"Tom!"

After a cannon sounded, countless small black dots came out from the muzzle of the tiger squat cannon that had just been cast and had seven iron hoops, and sprinkled towards the shooting range 200 meters away.

The range is rectangular in shape, about the size of a basketball court, and is filled with human and horse-shaped wooden stakes wrapped in tight straw to simulate musculature; There are several humanoid targets, and leather armor, cotton armor, chain mail and even tattooed mountain armor are also covered.

Looking at the Tiger Squat Cannon that had been flipped over and the muzzle of the gun was still emitting wisps of white smoke - there was an iron ring at the tail of the Tiger Squat Cannon, which was fixed on the ground with an iron brazing, and it would inevitably flip after firing - Chu Fan said to Tang Jiniu beside him, "Team Leader Tang, this iron brazing needs to be improved...... I'll draw you a sketch of the gun carriage and gun carriage when I go back, and you and Team Leader Wang will work together to get the springs out...... Let's do it in one step and put the decommissioned artillery directly on the shelf. ”

His mouth was full of new terms, and Tang Ji Niu's mind was full of mud, and he kept asking questions all the way to the shooting range behind him, what is a spring, and what is a retreating artillery?

Before he could fully figure it out, the group had already entered the shooting range, and the sight in front of them made everyone excited.

Chu Fan replaced all the stones in the shotgun with broken glass!

This is the reason why Tang Jiniu was stunned in the foundry workshop just now, when Chu Fan shattered several large pieces of glass in front of him, Tang Jiniu was about to cry, he thought that these pieces of glass would be priced like they were sold - until Chu Fan repeatedly comforted him, these broken glass did not count as money, and the leader of the weapon group was at ease.

The broken glass fragments with sharp stubbles really showed much greater lethality than the stones - the entire shooting range was full of more than 30 targets, large and small, and none of them were spared, and all of them found traces of scratches by the glass fragments; The straw on many targets has left deep cuts, and some glass pieces are even deeply embedded in the wood, which if it were hit on a real person, I am afraid that the bones will be broken; And those armor-clad targets were not spared either. Cotton armor, leather armor, and chain mail were all torn open deep holes, and a thumb-sized hole was also left on the more protective mountain armor, Chu Fan took out a triangular piece of glass from the hole for a long time.

"Childe, this charge is half of the weight recorded in the book, but the range is not much worse than the description in the book. Our black fire * medicine is really not covered! Seeing this effect, Tang Jiniu was very excited, and said with his hands dancing, "The steel we use is better, and I estimate that no matter how much charge there is, it will not explode...... How much medicine can be filled and how far it can be shot will have to be tested slowly. ”

Chu Fan was also very happy, and nodded again and again, "The charge is one thing, and the other has to be bulleted...... It's like a Mini bullet. Try adding a cork stock to your shotgun for better airtightness and increased range. ”

"This shotgun is good, but it's more expensive," Tang Jiniu somehow thought about the cost, and said with a bitter face, "Even if the broken glass slag doesn't cost money, this silk alone can't stand it—it's all fine silk!" ”

The shotguns of this era were all wrapped in silk. First, the silk is smooth and has little friction in the gun chamber. Second, silk is extremely flammable, and it naturally falls apart when it is discharged.

But the price of silk is very expensive, and it costs about 1 silver to wrap a shotgun - this is still the small size of the shotgun of the Tiger Squat Cannon, and if it is replaced by an 18-pound gun, a shell will cost 1 tael of silver of silk!

That's why Tang Jiniu had such a sad face, and after crying bitterly, he looked at Chu Fan expectantly and asked. "Childe, you want to think of a way, what can be replaced by looking at silk?"

Chu Fan also smiled bitterly - of course he also felt sorry for the silver, but after all, he was a human being, not a god, and where could he find a smoother material than silk in this era. It has to be flammable?

"Team Leader Tang, there's really no way around this...... It's more expensive, as long as the effect is good, it's worth spending a little more silver," Chu Fan had to tell the truth, and then advised, "Hurry up and find out the charge and range of this tiger squat cannon, and finalize it as soon as possible...... After the finalization, each battalion will be equipped with three or five gates, and the blind spot of firepower from 150 meters to 500 meters will be completely solved! ”

As soon as his words fell, Wang Denghai beside him shouted, "Three or five doors per battalion? That's not twenty in total? Childe, we don't have enough iron! ”

Wang Denghai's shouting ruined Chu Fan's good mood.

The shortage of iron has always been like a heavy dark cloud, pressing on the entire Ushijima base - with the gradual expansion of the Ushijima base, the number of places that need to use iron has increased rapidly, not to mention that the craftsmen who have divided the land to build the house have to buy a few iron pots at home, right? The iron pot and shovel don't seem to consume much iron, but it can't hold a large amount!

And the main source of iron in Ushijima is still the big North Korean businessman in Busan -- since the beginning of this year, Chen Shangren has bought 32,000 catties of raw and cooked iron from him, although the price has not risen again, but the other party has already said that before the Spring Festival, he can provide up to 10,000 catties, and there will be no more; Chu Fan estimated that he could get a maximum of 50,000 catties of iron material in a year, which was a drop in the bucket compared to the demand of the Niudao base.

The six families are almost at the limit - half of the 40,000 catties they get from Daming every year have been transported to Niudao, and the remaining 20,000 catties can't be squeezed out, unless they turn their faces with those businessmen who cooperate with the Japanese country all year round!

Chu Fan didn't make a detailed calculation, but he estimated that if the current pace of development continues, the gap in iron materials in the Niudao base next year will be at least more than 100,000 catties! The lack of iron has become the biggest obstacle to the development of the Niudao base and even the growth of the Fuliao army!

The most terrifying thing is that Chu Fan doesn't have a clue about how to solve this problem now!

With this terrible question, Chu Fan went to the quilt group again.

Chen Shangren's wife, Mrs. Xia, came out with several backbones of the group, and the topic of greeting was naturally inseparable from the hot air balloon and the thrilling moment a month ago.

According to Chu Fan's instructions, Mrs. Xia and the others sewed a new hot air balloon, and now that Chu Fan is here, she naturally wants to show it to him.

Seeing Chu Fan walking towards the brand-new hot air balloon, Chen Shangren and Doudou dragged him left and right, and didn't let him get close, for fear that this "lord" would stage another scene of floating away in mid-air!

Chu Fan, who couldn't resist the two of them, had to stand on his feet with a wry smile and observe the new hot air balloon from a distance: after learning the lesson of the last time, all the ropes of the hot air balloon this time used stronger hemp rope.

But the brazier was still the same, and when Chu Fan thought of the brazier being extinguished by the rain at that time, there was still a chill on his back spine.

After he had the brazier brought over, he began to study how to make the brazier burn in the wind and rain, and finally decided to transform the brazier into a long-necked bottle - the big belly of the bottle was made of thin iron sheet, and the upper part was opened with a gill-like vent; A small door is opened at the top and bottom to facilitate the addition of steel charcoal and the discharge of embers; The most important thing is the half-meter-long chimney above the bottle, which not only ensures that the hot gas passes through the balloon, but also prevents the wind and rain from backing up.

After renovating the brazier, it was almost noon, and after Chu Fan had lunch in the canteen of the tobacco field, he left Niudao.

In the afternoon, he was going to go to several settlements to see, and after more than a month, what would happen to the settlements? (To be continued.) )