The merchant ships of the Zhan family's North and South Cargo Firm returned from the South Seas, bringing ten barrels of rubber raw materials, this barrel is big enough, it is a large barrel used by Westerners to hold red wine, and it can be loaded into people.

When Zhang Yingquan saw the rubber raw material, he was happily taken off guard and called Zhan Erlian: "Send a report to ask John to come over, and say that there is a new research matter." ”

After the telegraph line between Jinxian County and Shanzhen was opened, all large and small matters were reported, and there was no need to run back and forth, which greatly improved efficiency and trained newspaper skills.

Now John, as long as there is something new, he is uninvited, not to mention naming names, there are new things to study, and he is even more concerned, and before noon, he will come on horseback.

Vulcanized rubber? John is an expert in chemistry, and he has accumulated some of the raincoats he made last time, and with a little proposal, he understands that if this is the case, it is another great discovery, and there are really a lot of goods in the stomach of this general soldier, God! Too eccentric, right?.

The discovery of vulcanized rubber technology was originally accidental, a down-and-out American, inadvertently poured the vulcanized liquid into the rubber barrel by mistake, purely inappropriate, not to mention scientific discoveries, just like smokeless gunpowder "nitrocellulose", just a coincidence, this is a way to learn, diligence is an aspect, there is also an element of luck, this ownerless thing, who picks up who gets rich, nothing polite.

In fact, of course, Zhang Yingquan knows that the rubber of later generations is the product of vulcanization, which is the knowledge of physics and chemistry in middle school, and I don't know anything else, and I don't know how to vulcanize. I haven't paid attention to it, maybe there is one? Raw rubber products have been seen, as for vulcanized rubber, it is not widely used, at least not in the Qing Kingdom.

This kind of experimental work, John is the most suitable, and it is where his interest lies, experts are experts, and monks who can preach and recite scriptures are true monks.

The next day, several pieces of rubber products were placed on the official case of the chief soldier.

A real rubber poncho, albeit with a bit of a thick coating;

a pair of rubber soles, although there are marks of knives in one circle;

A piece of rubber-coated wire, this is good, John still has the telegraph in mind.

The results are obvious to all! Zhang Zongbing almost jumped up excitedly, and said secretly, if you tell everyone that this is a strategic resource, I'm afraid no one will believe it.

"The Qing Dynasty does not produce this kind of raw rubber material, what will I do in the future?" John hadn't slept all night and was so sleepy now.

"You rest, I'll talk to the merchant about the purchase."

Zhan's north and south cargo banks got Zhang Yingquan and Zhan Da's shopkeeper to buy a large amount of rubber raw material from Nanyang, how much to buy, the ship is not enough to rent, and then not to consider buying two ships, this rubber can make a lot of money, Zhang Yingquan's words, no one does not believe it, hurry up.

These ten barrels of rubber materials, in addition to leaving some to do experiments, first make rubber wheels, Zhan family goods store, mountain town manufacturers all replaced with new rubber wheels, this is a live advertisement, all over the street, good things are still sold? It is certain to make money, it is all up to your conscience to earn more and less, and it is difficult to make money without making money in exclusive trading. It's easy to do things if you have money, and then you can think about things like soles and raincoats, and more! Take it easy.

This factory can be built directly in Jinxian County, and it can be handed over to the Zhan family to operate, this face must not be small, the talent in the mountain town has been exhausted, and he can't be busy, and the Zhan family should worry about the family's affairs.

This new rubber-tyred cart is not easy to do. First of all, we must give up the concept of traditional wheels, a new design, the overall casting of the hub, and strive to be wide and strong, the outer snares of rubber tires, this rubber also has the difference between the inner and outer tubes, the outer tires have strengthened hemp tendons, filled with stone powder, anti-wear, durable and easy to replace, although the inner tube can not be made into pneumatic tires at one time, but designed as a solid tire based on compression resistance, the elasticity is not bad, it is a little bulky, but it can be used for a long time, and it is stronger than the wooden wheel for 108,000 miles.

The axle has been changed greater, all of which are made of steel, with shock-resistant steel springs at the bottom, and roller bearings with good load-bearing capacity at both ends, changing the traditional hard friction rotation to rolling rotation. The body of the car is wide, and it can carry up to 30 stone at a time, whether it is manpower or animal power, it is much easier to run than the old car, and there is no strange sound of squeaking.

New manned vehicles, new axles, new tires, from Jinxian County to the mountain town, as long as an hour, if you are not afraid of the horse tired, you can be fast.

Zhan's goods store, the bag is tight, the new steel axle rubber-tyred car, just completed the first car, put on a big mule and ran on the street, the mule head is also tied with a red cloth knot, the car is inserted with the flag of the cargo bank, go straight to the wharf, go to the place where the merchants are concentrated, not unexpectedly, the Qing people like to see the lively, the businessmen are more sensitive to new things, immediately surrounded, ask questions.

"How much can this car pull when it's full?"

"Thirty stones, easy!"

"Yo! I'm just ............ this wooden wheeled car. ”

"What kind of skin is this big wheel wrapped in? Sturdy! ”

"This thing is called rubber in Nanyang, and the rubber wheel is big."

