To the west of Phoenix Mountain, about seven or eight miles from West Lake, is a secret camp of the Ordnance Supervisor. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoThis place is located in a small mountain pass, guarded by troops on all sides, and ordinary people also know that it is a military forbidden land, and ordinary people dare not approach.

That's right, this is one of the places where the Ordnance Superintendent makes firearms. The area of this col is less than five miles in radius, it is shaped like a crescent moon, surrounded by hills on both sides, and is called crescent moon pass. From the outside, you can't see the inside, but here is both a firearms factory and a testing ground for firearms.

This is a good secret testing ground to prevent anyone from prying eyes, and it is a good place to develop artillery, and it is a good place to test a relatively large artillery.

The army stationed here, many ordinary soldiers don't know, the tiger squat cannon is here to interview the system, but they found that in the past half a month, in the test site in the mountain col, there is always a huge movement every day, like thunder, much more than before.

They also knew that some firearms such as iron fireballs were also being produced here, but in the past there was not so much movement, now the explosions were much louder, and they could even see a puff of smoke rising from the side of the proving ground in the distance.

Many soldiers are wondering, has this ordnance superintendent come up with any new type of firearms? The movement alone made people feel frightened, and there was a feeling that the earth was shaking.

One day, the troops stationed outside all found that the two commanders of the ordnance supervisor had accompanied an official of the military department, and the official of the military department was also recognized, after all, it was their immediate boss, and this person was Lu Wenxin.

It turned out that Lü Wenxin had come to inspect the progress of artillery development on the orders of the emperor.

Wang Daquan and Shen Rong personally accompanied Lu Wenxin here, and Lu Wenxin was naturally very concerned about the development of artillery, not only because it was the emperor's order, but more importantly, he himself was a soldier of the army, so he naturally cared about the weapons used by the army of the Great Song Dynasty. Because the Mongol cavalry could attack Sichuan in the southwest of the Great Song Dynasty on a large scale at any time, if there was such a sharp weapon as artillery, the hope of victory of the Great Song army was greater.

Along the way, Lu Wenxin also learned a lot about the situation, and he also knew that this tiger squat cannon was designed by Li Xiang, and now the research and development work has entered a critical juncture, and some problems were found in the test some time ago, and after improvement, the sample cannon will be tested again today.

Lu Wenxin was also very curious, is this tiger squat cannon really that powerful? However, he saw Li Xiang's musket with his own eyes that day, and knew that the cannon that Li Xiang made was definitely not ordinary.

Wang Daquan also carefully accompanied Lu Wenxin, the squire of the military department, and carefully explained the parameters and principles of artillery.

As they spoke, the group went to a small hill at the test site, on which two small tiger squat cannons were erected, and the muzzles of the guns were facing the vast flat ground in the middle of the col. On the flat ground, there were craters of various sizes, which had been blown up by the shells tested the other day. However, during the test a few days ago, many problems arose, first, the firing range was far from reaching the designed index, and second, the power of the explosion was not enough.

Later, after a comprehensive inspection, it was found that there was a problem with the casting process of the barrel, which led to the leakage of gunpowder gas during firing.

Now the two Tiger Squat Cannons, which have been improved and recast, will show their might today.

Lu Wenxin's face was flushed, and he looked excitedly at the two big guys in front of him, where more than a dozen craftsmen were busy preparing for the experiment.

Lu Wenxin walked over, only to see the two tiger squatting cannons, really squatting there like tigers, the iron cannon body is like the strong tiger body of the tiger, although the appearance is very rough, it looks bleak, but at first glance it is a very powerful guy.

Lu Wenxin looked left and right, touched it with his hand again, and then looked inside the round hole, looked up and said to Wang Daquan: "This is the tiger squat cannon?" ”

"Exactly!" Wang Daquan replied respectfully. "But this is just a small tiger squat cannon, the firing range is only two hundred steps, and when this cannon test is successful, we will step up the development of a large artillery, the range given by Li Gongzi in the design drawing, but it can reach several miles!"

Lu Wenxin said in surprise: "Oh, you can shoot so far?" If we can really succeed, our army will be invincible! ”

Wang Daquan nodded: "Exactly, but although the design drawings are available, there are many difficulties in manufacturing." Today's test cannon, we are not sure of victory, and after a while, Lord Lu will retreat farther away, for fear that the shell will explode and hurt people when it is fired. ”

Lu Wenxin nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, this official also wants to see the power of this artillery." If you're ready, get started! ”

Wang Daquan nodded and said, "Lord Lu, please come here and watch it after the earth." ”

With that, Wang Daquan took Lu Wenxin and several of his subordinates to the back of an earthen platform five or six zhang away from the fort, and it was safe to hide behind it and watch.

The young eunuch Shen Rong commanded the craftsmen to take out cannonballs and fire gunpowder from a pile of wooden boxes in the trench next to the fort.

Wang Daquan said: "Ladies and gentlemen, the cannon is about to be tested, you better cover your ears, the movement of this cannonball is too loud, like a muffled thunder, only by covering it will not hurt your ears." ”

Lu Wenxin and the others hurriedly did what Wang Daquan said, everyone has a fear of unknown things, let alone such a cannon.

In fact, this kind of tiger squat cannon is not a cannon, if it is only a small cannon in later generations, similar to a mortar. After all, it is only two feet long, about the size of a 100mm mortar, and of course its trajectory is different from that of mortars, which are high ballistics, while this Tiger Squat is low-ballistic.

Whether it was ****** or the gunpowder in the shell, it was not the kind of gunpowder that Lu Wenxin had ever seen, and he saw that those black ****** were not powdery, but granular, but asked, "Lord Wang, why is this gunpowder different?" ”

Wang Daquan nodded and said: "Yes, the formula of this gunpowder is brand new, in the first few tests, we also found that this gunpowder is amazingly powerful, greater than any previous gunpowder, but we have not yet reached the kind of power described by Li Gongzi in the design drawing." Let's take a look again today, if there is really a problem, I can only ask Li Gongzi to come in person. ”

Lu Wenxin also knew that gunpowder was a very explosive thing, and some unexpected explosions would occur in the Ordnance Prison every year, so craftsmen died in explosions every year, and these people also dedicated themselves to the weapons cause of the Great Song Dynasty. Now with this safer gunpowder, there won't be so many accidents in the future.

Soon, under the command of Shen Rong, the craftsmen completed all the pre-launch processes. The gunpowder had been tamped in the chamber of the cannon, the shells had been placed, a long fuse had been inserted into the fire door, and a craftsman lit the torch, which could be lit as soon as the order was given.