In the small hall of Youtang Villa, a sumptuous banquet was laid out to celebrate the success of Xu Gao's new furnace smelting.
After drinking and eating, the others left one after another. Zhang Yanling and Xu Gao sat in the yard drinking tea and chatting in the sun. Zhang Yanling had something in mind and unknowingly asked about the renovation of the gun.
"After the successful smelting of fine steel, our next step will be to transform the gun. If the steel ingot smelted this time has better performance, it can break through the material limitations. I wonder if Mr. Xu has considered the gun.
Transformation plan.”
Xu Gao pondered for a moment, and Zhang Yanling hurriedly smiled and said: "Look at my impatient temper. You have been working so hard during this period, how can you have time to think about these things? Besides, these things are not things that can be done overnight. Mr. Xu, take a good rest.
, just think about it slowly."
Xu Gao waved his hand and said: "Master Hou, don't think too much. In fact, I haven't given up on this matter, and I do have some thoughts. If I don't have any clue, why should I be anxious to build a new furnace and smelt better steel?
?”
Zhang Yanling said in surprise: "Oh? You already have an idea? Can you tell me about it?"
Xu Gao said: "I haven't thought about it clearly yet, maybe it's not available."
Xu Youtang said: "Dad, tell me and let Mr. Hou listen. Mr. Hou can also think of ways together and come up with ideas. Mr. Hou is quite knowledgeable in this aspect. When I made the blunderbuss, Mr. Hou gave me some advice."
Got a lot of good suggestions and ideas.”
Xu Gao smiled and said: "I know it, but I still need you to remind me? The Marquis is very knowledgeable and has more knowledge about these things than many people. That's all, just tell the Marquis."
Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "I don't have any good suggestions, it's just nonsense. Yanling is all ears."
Xu Gao nodded, thought for a while and said: "I have thought about it, the existing bird cannons want to be further improved, just to increase the power. The enhanced power is just to make the bird cannons fire farther away, and the killing power is greater.
, shoots faster. Yes or no?"
Zhang Yanling nodded and said: "Basically these are the points."
Xu Gao said: "Then we will make improvements based on these points. Range and shooting power are actually contradictory. It is impossible to have a long distance and huge shooting power. At this point, what can be done is
It’s a matter of balancing trade-offs. Whatever level you want to achieve, you can make improvements according to that standard.”
Zhang Yanling said with a smile: "If I talk about the effect I want to achieve, I naturally hope to have a long range and strong power. But it is true that you can't have your cake and eat it too. If I want to put forward a basic standard, I hope it is an effective range.
It must at least exceed the range of a powerful crossbow, with a range of 300 steps. And within the effective range, steel bullets can penetrate light armor and penetrate flesh and blood. If this can be achieved, I think it is acceptable."
Xu Gao chuckled and said: "Master Hou's standard is not low. Even if it is a powerful crossbow, it is a luxury to hope to penetrate light armor from two hundred steps away. Master Hou wants the musket to reach the lethality and range of the crossbow."
, but it is as light as a bow and arrow. This is a very high requirement."
Zhang Yanling shook his head and said: "The requirements are not high at all. You must know that this is a firearm. The power of firearms is far greater than that of bows and crossbows. If it were not for the limitation of the power of gunpowder, it would actually be very easy to do this. Ordinary firearms fire
The effective range is more than five hundred steps, and the shooting range of heavy firearms can even reach more than ten miles, which is not an extravagant hope."
Zhang Yanling still said it with his arms around him. He didn't want to scare Xu Gao and make Xu Gao think that he was talking nonsense. Otherwise, he would tell Xu Gao that the range of firearms can reach hundreds of miles or even thousands of miles. I guess Xu Gao listened.
He would immediately walk away, just like Xu Gao did last time after hearing Zhang Yanling's ridiculous remarks about an iron bird that could fly in the sky, thinking that Zhang Yanling was talking nonsense.
Xu Gao was not too surprised this time, because he had slowly understood the potential of firearms. A shooting range of more than ten miles was actually not that extraordinary. Heavy firearms could indeed reach it in theory. The Zhankou General Cannon equipped by the imperial court
The range can reach several miles. That's just a cast iron cannon. If a fine steel barrel is used, the barrel is lengthened, and the amount of gunpowder is sufficient, the range will be doubled.
"I don't understand the matter of gunpowder. If the Marquis wants to purify gunpowder and further improve it, I'm afraid he will have to ask for help from others. In my opinion, the current solution is to increase the amount of gunpowder to provide stronger force.
Increase range and power. Of course, extending the barrel length also
This is one way, but extending the barrel will increase the weight and make it inconvenient to carry, and the difficulty of manufacturing will be greatly increased. With the existing technology, the iron bullets in the barrel will violently collide with the inner wall of the barrel, and are prone to deformation and jamming.
, the accuracy will become worse." Xu Gao said.
Zhang Yanling nodded in agreement. Although he didn't know much about firearms, he also understood some basic principles. Later generations of firearms had rifling and bullet matching, which could produce rotation and acceleration, and the trajectory was more stable. Bullets cannot be made these days, and there is no rifling.
