Ming Zuo

Chapter 104 The Power of Artillery [Tenth Update]

In the era of rampant natural disasters, although food is extremely important, Zuo Menggeng is not in a hurry.

Just because the scale of Zuoying is limited now, the food needed is not much.

Buying from the market is also enough to supply.

Compared with food, Zuo Menggeng thinks that a rich diet is more important.

The most important thing is, guarding Linqing, a city with a population of one million, and doing a good job in vegetable cultivation can make money.

Now that the weather has warmed up, vegetables can be grown in the ground.

This winter, Zuo Menggeng decided to show people of this era the power of scientific farming.

On Zuozhuang's side, Lao Qintou and Chen Zhi cooperated with each other, so it was not a big problem to manage it.

What Zuo Menggeng is most concerned about is the research and development of artillery.

The casting of the new artillery still adopts the mold casting method.

The advantage of this is that the quality of the artillery can be guaranteed to the greatest extent when the forging process is insufficient.

Moreover, when steel is cast, its molecular density is much higher than that of iron, which is much better than segmental forging and welding.

When Zuo Menggeng came to the gun factory again, Bi Maokang told a new situation.

"Originally we built it according to the size of the traditional cartridge, but we tested and found that compared with our new artillery, the original cartridge is too big."

Although the new type of artillery was improved on the basis of the Franc cannon, the difference in materials used would inevitably have a great impact on the specifications of the weapon.

First of all, the caliber of the new artillery is larger than the traditional small Frang cannon, but smaller than the medium Frang cannon.

The Franc cannons cast by these craftsmen in the past were all medium-sized or above, so the cartridges were inevitably too large.

Another reason is that the gunpowder used by the rear battalion is not comparable to that of the Ming army.

The amount of black powder with the best ratio is much less. In terms of the caliber of the new artillery, the inherent charge is too much.

Since the amount of charge is to be reduced, the cartridge does not need to be made so large.

In addition, the material of the cartridge is made of steel, which can be made thinner and lighter, so craftsmen need to redesign it.

And as the size of the cartridge changes, so does the size of the bore.

The thickness of the barrel of the latest artillery made by the craftsmen is only 5 centimeters larger than the barrel.

This reduced the overall weight of the artillery by about [-] kilograms, which is more conducive to the movement of the artillery.

The casting of the warhead is the fastest.

However, the appearance of wrought iron shells is too rough, which is not conducive to firing, so special craftsmen need to polish and polish them after they are manufactured.

The thickness of the bullet case is 5 mm, and it can charge 0.6 catties of powder.

Tu Yixian also mentioned the reason for this design.

"We have experimented several times, and the thinner shells can't withstand the vibration when firing, and they shatter directly in the barrel. If it is thicker than this, the gunpowder will be difficult to explode. In fact, our craftsmanship can Improvements, but only for the future. Maybe before long, we will be able to make 3mm cartridges."

The craftsmen in the back camp are very motivated, because the rewards are real.

The craftsman who tested the best thickness of the shell case was rewarded with twenty taels of silver, and is now the group leader of the shell production line.

Craftsmen can also get promoted and make a fortune. Who doesn't work hard and polish their skills?
But if you want to say that the fastest way to get promoted and get rich is Tu Yixian.

Because he solved the problem of engraving the rifling of the gun barrel, he is now the director of the gun factory.

He used the rifling machine of the musket to change one boring knife into three, and arranged them according to the caliber of the barrel.In this way, after the rifling machine is turned on, the three tungsten steel boring cutters can be rotated to pull out equally spaced rifling lines in the barrel at the same time.

At the end of March, the first artillery after many corrections was finally released.

This is a big event, and officers from the entire rear battalion came to visit.

Among them, the most exciting one must be Li Xiangzhu.

He, the de facto chief officer of the artillery brigade, finally has a guy in his hands.

The shooting range in the field had been cleared long ago, and the six soldiers pushed the artillery into place, and the separated gun mounts were rattled into the mud.

The artillery is fully deployed and has a length of 3.7 meters.

The design of the gun carriage was also written by Zuo Menggeng.

It is unfolded during combat and plays a fixed role.Usually closed is the shaft, which can be pulled by oxen and horses.

Originally, for the sake of lightness, the craftsmen used solid wood.As a result, only one shot was fired, and the gun mount broke.In desperation, I had to replace it with iron casting.

The frame is also cast iron, and all the requirements are to be able to withstand the huge force when firing.

Only the wheels are made of solid wood, double-layer thickened, and iron bars and nails are used for riveting.

The new artillery made in this way has a total weight of 505 kilograms and is as high as an adult's chest.

This weight and size is definitely a big surprise.

Compared with those Flang machines that cost a lot of money, even if there are no cattle and horses, three or four soldiers can push them away.

In the Artillery Brigade, Zuo Menggeng deliberately added an organizational unit, that is, the squad.

There are six people in a class, and five classes in a small team.

