I want to be emperor

Chapter 226 Weapons of War
In Hanyang City, on the special pier for the Rural Protection Army, there are many warships of the Rural Protection Army Navy moored on one side, and many transport ships are moored on the other side, many of which are unloading.

Dock workers were unloading crates of ammunition and various muskets, swords and spears from the ship.

Among the many ordinary ammunition and weapons, there are a group of big guys that are very conspicuous.

This is artillery!
Among them are short and thick cast iron mortars, including three large-caliber 48-jin mortars.

But what is more eye-catching is one of the long-barreled artillery. At a glance, this batch of long-barreled artillery is different from the previous two-and-a-half-pound field artillery.

They are bigger!
This is the first batch of five-jin bronze field artillery produced by Xiangyang Arsenal!

-

The next day, after finishing today's meeting, Luo Zhixue arrived at the Northern Suburb Barracks in the afternoon, which is the camp where the main force of the First Division is currently stationed.

I came here not for anything else, but to check out the new batch of artillery.

Ding Gangyi, the supervisor of the Xiangyang Arsenal who went south with the ship, introduced to Luo Zhixue: "This time we sent six 48-jin mortars and three [-]-jin mortars; eight [-]-jin bronze field guns, six Five-pound field gun."

Ding Gangyi pointed to the many cannons lined up in the open space in front of him and continued: "We have worked overtime to produce them all recently, and the five-pound field artillery among them is the first batch of five-pound artillery we produced."

Luo Zhixue listened and stepped forward to check. Those 48-jin mortars and [-]-jin mortars were nothing to look at. These artillery were still the same, all iron-cast artillery, with little technical content.

What he focused on were the two bronze cannons.

He had seen the two-and-a-half-pound bronze cannons before. Half a month ago, the Xiangyang Armory had begun to produce two-and-a-half-pound bronze field cannons. The first batch of six pieces were equipped for the guards.

This two-and-a-half-pound bronze field cannon is not much different from the previous two-and-a-half-pound cast iron field cannon on the whole. The real change is the performance of the material.

As for the five-pound field cannon, it looked a lot bigger than the two-and-a-half-pound field cannon. The caliber of the artillery was larger, the barrel was longer, and the gun mount was also larger. It looked extremely thick.

Ding Gangyi on the side also introduced: "This five-pound cannon is generally enlarged from our two-and-a-half-pound field cannon. It is still the foundation of the Hongyi cannon, but what we have to do when casting and processing Much more refined."

"Please look, Your Majesty, although the barrel of this bronze cannon is still a cast barrel, after being enlarged and finished by our large hydraulic boring machine, there are no sand holes left by the casting inside the barrel, and it is polished smoother. .”

Ding Gangyi's boring machine drilling is not directly drilling with a solid gun barrel, which is unrealistic based on the current technology!

The Baoxiang Army is now casting artillery, which is made of rough blanks of the barrels cast from clay molds, and then refined.

Similarly, the gun production of the Baoxiang Army is similar to the same principle. First, the barrel is forged by the rolling method, and then the initially formed barrel is expanded and polished.

To be honest, in fact, the gun technology of the Xiangbao Army, especially the core technology, is not very high, and it is basically at the same level as that of the Ming Dynasty.

Everyone is using the clay model casting red barbarian gun technology and matchlock gun technology passed down by foreigners, let alone who is better.

The reason why the Baoxiang Army has high output and good quality is nothing more than the extensive use of hydraulic machinery to improve efficiency, increase output and strictly control quality.

As for the quality, it depends on the management, and there is nothing to talk about. As for the output, even the hydraulic machinery and equipment used by the Baoxiang Army have no technical content...

They are all some of the most primitive hydraulic machinery. Luo Zhixue drew the blueprints directly and asked the craftsmen to make them.

As long as the Ming Dynasty is willing to spend money, it can actually be done.

The question is, Ming Ting is reluctant to spend money, or does it have the money.

When the Baoxiang Army established the Xiangyang Arsenal, the construction cost of the factory itself reached more than 20 taels of silver. After the completion of the third phase of the project, the total number of workers in the Arsenal reached more than [-].

This is not counting the Xiangyang Machinery Factory that provides machinery and equipment for the arsenal. This machinery factory also has more than 2000 workers.

In order to maintain the operation of the Xiangyang Arsenal, the Xiangyang Army has to spend more than 15 taels of silver every month, including raw material procurement, labor expenses, and equipment loss.

And this expenditure will also increase as the rural protection army continues to expand and needs more weapons and ammunition.

In the next year, Luo Zhixue will spend 200 million taels of silver on just the two core defense factories of Xiangyang Arsenal and Xiangyang Machinery Factory.

Although the money is strictly speaking, it cannot be regarded as the expenditure of the arsenal, but should be included in the expenditure of the army's weapons, equipment and ammunition.

But in any case, more than 200 million have to be spent.

With so much money, and it is still required every year, it would not be possible to sell Chongzhen Lunjin.

The so-called sharp guns of the Township Protection Army were actually spent on money.

No money, why get a lot of guns to play flat push tactics!

-

Ding Gangyi continued: "After adopting the bronze cast cannon, the barrel of the new bronze field cannon has a stronger pressure bearing capacity, which can effectively avoid the risk of bombing and reduce air leakage, and can also improve the accuracy and power of the shell! "

"This five-pound cannon has an inner diameter of two and a half inches (83 millimeters), and when unfolded, it weighs eight hundred catties for combat and [-] catties for marching. If a five-pound field gun of the same size is to be cast in iron, Then the total weight of the march needs to be at least [-] catties."

