At the end of April, the weather was already very warm, and the bright sunshine shone on the plains of Tianjin, making the wheat fields after the winter wheat harvest look yellow. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Zhi and several of his subordinates stood on a shooting range in the suburbs to test the newly produced breech rifle produced by the arsenal.

After more than a year of fumbling, the technicians of the arsenal have fully mastered the structure of the Sharps Type 1859 breech-loading rifle. The only problem was that the production accuracy of this rifle was too high, and it required the precision of machining in the mid-to-late 19th century, otherwise the gun locking mechanism, which was constantly opening and closing, would leak.

At present, Fanjiazhuang's state-of-the-art machine tools can only control the machining accuracy to one-fifth of a millimeter - which is a step forward from before. However, if you want to produce a qualified locking structure, you must at least control the machining accuracy to one-tenth of a millimeter.

However, in any era, the skilled craftsmen are always ahead of the machine. Although the machine is not yet able to meet the precision requirements, Li Zhi's craftsmen are able to achieve the requirements by hand polishing.

In the end, the Arsenal adopted a compromise production method: the general workpieces were mass-produced on machine tools, while the parts that required the highest precision were ground by hand. Although this production speed cannot be compared with large-scale mechanical production, it is also considerable.

Using half-mechanical, half-hand grinding, the first Sharps Type 1859 rear-loading rifles were born.

The craftsmen who made the rifle were amazed by Li Zhi's genius design, and they really couldn't understand why Li Zhi could draw such a complex rifle structure with his bare hands. Li Zhi did not name the rifle, and the craftsmen named this rifle "Jinwang-style rifle", referred to as Jinwang-style.

Of course, such a rifle required the use of mercury thunderate as a primer. Fortunately, this month, the chemical laboratory finally mastered the safe preparation of mercury thunderate - although mercury thunderate exploded many times, none of the test craftsmen were blown off their fingers, and all the test craftsmen were given a bonus of 50 taels on the premise of physical integrity.

With mercury thunderate as the primer, the Jinwang rifle has the premise to be used.

Li Dao, the governor of Jilin and the general manager of Fanjiazhuang, patted one of the rifles and said to Li Zhi: "Lord Wang, now we can produce twenty of these rifles a day. That's seven thousand a year. After a pause, Li Dao said: "Our machine tools will continue to improve in the future, give us a little more time, and there is no problem with large-scale mechanical mass production." ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "If there are seven thousand in a year, it is not a small number." ”

The breech-loading rifle is a leap forward in the history of rifle development, and the Sharps Model 1859 rifle is one of the milestones of this leap.

The principle of firing this rear-loading rifle is also simple: the original flintlock cap was replaced by a fire cap that used a primer. And the propellant and bullets of the Minnie rifle were all replaced by a single paper shell bullet. There is smoke powder in the back of the cartridge, and when firing, open the tail of the barrel of the rifle and load the cartridge.

When the person using the rifle pulls the trigger of the rifle, the striking iron strikes the primer, and the mercury thunderate in the primer explodes, transmitting the flame through the gas transfer hole into the chamber. At the same time, the bolt cuts the tail of the paper shell bullet in the chamber of the gun, cutting the paper shell and revealing the gunpowder in the paper shell. These powders were ignited by the flames of the primer and exploded inside the chamber of the gun, firing the bullet out.

However, such a seemingly simple principle is extremely complex to implement. The whole rifle is made up of seventy parts, which can be regarded as the most cutting-edge product of this era.

Such cutting-edge products, even if there are only a few thousand, are enough to change the ecology of the battlefield.

Li Zhi turned on the bolt and took a closer look at the handiwork of the gunsmiths.

The bolt is basically composed of three parts: a locking block, a closed air ring, and a coupling latch.

The most critical locking block consists of two parts: a fire transfer hole and an air locking ring. There is a ring-shaped grooved steel block around the perimeter of the fire hole, and the lifting of this steel block depends on the hinge structure driven by the trigger retainer. The locking ring corresponds to the groove of the locking block, and is inlaid with a transparent monolithic anticline block.

The half-moon-shaped edge at the top of the lock ring has an angle, forming a scissor-like structure with the rear end of the chamber, so it can both hold the breath and cut through the tail of the paper shell.

When firing, the plug on the locking block fits the end face of the tail of the breech, and the fit is not completely compressed in normal times. When fired, the gunpowder explosion creates a chamber pressure in the barrel, and the pressure will act on the anticline, and the plugging will move forward and closely fit the end face of the tail of the barrel.

Li Zhi looked carefully at the gunsmith's handmade products and saw that there were many traces of tool processing on the parts, which made the entire locking structure look a little rough. But for a rifle, a beautiful appearance is not a must. The key issue was that between constant reloading and firing, the rifle would not leak.

Li Zhi raised his rifle and prepared to test fire.

Li Laosi, who was standing next to him, was stunned, stopped Li Zhi's reloading action, and said: "How can the owner of the family be in danger?" If this gun leaks, it will hurt people, and the prince can't test fire, let his subordinates come down! ”

Li Dao and Zhong Feng next to him hurriedly saluted and said: "What Li Laosi said is reasonable, Li Dao is willing to test shoot for the prince!" ”

"Zhong Feng is willing to give a few shots to the prince."

Li Zhi thought about it and said with a smile: "Then Li Laosi will test the shot." ”

Li Laosi took the rifle, consulted a few words with the gunsmith next to him, and began to load.

The first step in reloading is to load the primer, which is a semicircular primer into the primer pool. Then pull the bolt to open the bolt, take the paper shell bullet from the ammunition pouch and load it in. Then turn off the bolt and turn off the bolt.

It only took five seconds for Li Laosi to load a bullet and aim at a humanoid target 200 meters away.

There was a crisp "snap", and the Tsuo-style rifle fired. A large amount of flames and smoke erupted from the tail of the bolt, almost burning Li Laosi's eyebrows.

The target from 200 meters away fell in response.

Li Laosi didn't wait for his soldiers to go up to check the target, but reloaded again and aimed at another target. This time, Li Laosi leaned back a little to avoid being burned by the flames that erupted from the strong plane.

Shoot again, and the second target falls again.

Aim at the third target, shoot, hit again.

Li Laosi put down his rifle and said, "The accuracy is okay, but the fireworks leaking out of this bolt are too big, and it almost burned my face." ”

A few gunsmiths next to him said in a panic: "Lord Hui, we have done our best. We'll find ways to improve it in the future. ”

Li Zhi smiled, took Li Laosi's rifle, and looked at it.

"Okay, the rate of fire and accuracy are good, the problem of air leakage continues to figure out. Now let's produce while improving, and strive to produce 7,000 to equip the troops in the first year. ”