The earth-shaking thunder mentioned by Liu Juntao is actually the prototype of the grenade of later generations, which first appeared in the late Northern Song Dynasty.

At this time, the earth-shattering thunder body of the Ming Dynasty is filled with gunpowder, the shell is wrapped in pig iron, and the fuse is on it, and the soldiers will decide the length of the lead according to the distance of the target when using it, so as to calculate the time of detonation.

After detonating, the Earthquake Thunder can blast the pig iron shell to pieces and pierce through the iron armor; At the same time, it will also fill some ironclad and broken porcelain pieces in order to increase the lethality.

There are generally two kinds of earth-shaking thunder equipped in the Ming army: one is ignited with fire, which is fired by a trebuchet and explodes at a distance; And the other is to ignite it with fire and explode on the spot.

For example, the earth-shattering thunder thrown from the city wall by the Ming army when defending the city belongs to the second type, and the effect is equivalent to a grenade in later generations.

Zhang Baigui said with some hesitation; "Jun Tao, I have also heard of the name of this earth-shaking thunder, but now the sky-shaking thunder equipped in the official army is a dozen pounds of iron lumps, and it can't be thrown far, except for some use when defending the city, it can only blow up its own people in the field, it's useless!"

Liu Juntao knew that what Zhang Baigui said was the truth, but this could not show that the earth-shaking thunder was a useless firearm, it could only show that the Ming army's craftsmanship in manufacturing the earth-shaking thunder at this time was not sophisticated enough, so that the volume and power of the earth-shaking thunder produced were too large and too small, so it was so frivolous.

Before crossing over, Liu Juntao had read some historical materials:

As early as the eighth year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty (975), the Song Dynasty used ≈quot; when conquering the Southern Tang Dynasty. Artillery & quot; This is the most primitive kind of earth-shattering thunder.

The Northern Song Dynasty established gunpowder factories in the cities of Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu) and Jiangling (now Jiangling, Hubei) at that time, and manufactured a gunpowder factory called ≈quot; Gunpowder kiln made ≈quot; firearms.

At this time, the projectile can explode, and the sound is like a thunderbolt, so it is called ≈quot; Thunderbolt & quot;. In the first year of Jingkang (1126), the Jin people besieged Bianjing, and the defender Li Gang used a thunderbolt to repel the Jin soldiers when defending the city,≈quot; Thunderbolts were fired at night to hit the thieves, and the army exclaimed≈quot;.

Later "Jin History" records that in the first year of Jin Tianxing (122 years), when Chizhan Hexi guarded Bianjing, ≈quot; Its defenders of the city have the name of the artillery 'earth-shaking thunder', the iron pot contains medicine, with the fire to ignite, the cannon fires, its sound is like thunder, smell hundreds of miles away, the encirclement of half an acre above, the fire is lit with iron are all penetrated.

This is probably the earliest record of the use of earth-shaking thunder in actual combat.

Liu Juntao said: "Master Zhang, the earth-shaking thunder has been used in actual combat as early as the Song Dynasty, and it can be called a field weapon, and our Yushan Town must also be equipped!" ”

"But ......"

Liu Juntao smiled and waved his hand, stopped Zhang Baigui's words, and continued: "Master Zhang, the reason why the sky-shaking thunder equipped by the official army is large and powerful is because the gunpowder used by the official army is not as good as that of our Yushan Town, and the pig iron used is not as good as the pig iron refined by our Yushan Military Bureau!" ”

"With the high-quality pig iron and granular gunpowder produced by our Yushan Military Bureau, we will definitely be able to create a smaller and more powerful earth-shattering thunder! I believe that the earth-shattering thunder created by our Yushan Soldier Battle Bureau can kill the enemy by throwing it by the young and strong guards of the guards, and it will definitely be a battlefield weapon at that time! ”

After listening to Liu Juntao's words, Zhang Baigui also had a bottom in his heart and no longer objected.

After all, Liu Juntao has always been able to bring surprises to people, from the earliest steelmaking, to the creation of orthodox nine-year-old bird guns, all of which are shocking, and now it must be the same to build a sky-shaking thunder, Liu Juntao will definitely succeed!

At this time, in Zhang Baigui's heart, he was already full of trust in Liu Juntao, and it was unconditional trust.

Then, Liu Juntao, accompanied by Zhang Baigui and Yan Hu, came to the side hall, Liu Juntao asked people to find paper, ink, pen and inkstone, and drew a drawing of a new type of earth-shaking thunder.

Zhang Baigui took the drawings and looked at them carefully, and then said to Liu Juntao: "Juntao wait here, I'll go and ask someone to make a sample quickly, and now I happen to have a craftsman who has worked in the official army ordnance station!" ”

After speaking, without waiting for Liu Juntao to speak, Zhang Baigui left in a hurry.

Liu Juntao didn't care either, so he and Yan Hu drank tea and chatted in the side hall, and the two of them happened to have a good time catching up like this.

