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Geng Jingzhong walked out of the musket workshop, and then went to the cannon casting workshop in the back mountain. The person in charge of the cannon casting workshop is Nan Huairen, most of the craftsmen in it are Europeans, and the talents in this area in China are too rare, and the Qing court is really strict with the management of cannons, and even the craftsmen who can cast cannons are also restricted.

At present, the navy is also developing rapidly, and by the beginning of spring next year, 20 large ships will be launched, and at least 600 cannons will be needed on the new ships alone. The original Hongyi cannons have all been placed on the turret, and all that remains are various smaller-caliber Furlong machine guns. Now he is in dire need of artillery, especially large-caliber guns. At this time in Europe, Britain and the Netherlands were still in a big war, and there was definitely no way to buy artillery from Europe, and it was impossible for the Zheng family to sell artillery to themselves; I had no choice but to make it up by myself. Fortunately, the three Geng brothers did their best last time and recruited a group of cannon casting workers, plus Nan Huairen is an expert in this area, so it's no problem to take your time.

Geng Jingzhong walked for a long time before he came to the cannon casting workshop, the place here was big enough, there was still a hillside to the west, and there were rows of many red flags on the hill I don't know what they were used for. As soon as I entered the gate of the workshop, I saw a black cannon placed on the stone platform facing the western hillside, with two ears on it, presumably used to raise the cannon. There were extra "arms" on both sides of the cannon body, stuck in the middle of the stone platform. The stone platform was built in the shape of a slope with a groove in the middle, and was specially used to place the cannons. The one in front of me is a complete cannon, the cannon body is pitch black, obviously painted, I don't know if it's a copper cannon or an iron cannon!

As soon as Nan Huairen saw Geng Jingzhong coming, he immediately greeted Geng Jingzhong with a smile, and said to Geng Jingzhong: "Oh, my dear prince, I haven't seen you for a long time!" Geng Jingzhong's eyes were all focused on the cannon in front of him at this time, and he just glanced up at him and continued to carefully look at the newly cast cannon. Then he asked, "Nan Huairen, what's going on with this cannon?" How come I've never seen one? The barrel of this cannon seems to have grown a lot! ”

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, you ask about this cannon? The cannon was just cast and has not yet begun testing. I improved the eighteen-pounder guns on the British battleships, and made two kinds of guns, and the one in front of you was a foot and a half longer than the original, and reached ten and a half feet (about three and a half meters) . The caliber was four inches (one hundred and thirty-three millimeters), weighed five thousand catties, and was cast in pure copper, and it was also an eighteen-pound gun. The other, a smaller cannon, was still in it and had not been brought out. ”

"Eighteen pounder! Yes, can you test the gun now? Geng Jingzhong was interested. Growing so big, I haven't seen what the test gun is like. Is it just a normal step to fire a shot?

"As you wish, Your Highness." This cannon was only built last night, and it was originally going to be tested today, and Geng Jingzhong happened to be in time. Heavy artillery like this, which was itself fixed at the head of the city or on the ship, is now just right on this stone platform. "Ready to go!" Nan Huairen waved to the assistant behind him.

The test personnel immediately stepped forward to prepare all the parts for firing the gun. Geng Jingzhong and the others stepped back and gave up their positions. Several test gunners began to work around the gun, and then cleared the chamber and loaded the ammunition. Since the stone platform is fixed, there is no need to lay aiming; The muzzle of the gun is pointed westward, and when it is placed, it indicates that it has been aimed at a distant target.

"Ready! Ignition! At the sound of the order, the tester raised his hand and pressed the torch heavily on the fire door at the end of the gun. Geng Jingzhong and the others first felt a sudden shock under their feet, and then they heard "Boom!" With a loud bang, the swarthy bronze cannon erupted into a cloud of flames, followed by a cloud of smoke rising from the muzzle.

Geng Jingzhong didn't blink an eye, staring straight at the black dots flying in the sky in the distance, and landed in the distance over the rows of red flags. I saw that one of the flagpoles was hit by a cannonball and fell, and at the same time, a cloud of smoke and dust suddenly rose from the ground at the flagpole, and then the cannonball jumped up again, and continued to roll forward until it was exhausted.

"Count!" Nan Huairen shouted.

The person in charge of observation with a telescope immediately reported: "Report to the director, the shell hit the flagpole of the sixth row directly, with a range of 300 zhang. ”

"Make a note and do a second test!"

Immediately after that, the test personnel conducted five more test firings in a row before stopping, and then recorded the results one by one. During the test period, you have to water the gun body to cool down, and it's really not easy! The five cannons were fired, and the quality of the cannons seemed to be very passable, and the test guns were successful.

"Good!" Geng Jingzhong is really happy. This shows that they can cast Hongyi cannons, and no matter where these cannons are installed, the power is very huge. "Haha...... Mr. Nan Huairen, you did a pretty good job! Pass on my order, the masters in the artillery workshop will each be rewarded with ten taels of silver, and five taels of miscellaneous will be distributed together with this month's salary! Geng Jingzhong saw this effect, and once again offered the magic weapon of reward.

