"Boom~" With a cannon sound, a hot projectile flew out, and the entire artillery was also shrouded in gunsmoke, but the well-trained gunner next to him rushed into the gunpowder smoke without hesitation, and immediately began to clean the gun chamber, cool down and other processes.

After the second shell was loaded, Liu Shu shouted "stop", and Li Zhang next to him also stopped counting, according to his count, the interval between the two shells almost reached ten breaths, this speed is really not fast, at least not much faster than the bulky bed crossbow.

"Captain, you see, these are already the most skilled gunners, but even if they do, they can only do this, and the gunners of the front army on the front line may not be as good as them, so after the artillery is used in the army, although the officers and men in the army are very satisfied with the power, they feel that the rate of fire of the artillery is too slow, even if we have the same as the musket, let the artillery use the fixed ammunition, but the speed can only be increased to this point." Liu Shu introduced to Li Zhang at this time.

The reason why Liu Shu stopped Li Zhang today was to ask him for help about the problem encountered by artillery, that is, the rate of fire of the artillery was too slow.

Li Zhang did not speak immediately, but walked to the artillery and looked at it carefully, he was also involved in the development of the artillery at the beginning, but later he had too many things, so after the successful test firing of the artillery, he no longer asked about the artillery.

I saw that this artillery was similar to the style of the artillery he participated in the development of the original, all of which were front-loading artillery with thin front and thick back, but it was a copper cannon before, but now it is an iron cannon, which shows that Liu Shu and they were not idle during this time, and they actually made the iron cannon, which means that the cost of the artillery will also be greatly reduced, after all, the Great Song Dynasty is really short of copper, even if the use of copper coins has declined because of the money bank, but copper is still equivalent to money in the Great Song Dynasty.

In addition to the materials, although the style of the gun has largely not changed, some details have also been improved, such as the gun carriage has been carefully designed, and the height can be adjusted to change the range of the gun, which is not a small improvement.

After observing the artillery, Li Zhang came to the back of the artillery and looked at the shells of the artillery, which was also the most surprising place for Li Zhang, because the artillery also used a certain amount of ammunition, obviously inspired by the musket, but the loading of the artillery was more troublesome, its ammunition was divided into three parts, of which the front was a projectile, the middle was a wooden butt, and finally the cartridge was fired, which were firmly tied together, forming the most primitive fixed shell.

It can be said that the power of the artillery has fully overwhelmed the large long-range weapon of the bed crossbow, especially after the artillery is changed from copper to iron, the cost of the artillery is also lower than the bed crossbow, don't look at the bed crossbow is mostly wooden, but in fact, the cost is quite expensive, in addition to the Song Dynasty has the ability to equip bed crossbows on a large scale, even the Liao State is reluctant to manufacture bed crossbows on a large scale, otherwise the bed crossbow is not used, and their treasury will be exhausted first.

After observing the artillery and shells, Li Zhang stood up, and then said to Liu Shu next to him: "You have done a good job, especially this iron cannon has been made, it is really beyond my expectations, as for the way to increase the rate of fire of the artillery......

Li Zhang deliberately paused when he said this, which made Liu Shu scratch his ears and cheeks anxiously, and finally couldn't help urging: "Captain, tell me quickly, is there any way to increase the rate of fire of artillery?" ”

Looking at Liu Shu's anxious look, Li Zhang shook his head with a smile and said: "Basically, there is no way, now you have increased the rate of fire of front-loading artillery to the extreme, unless there is a significant improvement in technology, it is impossible to increase the rate of fire of front-loading guns." ”

Li Zhang's words also hit Liu Shu's head like a blow to the head, so that he couldn't react for a long time, after all, he has always regarded Li Zhang as an omnipotent god, because Li Zhang has put forward too many ideas on firearms, and each one proves that he is right, so Liu Shu also pinned his last hope on Li Zhang, but he didn't expect Li Zhang to tell him that it was impossible to increase the rate of fire, which made him really unacceptable.

But at this moment, I suddenly saw a dark-faced young official next to him step forward and ask: "Captain, you just said that the front-loading artillery, is it possible that there are still rear-loading artillery in this world?" ”

This young official is Bao Zheng, he came to the firearms prison with Han Qi, but his position is lower, and his official fortune is not as prosperous as Han Qi, but after Han Qi was promoted, Bao Zheng took over the firearms one.

Bao Zheng was originally a white-faced scholar, but in the past few years, he has been soaking in various firearms workshops every day, and sometimes there are craftsmen who test firearms together, and even have been injured several times, and as a result, he has been tossed into a black face.

