Zheng Sen was quite happy to learn that the new cannon had achieved results, so he didn't care about the fatigue of the sea journey, and got into a carriage and went directly to the "red zone". Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Today's "red zones" are becoming more and more heavily guarded. No one can enter without a permit, and if anyone dares to break in without permission, the guys in the hands of the factory guards are not vegetarians.

Zheng Sen entered the "red zone" and went straight to the artillery factory.

Chief Artillery Engineer Lan Du had long known that Zheng Sen might return to Beigang this morning, but he didn't expect that as soon as Zheng Sen returned to Beigang, he would immediately run to the artillery factory.

When Zheng Sen entered the gun factory, he heard Lando lecturing in Latin to a few half-grown children:

"When pouring sand molds, temperature control is very important, and if the temperature is not well controlled, there will be ......"

Several children listened very carefully on the side, taking notes at the same time, and all of them were so serious that Zheng Sen walked to their side and they didn't notice it.

Zheng Sen didn't bother them, but stood quietly to the side and listened.

After Landu finished this paragraph, he raised his head, only to find that Zheng Sen was actually next to him.

"Major General? When did you come? Oops, I'm such a mess here...... Jerry, go and bring a chair for the Major General! Tom, go wash the cup and pour the Major General a cup of coffee. ”

The two children heard this, answered the call and ran out.

"Hehe, Major General, I have to admit that I suffered a great defeat on the question of the Chinese language. The Chinese language is so unfriendly, hell, if the difficulty of conquering other languages is like taking an ordinary town, then the difficulty of conquering Chinese is like conquering Constantinople. However, I won't give up, even Constantinople will be conquered in the end, will I? ”

At this time, an apprentice had already brought a chair, but the chair was a little gray, and he couldn't find a suitable rag for a while, so he wiped it with his sleeve and placed it next to Zheng Sen: "Major General, please take a seat." ”

Zheng Sen sat down, nodded to the apprentice, and asked, "Zhou Renjie, how are you learning here, can you understand what Mr. Lando said?" ”

"Major General, Mr. Landu spoke very carefully, and we can all understand it." Zhou Renjie replied.

Zhou Renjie's original name was Tuesday, and the current name was given to him by Zheng Sen.

"Well, yes, you have to study hard, study hard, you know." Zheng Sen said kindly. Then he turned his head again and said to Lando, "Mr. Lando, I heard that your cannon test was successful?" ”

Landu shook his head again and again: "No, no, no, Major General, it's not completely successful, I still need to build more sample cannons." However, General Zheng San refused to give me more appropriation, saying that this matter must wait for you to come back. ”

"Oh, what's wrong with your cannon?" Zheng Sen asked.

"The problem is that the barrels of our cannons are a little too strong. Major General, you know, we were quite conservative in the manufacture of the original prototype, and our new bronze cannon was only a little lighter than the normal six-pounder bronze cannon, and as a result, when we conducted a destabilizing test, we found that even if the charge was raised to 150 percent of the normal charge, it still failed to cause an explosion. At this time, the medicine room was already filled with gunpowder, and there was no way to increase the charge. Major General, you know, the length of the barrel is limited, too much charge, in fact, before it has time to burn, the shells have already been shot, so too much charge does not increase the power of this gun. In this way, the strength of the barrel of this cannon is somewhat wasted. Major General, on the premise of ensuring the power, I think the barrel of this cannon can be reduced by another quarter to a third. In this way, our double-layer bronze cannon is not much heavier than the average three-pounder gun in terms of weight. Maybe with just two horses, you can pull this cannon around. Major General, you know, the six-pounder gun is an army gun, and for an army gun, lighter weight is sometimes even more important than power. Of course, a three-pounder cannon can be pulled and run by just one horse, but the power of a six-pounder cannon is far from being comparable to a three-pounder cannon. In order to accurately make a safe and lightweight six-pounder gun, it was essential to cast more guns for experimentation. Lando crackled and said a lot, and then stared at Zheng Sen with wide eyes.

"Mr. Lando, how many more test cannons do you need to cast?" Zheng Sen asked.

