After knowing that he was going to be a father again, Zhu Hongsan was very happy. The next day, all the craftsmen involved in the development were given three days off, and Ma Xiaofang was asked to add a few maids to the Dong sisters' room to serve and live. Of course, Zhu Hongsan has not been idle in the past few days, and he has tried his best to recall the various posts and articles he read in his previous life so as to improve the cannon.

On the third day, Zhu Hongsan came to the artillery workshop again, and the first thing he did was to ask Tie Niu how the cannon was.

Tie Niu said: "After the test shot reached thirty-two rounds, it was found that there was a crack in the inner chamber, so I didn't let them experiment. ”

Zhu Hongsan nodded, thirty rounds is also less, the life of the bronze cannon is one thousand rounds, and no matter how you say it, it must have five hundred rounds to have actual combat significance.

Seeing that the craftsmen were coming, Zhu Hongsan led them to start developing artillery. This time it was hosted by Zhu Hongsan, and he found several ways in his memory in the past few days.

What Zhu Hongsan wants to use today is the iron mold casting cannon method, which is very proud, and this method was invented by the Chinese. The inventor was Gong Zhenlin in the late Qing Dynasty.

Gong Zhenlin is a county magistrate in Jiaxing County, Zhejiang, and he originally had nothing to do with the arms industry, but he had a reputation for "being ingenious", and during the Opium War, he was transferred to the Ningbo military camp by Yu Qian, the governor of Liangjiang, to be responsible for casting cannons.

Gong Zhenlin, because of the urgency of the war, there was a lot of loss of artillery on the front line, and the demand was extremely great. After several experiments, he finally invented the iron mold casting method.

The iron mold casting method is to make a hard mold from iron. When casting the gun, first brush the inside of each petal of the iron mold with two layers of slurry. The first layer of slurry is made of fine rice husk ash and fine sand mud; The second layer of slurry is made of fine kiln coal and water. Then, the two petals are combined, tightened with iron hoops, baked, and continuously continued, and finally the molten metal is cast. After pouring enough molten liquid and cooling and forming, the iron mold is immediately peeled off according to the order of the mold flaps, like peeling off the bamboo shoot shell, and the gun body is gradually exposed, and then the mud embryo in the gun core is removed, and the chamber is naturally smooth.

Compared with the traditional clay mold casting gun, the advantage of the iron mold casting gun is that the cast gun body is of good quality, and the inner and outer surfaces are smooth, unlike the clay mold, which will make the gun body produce bubbles. In addition, because there is no need for hard work such as drying clay molds, the manufacturing speed is extremely fast and is not affected by the climate. Because the mold can be reused, the production speed is fast, the output is large, and the cost can be very low. The greater significance lies in standardized manufacturing. Standardized manufacturing is essential for artillery to produce products that are almost identical in shape and performance.

Zhu Hongsan's method is more advanced than Gong Zhenlin's, and Gong Zhenlin's inner style is still muddy. Zhu Hongsan used the self-tightening method used in the Civil War in later generations.

The first step is to make an exterior fan like Gong Zhenlin. The traditional clay mold casting method is then used to cast the iron inner fan, which can be used to cast the cannon. Because the inner fan is also made of iron, the interior is hollow, and there are pipes at each end for water intake and drainage.

This time, the gun body did not use pig iron, but used mild steel. When the molten metal is poured into the mold, the molten metal begins to cool slowly, and the water in the inner mold comes in handy, the molten metal near the inner mold is the first to cool and condense into steel under the action of water, while the molten metal in the outer layer cools slowly.

Because of the principle of thermal expansion and cold contraction, after the whole casting is cooled, the outer layer will be tightly clamped to the inner layer to cool the part first, so that the whole casting will produce an inward tightening force, which is the force that makes the gun barrel able to withstand greater chamber pressure. This method of controlled cooling of the inner mold can have the effect of "self-tightening of the body tube".

The service life of the body tube through the self-tightening process of the body tube is greatly extended, and the thickness of the body tube can be greatly reduced, the weight is reduced, and the mobility of the gun is increased.

This time, after a month, the new artillery was released. The barrel of the new gun is 1.8 meters long, the caliber is 10 centimeters, and the gun body weighs 650 kilograms. This time, it was mainly difficult to delay time in the early stage, but the internal and external fans could be used repeatedly, and one gun could be produced every five days, and the production speed was greatly enhanced. This design was also designed by Zhu Hongsan, which directly passed all the stages of evolution of the artillery and directly adopted the shape of the artillery during the Civil War. It is basically the same as the photos that Zhu Hongsan saw in his later life.

After the artillery was developed, Zhu Hongsanxing hurriedly pulled it to the shooting range again. The experiment was perfect. The longest range is two miles, and the closest is three hundred meters. The effective life is about 500 rounds to 600 rounds.

In order to deal with a large number of cavalry in the Manchu Dynasty, Zhu Hongsan also came up with a shotgun for later generations, which is basically the simplest kind of cannonball except for solid shells. The body is a cylindrical container of tin or iron sheet of appropriate size for the breech, containing lead or iron projectiles, and does not require such things as a fuse or explosive charge. Each shell contained sixty-eight iron projectiles with a diameter of one centimeter. The body of the projectile is stuffed with sawdust or other soft powdery substance, on the one hand, to prevent the thin projectile from being squeezed and deformed, and on the other hand, to prevent the projectiles inside from colliding with each other during the march. The effective range when using a shotgun is 400 meters, and within 200 meters an iron projectile can penetrate the bodies of two to three people. Zhu Hongsan did an experiment, got 100 sheep, and killed one-third of them with one shot at a distance of 200 meters.

