Li Xuan held the flintlock pistol in his hand, the shape of this flintlock pistol was no different from the first flintlock pistol he had seen a few years ago.

In the early years, Li Xuan asked the students of the Royal Institute of Technology to carry out the research and development of flintlock pistols, and he came up with a sample gun in a short time, but because the quality of the spring steel was not up to par and the firing rate was too low, he was not even equipped with test equipment, and it was directly shelved.

And today, a few years later, the flintlock pistol that Li Xuan saw, its overall structure is almost the same as that of the prototype gun, and the overall structure such as the barrel is basically a copy of the original arquebus.

The caliber was also 14 mm, and there was also a crosshair, a ruler, a bayonet mount, and a new steel bayonet.

The only difference is the firing mechanism.

Li Xuan knew that the use of the basic structure such as the barrel, which was almost the same as the Yuan Nian type, was for better mass production, so that the existing gun production line would hardly need to be changed much, especially for a musket, the main core component 'barrel'.

This means that the existing arquebus only needs to be modified by a simple bolt to turn an arquebus into a flintlock pistol.

After all, it is impossible for the Tang Dynasty to have the luxury of throwing away all the existing arquebuses that have exceeded 100,000 units, and then replacing them with flintlock muskets on a large scale.

At present, the production of guns in the Tang Dynasty is limited, more than 100,000 muskets, but it will take several years to produce.

After Li Xuan looked at the flintlock pistol in his hand slightly, he also nodded slightly to the officials on the side, and then, the soldiers who had already prepared began the live-fire drill one after another.

The first thing to do is the reload drill!

The first thing is to push open the buckle spring, expose the firing groove, and pull the bolt to a safe position, then take out the fixed paper-wrapped ammunition, and then tear the tail of the paper-wrapped ammunition with the mouth, put a small amount of gunpowder into the firing groove, and then pull the buckle spring back to cover the firing groove, and then pour most of the remaining gunpowder into the barrel, and then stuff the wrapping paper and lead bullet into the barrel, and then compact it with a strip to take out the strip.

Then the gun was cocked up, waiting for the order to open the mouth, and after the order to prepare to fire was given, the gun was laid flat and aimed.

After the order to fire was given, the trigger was pulled, and wow, the bullet was fired!

However, despite these differences in details, the biggest difference between a flintlock pistol and an arquebus is that one uses a lit arquebus to ignite, while a flintlock pistol directly pulls the trigger to ignite!

Looking at it this way, people may think that there is not much difference between this flintlock pistol and the arquebus, why use a flintlock pistol instead of an arquebus, and the firing mechanism of the flintlock pistol is much more complicated than the arquebus, which also represents an increase in the increase.

At present, the purchase price of a Yuannian arquebus is only about four taels of silver, but the Jiangnan Arsenal gave a price of five taels after evaluating the new flintlock pistol.

Moreover, this price is still based on large-scale production, if it is an early production, the production volume is not large, and its price will reach six taels of silver.

Don't look at it, it's just an increase of one tael of silver, two taels of silver, but this kind of thing is used on a large scale, and it is a consumable, and the scale of equipment is hundreds of thousands, and it will also lose a large number of muskets due to training and combat, and a large number of muskets need to be replenished here.

Therefore, the small difference between these two taels of silver, which adds up to the cost of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

However, why the cost has increased, it is necessary to replace the arquebus with flintlock pistols, in short, there are the following factors.

First of all, the arquebus has the following defects: the arquebus must be lit in advance, but after the arquebus is lit, if you don't fire for a long time, the arquebus will burn out, but the key point is that when you fight, it does not mean that you can fire when you light the arquebus, sometimes you need to wait for a long time before you have the opportunity to shoot, and the arquebus may burn out in the process.

Then there is the fact that arquebuses are very inconvenient to fight in rainy days, and the arquebuses are easily extinguished by rain.

In addition, after the arquebus is lit, the soldiers need to keep a relatively large interval between the arquebuses, so as to avoid the soldiers' arquebuses igniting the guns of the soldiers next door, causing misfire.

Compared with the arquebus, the flintlock pistol almost avoids these defects, and the flintlock pistol without the arquebus, the above problems are almost non-existent, and the problem of rain protection, as long as it is not in the case of heavy rain, then it almost does not affect the firing.

It is also important to note that the flintlock muskets have little to no need to worry about the soldiers misfiring, which means that the musketeers can be more densely packed.

For the same width, in the past, only ten musketeers could be arranged, but with the flintlock pistol equipped, twenty musketeers could be arranged.

What does this mean?

This represents an increase in the density of fire!

For the battles of the Musket era, the increase in the density of fire, it was possible to reduce the number of spearmen.

Now in the regular army of the Tang Army, the ratio of musketeers to spearmen is almost one-to-one, and if the flintlock pistol is equipped on a large scale, the ratio of musketeers to spearmen can be two to one, three to one, and even completely eliminate spearmen in the end.

