While He Zhiyuan was busy with the construction of the barracks and arsenal of the Thousand Households, the first pot of crucible steel was smelted in the steel mill in the east of the state city. hjaju.

Hou Dongming, who is an experienced man, soon discovered the characteristics of this steel, that is, its flexibility is very good, and the hardness is slightly worse.

Then he made a second pot, this time with a little charcoal, and the hardness of the steel became better, but the flexibility became worse.

In this way, he directed the workers to continue experimenting, and finally smelted a pot of steel with suitable flexibility and hardness.

He then had the craftsmen beat the steel into a long piece of steel, which they found to be more flexible than a soft sword. And the hardness is much higher than that of a soft sword.

This discovery made Hou Dongming extremely excited, and he hurriedly sent someone to invite He Zhiyuan. At that time, when He Zhiyuan left, he once said that crucible steel is mainly used to smelt some special steel, and it doesn't matter if the output is lower now.

When He Zhiyuan came to the steel mill and saw this kind of steel with good flexibility and hardness, he praised Hou Dongming. This kind of steel is the spring steel that He Zhiyuan wants, and it is possible to make flintlock pistols with this kind of steel. Because the tip part of the flintlock pistol should have a spring steel sheet, of course, it is possible to use ordinary steel, but the use effect and service life are greatly reduced.

He Zhiyuan nodded with satisfaction and said, "Very good, how did Master Hou discover this kind of steel?" ”

Receiving He Zhiyuan's praise, Master Hou had a smile on his face: "It's still good for Gongzi's guidance, if it weren't for the crucible steelmaking method you said, I wouldn't have been able to find this kind of steel." We found that the proportion of carbon added in the steelmaking process has a great relationship with the flexibility and hardness of the steel, and through many tests, we found the right hardness and flexibility of the steel. ”

"Yes, you're right, the amount of carbon in steel is related to the hardness, flexibility, and brittleness of steel."

"He Gongzi also knows how to smelt? Is this also a science subject? ”

"Exactly, this science is very profound. In fact, not only can the carbonization of steel change the properties of steel, but the addition of other metals can also change its properties. Have you ever heard of tungsten steel? He Zhiyuan doesn't know whether tungsten ore has been discovered in this era, if tungsten ore can be found and tungsten steel can be smelted, it will play a very big role in promoting machine tool processing. So he asked him by the way.

"Tungsten steel? Never heard of it? ”

"Have you ever heard of tungsten mines?" He Zhiyuan asked further.

"Haven't heard of it. What are the characteristics of this tungsten steel? Hou Dongming was stunned, he really hadn't heard of this kind of metal.

"Tungsten steel is a very hard steel, using tungsten steel as a tool for lathes, used to cut ordinary steel, it can be regarded as cutting iron like mud." He Zhiyuan explained.

In fact, tungsten was discovered relatively late, and it was not until the end of the 18th century that the Spaniards refined tungsten metal. Tungsten ore reserves are very rich in Jiangxi in China, and there is also a small amount of wolframite in Laiwu, Shandong, but it is impossible to find tungsten ore now.

In the end, He Zhiyuan had no choice but to say: "Forget it, the conditions for making tungsten steel are not mature now, let's talk about it later." ”

"Does He Gongzi know where the veins of tungsten ore are? What does the ore look like? Hou Dongming asked.

"Mine

The veins are mainly in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, and a small amount is also distributed in the Laiwu Mountains of Shandong. The ore is brown or black with a metallic or semi-metallic luster. That's all He Zhiyuan knows, he only read a small amount of material in his previous life, and he doesn't know how detailed it is.

"With this information, I can ask the iron ore seller to help me make an inquiry. If you can find ore in these places you mentioned, can He Gongzi have a way to smelt it? ”

There are many ways to smelt tungsten, and He Zhiyuan only remembers a rough idea, but the specific operation method is not clear. So he said: "I can only give a rough idea of the smelting method, and the specific process still needs to be explored by you." But now is not the time to discuss this, there is still a steel that you need to smelt, this steel is very hard and brittle. It can be used to cut ordinary steel, and in the future it will be used as a cutter. When smelting, try to change the proportion of carbon added. ”

"As long as He Gongzi shows out the method, we will definitely be able to smelt it." Hou Dongming said.

Next, He Zhiyuan asked again: "Master Hou, do you know how to make the gun tube of the fire gun?" ”

"I've heard from the master who made the firecracker, but I haven't tried it myself."

"If I bring a firecracker, can you make it?" He Zhiyuan asked.

Now that the Ma Qishan Thousand Households Office is in the preparatory stage, he doesn't have to worry about others talking nonsense when he imitates the firecracker, so he went directly to the inspection department to bring two firecrackers.

He Zhiyuan ordered two muskets to be brought from the carriage. Both were very old arquebuses, about five feet long and four feet long. The production is very rough, especially the gun tube, the pipe wall is thicker, and there are some air holes on the tube body, and the surface is uneven. Three iron shovels were also used to strengthen the pipe, but even if three iron shovels were added, there was inevitably a risk of exploding. There is also a through strip under the gun pipe, which is used to clean the gun pipe and compact the gunpowder.