"A prototype gun with a one-third reduction in the thickness of the barrel of the gun, a prototype gun with a reduction of a quarter of the thickness of the barrel of the artillery, and a prototype gun with a reduction of one-half of the barrel thickness." "First there were three of these cannons, which were used for destructive experiments. Then, according to the results, the cannon is cast for ballistic experiments, durability experiments, and service experiments. This would probably require six or seven cannons. And, Major General, I've heard that the hydro forging table and the drilling equipment are progressing well, and that maybe in the future we will be able to run around with three or four horses pulling a 12-pounder gun. ”

Zheng Sen listened, thought for a moment, and asked, "How long does it take to cast a brand new three-gun prototype cannon?" ”

"Now everything is ready-made." Landau said, "And we have already made the sand molds that don't cost much money, and as long as the raw materials are guaranteed, it won't take me three days to cast these cannons." ”

Zheng Sen nodded and thought for a while, then said, "Take me to see the prototype cannons you have already cast." ”

"Major General, those cannons ......," said Lando, "and only the cannon used for destructive experiments is still with us." The cannon used for the durability experiment and the cannon used for the service experiment were dragged into the fortress by the three generals. The third general said that since the cannon used for the destructive experiment was not blown up with 150 percent of the charge, there would be absolutely no problem in using it, and it would not be easy to build a cannon, so he ...... If I hadn't said that the cannon used for the breaking test was no longer safe enough, maybe the three generals would have even pulled the cannon away. ”

Zheng Sen almost burst out laughing when he heard this, so he said to Lando, "Mr. Lando, then let's go and see the cannon that was not destroyed by the Broken Words test." ”

……

There weren't too many obvious signs of damage on the gun, and it seemed that the double barrel did have some effect. However, Zheng Sen knows that many dark wounds of metal and other things are invisible to the naked eye. Zheng Sen patted the cannon pipe of the cannon: "If this cannon is melted, it should be possible to create another cannon, right?" ”

"Major General, we still need coal and some other things." Lando said.

"That's not a problem." Zheng Sen said, "In addition, you draw up a list for me, I will study it, and then allocate the relevant materials to you as soon as possible." ”

"Thank you, Major General!" Lando said.

After another week or so, Lando sent someone to ask Zheng Sen to say that the latest artillery had been built. So Zheng Sen came to the red zone again.

……

Three cannons have already been placed on the shooting range. Zheng Sen walked over, and when he took a closer look, he could clearly see the structure of the inner and outer layers of the barrel.

"Major General, this one has reduced the total thickness of the barrel by a quarter." "Because this is a gun used for destructive experiments, in order to save costs, we don't have some less necessary accessories, such as equipment for aiming and adjusting the muzzle, we don't have them." ”

Zheng Sen nodded, this approach is actually normal, just like the fighter jets used for static tests in later generations will not be equipped with radar fire control.

"Major General, look at this one again, this is a reduction in the total thickness of the barrel by a third. As for this one, the thickness of the barrel was reduced by two-fifths. Personally, I'm most looking forward to this cannon, which has lost a third of its weight. Lando said.

Zheng Sen nodded, and then carefully put his hand into the barrel of this cannon. The caliber of the barrel of a six-pounder gun is not large, and it is not easy to put your hand in it. Zheng Sen touched it with his hand, and the inside of the barrel seemed to have been polished, and it was very smooth.

"Good." Zheng Sen pulled out his hand, nodded and said, "Then Mr. Lando, can our experiment begin?" ”

"Of course, you can, but you and the others need to retreat to a safe distance first. Let's start with the fifty percent charge of a normal six-pounder gun. ”

Zheng Sen naturally didn't have any opinions on this, and a few people retreated to a trench hundreds of steps away, and the people who followed him handed Zheng Sen a telescope. Zheng Sen raised his binoculars and saw that Lando was loading the cannons with gunpowder.

"Our gunpowder is already granular gunpowder, right?" Zheng Sen asked.

"Yes, Major General." An accompanying technician replied.

In fact, granular gunpowder does not increase the power of gunpowder, because it does not increase the burning area of gunpowder, but reduces it. In other words, the rate of burning of gunpowder decreased. But the artillery fire. Shoot. The charge does not need to burn too high, which can only make the change in chamber pressure more intense, which will cause more damage to the barrel. Therefore, proper control of the burning rate of gunpowder is very advantageous for the cannon.

In addition, because the weight of charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter is not consistent, powdered gunpowder can easily let heavier saltpeter sink to the bottom during transportation, resulting in the separation of the three components, making the performance of gunpowder unstable and decreasing its power.

By this time, the experimenters had completed the entire charging process and loaded a six-pound shell into the muzzle.

Although it was estimated that even the cannon with the most drastic reduction in barrel thickness would have no problem dealing with 50 percent of the charge, the experimenters retreated to a safe distance and fired the first shot with a long rope of fire.