在朱树人的筹备下，短短一两个月之内，江宁镇上的“磁学研究所”就建立起来了。 无数工匠一边用《武经总要》和《天工开物》记载的热锻速淬的土法生产磁性材料、实际投入选矿生产。 另一边，研究人员们慢慢攀爬电生磁这条遥遥无期的科技线，算是先部署一着闲棋。 马鞍山的钢铁厂也稳步上马，随着第一批马鞍山冶炼的优质钢铁和铜料出炉，武昌、大冶那边也派出技术骨干，把湖广军队原先的兵工厂，复制了一份到南京周边，就建在江宁镇上。 到了七月入秋，江宁镇上已经集结了华夏第一批有志于“奇技淫巧”的理工科钻研人才，都是被鄂王爷重金礼聘来的，只要经过测试确有科学技术方面的一技之长，就能得到丰厚的薪酬。 八月份，江宁兵工厂的第一批枪炮也正式下线，宣告了大明朝廷的第二套军工体系已经萌芽。 或许是磁选法精炼过的矿石、煤炭，炼出来的高端钢铁质量比之前又进步了一些，江宁镇的第一批枪炮、锻钢胸甲，质量也比武昌造略有提升。 尤其是对钢材韧性、质量反馈明显的水锤压锻胸甲，显然已经突破了西方拿破仑时代的胸甲骑兵水平——西方拿破仑时代的整体锻造式胸甲，所用到的钢材，也没有磁选法提前筛矿的，那玩意儿西方基本上要第二次工业歌命之后，也就是有了电之后，才会上马。 最新水锻胸甲下线后，宋明德让人用火枪测试了一下，在钢板厚度一分半的情况下（大约4毫米），居然可以顶住新式“武昌造”火枪的独头弹射击！ 这场“以子之矛攻子之盾”，也算是以盾方完胜告终。 幸好对面的清军依然造不出如此优质的整体锻造钢甲，只能是给铁骑兵套最多两层铁札棉甲，这种程度的防御，在“武昌造”面前还是可以被大威力独头弹贯穿的。 …… 因为江宁镇离南京也不远，就在城外远郊，朱树人当然可以随时视察。 得知有了那么多新的进展，他往往会第一时间去现场了解近况。 江宁兵工厂也果然从不让他失望，每次视察，除了预先汇报过的成果之外，他也都能够有些意外的小惊喜小发现， 或许是成果太多了吧，有些小事儿下面的人都不屑于第一时间表功，想做得更扎实一点再上报。 比如，八月份这次，朱树人原本是去视察新一批的马鞍山产“武昌造”和水锻胸甲，结果就在江宁兵工厂看到了两个新玩意儿的雏形。 首先就是去年开始研发并投入实战的开花弹火炮，终于有了新的优化进展——当时明军火炮要用开花弹，主要还是得靠低膛压的臼炮，其余普通的重型红夷大炮想用开花弹，还存在一个引信可靠性比较低的问题。 如今又经过一年多温水煮青蛙的润物无声发展，开花弹引信可靠性又有了些提升，最关键的是兵工厂技术人员摸清引信安全性的门道后，可以在相对小型化、轻量化的炮弹上，也做出延时引信的开花弹，让开花弹的使用门槛大大降低了。 原本的开花炮弹，外壳至少要用一寸多厚的铸铁，来隔离内外火药，才能避免开炮时外部发射药带来的剧震、高温、过载提前引爆壳子内部的爆破装药。 如今工艺改良、反复测试后，炮弹铁壳厚度可以勉强减少到一寸以下，使用的铸铁也稍有改良。 如此一来，重炮在同等炮弹重量的情况下，内部可以多塞一些爆破药，增加威力和杀伤半径，也能让炮弹炸开后外壳本身的碎片数量增多，多杀伤一些士兵。 这还不是最关键的，最关键的是原本开花弹引信质量差时，笨重巨厚的外壳，导致六磅骑兵炮级别的高机动性火炮无法使用开花弹。 因为六磅炮口径太细了，铁壳都那么厚，里面已经没空间塞火药和铁渣弹片。所以哪怕当初对多铎的最后一战，江守德和蔺养成隔着横塘河轰击李成栋部时，那些前沿部署的骑兵炮发射的也都是实行铁球。