Fifty pace target?
Dou Qiao was stunned and looked at Gu Zhengchen: "Gu is directing Qian Shi. Although the range of the fire cannon can exceed fifty steps, it cannot penetrate more than thirty steps if it wants to penetrate leather armor."
Gu Zhengchen stared at the target fifty steps away and said firmly: "Thirty steps of armor penetration is in the past, now, let us refresh to fifty steps of armor penetration!"
Zhao Hailou and Wang Liang took a deep breath and looked at Gu Zhengchen in shock.
Don't look at the fact that there is only twenty steps between thirty steps and fifty steps, but on the battlefield, this distance may determine the outcome of the battle, may affect the morale of the sergeants, and may influence the trend of the battle!
Dou Qiao turned around, aimed at the target fifty steps away, and then clicked on the fuse.
The fuse burned and penetrated into the medicine chamber. A deep sound suddenly came out, and gray smoke came out. Dou Qiao felt his hands shake violently, and scattered stones flew out of the gun tube.
"Such strength!"
Dou Qiao couldn't believe it. The power of this fire gun was much stronger than before. He had never felt such a shock before.
The bell hanging under the target rang suddenly, which was caused by the shaking of the target.
Gu Zhengchen, Tao Chengdao, Chen Youcai and others walked towards the target, and Zhao Hailou and others also followed.
Qin Song walked behind the target, looked at a hole, and was shocked: "It actually shot through!"
"What?"
Zhao Hailou quickly turned to the back, and sure enough, there were two small holes.
Gu Zhengchen checked the leather armor. It was a thin layer of cowhide. This type of leather armor had the same defensive power as the Mongolian cavalry's leather armor. There were still two stone flakes hanging on the leather armor, which were obviously not completely damaged. The hole was penetrated, but some stone fragments penetrated through.
"Is this gunpowder so powerful?"
Zhao Hailou became excited.
Wang Liang also didn't expect that the Yuanhuo Bureau had made such great progress in such a short period of time! Just as he was about to say a few words of congratulations, he saw that Gu Zhengchen looked dissatisfied, and Tao Chengdao, Chen Youcai and others also felt heavy.
"Fifty steps, but only two holes were punched. It's still not enough."
Gu Zhengchen said bluntly.
Tao Chengdao shook his head helplessly: "This distance is not enough for the fire gun soldiers to complete the second round of shots. They have to be at least eighty steps away to penetrate the armor. Let's try a few more times."
Gu Zhengchen nodded slightly: "Although there are some shortcomings, it at least shows that the Yuanhuo Bureau is heading in the right direction and your efforts have not been in vain. Let's test it nineteen more times and observe the situation. Cui Yu is responsible for recording."
Cui Yu responded, found pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and wrote down the results of the first test first.
The second round of testing began, with a fifty-step target and three holes in the armor.
The third round of testing, one hole in the armor.
…
The seventh test, no armor penetration.
…
The twentieth test, the armor was penetrated three times.
After completing twenty tests, Gu Zhengchen pointed to the results of the seventh and twelfth tests and said: "There were two cases where the armor was not pierced, with a maximum of four holes, and most of them were two or three holes. What do you think is the reason?”
Chen Youcai frowned: "Perhaps there is some difference in the amount of gunpowder used when filling it. Although the medicine chamber is only that big, each filling is still done by hand, and there is no fixed amount. It is inevitable that there will be differences in the amount used."
Cui Yu agreed: "These granular gunpowders all come from the same batch. There should be no difference in the gunpowder itself. Maybe it is due to the different dosage."
Gu Zhengchen looked at Tao Chengdao.
Tao Chengdao stared at the test document and shook his head slightly: "There may be a slight difference in the amount of gunpowder, but we were there every time we filled it, and we didn't find any big differences. I'm afraid it's not appropriate to just blame it on the amount of gunpowder."
Gu Zhengchen nodded: "The granular gunpowder was successful, but the shooting effect was not as expected. It is not a problem with the gunpowder, but with this."
Tao Chengdao, Chen Youcai and others looked at what Gu Zhengchen was pointing at, which was a small piece of broken stone.
Chen Youcai quickly asked: "What's the problem with the stone?"
Gu Zhengchen took the small pieces of gravel in his hand and squeezed them. They still had some hardness, but they were not regular, as if they were knocked off a big stone with a hammer. Some were long, some were short, and some were flat. , somewhat rounded.
Firearms in the early Ming Dynasty did not have standard "bullets". Stones were the most popular type of bullets, followed by iron filings. When stones and iron filings couldn't be found, even brick fragments could be stuffed into them.
Because stones, iron filings, etc. are themselves irregular, the moment they are shot out and come into contact with the leather armor, whether they come into contact at an obtuse angle or a sharp angle is a matter of luck.
Gu Zhengchen looked at the small gravel in his hand and said, "Every time I collect the small stones hanging on the leather armor, you can see that these stones are either blunt on one side or blunt on three sides, and some are even flat. It hit the leather armor directly, instead of stabbing it diagonally or straight."
Tao Chengdao and others observed carefully and found that it was just as Gu Zhengchen said.
When Shen Ming'er saw Gu Zhengchen looking over, he said bitterly: "This is a matter for our manufacturing department, right? We still need to discuss with the craftsmen what can be used to replace this broken stone."
Gu Zhengchen snapped his fingers: "No need to discuss. You can use lead or iron to make round bullets."
"Round shape, this is not easy to make..."
Shen Ming'er frowned.
If only a small amount of round lead or iron bullets are made, the craftsmen will have to work harder. After casting a small amount, they can slowly use a file to get them out. But this thing needs to be measured and supplied, and can only be produced in small quantities, so it has no use value for sergeants.
