Chapter 480: The Power of the Arquebus

"No problem at all, I'll arrange it."

Wei ~ Hongye beckoned a few craftsmen to come over and asked them to immediately take all the arquebuses to the shooting range in the valley, and then prepare to demonstrate them to everyone.

Seven or eight craftsmen found a few large cloth bags and loaded the arquebuses on the cart. Then I went to the warehouse and got * and buckshot, and then I took everyone to the shooting range.

Out of the factory, Wei ~ Hongye led everyone along the mountain path into the valley.

It is a wide area surrounded by dense forests. At the edge of the woods, the flat land in the middle of the valley has been surrounded by a wooden fence.

The craftsmen brought in five wooden human-shaped targets, and then put on them leather armor, chain mail, fish scale armor and other types of armor that are now popular.

Wei ~ Hongye kept everyone away from the craftsmen who were preparing to launch, Gao Yanei didn't want to leave, and squatted next to the craftsman curiously, wanting to watch the arquebus up close.

Du Dalei kicked him in the ass: "Hurry up and die, don't you want to live?" ”

"Lao Du, why are you kicking me?" Gao Yanai was very unhappy.

"You mallet, arquebus firing is dangerous, what if it blows up? Get out of here. Du Dalei dragged Gao Yanei and left.

Gao Yanei was a little reluctant: "Lao Du Neng is confused about me again, what is there to be dangerous." These craftsmen are not afraid, what am I afraid of? ”

Wei ~ Hongye walked over and explained with a smile: "Yanei, the arquebus is still a sample that we have made not long ago, and there is a certain danger in firing. These craftsmen are already proficient in handling arquebuses, but the possibility of exploding them is not ruled out. So when it came time to fire later, they would tie the arquebus to the wooden rack and pull the trigger with a thin rope, so that there would be no danger. So we're going to stay away. ”

Gao Yanei still didn't quite understand, but he was pushed and shoved by Du Dalei and pushed into the distance.

At this time, the two craftsmen began to prepare for the launch, and everyone watched the craftsmen's movements with curiosity.

A craftsman in his thirties was seen, armed with an arquebus, with a wide belt tied around his waist. There are several small items hanging from the belt. The small pot on the left side of the waist is used for medicination; The leather box on the right is for projectiles; The vial next to the leather box is for *.

The craftsman began to clean the fuse holes and primer pots with brushes. Because the residue is easy to block the ignition hole, which is a common problem with muskets.

After cleaning up, he took off the small pot on the left side, pulled out the stopper, poured the primer into the primer pot, and closed the lid of the primer pot.

He hung the jug back on his belt, then removed the vial containing *, pulled out the stopper and poured * through the muzzle.

The craftsman then took the lead bullet from the leather case and loaded it through the muzzle. Then he took the strip from another craftsman, put it into the muzzle, and tamped the projectile and *.

He laid down the tong, and with another craftsman, carefully fastened the arquebus to the wooden frame, and tied it firmly with rope.

They also lit the rope and fastened it to the gun*.

A craftsman pulls the trigger with a thin rope, and at the same time as the fire rope falls, the lid of the primer pot opens. The primer ignites*, and the projectile fires violently.

"Boom!" A puff of white smoke came out of the arquebus, and a loud bang was heard, startling everyone.

"Haha, success, success!" Du Dalei was excited, and immediately pulled Gao Yanei to run towards the target.

Running in front of the target thirty meters away, Du Dalei took a breath in surprise.

"Tynyima is murderous! The scale armor is completely pierced, how deep is this! ”

Du Dalei stretched out his finger and stabbed into the small hole in the fish scale armor that had been shot out by the lead bullet.

"Oops!" Du Dalei pulled out his fingers like lightning, "Tai Nima is hot!" Fingers are falling off! ”

He blew on his hot fingers, his face twisted in pain.

"Hahaha, Lao Du, you are so funny. Is it so exaggerated? Gao Yanei felt that Du Dalei was playing treasure.

"It's painful for Lao Tzu to die, Gao Yanei, if you don't believe Lao Tzu, you can try it too."

At this time, everyone came over, and when they saw Du Dalei's embarrassed appearance, Wei ~ Hongye shook his head: "You are so stupid, you dare to touch such a hot lead bullet." What a fearlessness it is for the ignorant. ”

Zhao Zizhong picked up a thin straw stick from the ground and reached into the small hole of the fish scale armor. He pulled it out and looked:

"Old Wei, this arquebus is very powerful. Not to mention penetrating the fish scale armor, it is two centimeters deep. This is a wooden target, and if it hits a person's body, it probably won't survive. ”

Everyone was amazed that the projectile fired by the arquebus hit the wooden target very deeply, and if it really hit the torso of a person, then who would survive.

Wei ~ Hongye smiled: "We have done experiments with live pigs and live sheep, if we hit the body of pigs and sheep, after the lead bullet enters, the internal organs of pigs and sheep will be messed up, and they will die immediately." ”

Everyone looked at each other, and the power of this arquebus was too great! It's so much stronger than a bow and arrow. On the battlefield, if you wear good armor, you can also defend against the fire of bows and arrows. But the projectiles fired by this arquebus can't even prevent fish scale armor, and whoever gets shot will die.

