat, and can hit enemy formations within a certain range.
"The current combat mode of the army is mainly battle formations, where armies form formations to attack and fight with each other. Therefore, although artillery cannot fire exploding Thor cannons, solid iron bullets can still destroy the enemy's formations. Think about that image."
Su Yonglin described the way artillery fired solid iron bullets to destroy tight military formations.
An iron bullet roared towards the enemy's military formation, directly penetrating the military formation at super high speed. The scorching breath and powerful explosive kinetic energy would tear apart all flesh and blood that stood in front of it.
As long as it hits once, it can basically destroy a dense military formation.
This is the exclusive capability of artillery. The existing powerful long-range weapon trebuchet cannot achieve this.
If the trebuchet could do this, perhaps the military formation would not have developed to this point, and perhaps the hollow square formation would have been born long ago.
