I want to be emperor

Chapter 41 Artillery Test Fire
After sorting out the answers of these rogue prisoners of war, Luo Zhixue couldn't figure it out again.

These thieves said that the mountains in the west were ambushed by officers and soldiers, so they lost miserably, and then got lost in the mountains, and finally bumped into the west of Sanshui Village by mistake.

Luo Zhixue didn't care about their getting lost in the mountains, what he cared about was the officers and soldiers these rogues encountered.

Since when are there so many officers and soldiers in this mountain?
There was a group of officers and soldiers rushing into the mountain ahead, but Sun Jiancheng led his troops to lure them away.

As a result, another group of at least a thousand officers and soldiers came to the west.

Is there any treasure in this Funiu Mountain?
Otherwise, why did these officers and soldiers run into the mountains one after another.

At this time, Luo Zhixue didn't know that the officers and soldiers who attacked Ta Tianhu and his party were the same group of officers and soldiers who had chased Sun Chengcheng and others before.

After all, Sun Chengli hadn't returned yet, and he hadn't sent anyone back for a long time. Now Luo Zhixue didn't know that Sun Chengli had led the officers and soldiers to the west, and even caused the officers and soldiers to fight Tatianhu.

What's more, before Sun Chengli had time to be happy, he was discovered by officers and soldiers again...

The roads in the mountainous area were difficult, and the transmission of information was slow, which made it impossible for Luo Zhixue, who was in the mountains, to grasp the movements of Sun Jiancheng and the officers and soldiers in a timely manner.

Although he didn't know the details outside, it didn't affect Luo Zhixue's step-by-step implementation of his plan.

Busy with the autumn harvest and follow-up grain collection.

The autumn harvest in Sanshui Village has been completed, and the food requisition for the surrounding villages has also been carried out one by one by Xu He with soldiers and horses, and the progress is relatively smooth.

As grain piled up in the warehouse, Luo Zhixue sent people to continue recruiting recruits from surrounding villages.

Before Sun Jiancheng left the mountain, Luo Zhixue had already discussed with Sun Jianli that he would continue to recruit soldiers after the autumn harvest was sufficient. However, the newly recruited soldiers did not mean that they were directly assigned to the supply camp.

Instead, they will recruit simple training personnel first, and then assign them to the left, central and right armies and the supply battalion, and strive to make the four infantry-based troops each have a hundred troops.

Then complete the original plan to recruit [-] soldiers.

In his spare time when he was busy with these things, Luo Zhi learned to go to the weapons workshop to toss with Song Blacksmith's family about weapons.

Nowadays, artillery is the most lacking in the Funiu Mountain Baoxiang Camp, but the production of long-barreled artillery weighing more than [-] jin planned in advance is difficult and takes a long time.

At the same time, they were still facing the huge threat of officers and soldiers. For this reason, Luo Zhixue asked Blacksmith Song and the others to make a few short-barreled shotguns of two hundred catties for use while they were thinking about making long-barreled artillery.

It is much easier to make this kind of [-]-jin short gown, because the double diameter is small, and the manufacturing difficulty is not high, and Song Blacksmith, a veteran who has cast many cannons, personally leads people to cast it.

Now it has come up with an excellent artillery.

Blacksmith Song pointed to the [-]-jin short cannon at the front and said, "According to my master's instructions, this light cannon is not directly placed on the chariot, but on the two-wheeled artillery cart."

"The cannon carriage can be directly dragged by horses."

Luo Zhixue stepped forward to examine it carefully. The gun barrel of this thing is short, but it looks relatively thick. Just looking at the barrel, it looks like a squat.

The entire stubby barrel rests on the gun carriage with lugs.

Luo Zhixue is more familiar with this gun mount, because this is the basic pattern he drew himself. It uses large double wheels, and the tail is used as a supporting gun mount, and the elevation angle of the gun mount can be adjusted to adjust the range of the artillery.

When marching, add a two-wheeled front vehicle, so it becomes a four-wheeled gun mount with a steering mechanism.

In the beginning, Luo Zhixue drew the style of this kind of gun mount directly based on his limited memory, um, that is, from the cannons he had seen in the movies and TV dramas he had watched. It was roughly the style of modern artillery mounts.

However, it is impossible to directly turn the basic pattern into a real object. It was gradually perfected after discussions with the three fathers and sons of Song Blacksmith, Huang Carpenter and other craftsmen.

Therefore, it is not the credit of Luo Zhixue alone, but the embodiment of collective wisdom.

This type of gun mount is much better than the traditional messy gun carriages, and it is more convenient for maneuvering and combat.

Nowadays, many old antique gun mounts are very strange. Some gun mounts also have large double wheels at first glance. They seem to be no different from modern gun mounts, but there is actually a wheel in the back support frame...

Or simply fix it, a four-wheeled gun mount with no distinction between front and rear vehicles, and the artillery is directly fixed on it.

After the artillery with this kind of antique carriage reaches the ground, you have to remove the wheels and anchor the carriage before you can fire.

But the one Luo Zhixue came up with doesn't need to dismantle the wheels...you can start shooting right away.

Therefore, it is not only prepared to be used on the [-]-jin long gun, but also used for the [-]-jin light gun after being reduced in weight.

