The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 285 Wooden Fuze Bomb
This person is Wang You'an, director of the Artillery Department of the Craftsmanship Bureau, Zhou Dahai's senior brother, and Zhao Shizhen's successor.

He and Zhou Dahai were summoned by Ding Yi back then, and he was mainly responsible for making cannons with the grape man Lu Molue. He is proficient in the art of artifacts and can make all kinds of firearms.

"Master Ding, we've discussed this. It shouldn't be difficult, because his principle is similar to that of Hundred Enemies. After being ignited, it will explode after a certain period of time."

"The key is how to ignite and how to control the time."

"Is it possible to install a fuse on the body?" Ding Yi asked.

Because the enemy of ten thousand and the enemy of one hundred are ignited by fuze.

"Yes, Master Ding, in fact, we also had such cannonballs in the Ming Dynasty, called flowering bombs." Wang You'an said.

It turns out that in the Ming Dynasty, there were already so-called flower bombs.

But the manufacturing process was too backward at that time, so it was very dangerous when the artillery was fired.

When they fire, they must first ignite the fuze on the "flower bomb", and when the flower bomb is put into the barrel, the fuze faces forward, and then quickly ignite the propellant fuze on the artillery.

At that time, the diameter of the gun barrel was larger than the diameter of the shell. After the propellant was detonated, it would spray out from the gap between the "flower bomb" and the barrel, and it was very easy to ignite the exposed fuze of the "flower bomb", resulting in Explode early.Moreover, the casting process at that time could not produce the whole shell of the shell at one time. It had to be half and half produced and then pieced together. This kind of shell was very fragile and could be easily destroyed by the deflagration of the propellant. It was very small~, so "flower bomb" was not popular at that time, and then it was slowly abandoned.

"So one is to solve the problem of the solidity of the shell shell, and the other is to solve the problem of the propellant igniting the fuze. It should be possible. Give us some time."

It will take time for Wang Youan to express his position on behalf of the Artillery Division.

Although Ding Yi is a military student, he has never studied this. He recalled carefully, and vaguely remembered that there was a kind of cannonball in history, and it was developed in this way.

"Let me think--" Ding Yi stood up and walked around the meeting room.

This is not the history he saw in his previous life, but what the protagonist wrote in an online novel.

It's been a long time, and I can't remember it for a while.

He walked back and forth, thinking about the appearance of a hundred enemies, and finally, he slapped his head.

"I remember, I remember, that wood-tube fuze shell—"

Of course he couldn't remember what it was like, he just remembered that the wooden tube was inserted into the shell, and the fuze was inserted into the wooden tube, with only a little nod showing.

He still remembered that the bottom of the shell seemed to be fixed with a wooden bracket, but he didn't know how to do it.

He himself is not an expert in this field, but all the people sitting at the scene are experts. After talking about it, everyone seems to understand.

After the meeting broke up, the Artillery Division specially organized ten craftsmen to take charge of this matter.

Fast forward to April.

At this time, the population under Ding Yi's rule reached 12, and the farmland reached 13. (The original plan was to complete 13 by June, two months ahead of schedule.)
At the same time, the Dengzhou mutiny was in full swing. Liu Yulie, Minister of the Ministry of War, dispatched 5000 reinforcements to quell the rebellion. The capital also sent six Hongyi cannons.

However, Liu Yulie and other generals were not familiar with military affairs, their military discipline was unknown, and their troops were mixed. Kong Youde, who had experienced many battles, was fought there.

The rebel army first burned the official army's luggage, and then rushed up in disorder. The official army was defeated again, and only a few hundred people fled back to Laizhou.

The Hongyi cannon was also taken away by the rebels, who used the cannon to beat the officers and soldiers. Xu Congzhi, governor of Shandong, was shot and killed on April [-].

In June, Liu Chongqing and Wang Wanxiang asked for the transfer of elites outside the customs to counter the rebellion. On the 800th, they ordered to transfer [-] elite Yihans from Liaodong, Shanhaiguan, claiming [-], to enter the customs.

The two sides confronted each other until July, when Kong Youde once again used the tactic of feigning surrender to recruit security. Denglai governor Xie Lian and Laizhou prefect Zhu Wannian believed it, and went out of the city to recruit security. Zhu Wannian was killed and Xie Lian was arrested.

Now the court and Chongzhen were furious, and finally determined to wipe out this rebel army completely, and stopped negotiating.

In July, the population under Ding Yi’s rule reached 13 mu, and 13 mu were planted in summer. The population and fields were equal for the first time. In the same month, 12 new recruits were recruited, and the 16th and [-]th battalions were newly established, which made his soldiers and horses reach [-]. Nine thousand.

Two days after the conscription was announced, Li Zhongyi and Wang Youan invited him to watch the newly built wooden fuze shells.

Ding Yi was overjoyed when he heard this, it's only been a few months?
After arriving at the scene, Wang Youan gave him a cannonball and explained to him.

According to what Ding Yi said, they used a tapered fuse to insert into the shell. The shell is similar to a hundred enemies. .

In order to test the thickness of the iron sheet on the surface of the shell, hundreds of cannons were fired and three cannons were fired. Finally, the thickness of the iron sheet of the shell was determined to be about [-] mm in modern times as the most suitable.