至于主战场上那少量的开花弹，全都是靠臼炮打出来的。 现在引信弹壳双改良，总算堪堪让骑兵炮也能发射开花弹，虽然装药量还很小，爆炸后形成的碎片数也很少，但这毕竟是一个从无到有的质变，堪称里程碑。 反正眼下还在跟鞑子休战的种田期，朱树人还有的是时间继续迭代改良。 他得知这个突破后，立刻另行开下重赏，要求继续优化骑兵炮配开花弹的技术，只要能把高机动火炮炮弹的杀伤半径提高一尺，他就能额外开出一千两银子的赏金。 要是杀伤半径能提高一丈，可不得直接奖励研发人员一万两了？这个数字还上不封顶，当然还得确保火炮的安全性可靠性，不能一味强装药导致炸膛，这是底线。 …… 除了开花炮弹的稳定性提高、轻量化成功，今年另一项让朱树人眼前一亮的军工种田新成果，便要算他此前作为一步闲棋交待的“线膛枪”了。 朱树人毕竟也不是什么网文主角，不用考虑“逆向金手指压主角升级速度，以免成长太快剧情没有冲突节奏崩了写手少赚钱”的问题。 他是实打实的真实穿越者，当然是怎么对自己有利怎么来！能捞的好处都要吃干抹净尽量捞！ 此前没上线膛枪，不是他不想，实在是工业基础做不到，他也不懂技术细节。 所以，自从两三年前，大冶那边刚开始搞军工厂，他就作为一步闲棋，随便提了一句，让工匠们琢磨琢磨“如何让锥形的弹丸也可以稳定飞行”的问题， 并且作为一种思路启发，随便提了一句“通过膛线让弹丸尾部刻槽、稳定气流”，具体未必要这么操作，让工匠们自己做实验。 线膛枪果然是很不容易搞，朱树人只管提需求和出钱，却不提供工艺思路，工匠们最初做出来的东西，自然也是跟经过历史考验的型制大有出入。 比如这一次，宋明德信誓旦旦说，经过周铁胆两年多的闲暇调试，总算是造出了一种在枪管内壁拉出笔直膛线、并且能让锥形铅弹尾部刻出凹槽稳定气流的弹丸。 还说经过试射，这种弹丸的射程足可达到三四百步！比目前的圆形弹丸滑膛枪的最大射程直接翻倍了！精确度虽然不太行，但也勉强能接受。 朱树人听说后，第一反应是大跌眼镜：线膛枪不都是螺旋膛线的么？目的不就是为了让弹丸旋转起来、实现自稳定？笔直的膛线有什么用？ 但这其实是他历史学得不好，在真实的历史上，线膛枪出现的早期，还真就有笔直膛线的。任何技术在初生的婴儿期，都是有比较原始笨拙的阶段的。 西方一直到米国独立战争的时候，英军还有用直膛线的线膛枪发射远程弹丸狙杀法国军官的，米军的“肯塔基长步枪”里，也有直膛线的版本。 这种笔直的膛线，如果是发射球形弹丸，确实毫无帮助，但发射锥形弹丸时，好歹能在弹丸尾部刻出几条凹槽来，形成类似于箭失飞行时箭羽那样稳定气流的效果，只是不明显。 历史上早期线膛枪的膛线数量也是五花八门，而朱树人手下工匠们搞出来的版本，显然是受了朱树人描述的影响，把“子弹尾部压槽”想象成了箭失的尾翎，所以弄了上下左右对称的四道膛线， 发射的时候配上底部略带空心、塞上软木塞的铅弹，木塞往前抵把软铅挤压外扩压进膛线，确保出膛时子弹尾部压出对称的四道凹槽。 说白了，也就是适配类似米尼弹的锥形弹药，这种弹丸结构并不难，朱树人也有提前点拨过，工匠们早就做出来了。 朱树人视察了实弹射击的效果后，只能是承认有了直膛线和锥形米尼弹后，射程确实是增加了，飞行稳定性也稍好一些，精度还是要再想办法。 不过他也知道，螺旋膛线的缠距是个大问题，只能是让工匠们再慢慢试，慢慢改良了。