Looking at the 12-pound field bronze cannon in front of him, which symbolized the pinnacle of French muzzle-loading cannon, Jérôme Bonaparte's thoughts seemed to have suddenly returned to a summer in his previous life.
At that time, he was reading an online novel called "Lingao Qiming". Although he can't remember the content clearly now, the only thing that left an impression on him was the two "Lingao Five Hundred Baboons".
Weapons from the 19th century. With these two weapons, Five Hundred Baboons was a dimensionality reduction strike against the late Ming Dynasty.
It just stems from the continuous internal fighting since the birth of human beings. The importance of the internal line struggle of the "Five Hundred Baboons" is far greater than the external war.
Among these two weapons, one is the Minie gun currently in service in France, and the other is the product of the Napoleon Cannon placed in front of Jerome Bonaparte.
At that time, in order to satisfy his curiosity, he deliberately pulled the production drawings and firing videos of the Napoleon Cannon from the Internet.
Now, when the real object of the Napoleon Cannon was placed in front of him, Jérôme Bonaparte felt an inexplicable sense of trance in his heart.
Time has passed, and after all, there is still no going back.
Thinking of this, Jerome Bonaparte couldn't help but sigh.
Just when Jerome Bonaparte was seeing things and missing his "hometown", Vernia, who was standing aside, noticed something strange about Jerome Bonaparte. She called out to Jerome Bonaparte in a low voice:
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
The shouts brought Jérôme Bonaparte from his memories to reality. He showed an apologetic smile to the two slightly nervous artillerymen in front of him. Then he asked the people around him kindly: "Which of you can introduce it to me?
Touch this cannon?"
Basilio, who was standing behind Jerome Bonaparte, glanced at the team of field artillery engineers behind him, and used his eyes to signal one of the main design engineers to explain the structure of the new artillery.
The engineer who received the hint from Basilio's eyes immediately understood what he meant. He hurriedly stepped forward and bowed to Jérôme Bonaparte: "Your Majesty, let me introduce to you the structure of this artillery.
!”
"Are you its creator?" Jerome Bonaparte looked at the engineer in front of him up and down. Judging from his old face, straight figure, and the callus on the middle finger of his right hand, this engineer should have come from
People from the army.
"It's not just me!" The engineer smiled shyly and added: "There are more than ten people in our team, and they are all the creators of this cannon!"
"Okay! It's you!" Jérôme Bonaparte pointed at the engineer and said.
The engineer adjusted his condition and came to the 12-pound bronze cannon with a serious face. He stroked the bronze gun barrel and said: "This gun is a 12-pound field gun that we improved and designed based on the original 6-pound field gun. The diameter of the barrel is
The caliber is 114 mm, which is 21 mm larger than the 6-pound field gun (the caliber of the 6-pound bronze gun is 93 mm). The large-caliber barrel allows the entire gun to accommodate 12 pounds (5.44 kg) of heavy iron.
Making artillery shells.
Only 2.5 pounds (1.13 kilograms) of standard propellant is needed to launch a 12-pound shell at an extremely fast speed (439 meters/second). When the muzzle is at a shooting angle of 5 degrees from the horizontal plane, the precise distance
It is about 1,480 meters. When the muzzle is 10 degrees from the horizontal plane and the shooting supervision is carried out, the accurate shooting distance can reach about 1,880 meters."
"1880 meters!" Jérôme Bonaparte touched his chin while thinking about the data of the Napoleon cannon in his mind.
After a long time, Jerome Bonaparte spoke again: "As far as I know, the maximum range of the 6-pound field gun is only about 1,300 meters! Right!"
"That's right!" the engineer responded without hesitation: "And when it is about 200 meters away from the target, the power of the 6-pound field gun will decrease. Its power cannot even penetrate half a company column, and the 12-pound field gun
Enough to penetrate the entire company column at a distance of 550 meters!"
"What about the weight?" Jérôme Bonaparte asked again.
Faced with endless questions from Jérôme Bonaparte, the engineer had obviously made all the preparations: "In terms of weight, the total weight of the whole gun is 1109 kilograms. If you add five ammunition boxes on the trailer, it is about 1750 kilograms.
!Although it is much heavier than the previous six-pound cannon, it is also greatly strengthened. Furthermore, the weight of this field gun is much lighter than the cannon used for sieges!"
"Sounds good!" Jérôme Bonaparte responded, and then changed the subject: "However, after hearing so much you said here, I just want to know if it is possible to conduct a live-fire shooting! After all,
, what you hear with your ears may not always be true, it can only be true if you see it with your own eyes.”
"Of course!" the engineer replied without hesitation.
The reason why the artillery was moved to the shooting range today was not just to let the military people see if they were cheating. However, the arrival of the emperor forced the suspension of the live ammunition shooting that was going on.
