Hearing Deng Kui say this, Su Hao turned his head to Tu Wenhuan and asked, "Tu Lao, do you think what Deng Kui said is reasonable?" ”

Tu Wenhuan said: "Several of them are all from the army, they have a bold temperament, and they don't know the rules very well, so please don't mind Brother Su." However, what Deng Kui said, I think there is some truth in it. You said that it is possible for the Japanese to offend my Ming Dynasty with tens of thousands of people, and I think this is still a bit possible. Thinking that Franc machine, that is, the Europe you are talking about, is probably thousands of miles away from my Ming Dynasty, even if I can cross 10,000 people to my Ming Dynasty at a time, how can I defeat my Ming millions of strong soldiers? ”

Su Hao said: "Tu Lao, if I say that 6,000 Franc people can fight from Guangzhou to Beijing, do you believe it?" ”

"Of course I don't believe it." Tu Wenhuan said frankly, "Manpower is always limited, even the Wara Iron Cavalry back then, it was not possible to rely on just a few thousand people to drive straight into my Ming Dynasty." ”

Su Hao shook his head, the logic of war in the era of firearms is not something that people in the era of cold weapons can understand, during the Opium War, the British ** team relied on thousands of people to defeat tens of thousands of Qing troops. Also, the Europeans have now occupied the coast of India and established colonies there. If you want to attack China, there is no thousands of miles.

Su Hao said: "Tu Lao, don't you know, what Europeans rely on is the benefit of firearms. Although the number of cold weapons against our firearms is small, there is also a chance of victory. ”

"Firearms?" Deng Kui laughed mockingly on the side, "Su Xiucai, do you know what a firearm looks like?" ”

"I know a little bit about it." Su Hao replied, just kidding, as a modern person, can you not know what a firearm looks like?

Deng Kui said: "The firearms of the Franc machine man are nothing more than the Franc machine gun and arquebus, which are actually the firearms in our army. These firearms do have some power, but they are difficult to load, difficult to ignite, and if they miss a hit, they will only have to wait for death. We also have a lot of muskets in our army, but guess what? ”

"How?" Su Hao asked.

Deng Kui replied: "Those firearms can still be used when fighting elsewhere, but they can't be used at all in Yunnan." Yunnan is known as the sky is sunny for three days, and when it rains, the fire rope is wet, and the fire gun cannot be fired, and finally it is up to the soldiers to rush and kill with big swords and spears. ”

"Why, are the muskets in the army still lit by the fire rope?" Su Hao asked Tu Wenhuan.

"Of course...... What's the matter, does Brother Su know any other methods? Tu Wenhuan asked sensitively. From his previous conversation with Su Hao, he felt that this person had some different and unusual insights, so he guessed that Su Hao might also know other methods.

Su Hao thought for a while and said, "I heard that the Franc machine man has improved the traditional musket, using flint to fire instead of using a fire rope. Muskets fired with flint have a much faster rate of fire, firing once in about 2 minutes. ”

"How can there be such a sharp weapon?" Tu Wenhuan was surprised, "Brother Su, can you elaborate?" ”

Su Hao saw such a thing as a flintlock pistol in a movie, and he didn't know when Europeans invented flintlock pistols, nor did he know what flintlock pistols really looked like. However, from the principle analysis, he can still explain it.

In the traditional musket, the gunpowder is inserted into the chamber of the gun and then ignited with a lit fire rope. In Europe, it was said that musketeers went to war with a large plate of arquebuses several miles long. The principle of the flintlock pistol is to use a flint and a firing device instead of a fire rope, when the firing device hits the flint, the flint will burst into sparks, so that it can ignite the gunpowder in the chamber and complete the firing.

Su Hao didn't know much about the firing speed of the arquebus, but he had the impression that the flintlock pistol could shoot 2 shots a minute, which should be much faster than the traditional arquebus.

Here, we have to talk about the problem of timekeeping in ancient China. Before the introduction of Western-style clocks to China, the Chinese divided the day and night into 12 hours, and at the same time divided the day and night into 100 minutes, so that each hour was equivalent to eight and a third of the quarters, and each moment was equivalent to 14.4 minutes in later generations. Under the tick, there is also a unit of "points", each moment is divided into 60 minutes, also known as "small points". In this way, one "small minute" is equivalent to 14.4 seconds in the afterlife. Su Hao said that it was fired once in 2 minutes, which was converted into the time unit of the later generations, which was one shot in half a minute.

In addition to its fast firing speed, the flintlock pistol also had the advantage of being in the case of Deng Kui's suggestion, in the case of wind and rain, the arquebuses carried by the musketeers were easily blown out or extinguished, but the flintlock pistols were not affected by the weather.

The principle of the flintlock pistol is actually very simple, but the predecessors either did not think of it, or even if they thought of it, but it was subject to the manufacturing process and could not be realized. Su Hao felt that with the technical level of Ming Dynasty China, it was not difficult to make a flintlock pistol.

"Flintlock pistol, the general principle is this......"

