In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 149 The Firearms of the Southern Song Dynasty Are Actually Strong
"Li Quan's main force is the infantry, and the naval ships and equipment are not as good as ours." Feng Deshan said: "Your Majesty has enough money and food, and there are countless craftsmen. In less than a year, the final general dares to say that I will be in the sea. Great Song is number one."

Zhao Yurui said: "Don't talk about it, if Li Quan dares to come, do you dare to fight?"

"It's bound to make him look for teeth all over the place." Feng Deshan said loudly.

They have been soldiers for many years and have rich experience. In Feng Deshan's words, they didn't have enough money and the food and treatment were not good. Who wants to work hard.

Now the king of Wei guarantees money and food, rewards and punishments are clear, and everyone is willing to train. The progress is very obvious.

After arriving at the shipyard, uncles Quan Zhong and Xu Yuan soon came to see Zhao Yurui.

Zhao Yurui asked about the progress and needs of shipbuilding.

Quan Zhong can speak clearly and logically, and it seems that he is also studying hard.

"We use the quantity and material ratio technique invented by Zhang Jue, the governor of Shaoxing in the seventh year of Shaoxing (1137), in shipbuilding."

"That is, 'First build a small boat, measure its size and count it ten times, or twenty times.'"

This method of making a model first and then building a ship by lofting created a shipbuilding technology of ship model lofting, which can determine the ship's plan and the amount of work and materials.

All the boats in the shipyard are first built as small ones, and then the wood is purchased in multiples of the size.

In terms of wood selection, tropical hardwood, lychee wood, camphor wood, black wood, etc. are mainly used. They are connected with iron nails and riveted for reinforcement, so that the entire hull is solid and durable.

In addition, according to the requirements of the king of Wei, it is mainly used on the sea and in large rivers. All ships of medium size and above are narrow and long, with pointed design at both ends to reduce resistance during navigation.

"Now manpower is not a problem, and iron materials and nails are also no problem. The biggest problem is the source of wood."

Quanzhong finally said that because most of the wood is tropical hardwood and must be selected from old wood that has been dried in the shade for many years, the wood in Fukuang Champa and other places is the best, followed by Koryo in Japan.

Zhao Yurui started buying wood when they arrived in Dinghai County, but now there are a lot of Japanese Koryo wood in the warehouse, and there are still relatively few tropical hardwoods. (Because of the distance, it takes a long time to go back and forth)
Zhao Yurui nodded after hearing this, thinking, when Jeju Island is brought over, there will be a lot of wood on the island, cut down a small amount and store it first, and after a few years, it will be good wood for shipbuilding.

On the way back, he went to the Navy Dazhai to see the weapons of the Navy ships.

There are no powerful long-range weapons in this meeting, but there are still many types, mainly bows and arrows and crossbows, as well as thunderbolt cannons, fierce fire oil tanks, and thunderbolts (with artillery vehicles).

Not to mention bows and arrows and bed crossbows, Dinghai Navy used to be equipped with ten sets of bows and arrows and two bed crossbows for every hundred people.

Usually, on a medium-sized warship, there are only 300 to [-] sets of bows and arrows and four to six bed crossbows for two to three hundred people, and the highest is usually six bed crossbows.

The bed crossbows of the Southern Song Dynasty are divided into infantry and navy. The infantry is also called the three-bow bed crossbow. The maximum range can reach more than 30 steps, and it is also said that it can reach about 600 steps. (General Xiao Talin of the Liao Army was shot and killed by a two-meter giant arrow from the Song Army's position more than [-] meters away. In the end, the two sides signed the famous "Chanyuan Alliance".)
The water army uses a winch type bed crossbow, which requires six or seven people to operate. The maximum range is more than 300 steps, and the best killing distance is about 250 steps.

Zhao Yurui also watched the navy shoot a test shot. It took about 30 seconds from the arrow up, drawing the bow to shooting the arrow. It was considered simple, but it hurt physical strength. The three of them took turns. According to them, after about five rounds (ten arrows), they had no strength and needed to rest.

To improve efficiency, they must first continue to strengthen their physical training, and then find a way to make labor-saving parts, or add manpower, add six people to each crossbow, and take turns with 12 people, four rounds per round.

After watching the meeting, Zhao Yurui felt that it would save a lot of effort to make a few gears and match them with other parts, but he didn't plan to do so now, after all, he hadn't officially taken power yet, and he hadn't become the head of the Great Song Empire. .

Then Zhao Yurui saw Thunderbolt Cannon.

In 1126, Jin soldiers besieged Bianjing, and Li Gang used thunderbolt guns when defending the city.Li Gang used thunderbolt cannons to repel the Jin soldiers, "fired thunderbolt cannons at night to attack the thieves, and the army all exclaimed." In 1161, the quarrying battle led by Yu Yunwen made great achievements. In 1161, the Song army had equipped the thunderbolt cannons on the naval ships.

This thing already has the immature shape of the artillery of later generations, but in essence it is a bit like a large-scale firework.

It contained gunpowder and lime.

Zhao Yurui also saw that they fired a cannon with a range of about [-] paces, but because there were no stones and iron pieces inside, the sound was very loud, and then lime was scattered, which is good for scaring people, but the lethality is really not great.

When the Kingdom of Jin was at war with the Song Dynasty, the first encounter suffered a loss. The sergeants panicked and were blinded by lime, and then they gradually became less afraid. , Invented and improved the Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt Fireball in the Song Dynasty: "Used for three knots in the west of the bamboo, one and a half inches in diameter without cracks, the knots should not be leaked. Use thin porcelain such as iron coins, thirty pieces, and three or four catties of gunpowder, and wrap bamboo into a ball. Leave two inches of bamboo at both ends. Xu, add medicine to the ball."

