Chapter 841: Looking Northwest (I)

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Since the appearance of arquebuses in the fifteenth century, the era of cold weapons for thousands of years has gradually come to an end. After seeing the power and superiority of this weapon, many civilized countries around the world, including China and Japan, have continuously improved its defects and equipped their troops in large quantities. By the middle of the sixteenth century, in recent decades, European armies had been massively armed with arquebuses, including infantry and cavalry.

At this time, the main armies of Europe were already dominated by arquebus infantry, and spearmen had become a kind of existence that mainly covered arquebusiers. Gone are the days of medieval ornate armoured knightly charges and English longbowmen running rampant. The Spanish and Francois colonizers, armed with muskets and artillery, armed with thousands of people, were able to occupy a country and defeat tens of thousands of ignorant natives, which undoubtedly proves that the transition of traditional cold weapons to hot weapons can be described as a historical inevitability.

The silence of the second man naturally does not doubt this. However, he was very puzzled, why did the Ming army, which had a rate of more than fifty percent of the use of hot weapons, be defeated by the Houjin cavalry who used bows, arrows and spears?

It wasn't until he gradually understood the armaments of the Ming Dynasty and compared them with the firearms of the West at the same time that Shen Mo gradually understood that there was nothing wrong with this law itself, but the Ming Dynasty itself was wrong...... The transition from cold weapons to hot weapons is not only the evolution of weapons of war itself, but also inseparable from the development of science and industry. There is no doubt that without the support of physics and standardized production accurate to the millimeter, it is impossible to make a qualified firearm, and naturally it will not be able to show its might on the battlefield.

This was particularly evident in the Nanyang Company's battle to recover Manila. At that time, hundreds of well-trained Ming soldiers, under the leadership of Ono Water King, attacked the Spanish Governor's Palace with an absolute numerical superiority. was blocked by dozens of guns from the other side. Through the post-war report, it was found that before the blockhouse was breached, the ratio of casualties on both sides was 1 to 30, and this terrifying musket lethality could not be caused by the Daming Shenji Battalion.

The reason for this, in addition to the Spaniards' well-trained and superb archery skills, there is also a more important reason, that is, the arquebuses they use are far better in quality than the guns of the Ming Dynasty!

Later, Shen Mo allocated half of the captured firearms to the newly established Ordnance General Factory, and let those craftsmen who were above the top try and compare them themselves. A month later, when Shen Mo reappeared in the Ordnance Factory, they finally lowered their arrogant heads, there is no doubt that compared to the Ming Dynasty's own production of birds, these arquebuses will not explode, so that the Ming soldiers will not tremble when they shoot, and tilt their heads to the side, lest they blow up half of their faces; Moreover, the barrel is not thick in the front and thin in the back, and there are no potholes in the inner wall, and the accuracy of the projectile fired naturally increases greatly, which can naturally win the trust of the shooter, and then it can be talked about diligent practice and improve archery skills.

When Shen Mo told them that these firearms were not for the exclusive use of the Spanish royal guards, but weapons held by overseas vassals tens of thousands of miles away from their homeland, those craftsmen finally put down the shelves of the Celestial Empire and no longer refused to change the production process. So Shen Mo sent experts and technicians from Europe to talk about the physics of firearms and the necessity of standardized production.

All creativity must be based on science, like the various firearms that the previous war bureau made out of thin air in order to show whimsy, as a folk trick, but if you want to become a soldier's weapon on the battlefield, it is purely careless of human life!

If you fall behind, you will be beaten! What's more terrible than being backward is that you don't admit it even if you're backward! Shen Mo demanded that the General Ordnance Factory must abandon all unrealistic illusions, learn the basics from European experts in a down-to-earth manner, and start from imitation to create truly qualified firearms.

Moreover, he also abolished the original history of one craftsman making the whole gun, introduced the division of labor and cooperation and streamlined production, and formulated a standardized table, which link has a problem, the person responsible for which link will be punished. In order to make the parts produced meet the standards, Shen Mo also tried his best to help them find better production tools. To his delight, stimulated by the great development of industry and commerce, there were already lathes, milling machines and grinding machines driven by animal and water power in the southeast...... This is an advanced tool that is also not available in Europe. Although it is far from being compared with the machine tools of the steam age, the parts that are milled and rubbed are obviously faster and better than those polished by hand, which undoubtedly greatly improves the production efficiency and the qualification rate of the product.

