Chapter 31: The Flintlock Cannon
I saw that the weapons spread out in this box all looked like weapons that were magnified several times, such as the flintlock pistol that was closest to Leo and used gear machinery to build the body of the gun.
The usual flintlock pistol is at most about the length of an adult's forearm, but this one has doubled in size and is almost the same as an adult's arm, and the barrel has been thickened and enlarged, making it look like a small cannon.
What makes people feel even more speechless is that the barrel has increased and thickened so much, but the body and handle part of the gun are no different from ordinary flintlock pistols, and whether or not anyone can afford this flintlock pistol, no one will have the slightest desire to pick it up due to the strange shape of this gun.
The other firearms are similar in styling to this one, and the more important issue is that all firearms are based on the firing principle of flintlock pistols, rather than breech guns and breech repeaters that have become popular now.
It's no wonder that Martin would get angry when he saw this batch of weapons, and did not hesitate to decide that this batch of weapons was unqualified, after all, Martin had worked in the famous Murphy Arsenal, even if he could not access important information such as weapon drawings, but he also knew very well the importance of the structure, weight and other details of any firearm, and the guns in the box were contrary to common sense at first glance and could not be used normally.
It's just that, compared to Leo and Martin looking at the weapons in the box and being silent, Jason seemed very excited, screamed again and again, squatted down and picked up a repeating pistol that was somewhat similar to a steam repeater, and wanted to hold it with one hand, but found that he couldn't hold it, so he could only hold it with both hands, imitating the appearance of shooting, and the thump of a gun came out of his mouth.
It's just that he didn't wait too long for him to get excited, he felt the heaviness of the weapon in his hand, and his hand was a little sore, so he had to put it back on the ground.
"Leo, this thing is really exciting!" he shouted at Leo, still very excited.
Leo smiled, crouched down, picked up the flintlock cannon in front of him, and took a closer look at the structure of the thing.
Compared to the flintlock repeater with five barrels cast together in Jason's hand, the flintlock pistol in his hand is much lighter, with his strength three times higher than that of ordinary people, he can easily pick up this pistol, and his physique, which is more than five times higher than that of ordinary people, makes him have extraordinary staying power, and can lift this pistol for a long time like an ordinary pistol.
Seeing that Leo was able to pick up the heavy flintlock cannon so easily, both Martin and Valjean showed expressions of surprise. It's just that there is a difference in the surprised expressions of the two, Martin's surprised expression is more mixed with worry, surprise and gloom, while Valjean is completely happy and excited, obviously he is very happy that someone can pick up his work and use it in a normal way.
Although Leo was focused on the weapon in his hand, he did not let down his vigilance, and although Martin was quick to hide his true emotions, it did not escape his sight, which also confirmed his suspicion of Martin's behavior.
After learning about the surrounding situation, Leo began to pay attention to the hand cannon in his hand again.
Although the barrel of the hand cannon is large, the hole of the gun is much smaller than the barrel, about the size of a rabbit's eyeball, and the rest of the barrel wall is the barrel wall, which is obviously to prevent the barrel from bursting due to the impact of gunpowder.
Later, Leo's eyes fell on the body of the gun, which was somewhat deformed, the front half of the body was particularly large, and the back part of the gun was rapidly shrinking.
There is a ball-like jack in the upper part of the gun, which is usually covered, but as long as you push the lid forward slightly, you can see the small track inside the jack.
"Is this where the ammunition is placed?" Leo quickly understood the purpose of the jack through the analysis of the secondary brain system, but still turned to Valjean to confirm.
