Chapter 372: The Red-Coated Cannon



Not far from the port of New Jeju, the machines roar in the workshop, and five machine tools powered by steam engines are already in operation, which can be used for stamping, hollowing, cutting, rolling and many other tasks.

Chao Gai was smiling next to him, and Ma Hua was also laughing, smiling heartily, with a smile on his face.

"Haha, I often wake up laughing when I sleep, the use of this steam engine is too great, I didn't expect that this kind of power can bring such a convenient thing, the machinery of processing machinery, the use is too great. For example, this machine can punch, grind, cut, and sharpen, which is at least 50 times faster than the previous manual work, and the processing is uniform. ”

MCA touched the machine with affection and sighed: "It's just that the cutter head is not hard enough, and it is very laborious to punch holes in steel, and the drill bits of stainless steel are often broken." ”

Chao Gai suddenly remembered the diamonds that Zheng Tianshou had collected from Yishui County some time ago, and said: "I have a material there that may be able to make a knife head, and when I go back, I will let the fleet bring it to you." ”

"Okay, there are still too few machine tools, mainly because the workers are not skilled, and ten machine tools will be launched in the short term, and the speed of production will be greatly improved at that time." MCA said.

Chao Gai said: "There are many types of machine tools, you still need to explore slowly, the most important thing at this stage is to produce large steam engines, and the Jiaolong battleship can be launched as scheduled." ”

Ma Hua said: "It is not a problem, it is guaranteed to be completed to meet the needs of the shipyard for steam engines, and at the same time, the shipyard is provided with three steam machine tools, which can complete sawing, planing, drilling and polishing." ”

Chao Gai kept nodding, this thing can be bought in any hardware market in the future, but it is not a big deal now.

"The welfare of the workers in the machinery factory must keep up, especially the ordinary workers and apprentices, they are the hardest, this time from Heilong Island transported back a lot of salmon, leaving 20,000 catties for the machinery factory to improve their lives." Chao Gai said.

The scale of the machinery factory is now thousands of people, and 20,000 catties is not much, mainly because the weather is still very hot here in Xinji, and it has not yet frozen, hovering around ten degrees, and there is no ice cellar built here, so there is no way to preserve a large number of them.

At present, there are no steam machine tools in the foundry, and Chao Gai immediately approved, and after the production and commissioning of the machinery factory is completed, ten steam machine tools will be given priority to the foundry. When Chao Gai came to the foundry, Xu Meng was busy improving the Vulcan gun, but in general it was still a small change, adding a crosshair door to the barrel, but the actual use of the smoothbore gun plus this kind of thing is not much, and the bullet deviates from the trajectory relatively large, and the gunner has no way to grasp this situation.

Chao Gai said: "A few days ago, Hao Siwen led a thousand recruits to fight the pirates with five hundred Vulcan spears, and set a record of annihilating six hundred people before and after. ”

As a weapon designer, what I am most happy to hear is that my weapon is easy to use and has made a contribution, and I immediately smiled on my face.

Xu Meng said: "The power of the Vulcan spear is slightly worse than the power of the god arm crossbow, but the process is simple, the counterfeiting is cheap, and it is suitable for large-scale assembly. I guess the soldiers also said that reloading ammunition is too slow, and if there is a cavalry charge on the opposite side, it is a round of guns, and the enemy is in front of them. ”

Chao Gai said: "It seems that I didn't let you go to the battlefield in vain last time, everything has been tested." ”

Xu Meng took out a bullet with a cardboard shell, which is the thickness of the index finger of the hand, five centimeters long, three and a half centimeters in the back is full of gunpowder, the front is a solid bullet, and there is a wire like a firecracker wire on the tail.

Chao Gai said: "Have you experimented? ”

"We've experimented, we can try it at the shooting range." The cannon foundry had its own shooting range, and it was huge.

Xu Meng called ten workers, took ten Vulcan guns, and came to the shooting range, the first round of guns slammed into the smoke, and Xu Meng waved a red flag next to him and shouted: "Load the bullet." ”

The workers broke the butt of the gun, put the paper bullet in it, stuck the butt from the new, and then fired again with Xu Meng's command.

This process is very short, only about six seconds, and the soldiers will inevitably be nervous in actual combat, so even if it is eight seconds, it is twice as fast as the original speed, and if it is divided into three stages, it can form an insurmountable rain of bullets. Moreover, it is completely possible for one soldier to operate a Vulcan gun, which greatly improves the combat effectiveness of the team.

Luo Yun was surprised: "Why is the speed of the prefabricated bullets of the Vulcan gun using paper so much faster, and the prefabricated shells used by the artillery are not so effective." ”

Xu Meng explained: "The reason is very simple, at present, whether it is a lying cow cannon or a tiger squat gun, it is a front-loading gun, and the prefabricated shells are just pre-packaged gunpowder and scattered shells, and he hesitates to front-loading the gun, so the increase in the rate of fire is limited." ”

Chao Gai also took a Vulcan gun, skillfully loaded the bullet, held it with one hand, and lit the fuse with his left hand, boom, the time of the lead is very short, that is, it will be fired in one second, the recoil is quite large, and the bullet does not know where to fly.

