The structure of arquebuses and flintlock pistols is not complicated, and there are only two main problems that need to be solved, and that is the material of the barrel and the way it is processed. A variety of materials and processes can be used on a prototype gun, but when it comes to mass production, it is difficult to consider the cost of processing and the efficiency of use.

Zhen San also knew that it was best to use 100 steel, even Uzi steel, but there were very few 100 steels in the wolf's den, and they were mainly processed into armor and swords, if ordinary steel was used, the barrel would be scrapped after several shots, which was obviously not suitable for making barrels.

In addition to the cost, because the softness is used in the advantages of the gun, it has become a material with very poor wear resistance when processing the barrel, and the durability of the copper barrel is destined to be unable to be used for a long time, and extremely hard materials must be used, which does not need to be said by Zhen Qian, Zhen San quickly realized it.

Copper is a scarce material in the entire Datang, and if it is cast into a firearm by Zhen Qian on a large scale, it will inevitably cause the copper price of the entire Datang to rise rapidly.

Even if Zhen Qian was willing to use copper, he would not be able to collect enough copper sources at once, and before obtaining a large amount of copper ore, it was obviously not suitable to use copper to process and manufacture firearms, and it was only suitable for making prototype samples of firearms.

Wolf's Den has been improving the processing technology of 100 steel, the use of coke, the use of hot blast furnaces, and the use of hydraulic forging presses, so that the production of 100 steels is becoming more and more mature.

If it weren't for the reason of being constrained by the wolf's den, Zhen San would have been preparing to build a larger steelmaking furnace, each furnace could produce about three tons of high-quality molten steel, once such a steelmaking furnace was put into use, it would definitely solve the dilemma of insufficient production of 100 steelmaking.

Muskets and artillery have always been the highest secret of the wolf's den, and before Zhen San took out the Huaxia III musket, there were no more than twenty people who had seen the musket in the entire wolf's den.

Zhen Jiu also saw the true face of artillery for the first time after Zhen San went to the Wufeng Islands this time, and had heard that Zhen San was secretly developing several powerful weapons, and this time Zhen San came to the Wufeng Islands and brought six new small artillery, ready to be installed on the ship for experiments, but the musket was the first time he saw it, and he was full of curiosity about this smaller weapon.

Zhen San is an engineer, technician, and researcher, but he is not an excellent commentator, and he usually doesn't talk much, so he only passes by in a few words about the introduction of the musket.

"Let me show you the steps of loading and shooting!"

Zhen San took out a conical projectile from the wooden box, the appearance of the projectile was very strange, it was not a conical warhead, there were three circles of concave at the bottom of the projectile, and there was a concave hole at the bottom, "This is the bullet ...... of the musket." ”

"Mini Bullet!"

Only Zhen Qian knows the true origin of this bullet, according to Zhen Qian's memory, it seems to say that around the eighteenth century, the British colonists found a local indigenous tribe blowpipe weapon in India, and the tail of the blowpipe is made of soft and elastic wood pith, and the inner layer of the blowpipe is resisted by the expansion of the wood pith to prevent the air from running away, so as to launch the arrow, which is the origin of the Mini bullet.

Mini bullets, the diameter of the conical warhead is slightly smaller than the diameter of the breech, so it is convenient to reload. There is a conical cavity at the bottom of the warhead, a wooden plug blocks the bottom of the hole, and when firing, the gas presses the wooden plug to squeeze into the cavity, forcing the bottom of the bullet to expand, close to the rifling, and close the gap between the warhead and the rifle, so that the gas cannot leak out, and can make the warhead rotate at high speed under rifling pressure.

The Mini bullet solved the problem of the difficulty of loading the front-loading rifled gun and the low range accuracy of the smoothbore gun, which made the rifle surpass the artillery and become the decisive weapon on the battlefield at that time. But there are some problems that cannot be solved with the Mini bullet, which can only be made of a very soft alloy such as lead, so that the warhead can expand easily. The warhead is soft, it deforms immediately after hitting the target, the stopping effect is good, but the penetration is too weak.

front-loading rifled guns with rifling inside the barrel; When firing a bullet, the bullet is forced to rotate and fly by the thread engraved in the chamber, so that it has the precise directivity and long-term stability in high-speed motion that smoothbore bullets do not have, making long-range sniping possible. The front-loading rifled gun had the weakness of difficult loading ammunition and low firing efficiency, which was compensated for to a certain extent by the invention of the "mini bullet".

The caliber of the improved Mini bullet is one circle smaller than the diameter of the body of the front-loading rifled gun, which solves the problem of difficult reloading; A small hole is dug at the bottom of the warhead, and when fired, it is ignited to inflate the warhead and close to the chamber of the gun, and under the pressure of the rifling, the warhead can rotate out at high speed, and the hitting accuracy is greatly improved. The Mini bullet is a revolutionary invention in the history of bullets.

People who like military affairs know more or less about the history of the development of rifles, whether it is an arquebus or a flintlock pistol, its firing distance and accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Especially the firing distance, arquebuses and flintlock pistols because they use round projectiles, the firing distance is only less than 100 paces, such weapons are slightly insufficient to deal with infantry, if you encounter a large-scale cavalry, the distance of 100 paces is just a few breaths of cavalry sprint, after a shot will become a burning stick.

Therefore, most of the early arquebuses used dense formations, coupled with three-stage rotational shooting, to barely ensure a dense attack.

But in fact, the early muskets were subject to a lot of restrictions in their use, and they could not equip the army on a large scale, resulting in the status of the early muskets, and even one archer played a big role, and in the Manchu period, which was famous for mounted archery, in the face of the firearms of the late Ming Dynasty, the gap did not widen but decreased, so that it was abandoned by the stupid Manchus.

It is conceivable that an early musketeer would be able to fire a single bullet at the onslaught of a cavalryman in front of him, but the accuracy of this bullet would be almost infinitely zero.

In addition, the early muskets were not very powerful, as long as they did not directly hit the vital point, the last person to die could only be the musketeer.

But with rifling, gunpowder and mini shells, the situation immediately changed dramatically.

Zhen San made a prototype of a flintlock pistol a year ago, and after the experiment, he found that it was not much different from the arquebus, but he replaced the annoying arquebus with a flint impact device, and the firing distance and accuracy of the bullet, together with the loading time of the bullet, did not change much, at most it was a small step forward.

Moreover, Zhen Qian deduced and personally simulated the actual battle, and found that the deterrent power of the flintlock pistol was not large, and it had to be three times that of the enemy to exert the maximum attack power, this result was unacceptable to Zhen Qian, which was similar to the tactics of the sea of people in later generations, the question was whether Zhen Qian had such financial and human resources?