On October 21st, Shi Kefa and Wu Sangui stood in the Jiangbei Army camp in the south of Nanchang Prefecture, looking at the new mortars being played by Dutch craftsmen.
It is more appropriate to say it is a mortar than a mortar.
There were many mortars in China during the Ming Dynasty. Due to the limitations of the casting process, the artillery cast by the local army in the Ming Dynasty could not withstand high bore pressure. Naturally, it was impossible to produce Hongyi cannons with straighter trajectories. Mortars with lower bore pressure and curved trajectories were cast.
It became an inevitable choice. Among these mortars, the Tiger Crouching Cannon equipped by Qi Jiajun is the most famous.
According to historical records, the Tiger Crouching Cannon is two feet long and weighs thirty-six kilograms. The cannon is made of wrought iron. It uses seven or eight taels of gunpowder each time and can fire one hundred lead bullets weighing five cents. That is, it can scatter a total weight of three
Half a pound of shotgun pellets.
However, these mortars are smoothbore cannons that use solid shotshells. Even if they are ejected, they are only projectiles at a small angle. The purpose of ejection is to make the projectiles with lower muzzle velocity shoot farther, not to avoid obstacles and launch them into the ditch.
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Generally, the ejection angle of these artillery pieces is only thirty degrees at most.
However, the only difference between a mortar and a mortar is the shooting angle. In terms of craftsmanship and structure, the two artillery pieces are similar. Although the mortar invented by Li Zhi is refreshing, it is very difficult to imitate.
This mortar played by Dutch craftsmen can already be called a mortar. This mortar uses a screw to adjust its angle and stands on the ground in an upward attitude of 60 degrees.
The Dutch craftsman took out a small cannonball from the ammunition box.
"Your Excellency, the Minister of War, your Excellency the General Soldier, we have studied the small Huben Army artillery shells you gave us and found that the structure of this explosive shell is very simple. After dismantling and research, we have completely mastered this small explosive shell.
How to make bombs."
Hearing the translator translate the words of the Dutch craftsmen, Shi Kefa was happy and laughed. Wu Sangui stood aside with his hands on his hips, his face expressionless.
The shells used in the twenty-four-pound rifled heavy artillery must withstand extremely high bore pressure when firing and require high-precision lathe processing. The Dutch cannot imitate them. However, the small shells weighing three kilograms and five taels in the mortar only project about one mile.
The distance and the bore pressure it withstands are very low, so the technical content of such a blooming bullet is very low.
As soon as the dozen dumb bombs picked up by the Jiangbei Army during the Battle of Huai'an arrived in Batavia, they were cut open and studied by Dutch craftsmen, and they were quickly copied.
Dutch craftsmen loaded the mortar with propellant, put the explosive shells into the mortar, and then inserted a fuse on the fire door.
When the fuse was lit, the mortar made a loud bang and fired shells at the target in the distance.
The bomb landed in the target area a mile away and exploded with a loud bang.
The generals of Jiangbei Army suddenly burst into applause.
The Dutch craftsman said proudly: "We call this kind of artillery a curved cannon!"
Shi Kefa said loudly: "Wonderful! Indescribably wonderful! With this weapon, our Jiangbei Army can fight against Li Thief's minions!"
Wu Sangui looked at the mortars on the ground, but his emotions and anger showed no expression on his face.
The Dutch craftsman said: "The Governor of Batavia said that we are fighting on the same front as the Jiangbei Army. We only need one hundred thousand taels of silver to teach the Jiangbei Army the manufacturing method of this explosive bullet.
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Shi Kefa laughed loudly and said: "Although one hundred thousand taels is not a small number, it is worth it to get the technology of explosive bombs. We have learned the goodwill of Governor Batavia!"
After a pause, Shi Kefa said: "It's just that I think the firing speed of the Tiger Army seems to be very fast. In the time it takes this cannon to fire one shell, Li Thief's soldiers seem to be able to fire two shells."
The Dutch craftsman blushed when he heard this and argued: "Your Excellency, Minister of War, we have not been able to obtain the actual artillery of the Huben Army, so we can only imitate it to this extent. If your Excellency, Minister of War, can seize a few actual guns, we can probably
Researched the secret of rapid fire of Huben army artillery."
Shi Kefa nodded and did not delve into the issue any further. He waved his hand and said, "Assemble the gunsmiths from all over the south of the Yangtze River to build thousands of them!"
Wu Sangui pondered and said: "I, Li Zhi, has nearly 10,000 of these artillery pieces. Our curved cannons have a far slower rate of fire than Li Zhi. If we want to fight against Li Zhi, we must cast at least 10,000 of them."
After Zuo Liangyu was killed by Wu Sangui, all the soldiers and horses of the Jiangbei Army are now commanded by Wu Sangui, and Wu Sangui has become the actual controller of the Jiangbei Army. Shi Kefa is actually very afraid of Wu Sangui now. When he heard Wu Sangui's words, he quickly echoed: "Chang
What you said makes sense."
Taking a breath, Shi Kefa said: "Just casting ten thousand cannons is a huge project. Even if we mobilize thousands of gunsmiths to open a factory and cast them, we won't be able to build so many in three to five years!"
Wu Sangui said with a smile: "My lord, don't worry. I see that there is no difference between the barrel of this cannon and the mortar or tiger crouching cannon. It just needs a screw to control the angle. We have divided the various prefectures, prefectures, and counties in the south of the Yangtze River.
Collect all the mortar cannons and tiger crouching cannons, and make some modifications, and you can have 10,000 cannons within a year."
Shi Kefa was stunned and looked at the Dutch craftsman.
The Dutch craftsman listened to the translator's translation and said: "I agree with the general soldier's opinion. The explosive bombs of the Tiger Army have a wooden holder at the tail. This is a very magical design. Just adjust the size of the holder.
Make the explosive shells suitable for mortars of various calibers."
Shi Kefa burst out laughing when he heard what the Dutch craftsman said.
"Okay! Very good! Mr. Jetro, come to my big tent to enjoy the wine and food today. We won't come back until we get drunk!"
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From time to time, strange screams came from the dark rain forest, which made Mr. Wei a little nervous as he went up the winding river.
After the invasion of Cambodia, the shape of the war was completely out of Wei's imagination. The Tiger Army encountered almost no resistance in Cambodia. The only thing stopping the brave Tiger Army from advancing was the dense rainforest and the staggeringly hot and humid environment.
Cambodia, known as Chenla in ancient times, is not a powerful country. Mr. Wei has been looking around these days and feels that the country formerly known as Chenla is very backward in civilization and is far inferior to Vietnam.
Boss Wei led a platoon of soldiers and horses to attack at the front, along the winding road towards Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Halfway through, Boss Wei listened to the advice of the local guide and walked through a rain forest along the river. It is said that this
It would save a few days. But when he actually entered this rainforest, Boss Wei regretted it.
This dense rain forest was covered with banyan trees and ferns. Mr. Wei was sitting on the boat moving forward. He could only see dense leaves above his head, but could not see the sun in the sky.
Boss Wei even saw a huge python coiled on the banyan tree. The snake was at least ten meters long. He looked at the platoon of soldiers with cold eyes.
