It's easy to say, it's like riveting steel beams together, finding a good angle, and you can make a gun carriage in two hours. In fact, it is still very troublesome to do, how many angles are appropriate, how thick the steel beam can resist the impact of the caliber artillery, and how to reduce the overall weight of the gun carriage as much as possible under the premise of ensuring that it is strong, these problems need to be tested again and again. It took more than three months just to build the gun mount, which is longer than the time to build a new ship.

Hong Tao was not idle for these three months, he personally took thirty future naval officers aboard the Virginia-class battleship and made a long voyage. Heading south from Cité Soleil, I tested the performance of the new ship and conducted a thorough survey of the coastline on the eastern side of Central America. Eventually, he made it to Venezuela and the north coast of Colombia, and after a small deal with a local Indian tribe, he turned around and returned to his home satisfied.

The deal was worth it to the South American Indian tribe, and Hong Tao was a fool, exchanging two jars of wine and two sharp machetes for a large bag of bark and dozens of small saplings. Although this bark can cure diseases, and young saplings can grow up and peel the bark, there are some of the least valuable things in the mountains here.

Of course, Hong Tao disagrees with these natives who can't even wear pants, the bark is cinchona bark, and the small saplings are cinchona trees. The big ones are not easy to dig or bring, and they may not be able to grow if they are injured and brought back. These saplings were dug up from a cinchona forest and brought back to the valley of Mexico to be planted, and in a few years they would grow into a large patch, and in a decade they would become a forest.

You may not see them populating the valley yourself, but the wealth can be left to future generations, and if needed, it can be sent back to Cape Town, Golden River City, or even the Great Song Dynasty to be planted. Malaria is not confined to the Americas and Europe, it is present almost everywhere in the world.

In addition to these barks, Hong Tao also found another thing that made him happy, and that was the potato, commonly known as the potato. This thing is also a plant that grows in the mountains of South America, and the locals have domesticated it for many years, and it is no different from the potatoes of later generations. But the locals didn't treat it as a good thing, and generously gave Hong Tao a basket. In order to confirm whether this thing is a potato or not, Hong Tao specially baked one and tasted it, yes, it is it!

With potatoes, the more than 100,000 people in the valley of Mexico have one more food to eat, and although there are already corn, wheat, rice, beans, and pumpkins, they are not as productive as potatoes. If the potato cultivation area can be increased as soon as possible, it will not only meet the needs of the Mexica Kingdom in the future, but also help other new kingdoms to overcome the food shortage in the early days of its establishment.

Don't underestimate this kind of dirty, unsightly little thing, if it weren't for the Spaniards bringing potatoes back from South America, the population of Europe probably wouldn't have grown. Without enough population, the Age of Discovery, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution are all in vain. I can't eat enough, where do I have the time to ponder knowledge.

When Hong Tao returned to Sun City, Qi Zu's 75 mm and 20 times diameter breech-loading rifled naval guns were also transported from Saba City. The caliber of this naval gun is similar to that of the deck gun, but the barrel is longer and the rear part is thicker, which is to cope with the higher chamber pressure.

It is still cast with two steel pipes wrapped in wrought iron with rifling and indentation in a hollow water-cooled indentation method, plus the total weight of the gun carriage is more than 1,100 kilograms, and the copper shell is used to set the pointed solid bullet, and the flat firing distance can reach more than two kilometers, and the large-angle shooting is several times farther than the flat firing.

Since there are only solid bullets, there is no point in hitting too far, and the gunner's visual firing distance on the sea is still a bit of a spectrum within a kilometer, and any further away is pure blindness, plus the ups and downs of the sea waves, the hit rate of one percent cannot be reached. The distance with the highest accuracy is still about 500 meters, and as long as the wind and waves are not too big, an experienced gunner can increase the hit rate to about 30 percent, that is to say, three shots can hit one shot, which is already terrifying.

Don't look at the fact that this naval gun is only 75 mm caliber, its pointed bullet weighs about the same as the weight of a 135 mm round bullet, and the muzzle velocity is faster, and the kinetic energy carried is also greater. At a distance of one kilometer, it fires pointy bullets that can pierce half a meter of hardwood directly, not just a hole, but a burst in the wood. Entering is a round hole, coming out is a large explosion point of one square meter, the shrapnel and sawdust scattered everywhere still maintain a great lethality, touch people and shrapnel an effect, touch the arms and legs directly break, touch the organs of this person is finished.

Qi Zu cannon, this time Hong Tao did not borrow the name of later generations, and directly used Qi Zu's name. Naming a product after oneself was still rare in ancient China. These people who used their skills and knowledge to create wealth for mankind did not have the opportunity to enjoy great honor, and it was only during the period of the Golden River Empire that this situation changed. Hong Tao inherited this way of rewarding craftsmen, he is a craftsman himself, so he has a better understanding of the mind of craftsmen.

In fact, Qi Zu could still make the caliber of this rear-loading rifled gun larger, and there was no technical difficulty, but Hong Tao stopped him from thinking about it. Naval guns are to be built according to the performance of the battleship, not that the larger the caliber, the better. According to the sturdiness of the hull of the Virginia-class battleship, if the ship's guns are built too large and the weight is multiplied, it is difficult to say whether the hull can withstand the recoil of the guns when fired.

