Cao Yanming acted like he was the most awesome person in the world, but in fact, he had restrained himself.
In the beginning, as the third generation Quan of the Cao family's Guiyi Army, Cao Yanming looked at Yan Jin, Ma Yaozi, Ma Shacai and others with the same eyes as servants.
Because these people are the most junior officers of the Guiyi Army, their status is very different from Cao Yanming.
As for Bai Congxin, Qiongre Duojin and others, Cao Yanming didn't even bother to look at them. These damned thieves would have to wash their eyes if they looked at them more.
However, after staying with Zhang Zhao for more than two years, Cao Yanming's arrogance has been almost washed away, and he can learn from Zhang Zhao and treat others as an equal.
But that’s it! There is still a lot of arrogance, especially after he got engaged to Li Shengtian's second daughter, Princess Tianxi, the sense of arrogance of a noble person, and the sense of superiority of someone who studied the great ways of heaven and earth, divine fire and thunder, emerged a lot again .
Zhang Zhao squinted his eyes and glanced at Cao Yanming with a sneer. Cao Yanming's expression changed and he immediately became honest.
He dared to show off to everyone, but to Zhang Zhao, Cao Yanming did not dare to say a word, because he knew that this cousin and brother-in-law had many ways to manipulate him.
A long spear was handed to everyone by Cao Yanming. If there was anything different about it, it was that there was an extra round pipe under the head of the spear.
Everyone was puzzled, and Cao Yanming was a little proud. But when his eyes fell on Zhang Zhao, Cao Yanming suddenly became a little admired, and his face became a little more humble.
Because this thing was actually completed by him and the people from Huolei Yamen under the guidance of Zhang Zhao.
This thing is the pear flower gun that was used from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty in Chinese history. Speaking of the pear flower gun, many people know that this is the marksmanship created by Li Quan and Yang Miaozhen at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty. Is there anything strange about it?
In fact, this is completely wrong, because the pear flower gun is not a traditional long gun at all, and the pear flower marksmanship is not a traditional marksmanship.
The pear flower gun is actually a firearm, and the pear flower gun technique should be named a gun technique that is similar to the bayonet technique in later generations.
According to the records of military preparations of the past dynasties, the pear flower gun is a bamboo-wrapped animal skin wrapped with an iron ring at the tip of the traditional big gun, or simply an iron cylinder.
The caliber ranges from three-thirds to about one-and-a-half inches, and the length is about two feet.
It contains mixed chemicals such as charcoal, iron dross, broken porcelain shavings, sulfur, and arsenic, and has the functions of burning, poisonous smoke, and spraying.
Soldiers can also carry several cartridges with them in case of replacement, and the poisonous flames can be sprayed several feet away.
The so-called Heavy Rain Pear Blossom Gun does not prevent the Pear Blossom Gun from pouring heavy rain at all, but it can shoot a heavy rain of flames, broken porcelain shards, and iron filings.
This thing developed into the Ming Dynasty, and finally evolved into two branches: the pear gun and the three-eyed gun. It did not disappear until the large-scale application of the matchlock gun.
But it has not completely disappeared. It was still used during the first Opium War in the Qing Dynasty, but it is just far out of date.
At the beginning, Zhang Zhao hoped to get the three-eyed gun in one step, but found that it was too time-consuming.
The cost of the three-eyed bludgeoning iron is too high for current smelting technology. As for drilling holes, the cost is even higher.
Sometimes what hinders the invention of new military equipment is not necessarily technology, but often it is cost.
As for directly turning the large cylinder of the pear blossom gun into a musket that can be used to shoot lead bullets, Zhang Zhao also thought about it, but finally gave up due to technical cost reasons.
First of all, the cost of lead bullets is very high. Secondly, if you are going to fire lead bullets like a matchlock gun, the sealing performance must be high.
The thin iron cylinders, even bamboo and wooden cylinders in Zhang Zhao's hands simply couldn't meet the requirements.
I'm afraid that instead of firing lead bullets, the gun heads will be blown apart altogether, so in the end, Zhang Zhao gave up and took it step by step.
At Cao Yanming's signal, two craftsmen affiliated with Huolei Yamen came over, and they began to demonstrate the pear blossom guns in their hands.
At first it was just stabbing and blocking, nothing unusual, but when Ma Yaozi and others got impatient, the drama started.
A craftsman used a fire stick to light the fuse of the cylinder under the pear gun. After a few breaths, there was a crisp bang.
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In the horrified eyes of everyone, a fire dragon suddenly appeared from the cylinder, spraying more than two feet, or about six or seven meters away, with a cloud of poisonous smoke in the blazing fire.
The one targeted by the craftsman was a sheep covered in iron armor. It was sprayed, and then it began to twitch violently. After three or two blows, it fell to the ground and screamed in agony.
Ma Yaozi quickly jumped over to take a look, but was choked by the poisonous smoke that had not yet dispersed and coughed. When the smoke dissipated, everyone went over to take a look.
The intense high temperature burned off the two ropes of the armor leaves, and the nail pieces were exposed crookedly. The sheep's skin inside was directly burned into a twisted shape, and it was almost cooked.
"What a powerful poisonous fire!" Ma Yaozi looked at Cao Yanming with frightened eyes for the first time.
"This poisonous fire can actually burn the ropes connecting the armor leaves. If someone in the battle formation first sets off the poisonous fire to burn the opponent's armor, and then stabs it along the way, wouldn't it be as if the enemy had no armor?"
