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Muskets are actually very easy to make, especially the most primitive ones, which are easier to build than cannons.

Even if Li Cun does not appear, a few years later, the historical Southern Song Dynasty military strategists can invent the world's first musket.

The musket invented by stereotypes was extremely simple.

- To put it simply, simply a bamboo pipe, one end of which is simply sealed with a wooden plug, and then simply filled with gunpowder, and then simply left a small eye in the part where the gunpowder was filled, drew a fuse, and burned the enemy with the open end after ignition, even so simple that there were no bullets.

The power of this musket is not worth mentioning, and the bamboo tube is particularly easy to explode, and it is easy to injure yourself or your own people, but it is indeed the earliest tubular firearm in the world's military history, and it is not a problem at all to call it the originator of modern tubular firearms.

Also in the Southern Song Dynasty in history, someone was injured by the exploded bamboo barrel when using the earliest musket, so it was found that the bursting fragments were more lethal, so someone put a small iron ball in the front end of the gunpowder to create a kind of assault gun, the gun used giant bamboo as the barrel, fired Zi Yi (containing black powder, porcelain, broken iron, stones, etc.), the flame was sprayed, and the Zi Yi flew out to kill and injure the enemy.

This assault gun can barely be considered the ancestor of the shotgun.

Within a short time, Chinese gunpowder and metal tubular firearms were introduced to Europe, and the Europeans turned Chinese artillery into hand-held shapes based on Chinese gunpowder and metal tubular firearms.

In other words, the earliest musket in Europe was not so much a gun as it was a small hand-held artillery.

This kind of "musket" has a small fire door at one end of its barrel, which is used to ignite gunpowder, and at the other end is an opening, in which stones, broken iron, etc., are put in, and then shot out.

Because the strong recoil of this gun often injured the musketeer when it exploded, and the musketeer had to concentrate when igniting the gunpowder, the musketeer had no time to take aim at all.

Later, around the time of the Ming Dynasty in China, the Spaniards developed the arquebus, which was copied by the Ming Dynasty and called the bird gun.

This arquebus, the advanced place is to add a wooden support, which can be shot on the shoulder, effectively reducing the recoil when shooting, and the ignition device arquebus is also added to this musket.

The appearance of this arquebus allows the gunner to hold the gun in one hand while ignition, and his eyes can be fixed on the target, at least the direction of the shot will not be wrong.

The arquebus was the first mass-produced gun in history to carry an ignition system, and it was used extensively in the Italian wars of the 16th century, and also helped Spain defeat France.

But this arquebus actually has a lot of problems.

Since it takes a length of arquebus to start the arquebus (hence the name of the arquebus), musketeers who use arquebuses carry arquebuses several meters long on their bodies.

Before going into battle, musketeers had to light the arquebus before they could shoot, which made the arquebus very cumbersome to use and simply unable to cope with a sudden war.

The point is, let alone on a rainy day, even in wet weather, this arquebus is extremely difficult to ignite.

- In fact, arquebuses cannot be used not only on rainy and wet days, but also on windy days, because the wind will blow away the powder on the fire door, and because arquebuses use pyrotechnic powder, they can seriously blind the sight of their own troops like smoke bombs.

In addition, the arquebus is also dangerous when ignited, and if you are not careful, the spark will ignite the cartridge belt on the Musketeer's back, causing an explosion that injures the Musketeer himself, and even his accomplices.

Also, lit arquebuses can easily expose themselves at night, so much so that with arquebuses it is simply impossible to sneak up on enemy troops at night.

In addition, the arquebus operation is extremely complicated - even a well-trained musketeer can hardly fire more than two shots in a minute, and at this time, a well-trained archer can shoot more than ten or twenty arrows, and even the rate of fire of the divine arm bow is much faster than that of the arquebus.

And the biggest disadvantage of the arquebus is its short range, especially the effective range, which is very close and far from being comparable to the bow and crossbow.

- The bullets fired from the arquebus are ricochet, and it is completely a matter of luck to hit them.

If this arquebus is equipped with the army, if he wants to make it form a combat effectiveness, Li Cun can only learn the kind of square formation in early Europe, that is, a group of people lined up neatly and rely on density to kill and injure the enemy.

This kind of tactic is really stupid, if Li Cun really uses this stupid tactic, Li Cun is embarrassed to say that he is a traverser.

The key point is that instead of equipping his army with arquebuses, Li Cun should use bows and crossbows with tiger squat cannons, thunderbolts and other firearms.

This is why the Royal Research Institute has long developed an arquebus, but Li Cun has not installed it.

Li Cun's minimum requirement for a musket must also be a ramming flintlock pistol.

The so-called flintlock pistol is to clamp a piece of flint on the jaws of the hammer, and a blow anvil is provided on the side of the fire transmission hole.

This will greatly simplify the firing process, increase the rate of fire and accuracy of fire, be easy to use, and have a lower cost and facilitate mass production.

