Before the rise of the puppet Tang thief army, although the Ming Dynasty also attached great importance to the use of firearms, it paid more attention to small and medium-caliber artillery such as bowl-mouth cannons. Then it came into contact with the Folangji people decades ago, and during the Tuen Mun naval battle
They were beaten hard by the Fo Lang robots with naval guns and suffered heavy casualties. In the end, they had to rely on their absolute numerical superiority to retreat from the enemy's rear with fire attacks.
Although they came into contact with many large-caliber ship-borne cannons of the Franconian, they finally chose the breech-loaded shotgun of the Franconian for development.
The development of muskets was limited to the Huomen gun. A large number of handguns from the Yongle period are still widely used. These handguns of various sizes and shapes are actually the Huomen guns among the early muskets.
The Ming Dynasty extensively equipped and developed matchlocks. However, due to the rise of the puppet Tang rebel army, they began to equip them in the past year.
Such a history of the development of guns has resulted in the gunpowder technology of the Ming Dynasty remaining at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Most gunpowder formulas contain only about 60% saltpeter. However, even if the formula is not standard, the actual
There is no unified standard in the world, and the proportion of gunpowder prepared by each place and even each workshop is different.
In history, the first time the Ming Dynasty produced a gunpowder formula that was close to scientific standards, it was when Qi Jiguang was resisting Japanese pirates on the coast. He imitated the European gunpowder formula and made gunpowder. But now, Qi Jiguang is still farming in Dengzhou.
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From this, the Ming Dynasty obtained a more scientific gunpowder formula!
The gunpowder formula in the early Tang Dynasty naturally followed the formula used in the Ming Dynasty. Li Xuan did not pay attention to this issue before. He only mentioned the formula of propellant used in matchlock guns when giving lectures in the Youjun camp.
, formulated a ratio of 75% saltpeter, 15% charcoal, and 10% sulfur.
The rise of the Tang Dynasty only lasted two or three years, and the actual large-scale use of guns and cannons was actually only in the last year. Li Xuan was busy making guns and cannons to expand the army, and he never thought that the black powder formula these days was not
scientific.
When Youjunying developed a machine for grinding granular gunpowder, the gun propellant formula used was based on Li Xuan's proposal, and they also developed a new formula after repeated testing.
However, the Zhaoqing Arsenal still uses an old formula. The resulting difference in the power of the gunpowder is not due to a problem with the machine, but because the two gunpowder formulas are fundamentally different.
When several craftsmen at the Zhaoqing Arsenal who were responsible for researching and improving artillery heard that the young man from the military camp said that the formula was different, they all frowned: "Is there something wrong with the formula?"
"What is the proportion of the new formula developed in your young army camp?"
Although the young military camp in front of him was only a boy of fifteen or sixteen years old, the engineers from the Zhaoqing Arsenal in front of him were all engineers with eighth-level official status, but they did not dare to look down upon him.
Outsiders may not know it, but they engineers in the arsenal know that in fact, in the entire Tang Dynasty, the most powerful scientific research capability was not the arsenal, nor the School of Science in the Imperial College, nor the Royal Academy of Sciences, but the Children's Academy of Sciences.
Military camp!
After such a long period of preparation in the Young Army Camp, a few of the monsters with excellent self-learning ability and almost geniuses have passed the sixth grade exam and been promoted to seventh grade.
The content studied in seventh grade is already the content of junior high school students in later generations!
These contemporary indigenous teenagers, who spend most of their time studying on their own relying on the textbooks written by Li Xuan, are able to reach this level in just one or two years. They are not monsters or something!
Although there are very few seventh-grade students in the military camp, there are only a few of them at present, but even those sixth-grade and even fifth-grade students, their scientific literacy is far beyond that of the so-called engineers in these arsenals.
On the one hand, the senior students in the Youjun camp continue to study on their own and occasionally receive personal education from Li Xuan. On the other hand, they also serve as teachers for the lower students. In addition, they are also the core force of scientific research in the Tang Dynasty!
The senior students in the main camp of Zhaoqing Youjun Camp designed most of the various types of machinery needed by the Zhaoqing Arsenal. The Zhaoqing Arsenal just manufactured them based on the design drawings, and then promoted them to other arsenals after successful experiments.
If these are not enough to prove the research and development capabilities of the Young Army Camp, then the steam engine that has been tinkering with a few seventh-grade students in the Young Army Camp is enough to prove their research and development capabilities.
Well, although the steam engine they tinkered with has never been practical!
But it also made Li Xuan sigh when he saw it!
Although in the eyes of modern people, the knowledge mastered by junior high school students is very ordinary, but this is only relative to modern society. If it were transferred to the 16th century, then this would definitely be a leap!
