Chapter 2718 The first test of the flying thunder gun during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty
When Cheng Sanlang and the others rushed to Luoshui Bank at night, Li Ke, His Highness the King of Wu, who loved to watch the excitement, naturally jumped over.
Arriving at the bank of Luoshui, which is about ten miles away from Chengjiazhuang, Luoshui is very peaceful at night.
The torches illuminated the open space on the river bank very brightly, and Cheng Sanlang began to direct his men to dig holes on the river bank.
There are even strict requirements that the angle must be 45 degrees, and the depth of the soil hole must be enough to allow at least half of the metal barrel to be buried in the soil.
As for why this is done, it is very simple. The fixed angle facilitates later ballistic calculations.
As for why at least half of the barrel should be buried underground, it's because Cheng Sanlang doesn't know whether this thing is safe or not.
He only knew about such a gunpowder projectile in museums and on the Internet. Moreover, neither the propellant nor the explosive packets were the standards of later generations.
So he didn't know what to do. If it exploded directly in the barrel, wouldn't he die before he got out of the battle?
Think about it, I'm eighty... Oh no, there are seniors and juniors, so you can't just throw yourself into it just to make some new inventions.
There was excavation over there, and Cheng Sanlang was watching the Cheng family carefully remove the propellants and explosive packets.
For the sake of insurance and safety, Cheng Chubi ultimately did not choose nitrocellulose as the propellant, but instead used black powder as the propellant.
As for the explosive package, it is of course passivated nitrated explosives. Considering that what we have to deal with tomorrow is one of the strongest cities in the world, not pre-planted explosives.
Cheng Chubi gritted his teeth, stamped his feet, and added some white sugar as sweet as honey to the nitrate explosive.
I remember when I was a kid, I got tired of blowing up cow dung with firecrackers, so I wanted to blow up fish ponds, but I soon found that the power was not enough, so I added sugar. This is a veteran who only sets off firecrackers, and has an outrageous amount of experience in blasting.
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Furthermore, one must have a hard-working spirit of research and an attitude of striving for excellence to be able to find this method of increasing power despite countless failures.
Cheng Sanlang didn't even add the black gunpowder before. Well... I really forgot about it at the time. Later, considering that the black gunpowder formula he came up with was already very powerful, he didn't add any sugar as sweet as honey.
And in order to ensure to the greatest extent that after the propellant below is ignited, it will not detonate the explosive package above, only the fuse of the explosive package will be ignited.
Cheng Chubi had an idea and found a good way, which was to place a round thin wooden board on the propellant to separate the propellant from the low-quality explosive package.
After the propellant is ignited, the pressure of the explosive explosion will push the thin board away, along with the explosive package, and the fuse of the explosive package extending below the thin board will also be ignited.
In this way, there is no need to consider other methods of detonation.
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Inside the large tent of the Zuotunwei Central Army, a loud noise suddenly erupted.
Prince Li Chengqian, who was sitting at the top of the table, had already stood up and looked at the leader of the Zuotun Guard Rangers with disbelief.
"Are you sure?" General Cheng strode directly to the leader of the rangers who came to report the news, and shouted with wide eyes.
The leader of the rangers quickly replied loudly.
"How dare you talk nonsense? As far as I can see, I saw the Duke of Ju and Sun Fujia, the minister of Dali Temple..."
"There are a total of one hundred and thirty-seven officials, in addition to the Luoyang government officials and jailers who protected them all the way east."
"Ah, this..." Cheng Yaojin grinned and couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Originally, Lao Cheng was thinking of doing a great job tomorrow, but he didn't expect that the great skill came to his door all by himself. What the hell is this? A blind cat bumps into a dead mouse?"
As soon as General Cheng said this, all the rough old men in Zuotunwei were beaming and laughing.
"..." Li Chengqian, Yu Zhining and Zhang Xuansu are a bit awkward. After all, they are not willing to be blind cats or dead mice.
"Oh, this is really a blessing from the Tang Dynasty. His Highness the Crown Prince encountered such a good thing just when he came to the outskirts of Luoyang."
Wouldn't it be a great disservice to His Highness the Crown Prince if he didn't take advantage of such meritorious service?
Yu Zhining, who didn't know whether he should be a blind cat or a dead rat, didn't care so much and went straight to General Cheng and bowed.
"Congratulations to General Cheng. It's really gratifying to say that Little Taibao Cheng has accomplished another great feat."
"Those ministers had been detained in the prison in Luoyang, and then they were bumpy on the boat all the way. They must have suffered a lot.
General Cheng, I wonder if we should all respectfully invite His Highness the Crown Prince..."
Seeing the look in Yu Zhining's eyes, the prince's best friend's father, General Cheng, naturally knew the elegant meaning of the song after hearing it.
He personally went out to protect His Highness the Crown Prince and went to the shore of Luoyang to cordially receive and comfort those loyal ministers of the Tang Dynasty who had been suffering for many days.
The more than one hundred loyal ministers of the Tang Dynasty who had not seen the light of day for a long time were sitting on the boat again and were uneasy for almost a whole day.
After seeing the prince who was said to have turned the land of Jiangnan into a sea of corpses and blood, he was standing on the shore with such a friendly smile and a kind tone.
All the ministers were moved to tears, and even the notorious General Cheng, who usually looked very unpleasant, became more handsome and more pleasing to the eye.
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After those metal barrels are buried, the next step is to charge them with explosives, and use the partitions and explosives to attack them inside...
Watching Cheng Sanlang's operations, Li Ke always felt a sense of panic. After all, he had already seen the power of the explosives created by Brother Chu Bi.
After interrogating for a long time, Brother Chu Bi revealed the general meaning, that is, he wanted to use black powder to shoot out the bags of explosives.
And it has to be shot farther than a bow and arrow, and then let these explosives explode in the distance.
Although Li Ke always felt that it was a bit unreliable, but Brother Bi vowed that it would be possible, so Li Ke could only quietly wait for the development of the situation.
After the installation was finally completed, Cheng Chubi stood up and looked at the river bank directly in front of him. There was a river beach for a long distance without any cover from trees.
"Everyone, step back, step back a hundred steps away." Following Cheng Sanlang's order, everyone, including the Ouchi guards, all retreated towards the rear.
Cheng Sanlang squatted down, lit the fuse, twisted his butt and ran towards the rear.
Not long after, he ran a hundred steps away and stood still in the crowd, taking a deep breath while looking at the nearby thunder cannon illuminated by torches.
Because it was the first time to test the gun, the fuse was left relatively long, so everyone could only wait anxiously for the time to pass by.
Then, everyone heard a dull roar, and then saw fire and smoke spraying out of the mouth of the metal bucket.
A black shadow flashed past, and the thin wooden board quickly fell to the ground, but the explosive package had no idea where it flew in such a dark night.
Everyone stood there stupidly and waited for a long time. Li Ke, who stretched his neck out, couldn't help but nudge Cheng Sanlang beside him with his elbow.
"Brother Chu Bi, how reliable is this thing of yours?"
Cheng Chubi stretched out his hand and scratched his chin and whispered softly.
"It's definitely reliable, but I don't know if the fuse was ignited or if the fuse was left too long..."