Historically, in the middle of the seventeenth century, many European armies were generally equipped with flintlock pistols, and until 1848, they were equipped for more than 200 years.

This is the best proof of the usefulness of the flintlock pistol.

However, with the simple flintlock pistol, Li Cun was not satisfied.

Because the pure flintlock gun hits only about 20 percent.

This is certainly not enough.

In order to increase the hit rate of the flintlock pistol, Li Cun introduced the concept of rifling to Qian Guifei and others, who developed the flintlock pistol.

Rifling, also known as rifling wire, is also known as windmill line due to its cross-sectional shape similar to that of a windmill.

The rifling can be said to be the soul of the barrel, and the role of rifling is to give the warhead the ability to rotate, so that the warhead can still maintain a given direction after being discharged.

This can greatly increase the hit rate of the flintlock gun.

Historically, although the use of rifling has been recorded in the fifteenth century, it was not until the nineteenth century that rifling became widespread due to the difficulties of the manufacturing process.

It can be seen that rifling is the real high-tech that is difficult to do.

This is also one of the reasons why it took Qian Guifei and others so many years to develop the flintlock pistol that Li Cun wanted.

And this is because Li Cun provided Qian Guifei and other researchers at the Royal Research Institute with R&D ideas and advanced industrial tools such as lathes, otherwise I really don't know how many years they would have to use to develop a flintlock pistol that satisfied Li Cun.

Li Cun and Qian Guifei came to the gun station, and a man in his thirties wearing a seven-grade official uniform had been waiting here for a long time.

This man is the genius who developed firearms that Li Cun met when he was looking for raw materials for gunpowder - Li Xiang, the brother of businessman Li Daming.

Li Xiang had already built a "musket" that could shoot dozens of steps away more than ten years ago, so he was asked by Li Cun to help him develop a musket.

Later, Li Cun was afraid that the gunpowder would hurt his eldest treasure Qian Guifei, so he issued a strict order that Li Xiang presided over all the tests of the musket.

Of course, Li Cun is also worthy of Li Xiang, after Li Xiang made the arquebus, Li Cun gave Li Xiang an official body, and over the years he has been promoted step by step to the current seven-rank outsider.

Seeing that Li Cun was coming, Li Xiang hurriedly stepped forward and respectfully bowed: "Minister Li wants to see Your Majesty!" ”

From Li Xiang's attitude towards Li Cun, it is not difficult to see that Li Xiang really respects Li Cun.

But this is also normal, Li Xiang, who originally didn't know a single big character and couldn't martial arts, became a real high-ranking official of the Ministry of Industry because he liked to play with gunpowder and study things.

You must know that in this era, there are strict hierarchies up and down, although there are also imperial examinations or something, but how can the poor have the opportunity to study, some people say that to be a soldier, rely on hard work to get ahead, then there must be a military family to block it.

Therefore, Li Xiang, who became a high-ranking official of Zhengqipin just by virtue of his hobbies and changed the fate of himself and his family, is really similar to picking up a pie that fell from the sky, and Li Xiang naturally wants to thank Li Cun for bringing him everything.

Moreover, although Li Cun does not engage in R&D by himself, Li Cun often gives these R&D personnel ideas and directions, which can save them countless detours, who can not respect Li Cun?

Li Cun couldn't wait to say to Li Xiang: "Tell me about the performance of this gun?" ”

Li Xiang immediately said: "The effective range of this gun can reach 320 paces, and we have taken 100 musketeers who have been trained for 10 days to test, and beyond 300 paces, it can be 23 out of 10, 34 out of 10 in 200 steps, 56 out of 10 in 100 steps, 78 out of 10 in 50 steps, 89 out of 10 in 25 steps, and all in 10 steps......

Li Xiang also reported to Li Cun a lot of data on the flintlock pistol they developed.

Like a soldier who has been training for ten days, he can shoot three to four shots a minute - the main thing is that reloading is too time-consuming.

There are also flintlock pistols that can break leather armor within 250 steps, chain mail within 150 steps, and plate armor within 100 steps.

This statistic is not really an advantage over good archers.

If you look at the rate of fire alone, this flintlock pistol is not as fast as the rate of fire of a bow and arrow.

However, a good archer may take years or even more than ten years to develop.

And a gunner, it takes a few days of training before he can go to the battlefield with a gun.

In addition, the rate of fire is not good, and it can be compensated for tactically.

For example, Li Cun can make the soldiers armed with flintlock pistols line up in two rows, or even three rows, and then after the first row completes the salvo, the second row will fire a salvo, and then the third row will fire a salvo, and the soldiers who have finished shooting will retreat to the back and start loading ammunition, and the three rows of soldiers will take turns to fire, so that the rate of fire will definitely not be under the bow and arrow.

If the Daqian Dynasty, which had a population of hundreds of millions, could be equipped with a large number of such flintlock pistols, Li Cun was confident that it would sweep the grasslands in three years and the world in twenty years.

