"Your Majesty, are these sky lanterns and iron rods? They don't look alike?"
Listening to the words of Wang Chengen, who was studying ink, Chongzhen's hand holding the brush suddenly stopped, and he almost pressed the brush directly on the rice paper.
This iron rod is really shocking.
"The one on the left is called a hot air balloon, and the one on the right is called... rifling!"
"Hot air balloon? Rifling?"
"Don't underestimate these two things. This is a magic weapon, a magic weapon for siege. This hot air balloon can go up to nine days. The rifling is placed in the barrel. It is like picking up an enemy general's head from several miles away."
hiss……
Wang Chengen's hand that was studying ink froze instantly, and his eyes were filled with horror.
He has never doubted his own emperor, just because he has seen too many incredible things. Many powerful firearms in the Firearms Research Institute were made by his emperor.
After the shock, Wang Chengen had a worried look on his face: "Your Majesty, although these two artifacts are good, once they come out, if they are used by someone with ulterior motives, what will happen to Your Majesty's safety?
Now there are Hongyi cannons and so on, and their combat power is already the strongest. These two things..."
Listening to Wang Chengen's worries, Chongzhen felt warm in his heart and said softly: "Daban, there is something wrong with your idea. We can't stop studying something just because we are afraid that it will be detrimental to us.
Now it seems that our firearms are the best, but don’t forget where the Hongyi cannon came from. Can you guarantee that they don’t have more powerful firearms over there?
They have been coveting our Ming Dynasty’s property and resources for more than a day or two. If one day, they lead an army to attack us with more powerful firearms than we have now, how can we resist?
Is it too urgent to study again? How many sergeants will die tragically by then? How many people will be slaughtered and enslaved?
Since we can’t predict the future, we should strive to be at the forefront of the present and stay at the forefront of technology.
As for safety issues, just strictly control them. "
"What the emperor is teaching me is that my slave's vision is narrow!"
Wang Chengen understood the emperor's good intentions: "Your Majesty, my Ming Dynasty has added two more artifacts, which will bless my Ming Dynasty with eternal blessings and a stable country."
"It's a little early for you to be happy. You just have some ideas. It's still unknown whether they can be made!"
"Your Majesty takes action, there is absolutely no chance of failure!"
"Hahaha……"
Chongzhen is still very useful for flattering his close confidants.
He was not a group of idiots like those who entered the country in history. Originally, Ming Dynasty's firearms technology was pretty good, but in the end, they shelved or banned many of them, and actively researched even fewer.
So that it is unable to resist the invasion of foreign enemies, and it is simply stupid.
Developing better ones is the preparation to fight against the invaders. What the later generations said is absolutely right, having a sword in your hand is not the same thing as having a sword and not using it.
After chatting for a while, Chongzhen looked at Wang Chengen and said, "Sir, arrange for someone to go to the Banking Supervision Bureau, the Dyeing and Weaving Bureau, and the Needlework Bureau, and bring in a craftsman with the best skills. I will be of great use.
In addition, arrange for someone to find a thumb-thick hemp rope and a one-rod scale..."
After Wang Chengen left, Chengzhong slowly fell into deep thought while looking at the patterns on the rice paper.
The first is rifling, which gives the warhead the ability to rotate so that it can maintain its established direction after exiting the chamber.
This thing will be known to everyone with a little common sense in later generations, but if you want to make it, not to mention the lack of corresponding tools in this era, even ordinary people in later generations will have a hard time getting rifling in the barrel.
This is also the reason why he has not mentioned it since he traveled through time for more than two years.
But things are different now. The technology of iron mold cannon casting is about to come out. His solution is to make a spiral positive line on the iron mold. The rifling in the barrel created in this way is a negative line.
But does creating rifling ensure that the cannonball can fly stably? The answer is no, and there are also issues with the smoothness of the rifling, the fit of the projectile to the rifling, etc.
This is why the mud film cannot be made, because the high temperature of the molten iron will directly destroy the positive lines on the mud film, and the rifling in the barrel will be impossible to talk about.
He only had limited knowledge of these and could only provide a general idea of how to do it specifically. That was what the Firearms Research Institute should do. I believe Bo Jue would be interested.
After thinking about rifling, Chongzhen focused on hot air balloons. Compared with rifling, hot air balloons were easier to implement.
Now there are Hongyi cannons that can shoot five miles. If rifling can be developed, it will be trivial to go ten miles away, and then using hot air balloons to attack cities will be useless.
But Chongzhen had other considerations. In addition to being used to siege cities, hot air balloons could also be used in field battles. In a confrontation between two armies, a hot air balloon might be able to take out the enemy's tent.
And it can also be used for reconnaissance. At a height of two hundred meters, coupled with the Thousand Miles Realm, you can control dozens of miles around. As long as the sergeant on the hot air balloon is not lazy, the enemy's sneak attack is just a fantasy.
The most important thing is air superiority, and it is always good to study in advance.
The hot air balloon is a larger version of the Kongming Lantern and is divided into three parts: the balloon, the burner, and the hanging basket.
There is not much problem with the craftsmanship of the balloon. The main frame of the balloon can be made of bamboo strips soaked in potion, or no frame can be used at all. The outside of the balloon can be made of cloth and then painted with paint to ensure it is airtight.
As for hanging baskets, they can be found everywhere.
The difficult part now is the burner, which is the key to ensuring that the hot air balloon can rise and fall at a uniform speed.
He didn't want to build one that could fly. As long as it could fly two hundred meters high, fly to the sky above the city with a rope, and throw thunder from above, that would be enough.
Why is it two hundred meters high? Because the maximum range of the bow and arrow is two hundred meters, but at that time it was flat and thrown.
When going vertically upward, there is a problem of downward gravity and the archer's force. If it is stretched to death, it will shoot vertically 150 meters, and 200 meters is the safe height.
But how can it fly and also bear a weight of at least 500 kilograms? This is a problem.
Why is it 500 kilograms? Because apart from the weight of the hot air balloon and the weight of the soldiers, it must carry more than ten or twenty thunderbolts, otherwise it would not be worthy of such a flight.
After clarifying his thoughts, Chongzhen started writing. Maximum load = buoyancy - own weight (the weight of the balloon and the weight of hot air)
The buoyancy force is equal to air density ✖️gravitational acceleration ✖️volume, and its own weight is equal to the balloon weight ➕hot air density ✖️gravitational acceleration ✖️volume.
…
"With a height of two hundred meters and a straight line distance of four hundred meters, the slanted safety rope should be... four hundred and fifty meters..."
After a while, Chongzhen racked his brains to figure out the calculation formula, and now he just waited for the data from Wang Chengen.
After waiting for half an hour, Wang Chengen rushed back, his forehead covered with sweat.
"Your Majesty, my servant went to get it. A meter of hemp rope with a thickness of one centimeter weighs about one kilogram, and a bamboo basket weighs five..."
