"It's not impossible to expand the caliber of the old gun!"

As a "puppet official" who was rescued by Zhu Mingzhong in prison, Dai Cang joined his command after he was released from prison, and he was already in charge of the Jiangnan Governor's Mansion Workshop, and he was already good at manufacturing equipment, so after he joined the Loyal Army, he was immediately in charge of the craftsman battalion.

Originally, he was assisting the navy to load the Franc machine onto the ship, and when he heard that the military gate had arrived at the craftsman's camp, he immediately rushed over. After hearing from the craftsman's mouth that the military gate intended to enlarge the bird gun, he was faced with the problem of unusable use that might arise after the thinner pipe became thinner, but he only observed it for a while, and then thought of a solution.

Ordered someone to put the pipes of the two bird guns on the table, Dai Cang looked at Zhu Mingzhong and said.

"Junmen, please see what is the difference between these two guns?"

What is the biggest difference between the two birds? It is length.

"This should be a five-foot bird gun made by Chongzhen later, and this one is a three-foot bird gun."

In the face of the heavy armor of the Qing captive, in order to improve the power of the bird, in addition to increasing the amount of strong charge, Chongzhen began to manufacture five-foot bird, since then, China's birdboy has gone to another "crooked road", the barrel is getting longer and longer, to the Kangxi period, in addition to the cavalry with a three-foot bird, the infantry are a color five-foot bird, and even a seven-foot bird, the reason why it is called a crooked road, is because in order to improve the power, the constantly lengthened bird's gun, and does not bring the advantages of imagination, On the contrary, due to manufacturing and other reasons, the barrel cannot be straightened, resulting in a decrease in accuracy.

It can be seen that the ignorance of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in addition to lengthening the barrel, did not consider increasing the caliber at all, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the five-foot barrel of the three-coin bird gun, there were also four-coin and six-coin bird guns and turtledove guns and other large-caliber arquebuses.

"Exactly, the military gate, although the power of the five-foot bird gun is greatly increased compared to the power of the three-foot bird gun, fifty steps can break the heavy armor, but compared to the six-money bird gun, but it can be broken with heavy armor one hundred and fifty steps away, compared to the turtledove gun, its gun weight is lighter, and the price is cheap, if it is not for the Chongzhen period of the imperial court is unable to make a six-money bird gun, think about the current army I am afraid that the army has long used the six-money bird gun, and then the thief entered the capital, the Qing prisoner entered the customs, and the gunsmith died or left, this six-money bird gun is naturally unknown, As for the Qingyu, he only knows how to use the rather inconvenient turtledove. ”

The turtledove is the largest caliber of the Ming Dynasty, also called the hook gun, the gun is 5.5 feet long, almost 1.8 meters, 1.3 taels of medicine, the lead weighs 1.5 to 1.6 taels, the big turtledove bullet is even heavier than 1.8 taels, because its gun body is very heavy, it needs to be supported by a tripod, and it resembles a bird's foot, hence the name, its power is far better than that of ordinary birds, and the style of bird guns and Lumi guns is completely different. At that time, Macao and Guangdong could be manufactured, the official army was only a small amount of equipment, Zhu Mingzhong was no stranger to the turtledove, after he recovered Huai'an, Yangzhou and the two prefectures, Zheng Chenggong specially ordered someone to send a batch of weapons, including 100 turtledoves. In appearance, it looks very similar to the Spanish arquebus that I once saw on the Internet. It's just that the cost of this arquebus is relatively high, and the recoil is too large and inconvenient to use, so it is not widely used.

Six-money bird gun?

This is the first time Zhu Mingzhong has heard of it, but then he was immediately relieved, since the barrel can be lengthened, it is natural to increase the caliber, and there are a few gunsmiths who will be so conservative that there are only three coins of birds.

"Junmen, in fact, in the opinion of the following officials, the body of this six-coin bird gun is too heavy, and the bullet is too heavy to use, so if you want to increase the power of the bird gun, you should use the 5-money bird gun."

Dai Cang, who once served in the Ministry of Industry, naturally had his own suggestions for the bird, and after mentioning the five-money bird, he pointed to the two pipes on the table and said,

"Junmen, look at these two guns, the five-foot bird's pipe is two feet longer than the three-foot pipe, and in addition, you look at its body, two feet to three feet, compared to the three-foot bird's pipe, it is thicker, according to the officer, if the mouth is thicker, naturally there is no need to use a five-foot long pipe, if it is sawed off a foot and a half, because this middle section is slightly thicker, it can naturally expand the mouth ......of the gun."

Dai Cang's explanation made Zhu Mingzhong observe the barrel carefully, although it was only two or three millimeters thicker, it could obviously be seen that it was a little thicker.

"What Jia Mei said is extreme, I think this is the way to do, you can see the five-foot bird gun short, anyway, we don't need the long pipe, and then use a steel drill to expand the ......"

Looking at the three-foot bird gun on the side, Zhu Mingzhong didn't waste it.