Since the emperor said it could start, they no longer had to worry about other issues.
"Let's begin!" The engineer nodded to the two live-fire artillerymen beside him.
The two artillerymen immediately took action after receiving the engineer's order. One of the artillerymen took the worm placed next to the gun mount, and then pushed the worm deep into the muzzle to scrape out the debris left in the barrel from the previous shot.
After the skilled artilleryman scraped out the debris at a rapid speed, another artilleryman put a wet sponge into the gun chamber for a second cleaning. The wet sponge could clean out the hot debris that had not yet been removed by the worm. The two wet sponge cleanings were completed.
Afterwards, a standard propellant weighing 2.5 pounds was wrapped in a nylon bag and stuffed into the gun's bore.
Immediately afterwards, the heavy solid cannonball weighing 12 pounds was stuffed into the bore with difficulty.
Finally, use the guide rod to stuff the solid shell and standard propellant into the correct position of the gun body.
For a skilled artilleryman, the entire process only takes 30 seconds.
However, the two artillerymen took more than 40 seconds, and it was obvious that their skills were not up to par.
When everything was ready, the engineer turned to ask Jérôme Bonaparte if he wanted to take the shot himself.
Naturally, Jerome Bonaparte, who loved hot weapons, would not let go of this opportunity. He slowly let go of Vernia's hand and came to the front of the big Napoleon cannon.
"Your Majesty, you just need to pull here!" Since the big Napoleon cannon uses the principle of a pull cord design, while the small Napoleon cannon uses the principle of a lead wire, in order to prevent Jérôme Bonaparte from being embarrassed online, the engineer thoughtfully
He pointed at the drawstring of the Great Napoleon Cannon and said to Jérôme Bonaparte.
Jérôme Bonaparte gently grabbed the white pull rope and stood on the side of the Napoleon cannon. Jérôme Bonaparte was very clear about the recoil of the Napoleon cannon in front of him.
Then, Jérôme Bonaparte pulled hard.
Along with the roar like thunder, the muzzle of the big Napoleon cannon formed a circle of white smoke similar to a cone. This shape of smoke is exactly what can be produced when the cannon shell breaks through the sound barrier.
The solid artillery shell that broke through the sound barrier sprinted forward in an all-out manner, and 700 meters in front of it, there happened to be a group of dummies made of straw.
A few seconds later, the slightly weakened cannonball rushed into the pile of scarecrows like a tiger descending a mountain.
One, two, three... more than a dozen scarecrows were knocked down by the solid cannonballs at the first time. If all the cannonballs were converted into real people, the entire scene would be full of flesh and blood now.
The artillery shells that "knocked out" nearly a company column of scarecrow soldiers continued to fly, and then hit the forest behind the scarecrows.
A dull sound came from the forest nearly 1 kilometer away from Jérôme Bonaparte. The birds living in the woods took off quickly after being frightened, showing a scene of hundreds of birds galloping.
"Not bad!" Jérôme Bonaparte nodded with satisfaction, then turned around and asked Niel: "What do you think?"
"As far as the power of the artillery is concerned, it is indeed very good!" Niel was also very satisfied with the Napoleon cannon itself, and then he added: "It would be better if the price could be lowered a little!
"
"Huh? How much does this artillery cost?" Jérôme Bonaparte then realized that the price of this artillery was probably not cheap.
Just looking at the amount of bronze used in the cannon itself, we know that the total price quoted for a cannon plus the labor costs of the workers is likely to be more than 2,000 francs.
What is the concept of 2,000 francs? This is equivalent to the total annual expenses of a family of three workers in Paris!
"Our quotation is 2,500 francs!" The engineer told Jérôme Bonaparte the price.
Jérôme Bonaparte gasped after hearing the engineer's quotation.
At a price of 2,500 francs, this is equivalent to what two ordinary workers can earn in a year.
Now it takes two workers and one year's money to build such a cannon, which really makes Jérôme Bonaparte feel a little pained.
Moreover, it is not enough to buy just one artillery, but hundreds or thousands of them. Calculated, the initial cost of artillery and shells is at least 5 million francs.
"Can this... be a little cheaper?" Jérôme Bonaparte had no worries at all. This was his own company and he discussed it with the engineer openly.
The engineer looked at Basilio helplessly, he really didn't know what to say.
Basilio, who was standing at the back, walked to the front and said to Jérôme Bonaparte: "Your Majesty, 2,500 francs is already the best price we have given the military! If we engage in foreign trade, an artillery piece like this
At least 3,000 francs are needed."
"Is there really no way to get it cheaper?" Jérôme Bonaparte asked again.
"Let's do this!" Basilio said to Jérôme Bonaparte as if he had made a great decision: "2,400 francs per cannon, no less! This is already a small profit but a quick turnover!"