"His Royal Highness the King of Thailand is safe!"

After receiving the news of Chen Wu's arrival in advance, the military attachés at the test launch site and the craftsmen who developed the artillery were already waiting in line here, insisting on this powerful king with a different surname who had risen rapidly in just a few years and was a powerful king in the southeast of the empire.

Since it was not the first time for Chen Wu to come, and he had summoned the craftsmen many times before, communicated with them and asked about their progress, these people were no strangers to him. But even so, when they met again, there was still awe, curiosity and adoration in the eyes of these craftsmen. Not only because of the identity of the king of Thailand, but also because of the other party's attainments in chemistry and physics, as well as the understanding of artillery revealed between words, which is far beyond their realm.

Some superstitious craftsmen even suspect that they are born to know, otherwise there is no way to explain that they can grasp something that they do not know at such a young age.

Linked to rumors such as the boiling fish belly silk book that has been spread since the time of the Taiping Rebels, this suspicion seems to be not without a little reason.

Chen Wu noticed the strange eyes of some craftsmen, but he didn't think so. It wouldn't hurt him to keep some mystery properly. At this moment, he did not rush to ask about artillery, but first asked about the recent research of these craftsmen and whether they encountered any problems in their lives.

Such an emphasis on craftsmen has never been seen in the Qianyuan Empire, which is also the reason why craftsmen are willing to serve the King of Thailand.

After all, Chen Wu, who comes from another world, knows very well the importance of technology and talents. Although poetry and books and articles are of course important for education, with the development of the times, the further you go, the importance of science and technology will only become stronger!

These craftsmen were apparently unaware of the importance of their research for warfare and for a people. They just had a simple attitude, took Chen Wu's salary, and did things for Chen Wu. After thanking Chen Wu's Longen, the craftsmen took him and a group of officers to the southeast of the test firing range.

This is a wasteland, five or six hundred meters in front of it is empty, only a large number of round craters that I don't know what has been blown out can be vaguely seen, and the depths are different. At the outermost part of the wasteland, on a platform made of loess compacted, there are many round metal cylinders of various sizes.

Among them, the small one is less than one meter in length, about ten centimeters in caliber, weighs about fifty or sixty pounds, is equipped with iron claws, iron trips, and the outside of the gun body is reinforced with iron hoops. The large ones are different, the length is more than three meters, and the weight is enough to weigh thousands of catties, and the traces under the concave soil platform are the most direct proof. After it was cast, I don't know how much effort it took to move here.

"This is the new weapon that His Royal Highness wants us to see?"

Some officers, with their eyes wide open, roamed back and forth on the guns of various sizes, as if trying to find something familiar with them. But no matter how he looked at it, he didn't find any mechanical brackets and throwing structures like bed crossbows and stone throwers.

"It's just a big iron cylinder! No, there's a bronze one here! ”

There were also officers muttering curiously, he couldn't imagine how he could kill and injure the enemy with such a thing, and even let His Royal Highness the King of Thailand personally lead a team to inspect it.

Chen Wu could understand the incomprehension and contempt of his subordinates, in fact, he was used to seeing the earth-shattering power of the artillery before the crossing, and he also looked down on the rough and bulky things in front of him. However, their significance to this world is epoch-making.

Whether it is good or not, you will know when you actually hit it.

Since these craftsmen dared to invite him to come and made real objects, they must have achieved certain results.

"Let's start with this little cannon."

After letting his men talk for a while, he looked at the somewhat restless craftsmen, smiled and comforted them, and motioned for the test to begin.

"This trumpet cannon, His Royal Highness the King of Thailand named the God Machine Cannon. In the beginning, we wanted to use iron to cast cannons, but iron cannons were more difficult to cast, and later when we tried cannons, it was easier to have accidents. It was His Royal Highness the King of Thailand who had the foresight and signaled that we could cast cannons with bronze. However, copper cannons also have the disadvantages of copper cannons, the hardness is not high, the cannons made are thicker, and copper is more rare......"

The craftsman motioned to the soldiers at the test range to make preliminary preparations, and at the same time introduced the smallest cannon to the officers.

There has been a debate since ancient times about which is better, copper cannons or iron cannons. In the world before Chen Wu crossed over, it was not until the rapid progress of modern steelmaking technology that the copper cannon was completely eliminated. But until then, copper and iron cannons have almost always coexisted, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

If it was before the Matsue Army captured the iron ore mines of the Asahikawa Domain, there was no doubt that with the Matsue Army's demand for iron ore and the very small production in the territory, it must have been a full use of copper cannons. But with high-quality iron ore, the Songjiang Army has more leeway in the choice of artillery materials. The two squatting trial production of the finished god machine cannon in front of me are made of one copper and one iron.

"Look, everyone, this is the artillery shells and the kits needed for firing."

