After Bi Maokang and Sun Yuanhua took up the post of director of the Armed Forces Institute, the gunpowder factories that originally belonged to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry were also merged into one place, and on the basis of the original workshops, gunpowder factories were established in Tongzhou and Baiyecheng. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

And because of the introduction of a large number of Portuguese gunpowder and gun technicians like Dias, the gunpowder produced by the gunpowder factory of the Arsenal has adopted the production method of the Taixi countries in this era, that is, charcoal, sulfur, and nitrate are ground into powder respectively, mixed according to the best proportion, and then mixed with water to make it dry and compacted, and finally ground and sieved into granules of uniform size.

And this time, the main reason why Sun Hedou was able to create this thunderstorm on a whim was also inspired by the thirty flowering shells he brought back from the gun factory of the Portuguese in Entrenchment.

And the reason why he was able to successfully manufacture the current batch of thunderous samples was precisely because of the group of Portuguese craftsmen he later brought back from Trench Jingao who specialized in making early explosive bombs.

Thinking of this truth, Emperor Chongzhen said to Sun Chengzong and the others who were standing beside him: "Qing and others should make statistics as soon as possible, and see what other Westerners, such as Teixeira, Capo, Rodriguez, and Dias, have made contributions to the manufacturing of our Ming military equipment, and have made meritorious contributions. ”

Emperor Chongzhen watched Sun Chengzong, Bi Maokang and the others bow down to receive the order, and then said to them: "What new firearms are there in the Armament Academy, you can bring them here for the experiment to show me and the two military ministers." ”

Sun Yuanhua immediately bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, in addition to this thunderstorm, the newly established fierce fire oil work of the Armament Institute has also created a batch of fire oil bombs. Your Majesty, please demonstrate. ”

Emperor Chongzhen knew that this thing was probably a primitive incendiary bomb.

Sure enough, Sun Yuanhua, who had been prepared, quickly sent someone to carry a clay pot that looked like a wine jar with a torch in his hand, went down to the firearms test field, lit the fire of the altar with a torch, and quickly threw it forward, only to hear a "bang", the jar broke to the ground, and with the black liquid flowing out of it, the fire "soared" together, and quickly expanded.

I saw that the craftsman in the experimental field immediately stepped forward with a bucket of water prepared in advance and poured water on the fire, but the fire was not only not small, but burned more fiercely.

At this time, Sun Yuanhua said: "Your Majesty, in late September, Your Majesty had a decree to order the Yansui Town Supervisor Yu Shi Ma Mao to send someone to send a batch of fierce fire oil from Yan'an Mansion. Subsequently, the ministers set up another fierce fire oil in addition to the factories of the Arsenal. Not only imitated a batch of fierce fire oil tanks, but also inspired by the kerosene rockets and fire bottles produced by Baiyecheng, a batch of fierce fire oil bombs were manufactured. The fierce fire and oil fire are fierce, and the water is not extinguished, which is really a weapon for the defense of the city. ”

After Sun Yuanhua said this, he bowed his head and waited for the emperor's instructions, and after a while, he only heard the emperor say: "Yes, in addition to expanding the production of guns, you can take the initiative to bring forth the new, and I am very relieved." ”

Speaking of which, at this time, Lu Hualin did not need the emperor's orders, he had already sent someone to fetch an empty jar of fierce fire and oil bombs, the emperor nodded at him, and took it, the black clay jar had a small mouth and a big belly, and the outside was wrapped in a sleeve woven of straw rope, knowing that this was designed to facilitate grasping and throwing.

After trying the weight, the empty jar weighed about two catties, and it seemed that this thing could only be used when defending the city. If you have to use it in the middle of the attack, you'll have to build another batch of trebuchets.

After reading this thing, Emperor Chongzhen said: "I look at this fierce fire oil bomb, it can be named an incendiary bomb. From now on, the Armament Institute can report this budget to the Military Aircraft Department, and the Fierce Fire Oil will send people to Yan'an to meet Ma Maocai, collect a large amount of fierce fire oil, half of which will be transported to Beijing, and half will be made on the spot, and various types of incendiary bombs will be supplied to Yansui and Gyeonggi towns as soon as possible, so as to be ready for practical use. ”

After saying this, Emperor Chongzhen thought for a while, and then said: "As for the thunder you said, it can be named a grenade. In my opinion, whether it is called Earthquake Thunder or Thunder Thunder, it is disrespectful to the heavens, and if this name is taken, it may not be a good omen. ”

The ministers around him were stunned when they heard this, but they all reacted immediately, and said one after another: "The emperor is sage, respecting the heavens and ancestors, it is my way of governing the country in the Ming Dynasty, the ministers can't see this, please forgive your majesty!" ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he waved his hand and said, "I'm just talking, what a crime!" ”

After saying this, Emperor Chongzhen continued: "Now that the Armament Institute has this invention, it should be improved and mass-produced as soon as possible, and gradually equip the army.

