Many people think that the earliest cannon in ancient times was a bronze cannon, but in fact, the first tubular cannon in history was already an iron cannon, which was fifty years after Jiang De's current time, according to history, there would be a rebel general Wei Sheng who rebelled against the Jin Army to use an iron pipe as a cannon body to create the world's first tubular artillery.

At this time, history has been rewritten, and the artillery made by Gongsun Sheng is much more advanced than the simple artillery made by Wei Sheng in later generations, which uses iron pipes as bodies and gravel as bullets, at least, Gongsun Sheng's artillery has gun carriages and ears.

Jiang De took the binoculars and carefully observed the three cannons, Gongsun Sheng first lit an iron cannon, and then hid to the side to cover his ears, Niu Gao said disdainfully, "This bull's nose is old-fashioned, and it is said to be powerful, but it turns out that it is afraid of being like this." ”

Before the words fell, a loud noise came from the iron cannon, Jiang De could vaguely see a black shadow flying towards the wooden man array in the distance, the black shadow crackled and smashed three or four wooden figures, and then fell to the ground, because it was on the sand, the sand absorbed the impact of the cannonball, just rebounded, and after knocking down a wooden man, he rolled to the sand and moved a few times, then people could see that it was a black lead ball, the lead ball was still heating because of the high temperature, and green smoke also rose on the wooden people who were crushed.

"My mother... Why is it so loud? Niu Gao jumped up in fright, his hands fluttering wildly, as if he wanted to duel with something, and Jiang De and the others who watched laughed.

"It's amazing, it's sharper than that crossbow." The most powerful weapon in Chao Gai's mind was the crossbow, a crossbow like a spear, enough to pierce the iron armor. And this iron cannon seems to be able to penetrate a column of ironclad soldiers.

"Daoist Gongsun is experimenting with another one!" Xu Guanzhong shouted softly, Jiang De picked up the telescope and continued to look, this is a steel cannon, the sound of the cannon is still the same, and the shell has also shot to a place of about 400 meters, don't underestimate this is only more than 400 meters, this is already a very good result, as far as Jiang De knows, the range of ordinary artillery until the Ming Dynasty is only three or four hundred meters, as for the cannon of Lord Yuan, which is erosive for dozens of miles.... Maybe it's a 203 howitzer that travels through the past from the afterlife...

Probably because the caliber and model of the three guns are the same, there is not much difference in the firing range of these three guns, and the difference between the front and back is only thirty or forty meters, which in Jiang De's opinion is just a matter of angle when the artillery is fired.

Jiang De led everyone to the artillery, Xu Guanzhong and the others were amazed and kept stroking and observing the three cannons with residual warmth, and Gongsun Sheng said to Jiang De with a red face, "The owner of the village, fortunately, the mission is not dishonored, and all three cannons have been successfully test-fired!" ”

"Good! This is a great achievement, show me the shells you just shot, I just saw that you stuffed the white stuff in first, that's what I said about the medicine bag, right? Jiang De applauded and smiled, Gongsun Sheng and those craftsmen were proud, no one would know how much effort they put into these artillery, those who write and draw or say an idea can make weapons that have never been done before are, from the idea to the actual need to cross a lot of industrial manufacturing thresholds, even if these thresholds have a direction, they still need workers to experiment and explore little by little to break through.

"Back to the village master, it is indeed the medicine bag used, the gunpowder in this medicine bag is made according to the formula given by the village owner, and the gunpowder is also the best silk, we first stuff the medicine bag into the gun body, and then put the shells, the shells we use lead bullets, each lead bullet weighs five pounds."

Jiang De nodded, looked at the three cannons and said, "Let's talk about the parameters of these three cannons first, by the way, I just saw that these three cannons have all stepped back more than a foot after firing, so don't you have to re-aim every shot?" ”

"Back to the owner of the village, these three cannons are of general length, four feet seven inches long, and the caliber is five inches, which is already the limit of what our craftsmen can do, as for the problem that the owner of the village said, it is true, although this artillery is sharp, but after every shot, it will be pushed back by the recoil to about three or four feet, so when shooting, you must not stand behind, otherwise you will definitely be injured." Gongsun Sheng said helplessly, the huge force generated when this artillery is fired is not something that can be counterbalanced by manpower.

Four feet and seven inches, about one meter and four inches in later generations, and five inches is about fifteen centimeters, such a gun is actually more suitable to be said to be a mortar cannon.