"Yes, that's where stuffed ammunition comes in. Valjean saw that Leo had discovered the place where the ammunition was stuffed so easily, and once again believed that Leo had an extraordinary knowledge of machinery. As he spoke, he walked to the cabinet on the side, took out a box, opened it, revealing the ball-shaped ammunition inside, took out a few of them, handed them to Leo, and said: "This kind of ammunition is very simple to make, that is, ordinary gunpowder mixed with some crushed charcoal and gunpowder of two special bullets, wet it with water, stuff it with a steel ball, knead it into ammunition of the right size, and after it is dry, it will be made." ”
Leo took the ammunition and pointed it at the jack, after the lid was opened, the appropriate size ammunition was stuffed into the barrel of the gun, and then he pulled the gear next to the jack under the guidance of Valjean, and the device inside the vacant pushed the ammunition to the end of the magazine, which happened to be where the flintlock pistol's excitation device was located, and the position where the ram fell could touch the device and activate the gunpowder.
"How much ammo can be loaded?" asked Leo, looking at the magazine with plenty of room left.
Valjean responded: "You can fill five." ”
Leo asked, "After the first gunpowder is triggered, the other ammo won't ......"
Valjean said: "No, when each ammunition is in place, there is a special wall inside to separate it from the ammunition behind it. Then he pointed to a gear device under the ram and said: "Although this gun looks like a single shot, it is actually not much different from a repeating gun, every time the firing is completed, the thrust of the gunpowder will push the gears below to rotate, and the ram will be brought back to the state of preparation for firing, and the loading device of the ammunition compartment will also operate, propelling the next ammunition into the firing state." ”
"Can I try it?" asked Leo.
"Absolutely. ”
Valjean nodded, then took a wooden figure out of a cabinet in the corner, placed it in front of the wall opposite the door, and then found four more helmets of that kind of soundproofing leather, which were very effective, and motioned for each to put them on.
Jason had long been excited by these strange-looking guns, and couldn't wait to see the power of these guns, and Martin was also curious about the power of these guns, after all, these weapons were made of 130,000 gold flanges. At the time, he had decided that the guns were not up to standard, but now Valjean's performance made him suspect that he might have been wrong in his judgment, which made him more and more curious.
Leo, who was wearing a leather helmet, stuffed the magazine with five rounds of ammunition and walked directly in front of the wooden man, and when the three people around him thought that he still needed to stand firm and raise his hand to aim for a while before he could shoot, he unexpectedly raised his hand, instantly pulled the trigger, and when the ram bounced back to its original place, he immediately continued to shoot until all five ammunition in the magazine were exhausted.
The few people standing behind Leo only heard a muffled sound piercing through the leather helmet and into their ears, and each sound was accompanied by a burst of gunpowder flames erupting from the barrel of the gun, just like the dragon flame in myths and legends, extremely shocking.
What shocked them even more was the power of the bullet, the first steel ball bullet directly smashed the wooden figure used as a target, and then the four shots, all of which hit the buffer on the wall, not only broke up the buffer, but also dented the steel plate wall behind it, and cracks appeared.
Leo, who was facing away from them, seemed not very happy with the cannon, frowned, and moved his somewhat paralyzed arms and shoulders without a trace.
He naturally had nothing to say about the power of the hand cannon, but the weight of the hand cannon itself and the anti-shock force of gunpowder made him unbearable even if he was already beyond ordinary people's physical fitness.
Except for the first of the five shots fired just now, the other four were just pulling the trigger, and it was completely unknown where the bullets flew out.
"It's powerful. Leo turned to Valjean and gave him a compliment, but before Valjean could show a happy expression, he poured another basin of cold water and said, "But I agree with Mr. Martin's judgment that this weapon, or this kind of weapon, is not qualified." ”
If someone else had said this, Valjean might not have paid attention to it at all, but Leo, who was already regarded as a mechanical expert by him, said this, which made him wonder if he had really made a mistake.
"Can you tell me why you are not qualified?" said Valjean, humbly asking.
Leo asked rhetorically, "Tell me first, what did you think about when you designed this firearm, and what kind of firearm are you going to design?"
Valjean said suspiciously: "What kind of firearm could it be? It is exactly what Martin wanted, powerful, cheap and mass-produced." ”
Leo said in a deep voice, "Haven't you realized your problem yet?, the gun request was made by Mr. Martin, not you yourself." ”
Hearing Leo's words, Valjean frowned, looking thoughtful.
