Chapter Forty-Seven: Fire!

"It's ready, it's time to fire, and I'm going to ask a few adults to atone for their sins. Everybody plugged their ears. Seeing Li Ergou make a prepared gesture, Li Zhen confessed to them, and then held a loudspeaker and shouted to Li Ergou: "Li Ergou, ready to fire, pull up the cannon rope, listen to me count one, two, three, you pull the cannon rope, and then jump into that pit immediately, understand?" ”

For safety, Li Zhen dug a one-person deep explosion-proof pit near the cannon, just so that the artillery could jump in at the first time, so that even if the barrel of the cannon exploded, the artillery had a greater chance of saving a life.

"......" Li Ergou replied with a clear action.

"Very good, start counting, one!"

"Two!"

"Three! Fire!!! After shouting and firing the cannon, Li Zhen also quickly threw away the iron horn, and covered his ears with the sound of a thunderous bell, while his eyes were staring at Li Ergou, for fear of any accidents.

After hearing the order to open the cannon, Li Ergou pulled the white rope violently, then quickly threw away the cannon rope and plunged into the explosion-proof pit.

In the eyes of others, after Li Ergou jumped into the pit, he saw a violent shock from the cannon, and then let out an earth-shattering roar, and a ball of flames rose from the muzzle of the cannon, which was more than three feet long, dazzling people's eyes;

Immediately afterwards I saw a ball of fire fly out of the muzzle of the cannon, carrying a terrible roar, and after flying in the air for a while, it plunged headlong into a mountain bag two miles away;

Almost instantly, a ball of fire rose brighter than before, and the surrounding bushes and weeds were blown away in an exaggerated posture, and in an instant the sand and rocks flew and the dust flew up.

"Boom !!" Until this time, the earth-shattering sound that was almost comparable to thunder reached everyone's ears, almost instantly, a few people snorted, even if they had covered their ears, but under such a loud noise, the blocking effect of the palm was obviously too small, and many people were still startled by the thunder, and even some were scared to pee their pants.

When the smoke and dust dissipated, Li Zhen was the first to run to the cannon to check carefully, but fortunately, except for a slight displacement, no other damage was found for the time being. However, he was still not at ease, so he took out a crystal magnifying glass and checked it on the barrel, but fortunately, there were still no cracks or cracks.

"Your Highness, don't worry, there will be no problem." Li Ergou couldn't wait to see the effect of the shelling, and couldn't help urging beside him: "Let's go and see the effect of the shell explosion, you see they all ran over." ”

"If you want to go, you can go, why do you have to pull me? I'll have to check it out before I'm relieved. Li Zhentou didn't reply: "The cannon is not a thing that can be improvised, the slightest problem will kill people, but there can't be a little carelessness." What's more, this is still our first cannon, and it's just an experiment, and we can't be a little sloppy. ”

"Then the subordinates should accompany His Highness." Li Ergou said that he was going to help.

Li Zhen hurriedly shirked: "No, you can also go over and take a look, you are a gunner, you have to personally understand the effect of your shelling, so that you can have more confidence in the cannon." You don't have to worry about me here, I'm not in any danger. ”

"Then go down and take a look, and I'll be back right away." Li Ergou looked around, there were indeed no suspicious people, everyone desperately ran towards the shell landing point, plus he really wanted to see the effect of his shelling, and after confessing to Li Zhen, he stepped on the horse and hurriedly galloped towards the shell landing point......

"Your Highness, Your Highness, what a powerful cannon, there is nothing standing within the three zhang around, it's too powerful." In fact, Li Ergou went too late, and at the time when the two of them were talking, Li Jing and other generals in the army who were qualified to ride horses had already crossed their horses and ran to the place, and even Fang Yiai had already watched it, and reported the situation to Li Zhen.

"What Your Highness? It should be called Lord Changshi. Du He, who followed closely, reminded that although everyone in the army knew Li Zhen's identity, the rules in the army were like this, no matter how noble your status was before, you could only be called according to your military position when you arrived in the army.