Geng Jingzhong stepped forward and touched the swarthy cannon body, and there was a feeling of love in his heart, like stroking a work of art. This cannon also belongs to the Hongyi cannon, which is much larger in size than the small and medium-sized Furlong machine guns currently used in the Tigers, and belongs to the category of heavy artillery. Looking at the thick wall of the cannon chamber and the huge caliber, you can imagine its power.

Yang Jian and others, who had been following behind Geng Jingzhong, also stepped forward one after another, carefully looking at the extra-long cannon up and down, left and right, their eyes full of envy. It turned out that Huang Dazhong, who was with him, was sent by this prince to take charge of the Mawei Navy, Yang Jian didn't say anything, and he was still sad in his heart. However, he now had an idea, since he had no chance in the navy, he might as well ask him to return to the LTTE in the future to be in charge of the artillery unit. With this kind of powerful heavy artillery, his weight will definitely not be lower than Huang Dazhong in the future. In the end, this idea of his did come true, and he became the commander-in-chief of the field artillery corps, which is not to be mentioned later.

"By the way, what about a cannon? Didn't you say that two cannons were built? What about the other smaller one? After Geng Jingzhong finished watching the giant heavy cannon, he remembered another cannon, and wanted to see what was going on with the smaller one!

"Wait a minute, Your Highness the Prince." After Nan Huairen said a word to Geng Jingzhong, he turned around and ordered: "Gentlemen, push it out!" ”

Just hear a gurgling sound in the direction of the workshop, and a gun carriage was pushed out. This cannon is really a lot smaller, and that's just for the one just now. Looking at the wheel prints on the ground, this cannon is not light!

"This cannon is different from the Furlong machine gun, this is the same as the Hongyi cannon just now, only a little smaller, and it is also a front-loading smoothbore gun. It was six feet (two meters) long, slightly smaller in caliber than the previous one, reaching three inches and three (one hundred and ten millimeters), and was a twelve-pounder gun. However, it weighs only 2,000 catties, so it is easy to move! ”

"Oh! It's so good, hurry up and try it! Geng Jingzhong really can't wait.

Seeing that such a small Hongyi cannon was honestly installed on the gun carriage, the gun lugs were just fixed on the supporting gun carriage, and the top was fixed with iron bolts. The gun carriage stopped, and Geng Jingzhong realized that the gun truck was not made of wood, it was all black and iron, no wonder he saw this gun truck so slim just now! After the gun truck stopped, the part behind the body was made into a flat shape, which could just be flat on the ground and formed a triangular bracket with the body, which made use of the rigid principle of the triangle. If you hit a few more wedges, you don't have to worry about the gun carriage being overturned, this looks much better than the old gun carriage before, and several test gun personnel also do the same, it seems that he is not the only smart man!

Such an all-iron gun carriage is actually good, it is not much heavier than a solid wood gun carriage, but it is better than a solid one, at least it is more stable than a wooden frame when firing a cannon. It is very convenient to transport or lay, and this gun carriage can fully withstand the vibration of the gun when it is fired. Geng Jingzhong understood the truth after a little thought with modern knowledge, and in this way, he looked forward to this cannon even more.

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, this artillery can be used as an infantry gun in the future, it is not heavy in itself, two groups of mules and horses can be pulled away, and it is also very convenient to set up. This is also the best result we have in more than a month! This time, please come and test the gun. ”

This time it was different from the fixed cannon just now, and someone ran to the third row of flags early and erected several large wooden planks in a staggered manner. Such a distance is about 400 meters, I don't know if I can hit it. When the wooden planks were set, the test personnel began to step forward to operate the cannon first, and the light door on the guò gun body also had a crosshair, carefully adjusted the muzzle pointing, and aimed at the target in the distance.

"Your Royal Highness, please!" The test personnel handed over the torch and asked Geng Jingzhong to light the fire himself.

It's "Boom!" again. With a loud bang, the cannonball hit one of the planks directly, shattering it, and then the cannonball jumped up again, continuing to break the one behind it. Watching the cannonball hit the wooden board accurately, Geng Jingzhong was also excited, this is his first time! Just now after igniting the fire and firing the cannon, he also found that the recoil of the cannon fired pushed the gun mount back a little distance, which shows that the recoil of this gun is still okay, and the role of this gun mount is fully reflected here.

"Good, good! Our Tiger Army has one more big killer weapon in the future! Geng Jingzhong couldn't help clapping. Yang Jian, who was standing on the side, was even more excited, and he was even more determined in his previous thoughts, and decided that he couldn't do without this cannon for the rest of his life!

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, please try this scatter bomb again, we have made all the shots into a unified ball, please try its power!"

Geng Jingzhong took a small round iron bullet, which was about less than two centimeters in diameter. He remembered reading a book before, which said that the lethality of this scattered bullet is the greatest, and in close combat, a dozen is a large piece, which is very terrifying. "Put it on and try it!" Geng Jingzhong commanded.

After a test firing, the effective range of the projectile was actually about 150 meters, that is, 200 paces away. In this way, in the future, the army will be able to win hand-to-hand combat in close combat!

Geng Jingzhong couldn't help but sigh that it was really wise to send someone to communicate with Europe. If you fall behind, you must study hard and catch up, this is the king!