As soon as Lu Xiangsheng and Yan Yingyuan heard about Zhong Jinwei's mention of artillery training, they stopped and looked at each other, looking quite helpless.
Zhong Jinwei had just taken a few steps and found that they were not following him. He turned around and asked, "Why, did I go wrong? It's your camp's turn to lead the way."
As the owner of the camp, Lu Xiangsheng had to say: "Supervisor, there is no need to watch the artillery training."
"What? Didn't Mr. Sun set the artillery and artillery for you to practice?" Zhong Jinwei asked in surprise when he heard this. He clearly remembered that Sun Chengzong promised to set the artillery and artillery for Lu Xiangsheng.
"The supervisors have misunderstood. Mr. Sun has provided firearms for the lower officials. There are one imitation Buddha machine, one prisoner-killing cannon, and ten blunderbuss." When Lu Xiangsheng saw that Zhong Jinwei had misunderstood, he quickly explained.
"Oh, then why do you say you can't watch artillery training?" After hearing Lu Xiangsheng's explanation, Zhong Jinwei didn't understand what he meant by what he said before.
"On the second day after supervising the army, the subordinates received firearms and let the soldiers train, the cannon exploded, killing two people. Fo Langji also had a gas problem, one was burned, and a few days later he was injured.
He died from the heavy weight. Two of the muskets also exploded, one was injured and the other was killed. Therefore, no one dared to use it."
Lu Xiangsheng explained with a wry smile. Yan Yingyuan next to him also nodded repeatedly. He was almost injured. The scene of the sudden explosion left a deep impression on him to this day.
"What, the quality of these firearms is so poor? No, I'll talk to Old Man Sun to reason with him." Zhong Jinwei was shocked when he heard this. He felt a little angry that Sun Chengzong treated him so perfunctorily. He raised his legs and prepared to walk back to find Sun Chengzong.
When Lu Xiangsheng saw it, he quickly blocked Zhong Jinwei's path and said to him: "Supervisor, this matter has nothing to do with my soldiers."
Zhong Jinwei looked at Lu Xiangsheng for a while, remained silent for a moment, and then said: "Are you trying to excuse him? He obviously promised me to give you this firearm."
Lu Xiangsheng shook his head and explained: "The supervisor had a misunderstanding. The quality of Daming firearms has never been good, and explosions occurred from time to time. Moreover, these firearms were squeezed out by our own soldiers who went to the commander-in-chief of each department, and others did not
Maybe they gave us the best quality firearms on hand. In addition, there is also the reason why the sergeant of Xiaguan camp did not work properly."
When Zhong Jinwei heard what he said, it seemed that the quality of Xindao Daming's firearms was well-deserved. He was a little curious about how bad the quality was, so he asked: "Where are the remaining firearms?"
Firearms were in the charge of Yan Yingyuan, so when Zhong Jinwei asked, he replied: "They are all piled in the tent."
"Let's go, take me to see the firearms." Zhong Jinwei said.
Yan Yingyuan nodded and led the way, while Lu Xiangsheng walked behind with Zhong Jinwei to the tent where the firearms were stored.
The light in the camp was not very good, so Zhong Jinwei asked Gu Baichuan and others to help him move the firearms outside, then picked up a gun and started looking at it.
In later generations, except for handling real guns during military training, he never had any contact with real guns. Therefore, Zhong Jinwei looked at the gun carefully.
This blunderbuss gun is about 1.5 meters long and weighs about seven or eight kilograms. There is an iron bar under the barrel, a flintlock device, a front sight, and a rear sight. It is a matchlock gun.
Zhong Jinwei played with the blunderbuss in the same posture as before with a gun aimed at the ground, and then asked the person next to him: "Who knows how to play this thing? Demonstrate it to me."
As soon as Yan Yingyuan heard this, he approached Zhong Jinwei, took the blunderbuss from his hand, and then went to find the matching gunpowder, lead, and match rope, and showed Zhong Jinwei the shooting process of the blunderbuss.
Before the demonstration, Yan Yingyuan pointed to the relevant parts of the gun and said to Zhong Jinwei: "When using a musket on the battlefield, the first step is to clean the detonator and the detonator, which is here. Because the gunpowder residue will block the defuse, so this
This is the most common problem with bird guns. This is my first time using a gun, so this step is omitted."
Zhong Jinwei nodded and said, "Okay, what next?"
Yan Yingyuan poured the gunpowder he just found into the primer pot and closed the lid of the primer pot. At the same time, he introduced: "There are several types of gunpowder, including primers, explosives, and explosives. The formulas are
They are all different. What the common people used just now is to introduce medicine."[
Because Yan Yingyuan had no official position, he called himself a grassroots citizen on this formal occasion.
