After several days of testing, the data of the musket was basically tested.

The maximum range is 210 meters, and it can shoot an unarmored enemy within 170 meters, an enemy wearing armor within 140 meters, and a cotton armor piercing a distance of more than 130 meters.

These data are somewhat different from what Zhao Yan tested in later generations, Zhao Yan used to test the target in later generations, and the armor in this year obviously cannot reach the defense of the steel plate.

Cotton armor is a relatively basic body armor, which has a certain ability to resist tumbling bullets, but the effect is not as good as that of later body armor.

But if you put on two pieces of cotton armor, the shooting distance drops to about 100 meters. If you put on three pieces! The shooting distance is less than 80 meters.

A distance of 100 meters is nothing for a cavalryman.

Most of the cavalry before 100 were in the trotting stage, and after getting close to the enemy for 100 meters, the cavalry generally entered the accelerated sprint stage, and the time to rush up was only seven or eight seconds.

In this short period of time, with the tactics of changing platoons, there was only one round at most, that is, three shots, after which the musketeers had to retreat in time.

It is not impossible to put on a few pieces of cotton armor, when the big wild boar skin (Nurhachi) started, people often put on several layers of cotton armor to attack the Ming army, which is already the usual tactic of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. However, putting on three pieces is already the limit, and if you put on one more, it will be difficult to move your hands.

If you really put on a few pieces of cotton armor, the lethality of the musket will be much weaker.

That's when pikemen are needed, and it's time for longbowmen to hide behind pikemen for fire support.

The advantage of longbowmen over musketeers is that they can shoot from behind, but it takes a lot of effort to draw the longbow, so the musketeers don't need them to shoot directly, and their arm strength is saved before they go into battle in white-knuckle combat.

However, musketeers were still the main means of killing.

In the 14th century, the quality of gunpowder at that time was not high, which also affected the effectiveness of guns. During the transportation of gunpowder, the heavier ** sank to the bottom, while the lighter charcoal ran to the top, and the gunpowder must be slightly remixed before it can be used. In addition, there is a lack of sufficient space between the fine powder powder particles to prevent the explosion from proceeding adequately. Because of these drawbacks, black powder is used in particularly large quantities. Often, gunpowder occupies three-quarters of the barrel. When the gunpowder is loaded, a wooden bolt (called a bottom plate) is placed on top of the barrel, and finally the projectile is loaded, at which point the projectile is actually placed on the mouth of the barrel. Since the gunpowder burned slowly and poorly, it was necessary to put some rags and clay in the barrel to give the gunpowder enough room to burn, so that the pressure in the chamber gradually increased. So, at first, the pistol actually didn't have much lethal power, it can be said that it was just a weapon of psychological warfare. The loud noises, smoke and flames produced by the explosion of gunpowder often frightened the horses of the enemy cavalry.

It was not until the 15th century that granular gunpowder was invented to solve this problem. This problem cannot be called a problem in Daming, and Zhao Yan also solved the problem of gunpowder.

Muskets of this era were still charged from the front of the barrel, and at first there was not much research on this type of reloading, so the rate of fire was very low, and a well-trained musketeer fired a maximum of two shots a minute.

The advent of the iron pusher allowed the musketeer to fire five shots in a minute, while the pistol was the first to use the pusher, but this pusher was not initially used in the loading of smoothbore guns until Frederick the Great popularized it in the Prussian army in the 18th century.

In addition to the ram lever to increase the rate of fire, there is also gunpowder that can be ordered in a paper case, which can increase the speed of gunpowder reloading. There are also bullets wrapped in oil-soaked cloth, which can increase the reload speed of bullets.

Combined, these can be fired about 6~7 times a minute, but they must be trained for a long time, and this speed is already the limit speed of the front-loading musket.

Bullets can be cone-shaped, which will be much more lethal than round ones.

It took Zhao Yan a few days to settle these things. The current musket, which is not too advanced, was designated as a standard weapon, the fixed charge of the gunpowder factory was determined, and the paper-shell gunpowder bag was made, and the size and shape of the bullet were determined.

After the bullet was changed to a conical shape, the lethality really increased a little, and it was not a problem to penetrate two layers of cotton armor within 120 meters.

Zhao Yan was in a good mood after solving the problem of the musket, and his research on the musket was limited to this, it was absolutely impossible for him to come up with any new model of musket, he didn't have so much time to study it personally.

So Zhao Yan set up a 'weapons laboratory' in the Ordnance Bureau, and asked Zhou Tieming to lead people to experiment and make new muskets to see if they could make more advanced ones. And speed up the construction of water turbines and the creation of muskets.

The musket currently manufactured can only be regarded as a relatively bad front-loading smoothbore gun, but it is already very advanced in this era, especially after Zhao Yan changed the way of loading. But the power is far from reaching the peak, the effective range of 300 meters of front-loading smoothbore guns is the peak, the later generations of rural areas can make muskets, the range can reach the kind of musket currently used by Zhao Yan, this is the gap!

However, the artillery is about to be built, and Zhao Yan only knows the drawings of a relatively good three-pounder gun, as well as the drawings of some howitzers.

These are light cannons that can be used as field artillery.

Howitzers don't have to be thought about, the howitzers created with this year's methods, the lightest model is even heavier than the largest cannon.

So Zhao Yan listed the method of casting the cannon with an iron mold, as well as the various data of the 3-pound cannon, and asked Zhou Tieming to build the cannon as soon as possible.

There are many types of cannons, different calibers, lengths, different types, resulting in different rates of fire, firing range, and power, which requires a lot of experiments, to create dozens or hundreds of cannons, and then select the best model as a standard artillery. In the West, artillery is generally divided into several classes, some are divided into 9 levels, and some are divided into 6 levels......

The artillery on the artillery drawings given by Zhao Yan was not the best, after all, he didn't spend a lot of time studying this thing, he just learned the theory, and casually made a model to deal with the boss, so as to get the ticket, but it turned out to travel to the end of the Ming Dynasty. I knew that I was careful when I made the cannons, and I designed a few super Niu 13 cannons, and directly shot a few cannons to bombard the Manchu Tartars into the sky, saving me so much trouble if I want to study it now.

The Ming army had many types of firearms and artillery, and the experimental cannons were carried up one by one, resulting in supply difficulties.

Qi Jiguang took countermeasures against this, and only allowed the use of a few of them.

"Report sir, there are a few outsiders sneaking around outside the barracks and have been caught." At this time, a soldier ran in and reported to Zhao Yan.

"What?" Zhao Yan was stunned, dare to come to the master here to spy on the military situation? Zhao Yan was furious on the spot.

A few outsiders, what good can they do if they are sneaky outside the barracks.

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