In the military of later generations, as long as the ratio of caliber and barrel length is below thirteen to one, it can become a mortar cannon, although the mortar cannon has a short range, but because the caliber is larger, the power is not small, and because the caliber is large, the barrel is short, and the manufacture is simpler.

"Still can't you just use molds to build artillery?" Jiang De stepped forward and looked at the barrel of the cannon carefully, and found that this iron cannon was made by forging method, and couldn't help asking.

Most of the artillery in later generations used a solid cannon steel to drill a hole directly with a large drilling machine with an ultra-long drill bit, but the technology at this time could not do this at all, and Jiang De could not make such a drilling machine, so the forging method commonly used in the Ming Dynasty was used to make artillery.

The so-called forging method is to first beat the metal block into exactly the same metal tile, the middle of the tile is thick, the two sides are thin, and then the metal tile is rolled into a metal cylinder, and then the metal cylinder is spliced one by one into a cannon, and finally the file is filed to light the door and protect the door.

On the one hand, this method of building is extremely time-consuming and laborious, and on the other hand, there are a lot of waste products, but fortunately, iron is needed everywhere in Liangshan at this time, and the waste is returned to the furnace to make other utensils, but the loss is still very large.

Another method of building artillery with molds said by Jiang De is divided into three types, clay molds, iron molds and sand molds, mud molds are extremely time-consuming, and difficult to dry, and it generally takes several months to produce, which naturally doesn't matter in the peaceful era, wait slowly, but it is a little unacceptable for Jiang De.

As for the sand mold, it is the most used method in the production and manufacturing of later generations, basically using the sand mold to directly cast a solid gray iron column, and then use an ultra-long drill bit to drill, and then go to the loose area of the outer surface, and then carry out reaming, boring and other processes, it is simple, but behind it requires a large number of industrial equipment, which is at least now an incompleteable task for Jiang De.

Then the best choice is the iron mold, Jiang De is also let Gongsun Sheng experiment this method, the iron mold is actually not a new technology, in the late Han Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, there was a record of the use of iron molds to cast farm tools on the land of China, the so-called iron mold, in fact, and the clay mold is about the same, the difference is that he first made an iron mold, and then directly cast with molten iron, and then you can peel off the iron mold, the iron cannon at this time has not cooled, still red hot, if you find any uneven places, you can directly trim with tools, The biggest advantage is that the inside of the chamber is extremely flat, and it requires little grinding.

But the disadvantage is also obvious, rapid cooling will occur metallographic reaction, and finally lead to the appearance of white iron, the toughness of white iron is very low, and a crack will appear after a few shots. At the same time, because the cooling rate of the inside and outside is different, and the outside is generally cooled first, the internal stress is backlogged, and finally even after the manufacturing is completed, there will be cracks directly on the inside.

Gongsun Sheng said with some shame, "Back to the village master, the mold group has not been able to meet the quality required by the village owner, no matter how to do it, it is white iron, but the direct use of bronze can meet the requirements, this bronze cannon is directly cast by iron mold." ”

The advantage of bronze is toughness, and the essence of bronze is an alloy, so it can directly meet the requirements at the time of smelting, and the speed of cooling has little effect on it.

But the question is... The cost of the bronze cannon is simply too high!

Jiang De touched the bronze cannon and found that it was indeed not a forging method, so he said happily, "How much silver does these cannons cost?" How long does it take? ”

Gongsun Sheng said, "The iron cannon weighs 1,500 catties, the steel cannon weighs 1,300 catties, and the bronze cannon weighs 1,700 catties. How much does it cost, but the poor road can only say an approximate, the iron cannon to make one, at least 50 yuan, the steel cannon needs 200 yuan, as for the bronze cannon, the process is the simplest, but the cost is bronze, the copper material alone is sixty or seventy yuan, so the cost is at least more than 100 yuan.

But this is the cost of manufacturing success, now our waste rate is extremely high, whether it is the forging method or the iron mold method, the scrap rate is somewhat high, the forging method is almost ninety, and the iron mold method is fifty percent. In this way, the iron cannon costs 500 guan, the steel cannon costs 2,000 guan, and the bronze cannon is the cheapest, only 200 guan. ”

Jiang De couldn't help but have a toothache when he heard this, this is still the production cost of three guns, so he went to himself for almost three thousand, and this artillery, one or two guns are not enough at all, only dozens or hundreds of concentrated shooting can exert its huge power.

