PS: Ask for a monthly pass!

Yang He smiled and said, "I have to look at the power of this cannon before I dare to draw conclusions." ”

Xu Guangqi hurriedly said: "Chuyang, let people push a cannon out, try it and let the time come." ”

Sun Yuanhua nodded, hurriedly beckoned the workers to push the cannon out, and found an open place, Sun Yuanhua ordered the workers to lift the cannon off the frame and fix it.

Then Sun Yuanhua ordered someone to find a gunpowder projectile to fill it into the barrel, and after loading the fuse, Sun Yuanhua asked Xu Guangqi and Yang He to retreat far away, and then ordered someone to light the fuse.

As the fuse burned out, only a loud bang was heard, and the strong recoil caused the gun to bounce several times.

Looking ahead, I saw that there was a lot of gunpowder smoke in front of me, and when the gunpowder smoke gradually dissipated, I saw a deep ditch ploughed out by shells hundreds of meters ahead.

Yang He frowned and said, "Can you only fire solid bullets?" ”

"You can also shoot scatters, but they can't hit that far." Sun Yuanhua said.

Saying that, Sun Yuanhua ordered someone to clean up the cannon chamber and prepare to launch the scatter.

The projectile is not packed in bulk, but the loose bullet is loaded into the sub-gun first, and then the sub-gun is loaded into the gun chamber, and the rest of the process is exactly the same as firing the solid projectile.

As Sun Yuanhua said, the range of the scattered is far less than that of a solid projectile, and the effective range is only about 300 steps. But within 300 steps, Sanzi covers a huge area, and at this distance, the lethality of Sanzi is far greater than that of a solid projectile.

However, Yang He was not satisfied with the power of this artillery, the power of this kind of artillery was not much stronger than the artillery produced by the Ming Dynasty before, and the shortcomings were also obvious.

Yang He did the math. The interval between the filling of gunpowder and the firing and then cooling of the chamber and the cleaning of the chamber is at least two minutes.

In two minutes, Jianyu's cavalry was probably already in front of him.

In other words. This artillery is still not suitable for field combat.

If artillery cannot be used in field battles, it is useless at all in Yang He's opinion.

Seeing that Yang He neither exclaimed nor admired, Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua felt a little embarrassed.

Looking at Yang He, Sun Yuanhua said cautiously: "Brother Yingshi, what do you think of the power of this artillery?" ”

Yang He smiled and said, "It's very powerful, but to be honest, it's not practical at all." When defending the city, it was okay to barely use it. ”

"This ......" Sun Yuanhua looked at Xu Guangqi and was speechless for a while.

"How do you think artillery can be practical?" Xu Guangqi asked.

Yang He walked to the side of the artillery, stroked the artillery, and said, "The design of this kind of artillery is quite reasonable. You can adjust the firing angle of the gun, and it is also equipped with a crosshair and a light door to increase the hit rate when firing, but I don't think you understand what the use of the gun is. Such a rate of launch. What role can it play on the battlefield? Unless our troops can be equipped in large quantities, each unit is equipped with 100 guns, 200 guns, and they are fired in turn, if they are only equipped with 10 or 20 guns, it will not work at all. ”

"We forged these cannons to defend the city." Sun Yuanhua said busily.

Yang He waved his hand and smiled: "To defend the city? Brother Chuyang, I have something unpleasant, you don't want to make progress. Be. Now that Jianyu has taken the initiative, we can only defend passively. But we can't always think about defense, I have never heard of anyone who has defeated an enemy by defense, and to defeat Jianyu, you must attack. So, Brother Chuyang, I think you should develop artillery that can be taken out to attack. ”

"Artillery that can be attacked?" Sun Yuanhua thought silently when he heard this.

Yang He smiled and said, "Brother Chuyang, can I give you some advice?" ”

"Please respond to Brother Shi's advice." Sun Yuanhua said busily.

Yang He patted the artillery lightly and said: "This kind of artillery is too big, it is really time-consuming and laborious to carry, if you suddenly encounter the enemy, this thing may not come in handy at all, you should make a small cannon, a small cannon that is smaller than the tiger squat cannon, weighing thirty or forty pounds, one person can carry it, and the range of the small cannon can reach one hundred steps." Brother Chuyang, you can calculate, how many small cannons can be made with the fine iron that makes such a cannon? ”

Sun Yuanhua said: "This cannon weighs 4,000 catties, and if you make a small cannon of 40 catties, you can make 100 cannons." ”

Yang He said with a smile: "If each of our troops is equipped with two hundred small cannons and takes turns firing the scattered pieces like the one just now, do you think that the Jianyu attack can be close within a hundred steps?" ”

"Ahh Hearing this, Sun Yuanhua stared blankly at the heavy artillery in front of him.

"Ahem." Xu Guangqi coughed suddenly, and then said: "At that time, have you thought about it, according to your assumptions, how many craftsmen are needed to build such a cannon?" ”

Looking back at the workshop behind him, Xu Guangqi continued: "At least ten times as many craftsmen are needed here, where can we afford to raise so many people?" ”

Sighing, Xu Guangqi continued: "The old man will not hide it from you, in fact, since last year, the imperial court has no longer allocated funds to support the old man to make weapons and select and train new troops. ”

Yang He frowned when he heard this: "The imperial court won't even have the money to make weapons, right?" ”

Xu Guangqi sighed: "Almost." ”

Yang He couldn't help but be silent when he heard this.

