The strange gun is a shoulder-mounted flintlock breech gun, the flintlock structure is almost mature, the caliber is estimated to be about 17 to 18 mm between the seam of the hot-rolled coil of the processed iron tube [Note 1], the barrel is coated with a multi-section iron sleeve to enhance the barrel chamber pressure, no rifling was found, most of them are smoothbore, but the inner hole has obvious machining marks, such as the use of some kind of reamer or broache, the use of a flintlock machine and a fire sickle to hit the principle of the powder pool to ignite.

The barrel sits on a long, equal-length handguard with a flintlock structure built into the wooden body.

The total weight of the gun is more than 25 pounds, and there is an external hammer at the tail of the gun to hit the medicine pool, and the muzzle-type bayonet is used, which directly inserts the bayonet into the muzzle, rather than a sleeve bayonet, and is not a more demanding seated bayonet.

But the strange thing is that the firing device of the breech gun in the general sense should be in front of the butt, on the upper side of the trigger bow bolt.

The gun is an iron pipe sitting on a wooden body handguard, and the firing structure of the gun is located at the end of the tail.

That is, it is equivalent to pressing the firing structure on the butt of the shoulder and pressing it on the shoulder, and there is no obvious human butt structure, and the whole body is a round bar.

Therefore, if humans use a modified gun, they can only use RPG shoulder-fired fire, and because the firing structure is placed at the tail of the gun, it cannot be fired against the shoulder.

And the weight is 25 pounds, it is very difficult to hold up and aim with both hands, the length of the gun is more than 1.8 meters, plus the bayonet, the overall length is more than 2.2 meters, it is hard to imagine that it will be a weapon used by people.

Tested with correctly formulated black powder, the theoretical effective range of the musket using lead bullets [Note 2] was between 100 and 150 paces, which is equivalent to 230 meters in the metric system, regardless of the accuracy of the shot.

When the gunpowder is reduced to a safe amount, the actual shooting data shows that the effective killing distance of the projectile is only more than 120 meters, the maximum lethality within 60 meters, the highest accuracy within 40 meters, and the stray bullet can fly 350 meters away, and it still has lethality. At a distance of 60 meters, it can penetrate all the armor at the moment, and at a distance of 130 meters, it can have a certain pouring effect on 10 mm ordinary carbon steel.

According to the information that has been obtained, Changsun Guo tried to imitate the flint structure at the beginning, but was unsuccessful due to the limitations of processing capacity, metal materials, and chemical ability, and finally only ignited and launched through a large iron pipe with a casting diameter of more than 20 mm, which is the origin of the current Changsun Guo's shoulder-mounted firearms.

In addition, the "Skyship" shipborne artillery adopts a high-precision casting process, and traces of metal processing are found in the barrel, which is relatively smooth, and it is very likely that a large lathe and boring machine are used for processing, which means that the unknown civilization has at least entered a mature steam power era. [Note 3]

At the same time, it can also be determined that the unknown civilization has a complete and mature industrial steelmaking method, or the converter method or the open-hearth method, and it is unlikely to be the low-yield, mediocre steel frying and steel-filling method.

The two guns stolen had a range of three and a half miles and five miles, and were smaller in size and had higher chamber pressure.

In view of the accuracy of the sail ship and the breech guns, the naval guns at sea are close to each other, and the range of the naval guns will not be too far, and if it is an army gun, it will have a longer range than the naval guns.

The heaviest fortress breech guns can even reach more than ten miles, which means that the industrialization of an unknown civilization far away from the sea has completely crushed the Central Plains.

This is also the range of the shot put, and if a lighter cast iron projectile is used, the firing range will increase by more than twenty percent.

In addition, the most damn thing about this ship is that half of the sails used on board are round face sails and olive-shaped sails.

Bailiyan inferred that the round and olive-shaped areas were the largest and could be ridden. The second best is the square sail, the spinnaker has the least ride, but the spinnaker is easy to maneuver and is therefore usually used in a composite combination.

And around July of this year, Su Fangyi asked someone to bring a letter, the first line of which was shocking, the heavenly ship captured by Changsun Guo, the sailors on board were not people.

