Blacksmith Song listened to Luo Zhixue's serious talk about blacksmithing, steelmaking, and artillery casting, and from time to time a few words he didn't understand came out of his mouth.
He couldn't help but look at Luo Zhixue carefully:
Luo Zhixue was wearing a blue t-shirt, a square scarf on his head, and a folding fan in his hand. He was pointing at the bellows, stove and other tools.
This dress is very normal, just like an ordinary scholar. Some of the talented men he has seen before are dressed like this.
But, he always felt that Mr. Luo, who looked like a scholar in clothes, was not like an ordinary scholar.
Well, it's not just about his status as a strategist in the rebel den, but also about his words and deeds.
Because it is impossible for any normal scholar to discuss the matter of forging iron and making cannons with him in such a serious manner. He even took out a small book from his pocket and pointed to the pictures of cannons and muskets in it and explained it in a convincing manner.
The 'Mr. Luo' mentioned by this rebel is a bit strange!
However, Blacksmith Song was not a stupid person. Although he felt that the Mr. Luo in front of him was a bit strange, he did not show any abnormality at all. Instead, he looked like an honest person and discussed with Luo Zhixue how to forge iron and make cannons.
Even though he was only wearing a t-shirt and holding a folding fan, even though he looked only sixteen or seventeen years old, Blacksmith Song still understood that Mr. Luo was still the military advisor of this gang of thieves.
There is always a rogue soldier behind him who is holding the post, and you can tell at a glance that he is a powerful thief.
No matter what, this man is also a rebel leader.
Blacksmith Song had no need to offend such a rebel leader.
Therefore, Tiejiang Song behaved very respectfully and listened to many of Luo Zhixue's opinions honestly. When he encountered some words that he really didn't understand, he would ask them tactfully.
Overall, their discussion was quite pleasant.
After this discussion, Luo Zhixue finally figured out some basic information about Blacksmith Song.
This situation is naturally not about his family, origin, or other messy things, but about Blacksmith Song's strength, or some of the methods of casting artillery he has mastered.
Although the method of forging artillery mastered by this Song blacksmith is very mysterious as he himself said, and he has figured out the yin and yang and the five elements, how can someone who doesn't understand think that he is going to forge a magic weapon...
But after Luo Zhixue listened and thought about it, he basically figured out that this person's method of making cannons was the clay mold casting method.
This is normal. After all, the artillery produced by the government in the late Ming Dynasty basically adopts the clay mold casting method. It is normal for Blacksmith Song to be a craftsman under the control of the government.
After learning this, Luo Zhixue said: "Master Song, what we just talked about were light cannons and short cannons. I wonder if you can cast long cannons?"
After hearing this, Blacksmith Song said: "Long cannon? But red barbarian cannon? I have cast this too. I made the two red barbarian cannons that Lu Yang closed."
Hearing this affirmative answer, Luo Zhixue also breathed a sigh of relief. Since this person can cast the Hongyi cannon, the follow-up work will be much simpler. Otherwise, he will have to study with this person for a long time and figure out how to make the Hongyi cannon. The cannon has been cast.
Hongyi artillery is no longer a new thing after the seventh year of Chongzhen. The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty have been equipped with Hongyi artillery for decades, and they have experienced imports, pure imitations, and improved imitations.
As for importing, in the past few decades, the Ming Dynasty has successively approached the Portuguese, Dutch and other Europeans to import different types of Hongyi artillery.
Although they are all called red barbarian artillery, they actually come from different countries, including Portuguese and Spanish bronze cannons, and English iron cannons.
The specific size, caliber, and magnification are different.
However, they all have one common feature, that is, they have a long barrel, which belongs to the cannon category, and their artillery shapes are also similar. After all, the naval guns these days are all similar in length.
Therefore, it is not a big problem for the Ming Dynasty to collectively call them Hongyi artillery.
After the Ming Dynasty tasted the benefits of importing Hongyi cannons, it began to imitate Hongyi cannons on a large scale. After all, importing them was too expensive...
At first, they used imitation copper cannons, but copper was too expensive.
Therefore, by the Chongzhen period, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty had begun to combine the earth and foreign countries and use their own clay mold casting methods to cast iron cannons.
The Hongyi cannons that the blacksmiths of the Song Dynasty said could be cast refer to the iron-cast Hongyi cannons cast by the clay mold casting method.
Now that we have this foundation, Luo Zhixue's subsequent work will be simple.
I saw Luo Zhixue continue: "Then Master Song, can we build a cannon with a barrel and a gun mount, with a total weight of about five hundred kilograms, and a two kilogram cannon, which can fire an effective range of about one hundred feet. ?”
Luo Zhixue was afraid that Master Song would not understand the meaning of effective range, so he immediately added another sentence: "The effective range of one hundred feet means that when firing solid bullets, it must be able to hit a target that is about nine feet long and about half a foot high. And it still retains enough lethality.”
