When Su He received the news, he rushed to the firearms design institute as soon as possible.
He looked at the drizzle falling outside. It was already January 18th, Kaiyuan 4331 (the seventh year of Chongzhen).
The Lantern Festival has just passed, officials have resumed normal work, and factory workers have also returned to work.
But the flavor of the year still hasn’t dissipated.
Lu Minghua only stayed in the hospital for three days. He immediately devoted himself to developing the mass production technology of mercury fulminate after he was discharged.
On New Year's Eve, Su He was awarding medals to the officers who had returned to Hanzhong for the festival.
He received news of the successful mass production of mercury fulminate.
Su He immediately asked the craftsmen of the firearms design institute to design bullets based on the properties of mercury fulminate.
Firearms design institutes have designed a variety of breech-loading guns that use bullets.
They will make final improvements to the breech-loading gun based on the characteristics of the final mass-produced bullet so that it can adapt to this bullet.
Now it is easy for them to make firearms, but difficult to make bullets.
The firearm must be adapted to the bullet, such as the caliber and size of the bullet.
Su He took a carriage on the way to the firearms design institute.
He saw a huge tall building built next to the ancestral temple, with twelve numbers and two hands on it, one long and one short.
When he passed by a high-rise building, a loud bang and a loud ringing of bells spread throughout half of the city.
This is the newly built bell tower to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
The principle of the clock is very simple, it is the pendulum principle.
The lengths of the pendulum ropes are the same, and the time required for one cycle is the same.
After the emergence of the steam engine, mechanical processing progressed.
A steam engine blew hot air into the steel-making furnace. The temperature of the steel-making furnace was greatly improved, and alloy steel also ushered in great development.
High-quality springs are produced by craftsmen.
Breakthroughs were made in both principle and mechanical processing, and a huge bell tower was designed and constructed quickly.
It can provide accurate time to the people of the whole city.
The bronze bell on the bell tower only rings during the day.
Now the craftsmen are designing a clock, the kind that can keep time by itself by tightening the spring.
Small timepieces like pocket watches cannot be manufactured with current machining technology.
Su He came to the Firearms Design Institute. There were many signs hanging outside his door, next to the arsenal.
Du Kangjie, director of the firearms design institute, and several craftsmen stood at the door to greet him.
Su He looked at Du Kangjie, who was in his forties and already had gray hair. He couldn't bear it. Du Kangjie had been too tired during this time.
Du Kangjie is not only responsible for the processing of steam engine cylinders and gaskets.
He also wants to design a variety of firearms based on the ideas given by Su He.
Each type of firearm is developed by specialized craftsmen.
Du Kangjie is the general person in charge and has a lot of work to do.
But now there is no way, there are too few talents, so we can only let some talents take on multiple positions.
After Du Kangjie led the craftsmen to salute Su He, he introduced several people around him to Su He.
Du Kangjie pointed at the 1.9-meter-tall strong man.
"This is Lu Dayang, a craftsman who develops bullets and cannonballs."
Then he pointed to the tall, thin man with a Chinese character face next to him.
"This is Ji Bao, the craftsman who developed the breech-loading gun."
Du Kangjie pointed to the only woman among the crowd.
"This is Liu Xiaohe, the craftsman who developed the pistol."
Du Kangjie finally pointed to the short, fat man in the crowd.
"This is Lin Jia, the craftsman who developed the machine gun."
When Su He heard Du Kangjie's words, he asked in surprise: "The machine gun has been designed."
Su He knew that metal bullets had appeared, and the machine gun would not be too far away.
Even the most basic machine gun can cause a lot of damage to nomads.
They can only sing and dance and be good herdsmen.
Artillery is the king of war, but in the history of war, the most lethal weapon is the machine gun.
Du Kangjie signaled Lin Jia to answer this question.
Lin Jia replied excitedly: "His Royal Highness King Qin, you were talking about the kind of machine gun that automatically loads and fires, the kind of machine gun called Maxim.
I'm not good enough to develop it.
But based on your ideas, I developed a hand-operated multi-barreled machine gun.
It can fire at a rate of three hundred rounds per minute."
Su He said with satisfaction: "A machine gun with a firing rate of 300 fires per minute is a very good machine gun, enough for current use."
Du Kangjie led Su He into the firearms design institute.
Su He ordered Qin Shanshui: "The guard group took over the shooting range and arranged the shooting range.
You test newly developed firearms.
I want to see live firing of these firearms in a moment."
Qin Shanshui gave a military salute and led a part of the security team to take over the shooting range of the firearms design institute.
Leave some guards behind to protect the safety of Suhe.
Du Kangjie took Su He to a small-scale factory.
Workers are using machines to process golden bullets one by one.
Su He looked at the bullet. Its structure was basically the same as that of later generations of bullets. The structure of the warhead was the biggest difference. They could only make it arc-shaped.
These bullets were much thicker than later generations of bullets.
The propellant they use now is still black powder.
If the bullet wants to achieve a longer shooting distance, the amount of gunpowder can only be increased.
