Zhao Xin promoted the research of thermal weapons very early, and once invested huge financial resources in the arquebus, but this investment is a bit ridiculous.

The technology line of the Dinghai Navy is completely different from the arquebus, even if it concentrates all the advanced technology of the entire Dinghai Navy, it is just to make the range of the arquebus reach about 100 meters, this range is not even comparable to ordinary archers, let alone longbows.

Zhao Xin also knows that the development of the Dinghai Navy in all aspects is uneven, and science and technology have been upgraded to the current level under the premise of no foundation.

In the project with a high degree of fit, of course, it is like a fish in water, for example, with Niu Dali's steel industry, but in other industries, it is not so smooth, only the technology related to the foundation, are made up, can continue to advance.

After experiencing the failure of the arquebus, Zhao Xin also knew that the threshold for thermal weapons was a bit high, and it was temporarily slowed down when there was still a longbow to use.

Who would have thought that when Zhao Xin was focusing on organic compounds, this thermal weapon would give him such a surprise.

When he first knew that the smoothbore gun had completed a laboratory product, Zhao Xin was taken aback, he thought that the flintlock pistol was not regarded as a smoothbore gun, and when such a real one was sent to Zhao Xin, he knew that the research institute of the Dinghai Navy had overcome many difficulties and suddenly pushed the firearms and weapons to the level of a smoothbore gun.

In fact, above the general category, firearms are often divided into smoothbore guns and rifled guns, the former has smooth walls, and the latter is rifled.

The early muskets, arquebuses, and flintlock muskets all belonged to smoothbore guns, but what Zhao Xin was referring to was the smoothbore gun that developed to a relatively mature point and had the prototype of a rifle in later generations.

In fact, in the 19th century, the smoothbore gun already had the appearance of the rifle of later generations, starting from the smoothbore gun to World War I and World War II, the basic form of the rifle did not change much, until the middle and late stages of World War II, the emergence of assault rifles, the emergence of automatic weapons for infantry, can be regarded as changing this form.

The perfect smoothbore gun already has a trigger, buttstock, excitation slot, barrel and many other parts, which have been increased in later generations, but only in terms of performance and some aspects have changed, and the appearance has not changed much.

The knowledge brought by the consulting era is not something that can only be brought by research, and sometimes some pictures, movies and TV series that I have seen will still have these basic things.

At that time, Zhao Xin did not pay much attention to the development of thermal weapons because of the difficult birth of thermal weapons, and provided basic drawings in the development of such a smoothbore gun.

In the 21st century, the use of a large number of automatic weapons, these old firearms, have long been withdrawn from the stage of history, about him to get the drawings is not difficult to find, Zhao Xin has not seen the more standard, but heard some simple data.

In later generations, the image of the rifle in the anti-Japanese drama, the formal, and the basis of the 38 guns, according to certain specifications, drew a drawing of the smoothbore gun.

The long, almost half length of the barrel, the closed rear, flint, fire gates, separately loaded gunpowder and cartridges, these were the main points of the smoothbore gun, the huge caliber, which was also characteristic of it, in 20 or more.

At that time, Zhao Xin was just based on the shape of the rifle he saw in the TV series, and he still had a half-understood understanding of the pattern he painted, this pattern, put it in the future generations, even if it was on the forum of enthusiasts, he would be hanged, and there were professional personnel who would come to explain how outrageous these mistakes were.

However, in Dinghai, this diagram has given researchers a lot of inspiration.

What does a firearm look like, with the experience of arquebuses before, many people naturally lean on it, but arquebuses are not suitable for large-scale use, and Zhao Xin chose to be the largest number of rifles in thermal weapons from the 18th century to the middle of the 20th century.

In the world, the rifles of various countries have certain differences in terms of internal things, but the appearance and image are all similar, why is this so, the classic things are all the same.

On this picture of Zhao Xin, let these designers understand for the first time that with the butt, with a soft and moderate wooden butt, the damage of recoil to the body can be reduced, and it is easier to shoot smoothly and accurately.

The wooden structure under the barrel, on the one hand, avoids the damage to the human body by the temperature of the chamber, and on the other hand, it is easier to hold, ensuring that the shot becomes a straight line.