Leo continued, "You're really designing this firearm exactly the way everyone else thinks and the direction they want it to be. ”
As he spoke, he took out the ammunition the size of a rabbit's eyeball, and said: "In order to be powerful, you made the ammunition so large that the power directly increased several times, but the power of the gunpowder explosion made ordinary barrels unbearable, and some particularly hard and rare materials must be used to withstand this explosive force, but it is not cheap to do so." ”
He pointed to the barrel again, and said, "So you changed the method, thickened and lengthened the barrel." It's just that you find that it's not just the barrel that has to withstand the explosive force of gunpowder, but the magazine that has to withstand the explosive force even more. ”
He pointed his finger at the front half of the gun again, and said, "So you made another improvement, using your mechanical knowledge to create a device that cushions the force of the explosion, and also very cleverly connected it to the upper bullet, this design is very genius." It's just that you don't realize that what you're doing is making up for a loophole, making a loophole, making a loophole, and making a loophole, and finally creating such a weird firearm. ”
"Yes, you're right, you're right. Valjean nodded, admitting his problem.
And Valjean's attitude made Martin, who was watching the situation from the sidelines, very unhappy, because of the same conclusion, Leo was able to get Valjean's approval, but he completely fell out with Valjean, who was not on good terms, which made him, who had always been invincible, feel frustrated that he had never felt before, and he didn't like this feeling at all.
"I can give you two suggestions for improvement. Like a true master of antique weapons, Leo said, "One suggestion is to simply change these weapons into portable personal melee guns, and replace all the steel balls in the ammunition with cheaper metal chips to increase the coverage area and hit rate of shrapnel." Another suggestion is to use your mechanical knowledge to add a few shock absorbers to minimize the shock force of the gunpowder, so that those who can carry these weapons can also shoot straight away. ”
Valjean pondered for a moment, then nodded, "Well! ”
When Martin heard Leo's suggestion, he also looked thoughtful, and his face showed a little joy.
After Leo finished speaking, he crouched down, searched among the weapons on the ground, and then took out an improved mechanical crossbow from inside.
This strong crossbow looks very similar to an ancient siege crossbow from the shape of the crossbow, and the manufacturing material should also be a very formal metal material. Valjean's ingenious mechanical design made it easy and easy to wind this powerful crossbow.
In addition, in the matching magazine belt of this crossbow, there are five different ammunition, which are marked as explosion, strong acid, poison gas, hypnosis and armor piercing, which should be able to be used in different environments, this crossbow is definitely the most valuable in this pile of fog, and it is also the most able to be used by ordinary people.
"Jason, you can use this crossbow. Leo handed the crossbow to Jason.
The power of the flintlock hand cannon shown by Leo just now has attracted Jason, and he feels that if a man wants to hold such a weapon, he naturally can't look down on a gadget like a crossbow, even if the strength of this crossbow is not weaker than a firearm, there is still some resistance.
It's just that even though Jason was a little reluctant, he didn't refuse, but obeyed Leo's instructions to take the crossbow, put the ammunition belt on his body, and still looked at the hand cannons with some reluctance.
Seeing this, Leo took out the flintlock hand cannon he had used before, motioned for Valjean to bring a few more boxes of ammunition, handed these things to Jason along with Valjean's special back-style holster, and said: "You hold the thing, when you can hold the gun in one hand for thirty minutes without putting it down, when you can use it, otherwise, you will always carry it!" ”
Jason, who didn't hear Leo's words at all, happily took over the equipment, took off the crossbow suit he had just put on, put the set of equipment on his body, put the flintlock cannon into the special holster on his back, felt the weight, felt that he could bear it, and equipped the crossbow again.
"Won't you choose a weapon?" asked Valjean in a deep voice.
Leo shook his head and said, "There's nothing I need." ”
Valjean thought for a moment and said, "You gave me some good advice, I should give you a gift in return." ”