Qin Xiaobai returned to Tanggukou by boat, entered Tianjin City in a low-key manner, and then presided over the Tianjin Institute of Science and Technology, accompanied by "asking for money and not life", and took a sealed carriage to a test range more than ten miles outside Tianjin.

On the way, Qin Xiaobai asked about the secrecy of the development of gunpowder.

The study of gunpowder was included in the top secrecy of the Zhoushui Alliance, and the secrecy was impermeable. Except for Qin Xiaobai and asking for money and dying, other high-level figures of the Zhoushui Alliance could not interfere in this matter.

Asking for money, he said with a smile: "Boss, rest assured, there are only five people in this world who know the progress of gunpowder research in our research institute." In addition to you and me, there are also three of my henchmen who are directly responsible for the research, and they need to manage the research of the three specific items of gunpowder, rifle, and artillery, so keep track of the progress of the research. The rest of the people involved in this project are all nbsp; Qin Xiaobai nodded.

If you want money, you don't want to die, and you told Qin Xiaobai about other things.

The Zhoushui Alliance has been researching gunpowder for a long time, with a huge investment, millions of copper coins, but it has not been able to achieve any results. It has only been a breakthrough in the last month or so, and NPC researchers have rapidly increased their proficiency in gunpowder, and have successfully researched the recipe for black powder.

For players, black powder is simple, but it is a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal, and the recipe has different uses depending on the ratio. The basic principle is that the three substances are burned violently, a large amount of heat and gas is produced instantly, the volume expands sharply nearly 10,000 times, the pressure increases violently, and it is easy to explode in a confined space, and there is often a lot of smoke coming out at the same time as the explosion, so it is called black powder. The three most typical types of black powder: explosive black powder, shot black powder, and slow-burning black powder.

However, for NPCs, the detailed data of the formula ratio and the development process require continuous experimentation by NPC researchers. It's not for the player to tell.

Qin Xiaobai asked for money and didn't want to take a carriage to the test range.

The test range and the outside world are separated by several layers of thick fences, and the surrounding miles are under martial law by tens of thousands of NPC infantry and a cavalry army of thousands of people.

There are several NPC heroes at the gate of this fence wooden walled village, all of whom are tribal heroes who ask for money and don't want to die, and their loyalty is extremely high, unless they come in person for money or life, no one can enter and exit freely. Even the three henchmen who want money and don't want to die can't get in and out freely. You can only stay in the range.

Asking for money and dying, he showed his face from inside the carriage, and the NPC hero guarding the gate immediately let him go, and the carriage went directly into the shooting range.

In the center of the range, there is a bare hill. At the foot of the hill there is a lawn of more than a kilometer, where dozens of different styles of arquebuses, dozens of bronze cannons of different specifications, powder boxes and some cannonballs are placed, and dozens of wooden targets are placed on the hill.

Arquebuses and bronze cannons were actually made before gunpowder, before black powder was studied. They have been of little use. After the black powder came out, they were pulled to this range for fire experiments.

There are three players operating in the range.

One directs some NPC researchers to carefully carry the powder box, one is wiping the barrel of the arquebus that has just been test-fired, and another is directing dozens of NPC soldiers to fill the bronze cannons with gunpowder and shells in preparation for the test cannon.

The player, who was directing the soldiers to load the cannonballs, saw a carriage coming, and knew that it was asking for money or death, so he immediately stopped what he was doing, ran over excitedly, and said loudly. "Boss Qian, you're here! Come play with the new bronze cannon we've built. The firepower is fierce, and it can hit at a distance of 500 meters. ”

If you want money, you don't want to get off the carriage, and then, Qin Xiaobai also got down from the carriage.

When the player saw Qin Xiaobai, he was stunned, he didn't recognize Qin Xiaobai, and couldn't help but secretly wonder, Boss Qian had never brought anyone else here, why did he bring an outsider here this time?

At this time. Two other players also ran over. Those two had seen Qin Xiaobai before. was taken aback, and hurriedly said: "Little white boss!" The player who came running first was startled. Hurry up and give the salute. They obviously didn't expect that this boss, who controlled the largest player power organization in the entire Yan Kingdom, would actually come to this shooting range in person.

Qin Xiaobai nodded and smiled.

Asking for money, he introduced their names to Qin Xiaobai, and then asked them to bring the arquebus. Let Qin Xiaobai try the power of these arquebuses.

Arquebuses, which are very primitive rifles, use fire to ignite the arquebus, ignite the black powder, and shoot out the lead projectiles contained in the chamber. The entire standard firing process is unusually complex and slow, breaking down into 25 steps. Trained NPC soldiers can shoot 1 bullet every 1 minute, and the range of the long-barreled gun is about 100 meters to 200 meters.