"After adopting the bronze casting artillery, not only the life of the barrel is better, and it is easier to process, but also we can make the artillery bigger and the barrel longer while controlling the weight in the early stage."

Yuan Gaofeng, Minister of the Ministry of Industry at the side, also laughed: "Bronze cannons are better than cast iron cannons in all aspects except that the cost is several times higher than cast iron cannons!"

"I have also discussed with the Ordnance Department earlier. In the future, the field guns required by the army will still be mainly bronze guns, but some large-caliber mortars of the army and navy and subsequent large-caliber ship-borne artillery will still need to use iron guns. Cast cannons are used to save costs!"

The pursuit of ship-borne artillery is power. Often the barrel is longer, larger, and the barrel is thicker, which also means that more material costs are required. At the same time, ship-borne artillery is not very sensitive to weight, about 20.00% The weight lift is perfectly acceptable.

Ding Gangyi said: "We are also continuing to study and improve the technology of iron cast artillery, and strive to cast better iron cast artillery."

At this moment, Luo Zhixue said, "I can rest assured that you are doing things in the Ministry of Industry, so you can continue to work hard in the future, and don't let down the high hopes of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of millions of people!"

As he said that, he said to Huang Xiangbin, the head of the First Artillery Regiment, "Your regiment is the first batch to install five-jin cannons. How is it? Do you have any problems with the new cannons?"

Colonel Huang Xiangbin immediately came out and said: "Your Majesty, the Ministry has already obtained the test firing manual of the five-pound cannon half a month ago, and has also conducted simulation training with the two-and-a-half-pound bronze cannon in the past two weeks. The six artillery groups have completed the training, and we accepted this batch of artillery yesterday, and we also conducted emergency adaptive training, and the effect is not bad."

Luo Zhixue said: "Okay,

"The days of our army's rise are short, and it has swept north of Chu in just a few months. Even if the rear continues to expand production and work overtime to produce ordnance, it still cannot keep up with the equipment needs of our army expansion. What should we do if the equipment will not arrive for a while? ?”

"Then train first, after training, you will be able to quickly form combat power as soon as the equipment arrives!"

"I have always said, don't let equipment wait for people, let people wait for equipment."

"Come on, try firing a few live ammunition!"

Luo Zhixue came here today, naturally he wanted to watch the live ammunition test, otherwise he just listened to the introduction, there was no need for him to come here at all.

In this regard, Huang Xiangbin and the others have also been prepared since yesterday, otherwise the batch of artillery just arrived in Hanyang City yesterday, and they were accepted by the First Artillery Regiment just after they were unloaded from the pier yesterday, and they began to adapt that afternoon. Training, and has already played live ammunition.

Although I can't say how accurate it can be, it is definitely no problem to operate.

Following Luo Zhixue's words, Colonel Huang Xiangbin immediately said: "I obey the order!"

Huang Xiangbin went up to prepare in person, and took six carefully selected gun groups to pull away the six five-pound field guns in the open space.

Before the live ammunition test, they also briefly rehearsed the marching, deployment, and temporary construction of artillery positions.

Luo Zhixue noticed that although the six five-pound field guns were heavier, thanks to the new double-wheeled gun carriage, it was still not a big problem to maneuver.

Even during the drill, these artillery were carried out directly in the uneven field. However, when multiple horse-drawn cannons were used and artillerymen accompanied them to push the cannon, these five-jin field cannons weighing more than 1000 jin Still able to maintain normal maneuvers in the wild.

Seeing that these artillery can maneuver normally in the uneven field, Luo Zhixue nodded slightly.

This maneuverability has passed the test. Although it is a bit worse than the maneuverability of the two and a half catty field artillery, it is completely acceptable.

After all, this five-pound field artillery is not used as infantry support firepower, but is used as battlefield support firepower. When going to the battlefield, it does not need to be the same as the two-and-a-half-pound field artillery. frontmost.

After the maneuver drill was completed, the temporary artillery positions were also constructed.

Then the six five-jin bronze field guns began to unfold.

The gunners first turned the cannon around, and then untied the handle horse that pulled the cannon, and separated the leading vehicle with some ammunition from the two-wheeled artillery vehicle carrying the artillery.

Then push the artillery up and aim at the early stage, adjust the angle, and at the same time, the gunner carries the ammunition from the guide vehicle.

Soon, after the initial preparations were made, the gunners began to load.

They cleaned the gun bore first, then packed the fixed propellant powder into it, compacted it and then put in the spherical solid shell, and the gunner pierced the propellant pack inside through the small hole at the tail of the gun, and put it in the matchlock.

The gunner also made the final correction.

After everything was ready and the order was approved, the six five-pound field guns let out roars one after another.

After watching the shells fired by the six five-jin field guns, one of the shells directly pierced through the multi-layered planks in front of the supposed target, and he couldn't help showing a satisfied smile.

Guo Quanshu, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs who came to watch with him, immediately stepped forward and said: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, Congratulations to Your Majesty, with this sharp weapon, our Great Chu Army will sweep Kyushu just around the corner!"

　Since many people don't like the name of the country in the previous article, let's change it to 'Chu'.

　　In addition, in order to avoid misleading future readers, all relevant comments discussing the country name have been deleted, regardless of whether they are positive or negative. I hope everyone will understand.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)