Gu Zhengchen pointed to Minghe Mountain: "Build a tall building on the mountain, and place a small round-hole dripper on top of the tall building. The molten iron solution and lead solution would flow from the height, one by one, and then dig a pool at the bottom of the mountain. , fill the pool with water, and when the solution drops into the water, it solidifies instantly and becomes a round bullet."
"really?"
Shen Minger, Xu Azhu and others were surprised.
Tao Chengdao looked deeply at Gu Zhengchen. He always seemed to have a way to solve every problem that arose. A county magistrate actually knew how to make firearms, the direction of improving firearms, and how to make round bullets. And these methods, Not even a single craftsman is known.
The mysterious magistrate, the mysterious Gu Zhengchen!
Seeing Gu Zhengchen finish talking about firearms, Liu Ju asked, "Now that firearms have made some progress, can we report it to the court and inform His Majesty?"
Gu Zhengchen glanced at Liu Ju and said solemnly: "If the Yuanhuo Bureau responds to a document, it can only go to the Jurong County Yamen at most. Without my permission, no one can inform the court of the progress of the Yuanhuo Bureau."
Seeing Gu Zhengchen's sharp eyes, Liu Ju quickly said, "I also want to make His Majesty feel at ease..."
The corner of Gu Zhengchen's mouth moved slightly, and his seriousness faded: "I have my own arrangements for this matter. When the time comes, the document will be delivered to His Majesty. You are from the Yuanhuo Bureau, so you don't need to think about matters in the court. Granular gunpowder has achieved good results, and the money is collected according to the method of reward and punishment.”
Liu Ju lowered his head.
After the craftsmen left the testing site, Gu Zhengchen said to Zhao Hailou, Wang Liang, and Qin Song: "No one in the bottom fire department is allowed to go out alone, and no one is allowed to deliver news to the outside world alone. No sergeant can pass on the news from the far fire department." Pass it on to any place other than the county government.”
"Take orders."
Zhao Hailou and others did not ask why, but it was obvious that Gu Zhengchen wanted to completely block the connection between the Yuanhuo Bureau and the imperial court.
Gu Zhengchen didn't know if any of the craftsmen in this group had Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, but he knew very well that these people could not pass any message beyond him.
Delivering messages is a skill, and not all times are suitable for delivering messages.
The improvement of firearms is his biggest talisman at present, and it is Lao Zhu's bargaining chip to tolerate his "occasional wantonness". As long as the improvement of firearms is not completed in one day, then there is no fear for his life. No matter whether the enemy is Chen Ning or Hu Weiyong, no matter how many excuses and reasons the censor gives, as long as he is sitting in Jurong, no one can touch him.
What's more, in Gu Zhengchen's opinion, this current progress is really not good news.
Thirty-step armor-breaking and fifty-step armor-breaking were both rubbish to Lao Zhu. What Lao Zhu wants is a firearm that can restrain and damage cavalry, not a firearm that can break armor at fifty paces.
Reporting it at this time may not necessarily be a meritorious service.
Therefore, Gu Zhengchen decided to strictly block the news, wait for the bullet to be made, and then choose the opportunity to report it when it was really effective.
The imperial court set up Thirteen Iron Smelting Institutes and stipulated the annual amount of iron smelting, including 1.63 million jins from Jiangxi Jinxian Iron Smelting, 700,000 jins from Guangdong Yangshan Iron Smelting, and 720,000 jins from Shandong Laiwu Iron Smelting. Wait, all things considered, the official smelting of iron in the entire Ming Dynasty will be less than 7 million kilograms a year.
Gu Zhengchen looked at this number and wanted to cry.
Seven million kilograms, converted to 3,500 tons. Did you know that the amount of steel used in an aircraft carrier in later generations will be 40,000 to 50,000 tons? Even though the Ming Dynasty worked hard for ten years, it may not be able to build an aircraft carrier. Amount of steel.
There is no way, Daming's smelting scale is still not enough, and the efficiency of mining ores is also low. But it doesn’t matter to the Yuanhuo Bureau, as the iron materials from Jiangxi will be sent to Jurong.
Time flies into May. Gu Zhengchen stands in the patio and greets God. If it doesn't rain, the drought will turn into a famine. It seemed that God was angry and it rained heavily on Jurong. It rained for three days and nights in a row before it cleared up.
The drought problem no longer exists, and floods almost occurred.
Such unusual weather is rare even for senior citizens in Jurong.
Gu Zhengchen stopped all water trucks and sent government officials to inspect rivers and people's homes in low-lying areas to prevent rivers from bursting their banks and causing low-lying floods.
Although there were some dangers, fortunately there were no casualties.
Just when Gu Zhengchen was planning to build several large reservoirs in Jurong, the news of Fang Guozhen's death reached Jurong.
Liu Ji showed up, this time not for a meal, but to say goodbye: "Fang Guozhen passed away from illness. Your Majesty will pay tribute in person, and all the princes and counts of Jinling need to participate."
Gu Zhengchen pointed to himself: "Why not me?"
Liu Ji rolled his eyes at Gu Zhengchen, he was talking about Duke and Earl, which one do you think? County man, forget it.
It is said that the reason why Fang Guozhen left in such a hurry was because the imperial court had captured several pirates some time ago, and among these pirates were Fang Guozhen's former generals. Perhaps they did not want to implicate their family members, or they had been seriously ill for a long time.
In short, this man who was the first to rebel against the Yuan Dynasty, separatist power in eastern Zhejiang, and was a powerful figure is dead.
