1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 67
To talk about the operation of this kind of front-loading artillery, I have seen it in various film and television works, but I can't pick out a few experienced people in terms of actual operation.There are more than [-] people in the entire military and police department, even the veterans of the navy and the air force, and there is not a single person who has served in the artillery force.Even the three North American people who claim to have practical experience have only had two or three firing experiences in the activities of the National Gun Club.

However, it is also difficult to be fully prepared. Some people have already checked the standard operating procedures of the artillery before the 17th century from the big database.

Even so, the pile of long and short wooden poles sent by the carpentry room still made the people present a little dizzy.These wooden poles are all artillery loading tools produced by the woodworking workshop overnight in accordance with the requirements of the Military and Police Department.There are brushes for extinguishing sparks in the gun bore with water, brushes for wiping the moisture in the bore, hooks for removing the residual charge in the gun chamber, loading rods for filling gunpowder and cannonballs, and long rods for ignition. Features vary.

The four gunners first divided their work, and then followed the operation steps to simulate several times to ensure that everyone remembered the work they were responsible for before they began to prepare for the official test firing.The other onlookers all descended into the bomb shelter trenches, only showing the part above their shoulders to watch them operate.

"Let's shoot at a zero-degree angle first. After the flat firing range is determined, the angle can be adjusted." As the commander, Tom Wang was actually not sure, but fortunately he knew how the new gun test procedure for this smoothbore gun was carried out.

"The shooting angle is zero!" Yan Chujie announced loudly.The recorders standing in the trenches took it down immediately, and the shooting data would later be used to count hits and calculate shots.

"Two packs of charge!" Yan Chujie continued to loudly inform the shooting parameters.This charge is calculated jointly by the Ministry of Metallurgy and the Ministry of Chemical Industry, and it is the optimal charge on the paper data.But the actual effect has yet to be proved by test shots.

"Reload!"

Spherical cast iron shells were inserted through the muzzle, and Morgan, with a loader rod inserted into the bore, compacted the shell and the powder pack together.

"Ready to shoot!"

Tom Wang used an iron cone to penetrate the ignition port and pierced the medicine pack, then filled the ignition port with gunpowder and installed the match string.

"shooting!"

Qiao Zhiya, who was in charge of the ignition, put the flame of the ignition rod head on the match rope of the ignition port, and saw that the ignition port quickly spurted a spark upwards, and then heard a loud bang, and the muzzle spewed out thick white smoke and firelight, The gun body and the gun mount suddenly retreated, stopped slowly under the action of the small slope behind the gun position, and then slid back a distance.

The smoothbore gun's firing speed was very fast. Everyone only saw a black shadow that fell to the ground hundreds of meters away, and then bounced several times in a row, and flew forward for tens of meters before hitting the target. The mound stopped.

"What a loud noise!" The transmigrators who were not mentally prepared complained through their buzzing ears.

Tao Donglai has already jumped out of the trenches, holding a telescope to check the landing status of the shells: "It stopped when it hit the 400-meter mound. It seems that the effective range of this angle is within 400 meters."

After one shot, the technicians performed another flaw detection test on the gun to ensure that the gun had no hidden dangers such as internal cracks during the previous firing.The others were already excitedly running towards the place where the shells landed.Everyone wanted to see with their own eyes how powerful the shell, which weighed less than three kilograms, was.

The last part of the shell that bounced left a long trace on the ground. Yan Chujie excitedly pointed to the 30-meter-long bullet mark and said, "If this shell hits a dense formation, it will directly plow a path of blood. !"

The depth of the projectile finally crashing into the mound was still more than ten centimeters, which shows the amazing lethality brought by its huge kinetic energy.This is only the smallest 6-pounder, and the power of the larger 12-pound, 24-pound, and 32-pound guns will be several times that. Every time I think of this festival, I get excited by the big bombers of the Military Police Department. endlessly.

Next, the test gun team adjusted different firing angles, fired another dozen shots, and finally determined that the effective range of this gun was about 1000 meters.In fact, after more than 800 meters, there will be a lot of deviation in the trajectory of the shell in the air and the final landing point, which has nothing to do with the previously aimed target position.

This effective range is naturally incomparable to the artillery of later generations, but for the Transmigrators, this range is completely sufficient.The narrowest point of the strait from Victory Harbor to the outer sea is only 400 meters, which is almost exactly the distance where this kind of small artillery has the highest hit rate. Enough to block the port and prevent foreign enemies from breaking in from the sea.

The same defense mechanism is also applicable to the defense of crossing the popular Sanya Bay estuary. The width of the estuary there is less than half of the Victory Port side. Using this kind of artillery to hit the ships in and out of the gorge is completely useless. Shooting the gun to the forehead, it is impossible for the opponent to even have the opportunity to evade.