Of course, the birth of this robbery, in addition to the inspiration given by Zhao Xin, the researcher also added his own things, such a smoothbore gun drawn by Zhao Xin and handed over to the researcher, in fact, it has been painted by Zhao Xin, there are certain differences.

The most significant difference is actually in the caliber, the smoothbore gun used by the Dinghai Navy has been modified by researchers, and the caliber has become smaller.

The smoothbore gun, as the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the classic smoothbore gun, has been painted by Zhao Xin, under the crooked technology tree of the Dinghai Navy, it has become a different look, and even in a sense, it has become better.

The caliber is smaller, the smoothbore is longer, which in itself is a way to increase the firing range, the reason why the smoothbore gun has a short range and the accuracy is not high, the lack of rifling is a key factor, but the excessive weight itself is also a critical point.

At the beginning of the 19th century, smoothbore guns were vigorously developed and became the standard equipment on the battlefield, and a large number of excellent firearms were born, but the guns of that era were mainly iron-based, and most of the gunpowder used black powder.

In order to pursue stability and safety, the barrel is made very thick to prevent explosions, and the relatively weak power of black powder further reduces the range of the smoothbore gun.

Ding Haijun did not have this problem, he directly skipped the level of iron, and directly entered the steel, and it was quite outstanding steel.

Steel is much stronger than iron, which is recognized, and the hardness index of steel above 5.7 is still specially considered for the characteristics of gunpowder and muskets, and the steel itself has outstanding performance.

In the beginning, using the drawings of the smoothbore gun drawn by Zhao Xin, the thick barrel is almost indestructible, taking into account what Zhao Xin said, the firearm cannot be used for a long time, no matter how thick the barrel is, it is impossible to keep it used forever, and choosing a balance between the service life and weight thickness of the firearm has become a key issue.

Niu Dali, such an expert in ferroalloys, is like a nuclear weapon for the role of the Dinghai Navy, as long as Zhao Xin hands over the general performance to him, he will be able to find the right material, and then come up with a performance index.

In the end, Niu Dali only made a slightly thicker barrel material than the later rifles, and the overall weight was at least two-thirds less than the original.

This is a huge savings, smoothbore guns, the most important thing is the barrel, in the 19th century, European mature smoothbore guns, their average weight, most of them are about 10 pounds, of which, the barrel occupies at least seventy or eighty percent.

Two-thirds of the weight is saved, which is equivalent to the weight of the smoothbore gun, which directly saves about 4 pounds and 6 pounds of weight, which is a huge improvement for the smoothbore gun.

The reduction of weight can save the consumption of soldiers, carry more bullets and continue to fight for a longer time under the premise of the same weight.

The changes of the smoothbore gun are not only these, saving weight, but also the reduction of the caliber, the 20 caliber smoothbore gun is a little too large, under the premise of material permitting, reducing the caliber, the improvement of the smoothbore gun is very large.

Gunpowder weapons, to put it bluntly, are the result of using the explosive force after gunpowder is burned to produce huge kinetic energy and workmanship.

There are many factors that determine the range and power of gunpowder, the amount of gunpowder used, the quality of gunpowder used, and other characteristics of the gun.

Under the premise of the same use of gunpowder, a longer smoothbore, a smaller caliber, the longer the firing range will be, the reason is simple, under the premise that the force is the same, the lighter the weight, the farther the distance it will be pushed, and the stronger the muzzle velocity and flight.

From 20 calibers, it has not decreased much, it is impossible to reach the level of the later generations, 6, or 7.2, barely reached about 9, from about 20 to 9, probably the whole weight is only one-fifth of the previous one, plus the use of better nitrocellulose.

Black powder is the earliest kind of gunpowder used and discovered by human beings, and in the entire history of the development of thermal weapons, black powder has a very strong stroke.

However, under the continuous development of gunpowder in later generations, the power of black powder is really not high.

Weapons propelled on the basis of black powder are all synonymous with stupidity, even the simplest gunpowder of nitrocellulose, his power is three or four times higher than that of black powder.

