The sun had just risen over the horizon, and the weapons test site of the Zhongyang Arsenal was already very lively, where all kinds of weapons of the security forces had to be tested before they were finalized and produced.

Since Zhang Chu is coming here to watch the test, more people have gathered today, and the staff are preparing for the test.

When everything was ready, Zhang Chu and Wang Jijie came to the test site. The testing ground of the security army is strictly secret to the outside world, and Wang Jijie has become the first non-security army personnel to enter here.

Zhang Chu took Wang Jijie to sit on the rostrum, and the soldiers at the test site went to the side of the stage and reported loudly: "Report to the commander, the weapon test demonstration at the test site is ready, is it going to start?" ”

Zhang Chu said loudly: "Begin." ”

In order to enhance the enjoyment of the demonstration, Zhang Chu specially ordered 100 soldiers from the neighboring units to participate in the demonstration, and the soldiers performed the musket three-stage shooting method.

I saw that the soldiers of the security army were divided into three rows and walked in a neat step, and came to the steel target that had been set up, and the captain gave an order, and the soldiers in the first row raised their guns and pulled the trigger, and suddenly the gunfire rang out, and then the second and third rows fired forward in turn, and the rising gunpowder smoke gradually enveloped the entire team. The gunfire continued one after another, and there was a crisp sound on the steel target, and the soldiers fought more than a dozen rounds before stopping.

Wang Jijie carefully observed the performance of the security army, this is a matter related to his money, so he can't help but be serious.

He had already seen the difference between the musketeers of the security army and the official soldiers, so after the gunfire stopped, he said to Zhang Chu: "What you want to show me is that this musket can be fired without a fire rope." ”

"I didn't expect Boss Wang to know anything about firearms, my musket is fired with flint. It's much more convenient than the fire rope. Zhang Chu took the opportunity to praise Wang Jijie.

"I need some people to look after the house when I do business, and I have seen those farmers use muskets, but this musket is troublesome to use, and it always has to drag a long fire rope, and it cannot be used in windy and rainy weather. If it is used to kill enemies on the battlefield, it is still not as good as a bow and arrow. Although the marshal's musket is no longer lit with an arquebus, it is still cumbersome to use, and your soldiers are already proficient in using it, and the shooting speed is still not as fast as a bow and arrow. I don't know how much a musket costs compared to a bow and arrow. "A businessman's mind is always inseparable from price.

"The cost of a gun is still more expensive than a bow and arrow." The cost of muskets produced by the security army has been reduced a lot recently, but it is still more expensive than ordinary bows and arrows, and if it is those fine treasure bows, the price is not known how much more expensive than muskets.

"In that case, why did the marshal give up the bow and arrow, and use this musket?" Wang Jijie is not optimistic about these muskets, the shooting of the muskets is just a ping-pong sound, it sounds lively, it is not stronger than a bow and arrow, if it goes to the battlefield, it will kill people, and Wang Jijie does not care very much about the life and death of the soldiers, but if he cooperates with Zhang Chu, the victory or defeat of the security army is related to Wang Jijie's money, so this must be asked clearly.

"Boss Wang, how many rounds of musket shots did you hear just now?" Zhang Chu did not directly answer Wang Jijie's question, but asked him instead.

"There are only a dozen rounds, does it matter?" Wang Jijie didn't understand what was the use of Zhang Chu asking this.

"The archers can only shoot a few rounds because of their physical strength, and even if they are forced, the arrows they shoot have no power, but the musketeers are much more relaxed, and if they have enough ammunition, they can shoot many rounds until the muskets cannot bear it, and if there are enough people, the enemy will not be able to get close to the muskets. Muskets also have an advantage over bows and arrows, although muskets are expensive, it is much easier to train musketeers than archers, a good archer does not have two or three years to practice, and a musketeer can go to war after two months of training. That's why I'm working with you, with enough money, my factory will be able to scale up and produce more muskets. It is easy to build up a large number of troops, and the officers and troops are no match for us at all. ”

"That's fine." Wang Jijie must not know much about the war, but Zhang Chu should not be too bad if he can say this, Wang Jijie is on the silver money, and Zhang Chu is on the net worth.