"Kite, you are wrong!" Yan Jin shook his head seriously.
"Although this is useful, it is only equivalent to breaking the armor and does not increase the lethality at all. I think the most important thing is not to use the rope to burn the armor leaves, but to shoot it in the eyes!"
Ma Yaozi was startled, this is too damn vicious! You're covered in armor, so you can't cover your eyes too.
What if during a battle, you sprayed it into the enemy's eyes and burned him blind, and then you had to let him be slaughtered right away?
"No! Everything you said is wrong! If this gun is used in infantry combat, the big cylinder will be easily knocked down.
Although its poisonous fire is fierce, it is highly lethal within one foot, but its effect is much weaker beyond one foot, making it not suitable for foot combat at all. "
Bai Congxin shook his head repeatedly, indicating that both of these statements were incorrect.
"Isn't it applicable to infantry combat?" Ma Yaozi pondered for a moment, then squinted his eyes.
"Then who should use it? The cavalry?"
"That's right! It's for the cavalry!" Li Ruotai, who had been silent until now, stood up and weighed the pear blossom gun in his hand.
"This thing is used in infantry combat, and it is indeed possible for the cylinder to be knocked off, but it is different in mounted combat.
Both sides are cavalry. We can use this fire to intimidate the enemy's horse, or even burn the eyes of the enemy's horse.
The shooting range of more than two feet is completely sufficient. No killing is required. As long as the opponent's horse is frightened, the goal will be achieved.
Armored cavalry can also be used to attack the enemy's heavy infantry formation. The charge of armored cavalry is terrifying. If the spear in its hand can spray poisonous fire, it can scare the enemy infantry to collapse after several rounds of burning. "
Zhang Zhao nodded. Li Ruotai was right. The greatest use of the pear blossom gun was actually for the cavalry.
The cavalry of both sides was used to scare the opposing horses in a decisive battle, and the charging of the infantry formation was used to break the psychological defense of the infantry. In addition, arsenic was filled in it to produce poisonous smoke, and it could also be used to force the enemy's infantry formation to move to achieve the purpose of breaking the formation.
Everyone was talking about it, and Cao Yanming took out a small black pottery jar in a humble manner. He handed the jar to Li Ruotai.
"Li Dutou, this contains carefully refined tung oil and collodion, which are extremely flammable.
If you encounter an infantry formation that cannot be taken, you can also let the infantry advance from 100 to 150 steps away and use a sling to throw the tung oil clay pot.
Then the armored cavalry rushed into the formation and ignited the tung oil with poisonous fire. I didn't believe that whose infantry could withstand the tung oil fire and poisonous fire without losing their formation. "
Li Ruotai and other cavalry generals' eyes lit up when they heard this, but Zhang Zhao gasped in distress.
Tung oil! This is so expensive that if you use it casually, it will directly bankrupt Zhang Erlang.
"Ahem! This plan is very clever, but it is inconvenient to be used multiple times. It should be kept secret so that no one can detect it casually. It will not be brought out until the decisive battle!"
"Your Majesty, this spear is indeed exquisite, but you haven't said yet, how should we deal with the war elephants of Tianzhu Xiaxi Kingdom?"
Seeing that everyone was getting more and more off-topic as they discussed, Yin Yaozi couldn't help but come out to remind them.
"Yes! It's time to talk about this. This pear flower gun also has another function, which is to use it to deal with war elephants!"
Zhang Zhao nodded and said, but Fan Quan behind him had a confused look on his face.
"Your Majesty, the general's military book says that to deal with war elephants, you should use Peng Pai with bright colors depicting ligers and tigers! War elephants are most afraid of this thing."
Well, using strange and brightly colored paintings of lions and tigers can indeed scare war elephants, but this may not necessarily work, because the basis for this trick to work is actually based on scaring.
Although elephants may look tall, they are actually very timid animals, even timider than horses.
And because they are smart, they are more likely to be frightened by all kinds of strange things.
Whether it is various colorful patterns, various violent sounds, or even loud human shouts, it can scare it.
Of course, there is a premise for this, that is, the war elephant is not in estrus or lactation. The fighting power of the male elephant in estrus and the female elephant with cubs is overwhelming.
In later generations of India, people were killed by bull elephants in heat every year. Of course, elephants in heat and lactation would not listen to commands.
However, since it is a war elephant, it definitely means that this kind of elephant will still undergo extensive training by the elephant trainer, so it has a certain resistance to brightly colored objects, human drums and roars.
At least I have lived in human society for so many years, so I am not easily scared by these common things.
Therefore, according to Yin Yaozi, there is a certain risk that using liger and tiger paintings to scare elephants will not work, but they will definitely be frightened by the pear blossom gun "invented" by Zhang Zhao.
This six to seven meter long flame can scare a person for the first time, let alone an elephant. With this kind of weapon, war elephants are nothing to be afraid of.
After slowly explaining to everyone how the Pear Blossom Gun could restrain war elephants, everyone was no longer worried. Zhang Zhao immediately ordered Cao Yanming to lead Gong Cao and all the craftsmen of Huolei Yamen to produce a thousand sets within a month. The pear gun comes out.
At the same time, Li Ruotai and Bai Congxin were asked to select elite cavalry. They must be familiar with the use of the pear gun and develop combat effectiveness within one month.
After all this was completed, Zhang Zhao waited for the Indian Shahi Dynasty's army to crash into the door and have a taste of his Rainstorm Pear Blossom Spear!