Three or four times the power of gunpowder, four or five times the weight reduction, the initial velocity of the entire smoothbore gun is almost a multiplicative relationship, and the overall power is at least several times higher than that of the mature smoothbore guns of the 19th century.

According to the laboratory data of this experimental firearm, the maximum range reached 600 meters, which is a distance that most archers cannot reach.

The power of firearms is undoubtedly shown here, and a simple training and learning how to shoot can threaten targets at a distance of 600 meters, which is a huge subversive for the troops.

Even if the training is simple, using a salvo as the most powerful weapon, and the longbowman who pursues a higher coverage and lethality ratio than precise design, and barely takes out his hand, it takes more than a month of training, and the real elite, that is in a year's unit.

However, such a weapon that has appeared now, as long as a farmer obeys the command and can be put to use after two or three days of simple training, this is really a bit fantastical.

The weapons are there, although, in the results of the laboratory, there are many problems, for example, accuracy.

The lower caliber and more regular barrel have greatly improved the accuracy, at least about 200 meters, which can still be guaranteed.

A higher initial velocity can make the smoothbore gun have considerable lethality at 400, and the accuracy is not good, and it can be compensated for with a dense camp, like the longbow, this pursuit is a concentrated attack.

However, in terms of rate of fire, the smoothbore gun is far inferior to the longbow, with a rate of fire of 4-5 times at 60 breaths, compared to the longbow with 15-18 attacks, there is a slight gap.

However, compared to the longbow, the longbore gun has a stronger long-lasting combat ability, even an elite longbowman can complete a maximum of about 200 shots, and under the rate of fire of 15 times, it is about 15 minutes.

This is the disadvantage of the longbow, and it is also a problem that the longbow can never solve, no matter how the longbow uses elastic materials, the use of these elastic materials is all people, and the strength of people cannot grow indefinitely, beyond the laws of nature, it must be rested.

Relatively speaking, the musketeers also have physical requirements, about 5 catties of weight, to lift, and load, it takes a certain amount of strength, this force is much lighter than the longbow, as long as there are enough logistics materials, these musketeers, can fight for a day.

Similarly, the longbow has a long range, but most of the power range is around 200 meters, and there are very few that can really shoot 300 meters.

However, the smoothbore gun can ensure that it has a huge lethality at 400 meters, and the ultimate lethality is about 600 meters, which is terrible.

That is, in the large-scale use of the longbow, the advantage of range is revealed, the use of multi-stage attacks, the range advantage of about 100 meters, is enough for the longbow to lay the victory, in the battle with other archers, as long as the reasonable use of this advantage, it is enough to overwhelmingly win.

It's not that there are weapons with a longer range than the longbow, but those weapons are no longer individual weapons, either expensive weapons such as the Divine Arm Crossbow, or large bed crossbows, in short, they are not all weapons for large-scale use with the longbow.

Now, the emergence of a smoothbore gun has changed this perception, even if this smoothbore gun is still in the laboratory and has not been mass-produced, but the power of this weapon has been highlighted.

The range advantage of 200 meters, the lethal space of 200 meters, not to mention the comparison of training and proficiency of the two sides, these alone are enough for the smoothbore gun to enter the weapon sequence of the Dinghai Navy.

The generals of the Dinghai Navy are all inquiring about the price of the smoothbore gun and the production situation, but the result of the investigation is very low.

The technical difficulty of the smoothbore gun is very high, although the Dinghai Navy has solved the problem of materials and propellants, and the difficulty of restricting the production of firearms has been reduced, but a barrel is enough to block the road to mass production.

Under the premise that there is no drilling machine, the production of the barrel is a coiled tube, which is not very difficult, and it is easy to produce on a large scale, but the performance is unstable, the reliability is too poor, and even the overall weight and performance will shrink greatly.

The advantage of the smoothbore gun lies in the range, if there is not enough range, there is no way to compare with the longbow, it really reaches the same range as the longbow, or even closer, and it makes no sense to make it.

The smoothbore gun produced by such a laboratory, this very good barrel, is not rolled out, it is a master craftsman, little by little.

There are only 4 master craftsmen who can do this, even if they produce without sleep, it is normal for one every two days, an average of 2 per day, such a gun, there is no point in mass production.