Thinking about the artillery needed on the ships in the future, Jiang De only felt that he might actually be a poor man, not to mention anything else, just say that a battleship of the British sailing era of more than 3,000 tons in the later generations would need more than 100 guns, so that with the cheapest iron cannon, Jiang De could also go bankrupt, not to mention the loss of gunpowder and shells.

But then again, those scrapped artillery pieces are not worthless, and those metals can still be smelted back into the furnace, so how much does it cost, Jiang De felt that he needed to send a few Tianxiang's accountants to Gongsun Sheng to calculate.

Jiang Dedao: "So the forging process still has to find a way to improve... Although the forging method is simple, but the scrap rate is too high, the iron mold method should be tested more, I said before, the reason why the iron mold method appears white iron is that the quality of the molten iron is not good, on the other hand, the internal and external cooling is uneven, in short, test more alloys...

Everyone has seen the power of artillery, and if we can equip it with such a large number of sharp weapons, no matter how big the investment in the early stage, I think it will be worth it. ”

Jiang De is saying that there is no limit to the investment in technology, this is a great thing, Gongsun Sheng and several people nodded happily to show that they understood, and Gongsun Sheng patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, the owner of the village, his subordinates will definitely brainstorm and come up with a solution to the iron molded cannon." ”

"Well, I believe in you, before that, let's stop the cannon of the forging method, we will have a lot of battles in the future, let's produce bronze cannons first, and I'll figure out a way to deal with copper coins..."

Jiang De gritted his teeth and said, he still has a lot of points in his hand now, and he is ready to exchange copper if he can't do it.

After Jiang De finished speaking, the artillery continued, and said, "The rest of this artillery must also continue to be improved, first of all, it must be changed on this artillery mount, and you can add two stationing hoes to try it." ”

As he spoke, Jiang De began to squat on the sand and draw, "I told you before that this cannon uses the expanded air after the gunpowder burns to push the cannonball to hit the enemy, and the effect of this force is mutual, which is said in the book of physics I gave you, so this force is both pushing forward and backward, that is, recoil, we can add an iron ring behind the cannon, and then fix it with something, such as an iron drill for a tent, but because the land geology is different, what should be used, I still need to study it, Daoist.

The next step is to adjust the angle, I see that the method you use is to add wood to the tail of the gun, but this accuracy is difficult to guarantee, my suggestion is to add a rack that can be spiraled up, and you have to test the effect of shooting at different heights to get the best shooting angle. ”

The gun carriage drawn by Jiang De is already very flavorful of later generations, Gongsun Sheng nodded violently as if he had won the treasure, Jiang De pointed to the front of the artillery and said, "You have added a lookout mountain, but how should this lookout mountain be used, do you have experience data?" ”

Gongsun Sheng shook his head, this hasn't fired a few shots yet, where can I get any empirical data, but he also knew what Jiang De meant, so he said, "Don't worry, the owner of the village, we will continue the experiment." ”

Jiang De said, "Don't wait, let's get a data today, continue to fire, and try to see how many cannons will make this cannon explode." ”

Explode? Isn't that going to break? Niu Gao hurriedly said, "Owner of the village, this is a good thing, if this is blown up, won't it be useless?" What a pity! ”

"If you don't test his limit now, when our brother uses it in the future, do you want our brother to be killed by his own weapon?" Jiang De waved his hand and said, "I don't think it's enough to blow up one chamber, we should blow up ten doors and eight doors, so that we can get accurate data, and when our brothers use it, we can rest assured." ”

Niu Gao was still a little reluctant, but Xu Guanzhong and the others had already bowed and said, "The owner of the village is wise, in this way, the brothers must be willing to die!" ”

Seeing this, Gongsun Sheng began to toss up the three cannons, what double charge, triple charge, until four times the charge, all of a sudden the iron cannon exploded first, and the flying iron piece flew over Gongsun Sheng's head, so frightened that Gongsun Sheng's face became pale, and he realized at this time that he had not retreated far enough....

The people near Liangshan suddenly found that they didn't know what was going on, that Liangshan seemed to have a lot of thunder recently, but looking at the sky, it was cloudless, sunny and very, gradually, some people rumored that there was a dragon figure on Liangshan, and there must be someone in Liangshan with dragon energy, so it was so.