I want to be emperor

Chapter 32 Cannon Making
Blacksmith Song listened to Luo Zhixue discussing with him about forging iron and steel and casting cannons with a serious face, and from time to time a few words that he didn't understand popped out of his mouth.

He couldn't help but looked at Luo Zhixue carefully again:
At this time, Luo Zhixue was wearing a blue shirt, a square scarf on his head, and a folding fan in his hand, pointing at the bellows, stove and other tools from time to time.

This dress is very normal, just like an ordinary scholar, and some talented gentlemen he has seen before are dressed like this.

But, he always felt that Mr. Luo, who looked like a scholar in clothes, didn't look like an ordinary scholar.

Well, not only because of his status as a military adviser in the den of rebels, but also because of his words and deeds.

Because it is impossible for any normal scholar to have such a serious discussion with him about making iron and cannons. He even took out a small notebook from his arms and pointed to the pictures of cannons and muskets on it to talk about it.

The "Mr. Luo" in the mouth of this anti-thief 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 weird, but he did not show the slightest abnormality, but discussed with Luo Zhixue in an honest manner.

Even though he was only wearing a shirt and holding a folding fan, even though he looked only sixteen or seventeen years old, Blacksmith Song still understood that this Mr. Luo was still the military advisor in this den of thieves.

There is always a bandit soldier with his hand behind his buttocks, and he knows Kong Wu's strength at a glance.

Anyway, this person is also the leader of the anti-thief.

Song Blacksmith couldn't afford to annoy such a rebel leader.

So Song Tiejiang was very respectful, and listened honestly to Luo Zhixue's many opinions, and when encountering some words that he really didn't understand, he would ask them tactfully.

On the whole, they had a pleasant discussion.

After this discussion, Luo Zhixue had figured out some basic information about the Song blacksmith.

Naturally, this situation is not related to his family, background and other messes, but the strength of Blacksmith Song, or some methods of casting artillery that he has mastered.

Although the method of casting artillery mastered by this blacksmith in Song Dynasty is very mysterious, he has created Yin Yang and Five Elements. People who don't understand think that he wants to forge magic weapons...

But Luo Zhixue thought about it after hearing it, and basically figured out that this person's method of making cannons was the clay casting method.

This is also normal. After all, the artillery produced by the government in the late Ming Dynasty basically used the clay mold casting method, and it was normal for Song blacksmiths to be artisans under the government's control.

After learning about this, Luo Zhixue said, "Master Song, what we were talking about just now were light cannons and short cannons. I don't know if you can forge long cannons?"

Blacksmith Song said after hearing this: "Long cannon? But the red cannon? I also forged this one. The two red cannons that Lu Yang closed were made by me."

Hearing this affirmative answer, Luo Zhixue also heaved a sigh of relief. Since this person can forge the Hongyi cannon, the follow-up matter will be much easier. Otherwise, he would have to study with this person for a long time to figure out how to make the Hongyi cannon. The cannon was cast.

Hongyi cannons are nothing new in the seventh year of Chongzhen. The officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty have been equipped with Hongyi cannons for decades, and they have gone through imports, pure imitations, and improved imitations.

In terms of imports, the Ming Dynasty has imported different types of Hongyi artillery from the Portuguese, the Dutch and other Europeans in the past few decades.

Although they are all called Hongyi cannons, they actually come from different countries, including the bronze cannons of the Portuguese and the Spaniards, and the iron cannons of the English.

The specific size, caliber, and multiple diameters are different.

However, they all have a common feature, that is, the long barrel, which belongs to the cannon category, and the shape of the artillery is also similar. After all, the naval guns these days are all about the same length.

Therefore, it is not a big problem for the Ming Dynasty to collectively call it Hongyi Cannon.

After the Ming Dynasty tasted the sweetness of importing Hongyi cannons, it began to imitate Hongyi cannons on a large scale. After all, imports are too expensive...

At first they imitated copper cannons, but because copper is too expensive.

Therefore, during the reign of Chongzhen, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty had already begun to combine local and foreign, and used their own clay casting method to cast iron cannons.

The Hongyi cannon that can be cast by the blacksmith of Song Dynasty refers to the iron-cast Hongyi cannon cast by the clay mold casting method.

Now that we have this foundation, the follow-up work of Luo Zhixue will be easy.

Luo Zhixue continued: "Then, Master Song, can we build a gun barrel with a gun mount, with a total weight of about [-] catties, and a gun with two catties, which can probably fire a gun with an effective range of [-] 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 shooting solid bullets, you must be able to hit a target that is about nine feet long and half a foot high. And still retain enough lethality."