Su Hao took out paper and charcoal and drew a rough diagram for Tu Wenhuan. He had not studied firearms, so he could not draw real drawings, but the idea of firing with flint was not complicated, and it could be represented on the drawing.

Tu Wenhuan once stayed in both the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War, and he was a technical talent, as soon as Su Hao drew the picture, he understood it, and his face couldn't help but show a mixed look:

"Brother Su, you mean that the Franc machine man has already made such a musket?"

Su Hao's face flushed slightly, he really didn't know if the Europeans had developed a flintlock pistol, but the large-scale application of the flintlock pistol should not have started yet. He shook his head and said, "I just heard the missionary of the Franc machine mention this, listening to what he meant, it seems that they have just started designing, and there are still some process problems that have not been solved." That was a few years ago, and I don't know what it is now. ”

Tu Wenhuan took the drawing and looked at it carefully, his face cloudy. Deng Kui looked at Tu Wenhuan's expression from the side, and couldn't help asking, "Mr. Tu, this Su ...... What Brother Su said, is it really reasonable? ”

Deng Kui was originally a little angry with Su Hao, so he only called him Su Xiucai, but now seeing Su Hao draw a schematic diagram of a flintlock pistol, Tu Wenhuan fell into contemplation, and he couldn't help but have a little respect for Su Hao in his heart. Deng Kui actually didn't care about this kind of thing, even if Su Hao was a superb feng shui master, Deng Kui wouldn't take it seriously. But when it comes to muskets, it's different, any kind of improvement of weapons will be related to the lives of thousands of soldiers, and Deng Kui is very concerned about this.

Tu Wenhuan pondered for a long time, and said slowly: "This matter is very important...... In my experience, the flintlock pistol that Brother Su said should be able to be manufactured. As soon as such guns are created and massively equipped in the army, they will completely change the pattern of warfare.

If one shot can be fired in two minutes, then the method of shooting in three rows of alternating fire can almost create a never-ending rain of bullets in front of the two armies. Neither the light cavalry of the Tartars nor the Wokos could break through such a rain of bullets...... On the other hand, if the opponent is equipped with such firearms, then our Ming army is also helpless. ”

Su Hao couldn't help but be in awe of Tu Wenhuan, the other party had not experienced the era of firearms, but he was able to foresee the combat characteristics of the era of firearms from the improvement of a firearm. The tactic of three-stage shooting with a firearm has been applied in the Ming Dynasty, but because the loading speed of the firearm is too slow and the ignition is troublesome, this shooting technique has not brought about a revolution in the entire mode of warfare. Now, listening to Su Hao talk about the firearms that have been fired more frequently, Tu Wenhuan immediately thought about what their application in war would mean.

"What Tu Lao said is very true, and the students also see it this way." Su Hao said, "If flintlock pistols can be equipped in large numbers in the army, then the era of cold weapons that pursues the supremacy of strength will come to an end, and the Mongol army, which is good at cavalry shooting, will be vulnerable in the face of muskets." ”

A soldier named Hao Tong at the table said, "Master Su, you just said this new type of firebolt...... Well, let's call it a musket, being able to fire a shot in 2 minutes is still quite difficult in the next moment. In addition to the ignition link, there is also the link of charging gunpowder.

In order to speed up the speed of charging, our army used paper packets to divide the gunpowder in advance, and poured a paper bag into the firearm each time it was fired, which was more than twice as fast as the previous use of horn spoons to weigh them. Even so, it takes 3 to 4 minutes to refill a pill, so how can you complete this reload in 2 minutes? ”

"Brother Hao, isn't he a firecracker?" Su Hao heard Hao Tong say so professionally, so he asked casually.

Hao Tong touched his waist, took out a handcuff, put it on the table, and said: "Below is Lord Deng's personal soldiers, and the kung fu of swords, horses, riding and shooting is to be practiced, and the use of firearms is just one of the skills." ”

"Is this the firearm of the army? I wonder if you can let me see it? Su Hao said curiously, he has seen a lot of modern firearms, but he has really never seen the firearms of the Ming Dynasty.

"Brother Su, please take a look." Tu Wenhuan took Hao Tong's handcuff and handed it to Su Hao.

Su Hao took the handcuff and looked it up and down carefully, and said, "It is indeed exquisite workmanship, with the Ming Dynasty...... Well, with my current level of craftsmanship, this firearm is indeed a high-quality product. ”

What Su Hao said in his mouth was words of praise, but in Hao Tong's ears, it was not like that. Su Hao's subtext actually says: In terms of Daming's current craftsmanship, it is considered a high-quality product, so if you look at it by other standards, it is not a high-quality product.

Hao Tong's handcuff was rewarded to him by Deng Zilong personally for his great contribution in the battle, and in Deng Zilong's army, this handcuff is the most outstanding, and the workmanship of other firearms is much worse than this handgun. It was such a handcuff that made Hao Tong feel extremely proud, but it did not cause Su Hao's exclamation, which made Hao Tong unbearable.

"Listen to what Master Su means, have you ever seen a better fire gun than this?" Hao Tong asked unhappily.