These days, the sound of the craftsmen's test guns has not stopped. Now, the new musket is finally finalized.

As soon as he saw this newly made sample flintlock pistol, Sun Yuan showed a fascinated look on his face, grabbed it, and carefully rubbed it with his hands: It is worthy of the jewelers invited from Nanjing, who have made this gun into a work of art!

First of all, the butt of the gun, made of fine mahogany, sanded smooth with sandpaper, and dyed dark red with earth paint, so bright that it can reflect the human figure. Pinch it in your hand, it's crystal warm.

Unlike the heavy arquebus, which was bulky, this gun had a butt and handguard, which was the standard style of later rifles. The barrel is made of wrought iron, which has been tempered for thousands of years. Well, it is not standard to say that wrought iron, it is really similar to the material of horseshoe iron, but the quality is much better. Although the color is a little dull and not so smooth, it has a faint strong metallic texture, giving people a sense of stability and reliability.

As for the bolt, it is extremely exquisite, whether it is a hammer, a striking iron or a buckle spring, or even a rivet, there is a taste of later industrial assembly line products.

You must know that the heavy arquebus produced by Cui Blacksmith in the past, in the eyes of Sun Yuan, is actually very rough. The biggest problem was that it was too heavy, and when firing, the shooter needed to put the barrel on the shoulder of the soldier in front of him, perhaps with a wooden fork underneath.

This new flintlock pistol is much lighter, weighing about 14 pounds, which is easy to carry.

According to contemporaneous European standards, there were two lengths of a flintlock pistol, one meter four and one meter six. In order to facilitate hand-to-hand combat with the enemy with bayonets, Sun Yuan adopted the standard of 1.6 meters.

The caliber of the new gun uniformly uses a large 22-mm projectile in order to increase the lethality. Of course, they are all converted into weights and measures of the Ming Dynasty.

I just don't know how the recoil is.

"The bullet." Sun Yuan nodded in satisfaction.

Since Sun Yuan got the musket, Cui Blacksmith, Yue Luming and several jewelry craftsmen have been standing beside him nervously, and when they heard Sun Yuan's words, Yue Luming hurriedly handed over a small scroll of paper.

Sun Yuan took the paper bullet and opened the primer pool, with a crisp sound of "click", and the buckle spring was very powerful.

He bit through the paper packet, poured some gunpowder into it, and covered the primer pool. Then the whole paper bag was stuffed into the barrel and compacted with a throughstrip.

Finally, buckle the strike iron to full firing, raise the musket, aim at the compacted old quilt hanging twenty meters in front of you, and fire.

The musket of this era is really inaccurate, if he really gets an armor to come over, Sun Yuan doesn't think he has the luck to hit with one shot. The reason why I got a quilt was because of the large area of this thing, and secondly, most of the armor of this era was compacted with old cotton, and a few thin pieces of iron were inlaid on it. When it comes to defense, it's not much better than this old quilt.

"Bang!" Oddly enough, the gunfire of this design is a bit smaller than that of a heavy arquebus. Thinking about it, the charge in Yue Luming's paper-wrapped bullet was a little less than before.

A cloud of milky white smoke spread.

The recoil coming from the shoulder side is still strong, but it's bearable.

Immediately, a craftsman ran over and wrapped the cotton armor over.

It took half a month and spent so much money, not only Sun Yuan, but even other craftsmen nervously fell on the quilt at the same time.

At this glance, everyone let out a long breath.

But I saw that there was suddenly a hole the size of a wine glass on it, and it was penetrated by this shot.

"Not bad, not bad!" Sun Yuan smiled at this time, threw the musket to Blacksmith Cui, and asked how far the range was, but he had experimented.

Blacksmith Cui replied that he could shoot about 120 meters, and he had tried it many times. The amount of gunpowder was also experimented, and it was wrapped in a paper roll.

To be honest, the range is not very impressive. You must know that the assault rifles of later generations have a maximum range of up to 800 meters and an effective range of 400 meters. This musket is better than modern pistols.

But Sun Yuan was still very satisfied, after all, the maximum range of the European flintlock pistols of the same era was only between 140 meters and 200 meters. Choi blacksmiths: they barely meet European standards.

"It's just that there's one more thing that's wrong."

As the head of the craftsmen of the Thousand Households, Cui Blacksmith became nervous: "Dare to ask the Thousand Households, what is wrong with this gun?" ”

Sun Yuan pointed to the butt of the gun: "This wood is too precious, if all the butts and handguards are made of mahogany, I don't have so much silver to waste for you." ”

As he spoke, he burst out laughing: "Good, very good, I will make it like this in the future." ”

Only then did everyone feel relieved and laugh with him.

Blacksmith Cui: "This gun is for you, the eldest master, so naturally you have to use good materials." As for the butts used by ordinary soldiers, they were made of other worthless woods, such as birch and walnut. Birch is only available in the north, and it is not common here. But walnut trees, all over the mountain, don't cost a few bucks. ”

Sun Yuan was very satisfied, and turned around and pointed at Guan Tao: "Master Cui, you calculate, how much wood is needed for a thousand guns, report the number, and the boss will buy it." ”

"Yes." Both of them bowed their hands at the same time.