Zhu Hongsan planned that an artillery company should have 15 such guns, and each gun position would be separated by eight meters, that is, if an artillery company fired a salvo of shotguns, it could create a no-man's land within a range of 150 meters wide and 400 meters long.

Zhu Hongsan spent a few more days designing a gun carriage, so that the total weight was about 800 catties, and two horses could pull it. Can maneuver in the field.

(PS: The artillery parameters in this chapter refer to the artillery used during the Civil War, so don't take it too seriously.) There was no suspense about these against the cavalry. ）

The artillery was finally completed, and it was only a few days before the Chinese New Year. Zhu Hongsan gave each person 100 taels of silver and took half a month's vacation. At the same time, Li Quanzhong was appointed as the director of the newly established artillery workshop, and he made every effort to produce artillery after the New Year, and at the same time explained that he must grasp the standardization well, and do not appear in the field if the caliber is different, and the shells are the same. Don't make up the fact that the guns produced by a craftsman were of different calibers in the past.

It's going to be the New Year, and next year will be the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, and Chongzhen will have less and less time to live. However, Zhu Hongsan was very happy and had a good year with his family.

After the Chinese New Year, news came from Majiazhuang that Mrs. Ma finally did not make it to Guangdong, and died of illness on the third day of the Lunar New Year. Ma Xiaofang cried to death. Zhu Hongsan comforted her to take care of her body for the sake of the child in her belly.

Zhu Hongsan* went to Ma's house to help arrange the funeral, and found that Mrs. Ma's death hit Ma Guoxiang very hard. Ma Jingyuan's mother Aunt Zhang died two years ago, and this year it is Mrs. Ma, and now Ma Guoxiang is left alone.

In February, after Mrs. Ma's affairs were arranged, Zhu Hongsan returned to the farm. Thirty artillery pieces have already been produced, and this time the artillery is to be set up.

Zhu Hongsan went home for a while, glanced at Ma Xiaofang and rushed to the conference room.

When they arrived at the conference room, the six battalion commanders had already arrived there early, and they all looked at him blankly when they saw Zhu Hongsan coming.

Zhu Hongsan smiled: "What? I'm in a hurry. Now there are only thirty gates, and only two companies can be formed. Who do you say you want? ”

Seeing that these guys were going to do it immediately, Zhu Hongsan said: "Whoever fights today will have no one." As soon as they heard Zhu Hongsan say this, everyone immediately quieted down, waiting for Zhu Hongsan to speak like a good baby.

Zhu Hongsan said: "This time, the first and second battalions will be equipped first. Qian Yong and Zhao Guodong, your two battalions are now the most combat-effective, don't let me down. ”

Qian Yong and Zhao Guodong stood up and said, "Please rest assured, sir." ”

Zhu Hongsan nodded and said, "When you go back, you will choose the candidates, and each battalion will form an artillery company, fifteen guns, eight people per gun, and two horses." In the afternoon, I went to the factory to receive the artillery, and then immediately trained, I want to see the formation of combat effectiveness in a month, you know? ”

Qian Yong and Zhao Guodong said: "Yes, sir! ”

Looking at the remaining battalion commanders, Zhu Hongsan said: "You don't have to be discouraged, our monthly output is six, and you can use it for half a year at most, but ugly words can be said to be ahead, whoever has diarrhea at that time can be blamed for me Zhu Hongsan is not emotional." ”

The remaining battalion commanders stood up and said, "Please rest assured, commander! ”

For the next half a month, the shooting range rumbled every day, so that the county magistrates in the county town sent people to ask what was going on. Zhu Hongsan couldn't get Ma Mingyuan to send three thousand taels of silver to the county order to finish the matter.

A month later, Zhu Hongsan watched the training of the first battalion and the second battalion, and Zhu Hongsan was very satisfied. After a month of training, each gun fired four rounds per minute. You know, in the Civil War, the rate of artillery fire was only five rounds per minute.

Zhu Hongsan's total of five artillery batteries in a regiment would be four shotguns per minute on a frontal distance of 800 meters, that is, the enemy in front would have to bear the damage of 20,000 projectiles in one minute. Zhu Hongsan thought that there was no army that could withstand such casualties without being defeated. Thinking of this, Zhu Hongsan was very optimistic about his prospects.

At this time, the maid at home came to Zhu Hongsan and said that the eldest lady had a stomachache and might be about to give birth.

Zhu Hongsan was shocked, when he came back in the morning, he looked fine, he was about to give birth so soon? Immediately ordered to go to the county seat and arrest all the doctors and midwives.

When he got home, he saw that he was busy at home and outside, and Zhu Hongsan couldn't intervene, so he was in a hurry. After a while, the county doctor and midwife came. Zhu Hongsan still said the same thing, keep the left hand of the adult, keep the right hand of the child, and if you want to keep the hands, you must be safe for both adults and children. The midwives and doctors took the orders and left.

Zhu Hongsan couldn't intervene, and led Zhu Luo to wait outside, Zhu Luo also comforted Zhu Hongsan and said, "Don't worry, Dad, my brother and mother will be fine." ”

Zhu Hongsan smiled and said, "How do you know it's my younger brother?" ”

Zhu Luo said: "My mother said that she said every day that she would give me a younger brother." ”

Zhu Hongsan smiled bitterly, it seems that the bigger the family business, the more troubles there are, now that he is young, he has nothing, and he will not fight when he dies in the future.