"Oops! This is an iron shaft? I said, why didn't there be any movement? ”

"This car is a steel axle, and there are a few spring plates here, so it's so light to run!"

"Empty, can you run seventy or eighty miles in an hour?"

"Put on an animal with good foot strength, level the ground for an hour, and run a hundred miles."

"Wait! This business is all done by the old Zhan family, ha! ”

"How did the Zhan family figure it out? Does this rubber wheel sell? ”

"Sell! However, it is out of stock now, and it will be on the market in half a year. ”

"How much? Want to make a reservation or not? ”

"This guest officer! If you ask the wrong person, I'll be a buddy, I have to ask the shopkeeper, hehe! ”

“…………。”

A month later, the steel axle order alone will be scheduled for next year, not to mention the rubber wheel, the deposit alone will roll in, and you can't stop the car if you don't want to make money, it is said that the orderers are all over the north and south, and even the merchants in the capital place orders, and I don't know how the guests get things back?

Zhan Da's shopkeeper was soft in his first business, and he couldn't figure it out, and he muttered in his heart, this big shopkeeper threw it at me with a big business, and he was like no one else, he was really a general soldier, and he was really a good skill!

Since the last time he saw two infantry guns on a big ship, Zhang Yingquan has been thinking that artillery should be developed, and now Western artillery, both in range and power, if it is outside the range of the rifle to attack our training army, it is really powerless to resist, not to mention the West, that is, in the face of the attack of the red-clothed cannon used by long hair, the current equipment of the training army is also helpless, and this shortcoming has to be filled.

Artillery this thing, especially spend money, not to mention the cost of making artillery, just refer to the consumption of cannonballs, it will cost money like flowing water, people say that when the cannon sounds, the gold is ten thousand taels, not false at all, this bang, is a big ingot of silver thrown into the sea, the current mountain town, although there is money, can not withstand the bombing!

Zhang Yingquan thought about it, the current scale of the army is not large, large artillery, even if it is built, it is laborious to pull, and it is also troublesome to push around, spending dozens of people to serve an artillery, and the army of tens of thousands of people can not be taken seriously, but it is really impossible to bring together a total of more than 1,000 people.

What is being considered now is not a cannon for siege or a howitzer for long-range attack, but a weapon that is small, durable, flexible, and mobile and capable of striking targets within the line of sight in field combat.

Coming out - mortars.

The technical difficulty of the mortar is small, the existing technical conditions are completely fine, the fire ignition, slow-burning gunpowder, pressure detonator, and mature casting process, strictly speaking, it is easier to make this kind of gun than to make a rifle, and the materials required are also ordinary and better to process.

In fact, there has been a prototype of the mortar since ancient times, called the mortar cannon in history, but it was a solid bullet used at that time, as early as the Western Crusades, the Arabs used this cannon to attack the Spaniards, according to the description at that time, put gunpowder from the barrel mouth, and then put in the iron ball, ignite the powder twist, that is, fire, is an enlarged version of the breech gun.

Now this cannon is not an invention, but the mortar cannon that fires flowering shells has really not been heard of, this is an invention, right?

The mortar designed by Zhang Yingquan has a caliber of about two inches, the explosive part is a little larger than the grenade, the head is a detachable fuse, the bullet belt (contact with the launch canister) is smooth, the bottom is the launch part, which is ignited by fire, the tail is a delta wing, the total weight of the projectile body is equivalent to two grenades, and the launch canister is simpler, that is, the bottom is closed, the cylinder with the top fire and bottom needle, there is an adjustable bracket, the barrel is quite heavy as a rifle, it can be carried on the back, light and flexible.

This mortar, the shell has a novelty, but also John's idea, reduce the launch part, reduce the weight, the maximum range of about 400 steps, this is the best range to hit the forward infantry, if you hit a distant target, there is a strengthening program, you can coat the powder circle between the bottom and the tail, the amount of charge can be adjusted, the farthest after strengthening can hit 700 steps away, that is, more than a mile away, the farthest point of the current use of direct-aim artillery is this distance, although the lethality after the explosion is not as good as the large-caliber artillery, but the firing speed is fast, the accuracy is high, easy to operate, It is very effective in attacking field targets, and with it, the redcoat cannon used by Longhair is insignificant.

This mortar was made into three, two equipped with the Volunteer Corps, and one for research, which is still an old habit, and it is better to improve it in practice, so as to train a group of gunners first.

There are not many literate 'show talents' in the training army, so they are drawn out and formed into a gun shed.

The first lesson of the chief soldier began: "Artillery is the god of war!" ”

“…………。”

Artillery has always been a technical arm, involving mathematical, physical and chemical knowledge, among which visual distance is a basic skill training, and geometric operations are also based on three-point intuition, these Han Tianfu is talented, and these two cannons are temporarily handed over to him to be in charge.

Field training, there is a look.

"Directly in front of the target, the red-clothed cannon, the distance is five hundred steps, the height difference is reduced by one, one cannon, put!"

"Tom! …… Boom! ”

"Direction, two to the left, plus one to the distance, all, put!"

"Tom, tom! …… Boom, boom! ”

“…………。”