Chinese itself is extremely smart, as long as the master leads the door, he can quickly surpass the old master...... After all, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty have the pride of the Heavenly Empire, how can they tolerate being pressed by the Xiyi people everywhere? I also want to make a better gun than the Europeans. Although it is impossible to make any structural innovations for a while because of the weakness of basic science, this does not prevent them from thinking of ways elsewhere. As long as it can increase the rate of fire and accuracy, it doesn't matter what method it uses.

It soon became clear that the easiest place to improve was the cumbersome reloading process. Let's start with the steps of each shot fired by the European arquebusiers. First of all, each soldier has an ammunition pouch around his waist, on which hangs a row of small copper metal bottles, each of which contains exactly one gunpowder for shooting, so as to avoid the tension of the battlefield and the wrong amount of medicine. There was also a leather bag containing a projectile made of lead, and a tin box with a sharp spout, which contained a propellant.

When preparing to shoot, first stand the musket with the muzzle facing upwards, pour the gunpowder used for a single shot into the primer compartment with an iron box, and close the lid of the primer pot. Then unscrew the vial containing the propellant, pour the propellant through the muzzle, and feed the projectile into it. Use the gun to pass through the chamber, tamp the projectile and propellant, and hear the 'click' sound to know that the projectile is fixed.

At this time, fix the lit fire rope on the fire rope clip, because the lid of the primer pot is closed at this time, so there is no need to worry about the spark of the fire rope igniting the ignition of the fire and causing the fire to go off. You can pull the trigger after aiming, and when the fire rope falls, the lid of the primer pot is opened, and the primer ignites the propellant, and the projectile is fired......

Obviously, if the projectile, gunpowder, and propellant can be integrated, the steps can be greatly simplified. And this is not a difficult task for the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty, because when they invented the 'Lianzi Gong', they used a paper tube to fill gunpowder, so it was natural to think of this. Soon, the craftsmen developed cartridge ammunition...... The specific preparation method is to first use a standard thin copper tube as the core of the shell, then draw out the copper tube, fill the shell with a certain amount of gunpowder, press the projectile, twist and seal it in two sections, and tie the projectile and gunpowder tightly with a thread. In this way, the action of adding projectiles and gunpowder separately is combined into one, and because it has been pre-loaded, it is possible to send the projectile into place at one time with the gun through the strip, and the time taken is naturally greatly reduced.

Philikus, the former chief royal ordnance engineer and now director of the Ordnance Factory, who had long been happy with the idea of kidnapping him from the Iberian Peninsula and treating him like a prince, scoffed at it, because paper or linen cartridge casings had been used in Europe for more than a decade, but they were quickly abandoned. Because the cartridge case encapsulating the gunpowder is difficult to fully burn, it will clog the chamber and affect the next reload. What's more serious is that the projectile at the front end is wrapped in a paper shell, which can easily cause jamming, and these problems cannot be solved, and this beautiful idea cannot be turned into reality.

But this is difficult to do with the Ming craftsmen who have 700 years of experience in making fireworks and firecrackers, they have long known that after the gas of saltpeter and alum is dissolved in water, and the rice paper is put into it, it can be burned instantaneously without leaving ashes of the 'fire paper', which is often used in the production of high-end fireworks, and can create gorgeous and amazing effects. When Longqing made Aoshan lanterns for the emperor in the first year, they also produced a batch and tried it out, and the effect was really good.

The problem of burning the paper shell was solved, but there was also the problem of jamming, and the craftsmen experimented with many methods, and finally applied lard butter to the outside of the monotube, which also overcame this problem, and because of the grease lubrication, the ammunition was significantly smoother. After the demonstration, the proud director of Philip, in ecstasy, apologized again and again to the Chinese craftsman who was a "layman" in his eyes a year ago, saying that he would never underestimate the wisdom of the Chinese again.

Inspired by the efforts, the craftsmen further improved the cartridge ammunition and wrapped it in fire paper for propellant ammunition and glued it to the tail of the cartridge case. In this way, when preparing for launch, you only need one moment, you can hold all the projectiles, gunpowder, and propellant in your hand, and then insert the tail of the shell into the firing pool...... That is, on the primer pot of the arquebus, the gunpowder and the cartridge case can be separated by a slight break, and then the cartridge case is fed into the barrel with a through strip, and it can be fired.

