At the foot of A-Ma Hill in the southwest corner of Macao is a newly encircled camp, with several warehouses converted into military camps, occupying a good piece of land under the mountain.

This is the station of the Ferreira battalion, and since Guangdong mobilized various forces to suppress the four pirates, the Macau parliament has also been asked to form an armed force to support.

Ferreira, a Chinese believer who believes in Catholicism, relied on his prestige as a thief hunter in Macao for many years, recruited idle mercenaries and a small number of Portuguese soldiers to form a Ferreira battalion of 300 people, all equipped with arquebuses, half-body armor and waist knives, and its strength should not be underestimated.

It's just that the Ferreira battalion occupied a large area of land as a military camp at the beginning, not to mention 300 people, 1,000 people were also stationed here, during which a lot of houses were built in the camp, most of which came from the Oriental Trading Company, and the army of the Trading Company came to suppress the thieves and was stationed here according to the plan, so as not to disturb the people in the city.

At the shooting range of the barracks, Li Zhaoji sat under the pergola, fiddling with several guns, flintlock pistols and arquebuses, flintlock pistols with reed wheel flintlock pistols, and dog-lock styles, all of which were purchased from merchants without exception.

"According to Lord Shi Luobao's intentions, this time to exterminate the four surnames, our Ferreira battalion and the other armed forces of the Macau Council are under your command. Nominally, of course, the Governor is our supreme commander. Ferreira said as he helped Li Zhaoji reload his bullets.

Li Zhaoji said: "I understand, you want me to be a bad guy and go to the governor to help you fight for your interests, so as not to become cannon fodder." ”

"Only you can fight for a reasonable position for us. The gentlemen of the Council are convinced of this, and they believe that you are willing to do the same. Ferreira said.

The status of the Oriental Trading Company in Macau is very different from what it used to be.

When the ship of the Oriental Trading Company first came to Macao, it was coveted by the Portuguese, and Ferreira also carried out the task of capturing Li Zhaoji, but the power of the Oriental Trading Company was expanding rapidly, especially since it had an ocean-going fleet and was willing to trade with Portuguese merchants, and the former threat had become the most honored guest of Macau.

Macau's development now depends entirely on friendly relations with the Oriental Trading Company, which helped restore trade with Manila, and the silver from there breathed new life into the port, which had come to a standstill.

And this time to exterminate the four surnamed pirates, because of the existence of the Oriental Trading Company, the power of the Macau Council is regarded as dispensable, but the Oriental Trading Company wants to enter the Pearl River Estuary, and anyone with a discerning eye will see it. And when that time comes, Macau's status will change again.

The Portuguese could not accept the loss of Macao's monopoly position, but the strength of the Oriental Trading Company was there, and they could do nothing but gain a favorable position in the future new order of Guangdong through friendship and submission.

Li Zhaoji smiled, took the arquebus that was cleared by Ferreira, bit open the ammunition ordered by the paper shell, and poured the gunpowder into it first, but the front end of this ammunition was different, not only wrapped in a lead bullet, but before the lead bullet, there was another section, which was filled with three small lead bullets, that is, deer bullets.

Such a large and three small configuration was the ammunition mode of the flintlock era, which played an important role for the British in the future North American theater.

Smoothbore guns have a very low hit rate, but no one stipulates that a smoothbore gun can only be loaded with one ammunition, and a spherical projectile plus three small lead bullets is the best configuration, which is very suitable for pirates with very low armor rate.

At Li Zhaoji's side, five of his entourage were shooting, and each fired ten shots, using this new type of ammunition.

"Big shopkeeper, it's time to report the target." A retinue walked over and said.

Li Zhaoji nodded, and soon someone ran over with a few targets, which were half-length targets, a round wooden board with a diameter of about twenty-five centimeters, and a layer of target paper pasted on it.

Li Zhaoji looked at the five targets, which had holes of different sizes, densely packed, and he asked his relatives to count the targets separately, two for each person, but not his own.

In the end, the results came out, and out of fifty shots, 37 single-headed lead bullets were hit, and 79 shots were shot, and the target was 55 paces from the firing point, that is, about 90 meters. In other words, in the experimental environment, the hit rate has exceeded 23 percent.

Of course, this is the environment of the test firing, the test firing personnel are accustomed to muskets, and the weather is good, it will not be carried out under the smoke of gunpowder, and there will be no attacks from various weapons. But it has been proven that this combination of ammunition can really be very effective in increasing the hit rate.

"Put the target at a distance of 110 paces, shoot 10 shots each, and send the result." Li Zhaoji said to his personal orders.

With the sound of ping-pong musket firing, at a distance of one hundred and ten paces, that is, one hundred and eighty meters, under ideal conditions, a smoothbore gun with double ammunition could hit close to 100 percent.

"Ferreira, you can tell the Macau Council that our friendship lasts forever. As they feared, after the extermination of the four surnames this time, I will do everything I can to control the Yuehai, especially the Pearl River Estuary, and they will lose the monopoly power.

But you also tell them that don't just keep their eyes on this part of Macau, the world is very big, and if you join me, even if you only have a small piece of cake, it can be bigger than the cake you once enjoyed. Li Zhaoji said with a smile.

