Zheng Hui quickly replied: "Your Majesty is wise. Your Majesty has found such a fertile land for the Han people. He is an immortal hero of our Han people and a peerless hero."
Li Zhi laughed loudly, pointed to the west and said: "This Australia is not only a fertile land, but also a mining area rich in resources. There are rich metal mineral deposits here, and it can become our large rear base for one town and nine provinces in the future.
"
Australia is one of the world's most famous mining areas. The valuable iron ore and copper ores here account for one-tenth of the world's mining value, and the mineable aluminum ore accounts for one-third of the world's.
Many minerals in Australia are close to the sea and can be transported to Tianjin via short-distance transportation. Calculated in this way, the freight is very low. After all, a ship with dozens of sailors can complete the transportation of hundreds of tons of ore in more than ten days.
Shipping ore from Australia is more economical than hauling ore from inland China by horse-drawn carriage.
For industry, cheap raw materials are very important. The essence of industry is to turn raw materials into industrial products. If the price of raw materials is low and the production cost of the product is low, then the company can significantly reduce the price of the product. And the price of the product will decrease.
Later, the demand for products in the entire society will increase significantly.
With access to cheap raw materials, industry will expand violently like a shot in the arm.
Gao Ligong said: "Your Majesty, Australia is occupied by us. If we find minerals here, they will be much more reliable than those in Shanxi and Mongolia."
Li Zhi nodded, pointed forward with his hand, and said, "Let's go over there and have a look!"
####
On the fourth day of July, Li Zhi had just returned to Tianjin from Australia and started working without even taking a few days' rest.
The first thing Li Zhi wanted to see was the newly produced breech-loading artillery piece produced by the artillery factory.
After Li Zhi designed the Jinwang breech-loading rifle, the design of this new rifle gave great inspiration to the craftsmen in the arsenal. The breech-loading method greatly increased the rate of fire and also improved the rifle's battlefield adaptability.
, which made the gunsmiths feel very novel.
Inspired by this, Cao Yu, the general manager of the arsenal, led the gunsmiths to start tackling the problem. Cao Yu was originally a gunsmith and was very good at casting artillery. After several years, they have now successfully designed a breech-loading artillery.
Cao Yu's new artillery was placed on the training ground. Li Zhi looked at the gun body and asked, "How is this gun rear-loaded?"
Cao Yu bent down and pointed at the back of the gun barrel, and said: "My lord, look, the back of the gun barrel is open, and the entire hole in the gun barrel is exposed. If our soldiers want to load ammunition, they only need to
The shells and belt pack can be loaded into the bottom of the cannon from the end of the barrel."
Li Zhi looked at the round cannon tail, nodded, and asked: "Then how do you achieve the closing of the cannon?"
Cao Yu lifted a rather complicated-looking iron-handled bolt from the ground and said to Li Zhi, "Look, Your Majesty, we use this bolt to insert into the hole on the side of the gun tail to achieve air-holding."
Li Zhi carefully observed the latch.
The latch is made of copper and is not a regular rectangle, but an irregular trapezoid. The front side of the latch inserted into the breech is completely perpendicular to the gun hole at 90 degrees, but the back of the latch has a certain angle.
angle.
"My lord, look!"
Cao Yu inserted the latch into a hole on the side of the gun bottom. After inserting it and rotating it, the caliper of the latch was stuck inside the hole. Then he started to turn the large rotating handle on the latch to release the latch.
The main part of the clamp is separated from the caliper of the clamp, and the main body of the clamp is pressed deeper into the hole.
Since the back of the main body of the latch is inclined, the more the main body of the latch is pressed into the hole, the greater the pressure will be generated between the back and the inner wall of the hole, pressing the front of the latch tightly against the bottom of the barrel.
In this way, the rear of the barrel is sealed by the bolt.
Copper is a very elastic metal. The gunner turns the handle to drive the internal screw to press the bolt to the bottom of the gun. Although the force exerted by manpower on the handle is not large, it is converted by the lever principle and finally acts on the bolt.
The force is so great that it is enough to press the bolt firmly against the bottom of the barrel.
With this sealing method, the force acting on the blocking bolt when the cannon fires will not eject the blocking bolt. This is because the force generated by the expansion force of the propellant acts directly toward the rear, while the blocking bolt is inserted from the side.
, press tightly into the hole, and the force of the backward pressure is perpendicular to the in and out direction of the bolt.
This sealing method is based on the same principle as the sealing method of the Krupp breech-loading cannon in the late 19th century. It is more ingenious than the British Armstrong breech-loading cannon and is less difficult to process.
Of course, the actual technological level of the Krupp cannon is higher, and the structure of the gun bolt is more complex. Li Zhi feels that with the current industrial level of Tianjin, the development of the Krupp cannon is not yet mature.
Using Cao Yu's simple sealing method, the breech-loading cannon can achieve a considerable degree of sealing.
The development of breech-loaded cannons also progressed gradually and did not happen overnight. In fact, the Flange machine gun widely used in the late Ming Dynasty was also a very practical breech-loaded cannon. Of course, this kind of gun had poor sealing and limited range.
Li Zhi nodded again and asked: "How to fire it?"
Cao Yu pointed to a small hole in the tail of the gun and said: "We still use fulminant as the percussion charge. We made a tubular percussion cartridge from mercury fulminate and black powder. When firing, this cartridge is inserted into the percussion cartridge.
When the firing rope is pulled on the hole, the mercury fulminate ignites the black powder and ignites the propellant in the barrel."
Li Zhi waved his hand and said, "Try shooting one!"
Cao Yu shouted the order, and together with several artillerymen, he opened the barrel of the gun and stuffed the conical lead bullets and bags of black powder into the breech of the gun. Then Cao Yu inserted the bolt into the hole in the breech of the gun and rotated it.
The handle was turned to seal the breech. At the same time, another gunner loaded the firing powder cartridge.
"three!"
"two!"
"one!"
"Fire!"
With a "boom", the small cannon sprayed tongues of flame toward the target area. Huge white smoke was emitted from the rear of the gun, which greatly obstructed Li Zhi's vision.
Li Zhi took a few steps to the side, looked through the smoke, and found that the target a hundred meters away had been knocked down.
Li Zhi said: "Try hitting a farther target!"
Cao Yu and the gunners quickly adjusted the muzzle of the gun and began loading ammunition again.
With the cooperation of three gunners, this six-pound cannon can complete reloading approximately every fifteen seconds, which is significantly faster than the front-loading cannon.
The artillery fires at farther targets, and the hit rate is quite impressive. The breech-loading gun also has rifling inside, so there is no problem with accuracy. It can hit targets up to three miles away.
Li Zhi observed the breech-loading cannon and thought about it for a while.
"Some air leakage..."
Cao Yu touched his head and said, "Your Majesty, there is a slight leak, but we will find ways to improve it."
Li Zhi said: "But you can install this gun on the tank first. Our tanks don't have offensive weapons yet, and we urgently need your breech-mounted gun equipment."
When Cao Yu heard this, his eyes lit up.
"Your Majesty, do you mean our breech-loading cannon can be used?"
Li Zhi smiled and said: "It can barely be used, so let's make do with it for now. Let's call it Cao's breech-loading cannon."
"The craftsmen who participated in the development will each be rewarded with one hundred taels of silver. The leaders will be rewarded with two hundred taels. Cao Yu will be rewarded with five hundred taels. If the air tightness is improved in the future, there will be more generous rewards!"
