Take the arsenal to Da Ming

Chapter 132 Flintlock

Wu Shu is not the only one who makes friends with warriors. After knowing that the Chaozhou government values ​​all kinds of talents, he also wrote to other friends to recommend them.

Among them are Fu Shan, a medical scientist and thinker, and Lu Shiyi, a philosopher and writer.

Of course, individual force is important, but what is more important is to be able to apply what you have learned and to be able to work together as a team. After all, fighting is not something that one person does.

Therefore, military science and formation are very important.

And Wu Shu is also proficient in military science and formation. He has carefully studied such masterpieces of military science as Qi Jiguang's "Ji Xiao Xin Shu" and Mao Yuanyi's "Wu Bei Zhi", and his "Arm Record" has absorbed the essence of them.

Now, "Ji Xiao New Book", "Wu Bei Zhi" and "Arm Records" and other masterpieces of martial arts and military science are all compulsory textbooks for the new army.

The weapons needed are supported by Song Yingxing, who is proficient in weapon forging, and the arsenal in Chaozhou Prefecture can forge the required weapons in time.

This is the benefit of a complete operating system. You don't have to worry about a certain link not keeping up and affecting the overall operation.

Just as Tangning was a little absorbed in watching, Song Yunwan stepped forward and whispered something in his ear.

Tangning was slightly taken aback, then a look of joy appeared on her face, and she immediately said, "Let's go and have a look."

About one stick of incense time, Tangning appeared in the arsenal.

After hearing that Tangning was coming, Song Yingxing immediately came out with a long spear, which was very similar to a blunderbuss.

Naturally, this wasn't a blunderbuss, and a blunderbuss wasn't worth Tangning's running over. This was the first flintlock gun manufactured by the arsenal.

It is not surprising that it can be so fast.

There are references to "Illustrations of Military Weapons" written by Bi Maokang, the inventor of the flintlock gun in the Ming Dynasty, as well as ready-made Western flintlock guns for research, and Song Yingxing is personally responsible for this weapon.

It would be strange if everything was ready and couldn't be made.

The biggest difference between the flintlock and the matchlock gun is the improved ignition device. The matchlock gun ignites the gunpowder by lighting the matchlock. The burn of the matchlock is not only slow, but also easily affected by the weather.

The ignition device of the flintlock mainly relies on flint, which is the commonly used flint.

By pulling the trigger, under the action of the spring, the flint will hit the edge of the fire door heavily, rubbing out sparks, and igniting the gunpowder.

This kind of ignition method is called percussion flintlock, so this kind of flintlock is also called percussion flintlock.

Song Yingxing pointed to the flintlock gun in Tangning's hand and said, "We tried it, and the shooting distance of this flintlock gun has not been significantly improved. It simplifies the shooting process, so the firing speed has been greatly improved. "

"Compared with Westerners' flintlock guns, except for some differences in style, other aspects are similar. We can't make much improvement to this gun for the time being."

Hearing Song Yingxing's explanation, Tangning could understand. After all, the biggest difference between a flintlock gun and an arquebus is the ignition.

It's like lighting one with matches and one with a lighter.

A flintlock is like using a lighter to ignite, it ignites faster and is better affected by the environment than matches.

Therefore, it is understandable that the main rate of fire is only increased, and this alone is already very important.

Regardless of any era, the rate of fire of guns is an important indicator. With this alone, flintlock guns can replace arquebus guns.

"Dean Song, let's make a batch first, and then test the guns. After confirming that there are no problems, we will build a large number of them. We don't make bird guns, but this gun."

Although Tang Ning has decided to mass-produce flintlock guns, to Tangning, the current flintlock guns are just a transitional gun.

Because as long as a few technical problems are solved, there is still a lot of room for improvement for this flintlock, such as adding rifling to the barrel.

With rifling, bullets are more powerful, have a longer range and are more accurate.

Rifling technology has already been developed, and Westerners knew it more than 100 years ago. Now Tangning has also obtained related technology from the Portuguese.

The biggest problem now is bullets. If the problem of bullets is not solved, the loading speed of guns with rifling is much slower than that of guns without rifling.