Only with the advent of flintlock muskets will it be possible to completely eliminate the cold-armed infantry!

That is to say, if the Datang Army can be equipped with flintlock pistols on a large scale, then it will not only gain advantages such as the rate of fire on the musket and not being afraid of rain, but more importantly, it will be able to obtain a completely different combat method.

When the time comes, the phalanx of pure musket infantry will appear!

Just when Li Xuan was thinking about how to use flintlock pistols to organize infantry units with pure firearms, and completely bring the Tang Army to the ranks of modern armies, the flintlock pistol test below was also continuing.

As the soldiers in the front test pulled the trigger, and then after the gunshots rang out, before the smoke cleared, the soldiers began the second round of reloading, then shooting, and the third round of reloading, shooting!

The soldiers who tested these tests fired ten consecutive volleys, and Li Xuan nodded slightly after seeing it, although it was inevitable that there would be a dud in this process, but the rate of fire was still much faster than the Yuannian arquebus.

Moreover, in order to reflect the new tactical application of flintlock pistols, the test soldier lists a very tight three-row queue, which is very different from the six-row queue commonly used by the Tang Army now.

And this tactic brings even more intensive firepower!

After the test, Li Xuan immediately said: "Okay, this thing should be my Datang weapon!" ”

And those army generals who also watched the test, their eyes lit up, although they are natives of this era, there are no prophets like Li Xuan, but as army generals, they have a deeper feeling for the war of this era, when they see the performance of the flintlock pistol test, as well as the application of its new tactics.

One by one, I couldn't help it.

Zeng Ziwen asked the Ministry of Industry officials on the spot: "Our army wants this flintlock pistol, when will you be able to produce it on a large scale?!" ”

The officials of the Ordnance Department of the Privy Council on the side also spoke: "We have to cancel the orders we placed for the first year type muskets before, and change all the orders to flintlock pistols!" ”

Hearing this, the officials of the Ministry of Industry naturally did not show much thought, they themselves had already carried out internal tests in advance, the performance of this flintlock pistol is definitely able to hang the existing arquebus, and although the price is a little expensive, but it is not much more expensive, a little cost increases, but it can be exchanged for a flintlock pistol, which is definitely worth it.

Li Xuan didn't pay attention to the words of the officials of the army and the Ministry of Industry, the large-scale production and equipment of flintlock pistols were already a foregone conclusion, and he didn't have to worry about the next things, the army could handle it by itself.

There are flintlock pistols to press the formation, and the test of several new weapons at the back does not seem to have much taste, and the Ministry of Industry has tested an 18-pound howitzer, but the army said that the power is too small, and the weight is too much.

In addition, there is a test of a new grenade, but it is a new grenade, but in fact it is still the original basic structure, only minor adjustments have been made, and the performance has been improved, but the improvement is limited.

Therefore, this inspection, the next time became a little boring, and in the short time that followed, the ordnance department of the army had already placed orders for a total of more than 30,000 brand-new flintlock guns and 20,000 arquebuses for flintlock pistols to several arsenals of the Ministry of Industry on the spot!

And that's just the first batch of orders!

Subsequently, the Guards and the Army also placed orders on the spot!

However, Li Xuan went out of the city to inspect today, although the flintlock pistol was the focus, but other things that should be seen still had to be seen, and after seeing the Jiangnan Arsenal, he took the ministers to the Jinling Shipyard.

Jinling Shipyard, which is a typical inland river shipyard, its positioning is equivalent to the original Zhaoqing shipyard, and its largest dock is only 300 tons, mainly to build a large number of inland river warships, patrol ships, and inland river transport ships in the navy.

At present, because the shipyard has just been completed, and many ships have just started, it is naturally impossible to see any magnificent large-tonnage warships here, but the focus of this shipbuilding is not to see any large-scale warships, but to look at the factory itself, and to see a few river warships.

One of the new second-class inland river warships is to Li Xuan's satisfaction, this kind of second-class inland river warship is the navy's recent improved design based on the original second-class inland river warship.

The tonnage is not large, only 60 tons, and the firepower has basically maintained the original scale, which is not strong, but the draft has become shallower, and the use of sails is also higher, which can be used in more complex inland rivers to meet the operational needs of the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and a large number of small and medium-sized rivers.

Of course, what is more critical is that the hull cost of the new Class B inland river warship is 30 percent cheaper than that of the original Class B river warship, and the crew is reduced by 20 percent.

And this means that the navy can be equipped with more of these second-class inland river warships in limited funds, which is very important for the Tang Dynasty Division, which is fighting against the Ming army.

Now in the sea, the Datang Navy already has an absolute advantage over the Ming Army and the Navy, but in the inland river field, it is more general, and the most important reason is that there are not enough inland river warships!