"As for the Three-Foot Bird, well, it can be used for training, yes, the recoil of the Three-Foot Bird is small, so that it is easier for soldiers to master it with its training, and not to be afraid of it......"

In fact, in Japan at the same time, their 1-3 cannons, that is, "iron cannons", because of their light recoil and do not consume a lot of gunpowder, are usually used for practice, after all, the gunpowder used in 1 round and 6 canisters can make 1 canister fire 6 times. The three-coin bird gun can also be used for training, of course, it can also be used for combat, such as dealing with the green battalion without armor, bandits and other armed forces, this kind of bird gun with a caliber of only about 13 mm can fully meet its needs, of course, at that time, it was not a bird gun, but a flintlock gun.

"What the military gate said is very true, if it is used for training, it can only be used for one dollar, the medicine does not cost, the sound is not loud, the lead bullet can also be recovered, and the barrel will not be immediately hot......"

After expressing his agreement, Dai Cang changed the conversation again and continued.

"It's just a military gate, if the mouth of the gun is increased to a five-dollar bullet, then its medicine is bound to increase by more than five dollars, so it is almost doubled, if the tail is thinned, there will inevitably be a suspicion of explosion, this, how is it good?"

Dai Cang's rhetorical question made Zhu Mingzhong stunned for a moment, and then he thought that this musket is a whole, and if the caliber is increased, it is naturally necessary to increase the propellant, and when the barrel is thinned after the bore is large, how can it withstand the chamber pressure after the gunpowder is nearly doubled?

Staring at the gun on the table, Zhu Mingzhong's brows were tightly locked, if this problem could not be solved, even if a flintlock pistol was made, how could it be possible to penetrate the heavy armor of the Qing army?

"If not......"

Staring at the heavy tail, Zhu Mingzhong said after thinking for a while.

"Can you make the tail a little thicker......?"

In an instant, Zhu Mingzhong's mind came up with the casing of the famous Krupp in later generations, and the multi-layer casing made it withstand higher chamber pressure.

"We can round the tail, and then make a half-foot long iron pipe, the iron pipe can be slightly smaller than the tail, and then heat, put it on while it is hot, and when it cools, it will naturally be tightly integrated......

"The military gate means to add another layer of tails, so that the tail can avoid exploding, but what a dilemma it is to make an octagonal tail, unless the tail is rounded, but it must be labor-intensive......"

When Dai Cang pointed out that the round barrel was labor-intensive and time-consuming, Zhu Mingzhong looked at the octagonal barrel, thinking of the backward technology of this era, which made people only choose this barrel shape, and said after a little thought.

"Well, if you want to be rounded, you can't rely on manpower alone, I think you can design a machine......"

As an engineering student, Zhu Mingzhong's best thing is naturally machinery, so he almost immediately thought of the lathe, but the lathe needs high-quality steel as a tool, and the structure of the lathe is also extremely complex, so after a little thought, he used charcoal to draw a simple sketch on the paper, while drawing and saying.

"This machine can be hydraulic, powered by a water wheel, and then turn a gear, this one is temporarily powered by a wooden gear set, which increases the rotational speed ......"

Although in the history of machinery, it is said that in 1864, the United States made the world's first grinding machine, which is to install a grinding wheel on the slide knife holder of the lathe, so that it can grind the workpiece, but in fact, in China, as early as 2,000 years ago, there was a very primitive grinding machine with a similar function, but at that time the ancients used it to process jade.

Maybe other people don't know much about grinders, but Dai Cang easily saw the principle from the drawings drawn by the military gate, and his eyes lit up instantly.

"After a little while, Xia Guan understands, you are using a water wheel to drive the big wheel, and then the big wheel with the small wheel, so the speed is naturally very high, so that you can grind the stone and polish the pipe, and the outer tube of the gun tube will only be very smooth, in this way, not only can the weight of the gun tube be rounded, but also you can use the way of making the gun tube, and it is naturally very convenient to make the sleeve that the military gate said......

Staring at the pattern on the paper, Dai Cang's whole person looked extremely excited, he looked at the waterwheel, and all he thought of was how to use water conservancy, since this grinding pipe can use water power, then water power can naturally be used in other places, such as ...... Wrought iron! Just like the water hammer that is very common in the south of the Yangtze River, it is a utensil that uses water power to make rice, if the stone hammer of the water rice is replaced with an iron hammer, in this way, the speed of making weapons and armor is not faster?

Even, this waterwheel can also be used to sawn wood and ...... For the first time, Dai Cang only felt that the use of this waterwheel was far beyond his imagination. And Zhu Mingzhong, who didn't know what kind of inspiration his actions had brought to Dai Cang, continued.

"The key to this hydraulic power lies in the waterwheel, so the shape of the waterwheel is very important......

When Zhu Mingzhong redrew the shape of a new type of waterwheel, Dai Cang could no longer control his inner emotions, and he bowed deeply to Zhu Mingzhong excitedly,

"Junmen, the subordinate has an uninvited invitation!"