Master Song frowned after hearing this. He was an old craftsman. Not to mention many artillery pieces he had built with his own hands, he had built nearly a hundred artillery pieces in his lifetime.
In the early years, they were building some traditional general cannons, Weiyuan cannons, Folan cannons and other old cannons. In the past five or six years, they have started to contact and build Hongyi cannons.
So he still knows a lot about artillery.
As soon as he heard Luo Zhixue's request, he knew that this thing was not easy to handle.
Five hundred kilograms is not a problem, and shooting two kilograms of artillery is not a problem. The key to the problem is that Luo Zhixue requires that he accurately hit a nine-foot-long and half-foot-high target from a distance of one hundred feet, which is not easy.
That's not all. The power must be ensured. The cannonball cannot become soft and lose any lethality after hitting a hundred feet away. In this way, the length of the barrel cannot be too short.
As the barrel lengthens, the weight also increases.
After thinking about it carefully, Master Song said cautiously: "If you want to hit a hundred feet, I'm afraid the cannon needs to be heavier. I'm afraid five hundred kilograms won't be enough."
As he spoke, he glanced at Luo Zhixue worriedly, fearing that he would not be satisfied with his answer.
Luo Zhixue did frown slightly after hearing this. He did not say this weight limit of 500 kilograms casually, but felt that only under this weight can the artillery ensure a certain degree of maneuverability.
If it gets heavier, it may be difficult for the artillery to keep up with the mobility of the cavalry in time, and the demand for mules and horses to pull the artillery will also become greater.
However, Blacksmith Song said that if he couldn't make it with this weight, he could only settle for the next best thing: "The effective range of one hundred feet must be guaranteed. If the weight cannot be controlled below five hundred kilograms, then relax it appropriately." It’s okay, but you can’t do it too hard.”
Blacksmith Song said: "Mr. Luo, don't worry, it won't be too heavy. I estimate it will be about 550 to 600 kilograms."
Luo Zhixue felt relieved after hearing Song Tiejiang's reply.
Luo Zhixue has his own ideas about artillery. First of all, based on their own situation, there is no need to count on those heavy Hongyi artillery that weighs several thousand kilograms or even several kilograms. There is no way for this thing to maneuver in the mountains with complex terrain. .
Not to mention maneuvering with the infantry and cavalry, it would be very difficult to march normally in the mountains.
Even if it's not in the mountains, you can't use a ship-borne cannon weighing several kilograms as a field gun when you go out to the plains.
Isn’t this crazy!
At the same time, the light artillery widely equipped in the Ming army also has certain limitations. Those light artillery guns are actually short-barreled shotguns. The effective range is extremely limited, ranging from a few dozen meters to a short distance. Only one or two hundred meters.
Therefore, in Luo Zhixue's idea, first of all, they need an artillery that can shoot far, at least in range that exceeds those shotguns, and can also fight against the enemy's Hongyi artillery when necessary.
Such an effective range of one hundred feet cannot be less.
On the premise of achieving this effective range, control the weight as much as possible.
Luo Zhixue continued: "The two-pound cannon is the top priority. I hope Master Song will pay more attention to it. In addition to this two-pound cannon, we also need to build a lightweight one, about two hundred kilograms, which can shoot two kilograms of loose bullets." , capable of killing or injuring enemy troops fifty feet away."
Blacksmith Song was relieved after hearing the request for this kind of shotgun from behind!
Blacksmith Song said: "It's easier to loose these two hundred kilograms of cannon. I'll just let the dog toss it around later!"
Compared with the 500-pound long cannon that Luo Zhixue first proposed, this 200-pound shotgun is much simpler. In his previous career, he built the most light cannons, let alone him. , even his eldest son can handle this kind of thing.
A 500-kilogram long artillery can be deployed in concentrated operations and serve as the main field artillery to attack the enemy's military formations from a long distance. A 200-jin shotgun is directly attached to the infantry unit and serves as the infantry's direct support firepower at medium and short ranges. Fight the enemy.
This is the result of Luo Zhixue's thinking about the artillery unit in the past period of time.
I don’t know if it works or not, but Luo Zhixue thinks this is the best solution at present.
It's just that, after Luo Zhixue and Song Tiejiang initially finalized the artillery casting matter, Luo Zhixue had to solve another problem.
A more troublesome problem than building a cannon.
That's how to train artillery!
Now this group of people in Sanshui Village, even these cavalry officers and soldiers have used three-eyed blunderbuss before, and also used some bowl-mouth cannons, but they still haven't played with the serious Hongyi artillery. Passed.
In response to this issue, when Luo Zhixue and Sun Chengli discussed before, Sun Chengli planned to remove a few cavalrymen in the army who had played bowl-mouth cannons before, and then let them play the scheduled Hongyi artillery.
But the effect is not good!
