After much deliberation, Shen Bing couldn't guess what Zhao Gao and Li Si's conspiracy was, so he had no choice but to give up.
Shen Bing thought to himself:
"The worst case scenario is as history says, after Ying Zheng dies, Zhao Gao and Li Si will pretend to pass on the imperial edict to kill Fusu!"
"If it were in the past, we would still need to worry."
"But now... when Shazhou is controlled by the Qin army, there is nothing to worry about."
"Shazhou is defended by Yangguan and Yumenguan on the outside, and the narrow Hexi Corridor on the inside."
"And it's still thousands of miles away from Qin."
"As long as we stand on our own feet...at least Shazhou can be defended!"
Of course, this is just a conservative idea. In fact, with the more than 100,000 troops currently in Shen Bing's hands, coupled with the cavalry he is training and superior equipment, he can compete with the rest of the Qin army.
A few days later, someone came to report that a cannon with an iron core and a copper cannon had been made.
This is a few days earlier than what Ming said before, but it is not surprising...one has long been familiar with the casting of new iron, and the casting method only requires smelting the new iron and pouring it into the mold.
Shen Bing did not rush to check and accept it, but asked Wang Ben to get a few medicine bags.
The so-called "powder bag" is the gunpowder bag used for artillery firing.
Unlike other gunpowders, the gunpowder in this powder bag is no longer randomly mixed, and the proportion of saltpeter is the same as modern black powder, accounting for three-quarters.
Shen Bing didn't want the artillery he finally made to be transported to the Xiongnu city, but it would not be able to function due to insufficient power.
When they arrived at the iron smelting workshop with Wang Ben and Li Yan in a carriage, they saw Qian polishing the fire door.
If there is any difficulty in casting the cannon, it would be the fire gate.
Because this fire door requires leaving a small hole in the thick cannon wall.
This hole cannot be too large, otherwise it will cause serious air leakage and reduce the power of the artillery in a series.
Such a small hole cannot be completed with a clay embryo... The clay embryo is only suitable for large-area forming. If such a long and slender strip of mud is left there, it will be destroyed by the poured molten iron.
On the other hand, there were no drilling tools at this time. If I wanted to drill a small hole in the cannon wall to make a fire door after it was completed, I was afraid that it would not be completed within a few months.
I thought of a way to do this:
He first made an iron sheet, then rolled the iron sheet into a hollow tube, filled it with graphite powder and sealed both ends.
After the molten iron is poured, quickly insert the iron rod into the clay mold... The iron pipe has a certain thickness and is not easily melted in the molten iron, so it can maintain its approximate position and fuse with the iron cannon. .
The graphite powder in the iron pipe has a melting point as high as 3600 degrees, which is much higher than the 1500 degrees of molten iron, so it will never melt and open the iron sheet.
After the mold has cooled, just cut off both ends of the iron pipe and pour out the graphite powder, and a small, slender hole will be formed.
After listening to Qian's introduction, Shen Bing couldn't help but marvel at the wisdom of the ancients. They could always use the simplest methods to complete seemingly complicated things.
However, Qian looked at the iron-core bronze cannon on the wooden frame and was a little confused, so he asked the same question as Wang Ben:
"General, what's the use of making these copper and iron pipes for us?"
"This thing weighs more than 700 kilograms. I'm afraid it will be difficult to use on the battlefield..."
The more than 700 kilograms in Qin Dynasty was actually only more than 300 kilograms in modern times.
The reason why Shen Bing didn't make it bigger was not because there was no copper or iron, but because he thought he would pull it for marches in the desert in the future... More than three hundred kilograms is the maximum load capacity of a camel for long-distance transportation, and it is really unusable. The horse-drawn carriage outfit isn't much of a problem either.
Shen Bing didn't explain much, he just took a cylindrical medicine bag from Wang Ben and stuffed it in.
Of course, you need to use a wooden stick to push the medicine bag into the medicine chamber and stuff it tightly.
Then put a solid iron ball in and push it to the bottom with a wooden stick to prevent it from getting stuck in the middle.
Then take a long needle and insert it into the fire door to pierce the medicine bag. After pulling out the long needle, insert the fuse that has been prepared... This fuse can actually be directly replaced by gunpowder, that is, use a long needle to pierce it. After breaking the powder bag, pour the gunpowder from the fire door.
Since the fire door is just a small hole, it will soon be filled with gunpowder, thus forming an ignition channel that connects the inside and outside.
But obviously, fuse is much safer than gunpowder.
Because once the operation is improper, the gunpowder will be scattered everywhere, and a small fire will easily ignite the medicine bag placed outside and cause an accident.
On the other hand, when using gunpowder to ignite, you basically fire at one point, and the fuse will have a slight time delay, so that the gunner who ignited the gun has time to avoid it.
Of course, ancient soldiers who had never operated artillery had no experience in this area, so Shen Bing would rather spend more time having someone make a fuse.
After everything was prepared, Shen Bing took out the fire seal under everyone's doubtful eyes.
Just as he was about to light the fire, Wang Ben stopped him:
"General, just let your subordinates do these little things for you."
"General, please stay away!"
Wang Ben knew that the medicine bag contained gunpowder, which was no joke, so he asked Shen Bing to avoid it.
Shen Bing did not refuse. After all, he himself was not sure whether the artillery could be completed. What if it exploded on the first shot because the manufacturing process was lagging behind?
However, if you consider it this way, you should let a personal guard order it.
But it was too late. Just when Shen Bing was thinking this, Wang Ben had already blown out the fuse and moved it a little toward the fuse... The fuse immediately "swung" sparks and drilled into the gun body.
After a while, a loud "boom" was heard, and everyone saw the cannon body vibrate violently and then flipped over to the side... but the cannon frame was unstable.
What Shen Bing was thinking about was that the gun mount should be improved or a pair of wheels should be installed so that it could better consume the recoil instead of being firmly pressed against the ground.
Moreover, after being equipped with wheels, it is also easier to maneuver on the battlefield. For example, when it needs to be transferred, it can be dragged directly by horses.
Looking at the crowd again, they were all staring at the cannon dumbfounded. It took them a long time to react and asked Shen Bing doubtfully:
"General, is this the case?"
"This thing... actually scares away the enemy with a loud noise?"
Shen Bing said "uh" and then realized that they did not know that the cannonball had been fired in the process.
It's not their fault.
The shells flew out very fast, and at the same time there was a thick smoke from the muzzle, and the loud noise frightened them out of their wits... Who would pay attention to whether there was anything flying out of the muzzle?
Shen Bing smiled and said to the guards on both sides:
"Go forward two hundred steps and look for projectiles!"
The guard was stunned for a moment:
"Projectiles?"
"The general is talking about the iron ball?"
Shen Bing nodded angrily:
"It's the iron ball. If you find it, point out its location!"