Hearing Bao Zheng's words, Li Zhang also laughed, and then said: "Yes, our current artillery is a front-loading artillery, and the shells need to be loaded from the muzzle, this kind of artillery has benefits, that is, there is no need to worry about air leakage in the back, the firing range is far and powerful, but the disadvantages are also obvious, that is, it is inconvenient to reload, and it is troublesome to clean, but if you change to reload from the back, the speed will be much faster......"

Li Zhang said and came to the artillery, and then pointed to the position of the tail of the gun and told Liu Shu and others about a breech-loading artillery, which is commonly known as the principle of breech guns, but his understanding of artillery is also very limited, and he can only talk about a general principle, as for how to build a breech-loading artillery? I'm sorry, Li Zhang can't answer this question, so he can only rely on Liu Shu and others to explore and experiment by themselves.

Of course, there are also a lot of problems with rear-loading artillery, such as the biggest problem is air leakage, you must know that the air pressure generated during the explosion is very terrible, if the process is not up to par, the breech air leakage is serious, which will greatly reduce the range of the shell, and the power will be greatly reduced, Li Zhang thinks that the screw can solve this problem, but the problem is that the manufacture of the screw is not easy, and it is quite troublesome to tighten the screw, so Li Zhang can only put forward some ideas for Liu Shu and the artillery craftsman to reference.

"In fact, the advice in the army is very pertinent, limited by the rate of fire of artillery, now artillery can only be used to defend the city, if it is a field battle between the two armies, I am afraid that the artillery will not be able to fire a few shells at all, but if the rate of fire of the artillery comes up, and the power of the shells increases, the artillery is likely to become the master of the battlefield, and these require your efforts." Li Zhang finally said again.

"I understand, Lieutenant, please rest assured, Liu will definitely live up to expectations!" Liu Shu also excitedly assured at this time, after Li Zhang's guidance, he now also has a sense of sudden enlightenment, although Li Zhang did not teach them a specific method, but pointed out a correct path for them, it is like lighting a light for them in the night, and they just need to follow this road.

Li Zhang is also very relieved of Liu Shu, an old subordinate, after all, after he left the firearms prison, the research and development of firearms has not been affected, which shows that Liu Shu is indeed very attentive, and even Liu Shu, a halfway monk, has now become an expert in firearms, and many firearms have his dedication.

Although the firearms supervisor is called a prison, it actually has countless workshops under its jurisdiction, such as iron smelting workshops, saltpeter workshops, charcoal workshops, etc., these workshops provide all kinds of raw materials for making firearms, after all, the materials needed to make firearms are special, for example, a gunpowder raw material needs all kinds of purification, which cannot be provided by the outside world.

Originally, the firearms supervisor was in the imperial city, but later because the research of the firearms supervisor was too dangerous, it would explode several times a month, which made several yamen around it really unbearable, and finally played together to drive out the firearms supervisor, so the firearms supervisor moved to the west side of the imperial city near the city wall, where there is a large open space, and now it is all assigned to the firearms supervisor.

There are so many workshops under the firearms superintendent that it is impossible for them all to gather together, in fact, most of these workshops are outside the city, especially the gunpowder workshop, because they are too dangerous to be placed inside the city. The firearms superintendent in the west of the city is the headquarters, which is not responsible for production, but for research and improvement, such as iron cannons, which are successfully researched here.

Li Zhang's greatest concern is the research of flowering shells, which he has long proposed, and the flowering shells have also been preliminarily produced, just because the shells are not up to par, and it is more troublesome to use, for example, they can only be used in mortars now, and the flowering shells also need to be ignited with a fuse, and the explosion time cannot be controlled at all, so it is also very dangerous to use, and it cannot be put into practical use at all.

In fact, with the current black powder, even if the flowering bomb is studied, the power is very limited, but Li Zhang knows that the flowering bomb is a historical trend, especially if the artillery wants to become the real king of war, it must go from solid bullet to flowering bomb, so the flowering bomb must be studied, even if the price is worth it.

However, after Li Zhang's firearms supervision circled, his heart became heavier and heavier, it was not that Liu Shu and they did nothing, on the contrary, Liu Shu, Bao Zheng and others managed the firearms supervision in an orderly manner, even if Li Zhang personally managed it, at most it was at this level, and it may even be inferior to them in some aspects.

However, although the management of the firearms supervisor is good, Li Zhang can see some hidden crises from it, and it is not only the firearms supervisor, he found that there are some other aspects, there are also the same crises!