As a result, the bullet looks very thick, but its power will be much worse than that of later generations of bullets.
Lu Dayang selected the finished bullets and many bullet accessories.
They came to Lu Dayang's office together.
Du Kangjie introduced to Su He on the road: "His Royal Highness King Qin, you also saw what happened just now.
Our bullets can be mass-produced, but they are a bit expensive.
The cost of making this kind of bullet now is 20 copper coins.
If the output can reach one million, the manufacturing cost of each bullet is about 15 copper coins.
One silver coin can buy 50 bullets, which are much more expensive than the previous lead bullets. If the bullets are too expensive, we also have paper bullets as an alternative."
Su He said with a smile: "I'm not afraid that bullets are expensive, but I'm afraid that they won't work well.
Even if it's one silver coin or one bullet, as long as it can kill the enemy, it's worth it."
Su He knew that the cost of every war with the firearms army was very high.
To fight with cold weapons, you only need to issue a steel knife to the soldiers, and the cost is very low.
In hot weapon warfare, every bullet is money.
What we are fighting for is our industrial heritage, and what we are fighting for is money.
Without the corresponding industrial strength and money, it is simply impossible to use firearms on a large scale.
This is why Su He was not too worried when he saw the Ming Dynasty building cannons and muskets.
The Ming court could afford to build muskets and cannons, but they couldn't use them.
Another important feature of industrialization is that the more things are manufactured, the more it can spread the costs evenly.
The number of bullets produced is not millions, but at least hundreds of millions of bullets.
The cost of manufacturing a bullet of this scale has dropped rapidly, to about 10 copper coins, which is close to the material cost.
Du Kangjie looked at Lu Dayang and said, "Dayang, tell His Highness the King of Qin about your process of developing bullets."
Lu Dayang's story was stumbling and he was a little nervous.
He spoke for a while and his words became clearer.
Su He listened carefully and understood the process of making bullets.
After acquiring the mercury fulminate, the firearms design institute immediately began developing bullets.
Among them, Lu Dayang, the craftsman who designed the explosive bomb, made the fastest progress.
He first designed a paper shell bullet, and the projectile part was a cardboard shell made of salt.
The warhead is the same lead as other conventional ammunition.
Install a flash cap behind the paper case and it becomes a fixed paper case ammunition.
Lu Dayang developed the metal bullets Su He saw based on technological improvements based on open-ended bullets and paper-cased ammunition.
This kind of metal bullet has a pure copper egg head, a brass egg shell, and a flash cap installed behind the projectile body.
The bullet diameter is 18 mm and the length is 90 mm.
Su He heard Lu Dayang talking about paper shells, and he asked Lu Dayang:
"I saw that you developed paper-cased bullets in the early stage. What made you develop metal bullets again."
When Lu Dayang heard Su He's question, he thought Su He disliked metal bullets.
He replied fearfully: "Your Highness, King Qin, don't look at the fact that paper-cased bullets are cheaper.
Comprehensive performance, it is not as good as metal bullets.
Paper-cased bullets are made of hard paper made of nitrate, which can burn directly in the barrel of the gun.
After this kind of bullet burns, there will be a lot of burning ashes of paper and gunpowder remaining in the barrel of the gun.
After firing a gun more than ten times, the barrel must be cleaned, otherwise the paper-cased bullets will jam easily.
This is a very fatal danger in a tense battlefield.
The airtightness of paper-cased bullets cannot be guaranteed, and the bullet's rate of fire and power cannot be compared with metal bullets.
The most critical issue is the cost of bullets. Paper-cased bullets only have better superficial data.
Paper-cased bullets are easily affected by moisture, and once they become damp, the airtightness of the bullets cannot be guaranteed.
It is difficult to store, which increases the cost.
In addition to being difficult to preserve, paper-cased bullets are also difficult to process.
Metal bullets can be processed quickly through molds, while paper bullets can only be rolled manually.
The tolerances of metal bullets are very small, and each bullet is different.
The cost of paper bullets is very low, about two or three bullets for one copper coin.
But metal bullets can recycle the shells, and good quality shells can be reloaded.
For cartridge cases that cannot be reloaded, the smelter can also remelt them with recycled metal.
In addition to cost, technological progress must also be considered.
The technology of paper bullets has reached its peak unless the material of paper is replaced.
There is still more room for improvement in metal bullets.
The brass material of the cartridge case has mature technology and can be replaced with cheaper steel.
Metal bullets are modularly manufactured, and the bullet's warhead and primer can be freely replaced."
Su He looked at Lu Dayang's introduction to the method, and saw the advantages of metal bullets over paper bullets.
He smiled and said: "Gong Lu, I can also see that metal bullets are the more advanced technology.
But I think metal bullets are very difficult to process. It is a great breakthrough that Lugong can develop metal bullets.
How did Lu Gong come up with the idea of developing metal bullets?"
When Lu Dayang heard Su He's words, the tension in his heart gradually disappeared.