One artillery squad can be responsible for one artillery, that is to say, a squadron has fifteen artillery.And a brigade consists of forty-five artillery pieces.

Each gun was equipped with five precharged powder cartridges, and ten barrels of powder in addition.

In the time it takes to fire five shells, it is enough to fill the spare cartridges with gunpowder.

In the design of Zuoying Cannon, Zuo Menggeng also added a cross-age thing.

That is, there is an iron plate that fits the gun body below the breech close to the breech breech.Below the iron plate is an iron column with spiral patterns.

This iron post passes through the gun carriage, which also has spiral patterns.

And under the gun mount, there is something similar to a rudder attached.

Once the rudder is shaken, the artillery can adjust the angle up and down to hit targets at different distances.

As for the left and right shooting range of the artillery...

I'm sorry, this is really beyond the times, and Zuo Menggeng has no choice but to adjust it manually by the soldiers.

The officers were all amazed to see the targets begin to be set.

"Hey, it must be a thousand meters, right?"

Zuo Rong yelled and measured it himself.

Others also felt that the artillery brigade was being aggressive.

"It's just such a small thing, can it hit that far?"

Li Xiangzhu held her head high, enjoying the feeling of being the center of attention.

"Wait for the real fire, I promise to scare your big teeth."

Zuo Rong couldn't see his arrogance.

"Did I never see a Frangji?"

Li Xiangzhu patted the barrel, as if appreciating a treasure.

"Does Frangji have such a good appearance?"

Everyone really can't argue with this.

Because the cannon is made of fine steel, the entire cannon body is shining with crystal white light under the sun.Coupled with the dark muzzle, it is breathtaking.

The target is composed of a dozen wooden men, also covered with cotton armor, mainly to test the lethality of the new shells.

After everything was arranged, Li Xiangzhu ran over to ask for instructions.

"Chiza, shall we start now?"

Zuo Menggeng smiled and said, "We're here to check out the new artillery. Why don't we have dinner first?"

Amidst the laughter of the crowd, Li Xiangzhu hurriedly ran back to direct.

Following his order, two soldiers immediately came over to carry the warhead and cartridge respectively.

Li Xiangzhu personally reported the number.

"The target is one thousand meters away, adjust the fuse."

The soldier holding the warhead immediately took out the scissors and cut off a section along the mark on the fuse.

Prompted by Zuo Menggeng, the gunpowder craftsmen finally mastered the relationship between the burning speed and distance of the fuse after experimenting day and night.

There is a mark on the produced fuse, which is convenient for the artillery to adjust.

Another soldier took off the mulberry paper on the mouth of the cartridge and handed it to his companion.

After the mulberry paper wrapped the bottom of the warhead, the two soldiers worked together to assemble the warhead and the cartridge.

The gunner opened the breech block, asked the loader to put the shells in, and closed the breech block again, and the shells were firmly stuck in the barrel, motionless.

The artilleryman responsible for the ignition uncovered the mulberry paper on the wall of the cartridge, handed it to the loader, inserted the fuse in it, and waited for the ignition.

Li Xiangzhu adjusted the rudder himself, and saw the gun barrel descending slowly, before stopping at a certain angle.

Everything was ready before firing, and Li Xiangzhu was also very nervous.

After all, this was the first time that the Zuoying Artillery and Artillery Brigade showed their faces in front of everyone. If something went wrong, it would hurt morale too much.

But there is no arrow to turn back, and he can only pray that everything goes well.

"Fire."

The fireman put the torch on the fuse, and after lighting it, all the artillerymen immediately retreated a certain distance.

The fuse used for launching burns much faster than the fuse used for warheads, and the sizzling smoke quickly submerged into the cartridge.

Immediately afterwards, there was an earth-shattering loud explosion, which caused many people to lose their hearing.

Amid the black and red smoke in the muzzle, a shell visible to the naked eye flew out of the chamber and went straight into the distance.

The ground under the artillery's feet was full of dust, and soon the artillery was obliterated, making it difficult to see clearly.

No one cared about the artillery, everyone's eyes were fixed on the whereabouts of the shells.

Although in Zuo Menggeng's eyes, the speed of the cannonball's flight is very slow.But in the eyes of others, it was as fast as lightning.

In just over a second, there was a deafening explosion sound from far away.

I saw a cloud of black-gray smoke slowly dissipating, flying sand and rocks within a range of tens of meters, as if an earth dragon turned over.

Everyone was dumbfounded, watching all this in a daze, and couldn't help but think to themselves, if such a shell exploded beside them...

Zuo Menggeng couldn't wait, and ran away immediately.

The others suddenly came to their senses and quickly followed.

Zuoying Cannon's first test firing, just by looking at the sound and light effects, has already conquered the generals.

　In addition to the normal two updates tomorrow, there will be ten chapters added by Mo Jianshang and the leader of Chasing the Wind, a total of twelve chapters, so stay tuned.

　　Thank you for the reward of walking like a cloud!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)