When he thought about it, the solid iron ball weighed at least dozens of kilograms, so how could it hit a distance of two hundred paces?
But the further I walked, the more frightened I became, because about three hundred steps there was indeed a pit made by a heavy object...
When the iron ball is shot with a relatively straight trajectory, the direction is mainly forward, and because it is spherical instead of the cone shape of modern artillery shells, it will jump forward in a "water-floating" manner on the ground.
The guard looked unbelieving. Could it be that this iron ball could hit three hundred steps?
In fact, this is the ignorance of the guards. The effective range of iron-core copper cannons of this series is 500 meters, and the maximum range can reach 1500 meters.
Although the quality of the iron-core copper cannon made by Shen Bing is slightly inferior due to the production process, raw materials and other reasons, it can still shoot three hundred steps away. If the angle is adjusted, it will be fired at a forty-five-degree angle, which is not a problem. Can hit six hundred steps.
Finally, the guards found the iron ball four hundred steps away, and then they waved their flags with excitement and some doubt.
The reason why I say "doubt" is because they are not sure whether the iron ball was found by them by chance at that time!
Wang Ben, Li Yan and others couldn't help but change their expressions.
Wang Ben said with excitement in his eyes:
"General, this thing can actually throw a solid iron ball more than four hundred steps?"
Li Yan said while looking at the iron core copper cannon:
"This...this is a trebuchet? A trebuchet that can throw iron bullets!"
"And the range is much longer than that of a trebuchet!"
After all, I was a blacksmith. He knew that the iron ball would roll after it hit the ground, so he said:
"The range of this object may not be more than 400 steps!"
Shen Bing did not explain and replied:
"How about I wait and try again?"
After saying that, he ordered his guards to lift the artillery, and at the same time, he placed rocks under the gun mount so that the elevation angle of the artillery was roughly 45 degrees... The reason why the 45-degree angle was not used in the design was because the artillery was used to siege cities, especially to destroy city walls. A 45 degree angle is not required.
Although the 45-degree angle can shoot the farthest, the trajectory is also too high and parabolic, so the hit rate decreases exponentially.
On the other hand, in this era, there was basically no equipment with a range of more than two hundred steps, which meant that artillery could attack with confidence within three hundred steps, so increasing the range was not very important at present.
This time it will be a little more troublesome because the residue in the barrel needs to be removed.
Everything else was done as before, and then with a "boom", another iron ball was shot... This time, because everyone was mentally prepared, they all saw clearly that there was something flying from the muzzle. He walked out, landed somewhere far away, and then disappeared.
The distance was too far, and everyone could only vaguely see sand splashing in the distance.
After a while, Wang Ben sighed:
"This thing only has a range of 400 steps, at least 600 steps!"
There was no such thing as "effective range" in ancient times, and there was no "effective range" for trebuchets.
"Effective range" should be the concept of modern rifles... Bullets and cannonballs fly more stably when their speed exceeds the speed of sound, and the dispersion area is small, so the distance traveled by the speed of sound is probably the "effective range".
The reason why I say "approximately" is because some firearms are rough in production and have large vibrations, and the dispersion area at the speed of sound exceeds the acceptable range, so the "effective range" is closer, such as the AK47.
On the contrary, some rifles have small vibration due to their precision manufacturing and small bullet size. They are less affected by air resistance after exceeding the speed of sound, and their dispersion area is still within the acceptable range, so the "effective range" is longer, such as the m16.
The Qin Dynasty did not have supersonic equipment at all, so the distance it could hit was called the range.
Shen Bing ignored these.
In fact, at least at this moment, Shen Bing didn't need to pay attention to this.
How to attack random artillery three hundred paces away, and what range and effective range should be considered...
However, improvements are necessary in terms of ease of transportation and maneuverability.
Shen Bing thought for a while and designed a few more handles for the artillery.
These handles are integrated with the gun hoop and are distributed on both sides of the gun body. They can be hoisted with ropes through them, and can also be used as handles for manual transportation.
in addition……
Add cannon ears!
The so-called gun lug is a cylindrical shape with two protrusions on the left and right at the middle and rear of the gun body. The gun body can rotate around it as an axis, so the pitch angle can be adjusted.
If the pitch angle is fixed, it will be embarrassing to find out that you can't hit the city wall when you get to the battlefield.
In addition, as mentioned before, it also needs to be equipped with wheels.
And because it is meant to maneuver in the desert, it needs wider wheels to increase the contact surface with the ground, so as to avoid being stuck in the sand and unable to move.
I was thinking about it while drawing, and soon a gun carriage appeared. It looked a bit like the old-fashioned artillery used in Western movies.
Then Shen Bing handed the sketch to Qian and said:
"I will make it according to this style, twenty doors!"
"Each door is equipped with at least a hundred projectiles!"
Yin responded and took the sketch carefully.
Wang Ben didn't dare to ask until then:
"General, does this thing have a name?"
Shen Bing replied:
"artillery!"
Wang Ben nodded and said:
"This name does have an image."
"A cannon that uses gunpowder to launch projectiles, hence the name artillery!"
After Wang Ben said this, Shen Bing realized that it was really...
The ancients called trebuchets "cannons", so isn't this cannon fired by fire an artillery piece?
But because it is fired by fire, the "cannon" next to the word "stone" has to be changed to "cannon" next to the word "fire".
This artillery was not invented and finished.
Next comes artillery training.
Shen Bing directly transferred batches of three-bow bed crossbow soldiers from Li Yan's army.
The reason is that the firing of this artillery is actually based on the same principle as the firing of the three-bow crossbow, such as adjusting the pitch angle.
On the other hand, these three-bow crossbowmen were originally tasked with launching "thunderbolt fireballs". They finally came into contact with gunpowder and knew how powerful it was, so they became more alert and knew that this was no joke.
In fact, what needs to be more cautious are the soldiers transporting the medicine packages... They are pushing a cart of medicine packages behind the artillery to replenish them at any time.
If this cart of medicine packs is accidentally ignited or an accident occurs, the consequences will be disastrous.
Therefore, Shen Bing formulated a series of systems.
First of all, the medicine packs must be far enough away from the artillery, and then the medicine packs must be delivered one at a time... It is better to have some trouble but to ensure safety.
Secondly, except for the artillerymen responsible for ignition, the other soldiers must isolate flammable materials, especially fire bombs.
Not only can you not use it yourself, but you must also set up a cordon around it to prevent other people from entering.
Otherwise, the spy only needs to throw a torch to detonate it. Wouldn't it be unfair?
So it was equipped not only with artillery, but also with security guards.