This time, Cui Blacksmith and the others made a total of twenty sample guns, and Sun Yuan was not idle, and tried each gun once, until the old quilt was beaten to shreds.

I have to say that the craftsmanship of this group of craftsmen is really good, each rifle is made as if it were made in a mold, whether it is weight, length, range or recoil.

Sun Yuan was very pleased with this, and asked the craftsmen if the muskets were all exactly the same size and whether the parts were interchangeable.

Blacksmith Cui replied that it was exactly the same, even if all the guns were disassembled and disassembled, it would be fine. Didn't the eldest master just order him to come up with an agreed size standard before, how dare the little ones slack off. After the jeweler came to the Thousand Households Office this time, the first thing he did was to get a steel ruler as the mother ruler, and in the future, whether it was to make guns or cannons, he would use this ruler as a weighing instrument.

Hearing him say this, Sun Yuan glanced at Blacksmith Cui. In the past, Sun Yuan still had an opinion about Blacksmith Cui, and this person's speech was too dirty, which made him feel disgusted. However, when I heard him say this today, I found that this Master Cui is a talent.

Sun Yuan looked at the flintlock pistol in front of him, still a little uneasy in his heart, and then asked the craftsmen what difficulties there were in making guns this time.

Blacksmith Cui replied that he was a blacksmith and was responsible for making large pieces on the barrel and bolt, and there was no problem. The carpenters also replied that there was no problem.

Only a few jewelers tremblingly stepped forward and told him that the springs on the bolt were not easy to get rid of.

If there is a problem with the quality of these three springs, and the flint is not strong enough when it falls, it cannot be fired, and the musket will not become a waste?

Sun Yuan was taken aback, and hurriedly asked them why they couldn't get it?

The leading craftsman cautiously told him that they used to make jewelry boxes like springs, and that it was not difficult in the first place. It is nothing more than choosing the right steel bar and mastering the annealing, quenching and tempering temperatures. However, there is no way to make a uniform standard for this thing, some springs are well done and will last longer, while others will lose their elasticity after a short time.

Hearing him talk about this, Sun Yuan was relieved and said, "It's okay, just replace the spring if it's broken, it's okay." ”

Finally, the discussion was about replacing the flint that was caught on top of the striking iron.

The flint on the flintlock iron was very small, and according to Sun Yuan's estimate, it should be replaced after putting a hundred shots at the end.

In order to facilitate the replacement, Sun Yuan used the method on the flintlock pistol drawings he had seen on the Military History Forum, and directly pressed the flint on the striking iron with a screw rod.

But the craftsmen felt that it was a bit troublesome, and it was a very troublesome thing to make threads. According to their method, you need to get a rotary cutting machine first. The screw rod is simple, and it is directly on the bed and out of the car. The key is the internal thread, which is really laborious. At the most critical time, it is too time-consuming. Moreover, it is necessary to implement the call of each part, so there are certain requirements for accuracy.

Sun Yuan also felt a headache, and when he was thinking about how to solve this problem, Cui Blacksmith shouted: "What's the difficulty, it's a big deal that this hammer uses softer iron." It's not an important part, so if it's broken, it's just to replace it. ”

Sun Yuan nodded: "That's the only way." ”

Now that the new flintlock pistol has been finalized, the hundreds of barrels made by the former blacksmith Cui naturally cannot be used, and they must be restarted. The butts made by carpenters could only be used as chopping wood.

As a result, the loading of a thousand muskets had to be postponed.

Sun Yuan asked, "Master Cui, by next month, how many muskets can you produce?" ”

Blacksmith Cui had long expected that Sun Yuan would ask about this: "If you go back to the eldest master, by the beginning of next month, you should be able to produce three hundred firearms." ”

"No matter, you send three hundred muskets next month, and you should hurry up with the rest." The soldiers have been training in the queue for a month and a half, and it is not possible to continue like this, and tactical training must begin next month. Only in this way can the troops have combat effectiveness to speak of.

When he was about to leave the manufacturing office, Sun Yuan suddenly turned back to Yue Luming and said, "Master Yue, lead bullet must also pass a unified standard." ”

"This ......" Yue Luming thought for a while and nodded: "It's easy to do, get a mold out, and cast it uniformly." ”

The melting point of lead is low, only more than 300 degrees, and there is no difficulty in lighting a campfire to melt lead.

Sun Yuan smiled: "Why is it so troublesome?" I have a plan, you get a pliers out and leave a mold of a projectile on it. When the time comes, let the soldiers themselves lead and clamp them with pliers. ”

Yue Luming's eyes lit up: "This method is good, master." ”

He sighed: "The patterns of the new guns produced this time are all drawn by the old man, and we are just painting the scoop according to the gourd." I can't imagine that I have been a craftsman for so many years, but I can't even compare to a layman like an adult, ashamed, ashamed! ”

The other craftsmen also sighed with emotion: "The big master is really a genius, and people who don't know still think that you are from the Ministry of Industry." ”

Sun Yuan smiled: "I've just read books for a few years and know some knowledge of Gewu." ”