Due to the high shooting frequency of this gun, the barrel temperature overheated very quickly, and after more than ten shots, it had to stop temporarily to dissipate heat.However, the gun crew couldn't stop at all, and another gun was replaced with a gun mount, and the test continued.After all the more than 30 shells in the rattan basket were shot out in one breath, the artillery crew fell to the ground panting.

"Too tired." Even Tom Wang, who has always been known for his tenacity, couldn't help complaining.

"Still... we have to load the cannon as soon as possible." Yan Chujie said while panting, "This physical work is really intense. I underestimated this work before."

The more than ten operating procedures before each launch are okay, although a little cumbersome, they don’t consume much energy, but after each launch, several people have to push the heavy gun carriage to reset the artillery, regardless of aiming or adjusting the angle, It all relied on manpower, and the two guns were replaced from the gun mounts several times in the middle.These more than 30 rounds were fired, and the four strong men were exhausted.

As a result of the test guns, the observation group agreed that the quality of the two guns has passed the design requirements and can be directly used in actual combat.However, the current problem is that there is a serious shortage of gunners, not even the manpower to operate two guns at the same time for test firing.Even for this reason alone, there is currently no way for the metallurgical workshop to start casting guns in large numbers.

Therefore, the Military and Police Department had to temporarily put aside the obsession of setting up an artillery unit immediately. For a period of time in the future, it will still be based on these two guns, relying on continuous test firing to set the firing table, and at the same time train more qualified gunners.

The next task of the metallurgical workshop is to improve the casting process based on these two guns, and also start to study the production process of large-caliber front-loading guns and more advanced rear-loading rifled guns.The Executive Committee also put forward clear requirements that the relevant departments of the military industry should adhere to the weapon research and development principle of "one generation of equipment, one generation of production, and one generation of research and development" to maintain the sustainable development of weapons and equipment.Not only artillery, but also military projects such as gun weapons and warships that will be developed next, must also be operated in the same way.

The metallurgical workshop complained a lot about this arrangement. The hydropower station is still some time away from completion, and there is currently no power and electricity available, which has led to the delay of those efficient metal processing machines. Therefore, at this stage, almost all metal smelting and processing Tasks are temporarily assigned to the metallurgical workshop.Now they not only have to manufacture various iron farm implements and household utensils, but also engage in weapons research and development, and then they will also be responsible for assisting in the production of steam-powered prototypes jointly developed by the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Energy, which is simply too busy.Liu Xingli has already solemnly warned the Executive Committee that even if such a high-intensity production task arrangement does not exhaust people, it will easily lead to over-fatigue and production accidents.And once an accident occurs in the metallurgical workshop, the consequences will definitely be death or disability. At that time, I am afraid that no one will be able to carry this black pot.

It is not only the metallurgical workshop that is ruthlessly oppressed, but also the Ministry of Chemical Industry and the woodworking workshop.The Ministry of Chemical Industry should continue to manufacture granular gunpowder for the firearms test site of the Military and Police Department under the condition that the production sites and production facilities are not yet complete.The carpentry workshop was notified to make a batch of wooden gun targets in the near future for the test firing of firearms produced in the future.

When everyone was so busy hitting the back of their heads, there was one department staff member who seemed extraordinarily leisurely.

Ren Liang was sitting under a tree by the Tiandu River, holding a bamboo fishing rod in his hand, while fishing, while staring at the sweating hard laborers on the barrage of the hydropower station nearby.Although the Military and Police Department believes that the current labor camps have begun to have security risks due to too few guards, Ren Liang does not think so.The management skills he had learned in the work before the crossing were now applied to the hard labor in the labor camp, and the results were very good.

After the [-] or so pirate captives entered the camp last month, Ren Liang had already dismantled them and regrouped them, with a small number of Ming army captives managing the majority of the pirate captives.After Luo Shengdong returned to Yacheng with several henchmen, a certain degree of power vacuum appeared in the hard labor in the labor camp. Whether it was out of the desire to survive or consciously drilling the camp, some people who had been deliberately suppressed by Luo Shengdong began to Gradually showing his personal ability, not only the prisoners of the Ming army, but also such people among the pirates.

This group of pirates came from a variety of sources, including Chinese pirates from the coastal areas of the mainland, natives from Boni, Borneo and other places in the South China Sea, and a small group of Japanese ronin among them.Recently, Ren Liang has paid special attention to a small, inconspicuous man named Takahashi South among the group of Japanese ronin.

(End of this chapter)