Soon, Li Cun saw the flintlock pistol developed by Qian Guifei, Li Xiang and others.

There are three types of this gun.

The first is an infantry type, with a butt 50 centimeters long, a barrel 85 centimeters long, and a one-foot-long bayonet specially explained by Li Cun.

The second is a short-barreled rifle type with a butt thirty-five centimeters long and a barrel seventy centimeters long, also equipped with a one-foot-long bayonet.

The third is the cavalry gun type, with a butt thirty-five centimeters long and a barrel fifty centimeters long, without a bayonet.

Li Cun made his own personal guards leaders Zhao Tietou (Zhao Han'er's second son) and Wu Gong (Wu Jue's eldest son. There is also a saying that Wu Gong was originally the concubine born to Wu Yan, the father of Wu Jue, and his maidservant, because Wu Ran was afraid of his wife Wu Jie and Wu Xuan's mother Liu, so he asked Wu Jie to raise Wu Gong as a son. ), Zhai Cong (son of Zhai Xing), Zhai Liang (son of Zhai Jin), Han Liang (eldest son of Han Shizhong), etc. to test the power of these three flintlock pistols.

Li Xiang personally told Zhao Tietou and others how to use the flintlock pistol.

Under Li Xiang's narration, the shooting steps include pouring the charge, charging, pressing the fire, loading, and shooting......

According to Li Xiang's guidance, Zhao Tietou and the others took out the paper shell bullet from the ammunition bag they had just carried on their backs, bit it open with their mouths, poured a part of the granular black powder on the primer plate, and then poured the remaining gunpowder and projectiles into the barrel together, and then used a bullet pusher to push the projectile into place.

Regardless of the tedious way of reloading, this is actually a huge improvement compared to history.

You must know that in history, the amount of gunpowder used in early muskets was not fixed at all, and the amount of gunpowder was all based on the experience of musketeers.

As a result, historically, early muskets were extremely prone to explode, and then wound or even kill musketeers, sometimes even their accomplices.

And this kind of paper bullet shell proposed by Li Cun, the ratio of gunpowder is the most scientific fixed amount, which can effectively avoid exploding.

Even the ammunition bag was brought up by Li Cun.

Each ammunition bag carries a paper bullet casing, that is, a paper tube containing fifty-three gunpowder - this number is stipulated by Li Cun according to the equipment of the Qi family army in history, don't ask Li Cun why it is fifty-three, Li Cun doesn't know the reason, he only knows that the Qi family army strictly abides by this number, there must be a reason.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

“……”

After Zhao Tietou and the others shot, Li Cun called them over and asked, "How is this gun?" ”

Zhao Tietou scratched his head and said, "There is no bow and arrow to use." ”

Although Zhao Tietou is similar to his father Zhao Han'er, they are not very smart, but Zhao Tietou, a child, has been fighting on the battlefield with Zhao Han'er since he was a child, and has always been the first to take the lead, the key Zhao Tietou is as loyal as his father Zhao Han'er, and it is the kind of Li Cun who told him to die, and he will not hesitate to die, so after Zhao Han'er's eldest son died in battle, Li Cun transferred Zhao Tietou to serve as the leader of his personal guard.

With the past few years of getting along, Li Cun has become more and more fond of this simple Zhao Tietou, and is ready to train him, so that he can take over his father's class in the future and become a general of the Daqian Dynasty.

Therefore, although Zhao Tietou did not answer the question, Li Cun still smiled and said: "That's Aiqing, you are used to bows and arrows." ”

Li Cun looked at the others again.

Wu Gong said: "This gun is easy to use, not like a bow and arrow, it needs to be practiced diligently, and it is not like a divine arm bow, one arrow is shot, it is difficult to shoot two or three arrows." ”

Li Cun nodded secretly: "Wu Gong is careful and has the style of a general. ”

Zhai Cong then said: "This gun has a longer range than a bow and crossbow, and can knock down the enemy at a distance of 300 paces, which should give our army an advantage at the beginning of the battle with the enemy." ”

Li Cun thought to himself: "Zhai Cong is not bad. ”

Subsequently, most of the other people who participated in the test shot gave the flintlock pistol a good evaluation.

Li Cun tried it himself, and felt that this kind of flintlock pistol could barely equip the army.

So, Li Cun asked Li Xiang: "How fast is this gun built?" ”

Li Xiang replied: "The production requirements for the barrel of this gun are extremely strict, the rifling is made on the fine iron first, and then rolled into two large and small iron pipes, with large bags and small ones, and then drilled into the barrel with a steel drill, and the skilled craftsman can only drill about one inch a day, and it can be completed in more than a month, so that the barrel made can be durable and durable, and will not explode when shooting......

Without waiting for Li Xiang to finish speaking, Li Cun understood that his dream of "sweeping the grassland in three years and the world in twenty years" could only be thought about before he found a way to mass-produce this flintlock pistol......

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