At that time, the flowering shells were fired by lighting the twist of the sub-cannon (flowering shell) and the fire rope of the bowl of the mother cannon respectively. The sub-gun twist needs to be adjusted in length according to the distance at which it is fired. Its firing method and effect are actually very similar to the "conscienceless cannon" used in the Liberation War.

Although these flowering shells are powerful, they are also flawed, the range is not far, the firing operation is cumbersome, and it is easy to explode if the ignition timing and the length of the fire rope are not accurate. Therefore, flowering bombs were not popular for many years after they appeared. It wasn't until the 19th century that two inventions were easily overlooked, but very useful: the wooden conical tube and the wooden butt technology. Flowering bombs have only received attention.

The wooden conical tube was invented as early as the late 18th century, but because the field howitzer at that time was too low to be taken seriously, the wooden tube fuse was also buried.

A wooden tube is a wooden tube that opens at both ends and contains a kind of slow-burning gunpowder that burns at a very stable rate. The wooden tube is marked with a scale, and when using it, the gunner first estimates the firing distance, finds out the flight time corresponding to the distance and the type of shell from the artillery manual, and then adjusts the detonation time by pressing the knob on the fuse, and at the same time makes a hole in the corresponding position of the fuse, and finally stuffs it into the fuse hole of the shell.

At this time, one end of the fuse is exposed outside the shell, and the other end is in contact with the explosives inside the shell. Finally, the shell is stuffed into the chamber with the fuse positioned forward. Since the diameter of the bore of the smoothbore front-loading gun is slightly larger than the diameter of the shell, when the TAO explosion is fired, a part of the flame penetrates from the gap between the shell and the breech to the front of the shell, directly igniting the part of the fuse exposed outside the shell, and after the shell flies in the air for a specific time, the fuse burns to the position of the explosive in the shell according to the previously adjusted time, ignites the explosive, and the shell explodes.

As for the wooden butt, it is very simple, that is, to make a wooden block with a flat bottom and a depression on the top to place spherical shells, and then use four iron bars to fix the butt and the shell together.

Wooden cartridge butts may seem simple, but they are no less useful than wooden conical tubes, especially when firing hollow grenades on longer caliber guns. Due to its low strength, the early cast iron-hulled blasting shells could not withstand the high chamber pressure of long-barreled cannons, so they could only be used on low-chamber pressure howitzers. In addition to effectively sealing the gas leakage, the soft wooden support on the tail of the shell can also play a cushioning role for the hollow grenade when fired, so that the projectile body will not be broken by the impact.

Moreover, the grenade fired will have a weighty and light "badminton principle" self-stabilizing structure due to the light wooden support, which makes the trajectory more accurate, and the famous Hotchkiss grenade and shrapnel during the Civil War are of this structure.

It was not until the invention of the fuze in Europe that the real flowering bomb in modern times, that is, the grenade, or the explosive bomb, the bomb, etc., really shined on the battlefield and became the main type of ammunition used in modern times.

In fact, the earliest record of the use of flowering bullets in history also comes from the Ming Dynasty in China. "Ming Huidian" records: The poisonous fire flying cannon is "made of wrought iron, like a general at the mouth of the lamp." There are more than ten taels of gunpowder inside. In the mouth of the cup, the □ barrel of pig iron flying cannon, five taels of sulfur poison □ inside, and a total of one medicine line. Ignite the fire, the cannon goes off first, hit the cannon 200 paces away, explode and injure people"

According to Weng Wanda's decision to build firearms during the Jiajing period, the poisonous fire cannon "melts iron as a child, and the medicine in the void is real, and it hurts everywhere." The age of its invention is "covered from the previous generation and the soldiers are quite secret". Therefore, this kind of flowering bomb appeared earlier than Jiajing.

However, whether it is a poisonous fire cannon or a miniaturized thunder cannon invented by Weng Wanda, the essence of the artillery used is a mortar, which is "wide" at the top and "narrow" at the bottom. It was the system of the bowl mouth gun in the early Ming Dynasty.

The bowl mouth gun was one of the commonly used artillery pieces in the early Ming Dynasty, and its weight ranged from dozens of catties to 1,100 catties.

On this basis, the Ming people invented a lot of various flowering shells, such as the "Watermelon Cannon", "Flying Cloud Thunderbolt Cannon", "Flying Explosive Cannon", "Drill Wind Divine Fire Meteor Cannon" and so on, all of which belong to this kind of flowering bombs. However, because the craftsmen were exploited, the output was not high, and the quality was uneven. And the most important thing is that the Ming soldiers are also subjected to multiple exploitations, lack of training, and have no will to fight! Even if you have a good weapon, you can't play it!

