On October 21, Shi Kefa and Wu Sangui stood in the Jiangbei Army camp in the south of Nanchang Prefecture, watching the new mortar cannon fiddled with by Dutch craftsmen.

It is more appropriate to say that it is a mortar, not that it is a mortar.

There were many mortars in Ming Dynasty China. Because of the limitations of the cannon casting process, the artillery cast by the local army in the Ming Dynasty could not withstand high bore pressure, so it was naturally impossible to manufacture the Hongyi cannon with a straight trajectory. Casting mortar guns with smaller bore pressure and more curved ballistics has become an inevitable choice. Among these mortar cannons, the tiger squat cannon equipped by the Qi family army is the most famous.

Shi Zaihu squatted with a cannon body of two feet long and a weight of thirty-six pounds. The cannon was made of wrought iron, and each time it used seven or eight taels of gunpowder, it could fire 100 lead bullets weighing five coins. That is, a shotgun projectile that can scatter a total weight of three and a half pounds.

However, these mortars are smoothbore guns that use solid shotguns, and even if they are projectiles, they are only projectiles at a small angle. The purpose of the projectile was to allow the projectile with a lower muzzle velocity to shoot farther, and not to go around the obstacle into the trench.

Generally, the projectile angle of these guns is only 30 degrees at most.

However, the difference between the mortar and the mortar is only the angle of fire, and in terms of craftsmanship and structure, the two guns are similar. Although the mortar invented by Li Zhi is refreshing, the difficulty of imitation is very low.

This mortar fiddled with by Dutch craftsmen can already be called a mortar. The mortar uses a screw to adjust the angle and stands on the ground in a 60-degree upward position.

The Dutch craftsman pulled out a small cannonball from the ammunition box.

"Your Excellency the Honorable Secretary of the Military Department, Your Excellency the Honorable General Soldier, we have studied the small cannonballs of the Tiger Ben Army that you gave us, and found that the structure of this blasting shell is very simple. After dismantling and research, we have fully mastered the method of making this small explosive bomb. ”

Hearing the translator translate the words of the Dutch craftsman, Shi Kefa's face was overjoyed and he laughed. Wu Sangui stood on the side with his hips crossed and no expression on his face.

The flowering shells used in the twenty-four-pounder rifled heavy guns were subjected to extremely high bore pressures and required machining with high-precision lathes, which the Dutch could not imitate. However, the mortar's small flowering shells weighing three pounds and five taels only shoot a distance of about one mile, and the bore pressure they bear is very low, and the technical content of such flowering shells is very low.

As soon as the dozen or so duds picked up by the Jiangbei Army in the Battle of Huai'an were transported to Batavia, they were cut and studied by Dutch craftsmen, and they were soon imitated.

Dutch craftsmen loaded the mortar with a propellant, put the flowering shell into the mortar and inserted a fuse into the fire door.

Lighting the fuse, the mortar made a loud bang and fired a shell at a distant target.

The flowering bomb landed on the target area a mile away and exploded with a bang.

The generals of the Jiangbei Army suddenly burst into applause.

The Dutch craftsman proudly said: "We call this cannon a curved gun!" ”

Shi Kefa said loudly: "Wonderful! Wonderful! With this curved artillery weapon, my Jiangbei Army can attack Li Thief's minions! ”

Wu Sangui looked at the mortar on the ground, but he was overjoyed and angry.

The Dutchman's craftsman said: "The Governor of Batavia has said that we are now fighting on the same front as the Jiangbei Army. We only need 100,000 taels of silver to teach the Jiangbei Army the manufacturing method of this flowering bullet. ”

Shi Kefa laughed and said, "Although 100,000 taels is not a small number, it is worth it to get the technology of flowering bullets." The kindness of the Governor of Batavia, we have learned! ”

After a pause, Shi Kefa said: "It's just that I think the rate of fire of the Tiger Ben Army seems to be very fast, and in the time that this curved artillery shoots one shell, the thief soldiers of Li Thief seem to be able to fire two shells." ”

The Dutch craftsman blushed when he heard this, and argued: "Your Excellency the Commander of the Military Department, we have not been able to obtain the actual artillery of the Tiger Ben Army, and we can only imitate it to this extent. If Your Excellency Shang Shu can capture a few physical objects, we will probably be able to study the secret of the rapid fire of the Tiger Ben Army's artillery. ”

Shi Kefa nodded, no longer delving into the question. He waved his hand and said, "Mobilize the gunsmiths of the entire Jiangnan and build thousands of them!" ”

Wu Sangui groaned and said: "This soldier, Li Zhi has nearly 10,000 such artillery. The rate of fire of our curved guns is far inferior to that of Li Zhi, and to confront Li Zhi, we must cast at least 10,000 guns. ”

After Zuo Liangyu was killed by Wu Sangui, all the soldiers and horses of the Jiangbei Army are now commanded by Wu Sangui, and Wu Sangui has become the actual controller of the Jiangbei Army. Shi Kefa is actually very jealous of Wu Sangui now. When he heard Wu Sangui's words, he quickly echoed: "Uncle Chang is reasonable. ”

Taking a breath, Shi Kefa said: "It's just that the project of casting 10,000 curved guns is huge, even if we mobilize thousands of gunsmiths to open a factory for casting, we won't be able to build so many in three and five years!" ”

Wu Sangui said with a smile: "Don't worry, my lord, I think there is no difference between the body of this curved artillery cannon and the mortar cannon and the tiger squat cannon, but it just needs a screw to control the angle." We have collected all kinds of mortars and tiger squat cannons from various prefectures, prefectures, and counties in the south of the Yangtze River, and carried out a slight transformation, so that we can get 10,000 curved guns within a year. ”

Shi Kefa was stunned and looked at the Dutch craftsman.

The Dutch craftsman listened to the translator's translation and said: "I agree with the general soldier's opinion. The Tiger Army's blaster has a wooden butt at the end, which is a very magical design. By adjusting the size of this stock, you can make the blasting shell suitable for mortars of various calibers. ”

Scofa laughed when he heard the words of the Dutch craftsman.

"Good! Very good! Mr. Jethrow, come to my big tent today and enjoy the food and drinks, we will not get drunk and go home! ”

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From time to time, a strange cry came from the dark rainforest, which made Boss Wei, who was tracing up the meandering river, a little nervous.

After the invasion of Cambodia, the shape of the war was completely out of Boss Wei's imagination. The Tigers met little resistance in Cambodia, and the only thing stopping the brave Tigers from advancing was the dense rainforest and the staggering heat.

Cambodia, known as Chenla in ancient times, was not a powerful country. Boss Wei has looked all the way these days and feels that this country, which used to be called Zhenla, is very backward in civilization, far inferior to Vietnam.

Boss Wei led a platoon of soldiers and horses to attack at the front, along the winding road to the Cambodian capital "Phnom Penh". Halfway through, Wei listened to a local guide and followed the river through a rainforest, which was said to save a few days. But when he really entered this rainforest, Boss Wei regretted it.

This dense rainforest was overgrown with banyan trees and ferns, and Boss Wei sat on a small boat and moved forward, only seeing dense leaves on his head, but not the sun in the sky.

Boss Wei even saw a huge python entrenched on the banyan tree, the big snake was at least ten meters long, and looked at the soldiers of this platoon with cold eyes.

Set yourself a small goal first: such as collecting pen fun pavilion:. Mobile version URL: m.