This kind of thunderbolt fireball is ignited with a red-hot burning cone and then thrown at the enemy with a "cannon". "The ball is fired, and the sound is like thunder." Injuries, while loud noises startle enemies, and smoke engulfs them.Therefore, this is no longer the incendiary weapon of the past, but the most primitive explosive weapon.If thrown, it is like a modern bomb or grenade.

The Kingdom of Jin improved it and called it Zhentianlei. After the Kingdom of Jin invented it, it was learned by the people of Song Dynasty.

"An iron pot containing medicine, lit it with fire, and the cannon ignited the fire, and the sound was like thunder. It was heard hundreds of miles away, and the fire covered more than half an acre. The fire ignited the armor and iron."

It can be seen from this text that the Jin people mainly replaced the bamboo pots of the Song people with iron pots, and replaced the porcelain pieces of the Song people with iron sheets. At about 19 meters, but this is heat, not lethality), the shrapnel can wear iron armor, and the Mongolian army that attacked the Kingdom of Jin was not afraid of other weapons, but this "shocking thunder".

Zhao Yurui tried it with his hand, and it weighed about seven or eight catties. It was relatively heavy tossed by hand, and it couldn't be thrown very far, so it could be used when defending the city.

On the warships of the Southern Song Dynasty, trebuchets were mainly used for throwing. In the Southern Song Dynasty, this would be called a cannon cart.

Cannon carriages are divided into single-shoot guns, double-shoot guns, five-shoot guns, seven-shoot guns, lying car guns, tiger crouching guns, and whirlwind guns.

One throwing pole is called single tip, and two wooden poles together are called double tip.

Seven shoots are generally used to attack cities, they are relatively large and can be thrown far.

On Zhao Yurui's naval warships, there are five cannons, the main thing is to throw the shocking thunder (there are also incendiary bombs), which can be thrown at about thirty or forty steps. Generally, they are at the bow or stern, with ballistas on both sides.

Then Zhao Yurui saw the Menghuo oil tank again.

The fierce fire oil tank is an early flamethrower. The bottom is a cabinet made of cooked copper. The cabinet is filled with fierce fire oil. There are 4 feet on the bottom and 4 copper pipes on the top. The first oil injection is about 1.5 kg.The front of the pump is equipped with a "fire building", which contains gunpowder.When launching, ignite the primer in the "fire building" with a red-hot burning cone, and then pull the pump vigorously to compress the air into the oil tank, so that when the fierce fire hole is ejected through the "fire building", it will ignite when heated and become a raging flame. , to burn the enemy and burn the war equipment, or burn the pontoon bridge and warship during the water battle.There is also a small flamethrower used for city defense and water warfare. Copper gourds are used instead of oil tanks to facilitate portability and movement.

The fierce fire oil tank is to spew out flames to burn the opposite side. The range is the shortest, about ten steps.

This is a bit tasteless in water battles, because after close range, the power of bows and arrows is not inferior to this thing, and you have to worry about burning your own boat.

In the middle and late Southern Song Dynasty, many sailors did not use them, and sold the oil tanks, because they were made of wrought copper, heavy and heavy, and very valuable.

When Feng Deshan's seven ships came, there were only two fierce oil tanks, and the others had already been sold.

Zhao Yurui looked at Menghuoyou specifically, and it turned out to be oil.

The Central Plains dynasty actually used oil very early, but the period when it played the most important role was the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and the Jin, Liao, and Yuan Dynasties. On the contrary, after the Ming Dynasty, less oil was used.

Shen Kuo, a scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty, officially named it Petroleum in Mengxi Bi Tan.

This thing is good for making incendiary bombs, but why the Southern Song Dynasty navy sold fierce fire oil tanks is because there are tanks but no oil.

Oil production in the Southern Song Dynasty was very small, and it used to rely on Champa (now Vietnam) to pay tribute.

After seeing all the equipment of the navy, Zhao Yurui also had an understanding of the combat power of the Song Dynasty. In fact, from the configuration point of view, the navy of the Song Dynasty was already very powerful.

A bed crossbow is used within two hundred steps, a thunderbolt cannon is used within a hundred steps, followed by a bow and arrow, a cannon cart (catapult) is used within thirty steps, and a flamethrower is used within ten steps.

If every army of the Song Army had such a configuration, morale was available, and food and wages were sufficient, how could there be anything like Jin Guo and Mongolia?
But the biggest problem, in addition to the morale of the army and the lack of food and pay, is that the power of gunpowder is not enough, the output of gunpowder is not enough, and the output of fierce fire oil is far from enough.

Firearms are easy to use, but the output of the whole country in the Song Dynasty is not enough to support a long-term war, which is why they import a large amount of saltpetre and sulfur from Japan every year.

Moreover, the gunpowder of this meeting is really incomparable with that of later generations. When the gunpowder was prepared, various combustion-supporting substances and toxic substances were added to increase its power, such as wormwood, grease, tung oil, asphalt, and various TV dramas. The aconitum and arsenic used in the gunpowder are a mess, the more ingredients there are, the weaker the gunpowder will be.

In fact, judging from the process of Mongolia's attack on the Southern Song Dynasty, if you don't fight in the field and just defend the city, whether it is Xiangyang or Diaoyu City, as long as the Song army dares to defend and can defend, it is almost impossible to break through.

As long as these firearms in the Southern Song Dynasty had unlimited support, it would be a disaster for the attacking party.

Looking at the naval equipment of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Yurui also found that it was much better than Li Quan and other local military leaders. Li Quan and other local military leaders did not pay attention to craftsmen, did not have many craftsmen, and rarely owned firearms. There is still some gap with the official army.

(End of this chapter)