There are many small animals brought back from the island of Madagascar on the Hongtao boat, and they are more popular with children than Hongtao. A little lemur immediately became a pet of the children, and all day long they either sat on the head of the Hong salamander or lay on the shoulder of the Hong Jinhe, but the body of Saifei could not go. He was the youngest, and he was not very sensible, so he put everything in his mouth, and several times he bit the little lemur and squeaked.

There is another thing that the children prefer, that is, the chameleon lying on Hong Tao's hat, but unfortunately this guy seems to regard Hong Tao's hat as his home, and he goes on a hunger strike when he changes places, and he doesn't eat or drink unless he returns the hat to him. And if you put it on someone else, it will immediately turn gray, just like Weng Ya's poop, only when Hong Tao holds it, he is willing to become colorful. Now no one has a rut, so he can only raise it by Hong Tao, and the hat has also become Hong Tao's standard, and he can't take it off except for sleeping. If the chameleon died, the children would be very unhappy, so Hong Tao had to get used to it, even if he wasn't used to wearing a hat all the time.

In fact, this kind of carefree pastoral life is Hong Tao's favorite, if it can be maintained like this, Hong Tao does not plan to help the Southern Song Dynasty court at all, and he will occupy the mountain as the king here in Jinhewan. The population remained at three or five thousand people, there was enough food, enough craftsmen, and seven or eight warships were made, and whoever would destroy them. It's better not to come, regularly send ships to the mainland to exchange some necessities and come back, and the whaling industry alone can raise Jinhewan fat and fat.

It's a pity, there is no such comfortable thing in the world, if you don't beat others, others will beat you. According to historical records, after the Mongols destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, they did not stop moving south, and specially got a navy to fight all the way to Jawa Island. You can touch the island of Java. If they discover Luzon, can they not get involved? Especially after discovering Jinhewan, can you forget what your boats look like? Can you forget that these ships often go to the ports to the north to raid cities and rob people? At that point, Golden River Bay will be in real trouble, they can land anywhere on Luzon and attack themselves from land, as long as there are enough people. The primeval forest can't stop them.

Besides, once the Southern Song Dynasty court is gone and becomes the Yuan Dynasty, who will sell its whale oil to? The Yuan Dynasty recruited a lot of Pu family members to serve them, will those Pu family members declare personal vendetta at that time? It's very likely. So the tree wants to be quiet and the wind does not stop, things have developed to this point, and you can't retreat no matter how much you want to, or you will keep moving forward, or you will wait to be trampled to death by others.

"Old Qi. What is there to discuss with Cixi and them, I am on vacation. "It's just been calm for three or four days, and the first to knock on Hong Tao's door is not the expected Wen Nan and Luo Youde, but Qi Zu! Hong Tao thought that he was fooled by those bad guys, and he didn't even let him in, so he issued an eviction order.

"Chairman, I'm really in a hurry! I should have said it two days ago, but it doesn't depend on you just coming back from the sea. It's also strange that I'm tired, so I want to wait for two days. But. You have explained that this matter must be reported in time, and I have no choice but to do so! Qi Zu was unusual, did not retreat, but complained to Hong Tao about his suffering.

"What urgent matter still needs to be reported in time? What's on your side...... Artillery? Hong Tao still didn't open the door, but a few seconds later. He suddenly pulled the door open and grabbed Qi Zu by the collar, almost not lifting the others.

“…… Yes, yes, it's artillery, you put me down first......" Qi Zu was much shorter than Hong Tao. Don't look at his perennial iron, he really has to compare strength, and he is really not Hong Tao's opponent. As the saying goes, you don't lose a lot of strength, but this exhaust volume is on the table, and it's useless for you to add T.

"Let's go, talk as we go. Hong Salamander, Dad will go out for a while, you take your younger brothers to the workshop to find Mom, don't run around! "He said that he was annoyed and tired, and he wanted to rest for a few days, but as soon as he heard the word artillery, Hong Tao immediately became in a combat state again, and his blood groove was full. Throw the three children directly to their mother, and then follow Qizu to the dock and board the boat to the south bank.

"Is this it? I'll see...... How is it a bit like the color of the Xuande furnace? How much does it weigh? "Traveling with Qi Zu to the foundry on the south bank, Hong Tao was taken under a shed where a large dark golden pipe was erected on a wooden cart. It is thick at one end and thin at the other, about two meters long, with columnar lugs on both sides of the tube and a fire door at the rear end.

"More than 5,800 pounds...... Caliber 155 mm. "Qi Zu doesn't seem to be very confident when he talks about the weight of this cannon, and it is indeed a little heavier, two and a half tons! Copper alloy!

“…… It's a bit heavy, how about the test shot? Hong Tao still had a hint of illusion and stretched out his foot and kicked the tail of the cannon, but he didn't move. He didn't intend to be too heavy on these craftsmen in terms of weight, and in a few hundred years, the front-loading artillery made by the Europeans would still be so heavy. Unless you can improve the forging and casting process by a whole generation, it will be difficult to reduce the weight. In fact, for naval guns, there is no difference between a ton and a two-ton weight, and it is not felt at all when put on a ship. If this is a land artillery piece, then Hong Tao's heart is dead, and the two- or three-ton cannon, relying on the current transportation conditions and transportation capacity, how to pull it to the front line is a big problem. If an army is equipped with several more of these cannons, don't wait for the enemy to fight, and the transport cannons alone can exhaust them alive.