Ferreira nodded, and from a distance, he saw Tang Mu coming over with a few people and carrying things, got up and said, "Your promise is of great significance to the council, I will convey your kindness, and I won't bother you now." ”

After Ferreira left, Tang Mu came to Li Zhaoji's side, he put a sewing machine-like thing in front of Li Zhaoji, and there was a carpenter, standing aside with a smile, his face was full of pride, and his hand was on the thing.

On the way here, he asked the carpenters on the Dongfang to make one, and its principle is very simple, that is, to use the foot to pedal to promote the rotation of the iron shaft, this thing is not uncommon in this era, after all, whether it is a cannon barrel cast or a barrel made of coiled iron, a boring machine is needed to polish the inside.

In the arsenal of the trading company, there were hydraulic boring machines and manual boring machines, but the manual boring machines were hand-cranked, which was relatively inefficient, and Lee Zhaoji asked the craftsmen to change to foot-pedaling.

The lathe in front of me is an Iowa rifling machine that has been changed from an ordinary lathe, except for the cutter head is steel, the rest are all wood, which is used to process rifling.

For a skilled carpenter, Lee Siu Kee only explained the principle, and then explained the structure in general, and the carpenter built it, after all, this thing is too simple.

The gunsmiths and carpenters who accompanied the ship produced the first rifled guns of the trading company, of course, the so-called first rifled guns were made of a ready-made arquebus, and four rifling wires were pulled by a foot rifling machine.

The clamping pliers should not only process the strange shape of the Minne bullet, but also have considerable precision, Li Zhaoji's requirement is that if you roll three layers of paper on the bullet, it will not fall into the chamber of the gun, and the two layers of paper can be easily advanced with a push lever, and the roll of one layer of paper can fall into it freely.

Therefore, the clipper went through a long process and polishing to meet this requirement, and the Mingé bullet produced by it was only used for this rifle, so it was marked with a number on the rifle and the clipper.

"Big shopkeeper, every bullet has been tested and meets your standards." The carpenter said earnestly.

Li Zhaoji nodded slightly, and said to Tang Mu: "Let someone give me a half-length target ........ two hundred steps away." ”

Tang Mu was just about to give an order, but Li Zhaoji remembered something, he patted his head: "Forget it, it's still one hundred and ten steps." ”

Although theoretically, the effective range of the Minne rifle is more than 900 meters, and the accurate range is more than 500 meters, but it requires a ruler to shoot, and now the ruler does not exist, so Li Zhaoji can only hit relatively close targets, and he can grope for it.

Li Zhaoji specially arranged a bracket so that he could aim while sitting, and he personally loaded the ammunition, because the diameter of the projectile of the Minne bullet was smaller than the inner diameter, so the loading of the projectile was very smooth.

He aimed at the target one hundred and eighty meters away, the muzzle of the gun was slightly raised, and after pulling the trigger, the fire rope ignited the primer in the medicine nest, and then the gunpowder was ignited, and a bullet flew out, and the target was seen moving from a distance, and then a snapping sound came from a distance.

"Hit, big shopkeeper, a little up, about this position." Tang Mu looked at it with a telescope and clicked on the target on the side.

Li Zhaoji nodded, cleaned the chamber of the gun, and began to load the second bullet, but the accident happened, as soon as the gunpowder was poured in, there was a bang, and a cloud of white smoke erupted.

"Bastard thing, dare to do tricks in ammunition." Tang Mu pulled out his knife and pounced on the gunsmith and carpenter.

"It's none of their business." Li Zhaoji coughed and stopped Tang Mu.

He cleaned it on the side to make sure that he was not injured, and asked Tang Mu to bring white paper and pour out the cooled residue in the chamber.

In the black gunpowder residue, there were some metal shavings, Li Zhaoji picked them out with a branch, and Tang Mu asked: "Big shopkeeper, what is this, is gunpowder being manipulated?" ”

Li Zhaoji shook his head: "This is lead filings, this kind of tail expansion bullet, is the gunpowder impact on the tail of the wooden stopper, so that the butt of the bullet opens, the body of the bullet is embedded in the rifling, and begins to rotate, using this rotation to ensure that the bullet will not move in the chamber of the gun at the same time, so that the flight is more stable, just like the archer, will make the tail feathers of the arrow angle, the arrow is more accurate."

But because the bullet was embedded in the chamber, the lead was soft and the wrought iron barrel was hard, so the lead hung occurred.

The lead rubbed against it, it was hot, and ignited the gunpowder for the second reload. Luckily, I didn't pour much into it, and I reacted a little faster. ”

As he spoke, Li Zhaoji picked up the musket, cleaned the chamber with a brush, and then poured out the remaining lead.

Li Zhaoji took out another round of ammunition from the bullet box and said, "One more round." ”

Tang Mu hurriedly snatched the gun over and said, "Big shopkeeper, let's do it with me." ”

"Bring some oil." Li Zhaoji commanded.

This time, before loading the bullet, Li Zhaoji smeared some solid oil on the grooves and body of the Mingne bullet before loading it.

Because it was a verification of hanging lead, Tang Mu aimed at random, fired a shot, but also hit, but it was a little lower.

After cooling down again, Tang Mu carefully cleaned it with a brush, and poured out the residue inside, and found that there were still lead filings, but this time there were a lot less.

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