"Your Majesty, please give me a question!"
The eyes of Sun Yuanhua and the others were shining brightly, and their faces were full of confidence.
"First, the current fire blunderbuss and bird blunderbuss are all used to ignite the gunpowder with a match rope. You are all aware of the shortcomings. How can we improve them?"
Everyone frowned when they heard the first question. It has been more than two hundred years since the invention of the matchlock.
The reloading time is slow, the firing frequency is low, the accuracy is poor, the range is short, and it is affected by rainy days. These shortcomings have not been improved.
How could it possibly be improved by just asking a question like this? Isn’t this forcing someone to do something difficult?
Bi Maokang frowned: "Your Majesty, I have recently been studying how to make the gun light fire by itself, instead of relying on match ropes and manpower to ignite it.
This saves the time of installing the match rope, igniting the fire, and burning the match rope, thus increasing the launch frequency. "
Chongzhen was shocked, secretly thinking that this man had indeed begun to study flintlock guns.
According to historical records, the principle of the flintlock gun was recorded in detail in Bi Maokang's "Illustrated Weaponry" published in 1635. The name of the flintlock gun in the book is called the Fire Gun.
Dongnuan Pavilion was very quiet. Everyone looked at Bi Maokang in surprise, including Sun Yuanhua and Xu Tianqi.
"The idea is great, is there a suitable method?"
This time it was Bi Maokang's turn to be stunned: "Your Majesty, do you believe you can make such a gun that automatically fires?"
"Why don't you believe it? Thunder and lightning can make forests burn, the collision of flint can ignite wood fire, and the collision of swords at a fast enough speed can also produce sparks. Since it exists in reality, then we can definitely master it."
"The birth of any achievement is the result of genius' creativity and countless experiments. The fear is that there is no idea."
Chongzhen's tone was very firm, what's the point of starting a fire automatically? What haven’t you seen in later generations?
Bi Maokang smiled bitterly and turned his eyes unconsciously. Through the figures of the people in the room, he saw the candle on the dragon table with his peripheral vision, and a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind.
Muttered to himself: "Thunder and lightning, flint, sword collision... collision..."
Chongzhen was relieved when he saw this. Bi Maokang finally realized what he reminded him.
After gesticulating towards everyone, he slowly walked towards the other side, and everyone followed.
"He seems to have thought of something. Let's not disturb him. Let's continue."
After Chongzhen finished speaking, he looked at Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua.
"My dear friends, you are experts in artillery. Artillery has defects such as explosive chamber, slow loading and firing speed, slow movement, and slow casting.
The power is great, but it is a little behind my expectations. How can it be improved? "
Everyone called them good guys. If the emperor hadn't confirmed Bi Maokang's idea just now, they all felt that the emperor was deliberately making things difficult for Sun Yuanhua and Xu Guangqi.
Bi Maokang responded, and they also wanted to hear if these two people also had a whimsical idea.
After Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua looked at each other, Sun Yuanhua said: "Your Majesty, I have also thought about these issues and have some thoughts."
"Oh! Tell me!"
"Your Majesty, could you lend me a pen, ink, paper and inkstone?"
Without waiting for Chongzhen's instructions, Wang Chengen, who was waiting on the side, immediately took the pen, ink, paper and inkstone from the dragon table and spread it on the table on the side.
Sun Yuanhua dipped his pen in the ink and said: "Your Majesty, I believe that to develop firearms, one must have a clear understanding of nature, infer the wonders of physics, and conform to the characteristics of things, in order to make a usable finished product."
After speaking, he directly drew a figure of a Hongyi cannon on the rice paper, and then drew a few small dots in the distance, and used straight lines and curves to connect the muzzle and the origin.
Everyone looked confused, but Chongzhen was extremely shocked, even more shocked than the creativity of the flintlock gun mentioned by Bi Maokang just now.
Others couldn't understand, but he understood what Sun Yuanhua wanted to express.
"Your Majesty, I have tried shooting many times. I have found that the range and shooting angle can be achieved by using both straight and curved positions. If the curved position is more than half, it will not kill people."
