Each cannon was staffed with fifty men, and ten horses and five carriages were also allocated.
This gave Shen Bing a bit of a headache. Originally, he thought that one cannon only required a dozen or twenty people, which was a big deal. Unexpectedly, he discovered that there were many problems when he entered the establishment stage.
For example, how many people are needed to maneuver and operate a gun truck?
It should take at least twenty people, and that's even if there's enough horsepower.
In addition, there are those who transport powder packages, those who transport projectiles, those who are responsible for fuses and spare gunpowder, etc. All of these require someone with a carriage.
After doing some calculations, it turned out that even if there weren't fifty people, it seemed like they couldn't move.
At this time, Shen Bing became envious of modern self-propelled artillery... Everything was installed in one vehicle, and only a few people were required to control it. He could go wherever he wanted by pressing the accelerator.
Fifty men are assigned to one cannon, and twenty cannons require a thousand men.
This was a considerable loss for the Qin army.
It seems that some of these tasks can be assigned to laborers or newly recruited soldiers from the Yuezhi, such as transporting projectiles.
But firstly, this won’t save many people. Secondly, the language barrier will cause confusion when joining the Yuezhi soldiers. Thirdly, the Yuezhi soldiers are not very educated and are somewhat clumsy...
Shen Bing was worried that something would happen, so he simply used all Qin soldiers.
Before the artillery was built, models were used for training.
This model is actually a two-wheeled gun mount with a piece of wood that is the same length and similar size as the gun, and allows soldiers to practice maneuvering and gunnery.
Among them, only the cannonball is real.
The production of this spherical cannonball took a lot of effort.
At this time, most of the iron tools were made by casting them in molds and then hammering them. It was not easy to make them into a spherical shape that could be about the same size as the inner diameter of the gun barrel.
If the cannonball is small, there will be a problem of serious air leakage and low power. If the cannonball is big, it will not fit in.
The best way is to first use wood to make cannonballs of a suitable size.
Then use this cannonball to press out a half-spherical clay mold.
Then fuse the two hemispheres together and adjust slightly.
Using this method is fast and the error is small. Hundreds of them can be produced quickly and used directly for training.
However, a new problem arose during training: it was inconvenient to use a fire stick to light a fire.
Although the fire breakers can be carried with you and you can blow them on fire when you want to use them.
But it is an open flame after all, and the gunner will inevitably be stained with gunpowder powder when operating the gun, so the clothes on his body can easily be ignited and cause an accident.
On the other hand, the fire breakers are after all used to start fires. They can be used many times without being lit, but they will burn out in about a minute after being lit.
Therefore, the gunner needs to frequently put out the fire, blow it, light the fuse, and then put out the fire...
The alternative that Shen Bing thought of was a match rope.
The making of this match rope is very simple, just dry the slender plants and then weave them into thin ropes.
If the string is not flammable, you can add some gunpowder powder to it depending on the situation.
When you want to use it, light one end of it and blow it out, so it will always keep the sparks slowly carbonized, just like the incense used to worship Buddha.
Then it is much safer to use this match rope to light the fuse. Not only can it be used for a long time, but it can also be used to light a fire from a distance.
It took three weeks to build the twenty cannons one after another.
By this time, the artillerymen had been trained to the point where they knew how to operate with their eyes closed.
Only then did Shen Bing let them use real cannons and replace them with real medicine bags.
Then a few days later the first test launch took place...
Although the artillerymen had been mentally prepared for a long time, they were still stunned by the continuous "bombing" of the artillery. Some even sat on the ground for a long time and could not get up.
This was expected by Shen Bing, and it was exactly the effect he wanted.
Li Yan, who had already tried artillery, became powerful at this time and shouted at the soldiers:
"The sound of artillery can scare you like this. How can you use artillery against the enemy on the battlefield?"
"Everyone get up!"
Li Yan's behavior made Shen Bing feel a little funny. The first time he tested the cannon was not much better.
During this period, Qiu Jiu came and asked:
"General, why are there so many loud noises in the direction of the iron smelting workshop these days?"
"Could it be that the general used the 'Thunderbolt Fireball' to train his troops?"
Shen Bing said "Oh" and replied:
"exactly."
"Your Majesty, you don't know that the 'Thunderbolt Fireball' is a powerful weapon for defending the city."
"And the Huns also have 'thunderbolt fireballs' in their hands."
"Shen Bing is thinking hard about countermeasures!"
When Qiu Jie said this, he understood.
He also knew that the Xiongnu had "thunderbolt fireballs", and the Xiongnu even gave Yuezhi a few as gifts.
Therefore, neither the Qin army nor the Xiongnu could afford to offend them. Both sides had "thunderbolt fireballs" blowing up, and the Yueshi could only tremble in the middle.
However, Qiu Ji certainly didn't expect that for the Qin army, this "Thunderbolt Fireball" had already lagged behind.
While the soldiers were training, Shen Bing was thinking about another idea:
Now that the artillery has been assembled, we can't just let it attack a city and be done with it.
The main enemy of the Qin army has always been the Xiongnu, and the biggest threat has always been the cavalry in the grassland areas.
Can artillery deal with steppe cavalry?
Shen Bing was skeptical about this.
It should be said that artillery can definitely be used to deal with cavalry, but the artillery that fires solid iron balls in Shen Bing's hand cannot.
Not only was it unable to deal with cavalry, it even had no great advantage against infantry.
There have been examples of this in history.
There is a place called Burgundy in what is now France... It was not part of France at the time and was called the Duchy of Burgundy.
Burgundy was equipped with a large number of artillery, and then it became arrogant and thought that it could expand its territory.
As a result, they fought against the Swiss phalanx, which was only equipped with lances and halberds and other backward equipment, but suffered several defeats and even perished as a result.
The reason for this is that on the one hand, the artillery fire rate at that time was too slow and had many limitations. Facing the infantry charge, it could only fire ten volleys.
On the other hand, the artillery fires solid bullets, which actually do not have much lethality.
The direct result of this battle was that Swiss mercenaries became famous in Europe, and all countries were proud to hire Swiss soldiers.
It is conceivable that if this kind of artillery that fires solid bullets has no advantage against infantry, how effective can it be against cavalry that comes and goes like the wind?
And when they go to the battlefield and drive to the grassland, these thousand soldiers can only control twenty artillery pieces... Why not give each of them a crossbow!
Thinking about it, Shen Bing felt that it was necessary to expand the power of the artillery.
For example, changing solid bullets to dispersed bullets.
Or change the solid bullet to a high-explosive bullet with a charge...
This is especially true for high-explosive shells. If such shells were released, they would be incomparable to crossbows.
Because it not only hits far, but also explodes and shoots shrapnel among the enemies...