To say "not a person", the Central Plains has never regarded Jin Xuedi people as people, and Bailiyan has long been accustomed to it. And this time, all the "trolls" who were more than two and a half meters tall were all green-skinned, hairless, bald, with as many as twelve fingers on their hands, six fingers on each hand, and their feet were also as huge as rice buckets. And the face has no eyes, and the eyes grow under the armpits, so they are also called axillary people.

According to the investigation of Yuke, at the end of the Shengyuan Dynasty in 629, the naval army of Changsun Guo found the ship on the surface of the north sea of Haitian County in the northernmost part of the country, and the two sides approached three miles away, and the first sporadic shelling occurred, and the resistance was not fierce, and the ship encountered weak resistance after boarding.

When he entered the ship, he found that the people on board had a strange illness and were almost dead. According to this, it was judged that after the crew was sick, the ship lost its ability to maneuver and drifted to the vicinity of the North Sea, which happened to be discovered by Changsun Guo.

In addition, there are various other rumors that are also emerging, such as the theory of "immortals", the theory of cannibals, and so on.

Now, in the past eight or nine years, no one knows when and where they will encounter unknown "visitors" again, and the next time, it may be like the white man discovering America and killing the Indians

There are two intelligent species on this planet at the same time, the weak, or enslaved or exterminated, and there is no possibility of symbiosis.

There are still more than 200 countries and regions of the same kind on the earth, fighting for planetary hegemony for hundreds of years, not to mention that at present, two completely different intelligent species coexist, and one of them will inevitably die, Bai Liyan has no doubt about this.

After watching the cannons, King Xian inspected Yongxing City non-stop, stayed here that night, and discussed the request of the alliance put forward by the chairman Sun Guo overnight.

"Marquis Yongxing, there are three opinions on the matter of the alliance at the moment, one is Gao Qing's non-alliance, the second is that the prince and the marquis of Ding Yang go to the alliance, and finally the foreign envoy promises to go to the alliance of the Zhiguo. Aiqing thinks that among the three strategies, which strategy is the most beneficial to my Xianguo? ”

King Xian's voice fell, and Gao Xun's eyes immediately fell on Bai Li Yan, and he earnestly hoped that Bai Li Yan would agree with his opinion.

Bai Liyan was actually quite embarrassed, he and Zong Botai had discussed all possibilities as early as this spring, and it was not surprising that Changsun Guo had more guns and more artillery to propose an alliance, and the three strategies actually had their own merits.

After a little thought, Baili Yan Zhengse said:

"King, there are pros and cons to these three opinions, but there are two things that must be clarified before these three strategies can be considered."

"What two things did Aiqing say?" King Xian asked.

"First, does our Xianguo plan to expand its territory, if it opens up the territory of the Sun State, and now the Zhiguo is the hegemon, but the Changsun State proposes an alliance, then the Changsun State can protect the legitimate interests of the land occupied by the Xianguo of the Sun State, if it goes back on its word, or has ulterior motives, who will my Xianguo go to reason.

Looking at the bad deeds of the Changsun Kingdom in the past, its reputation is open to discussion for personal gain. Therefore, the minister is not in favor of going to the eldest grandson to join the alliance, but if he does not go, how to explain to the Jin Kingdom, how to deal with the relationship between the crown prince and the crown princess Xihuan, and whether he will be retaliated against, these need to weigh the pros and cons.

If you go to the Zhiguo Alliance, with the credibility of Zhiguo, our country can get the interests of Sun Guo, but it will be retaliated by Jin Guo and Changsun immediately.

Gao Daren's non-alliance, although both sides will not be offended, but the eldest grandson and Zhiguo will not protect the interests of my Xianguo after the elimination of the Black Turban Army, even if Zhiguo and I are friendly, but there is no friendship in front of interests, it is difficult to guarantee that Zhiguo will not send troops to attack me in the future.

At the same time, no matter whether our Xianguo goes to the Changsun Kingdom Alliance or not, the minister dares to guarantee that the Changsun Kingdom and the Jin State will never send troops to save me, unless I will not expand westward after the Xianguo recovers the lost territory. ”

"What about the second thing Aiqing said?"