The army is the pillar of the country, but the Ming Dynasty can't even take out the money to make weapons for the army, which is simply a great irony of the Ming Dynasty.

Does Da Ming really have no money?

If he hadn't been to Tongzhou Wharf, Yang He might have really believed that Daming was poor.

But when Yang He saw the mountains of various materials at the Tongzhou Wharf and saw the merchants who were in a hurry, Yang He knew that the commerce of Daming was actually very developed, and those merchants were very rich. It was only the court and ordinary people who were poor.

The main culprits of the imperial court's impunity were the Ming tax system and the Ming officials who disregarded the interests of the state for the sake of personal or group interests.

After being silent for a long time, Yang He suddenly said: "Brother Chuyang, I am recruiting craftsmen to develop weapons, I need talents like you, I hope you can help me." ”

"What? You're also going to develop weapons? Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua exclaimed in unison.

Yang He nodded: "Yes, what I want to develop is not only artillery, but also firecrackers." ”

"Where did you get the money to buy supplies and pay the craftsmen?" Sun Yuanhua wondered.

Yang He smiled: "Lord Xu, Brother Chuyang, you may have heard that the military salary in Guangning City is missing, right?" I won't hide it from you, but the money is in my hands. In addition to the rewards for the soldiers and the purchase of land, there were more than 70,000 taels of silver left. ”

Smiling, Yang He continued: "Brother Chuyang, I think you are studying artillery in the wrong direction. Although the Western artillery is more powerful than the Ming Dynasty, it is not much more practical than the artillery used before the Ming Dynasty, and the artillery I developed is definitely more practical than the Western artillery. ”

Sun Yuanhua groaned: "Brother Ying Shi, the small artillery you just said does have some truth, but if you want to say that it is more practical than Western artillery, it may not be seen, at least the power is far less than that of Western artillery." ”

"What if you don't have to light a fire?" Yang He said with a smile.

"No ignition? So how to launch? Sun Yuanhua wondered.

"Not only do artillery not need to be ignited, but even firecrackers don't need to be ignited." Yang He smiled and continued.

"What, you don't even need to light a firebolt? Tell me how to launch without ignition? Sun Yuanhua said urgently.

Yang He smiled: "If you promise to help me do things, I will tell you." ”

After a pause, Yang He said: "Brother Chuyang, I know that you want to contribute to the country, and I also want to contribute to the country, our ambitions are the same, you help me do things, in fact, you are helping the country to do things, the difference is only that I can't give you official work." ”

"If Sun wanted to be an official, he wouldn't have given up the exam at the beginning." Sun Yuanhua said.

"If you say so, I'll take you as a promise." Yang He said with a smile.

Sun Yuanhua looked up at Xu Guangqi.

Xu Guangqi sighed, shook his head lightly and said: "Chuyang, you have been committed to artillery research all these years, but no one appreciates you, and no one reuses you, your own path, choose yourself, you can't be the master for you." ”

Sun Yuanhua nodded: "Teacher, the student understands what you mean." ”

After speaking, he turned his head to look at Yang He and said, "The craftsmen here must all be taken away, without them, I can't make any artillery." ”

Yang He smiled: "I can't ask for this, but my existing house there can't accommodate so many people, and I can't let everyone go to live in the open ground." Therefore, Brother Chuyang can only bring a group of people over first, and the rest of the people will go over after the house is built. In addition, I hope that Brother Chu Yang is better to bring people over quietly, and I don't want to leave anyone behind. ”

"It is very worrying at the time, and this matter really should not be too publicized." Xu Guangqi said.

"The students will take care of it." Sun Yuanhua said busily.

Yang He looked at Xu Guangqi and said, "Lord Xu, I think you are wasting your time here. Lord Xu, you shouldn't come here to make any artillery or train any new army, you should pass on your knowledge to more people and cultivate more talents with real talent for the country. ”

"At the right time, you don't want the old man to train talents for you, do you?" Xu Guangqi said with a smile.

"I want to be lowly, but it's a pity that there is no one there who is worthy of being cultivated by adults." Yang He said with a smile.

Smiling, Yang He continued: "But if Lord Xu has time, he might as well go and sit there." ”

Xu Guangqi said with a smile: "If there is a chance, the old man will definitely come to you to have a look." ”

Yang He said with a smile: "Then the humble position is waiting for Mr. Wait." ”

Xu Guangqi shook his head and smiled: "You, you will be an adult for a while, and Mr. for a while, you are not tired!" The old man is a little older than you, and he has read a lot of books, if you can afford the old man, you will be called Mr. in the future. ”

Yang He was overjoyed when he heard this: "Mr. is willing to accept me as a student?" ”

Xu Guangqi shook his head and smiled: "The old man didn't promise to accept you as a student. ”

Yang He was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses, and hurriedly knelt down in front of Xu Guangqi: "Mr. is above, and he is bowed by the students." ”

As he spoke, he kowtowed respectfully three times, and then said, "Sir, the apprentice tea students will serve it later." ”

Xu Guangqi smiled and said, "The tea here is not yours." ”

Yang He said with a smile: "Teachers even have to teach knowledge to students, how can they be stingy with a cup of tea?" ”

"Hahaha." Xu Guangqi laughed when he heard this. (To be continued......)