Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 442
It was not an easy task for the Ming Army artillery team to fire several artillery pieces at the same time to make the shells fall within the same range.

When Beijing was being defended, the general Mangui fought fiercely with Jiannu. The brothers of the artillery team of the Beijing camp in the city fired cannons to cheer, but all the shells fell on Mangui's army.

The artillery team of the Five Loyalist Army was trained by Chen Yujie, so naturally they would not make such a joke, but the artillery regulations of the Ming army were different, and the same cannon was fine, but several cannons were put together and loaded with the same gunpowder. How far apart.

After watching this round of shelling, Wang Yan generally knew that the regulations of the four cannons were basically unified, which showed that Song Yingxing had really solved many problems.

At this time, Chen Yujie waved a small flag, and a cavalryman immediately rushed out from the place where the artillery was placed with a few banners in his arms. His speed was very steady, and he counted the time silently in his heart. , and then continued to walk, and then inserted, when he ran to the small crater made by the shell, he had already planted seven banners.

Seeing this, a group of craftsmen and soldiers were immediately excited, and couldn't help cheering, because everyone was counting, and there were seven flags in total.

Of course, this is firing from the back, not the effective range. Based on the artillery reform carried out by Yingyi at the same time, the types of artillery were standardized. The [-]-pound long gun can reach twelve miles when fired from the back, and the effective range is more than four miles.

Wang Yan smiled: "Shoot seven miles away, and within three miles, you should be able to smash bricks and stones. Well, everyone has done a good job this time, and you must give it a credit."

The Hongyi cannon can only fire solid bullets. Its main function is to directly aim at the city and smash bricks and stones within three miles. This is the effective range.

According to legend, during the Battle of Ningyuan, the effective range of the Ming army's red barbarian cannons could reach more than four miles, but in fact, most Ming cast red barbarian cannons generally have an effective range of less than two or three miles. Wang Yan never thought that he could reach the level of Xiyi in one go. , being able to maintain a unified regulation and increase the life of the artillery has made considerable progress.

"Thank you Ministry." Song Yingxing immediately led a group of officials and craftsmen from the Cannon Foundry and said in unison.

Wang Yan walked up to several craftsmen, and immediately ordered: "From now on, you must cast the cannon with your heart to see if there are any problems. The test of the cannon will continue. Observe the change of the range by increasing or decreasing the amount of gunpowder. Find the best amount. I won’t urge you to do it more carefully. Once the standard is set, it will be a great achievement. For those who make the first contribution, I will mention it as working from the Ministry of Jiupin Industry. Do you understand? ?”

Scholars, farmers, businessmen, and craftsmen rank third, but their actual status is actually worse than that of merchants, because merchants are at least rich and live a good life, and the commodity economy was developed in the Ming Dynasty, people lived in luxury, and merchants colluded with officials and gentry. So Gong is the tail of the crane that deserves its name.

It was very difficult for a craftsman in the Ming Dynasty to be an official, but there was nothing wrong with being an official, but there were exceptions. Xu Gao, a Ming man, was a carpenter, but he was appreciated by Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty.

Several craftsmen heard the words and immediately responded in unison: "No."

Wang Yan looked at it for a while, and Chen Yujie adjusted the angle again, fired a few rounds, and the performance of the artillery was still stable, so he started to try again.

I tried all the beak blunderbuss, Lumi blunderbuss, electric blunderbuss, and Xunlei blunderbuss. Although the Xunlei blunderbuss seemed ferocious and claimed to fire five times in a row, it was time-consuming to load and had a limited range, so it was basically not suitable for actual combat; The electric blunderbuss of the blunderbuss has the best performance, but the process is complicated, and the imperial court has no ability to produce it; The dense gun is the farthest and the most poisonous." However, the Lumi gun also has problems, that is, the cost is much higher than that of the bird gun, the key parts are made of copper, and the process is more complicated, but it is much simpler than the electric gun, but it also needs a lot. of silver.

Then the most critical issue was that the imperial court had no money, so Wang Yan had to order Song Yingxing to continue making bird guns.

In fact, there has been progress in firearms now, but it is worth noting that the armor of the soldiers should also be strengthened. It is basically difficult for the Five Loyalists to attack Qing soldiers in double armor, especially when they are penetrated by heavy cavalry. All suffered heavy casualties.

At this time, although both the Ming and Qing Dynasties used a large number of firearms, firearms were not to the point of being independent after all. Although they should be taken seriously, they should not be superstitious. Cannons and guns are far from being able to completely replace bows, crossbows and axes.

To counter the cavalry's impact, it is best to have a heavy armored infantry, so whether it is facing Qing cavalry or melee combat, it will be the trump card in Wang Yan's hands, but the key problem is still lack of money.

When Wang Yan returned to the city, he did not go back to the mansion, but went to Wenyuan Pavilion. He handed over his horse, walked inside, and went directly to the second floor to look for Su Guansheng, but Su Guansheng was not at work.

After inquiring, he learned that Su Guansheng had been summoned by the emperor, so he didn't go back to his office, but sat in the small meeting hall and waited.

After waiting for a long time, Su Guansheng came back from the face of the saint. As soon as he came upstairs, he saw Wang Yan eating cakes and drinking tea alone. Are you crazy?"

Wang Yan only drank some porridge before the morning court, and took the opportunity to eat some pastries to fill his stomach. He was not in the mood to joke, so he got up and said, "Su Ge is back? Yan has been waiting for a long time." Su Guansheng just joked, and said He was about to go back to work, but he didn't think that Wang Yan was waiting for him, so he had to walk to the small meeting hall, sat down opposite Wang Yan, and asked with a smile: "I was discussing in the palace just now, and suddenly I heard bursts of cannon fire, Your Majesty I also asked why the cannon was fired. I guessed that Shi Heng was testing the cannon outside the city, but I didn’t expect you to come back so soon. How is it? How is the cannon?”

"The gun is good, it can be said to be very good."

Su Guansheng nodded, "Before and after, the Wuzhong army probably spent tens of thousands of taels in their accounts, and the household department also allocated 3 taels. Finally, the hard work paid off, and the cannon was made. By the way, Shi Heng waited for me , what is it for?"

Wang Yan said with a smile: "Now the Cannon Workshop has produced sample cannons and blunderbusses, and the effect is also very good. Will Mr. Su Ge allocate tens of thousands of taels of silver to make a batch as soon as possible?"

Su Guansheng was listening carefully, but when he heard this, his expression became serious, he stood up and went into his room, Wang Yan quickly walked around the table, grabbed his sleeve, and said, "Don't get angry, Mr. Ge, how many times?" Dial a little~"

Su Guansheng struggled for a while, but couldn't break free, so he could only stare at Wang Yan, then turned his head and said, "It's not proper, it's useless for Shi Heng to pull me, I don't have a tael if I want money."

As a bachelor who oversees the finances of the Longwu court and is also the secretary of the household department, Su Guansheng's business can be described as bleak. The court has been in Guangzhou for a few months, and he has to spend everywhere. He is forced to ask for money by various people every day, and he managed to save some money. Wang Yan was going to fight Zhangzhou again, and he was exhausted all at once.

Wang Yan saw Su Guansheng's appearance, but he did not give up. He had an eyeliner in the household department and knew that there were more than 30 taels of silver in the treasury.

(Thanks to Liang Shilang of Shouzhou, War of Battle, Yue Dong Woxin, book friend 5288 for the reward, thanks to Fei Zuo Fei You Fei, Han Jia Rong Guang, abcde4869 for the monthly pass, everyone is welcome to join the group, please support.)
(End of this chapter)