"If the king decides to expand westward, he is ready to eat how much land the Sun Kingdom has."

"There is still a large area of land in the south of Changsun Kingdom that has not yet been recovered, and it will take time to go south, and our army only needs to recover Qiu Nannan County now, and then it can move westward and directly take Pengyuan, Wanchuan, Shangguan, Xiaguan and other places in Sun Kingdom, and even hit the banks of the Sishui River, it is not impossible to hit the Sishui River, naturally the more the better."

The King of Xian had no taboos, and when he opened his mouth, he had already eaten land that was even larger than that of Xianguo.

Bailiyan naturally didn't want to sweep the Xian King's Yaxing, but the reality was impossible for the Xian King to easily swallow a larger land than the Xian Kingdom. He said:

"The king, the minister thinks that after capturing Pengyuan and Wanchuan, it is time to collect the troops, and at most Shangguan County will be conquered, and all the other territories will be given to Changsun, Zhiguo and Xu."

"In the lifetime of a widow, such a great opportunity, seeing that other countries have annexed several counties or even more than a dozen counties, while Xianguo only swallowed two counties, this is too little!" King Xian regretted everything, obviously only swallowing two counties, which was not enough to make up for the losses caused by the battle of Jiangdong and the ravages of black scarves.

Ran Bailiyan said:

"Great King, there are only seven counties in Xianguo, Xianxi and Qiunan still need to be cultivated, except for the capital counties, the rest of the counties are not rich, not counting the army and military rations at the moment, there are only more than 3 million stones of grain and grass in our granary, even if you count next year, at most another 1.23 million stones.

According to the Yukelai newspaper, there are more than 3 million miscellaneous people in Pengyuan and Wanchuan counties alone, all of whom are captive people from Changsun, Xu and Zhiguo, and only these 3 million mouths need to be supplemented with 600 to 8 million stone grain and grass within two years after the war.

Moreover, if our army only takes two counties, then our Xianguo can take the policy of not participating in the alliance, and at the same time secretly form a good alliance with Zhiguo, so that it can protect the interests of our country, so that it will not cause dissatisfaction of Zhiguo because of our country's annexation of the two counties.

At the same time, the Xian State was able to end the war earlier than the other vassal states, beware of changes in the Jin State, step up the recovery of vitality, and consolidate the existing interests. ”

Pengyuan and Wanchuan counties, the area of each county is larger than the two Xianxi counties, of which Pengyuan County is a plain, 60% of the land of Wanchuan County is hilly and mountainous, the arable area is not much, the cultivated land development potential is small, more than 3 million people, more than 60% are concentrated in Pengyuan County, and the personnel composition is very complicated.

The current registered population of Xianguo is less than 6 million, and the number of people in Xianguo will not exceed 8 million at best, including the Legion Army and their families, the new vassals, the newly attached Minmin Army, the Returned Foreign Army, the craftsmen and their families, and an unknown number of hidden households.

Among the 8 million people, there are more than 400,000 garrison soldiers and county soldiers, as well as 780,000 Guangxin troops, nearly 100,000 people with a population of 10,000 tax cuts, and more than 600,000 people's troops and their families, which are actually less than 6 million people, and 3 million mouths and more than 400,000 troops, without sufficient grain and grass reserves, it is extremely difficult to take the two counties.

Only the sooner the war is ended, the more beneficial it will be for the Xian country. Taking a step back, after three years of recovery, the domestic economy and politics of Xianguo are far better than those of other countries, and the more territory it eats in the future, the worse its national strength will be, and the longer it will take to digest the acquired territory.

If the Xian army takes two counties and stops marching within half a year, it will strive for at least two to three more years to restore national strength and digest the territory.

When the other vassal states defeated the Black Turban Army, the Xian State basically pacified the two counties, but the other princes were still busy quelling the rebellion everywhere and pacifying the rebellious people.

[Note 1] During the breech gun period, subject to the constraints of processing technology, metallurgical technology, casting technology, prop technology, and mechanical equipment technology, in the early nineteenth century, all breech guns, including the earliest batch of rear-loading paper-shell fixed rifles, all used seamed barrels, so don't be fooled by film and television dramas.