After all, even a short robe of two hundred catties cannot be carried directly by manpower. Its maneuvering method is either directly deployed on a carriage, or a special cannon cart is built for it.

Luo Zhixue chose a special artillery vehicle, after all, it is more convenient to maneuver and fight, and the cost will not become higher.

After carefully looking at this freshly baked two-hundred-jin short cannon, Luo Zhixue directly asked people to test fire it.

Whether this is useful or not has to be seen.

Following Luo Zhixue's order, the three gunners who had just played a cameo role as a cavalry two days ago and played wave cavalry and shooting, quickly brought several other people into action.

Instead of firing directly, the artillery was walked for a short distance with mules and horses, which was regarded as a test maneuver.

I saw that the cannon was very easy to walk, after all, a light cannon of two hundred catties is not heavy.

In the beginning, I still used two horses to drag it, and later when I used one horse to drag it, I could also drag it, but it was not so easy, and I couldn’t go up the steeper slope.

After the maneuvering test, the gunners pulled the cannon down in front of Luo Zhixue and the others, turned their backs to Luo Zhixue and the others and began to untie the cannon carriage, pulled the front cart and ammunition cart aside, and pulled the horses to the rear to take care of them.

At the same time, the gunner pointed the muzzle of the artillery at the front, and several large wooden boards were erected in front to test the lethality of the shrapnel after firing.

Another gunner stepped forward to adjust the elevation angle, then loaded gunpowder and shotgun, and made the final aim.

After everything was ready, the gunner looked at Luo Zhixue and others who were more than ten meters behind him, separated by a parapet.

Luo Zhixue nodded slightly when he saw this, and Er Yongduo who was beside him immediately shouted: "The military division has orders, fire!"

After Luo Zhixue gave the order, the gunner ignited the match, and in the next moment, a puff of white smoke was suddenly ejected from the short robe, and at the same time, it drove the entire gun carriage back a little distance.

At the same time, there was a rumbling loud noise.

Look again, a few thick wooden boards about [-] meters away in front of the artillery have already been punched with many small holes.

"Good!" Seeing the success of the test, Luo Zhixue couldn't help applauding directly, then turned to look at Song Tiejiang: "This time the test was successful, Master Song has made great contributions."

"A few new houses were built a while ago, and Master Song went back to pick one."

"I'll ask someone to deliver five catties of bacon to Master Song later."

The basic construction work in Sanshui Village has never been heard, and the house construction is naturally the same. Most of them are long rows of wooden houses for the soldiers, and there are also some single-family houses for the leaders.

Although the conditions are limited, the houses built are not very good. They are still made of wood and mud as the main materials, but after all, it is a house for a few bosses, so the overall condition is naturally not too bad.

Blacksmith Song was also a little excited when he heard this.

Although he knew that these single-family houses were not very good, after all, they were in a ravine, so it was impossible to build any good houses.

But, he also knew that after he came to this den of thieves, he shouldn't expect to go out in a short time. Since he couldn't take his family away, he naturally wanted to make his family's life better as much as possible.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have worked so hard to lead his son to make the artillery and weapons.

The purpose is to be able to eat well, drink well, dress well, and live well while keeping the family alive.

People, even if they are temporarily trapped in a den of thieves, they still have to pursue a better life, right?

So Blacksmith Song was also very excited and said to Luo Zhi: "Thank you for the reward from the military commander. In the future, the villain will definitely work hard to make more and better artillery."

He wouldn't say too much, and he also knew the real reason why Luo Zhixue and others valued his family.

So I didn't say anything else, I just said that I will work harder to manufacture artillery and other weapons.

Luo Zhixue was still very satisfied with his reaction, and did not waste himself in treating him kindly.

Immediately said with a smile: "Then I will wait and see."

While they were talking, the artillery at the front started the second round of testing again. This time the target was to hit a target 150 meters away, and the test results were acceptable.

And further expand the distance, when it is about 200 meters, the shotgun shrapnel, iron beads, etc. will be scattered too much, and the shrapnel hitting the target will be much less, and the power will also drop a lot. Impenetrable.

After watching several rounds of tests, Luo Zhixue knew that this two-hundred-jin light gun was as expected. In terms of the maximum range, the iron pieces fired by it could fly hundreds of meters away, but the maximum range is nothing. significance.

For the effective range, the effect is best between 100 meters and 150 meters, the power can be guaranteed, and the spread is also controlled within a certain range, which can kill the enemy to the greatest extent.

If it exceeds 150 meters, the effect will still be somewhat, but both the hit rate and the power will drop rapidly, especially after exceeding 200 meters, the hit rate is too impressive, and it is pure waste to fire at this distance ammunition.

In terms of performance alone, it is actually not much different from many of the same level of light artillery used by the contemporary Ming army. After all, they are all the same set of craftsmanship. Except for the quality problems caused by cutting corners, the others are not far behind there.

The biggest difference is the rapid maneuverability and convenient combat deployment brought by the gun mount.

Luo Zhixue ordered the weapon workshop to continue to manufacture this two hundred catty light artillery, and also asked the artillery team to train more frequently, striving to form an army as soon as possible for actual combat.

(End of this chapter)