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Like the hot scene of recruiting sailors in various places, the weapons workshop in Fuzhou City also ushered in a big breakthrough at this time. After the arrival of this group of Western craftsmen, in less than half a month, the problem of the musket flintlock device was solved.

Originally, with the efforts of Nan Huairen, Hu Jicai and others, the three major problems of barrel, rifling, and ammunition have been solved, and later the two problems of crosshair and illumination have been solved one after another; The only thing missing is that the flintlock device has not been done. It's not that they're not smart enough to work out flint devices; On the contrary, they have been researching and improving for more than half a year, and have also made a lot of samples of flintlock pistols, but the time is in a hurry, and the technology developed is not mature enough. And this is a problem that has already been solved in the West, and the technology is quite mature. Now take it and use it, of course, it is convenient and tight.

"Thanks to you, Mr. Wells, you've solved our big problem!" As the person in charge of the firearms workshop, Hu Jicai's complete solution to the musket problem has also untied the knot that has plagued him for many days.

"Oh, Mr. Hu, you are so polite, this is what we should do, and my apprentices and I are more than happy to serve His Royal Highness." Wells also said very happily. There are not a few people who know this kind of technology in Europe, and when they come to the East, this technology is more mature and advanced than here, and it is worth it.

"Let's go out of the shooting range and try the gun together!"

Several people walked to the shooting range with a few sample guns that had been prepared. At this time, there were still many soldiers practicing muskets in the shooting range, "Bang! "The sound kept going.

The specifications of these muskets are exactly the same, which Geng Jingzhong has already set. Now that the flintlock mechanism has been solved, the rate of fire of the musket must have increased quite a bit. It's a pity that the current technology is far from meeting the requirements, otherwise it would be good to be able to produce a breech gun, and Geng Jingzhong can only YY at this point.

Hu Jicai looked at several craftsmen around him: "Who will come first?" ”

"Mr. Hu, you first, you have the best skills, let's wait and see!" A master next to him responded, and several other people also nodded.

"Okay, then I'm ready to start, Mr. Wells please help me time it."

"We're here to help! Let's go! With that, Wells opened the lid of his pocket watch.

Hu Jicai immediately took out a fixed paper cylinder from the bag, bit off one end of the cartridge with his teeth, and poured out some gunpowder into the fire door. Close the fire door, then push the gunpowder and projectile in the paper tube into the chamber, then aim, and pull the trigger in your right hand, "Smack!" A bullet has been fired. Keep reloading and shooting, "Smack!" "Smack!" "Smack!" "Smack!" until the ten ammo in the bag are finished.

The smell of gunpowder wafted through the air, and Wells looked at his pocket watch, which had only been two minutes long. On average, five shots in a minute! This surprised him greatly. There is no such paper-shell ammunition in Europe now, and such a design speed is something he did not dare to think of before, before he set off for the East, the best British Army soldiers were only three rounds a minute, and ordinary soldiers were only two.

As soon as Hu Jicai finished fighting, he immediately turned around and asked, "How about Wells, how many minutes did it take?" ”

"Oh God, it's only been two minutes, dear Hu, you've fired five shots in one minute, and if you're a first-class warrior on the battlefield!" Wells exclaimed exaggeratedly. The others were also overjoyed, presumably the reward of the prince would definitely not be able to run.

Hu Jicai was also very happy to hear Wells's words, but he still had to continue to look at the power, and said to the assistant on the side: "Go and get the target!" ”

The target for the new gun at the shooting range is different from the target used by ordinary soldiers for training, and the target used for the test is made of pine wood, which is very hard. The thickness of the pine planks is a full three inches, which is ten centimeters. Painted target paper is pasted on the board. The target of the test was placed one hundred and twenty steps away, that is, more than 150 meters.

The assistant carried the target over, and then hurriedly split the pine plank. It turned out that the bullet like an awl had been twisted and deformed and embedded in the wood, more than half the thickness of the plank, about seven centimeters, two centimeters more than the original, such a power, so that everyone could eat a pound, according to this calculation, even if it was twice the distance, it would be easy to kill people.

Several other people couldn't hold it anymore, and they picked up the new musket in their hands and test-fired, and for a while, "Bang!" "Smack!" The sound is endless.

After calming down, Hu Jicai immediately ordered to start manufacturing this new musket in large quantities, and sent someone to immediately send these new guns to Geng Jingzhong to report the good news.

You may ask, why are there no worries about the explosion when a few craftsmen shoot now? This is also due to the continuous research of a large number of iron-making masters, including Geng Jingzhong's contributions.

Geng Jingzhong learned that there was a large iron mine in Longyan when he collected information about iron-making everywhere, fortunately, the cramming education in the previous life had a good effect, I remember a great scientist Song Yingxing in the last years of the Ming Dynasty and his

"Heavenly Creations", but when the news found Song Yingxing's hometown through the news found by the Guò Capital Intelligence System, Song Yingxing was already dead, but it was not in vain to be able to get the book "Heavenly Creations". The "Heavenly Creations" records in detail several methods of ironmaking, how to forge, how to quench, and so on.