If it is too thick, it will have no power after it explodes; if it is too thin, it may explode before it comes out of the chamber.

The basic structure of the wooden tube fuze: both ends of the wooden tube are made of wood, and a large section in the middle is hollow, and a charge with a very stable burning speed is placed inside.

"The wooden tube fuze shells in the original history will have a scale marked on the wooden tube in advance. When firing, the artillery will estimate the flight time of the shell according to the distance, and then dig a hole on the corresponding scale (to be able to contact the gunpowder inside the shell) , and then insert the wooden tube fuze into the shell.

The scale on the wooden tube is marked according to the firing distance of the shell, which is calculated after a large number of experiments.To make an analogy: you can run ten kilometers within the time of burning a stick of incense; then you can use half a stick of incense if the cannonball flies five kilometers; 2.5 kilometers is a quarter of a stick of incense. Therefore, the shell can be controlled to explode in time within the set distance. "

But now Ding Yi doesn't understand this, and the craftsmen don't even know it, so their shells don't have scale marks.

As for the wood under the shells, the craftsmen were very strange at first, and did not intend to install them. It turned out that the shells shot out in this way were very inaccurate (not accurate, because the center of gravity was different, he was not the original round shells, there were redundant The part that affects the center of gravity.)
The range is also very short, (the range is short because the hollow shell is very thin and cannot withstand the pressure of a large amount of propellant after deflagration, so the explosive shell needs to use a low-pressure gun, which is naturally close).

Hearing this, Ding Yi suddenly realized that there is wood under the cannonballs, which is not the same shape as modern cannonballs, but also the development direction of further cannonballs in the future.

After several months of experiments, Wang Youan and the others improved step by step. According to Ding Yi, the shells were supported by cylindrical wooden brackets, so that cylinders could be used instead of shells to withstand the pressure of a large amount of propellant deflagration.

Moreover, after the "wooden cannonball" is fired, the front is heavy and the back is light, similar to a badminton, which makes the trajectory more accurate, the center of gravity is very stable, and the range is actually farther.

And when launching the wooden support "cannonball", it is not necessary to ignite the cannonball in advance, just ignite the fuze of the artillery propellant directly. After the propellant deflagrates, a part of the propellant will be ejected from the gap between the shell and the barrel to directly ignite the fuze of the "cannonball" , and emit it.

After hearing this, Ding Yi was ecstatic. The wooden fuze explosive bomb that only appeared in the [-]th century was produced in advance by his craftsmen.

This kind of explosive bomb, because of fire bombing and artillery technology, does not cause too much damage to infantry, unlike later generations, which can explode dozens of square meters.

But when he used it on a warship, if he hit a wooden warship, the damage would definitely be greater.

"However, Lord Ding." Wang You'an said again at this time: "There is still a technology that has not been broken, that is, the explosion rate is relatively low, and the explosion time cannot be accurately calculated."

The time cannot be controlled because neither Ding Yi nor the craftsmen thought of the problem of the scale.

The low explosion rate is mainly due to the incomplete casing of the shell. The current technology uses two hemispheres to merge. After hitting the target, it is easy to split instantly, and the bottom may not be able to explode, or the explosion effect is relatively poor.

In the words of the craftsmen, this cannonball is for the face at the moment.

After the crafting game was completed, fifty rounds were fired at various targets, and the result was that the explosion rate was around ten rounds, which was about one-fifth.

And in order to ensure that the detonation after hitting the target, instead of detonating in mid-air in advance, the fuzes are very long. Usually after hitting the target, it takes a while before it explodes, just like a grenade.

If you hit close, sometimes you can wait five or six seconds, or even ten seconds before it explodes.

Right now they haven't thought about the scale problem, so the delayed explosion cannot be overcome for the time being.

The next step is to improve the casing of the shell, it is best to have a round body instead of splicing, and then inject gunpowder into it.

But there are no iron nails and other things, and the injected gunpowder certainly cannot achieve the ideal splicing effect.

Ding Yixi said: "It's okay, it's okay, you study slowly, and quickly produce some of these shells first, um."

He thought about it, and finally decided that the cannonball should not be exposed at the moment, and it would be great for them to learn the scale of Jin's craftsmanship in the future.

He plans to use this shell on a warship first. In land battles, the shell will have a higher success rate of explosion and can control the explosion time, so it can be used when it lands.

He indicated that the Craftsmanship Bureau can make relevant shells according to the caliber of the Ding Yi Navy's artillery, but it will not be leaked, and a batch will be stored first, and it cannot be leaked.

All nodded yes.

Moreover, if Ding Yi is used to fight a ship, he does not need iron nails, only gunpowder and kerosene.

Everyone agreed one by one.

While Ding Yi was discussing this matter with the Craftsmanship Bureau, the court's imperial decree suddenly came to Lushun.

Urgently dispatched four thousand soldiers from Lushun and four thousand soldiers from Pidao to Dengzhou and the Liaodong Army to wipe out the rebels together.

This time Ding Yi didn't hesitate. After waiting for a long time, he finally waited until now.

From today onwards, the Lushun army will officially step out of Lushun and go to other lands of Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)