Moreover, the mortar itself is not an uncommon artillery, and many Western countries of the same era have equipment. Similar flowering bombs soon appeared in Europe. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, with the spread of Western learning, Western-style mortar cannons were introduced to China and were used by both the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Both the Western Law Divine Machine and the Fire Attack Zhiyao recorded a kind of mortar cannon called Feibiao Gong, which evolved to the Qing Dynasty, that is, the so-called cupola cannon or Weiyuan general cannon in the Qing Dynasty.

Weiyuan General Cannon, cast bronze for it, the cannon weighs 750 kilograms, 2 feet 5 inches long, and can fire a maximum of 35 kilograms of shells. If it is made of cast iron, it is called a cupola.

This kind of artillery made many meritorious contributions in the Kangqian period, and the "Preliminary Compilation of the Tribute to the Elders of the National Dynasty" recorded that this artillery "conquered Galdan, fell into its camp with three cannons, and won a great victory." "During the Qianlong period, when conquering the large and small Jinchuan, the Qing army was helpless in the face of the Tusi watchtower, and it was thanks to the cupola cannon that the watchtower was conquered. The Qing Huidian recorded that "when used, first put gunpowder into the medicine room, with wood in between, add an inch of soil, and then put the cannonball into the breech, fill the bullet with gunpowder, and then separate a layer of wet soil, and finally seal the muzzle with wax." When firing, the fuse on the shell is lit from the muzzle, and then the fuse on the door is ignited quickly"

In the Qing Dynasty, Weiyuan's general cannons, cupola cannons and flowering shells were only equipped for use in the Eight Banners of the capital, and the green battalion of the Han army was not allowed to equip them. With the fall of the Eight Banners, coupled with the fact that the Manchu Qing Dynasty advocated mounted archery, suppressed firearms, and cut off communication with the West in order to facilitate the rule, so that during the Daoguang period, many Chinese people did not know how to manufacture and use flowering bombs, and Han officials and generals did not know the so-called flowering bullets and lay quietly in the Forbidden City to eat ashes.

Therefore, in the first Crow Pian War, when Lin Zexu and others saw the flowering bullets made by foreigners, they said, "The minister once saw that the foreign cannon had a hollow bullet, called a bomb, because of the secret practice of the craftsman, that is, in the minister's office, the superintendent ordered the trial casting." There is a hole left in it, which is half filled with gunpowder, mixed with sharp iron edges, and still plugs its hole, which is contained in the muzzle. The hole outward, once released, where its firepower can reach, the bullet will explode, the medicine in the bullet, with more sulfur, can strike one or two hundred steps, the bullet explodes into broken iron, and the iron edge stored inside, can rampage, penetrate the muscle, that is, drill, a cannon can be used for more than ten cannons. Recently, the casting test release has cracked into the distance, and the nearby people and spectators are blocked, not knowing what method to use, and they are surprised to be unprecedented. It was such a bomb, which was actually used on the march. Now on the size of the muzzle, more clay mold casting applications, its former patrol generals, stacked according to the report. ”

It can be seen from the above that Lin Zexu imitated the old-fashioned flowering bomb without a fuse from the foreigners, and Huang Mian, the alternate governor of Jiangsu during the Daoguang period, also said that "the method of flying artillery bombs is rare in the mainland, and it is so shocking that I don't know how to make it."

At this point, Zuo Zongtang, who was a senior general of the Qing Dynasty, sighed when he saw the flowering cannon of the Ming Dynasty, "The sharp weapon has been in China for more than 300 years, so that some people paid attention to it at that time. "It's really unjust. It's a complete irony.

When everyone arrived at the test site, Liu Ning was already waiting there with the gunner. He was quite interested in this new toy that was about to join the artillery ranks! Especially in the previous test firings, he had keenly discovered that this kind of artillery had great lethality to the infantry phalanx. Therefore, the flowering shells were strongly promoted to be added to the artillery ranks.

Under Liu Ning's guidance, Liu Pei saw the newly developed large-caliber mortar cannon, as well as a flowering shell tied to a wooden support. When Liu Pei was on the road, he already knew what these two things looked like, so Liu Pei recognized them at a glance.

He studied for a moment under the expressive guidance and asked, "Are the targets ready?" ”

Liu Ning pointed to a large piece of wooden people in the distance and said, "Dashuai, those wooden people are." These wooden figures were specially made to test the ability of artillery fire to destroy. This is because the scarecrow used in the past exercises could not clearly see the fragmentation of flowering bullets and the destructive effect of lead bullets. That's why I deliberately changed it to a wooden man this time. ”