Under the instructions of the craftsman, the soldier in charge of the operation put the gunpowder bag filled with black powder into the muzzle of the gun and compacted it, and then loaded it into a round solid iron ball. There is no technology to make this most basic shell, and if it is not available, it can even be replaced by lead bullets or even stone bullets.

When it was ready, a soldier picked up the red-hot iron chisel and stood at the end of the gun, turning his head and waiting for Chen Wu's signal.

"Can be fired!"

Chen Wu nodded, with a little excitement in his heart, and gave the order to test the cannon.

Under the curious gaze of the accompanying officers and guards, the iron drill pierced through the small hole in the tail of the cannon and ignited the medicine bag. Then, the black powder exploded in the sealed chamber of the cannon, and the powerful impact force produced blasted the iron ball out. After a while, the iron ball flew at least three hundred paces away, smashed a deep crater in the ground, and then bounced up and rolled out of the distance before finally stopping. The pungent smell of gunpowder smoke and sulfur permeated the air, causing the nearby soldiers to cough.

At the moment of the explosion, the roar startled all the officers who saw the gunpowder explosion for the first time. They didn't expect that this kind of metal canister, which looked completely different from traditional weapons such as bed crossbows and stone throwers, could actually kill the enemy.

"Three hundred and forty steps!"

Since the wasteland ahead was marked with a pole at different distances in advance, the soldiers could easily judge the range of the cannon by observing the location of the landing point and the pole.

Listening to the figures reported by the soldiers who measured the distance in the distance, Chen Wu bowed slightly, but did not express any opinions.

The officers in the back were different.

They knew the purpose of Chen Wu bringing them here, so they didn't have too much restraint, and after the initial surprise, they quickly discussed this never-before-seen weapon.

"The range is very long, almost twice as long as a normal stone thrower!" There were officers who saw the advantages of artillery at a glance.

Some officers also led their horses and rushed over in person, observed on the spot near the crater, and then came back and said: "The power seems to be a little insufficient, but I think it has something to do with the fact that the cannon is smaller...... I just don't know what the accuracy and rate of fire will be. ”

Some officers noticed the process of firing the cannon, grabbed the craftsman and asked, "What are the iron claws and iron stumbling of the magic cannon for?" ”

"That's right." The craftsman had obviously thought about this problem for a long time, and said without thinking: "The explosion of the cannon will produce a recoil force, which will make the cannon retreat sharply after firing, and the muzzle will be tilted up, which will greatly affect the firing accuracy and rate of fire of the artillery. At the suggestion of His Royal Highness the King of Thailand, we have installed such parts. Before firing, the cannon can be fixed to the ground with large iron nails, which overcomes the problems of high recoil and strong muzzle elevation jump. ”

As he spoke, the soldiers had already begun to clear their muzzles and prepare for the second test shot.

Because of the training in advance, coupled with Chen Wu's requirements, the soldiers' operations were obviously very orderly. Someone was responsible for hooking out the fragments of the medicine bag in the barrel with a hook, and someone scrubbed the barrel with felt soaked in water, and the slightest trace of white gas could be vaguely seen. This was done not only to cool down the gun, but also to prevent the sparks remaining inside from detonating the gunpowder and injuring people when it was recharged.

The test launch again is different from the previous one.

The first test firing did not deliberately aim at anything, and the process and operation speed were also decent, just to let the officers understand what this new weapon really looks like. Even, in order to make the officers see clearly, the soldiers who operated deliberately slowed down their movements.

With the ready, this time the movement of the artillery soldiers was much faster.

It's no longer one shot, it's three shots at full speed!

In an instant, the roar of artillery rang out again. With previous experience, this time the officers were much calmer, and no one made any more trouble. And with the fall of these three shells, these senior officers of the Songjiang Army also saw the characteristics of artillery more comprehensively.

The rate of fire is quite fast!

This was the unanimous opinion of all the officers, although it was as slow as a snail compared to the automatic artillery before Chen Wu's crossing, but it depended on who it was compared to. Although in Chen Wu's eyes, the process of setting medicine, launching, and washing the chamber is inefficient, compared with the more traditional stone throwing machine, the speed is already ahead of the curve, and the manpower required is far less than the latter.

In addition to this feature, the officers soon discovered that the three shells fell quite close together and had little dispersion among each other.

The word "scattering" was still taught to the craftsmen by Chen Wu and was learned and used by the officers, but this did not prevent them from understanding the meaning of the word. There is no one who can be brought here by Chen Wu's fancy is stupid, and he knows very well what it means that the accuracy and stability of the artillery are much better than that of the stone thrower!

Although it was only a preliminary contact, the understanding was only the tip of the iceberg, and many discerning officers were already aware of the significance of this new weapon. And as they began to test firing larger models of iron cannons, the officers' eyes brightened.