"Your Highness King Qin, when I first developed the paper-cased bullet, I found that it had many problems.
Air tightness is the most fatal problem.
Artillery cannot yet use paper shells as explosive shells.
Metal bullets are too difficult to process, so I developed the paper bullet technology.
So I started working on improving the previous blooming ammunition.
The shells form a whole to increase air tightness.
The ignition method of the artillery shell was also replaced by a flash cap.
In order to process more advanced artillery shells, we work with craftsmen from machine factories and arsenals.
Master Tian Jiapeng also participated in the research and development of machinery for processing artillery shells.
These machines were successfully developed and processed qualified artillery shells.
I was wondering at the time whether these machines could process smaller cannonballs.
As long as the cannonball is shrunk to a certain extent and replaced with a fixed warhead, it becomes a bullet.
Through the efforts of myself and many craftsmen, qualified metal bullets were processed.
But due to the accuracy of the machine, the minimum diameter of the bullet also needs to reach 18 millimeters."
Su He heard Lu Dayang's narration and he knew the origin of the metal bullet.
The original blooming bullet was designed by him based on the cluster bullets of the Furlong machine gun and later generations of artillery shells.
Lu Dayang used this design to develop metal bullets. This is a normal phenomenon.
He not only develops bullets, but also artillery shells, which is a normal phenomenon.
Nowadays, the craftsmen of the Prince of Qin's Palace, talented people like them, all have multiple jobs.
The firearms design institute is also a department with multiple brands.
It is a firearms design institute, an artillery design institute, and an ammunition design institute...
All firearms in the Qin Palace are designed here.
After the talent cultivation was mature, this department needed to be divided into different branches, so Su He asked this department to create many brands.
"Go and see if the shooting range is ready?" Su He asked the guard beside him.
He continued to follow Du Kangjie and others to visit the firearms design institute.
The guard returned soon and reported: "Your Highness, King Qin, the shooting range has not been set up yet."
When Su He heard that the shooting range was not well laid out, he turned to look at Du Kangjie and said, "Director Du, how is the design of the breech-loading gun?"
Du Kangjie said confidently: "Your Highness, King Qin, the breech-loaded cannon is larger and better designed.
Just add the breech block structure and improve the firing mechanism.
Three types of cannon have been designed, and they are just mature models used in the army with breech-loading improvements."
Su Ho, led by Du Kangjie and others, came to the room where the cannons were displayed.
Lu Dayang pointed to various types of artillery shells next to him.
"Your Highness the King of Qin, these are the artillery shells I developed. They are all explosive shells.
The collision fuse inside the projectile warhead has also been improved.
Change it to a thunder mercury impact fuse and use the inertia principle.
When the cannon is fired, it is subject to inertial force, and the firing pin and the mercury fulminate move in opposite directions.
No matter how fast the cannonball is fired, it will not explode.
When the cannonball stops moving, the firing pin is subject to inertia and immediately overcomes the force of the spring and hits the fulminant.
The probability of a dud in current artillery shells is less than one percent."
Lu Dayang pointed to a small screw structure in front of the cannonball.
"His Royal Highness King Qin, in order to prevent the occurrence, the artillery shells exploded during transportation.
We also want to ease the process of using artillery shells.
There is no need for craftsmen to assemble the fuze on site, we set up a safety for the shell.
As long as this screw is on the shell, it will hold the firing pin inside the shell.
As long as the shell does not explode, re-tightening the screw will also fix the firing pin inside the shell.
This way the cannonballs won't be afraid of the bumps in transportation."
Su He looked at these shells and was very satisfied. These are more practical shells.
Du Kangjie introduced these three types of cannon to Su He.
"These three types of cannons are all Type 31 cannons.
75mm caliber infantry gun, 110mm caliber field gun.
The current 110mm caliber artillery shells are more powerful than the original 150mm caliber artillery shells.
Using these two cannons is enough to suppress the enemy.
For the 150mm caliber cannon, we use different barrel lengths according to its different uses.
This kind of cannon is inconvenient to transport, and there is no way to quickly follow the army.
Mainly used as fortress guns and naval guns."
Su He listened to Du Kangjie's introduction. The current 110 mm caliber artillery shells are stronger than the previous 150 mm caliber artillery shells.
There is only one possibility: the gunpowder in the shell has been changed.
Su He asked in surprise: "Niu Ben got out the yellow explosives."
Yellow explosive is nitroglycerin, which is an excellent drug for treating heart disease and a powerful explosive.
The soap industry produces large amounts of glycerin, plus nitric acid.
With all the raw materials available, it was only a matter of time before yellow explosives were developed.
"His Royal Highness King Qin, you guessed it right away.
The yellow explosive is not stable yet, and Director Niu is looking for ways to stabilize it.
He said that after he finds a way, he will take out the most perfect yellow ammunition and report the results to you."
Su He immediately took out a pen and paper from his pocket and wrote on it: "Diatomaceous earth is used as a stabilizer for yellow explosives."
He called the guard and asked him to give the paper to Niu Ben immediately.