After about an hour, Zhang Baigui hurried back and said, "Jun Tao! It's done! ”

Liu Juntao didn't expect that the efficiency of the Yushan Military Bureau would be so high now, and it took more than an hour to create a sample of the earth-shattering thunder, so he hurriedly came to the test site with Zhang Baigui.

This test site is outside the Yushan Military Bureau, which is a wasteland, and there are no people around, and there are hills to shelter people's eyes.

At this time, an apprentice worker of the Yushan Military War Bureau walked over with a sky-shaking thunder sample in both hands, a round iron lump slightly smaller than a watermelon, and a slightly protruding platform on the sphere, with a small hole on it, and a medicine twist inserted into the hole.

"Jun Tao, this is the sample of the earth-shaking thunder, which is completely manufactured according to the drawings you gave just now, but because it is the first time to manufacture it and have no experience, the volume is slightly larger. This earth-shattering thunder sample is made of ten catties of pig iron as a shell, and eight catties of gunpowder inside. Moreover, this earth-shattering thunder is all evenly mixed granular gunpowder, and iron nails and other substances are added, and the power is definitely much stronger than that made by the official army. ”

After Zhang Baigui introduced, he saw that Liu Juntao's face did not have much joy.

"The iron shell of this earth-shattering thunder is too smooth and unfurled, and it is difficult to produce fragments when it explodes, which will definitely affect the effect of the explosion. In addition, this medicine is too short, and if it burns too quickly, it will blow up the escort team itself, but it is not possible. ”

Zhang Baigui listened to Liu Juntao's words, nodded frequently, and wrote them down one by one, ready to go back and continue to improve.

However, at this time, even if there are some flaws, it is necessary to test the explosion effect of this earth-shattering thunder.

In order to avoid accidental injury, Liu Juntao ordered everyone to retreat to ten zhang away, leaving only a young man with good legs and feet to be responsible for igniting the fire.

The sample of the earth-shattering thunder was placed in the center of the test site, next to several cloth figures sewn from pieces of cloth to test the effect of the explosion.

The young man walked over cautiously, put a stick of incense on the temporarily lengthened medicine twist, only to hear a snort and light it, the medicine line burned quickly, and the young man immediately fled at the fastest speed in his life.

Soon, like a small worm, Mars crawled into the projectile along the lead.

"Bang!"

There was a deafening explosion, and the earth-shattering thunder exploded smoothly.

Liu Juntao and the others only felt that everything around the earth-shaking thunder seemed to be pulled by a strange force, shrunk towards the center, and then rapidly expanded in all directions.

Some of the young people around even had an illusion, that is, the moment they felt that Mars drilled into the bomb body, time seemed to stop, and this earth-shattering thunder seemed to explode after a long time.

The explosion produced by the eight-pound particle gunpowder instantly formed a shock wave that rushed wildly on the ground, sweeping everything that hindered their progress, and in the deafening roar, everyone felt the earth tremble up and down, and the billowing black smoke of the explosion spread to all sides, and finally rose into the air under the action of ground resistance, forming a small mushroom-shaped cloud.

The few cloth people used for testing have long been blown away without a trace by the shock wave.

After the explosion, the world became so quiet that no one could hear anything but their own heartbeat, and it was only after a while that people noticed that their eardrums were buzzing, and it was only then that the innate sense of fear came to mind.

Liu Juntao rubbed his ears that shook his ears, and smiled, and he was still very satisfied with the power of this earth-shattering thunder in his heart.

And Zhang Baigui was pale and full of shock, obviously frightened by the power of this earth-shattering thunder.

In Zhang Baigui's impression, the earth-shaking thunder used by the officials and soldiers in the past was usually a loud bang, and the big iron lump exploded into seven or eight pieces of iron of all sizes, flying in all directions, and the farthest place was only more than three zhang away.

And on the ground where this earth-shattering thunder sample was put on the iron bump, it suddenly blew up a shallow pit in the basin earth!

I didn't expect that this earth-shattering thunder, which was filled with improved particle gunpowder, could increase its power to such a powerful extent.

So, Liu Juntao issued an order to Zhang Baigui, asking that from now on, the Yushan Military War Bureau will start to make every effort to optimize the construction of the earth-shaking thunder and strive to finalize it as soon as possible.

Liu Juntao said: "As long as the earth-shaking thunder is finalized, the war bureau will immediately report to me!" ”

Zhang Baigui immediately agreed.

Half a month later, Zhang Baigui sent a finalized sample of earth-shaking thunder to Yushan Town.

I saw that this stereotyped sample was engraved with grooves all over the body, and it weighed only eight catties, but it was filled with six catties of granular gunpowder, and a handle was specially added at one end to facilitate the escort to throw it.

Liu Juntao was very satisfied with it, and immediately ordered the Yushan Military Bureau to start full production, and named this sky-shaking thunder: orthodox twelve-year earth-shaking thunder!