Chapter 2901 Gunpowder weapons experts, if you want to do it, you must do it with high precision
In the gunpowder weapon casting and forging workshop, Li Chengguang, the firearms commander of the Firearms Department, is sneaking around here at the moment.
The scale of this casting and forging workshop near Jiahe River is not small, with hundreds of craftsmen working non-stop.
On the bank of the Jiahe River, there stands a tall waterwheel, rotating slowly. As the waterwheel turns, it drives the huge bellows or other machinery to operate.
At this moment, an artillery piece has completed the demoulding work and is currently undergoing follow-up processing.
Not far away, those pig iron molds that have been used have been inspected by the veteran craftsmen. If they are determined to be in good condition, they will continue to be used. If they are determined to have deformation or other problems, they will be discarded directly, and then melted and recast.
.
In front of Li Chengguang, there was a very heavy iron machine tool, but many parts on it were made of copper.
At this moment, this machine tool is slowly rotating, with a bright silver steel bar with several raised steel bars.
Through mechanical movement, the slowly rotating steel bar resolutely pushed towards a fixed iron pipe that originally had a hole in the middle.
After the top cone of the steel bar reached the other end, it slowly retreated from the iron pipe.
After repeating this several times, the rifling of the barrel is finally figured out.
Although the speed is quite slow, at least the speed of rifling the inner wall of the gun barrel using this kind of machine tool is much faster than manual work.
You know, the Eighth Route Army back then all rifled by hand. Datang was able to use machine tools to rifle, which was already very advanced.
Li Chengguang can be regarded as the second person in the field of gunpowder weapons in the Tang Dynasty. Well, besides Cheng Sanlang, he also has a strong research spirit in the design and production of firearms.
After obtaining the design concept from Cheng Sanlang, Li Chengguang gathered a group of craftsmen and conducted repeated experiments, and finally came up with such a machine tool.
With the current smelting technology of Datang, and after repeated tests, such a rifled barrel can withstand more than 400 repeated shots without exploding the barrel.
It can be said that the quality is much better than those short flintlock prototype guns given to Cheng Sanlang before.
Just outside Li Chengguang's workshop, there is always a dense sound like frying beans in the distance.
However, none of the craftsmen, who had become numb to such sounds during this period, ignored them and continued to do their own things.
The large group of Cheng family members have been practicing there every day for a while. They are very standard and skilled in such tactics as skirmishing, two-stage attack, and three-stage attack.
Every time he saw the scene of those flintlock muskets firing, Li Chengguang was so excited that he couldn't help himself.
It's just that what Li Chengguang regrets is that His Majesty did not come here to appreciate this weapon that can change the era.
At this time, Cheng Chubi had already led a group of martial arts disciples and rushed here with the famous Tang general Li Ji, who was not very happy.
#####
Cheng Chubi and others walked outside the workshop gate and got off their horses. There were soldiers and horses guarding the workshop gate.
After all, the things researched and produced here can be said to be good treasures that far exceed the technological level of this era.
After Li Shimin received the news that Cheng Sanlang was building cannons on a large scale here, he immediately sent Li Chengguang over.
At the same time, a battalion of people was also deployed to be responsible for the safety of this workshop and to prevent leaks of secrets.
The group of people walked in and not far away, they met Li Chengguang, who had rushed over after receiving the news.
Under the guidance of Li Chengguang, Cheng Chubi and his party passed through most of the workshop and came to an open space.
At this moment, there are about a hundred Cheng family soldiers gathered here. The Cheng family members who have just finished training are wiping the flintlock guns in their arms.
While bragging and kicking there, I saw Cheng Sanlang and a group of people walking quickly.
The group of people stood up to greet each other and saw that each of these guys had a large piece of black on their face.
And they all carried a rather strange-looking thing that was a combination of metal and wood.
Li Ji couldn't help but feel suspicious, strode up to a member of the Cheng family, pointed at the thing that looked like it had no edge, and asked.
"Cheng Sanlang, is this the treasure you are talking about?"
Cheng Chubi reached out and took a flintlock gun from a member of the Cheng family. This was not the kind of primitive flintlock gun.
Who is Cheng Chubi? The top gunpowder weapon expert in the Tang Dynasty. If you want to do it, you must be highly sophisticated.