The rough meaning is that when the cannonball flies in the air, it must fly forward and fall downward, forming a curved trajectory.
After passing the apex of the curve, the speed slows down, the kinetic energy decreases, and the lethality is weakened. Finally, the speed reaches zero and the lethality disappears.
This is exactly the same as Galileo's discussion of parabolas. This is what shocked Chongzhen.
You must know that this was only the beginning of the 17th century, and it was still a feudal agricultural society.
"Your Majesty, this is a matter of range and power, but these two issues are restricted by many factors.
The range is related to the amount of gunpowder filled in the barrel and the degree of compaction. If you put too much gunpowder, it will explode the barrel. If you put less gunpowder, the gunpowder will have a shorter range.
The solution is to increase the craftsmanship of the barrel and iron, or increase the thickness of the barrel, or design the bomb weight and charge to be proportional to the caliber of the gun. "
"Let's talk about the power issue. The Hongyi cannon has solid bullets. I am also thinking about whether it can be replaced by a smaller one with ten thousand enemies, or a bullet filled with gunpowder.
Or improved gunpowder. Gunpowder of the same weight exerts different powers.
These are my thoughts, but unfortunately without money and manpower, I can only dream. "
"Okay, okay, okay... Sun Aiqing, you really surprised me and opened my eyes. It's a good thing to have you come back. With you here, the Ming Dynasty's firearms will stand on top of the world after all."
Chongzhen praised it without hesitation. Although this thing was easy to solve in later generations, in this era it has surpassed the contemporary ideas.
"However, I also have three thoughts about artillery. See if they make sense."
Sun Yuanhua cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, please tell me!"
"First, the barrel of the current artillery is made of mud film. The mud itself is not smooth. After the molten iron is poured in and cooled, the surface of the entire casting will be particularly rough, which greatly affects the accuracy and quality of the launch. Moreover, it is a one-time use of,
In this case, can we find a new material to make a model that can be used repeatedly, such as iron molds, copper molds, etc., so that we can make large quantities of gun barrels? "
"Second, gunpowder, you just talked about improving the gunpowder formula. On this basis, grind the nitrate, sulfur, and carbon used in the gunpowder finer, and the mixture will be better!
In a secret environment, the faster it burns and the greater the impact, can the range be increased? "
"Thirdly, the current gunpowder and gunpowder for artillery are temporarily mixed on site for various reasons. Not to mention the time delay, it will not be usable if it gets damp in rainy weather.
I'm wondering if we can make the prepared gunpowder into granules so that the nitrate, sulfur and carbon will not be separated during transportation, and we will avoid stirring it again. Is this feasible? "
This is what later generations proposed. If you want gunpowder to be more powerful, you must granulate the gunpowder. Although there was this awareness in the late Ming Dynasty, it was not done thoroughly enough, and the adhesive for granulating gunpowder was a bit poor.
The second is the iron mold casting of cannons, which was recorded by Gong Zhenlin in his "Iron Mold Illustrations" more than two hundred years later.
Sometimes, there are ideas that they have not thought of, but they are bound by the times and limitations and do not dare to think about them.
Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua immediately showed shock and admiration after thinking for a moment.
"Your Majesty is a great talent. The three ideas are feasible if you think about it carefully. But to what extent it can be achieved and whether it can be successful, we need a lot of experiments to know."
The ministers were also full of astonishment. They had experienced too much during this period and always thought they could see the new emperor clearly. However, the more they came into contact with him, the less they could understand him.
Not to mention military training and business, now he even understands firearms, and he can also propose to benefit the few people who are the strongest in Daming firearms research.
While astonished, they were also very happy. With such a talented emperor, and with the help of people like them, it would be easy to revive the Ming Dynasty.
When the time comes, they will all be famous throughout the ages.
Looking at the shocked ministers, Chongzhen remained calm, but felt secretly happy in his heart. You guys, standing on the shoulders of giants, if you still can't control you, how can you play in the future?
boom!
Just when everyone was surprised, a voice suddenly sounded in Dongnuan Pavilion, startling everyone.
Everyone looked around and saw that it was Bi Maokang who had been silent just now. He looked crazy at the moment.