"I saw that the Armament Institute set up another grenade factory, with Sun Hedou as the ambassador and Dias as the deputy envoy to supervise the manufacture of grenades.

"In addition, the fierce fire oil also needs to make a batch of military standard torches that are more resistant to long-lasting burning, and in the future, all armies equipped with grenades and incendiary bombs will also be equipped with standard torches for ignition."

By this time, Emperor Chongzhen and the two ministers of military aircraft had been staying outside in the cold for too long, and Bi Maokang and Sun Yuanhua asked the emperor to move to a factory in the foundry to see a light artillery they had designed and cast with reference to the Franc cannon in the past few months.

In Tongzhou in December, although it was cold outside, Emperor Chongzhen's heart was hot, because as long as there were these new firearms, it would no longer be an illusory and distant dream to save the Ming Dynasty and Huaxia from peril and even revive the prestige of Daming and Huaxia!

The Franc cannon is an early rear-loading smoothbore cannon, which is a sub-mother cannon consisting of a mother gun and several sub-guns.

The imitation of the Franc cannon was not a problem in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and from the level and craftsmanship of the imitation, it was no worse than the small and medium-sized field artillery known to the Portuguese themselves.

As early as the third year of Jiajing, that is, in 1524 A.D., the skilled craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty had successfully imitated the first batch of small Franc machine guns, each weighing about 200 catties, the mother gun was three feet long, and was equipped with four sub-guns, and began to equip a large number of troops along the border and along the coast.

Since then, the Ming Dynasty has imitated other different models of Franc cannons, Mao Yuanyi's "Wu Bei Zhi", the Franc cannon is divided into five models, the first imitation of the kind of mother gun about one meter long, is the No. 5 Franc machine.

The No. 1 Franc cannon is nine feet long, the mother gun weighs about 800 catties, and the firing range can reach more than five miles, that is, more than two thousand meters.

Due to the thinner barrel and smaller projectile, this Franc cannon is not as powerful as the Hongyi cannon, which is several times larger than it, although the firing range is quite long.

However, this kind of Franc cannon also has an advantage that the Hongyi cannon, that is, the Shenwei invincible general cannon cannot be compared, that is, the weight of the cannon body is relatively light, and it is relatively easy and convenient to move compared to the Hongyi cannon that is often two or three thousand catties.

In particular, the Franc cannon is a kind of rear-loading sub-mother gun, and its loading and firing speed is incomparable to the Hongyi cannon.

And what the Ming Dynasty lacks most now is such a lightweight, portable, fast loading, and powerful field artillery that far exceeds the Tiger Squat Cannon.

This time, what the Armament Institute showed Emperor Chongzhen was the improved and strengthened version of the Franc cannon.

Emperor Chongzhen and his entourage, under the guidance of Bi Maokang and Sun Yuanhua and others, came to a factory workshop, and the idle people in the house had already been avoided, and only a dozen artillery pieces were quietly placed.

Now this Emperor Chongzhen knows the Franc cannon, so he stepped forward to take a look, and knew that this is the shape of the No. 2 or No. 3 Franc cannon, the body of the mother cannon is about two meters long, installed on the gun carriage with carriage wheels, the tail post of the gun carriage is on the ground, you can adjust the height of the gun muzzle and the angle of shooting, and the tail of the gun carriage also has an iron ring for traction and dragging, which is convenient for using horses to drag and travel in the field.

Looking at the caliber of the muzzle, it is about three inches, which is converted into the unit of measurement of later generations, about eight centimeters to nine centimeters.

Such a caliber, for a Franc cannon, is already considered large, and it belongs to the caliber of the No. 1 Franc cannon.

When Emperor Chongzhen was thinking about what kind of Franc cannon this cannon was, Sun Yuanhua stepped forward and bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, this cannon has not yet been named, although this cannon is still imitating the style and specifications of the Western Franc cannon, but no matter the caliber, or the material, including its range and power, it is no longer comparable to the Franc cannon." ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he looked at the muzzle again, and then realized that the black and shiny medium-sized cannon in front of him was indeed not made of bronze, nor was it a cast iron Buddha cannon that was easy to rust and needed normal maintenance.