Liang Daguan shook his head: "This arquebus is indeed powerful, but there is a shortcoming, that is, the firing process is too cumbersome, the speed is too slow, and it is not as good as a bow and arrow." ”

Du Dalei shook his hand and said, "Liang Daguan, let me ask you, how long does it take to train a qualified archer?" ”

"Well, it's said to take a few years, why are you asking this?"

"Hehe, you can train a musketeer, half a year is enough. Moreover, musketeers, unlike archers, also need to exceed the arm strength and physical strength of ordinary people. As long as you are in good health, you will soon learn how to operate a musket. ”

It dawned on everyone that in this era, training archers does come at a great cost. First of all, a tall and strong man must be carefully selected, and then he must be provided with sufficient nutrition, careful training, and after several years, a qualified archer can be trained. That's a huge cost.

But training musketeers is a very simple matter, according to Du Dalei, half a year is enough, and there is no need to choose tall and strong men, so that anyone can train as musketeers, which will save a lot of money.

Wei ~ Hongye continued: "If arquebuses can be put into large-scale industrial production, it is estimated that the cost will be very low, at least much lower than bows and arrows. So if we produce a lot of arquebuses, it will definitely be a good deal. ”

Everyone understands that it is very troublesome to make bows and crossbows in this era.

The origin of the Chinese bow and arrow is very early, which is related to the hunting activities of the ancestors. It is difficult to preserve the early bows and arrows, because the bow body and arrow stem are made of bamboo and wood, which are very perishable, so in the excavation of the Neolithic Age and Xia Dynasty sites, a complete specimen has not been obtained. The stone arrowheads, bone arrowheads and bronze arrowheads are easy to preserve, and there are many archaeological discoveries. From the shape and material of the arrowhead, it can be seen that from the late Neolithic period through the Xia Shang to the Spring and Autumn period, the bow and arrow have been constantly improved.

On the basis of the accumulation of experience in the past dynasties, a detailed record of the manufacture of bows and arrows was formed in the Spring and Autumn Period, which can be found in the "Examination of the Work Records", which is clearly stipulated in the text to guide the production of sophisticated bows and arrows. "Examination of the Gongji: Bow Man" pointed out that the six materials required for bow-making are dry, horn, tendon, glue, silk and lacquer. "The combination of six materials into a bow cannot be performed in a short period of time, and different processes need to choose different seasons to ensure the quality of the bow." Where for the bow, winter precipitation dry and spring liquid angle, summer tendons, autumn three materials, cold body. "In ancient times, it took at least two to three years to make a good bow.

The precise procedures and many key processes of bow and arrow making are entirely dependent on the exquisite skill and experience of the craftsmen, with the eye as the ruler and the hand as the measure, and there is very little specific data to refer to. To make a bow, you need to use hundreds of special tools to process more than 20 kinds of natural materials by hand, and go through more than 200 processes to make a bow and arrow.

The traditional Chinese double-curved compound bow has a bamboo inner tube with horns on the outside and tendons on the inside, and wooden bows at both ends. The production of the bow is divided into two parts: the "white work" of the bow and the "painting work" of decoration. There are generally two kinds of bowstrings, cowhide and twine, and the bow and arrow production process with simple shape and structure has five avenues: tire making, bolting, laying horns, laying cow tendons, and going to the bench, and there are 200 subdivisions. The arrow-making steps mainly include adjusting the rod, playing the skin, scraping the rod, installing the arrow and tail feathers, etc.

There are more than 10 kinds of tools used, such as benches, saw knives, wooden files, tendon combs, bow pillows, etc. Bows and arrows have very strict material requirements, such as elm or ash for wood, southern buffalo horns for horns, and must be longer than 60 cm, and arrows generally use hard goose feathers to fan the wind.

Therefore, the manufacture of good bows in ancient times was time-consuming and laborious, and required a lot of money and materials to support. Moreover, production is extremely slow, and it will take a long time to prepare the troops as soon as possible.

Wei ~ Hongye continued: "If we solve the problem of industrial production, it is estimated that the arquebus will soon equip our escort team. Moreover, arquebuses are much less expensive to train than archers. Our convoy will be armed with a large number of arquebuses, so where in the world will we not be able to go? ”

Everyone was very happy, and Du Dalei began to make a lot of nonsense again: "Haha, line up to shoot or something, Lao Tzu likes it the most." Lao Wei, you hurry up and produce arquebuses, and then arm the escorts, and then I will take them to Little Japan to scourge them, what Iwami Silver Mountain, Sado Gold Mountain, all of them are snatched.

Then Lao Tzu will go to Kyoto, kill the Japanese emperor, and snatch all his women back as concubines, Lao Tzu will be the emperor of Japan!"

Gao Yanei pursed his lips: "Lao Du, do you dare to find a concubine?" You're quite fat, huh? Aren't you afraid that Fu Hongyu will castrate you? ”