Besides, why should I proceed step by step with gunpowder weapons?
If that's really the case, it's better for everyone to start with the musket, play with it for a hundred or two hundred years, and then arrange for the three-eyed gun.
As an outstanding person with countless excellent resources in his hands, Cheng Sanlang naturally cannot follow that routine.
In addition, the Tang Dynasty already had hydraulic and man-made machine tools, so Cheng Sanlang decided from the very beginning to develop a rifled flintlock gun.
For this reason, Cheng Sanlang took the most representative breech-loading flintlock gun he knew as a benchmark.
I believe everyone who knows the history of flintlock guns should know that the Ming Dynasty firearms scientist Zhao Shizhen absorbed the advantages of European Lumi guns and Folan guns and developed the Zhidian system himself.
And that thing is still a matchlock gun, Cheng Chubi plays a flintlock gun, and coupled with this kind of bullet-type blunderbuss, it is simply not perfect.
Some people may say, are bullet casings that easy to make?
Come on, now that Tang Dynasty coins are all using stamping machines, how difficult can it be to use a stamping machine to stamp brass into bullet casings?
Besides, Cheng Sanlang also knew very well that copper was a strategic material, so each flintlock gun was only equipped with fifty bullets.
After all, the bullet casing must be recovered and reloaded with gunpowder and warhead for reuse.
One of the biggest advantages of this breech-loading flintlock gun is that the loading speed is much faster than that of a muzzle-loading gun.
Cheng Sanlang had personally tried this kind of gun before. At sixteen breaths, that is, in almost one minute, Cheng Sanlang could load and shoot seven or eight times.
After all, this is a flintlock gun, which is different from real breech-loading bullets. I believe that once you become proficient, you can shoot ten times per minute without any problems.
The bad thing is that the gap between the bolt and the barrel will cause too much gunpowder gas to leak out, so as long as the Cheng family practiced it a few times, their faces would be a little discolored by the gunpowder smoke.
But is this something you need to worry about? At worst, just equip each gun with a pair of plain glasses, which can perfectly solve this problem.
Perhaps it is because of poor air tightness that its range is not as far as imagined.
However, a trained shooter can at least aim and shoot within 50 to 60 feet.
The hit rate for objects with a radius of three feet can reach 30%, so what else do you want from a bicycle?
Cheng Chubi quickly pushed out the gun, looked at it twice, and then pressed it back.
"My uncle's guess is right. It's this thing. It may seem inconspicuous based on its appearance, but in fact, its killing range is far longer than that of ordinary crossbows."
"With a distance of fifty feet, you can basically hit wherever you point. Even my Tang Dynasty-style Mingguang Armor can't block a blow at all."
"Fifty feet?" After hearing this description, all the disciples of the Tang Dynasty Wuxun, including Li Ji, couldn't help but raise their eyebrows.
The Tang Dynasty had a standard for the effective range of bows and arrows, that is, the effective range of infantry archers was about sixty steps, and one step was almost one-half of a foot.
In other words, the range of an infantry archer's bow and arrow is about thirty feet.
Xue Rengui, who also arrived here today, heard this and couldn't help raising his thick eyebrows, muttering in a low voice with some dissatisfaction.
"At fifty feet, if I use a heavy arrow, I can penetrate the armor."
When Cheng Chubi heard this guy's nagging, he immediately felt confused and considered whether this guy was the Tang Dynasty talent he focused on training.
Therefore, Cheng Chubi did not show any emotion or anger on his face, but he smiled happily and glanced at the group of martial arts disciples.
"Old Xue, your archery skills are very strong, but I wonder if you have ever encountered a master with unparalleled archery skills since you joined the army?"
Xue Rengui, who had a bow hanging on his butt all day long, laughed, held his head high and shook his head very confidently.
"The last general has been in the army for several years, but so far he has never met an opponent in archery."
After hearing this, Li Qi and Li Siwen, both of Wu Xun's disciples who were also accomplished in archery, could only roll their eyes.
There is nothing you can do, you can't compare, you just can't compare, we are all adults, there is nothing to be ashamed of.
"In that case, why don't we come here to show off today? How about asking Lao Xue to show off with me?"
"You use your strong bow, and I use this thing. Let's try it out. How about just fifty feet apart?"