Although the Virginia class has changed in size, it is still a pure sailing ship after all, with three masts occupying the central axis of the hull, and the guns must be mounted on both sides and in the bow and stern. If the weight is too large, it will inevitably affect the center of gravity of the ship, and there is a danger of capsizing in high sea conditions. If you want to play the large-caliber main guns on warships in later generations, you have to wait for Wen Xiaoqi to get out the steam engine that can be used for ship driving, cancel most of the masts and sail lines, and arrange the guns on the central axis of the hull, so that it is possible to make the caliber of the naval guns larger.

At present, Wen Xiaoqi's steam engine has made a breakthrough, and he was inspired by the metal sealing ring used by Qi Zu to seal the artillery bolts, and no longer waited for Bush to help him get the gum vulcanization process out, but used a sealing ring made of brass to seal pipes, cylinders, boilers, etc., and the effect was really good. He had already begun to use the steam engine he had built in the shipyards of Sun City, using it to drive saw blades to see wood, which was more convenient to use than the large saw table driven by a waterwheel, but some places still needed to be improved in actual use.

Now, in addition to building a new warship, he has already greeted Hong Tao, asking Qi Zu to help him build a larger steam engine, ready for practical application experiments. As long as the new steam engine is built and has passed the actual work test, and there are no major structural problems, it can be manufactured on a small scale and used to partially replace the waterwheel and windmill as a new power supplement. As for when it can be used for railways and ships, Hong Tao feels that it is not far away, if he has no accidents, he will definitely see small steamers and small trains running on the sea and land with black smoke in this life.

"Your Majesty, this ship is really good, especially these naval guns, I can operate them alone, not only accurately, but also far...... Or I will come back to be a navy, you can give me a captain, and you will be the commander of the fleet. "I heard that there was a new type of warship coming out of the Sun City Shipyard, and Swan, who was also an admiral, ran back as fast as he could, and after getting on board and firing a few shots, he found Hong Tao.

"Oh, you want to be in the Navy again, don't you? Okay, I agreed, but I had one condition. No matter what good guns and good guns I get for the army in the future, you are not allowed to change back to the army, and you can't be a small soldier, agree? "Hong Tao really took this bastard thing, he will go wherever he wants, if he gets the air force out in the future, he will have to learn to fly an airplane again.

“…… The army also has good artillery? "Swann let Hong Tao grasp the soft underbelly, and fundamentally, he still likes to be in the army, especially the cavalry. However, whether he was in the army in Jinhe Country or here, it seemed that he could not fight any particularly fierce and enjoyable battles, so he had to retreat to the second best thing and wanted to transfer to the navy. At least the sea battle can still be full of artillery fire, which is much more fun than riding horses and guns all over the ground to chase those natives who are still holding stone spears and arrows.

"I want to have it, but now that I don't even have a general, who will use it if I still get so many artillery for the army? Well, I'll save you a lot of trouble. "Hong Tao said this too domineeringly, as if he didn't every day, he pulled artillery.

"Don't! Your Majesty, I am no longer in the Navy. As long as you get me a small cannon that can be pulled and run, I'll be a cavalryman!" Swann felt that this matter was very reliable, Hong Tao could come up with something new from time to time, and the army and cavalry were not unable to touch the battle, but there was no place to fight at present. No matter how powerful the navy is, it can't sail ships into the mainland, and if it wants to solve the problems of the interior, it will have to rely on the army and cavalry.

"You, it's just that your mouth is too cheap, I was going to go to you to discuss the matter of cavalry artillery, but you had to come up and give me a chance to make conditions, I don't torture and torture you, I'm sorry for myself. In this case, you can take someone to explore this place for me, draw a map, and when you come back, you will be able to see your cavalry guns, which are guaranteed to be better than the new ones. "I've been busy exploring others for more than a year, and I don't know what the Isthmus of Tehuantepec looks like. Now he is still inseparable, since Swanshang is in a hurry to make do, just let him go and help him explore, lest he be idle and have nothing to do, and run around all day to anger himself.

"What's good about this place?" Swann glanced at the location pointed out by Hong Tao on the map and couldn't guess.

"This is the dividing line between my kingdom and the kingdom below, I don't have time to survey, you help me go." Hong Tao is a thief, he doesn't need to make it up, his stomach is full of nonsense, and it still sounds particularly reasonable.

"Hey, hey, hey...... Or are you smart! This place is so narrow, and the border is set here, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It's just that I don't quite understand, why is it still the sea over there? Swan felt that he had guessed Hong Tao's true intentions, which was indeed very reasonable, and he believed it himself. However, according to the mark on the map of Hongtao, the west side of this land is still the sea.

"You, do my job well, make me happy, and I'll tell you where the sea leads over there." Hong Tao would not have told others so early that the sea over there could lead to Jinhe Country, this secret is related to people's perception of the entire earth now, and it is another hole card in his hand.

Swann left happily, running away to explore the terrain is not a hard job, and taking the recruits with him is even a long-distance training. He is not worried that Hong Tao will fool himself, as long as Hong Tao officially agrees to make cannons for the cavalry, then he does not have to worry about breaking his promise. Emperor Hong's products must be high-quality, although many people despise Hong Tao's character, but no one dares to doubt the emperor's ability, what he says must be done.

(To be continued.) )