Master Hou took the firecrackle and looked at it for a long time and said, "The quality of the iron used in this firecrackle is too poor, and it may explode if it can't be hit a few times." It can't be used to kill enemies on the battlefield at all, and it's barely okay to bluff people with your back on your back. If He Gongzi wants to imitate it, he must use the good steel we have smelted ourselves. ”

"I'm not trying to make an exact copy, I'm trying to improve it. The most important thing is whether the gun tube can be built better, and how long it takes to build a good quality gun tube. He Zhiyuan asked.

Hou Dongming looked at it again for a while before saying: "There are two ways to make such a gun pipe, the first method is casting, the speed is fast, as long as the mold is done, more than a dozen can be cast a day, but the quality cannot be guaranteed, and the risk of exploding is much higher." The second method is forging, and it is estimated that it takes half a day to forge a gun. As long as you use good iron, you can guarantee that you will not blow up. ”

He Zhiyuan heard that it would take half a day to forge a pipe, which was too slow. At this rate, it would take more than a day to build an arquebus, let alone a more complex flintlock pistol, which would take a craftsman three days to complete. At this rate, a craftsman can build up to ten guns a month. Now there are only more than 30 craftsmen who can be found in the whole state, but they can't all come to make guns, and only 20 people can be sent to make guns. At this rate, it will take half a year to build the equipment of a thousand households.

Such a speed is obvious

However, it didn't work, so He Zhiyuan asked again: "If you forge with a hydraulic forging press, how much faster do you think it can be?" ”

Master Hou thought for a while and said, "Although the hydraulic forging press has not yet been assembled, I don't think it is much faster. Because of the construction of the gun, it is necessary to constantly adjust the position and angle of the gun, which only saves some effort and cannot speed up the speed of building the gun. ”

Listening to his analysis, He Zhiyuan also felt reasonable. It seems that there is a need to find a way to increase the speed at which the barrel can be built. From now on, the best way is to use a drilling machine to drill holes, and when he thinks of the drilling machine, he thinks of his great apprentice Wang Zhixue. Wang Zhixue, who hasn't seen him these days, doesn't know how his progress is in his research on lathes. Thinking of this, he decided to take a look at Wang Zhixue's progress and give him some hints, so that it was important to speed up the progress of his research.

However, it is better to prepare with both hands, so he said to Master Hou: "From tomorrow morning, you can find a few masters to try to build a few barrels first, and now this is the most needed." The charcoal steelmaking was put in advance, with a focus on creating a barrel and testing high-hardness steel. ”

After speaking, he instructed the length of the barrel and the size of the inner diameter and other parameters.

In his previous life, He Zhiyuan was also half a military fan, and he also had some research on firearms. So he combined the strengths of various front-loading guns in Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries to design a more performant and practical prime-fire pistol.

The most classic flintlock pistol of the 16th and 18th centuries was the English brown besz. The gun was about 1.57 meters long, with a barrel of 1.16 meters, and he also had a bayonet about 40 centimeters long. Therefore, this gun can be used as both a gun and a knife, which is very suitable for infantry combat use. Therefore, He Zhiyuan planned to imitate this flintlock pistol, but this gun has a disadvantage that it has no rifling and the firing range is not high, and the maximum firing range is only about 180 meters.

So he made some improvements to the brown beth on this basis, first of all, he carved three rifling wires into the chamber of the gun. Compared with the musket gun, the rifled gun has a very obvious advantage in shooting accuracy and range, the bullet fired by the rifled gun is rotating and flying out of the chamber, and the kinetic energy of such a bullet after the chamber is much larger than that of the bullet that cannot rotate, the longer the range, the greater the distance to keep a straight line flight, so the higher the shooting accuracy. However, with the current technology, it is difficult to say whether it can be made.

Secondly, the bullet was also improved, abandoning the use of a round bullet in favor of a cylindrical Miner, which had three circular lines in the lower part and the whole bullet was shaped like a spinning top. The diameter of this Mine bullet is slightly smaller than the muzzle, so that the bullet can be easily inserted into the chamber. The hollow part of the bottom of the bullet is filled with cork, and when fired, the gunpowder gas hits the cork, and the cork is suddenly enlarged after being hit instantaneously. Because the bullet is stretched, the bullet itself can be relied on to complete the sealing of the chamber at the moment of firing without leaking gunpowder gases and causing the kinetic energy of the bullet to be lost. This greatly increased the rate of fire, range and safety of the gun.

After He Zhiyuan returned, he began to draw drawings of this flintlock pistol overnight, preparing to let the craftsmen make an experiment tomorrow.

The next day, when He Zhiyuan took out the drawings, all the craftsmen were stunned. sighed again and again that such a complex and exquisite design, He Zhiyuan actually painted it overnight, which was really amazing.

(End of chapter)

The little people of the Ming Dynasty

The little people of the Ming Dynasty

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