His demonstration was relatively slow, so there was no need to worry about Zhong Jinwei not being able to see clearly.
After completing this step, he took out another bag of gunpowder, then put down the blunderbuss, with the mouth of the blunderbuss facing upwards. He used a small container in the bag to take out a spoonful of gunpowder, then poured it into the blunderbuss tube, while continuing to introduce:
"This is a medicine for dispensing medicine. It has a fixed capacity, about one cent and two. After pouring it in, the lead is inserted."
After Yan Yingyuan finished speaking, he found lead and inserted it through the mouth of the gun. He then pulled out the purge bar under the barrel and began to insert the barrel. While pounding the pills and dispensing the gunpowder, he wanted to speak again.
Zhong Jinwei interrupted him and said, "I know this. It needs to be done firmly. You don't need to tell me, just continue."
Yan Yingyuan saw that Zhong Jinwei knew about it, so he saved the trouble, took out the match rope, fixed it on the match rope clip, and then said: "If you need to shoot, you need to light the match rope now. The lid of the primer pot is closed.
So you don’t have to worry about accidents caused by sparks from the match rope igniting the ignition powder.”
After Yan Yingyuan finished speaking, he picked up the gun, made an aiming position, pointed it at an open space, and pulled the trigger.
Zhong Jinwei saw that the lid of the primer pot was opened at the same time as the match rope fell. It can be imagined that the head of the match rope lit the primer and then lit the primer again, and the pill was fired.
At this time, Yan Yingyuan introduced again: "In order to prevent the eyes from being burned by gunpowder and the glare of the fire, your eyes should be closed at the last moment of the shooting."
Zhong Jinwei watched Yan Yingyuan talking and doing, and couldn't help but said: "There are so many and complicated steps. Doesn't it take a long time to shoot?"
Yan Yingyuan smiled and replied: "Dashuai Qi divided this step into ten processes. After training and proficiency, a word will not exceed thirty rounds."
Zhong Jinwei stayed in Guangdong in later generations, so he was not unfamiliar with a word Yan Yingyuan said, which means ten minutes. In total, a skilled shooter only shoots two to three times a minute. This speed seemed to Zhong Jinwei in later generations.
, it’s really too slow.
He thought for a moment and then said: "Let me sum up now, are the shortcomings of this gun the following? First, the operation is too complicated and it is easy to make mistakes during war."
"Second, it cannot be used on rainy days or if there is too much fog."
"Third, shooting with eyes closed is probably not allowed."
Yan Yingyuan nodded and said: "What the supervisor said is pretty much the same. There are also two shortcomings."
"Oh, what's the shortcoming?" Zhong Jinwei asked.
Yan Yingyuan put the bird gun in his hand on the ground, held the head of the gun and said: "First, the match rope lights the gun, which easily exposes the target at night. The Battle of Sarhu suffered from this disadvantage."
"Second, the effective range of the musket is not far, only about eighty steps."
At this time, Lu Xiangsheng suddenly intervened and said: "The supervisor, I think the biggest shortcoming is that it is easy to explode."
Zhong Jinwei stretched out his hand to take the gun in Yan Yingyuan's hand. While looking at it, he asked Lu Xiangsheng: "Don't you know how to improve the quality of this gun?"
Lu Xiangsheng shook his head slightly and sighed: "It's still a question of money. During the Jiajing period, gunshots were made of jng iron. It took ten kilograms of crude iron to make one kilogram of jng iron, so it was made of jng iron."
The finished blunderbuss tube is strong and durable and will not explode when fired. But the current bird blunderbuss"[
Zhong Jinwei knew that Lu Xiangsheng didn't mean to say anything. He looked at the gun in his hand, threw it to Gu Baichuan who was standing next to him, and asked: "Then what is your attitude towards the gun?"
Lu Xiangsheng and Yan Yingyuan looked at each other, and then Lu Xiangsheng replied: "Jianjun, if the gun is still of this quality, I would rather use a crossbow than this bird gun. But if it is a bird gun made of jng iron, then use
Bird gun."
"Then have you ever thought about improving this gun yourself?" Zhong Jinwei suddenly asked a question that surprised the people around him.
Yan Yingyuan thought that improving the muskets was not a matter of the military affairs department. Why did his brother-in-law ask about us? He tried to ask: "The supervisor wants us to make the muskets ourselves?"
"Oh, I don't quite understand what I said. First, you can ask the war bureau to improve its shortcomings based on the experience of using the blunderbuss. Second, you can try to improve the use of the blunderbuss. Instead of just saying that the blunderbuss is not good,
I'll use crossbows instead." Zhong Jinwei said and started pretending to be a master again.