A lot of things that seem like common sense in modern times, but in ancient times, were out-and-out high-tech!
Under the guidance of this sixth-grader from the young military camp, engineers in the gunpowder branch of the Zhaoqing Arsenal quickly readjusted the formula of gunpowder and then conducted a second trial production.
This time, the trial production was finally successful. Using the machines and new gunpowder formulas provided by the young army camp, the new granular gunpowder produced was much more powerful than previous gunpowders!
After the trial production was successful, the gunpowder branch in the Zhaoqing Arsenal was very excited. They immediately contacted relevant representatives of the military to demonstrate it. When the military representatives saw the new gunpowder, they said on the spot that in the future, the military would
The gunpowder purchased must be of this new formula.
At the same time, in order to avoid being prevented by the Ming Dynasty like muskets and artillery, the arsenals under the Ministry of Industry were required to keep the detailed formula of the new gunpowder strictly confidential.
Although it is impossible to hide it forever, you can hide it for as long as you want!
When the Tang Dynasty started the gunpowder innovation, Emperor Li Xuan of the Tang Dynasty didn't even know it!
It's not his fault. As an emperor, there are too many important matters for Li Xuan to deal with. Li Xuan himself didn't find any problems with the formula before. Now that he has improved the formula, it is only for the army, navy and the Ministry of Industry.
It's just an internal matter.
And there has been no problem. Since there is no problem, then naturally there will be no trouble to talk to Li Xuan specifically about this matter.
As the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Xuan was concerned about the overall development of military industry and overall strategic development. He did not care much about some details.
If he has to control every detail, then even if he has ten clones working around the clock, he still won't be able to finish so many things!
But what I have to say is that the innovation of gunpowder has indeed effectively improved the power of various firearms equipped by the Tang Army!
Take the nine-pound cannon, the largest caliber artillery currently mass-produced by the Tang Dynasty, as an example. This cannon has a caliber of 116 mm and a barrel length of 22.6 times the caliber. It uses the original gunpowder.
At that time, the maximum range was only 3,600 meters, but after using the new gunpowder, the maximum range increased by a full 400 meters, reaching 4,000 meters!
Although it is not the power of the gunpowder that limits the effective range of artillery, but the aiming and accuracy, within the same effective range, more powerful gunpowder will naturally give the artillery shell greater kinetic energy.
As for the cannon, which relies on the kinetic energy of cannonballs, this increases the power of the artillery in disguise!
To put it simply, in the past, a single solid artillery shell could only penetrate the depth of one enemy team, but now a single shell can penetrate the depth of two enemy teams.
The military production that Li Xuan has paid most attention to recently is the production of artillery, muskets and plate armor, three new types of firearms!
The production of muskets is still increasing steadily, and the production of artillery is also continuing to grow steadily. The only thing that is a little troublesome is the nine-pound artillery. This thing is too heavy, and it is too troublesome for the big guy of 1,400 kilograms to make it, and it is currently still
Only Zhaoqing Arsenal can produce it, so the output is very small.
The production of plate armor went very smoothly, and the style of plate armor had already been designed!
And it has already begun to deliver to major arsenals and started to stop production. At the same time, the Army has stopped orders for cotton armor, chain mail and other armor, and has converted all armor orders to various styles of plate armor.
Among them, the largest order volume was half-body armor. The first batch of purchase orders from the War Department reached 1,000 sets. In addition, there were 300 sets of full-body armor, and 800 sets of breastplates.
These plate armors of Datang were designed for large-scale assembly line production using machinery from the very beginning. They were mainly formed in one go using large-scale hydraulic forging presses. Their positioning was that the production process was simple, streamlined and the cost was low.
Of course, this has relatively high requirements on materials and requires high-quality steel as raw materials!
However, after Li Xuan's guidance, the steel branch of Zhaoqing Arsenal has adopted small blast furnaces to produce steel. The output of steel has increased significantly. Although the quality is still not comparable to that of later generations of plates, for this era, it is not.
That's enough.
The steel branch under the Zhaoqing Arsenal has now become the steel plant that produced the most steel in the Tang Dynasty and was also the cheapest. Most of the steel produced was used to manufacture various cold weapons, mechanical equipment, etc.
As long as the plate armor production line is established, a large amount of plate armor can be quickly provided to the frontline troops!
Now Li Xuan is thinking that before the Ming Dynasty has begun to equip heavy muskets, he will first use heavy infantry armed with plate armor to push forward. As for waiting for the Ming army to react and start equipping large-caliber heavy muskets, the big deal
Just throw the plate armor into the trash heap of history.