According to the "Heavenly Creation" and Geng Jingzhong's enhanced air blast device to drum up hot air, etc., after a period of pondering, the quality of the iron smelted has been greatly improved, far beyond the past.

These high-quality iron materials fully supply the production of the entire weapons workshop, whether it is muskets and artillery or cold weapons of swords, guns and halberds, the quality has been greatly improved. However, due to the lack of steel, many weapons were still unable to be produced in large quantities.

For this reason, Geng Jingzhong pondered and meditated, and remembered the crucible steelmaking of later generations. In fact, it is not that the existing steelmaking method is not good, and the cold forging method of cold deformation processing and the hot forging method of wrought iron forging are recorded in detail in "Tiangong Kaiwu", but these two methods are not efficient and the steel output is too small.

Crucible steelmaking is the earliest steelmaking method that appeared in 1740. It was first applied in 1742 by the Englishman Hunzman. Pig iron and scrap steel are packed into crucibles made of graphite and clay, and the charge is melted by flame heating, after which the melted charge is poured into ingots. There is almost no oxidation of impurity elements during the reaction.

Geng Jingzhong just put forward the idea of crucible steelmaking, and then many masters tried according to this idea, and found that this can indeed make steel quickly, but because the crucible is small, the production volume is also small, and the cost is nearly double that of the existing one. However, Geng Jingzhong was now short of neither man nor money, so in order to expand production, he decided to use the crucible steelmaking method. It was also the first method of producing liquid steel in human history.

The solution of the iron and steel problem has greatly promoted the development of other ancillary industries, not only all kinds of weapons, but also shipbuilding in the future. The formation of a virtuous circle will inevitably produce a steady stream of benign effects. A qiē is so orderly.

Geng Jingzhong was still nervously busy in Mawei, and when he got up early in the morning, he received good news from Hu Jicai.

"Ah Hu, Yang Jian, go out and try this gun!" Geng Jingzhong held a new-style flintlock pistol and said happily to the two entourage. Then he took the lead and walked towards the outside of the courtyard.

The group went to the open space outside, hung the target far away from the big tree in the grove, and then the soldiers who delivered the guns began to test the guns; "Smack!" "Smack!" The burst of gunfire was really convenient, much stronger than the arquebus, and the rate of fire was greatly improved. It is not much of a problem for ordinary soldiers to fire four times a minute, and it is possible for a very skilled soldier to use five methods a minute, just like Hu Jicai, but that has to be a veteran who has been touching the gun for many years. Such a rate of fire is not a problem even if it does not use the three-stage shooting method.

After the soldiers who sent the guns finished fighting, they continued to report: "Yu Shizi, after several improvements, the current musket is not only the rate of fire, but also the power has increased a lot. Within one hundred and twenty paces, a bullet can penetrate a two-inch thick pine plank! ”

"Oh? Where has it been improved? Split the target and I'll see how powerful it is. ”

Splitting the target, sure enough, the bullet was embedded more than two inches deep, although the power still can't be compared with later generations, but in this era is definitely far ahead, so I am very happy in my heart.

"This bullet shot seems to be a little different from before?" After observing for a while, Geng Jingzhong noticed the difference. Geng Jingzhong had never touched a gun since he cracked down on the bandits, and he didn't know that the style of the bullet had been slightly modified by these clever craftsmen.

The lead bullets in the chamber of the gun, which were originally round, are now made into conical bullets with an expanded bottom. Geng Jingzhong didn't pay attention to the slightly different movements of the soldiers when they were reloading.

When this conical warhead is pushed into the chamber, the diameter of the conical warhead is slightly smaller than the diameter of the chamber, so it is convenient to reload. There is a conical cavity at the bottom of the warhead, a wooden plug blocks the bottom of the hole, and when firing, the gas presses the wooden plug to squeeze into the cavity, forcing the bottom of the bullet to expand, close to the rifling, and close the gap between the warhead and the rifle, so that the gas cannot leak out, and can make the warhead rotate at high speed under rifling pressure. Bullets are naturally more powerful and can fly farther!

This kind of bullet is actually the Mini bullet invented in the early 19th century, and now it was invented more than 100 years earlier, which shows that the industrious and kind Oriental people have great wisdom and are not inferior to any race in the world!

Then Geng Jingzhong personally went into battle and kept testing the gun, and he couldn't put it down, and it took a while to stop. Finally succeeded, and finally had the capital to really save his life! It wasn't until this moment that Geng Jingzhong's hanging heart was firmly put into his stomach. The joy in his heart cannot be expressed in words, and others don't know how much psychological pressure he has had in the past year!

"Reward, big prize! An extra year bonus for all firearms workshops from top to bottom! The master who improved this bullet was rewarded with a thousand taels of silver! ”