That kind of precision craftsmanship can only rely on gunpowder to drive the bullets to shoot smoothly. The bullets are just steel balls. In this case, the more you think about it, the more counterproductive the result will be.
"That's very true. The barrel of the gun cannot be too long, and the weight cannot be too heavy. Otherwise, it will be inconvenient to carry, and the significance of the gun will be lost. If we really want to go further, we can build cannons and other heavy firearms in the future. That will be in the future
Things. Now that the smelting of fine steel is successful, I think increasing the dosage of medicine should be the only feasible strategy." Zhang Yanling said.
Xu Gao smiled and said: "I think so too. This is the benefit of smelting refined steel. But increasing the amount of medicine is not arbitrary. Increasing the amount of medicine must be accurately calculated. The relationship between the increase in range and shooting accuracy
We must also understand that if we blindly seek distance, we will not be able to hit the target accurately enough.
The target is also meaningless. The weight, size and shape of the iron bullet can also be discussed. For example, does it have to be a round iron bullet? Can the shuttle be formed? What about a wedge shape? I don’t know. In short, I think these things need to be done multiple times.
Experiment and find the best result.”
Zhang Yanling chuckled and said: "That's absolutely true. It really needs to be tested in practice. After the new batch of blunderbuss is made, I will personally participate in the test to find the best solution."
Xu Gao smiled and nodded.
"Compared with the above things, the most difficult thing is to improve the firing speed, right? This is probably the most difficult thing." Zhang Yanling said.
Xu Gao nodded and said: "Indeed, this is the most difficult part. The existing bird muskets need to be loaded in the front chamber, compacted and then fired with primer. The shooting speed is not even as fast as bows and arrows. A skilled archer can bend the bow and shoot an arrow in one breath.
, but the bird gun requires at least several breaths before it can be fired. Therefore, the imperial court does not use fire gun, not only because its power is insufficient and the shooting range is insufficient, but also because its operation is cumbersome, and it is tasteless and tasteless."
Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "According to what you say, it is useless. Bird guns are not meant to be used alone. Once they are in large numbers, they can be shot from a long distance, and their power and accuracy cannot be compared to that of bows and arrows."
Xu Gao frowned and said, "Then is there any need for improvement?"
Zhang Yanling laughed dumbly and said: "Yes, I was wrong. There are indeed many shortcomings, so I have to improve."
Xu Youtang made a face at Zhang Yanling and pointed at Xu Gao. The meaning was: My father is not easy to mess with, so don’t mess with him.
Xu Gao said: "If you want to increase the firing speed, you must completely overturn the loading method and simplify the operation process. Loading, compacting, priming, aiming, and shooting. These are five steps. We must simplify the steps.
, or none within a certain period of time
It needs to be repeated. I am thinking that if the loading is changed from the muzzle to the rear, and a mechanical device is used to complete the two steps of loading and compaction at one time, a lot of time can be saved. Loading and unloading
Strip compacting ammunition are the two most time-consuming steps."
Zhang Yanling rubbed her hands and said: "That's absolutely true. That's absolutely true. This is what I have always hoped for. But..."
Xu Gao waved his hand and said: "I know what you are going to say. We will discuss the problems caused by it later. I haven't finished speaking yet. Not only do we need to change the loading from the front chamber to the rear chamber, in order to further speed up the shooting speed,
Reduce repetitive actions, and it is best to complete the action of loading multiple ammunition at one time."
Zhang Yanling rubbed her hands excitedly and said, "Yes, yes!"
"Increasing the number of gun barrels is a consideration. Since Youtang helped you make a double-barreled short fire gun, why can't the bird gun be double-barreled? Two rounds of ammunition are fired at one time, doubling the power and doubling the lethality. This is why
1. Second, I was inspired by Lian Nu
, is it possible to design a device such as the crossbow box of a repeating crossbow and assemble it with the musket? After firing, the force of the machine spring is used to push the paper-wrapped bullet into the gun chamber. In this way, a box of ammunition can be fired a dozen times or even more
.Isn’t it once and for all?” Xu Gao said slowly.
Zhang Yanling opened her mouth like an egg and looked at Xu Gao in surprise.
Xu Gao continued: "Actually, there are many solutions available. Have you seen the Folan cannon?"
Zhang Yanling shook his head blankly and said: "I haven't seen it before."
Xu Gao said: "That is a kind of firearm from the overseas country of Franji. I have seen one in the Ministry of War. It was smuggled in by merchants from the country and presented to the imperial court in the hope of doing business with the imperial court. It was just a bid.
It was extremely tall, costing 25,000 taels of silver each, and was of average power, so the court ignored it. At that time, I participated in the Ministry of War's evaluation, so I saw that one. Among other things, the firing speed of the Fran cannon was astonishing.
The structure is also unique.
In addition to the main gun in the rear barrel of the gun, there are multiple sub-guns. After a gun is fired, the sub-guns can be quickly replaced and the second shot can be fired immediately. The empty sub-guns can be reloaded, and the cycle repeats.
, firing continuously. Shoot.
The firing speed is several times that of our Daming Zhankou General Cannon. It is truly breathtaking. I think this is where its value lies. Our blunderbuss can actually use this idea. It's just that I haven't figured it out yet.