"There's no one else here, I can call it whatever I like." Fang Yiai argued with a stiff neck.

Du He glanced at Fang Yiai and ignored him, but asked curiously: "Your Highness, why didn't you go and take a look?" Don't you know, the power of that cannon is really great, there is not even a single grass in a radius of three feet, it is too powerful. ”

"Stop yelling, I know it all." Li Zhen's tone was still indifferent, and she didn't even look back when she spoke, but just focused on checking the cannon with a magnifying glass, not letting go of an inch.

"Whew, it's finally done." Putting down the magnifying glass, Li Zhen exhaled, at present, the situation of the cannon is still very good, at least there is no problem on the surface, but I don't know what the internal situation is, but at this time, there is no flaw detection equipment, and Li Zhen can't help it.

"Your Highness, there's no need to inspect this cannon so carefully, right?" It wasn't until Li Zhen finished checking that Fang Yiai spoke: "If you really want to be like you, you have to check it for so long with a shot, where does this cannon still have a little practical value?" ”

"It's always good to be careful, it's always good to check more, after all, cannons are not other weapons, and an accident will kill a lot of people." Li Zhen put down the magnifying glass, took out the kettle and poured a sip of juice beautifully: "However, in actual combat, it is not as exaggerated as what you said about checking it once you hit a shot, as long as the cannon can be finalized and mass-produced, as long as it is maintained regularly." But not now, this is the first cannon, I also estimated and made it myself, who knows if there are any defects, it is still necessary to check more, and the energy production will not have to be so troublesome in the future. ”

Du He's expression moved: "Mass production? Your Highness, is the cannon really energy-producing? ”

"Of course, no problem." Li Zhen wiped her sweat, it was still late spring, it was so hot, and she poured another sip of juice: "Now there are only three problems that limit the mass manufacturing of cannons, the first is enough materials, the second is fast enough processing speed, and the third is enough precision processing accuracy."

My blast furnace has already been built, as long as a few more blast furnaces are built, the materials are completely sufficient, and the first point has been solved.

The processing speed is also easy to solve, and after the number of craftsmen, the processing speed should be able to go up to a higher level, but if it doesn't work, we can also solve the problem by recruiting more craftsmen.

Only this third point is more troublesome, if the processing accuracy is not enough, even if I can make a cannon, I don't dare to use it. ”

"It's really hard to solve the accuracy problem." Du He has been in contact with Li Zhen for a while, and through Li Zhen, he also knows that the most important thing about cannons is accuracy, if the accuracy can't go up, no matter how many cannons are produced, it is useless.

"It's not hard to solve." Li Zhen corrected: "The reason why there are so many waste products now is completely because the processing tools are not qualified. For example, the rifling of a cannon, which is completely filed one by one by a craftsman with a stone and a file (also made of cannon steel), how can such a tool make a qualified rifling? ”

The effect of the gravel is similar to that of the oil stone of later generations, and the effect is okay for polishing, but it is too difficult to use it to carve rifling.

As for the file material and the barrel are the same, although its structure can make it possible to leave traces on the barrel, but if you want to file a rifling, the loss of the file even Li Zhen is distressed, and the accuracy is really not good.

The rifling made from these two things can be imagined to be as high as it can be.

"yes, so what should we do?" Duhe asked.

"I'm also trying to find a way to smelt harder steel." Now the only way is to smelt harder steel and then make sharp knives, so that the yield should be much higher. However, the cannon steel is already a gift from the god of luck, and if he wants to refine harder steel by luck, Li Zhen himself feels unrealistic.

So during this period of time, Li Zhen regretted why he wanted to study mechanical design in his last life, and if he knew that he would travel to the Tang Dynasty, how good it would be to study metal materials and heat treatment, even if it was a minor, it would not be like now, there are obviously many ideas in his head, but he is limited by materials and cannot be implemented.