The rate of fire of the flintlock pistol, which itself was twice as high as that of the arquebus; Flintlock musketeers with such paper-shelled bullets could reach a rate of three to four shots per minute, which allowed them to deliver a dense enough rain of bullets that they were no longer weak even in the face of cavalry charges. A small number of elite shooters can even shoot five shots, which made Shen Mo, who was accustomed to seeing the speed of the arquebus, suddenly shocked, and immediately promoted those soldiers to shooting instructors and enjoyed the treatment of a thousand generals...... If he had been more knowledgeable about military affairs, he would have known that the Prussian soldiers, who later also used flintlock pistols and paper shells, had a passing standard of five rounds per minute.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This kind of Longqing-style rifle is to clamp the flint to the spring hammer, and when the trigger is pulled, the spring suddenly releases the hammer and hits the metal cover plate on the powder pool, and at the same time the impact opens the cover plate on the powder pool, and produces a spark to ignite the ignition powder in the powder pool, thereby shooting the projectile out." Wu Dui picked up a rifle, took the generals outside, and skillfully drilled and said, "Obviously, this is much more reliable than a bird gun." In addition to its fast rate of fire, its most important advantage is that with an average of one hundred firings, eighty-five can be successful! ”

This caused another gasp, because an important reason hindering the power of the bird gun is that the efficiency of the arquebus ignition is only fifty percent, that is, five times out of ten, the trigger cannot be triggered. If it can be increased to eighty-fifty percent, it will undoubtedly increase the firepower by three or five percent out of thin air!

Moreover, even if a shot does not ignite, for this Longqing rifle, as long as the hammer is pulled again, it can be fired again with almost no delay.

"In addition," Wu Dui continued, "Originating from the creativity of Lord Zhongtang, this gun has a lookout mountain and a crosshairs for auxiliary shooting, which is naturally much more effective than the original shooting by feeling...... This is something that Tessie doesn't have either. ”

After listening to Wu Dui's introduction, the generals were itching, and they couldn't wait to take it over and shoot two shots immediately to see if they were so godly. But in front of the bigwigs of the military department, no one dared to make a mistake, so they could only scratch their ears and cheeks there, coughing again and again.

Seeing their appearance, Shen Mo couldn't help but laugh and said, "Give them a try." ”

So a hundred paces away from the branch of the tree, a wine jar was hung. And the gun was also handed over to Qi Jiguang...... As the former head of the Shenji Battalion, the task of testing the gun is naturally due.

Seeing Qi Jiguang holding up the 'Longqing style' aim, Shen Mo couldn't help but sweat. When he was in Longshanwei, he had seen the shocking performance of the Qi family's army retreating from the enemy with three arrows, and if he was most qualified to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of guns and bows and arrows, he would naturally be the only one.

Qi Jiguang held his breath and concentrated, and according to the three points and one line taught by Wu Dui, he aimed at the wine jar steadily, and then pulled the trigger steadily. The spear seemed to have taken root in his hand, unaffected by recoil, and shot a projectile steadily, and with a snap of the ground, it smashed the jar to pieces. The whole action was done in one go, not like a person who touched a gun for the first time, which attracted a lot of applause.

Qi Jiguang was also very satisfied, and couldn't put it down, groping for the smooth back of the gun, and asked Wu Dui, "Can it be farther away?" ”

Wu Dui shook his head and said: "This kind of gun can only shoot a hundred steps, and no matter how far it goes, there is no guarantee of a hit." "A hundred steps is a hundred and fifty meters, and the archers who can penetrate the Yang in a hundred steps are all named 'divine marksman', and ordinary flintlock pipers, with a little training, can do this, and its significance is self-evident.

In fact, it takes two to three years for an archer to be qualified, while for a musketeer, it only takes about twenty days to build up combat power, which is why countries use the latter to eliminate the former, the cost difference is too great. After the Ming border army began to install bird guns in the last year of Jiajing, the effect was also immediate, although it still could not prevent the Mongol invasion, but it could make them suffer heavy losses every time...... Just imagine, if the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are all on the same level as the Mongolian marksmen, then how much suspense is there in the war between the Ming and the Mongols?

Just when the generals fell into obscenity, Qi Jiguang wrinkled his brows and said: "What I saw that day, the range of the Shenji Battalion was far more than a hundred steps. ”

"Oh, that's a special gun." Wu Dui beckoned, and a soldier ran over and offered a 'Longqing style' with the same style.

"See what's the difference." Shen Mo said with a smile.

Qi Jiguang took a gun in one hand, measured it carefully, and the rest of the people also came up to look for it together, but after looking at it for a long time, it was all in vain, and it was clearly carved out of a mold!

"Look at the chamber ......," Shen Mo reminded with a smile, "The secret is in the chamber." ”――

Partition -

Today, I made up for another day, and I specially consulted my classmates from the Weapons Research Institute, so that I thought I was going to take revenge on the society and recommended a nail gun to me...... Damn, my Dosven man. R