In fact, Zhang Chu did not tell Wang Jijie about the secret of the musket, the batch of muskets used by the soldiers was the product of the leap in the manufacturing technology of the security army's muskets, because these muskets used Mini bullets.

Two years ago, Zhang Chu and the craftsmen worked hard to connect the rifling in the barrel, so that the musket of the security army entered the rifled gun dynasty, when the rifled gun fired the bullet, the bullet was forced to rotate and fly by the threaded wire engraved in the chamber, so as to have the accurate directivity and long-term stability in high-speed movement that the smoothbore bullet did not have. Makes the bullet shoot farther and more accurate. But the front-loading rifled gun also has natural shortcomings, the bullet loading of the breech gun is very difficult, because the bullet must be completely embedded in the rifling to prevent the leakage of gunpowder gas, so as to provide enough thrust for the bullet, in order to achieve this purpose, the bullet of the breech gun must be larger than the muzzle or wrapped in leather and other objects, and then loaded into the muzzle with great force.

The Mini bullet overcame these shortcomings, and the caliber of the Mini bullet was one circle smaller than the diameter of the body of the front-loading rifled gun, which solved the problem of difficult reloading; A small hole is dug at the bottom of the warhead, a wooden plug blocks the bottom of the hole, and the gas compresses the wooden plug to squeeze into the cavity when firing, forcing the bottom of the bullet to expand, close to the rifling, and close the gap between the bullet and the rifle, so that the gas can not leak out, and can make the warhead rotate at high speed under rifling pressure, and the warhead can rotate out at high speed, and the hitting accuracy is greatly improved, making full use of the thrust of gunpowder to make the range of the bullet longer. The Mini bullet is simple in theory, but there are still many difficulties to overcome before it can be realized.

Zhang Chu also had many concerns in his heart when developing Mini bullets, the most important thing is that the structure of Mini bullets is very simple, the bullet is just changed from a round to an oval shape, and then a hole is dug in the back, if this is obtained by the court, with the financial resources of the court can soon imitate a large number of bullets, Zhang Chu is to lift a stone to hit his own feet, as a traverser was hit by Mini bullets and fled everywhere is really a shameful thing.

However, in the process of testing the gun bullet, Zhang Chu found that he thought too much, the use of mini bullets is not so simple, first of all, the production of spiral rifles, if the security army does not leak secrets, the Ming Dynasty can be considered to be leading the world in a hundred years. There is also the strength of the barrel, the Mini bullet solves the problem of gunpowder gas leakage, and also makes the barrel bear more pressure, if it is not a high-quality barrel produced by Zhongyang Arsenal, it cannot withstand several shots. In addition, there is a problem of accuracy of the barrel and ammunition of the mini bullet, the tolerance between the bullet and the barrel is required to be very small, otherwise the bullet will be too large to fit into the muzzle, or the bullet is too small to cause gunpowder gas leakage, and the range and accuracy will be affected. But this is not a problem for Zhang Chu, Zhang Chu thought of the practice of mobilizing the masses, each soldier's gun is fixed, and then give them bullets, requiring the soldiers to select bullets against the muzzle of the gun, and polish the larger bullets, which is related to their own life and death, so the soldiers are very careful to polish each bullet and the muzzle of the gun. There is no question of the bullet not wanting to match the muzzle. Of course, this requires that the barrel must be manufactured tightly, and the difference between the front and rear is not very large. It also took two years for the security army to make the barrel more precise, and Zhang Chu dared to start equipping the troops with this new type of gun ammunition.

In order not to reveal the secret, Zhang Chu ordered someone to shorten the distance of shooting a lot, not more than the distance of the bow and arrow, just to show Wang Jijie the role of force, Zhang Chu took Wang Jijie to watch from afar on the rostrum, and did not let him get close.

The performance of the musket team is over, and the next performance will be the highlight of the day, the new artillery of the security forces. (To be continued.) )