"Yes, yes, so a thousand musketeers can deal with several times the heavy cavalry, the most important thing is that the cost is low, the cost of a god arm crossbow can make six or seven Vulcan guns." "But the prefabricated paper bullets are produced and stockpiled first, waiting for orders before being supplied to the troops, and if the soldiers knew that it was so convenient, they would not be able to train well." ”

Xu Meng said: "The musketeers will inevitably be proud of the results of this important victory, so it is necessary to hone it first. In addition, there is another important thing, the cannon cast for the Jiaolong that my brother explained has come out. ”

Chao Gai was taken aback and said, "It's only been a few months, and you've built it." ”

Xu Meng said: "If you don't use the picture drawn by my brother, I may not be able to make it in another year, but with my brother's drawing, plus the foundation of our previous tiger squat cannon and lying cow cannon, it is easier to make." ”

Saying that, Xu Meng took Chao Gai and the others to a grass shed, and in the grass shed was something covered with two red cloths. Xu Meng arranged for the workers to remove the straw hut and remove the red cloth.

Underneath the red cloth are two cannons, one large and one small, with long barrels and thick walls, which gradually thicken from the muzzle to the tail.

Chao Gai was nothing, but Jiao Ting and Luo Yun were stunned.

Jiao Ting rubbed his eyes and said, "I didn't look at it, I'm afraid this big one is three meters long, such a thick caliber, and such a large cannon body is not about the same as three thousand catties." ”

Xu Meng said: "Let me introduce it, the big one weighs 3,000 catties, the diameter is 130 mm thick, and the length is three meters." The smaller one weighs 2,000 catties, has a diameter of 110 millimeters thick, and is two and a half meters long. The wall of the tube gradually thickens from the muzzle to the chamber, and the wall itself is very thick and heavy, and it is cast from wrought iron, so the risk of blowing up the chamber is very small. There are two lugs at the center of gravity of the gun body, which can adjust the direction of the gun design, but it is not easy for this gun to be accurate, and it needs to be carefully considered. ”

This is the sketch of the red-coated cannon handed over by Xu Meng according to Chao Gai, the cast Jiaolong naval gun, the first cannon weighs 3,000 catties, and the tail cannon weighs 2,000 catties, all of which are large cannons.

Chao Gai said: "How far can you hit, shoot two shots and try it." ”

Xu Meng said: "The farthest has been five miles, but it can generally guarantee the range of three miles." Saying that, Xu Meng brought in several gunners, loaded gunpowder, solid shells, etc., and then asked everyone to plug their ears and retreat to the back, and the soldiers took the arquebuses and lit the cannons.

"Boom, boom." There were two loud bangs, and smoke billowed from the muzzle.

Chao Gai and the others mounted their horses, searched all the way, and walked a long way to find the cannonballs. The soldiers measured 1,800 meters.

Xu Meng explained: "At present, there are only solid bullets, and when the ammunition factory develops flowering bullets, the range will be longer." ”

Chao Gai said: "You experiment with this cannon from the land for a few days, and then hand it over to Ruan Xiaoqi, you send someone to follow you on the ship, experiment for a few days, and then feel that it is suitable for reproduction, and the first batch of ten Jiaolong battleships will be about to be launched." ”

Xu Meng said, "Okay, I'll start the experiment tomorrow." ”

Why did Chao Gai choose the redcoat cannon as the main ship gun on the medium-sized Fuchuan Jiaolong, mainly because the redcoat cannon has a long range, although it is bulky, but it is safe, and because there is no threatening navy in the hidden enemy at present, it is enough to deter with redcoat cannons.

Chao Gai went to inspect the shipyard again, the shipyard progress is very fast, small fishing boats, centipede boats have produced a lot this year, the first batch of ten medium-sized Fu ship Jiaolong warships are basically in the finishing stage, and there are ten days and a half months to be launched, Jiaolong is flanked by huge paddle wheels up to four meters high, and at the same time there are propellers underwater, using steam engines as power. Soon the steam engine of the machine factory will be in place.

In the newly expanded workshop, the skeletons of fifty medium-sized Fukubunes are lined up.

Chao Gai said: "Meng Kang, you are a big production, you can produce so much at once." ”

Meng Kang said: "If it was definitely not possible before, now the steam engine is equipped with several machines, sawing wood, punching, drilling, and grinding all use machines, and the speed is too fast, so the production speed is extremely fast." What's more, only five of these fifty are Jiaolong warships, and the others are unarmored merchant ships, so my brother doesn't have to worry. ”

This speed is too fierce, producing fifty medium-sized ships a year, and it will not be long before he can form an ocean-going fleet. Chao Gai said: "This year's funds are not abundant, and next year when you are free, you will double the expansion of your shipyard and produce hundreds of his fortune ships a year." Do a good job, the ocean will be our backyard in the future. ”

Meng Kang was overjoyed and said, "It's cool to build a boat for my brother." It turned out that there was enough supply of good wood, not to mention the new machines that had never been seen before. Next year, we will build a medium-sized fortune ship for another year, and when the craftsmen are skilled in the next year, we will start building a large fortune boat. ”

Chao Gai comforted: "Brother Meng Kang, don't worry, eat more and eat badly, take your time, the medium-sized Fu ship is already big enough, and it can be rampant across the ocean with the steam engine, and the large Fu ship will be rebuilt in the future." ”

[This book was first published from, the first time to see the genuine content!] ]

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