The steel sheet is used, after being sheared to the required size, it is curled, and the stitching is closed after heating, and the iron pipe is heated while using borax or other catalysts, and the purpose of forging is carried out to achieve the purpose of closing, and finally the lathe is broached with a knife, and the upper broaching machine pulls the inner hole, so as to manufacture a seamless barrel.

Due to the difference in the level of manufacturing technology in various countries, some barrels are not packed with pressure, so they will also put barrels on the barrel jacket, such as the old sleeve, that is, the barrel pressure is not enough, and the kinetic energy of the full-power rifle is too large, so the barrel can only be thickened, and the result of using round-nosed bullets.

After that, prop material technology developed, deep hole processing technology appeared, and the barrel was able to be punched using round steel.

In the late nineteenth century, with the invention of seamless steel pipe technology by the British, the barrel began to use perforated round steel, and the deep hole processing machine was used first, so as to avoid the scrap rate caused by the problem of deep hole processing solid hole because of the problem of prop materials.

After the twentieth century, the emergence of high-speed steel greatly improved the efficiency and yield of metal cutting and deep hole processing, and the barrel was completely high-precision.

In the early days, especially in the arquebus era, due to the constraints of mechanical processing technology, the earliest arquebus still required blacksmiths to hammer out plates with iron ingots, and then hammer and roll into coils, so the caliber of the earliest muskets was mostly twenty-five, or even thirty millimeters, that is, three centimeters, so the caliber of the early muskets was very exaggerated.

[Note 2] The effective range is the ultimate distance of the projectile at the end of the tilting force, that is, the projectile can still reach the required kinetic energy at a certain distance and penetrate the set target, rather than the accuracy distance and the power distance. Even stray bullets, as long as they can cause casualties to personnel, are still effective ranges.

Due to the problem of smoothbore and projectile clearance, the accuracy of the breech gun basically depends on character, so it is necessary to shoot a row of guns, 40 meters to 60 meters, which is basically a practical accuracy distance.

It's too close, and the accuracy is improved, but within fifty meters, it is basically solved by charging and bayonets, especially when encountering the Russians' 300-yard bayonets, the range is not enough, and it relies on the sea of people.

And it is too far, and the projectile lacks the accuracy of hitting, so seventy or eighty to one hundred and twenty meters, the most shots are shot in a row, shortened to forty or fifty meters, and the side with weak morale will definitely break up when shooting a platoon, because of this distance, it is certain to die, and it is better to charge and fight with bayonets.

[3] The first industrial revolution occurred around the middle of the 18th century, and the second industrial revolution with electricity as a technological advance occurred in the middle of the 19th century, but the prototype of electric power technology appeared in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Although steam power is the earliest energy power, it does not mean that steam power is backward equipment, electrically driven machine tools and mechanical equipment, steam power equipment can also be driven, such as electric lathes, milling machines, boring machines and other metal cutting equipment, electric energy can drive, steam power can also be driven, otherwise the early guns can not be industrially produced.

The key lies in the kinetic energy conversion device and the power efficiency.

Compared with the electric motor transmission, the energy loss of steam power is much greater than that of electric motor transmission, and the electric motor greatly reduces the volume of kinetic energy delivery and conversion equipment, and the steam power needs to convert kinetic energy to the machine tool, and then connects to the machine tool gear transmission mechanism, and the motor does not have this problem.

At the same time, the power output of steam-powered equipment is unstable, the kinetic energy is not constant, and there is no stability and variable speed of the motor. Therefore, steam power is connected to mechanical equipment and requires variable speed equipment.

Therefore, despite the many defects of steam equipment, it can still be used as transmission equipment for the operation of mechanical equipment.

Taking the Eighth Road Huangyadong Arsenal as an example, the main equipment for building weapons was still simple cars and milling machines driven by steam-powered machinery, so that rifles and mortars could also be produced in the 20th century and 40s, imitation of the 92nd infantry gun, and even the early development of gun grenades and grenadiers.