It has many flaws, such as the shooting process is complex and slow, it cannot be used in rainy and humid geographical environments, the range is not long enough to attack at night, and it needs to be escorted by melee soldiers, otherwise the enemy will be devastating if it gets close, etc.

So, despite its many flaws, the arquebus has the advantage of being more powerful than ordinary bows and crossbows, and can kill a leather-clad pawn with a single shot at less than 100 paces, which bows and crossbows may not be able to.

Moreover, it is not necessarily easier to train an elite archer than an elite arquebus infantryman. So arquebus infantry still had a certain advantage.

Qin Xiaobai didn't attach much importance to the arquebus, this primitive rifle was just a transition, the next variety of rifle - flint gun. will greatly improve its shortcomings and increase the advantages of the rifle.

He tried dozens of arquebuses of different sizes. These arquebuses vary in power, range, and accuracy. The farthest can hit a target of 200 meters, while the nearest can only hit a target within 100 meters.

The first time a thermal weapon was used, it was very impactful, the fire rope burned sizzlingly, and with a "boom", a wooden target at fifty meters was smashed into a large gap. After ejaculating, my hands and shoulders felt a little numb.

Qin Xiaobai nodded with great satisfaction, this arquebus had already met the minimum requirements for fighting against archers.

He asked for money and said: "Select three of the best arquebuses, send them to the ordnance factory in Tianjin for mass manufacturing, first equip three thousand-man arquebus infantry battalions, and then send them to the Japanese island for actual combat experiments and establish fame." Then carry out large-scale production, transport to Taiwan's trading market to sell, occupy the Southeast Asian hot weapons market, although the quality of this primitive firearm is average, but after all, it is the first thermal weapon, the demand must be very huge. I will tell the nameless in Tianjin City, as well as the brothers in Taiwan, and let them cooperate. ”

I nodded if I wanted money, and said, "Okay, but do you want to sell them all?" So should our own army be equipped? ”

Qin Xiaobai smiled: "Our own army doesn't need this kind of gun, and when we research the flint, we will equip a group army of 100,000 troops and send it to the Indian battlefield." ”

I was a little worried about asking for money and not dying: "But during the period when the flint guns have not yet come out, if the countries of Southeast Asia are equipped with arquebuses, their weapons will be more powerful than our weapons!" Will it cause chaos? ”

Qin Xiaobai patted him on the shoulder and said with a slow smile, "Hehe, as soon as the arquebus comes out, it will definitely cause countless players to have the urge to buy hot weapons. But when they buy a large number of arquebuses, they will find that these weapons are not as easy to use as they imagined, and in the rainy season in Southeast Asia, arquebuses are limited by the environment, and they may not be as powerful as bows and arrows. But their money has already been spent, which will instead slow down their next change to new weapons and equipment. Their arquebus infantry is simply no match for our flintlock infantry. You don't have to worry about this, I'll let Nameless deal with it, and you can just do research with peace of mind. ”

If you want money and don't think about it, the research of flint guns is not much more difficult than that of arquebuses, and it should be possible to build the first batch of test flint guns in half a month to a month, and then use them to equip a group of their own army. The production time of the two is about half a month apart, and there is no problem.

Qin Xiaobai came to the more than ten bronze cannons in the shooting range.

I was amazed in my heart.

These things are what he really wants.

At present, the navies of the whole world are basically sailing ships without strong means of attack. On the sea, if two opposing armies come into an encounter, they usually rush directly to the opposing ship and fire the archer's bow and crossbow. Heavy crossbows can hit or even sink small ships, but they can't hit large ships with more than three masts, and at most they can make a few holes.

The giant crossbow could not be moved, and the archers had little effect on the fire, and would be blocked by the baffle cover on the opposing ship. As a result, there was only one last way to fight a decisive battle - the NPC soldiers took out ladders, set up on the sides of two ships, climbed onto the other ship's warship, slashed and slashed, and captured the ship. As a last resort, you can burn the ship, ram the opponent's boat with your own boat, and so on.

Now most of the naval battles in "Empire" are actually a group of infantry fighting on a ship, which looks fierce and dangerous, but the technical content is not high.

A battleship equipped with bronze cannons, this is a naval battleship in the true sense, directly across the sea artillery bombardment, artillery battles determine the outcome of the battle, and there is no longer a need for infantry to climb to the opponent's ship to catch and fight.

These bronze cannons are really good things, far more valuable than arquebuses, which is why he came to this shooting range himself.