At Yunzhou Craftsman Camp's shooting range by the Baihe River, a cloud of smoke rose. The human-shaped target 80 steps away was already full of holes. Four sergeants in charge of test firing had already fired twelve rounds of bullets, with a total of 12 hits. Seven shots.
They were all veteran gun soldiers under former Infantry Commander Liang Song. Not only were they extremely accurate in shooting, but they were also extremely fast in reloading. Each of them fired three muskets, and their movements were extremely neat.
"good!"
Zhang Cheng loudly praised with satisfaction, and then said: "If all my firemen are equipped with these Yunzhou guns, and they practice rigorously, they can fire three bullets in such a leisurely manner as in the test firing just now, and even more so." Why worry about not being able to defeat the rogue bandits and Tartars?"
Li Guofu also stepped forward, took a Yunzhou gun again and observed it carefully in his hand. He saw that the Yunzhou gun was completely black and fine, and the gunpowder tank was also slightly closer to the front, making it less likely to be blinded.
The appearance and structure of the Yunzhou gun are no different from Western matchlock guns. The only difference is that the leading head of the Western matchlock gun is fired from front to back. The bird gun in front of us has the leading head installed in reverse, with a rear baffle to prevent the fire from occurring. The gas injured the shooter, which was a reflection of the ingenuity of the Chinese people at that time.
Li Guofu watched for a while and then said: "Just now I have not seen soldiers using horn medicine pots, nor bamboo medicine tubes, and loading gunpowder is extremely fast. How can this be done?"
Zhang Cheng looked at Wei Zhice with a smile on his face. Wei Zhice took a paper bag from a sergeant, walked up and said, "Eunuch Li, the sergeants all use this to fill the medicine."
Li Guofu took a paper tube with a suspicious look on his face. He held it in his hand and looked at it carefully, then put it to the tip of his nose and sniffed, and said with surprise: "Is this a medicine bag?"
"Yes, it's a paper cartridge. Eunuch Li, these general's Yunzhou guns are all made in accordance with the standard requirements. Each shot uses the same amount of powder.
Therefore, this paper tube medicine pack was specially developed, which is very convenient to use. Even the lead bullets are made in a unified way, and each team is equipped with a special lead bullet mold, so that the lead can be melted by itself even in wartime. , improvised standard lead bullets. "
Seeing that Eunuch Li Guofu was very interested in this, Zhang Cheng continued: "This blunderbuss is indeed a sharp weapon for killing thieves in wartime. Even Qi Shaobao praised it highly back then. However, although there are not many blunderbuss in stock now,
However, some of them are either in disrepair and are no longer useful, or they are defective products with cut corners, and the format is not uniform. The charges are not standardized. If the bullets are small, they are weak and difficult to damage the enemy, and if there are many, there is a risk of exploding the barrel.
It is precisely for this reason that I have to make this sophisticated blunderbuss by myself, so that the sergeants can feel at ease and use it smoothly, so that it can exert its power on the battlefield.
Father-in-law, just imagine, if there are thousands of Yunzhou cannons, arrayed in three rows, and take turns to fire volleys according to orders, even if there are thousands of slaves, what fear will there be? "
Li Guofu also nodded frequently when he heard this, and Zhang Cheng quickly struck while the iron was hot: "If you want to achieve your goal, you must sharpen your weapons. If you want to build a strong army, you must supplement it with sharp weapons. Nowadays, armor and flags are no big deal.
Only the craftsman who drilled and polished the gun barrel and the fine iron were the two things that Zhang Cheng was really powerless to do. He could only rely on Eunuch Li to come forward and solve these two major problems for me. "
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In fact, for the sake of safety, gunsmiths in the Ming army would personally measure the amount of gunpowder in their hands, and then prepare the gunpowder according to this amount.
For example, in the Qi family army, each gunman carried fifty-three bamboo tubes filled with gunpowder. Each of them contained a fixed amount of gunpowder, and the other bag also contained fifty-three pieces of suitable lead. indivual.
However, Zhang Cheng went a step further and directly used paper tubes to pack the medicine.
Paper tube fixed gunpowder is to pack a certain amount of granular gunpowder into a long paper tube. When loading, bite open the paper tube with your mouth, first pour some gunpowder into the fire door, and then stuff the remaining gunpowder into the mouth of the gun. .
Moreover, the other end of Zhang Cheng's paper tube with fixed lead is directly wrapped with a standard blunderbuss bullet. After pouring the gunpowder, forcefully squeeze the lead into the blunderbuss mouth.
In this way, not only does the ration of the gunpowder ensure the power of each shot of the bullet, but it can also greatly reduce the loading steps of gunpowder and lead. This allows ordinary gunners to achieve a speed of one round per minute. Skilled gunners, Shooting twice per minute is no problem either.
Now, men, women, old and young all have jobs here in Yunzhou. Their strong labor force is cultivating wasteland, while women bring their older children to work in various workshops here to make money.
Because this custom-made sub-powder is extremely important and the difference in the charge is extremely high, everyone has a customized small cartridge to weigh the gunpowder, and the foreman conducts spot checks and weighings from time to time.
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Moreover, the gunpowder at the Yunzhou Jiangying Gunpowder Bureau is also refined granular black gunpowder according to Zhang Cheng's requirements. Although it is not as powerful as modern gunpowder, its advantages are obvious.
That is, it is easy to carry and burns more evenly and fully. It is indeed more powerful to shoot Yunzhou gunpowder than ordinary gunpowder. What is more advantageous is that it leaves less residue after being discharged. When shooting the gunpowder, Cleaning up afterward is extremely easy.
In fact, the preparation of granular black gunpowder has been recorded in the Ming Dynasty, but later people cut corners for convenience and the court did not allocate money according to actual needs.
According to records: to make gunpowder, five pounds of saltpeter, one pound of yellow, and one pound of eggplant ash are used for each ingredient.
The above seven kilograms of saltpeter, yellow, and ash are divided into three troughs and grinded for 5,500 times before coming out of the trough. For each three kilograms of medicine, use one kilogram of good shochu, turn it into mud, and put it into the trough, then grind it a hundred times and get it out of the trough. Mix it into grains, as big as yellow rice or mung beans. It must be put into people's hands so that they don't feel hot.
Of course, these technical matters are not Zhang Cheng's strong point, and he is too lazy to worry about these things. In his heart, he even feels that it is better to go home and accompany Yingying Yanyan to go through the clouds and rain together.
Anyway, he only provided ideas and made requests, and the rest was naturally the business of these craftsmen.
Zhang Cheng believes that with the guidance of correct ideas and sufficient resources for them to try and make mistakes, many things will naturally be invented and created.
At present, as long as we strictly follow previous experience, formulate practical systems to restrain them, and use good rewards and punishment measures, well-made blunderbuss will be the top ordnance of this era like gunpowder, armor, swords, guns, shields and sticks.
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Precisely because of the need to meet the needs of the Yunzhou Jiangying Gunpowder Bureau, several large shochu mills were specially built. In addition to the spirits produced, the gunpowder workshops were used to mix granular black powder.
It can also be used by medical camps to further purify alcohol for disinfection. However, Zhang Cheng originally planned to sell the remaining alcohol to the private sector, but the sales were very poor. People in this era were still not used to drinking spirits.
But there was one person who really liked this nearly 60-proof spirit, and because of this person's preference, the entire North Road military generals fell in love with this spirit.
"Burn the knife!"