"At most, it has been filled with six catties of medicine, and it can collapse this iron ball 2 miles away, but it weighs twenty-three catties, and it can break a small tree with a thick arm after it lands!" When it came to the performance of the cannon, Qi Zu was proud again, he had just heard Hong Tao say how powerful this thing was, and when he really tried it, it was really powerful.

"Where's our grenade?" Hong Tao kicked the iron balls on the ground again, but he still didn't kick. There are already flowering bombs, and there is no need to spray each other with enemy warships, the effect of solid bullets is very small, and it is still fun to play flowering bullets.

"Loaded with three catties of medicine, the grenade exploded inside, and several slaves were injured for this. If you only load more than two catties of medicine, you can only hit more than 300 meters away, not only is it not accurate, but it is not energetic! "Qi Zu still likes the solid iron ball that can collapse two miles out, and he is not very interested in the hollow iron ball that is too squeamish.

"The chamber pressure is too high, the barrel is too long, this is no longer a howitzer, it should be considered a cannon, it is playing direct fire! Do you think this will work, it is still the same caliber, try shortening the barrel to two meters, it should be better. In addition, the caliber of this gun is a bit large, and some small-caliber naval guns are still needed on the ship, can it be cast smaller? Hong Tao understood why this kind of cannon is easy to explode when opening flower shells, they are too long and the chamber pressure is high. Although the shells of those grenades have been heat-treated and have become a lot tougher, they still can't withstand too high bore pressure, and there is no need, this body-to-tube ratio is no longer a howitzer but a direct-fire cannon. Qi Zu misinterpreted his meaning, focusing too much on how to shoot the cannonball farther and more accurately, but neglecting the safety of the launch. In addition, there is another problem, that is, the caliber of this kind of cannon is a bit large, and it is okay to install it on the Jinhe, and the displacement of the Jiaosha-class warship is insufficient, if it is equipped with dozens of 155 mm cannons, it will occupy all the displacement, which will seriously affect the range.

"Hey, hey, hey...... Don't worry, come and see this again, here! Qi Zu listened to Hong Tao's words, grinned, and took Hong Tao to a shed next to him, opened a piece of cotton cloth, and a gun carriage was revealed underneath, and there was also a cannon barrel on it, the shape was exactly the same as the gun just now, but it was a whole circle.

"Yo, you walked in front of me, this is 120 mm?" Hong Tao was really happy this time, he didn't expect Qi Zu to draw inferences from one another, not only to make a cannon out of the caliber of a grenade, but also to create a small-caliber naval gun according to the actual situation. Seeing the round iron balls on the ground, he visually measured them by himself, and they were almost 12 centimeters in diameter.

"With a caliber of 135 mm, the bullet weighs 16 catties and 3 taels, and if you put four and a half catties of medicine, you can also hit two miles away, but the power is slightly weaker. I also deliberately made a few grenades to try, the same three catties of medicine, no explosion, two miles of land is no problem, but it is far away and the head is not accurate! This time, Qi Zu was full of confidence, patting his chest and giving a package ticket to his product.

"Well, it seems to be a matter of the wall thickness of the grenade, how much does it weigh?" Hong Tao was not too surprised, casting two hollow iron balls of different sizes with the same thickness of iron sheets must be smaller and better compression-resistant. This is not a problem, as long as the barrel is shortened a little and the charge is increased, it can still be long.

"3,200 pounds!" Qi Zu patted the cannon body, as if he still had something to say, or waited for Hong Tao to continue to ask.

"It's only one lap smaller, why is there such a big difference in weight?" Hong Tao knew that Qi Zu was selling Guanzi, but he had to ask if he knew.

"It's iron-tired copper bones, so it's naturally much lighter." Qi Zu finally told Hong Tao the secret of reducing the weight of the cannon.

"Iron cannon breech? What about the security, will it blow up? "Hong Tao cares not about weight, but about practicality, don't blow up a few shots, then who wants to be a gunner."

"This cannon has been fired hundreds of times, it lasted more than two months, and it is still intact! I just want to wait for you to come back and ask if you can cast all the cannons into iron tires and copper bones, so that you can save a lot of copper. Qi Zu deliberately asked Hong Tao to look down at the situation in the muzzle, after two months of wear and tear of hundreds of shells, there are already countless scratches in the barrel, but it can still be used, indicating that the effect is good.

"Yes! Do as you say! But we still have to test their power, not only to fight far, but also to be able to break armor. I'll start testing tomorrow, I'll try it with you, and I'll go all out to produce it when it's done, and I'm going to need these big guys. You can be regarded as solving a big problem for me, nothing else, when the new city is built, your name and their name must be engraved on the monument! "Hong Tao doesn't know much about casting technology, since Qi Zu said it, it should be done, he is not a person who likes to talk big. (To be continued.) )