After hearing this, Master Song frowned. He is an old craftsman, not to mention many cannons he built by himself, but the total number of cannons he built in his life is nearly a hundred.

In the early years, they built some traditional general guns, Weiyuan guns, and Franco machine guns. In the past five or six years, they began to contact and build Hongyi cannons.

So he still knows a lot about artillery.

Hearing Luo Zhixue's request, he knew that this thing was not easy to handle.

Five hundred catties is not a problem, nor is it a problem to hit two catties of guns. The key to the problem is that Luo Zhixue needs to accurately hit a nine-foot-long target within a distance of one hundred feet, but it is not easy to hit a half-foot-high target.

That's not enough, but the power must be guaranteed. The shells cannot become limp and have no lethality after hitting a hundred feet away. In this way, the length of the barrel should not be too short.

As the barrel lengthened, the weight increased.

After thinking about it carefully, Master Song showed a cautious expression: "If you want to hit a hundred feet, I'm afraid the cannon has to be heavier, and five hundred catties may not be enough."

As he spoke, he looked at Luo Zhixue worriedly, for fear that he would be dissatisfied with his answer.

Luo Zhixue frowned slightly after hearing this. He didn't just say the weight limit of [-] jin casually, but he felt that only when the weight limit was below this weight could the artillery be able to guarantee a certain maneuverability.

If it is heavier, it may be difficult for the artillery to keep up with the mobility of their cavalry in time, and the demand for mules and horses to pull the cannon will become greater.

However, Blacksmith Song has said that if the weight cannot be achieved, then he can only retreat: "The effective range of [-] feet must be guaranteed. If the weight cannot be controlled below [-] catties, then it can be appropriately relaxed. It’s okay, but it shouldn’t be too heavy.”

Blacksmith Song said: "Mr. Luo, don't worry, it won't be too heavy. I estimate that it will be about 550 to [-] catties."

Hearing Blacksmith Song's reply, Luo Zhixue felt relieved.

Luo Zhixue has his own ideas about artillery. First of all, based on their own situation, there is no need to count on the heavy Hongyi artillery that weighs a thousand or even several thousand kilograms at every turn. This thing has no way to maneuver in the mountains with complex terrain. .

Not to mention maneuvering with infantry and cavalry, it would be very difficult to march normally in the mountains.

Even if it wasn't in the mountains, it wouldn't be possible to use a ship-mounted cannon weighing several thousand kilograms as a field gun if it went out to the plains.

This is not a brain twitch!
At the same time, the light artillery widely equipped in the Ming army also has its own limitations. Those light artillery are actually short-barreled shotguns with a very limited effective range. But one 200 meters.

Therefore, in Luo Zhixue's conception, first of all, they need an artillery that can hit farther, at least in terms of range than those shotguns, and when necessary, they can also fight with the enemy's Hongyi artillery.

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 most important thing. I hope Master Song will put more effort into it. In addition to this two-pound cannon, we also need to build a light one, about two hundred catties, for two-pound shotguns. , can kill and injure enemy troops fifty feet away.”

Blacksmith Song heaved a sigh of relief when he heard the request for the shotgun from behind!

Song Tiejiang said: "It's easier to loose the two hundred catties of cannons. I'll just let the dog toss about it later!"

Compared with the [-]-jin long cannon that Luo Zhixue first proposed, this [-]-jin shotgun is much simpler. In his past career, he has built the most light cannons, let alone him. , even his eldest son can handle this kind of thing.

A five-hundred-jin long gun is deployed in a centralized manner, serving as the main artillery in field battles, and can strike the enemy's army from a long distance. A two-hundred-jin shotgun is directly attached to the infantry unit, and is used as infantry direct support firepower at short and medium distances. Hit the enemy.

This is the result of Luo Zhixue's thinking about the artillery unit over the past period of time.

I don't know if it will work or not, but this is Luo Zhixue's current best solution.

It's just that, after Luo Zhixue and Song Blacksmith initially finalized the cannon casting, Luo Zhixue had to solve another problem.

A more troublesome problem than making cannons.

That's how to train artillery!

Now the group of people in Sanshui Village, even the cavalry who came from officers and soldiers, have used three-eyed guns and some bowl-mouth guns before, but they still haven't played with such things as the serious Hongyi artillery. passed.

In response to this problem, when Luo Zhixue and Sun Chengli discussed before, Sun Chengli planned to draw out a few cavalry from the army who had played bowl guns before, and let them play the scheduled Hongyi artillery.

But the effect is not good!
(End of this chapter)