Because of this, even though rifled guns can greatly improve the range and accuracy, rifled guns are still thrown into the garbage dump and are only used as experimental guns.

Now it is still the world of muskets, and no one can stand the ridiculously slow reloading speed of rifled guns.

According to official history, it was not until the appearance of the Minie bullet 200 years later that the era of rifled guns ushered in. The first large-scale rifled gun was the Minie rifle.

Moreover, it was the Minie bomb that existed first. In order to match this bomb, the Minie rifle was created, so the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, is very clear.

Tangning had checked the information on the Minnie bomb. He knew the general principle and structure, but he didn't know how to make it himself, so he told Song Yingxing all the information he knew.

If a type of bullet like the Minie bullet is produced, a new type of rifle can be designed, and the weapons of the new army can be upgraded collectively.

Tang Ning couldn't stop the European army from installing flintlock guns, but if he installed newer rifles, then in terms of individual weapons, he could completely surpass the West.

Of course, this gun only exists in theory at present, and there are still some technical problems that need to be tackled.

But Tang Ning believes that this should not be a problem for Song Yingxing, a weapon master, as long as he is given enough time, he should be able to develop it, so this project is also one of the main projects of the current arsenal.

In fact, Song Yingxing didn't want to waste his energy on the Minie bomb at first. His ambition was even bigger, and he wanted to directly develop a breech-loading gun.

Because he saw the huge advantages of breech-loading guns through German weapons such as 98K.

Tangning admired Song Yingxing's unique vision.

Because 200 years later, when breech-loading guns really came out, many firearms experts held an attitude of rejection, thinking that front-loading guns are advanced, and rear-loading guns are undoubtedly eating with their buttocks, which is extremely disgusting.

So the breech-loading gun was nicknamed "Enema Gun".

In the end, the breech-loading gun thoroughly proved its huge advantage through several actual combats before it was generally accepted by people.

The breech-loading gun is also the "culprit" that ended the Minie rifle.

As a latecomer, Tangning naturally prefers breech-loading guns. Sooner or later, breech-loading guns will replace front-loading guns, but with the current technical conditions, it is much more difficult.

The biggest problem is still bullets. The firing principle of breech-loading guns is completely different from that of front-loading guns. It has been needle-fired since it appeared.

The first condition of this firing method is that the bullet must have a primer, and the firing pin hits the primer to ignite the propellant, thereby achieving the purpose of firing the bullet.

The conditions for developing the primer are very immature now. Although one of the key materials, mercury fulminate, has been developed by Europeans, the real primer will not appear until almost 200 years later.

The issue of the primer was much more complicated, and there was not enough information for Tangning to explain, so Tangning didn't have much confidence in developing the primer.

Moreover, there was no time at all, so Song Yingxing was persuaded to develop the Minie bomb first.

Of course, Tangning did not completely give up hope, as he specifically told all soldiers equipped with German weapons to recover the shell casings.

If you want to reload the bullet, the problem of the primer must be solved first.

With the primer, even if metal bullet casings cannot be made, using paper to make bullet casings can solve the problem of bullets.

Because before the appearance of metal bullets, people wrapped the primer, propellant and warhead with paper to make paper shell bullets.

Now, Tangning decided to use this technology on his first flintlock gun. Although it didn't have a primer, it could pack the bullet and propellant.

The purpose of doing this has two important advantages. One is that this kind of ammunition can be produced in the arsenal in advance, and the loading speed of soldiers can be accelerated in actual combat, because there is no need to load the propellant and the projectile separately.

Now the propellant is loaded first, and then the projectile is loaded, which is undoubtedly a bit more cumbersome.

Another advantage is that the amount of propellant can be well controlled and quantified by installing it in advance.

If the soldiers load the propellant by themselves during combat, and then reload the projectile, the amount of propellant can only be based on feeling.

If the firing charge is accurate, the shooting accuracy will naturally be improved.

So, don't look at this as an inconspicuous technology, but its practicality is great.

Europeans don't know about this technology yet, so Tangning only told her technicians headed by Song Yingxing.

As for the best paper to use, I believe they should know after a few experiments.

(End of this chapter)