反正距离下次大规模开战还有时间，再砸一两年应该能搞定。 相比于射击精度，宋明德汇报这项成果时，表示还有一项技术指标实在是完全没法大幅度提高，那便是这种线膛枪的装填速度。 毕竟有了膛线之后，从枪口装填弹药难度就大了不少。而且线膛枪都是高膛压枪械，以当时的科技水平根本不可能跟手枪和短管喷那样搞后装填，否则火药燃气的漏气就能直接把枪手烧成重伤。 用米尼弹也只能解决一部分“铅弹塞进去时跟管壁贴太紧”的问题，但没法解决开枪后膛线内黑火药残留清理的问题，一旦清理不干净，最多开三五枪后，里面的残渣就能让后续弹药无法塞到底装填到位。 好在，大冶兵工厂那边，去年就弄出了最早期版本的硝化纤维，也就是火棉，只是当时成本还很昂贵，没有找到特别合适的应用场景，只给少量精锐的转轮手枪骑兵配备了硝化纤维发射药的弹药。 直到此前对多铎那一战，明军主流的转轮手枪骑兵用的依然是黑火药弹药。 未来线膛枪如果能有进步，朱树人倒是可以考虑多砸成本，扩大“土法制硫酸再制硝酸”的产能，从而扩大火棉产能，给线膛枪普及无烟发射药，降低刷枪膛的清理工作量。 但不管怎么优化，朱树人评估了一下，未来再次对满清开战时，用黑火药的线膛枪，一场战役估计最多也就开三五枪，每一轮的装填速度，也会比现在的滑膛枪慢上数倍。 明军现在的“武昌造”步枪已经可以做到每分钟三到四发的射速了，后膛装填喷子更是可以达到每分钟六到八发。 而黑火药线膛枪，只能是两到三分钟开一枪，而且开满五枪就得慢条斯理精细清膛，也就是开战后十分钟就要退出战场了。 改用硝化纤维无烟火药，大约也就只能确保两分钟一枪，开十几枪就得送回后方清膛保养。 射速和复用性那么差，作为大规模部队瞄准射击，肯定是不合适的，普通军队排队枪毙也不需要那么高精度。 所以这种武器未来的定位，只能是作为战场上的预先狙击，争取在三四百步之外，集中个十几杆甚至几十杆狙击枪，对着清军重要将领一顿覆盖。 事实上米国独立战争时，双方也都是这么用线膛枪的，哪舍得用来跟龙虾兵对线，还不是盯着将军狙，至少也得狙个中校少校什么的。 原本江宁镇兵工厂上马之前，朱树人评估过，光靠大冶那边的兵工厂，两年内最多也就制造两三万支“武昌造”。 现在江宁这边也起来了，虽然最初产量肯定比不上大冶，但到隆武三年底，两边加起来至少能造五万支新式滑膛步枪了。 线膛枪占用的产能会比滑膛枪更多数倍，以目前的技术成熟度，至少生产七八支滑膛枪的人力、设备工时占用，才能换来生产一支线膛枪。未来磨合成熟后可能会高效些，但如果要追求螺旋膛线缠距问题，还是会有反复。 总的来说，朱树人对未来再次开战时，线膛枪部队的建设规模预估，也就控制在几百上千的程度，比滑膛枪至少低一个数量级是肯定的。 …… 工业和军工部门就这么按部就班稳扎稳打地种田，时间也很快进入了隆武元年的九月。 秋收农忙的时候，马鞍山铁矿的扩产建设也一度放缓，少占用流民人力，把那些季节性的劳工都放回去收获庄稼。只等入冬农闲后，再加快进度。 反正休战期可能至少会持续两年，朱树人也不用太急。经历了此前多年大灾，农业生产始终是最重要的。 隆武元年的中华大地，虽说连年灾害潮还没过去，北方至少还能连续灾荒两三年，但南方相对而言已经提前缓解了。 毕竟寒冷为主导致的灾害，总是南方先缓解的，此自然之理也。 今年南方至少完全没有出现蝗虫，也没有出现大的瘟疫，各地的卫生治理工作做得都还行，此前那波连年大疫后，百姓大多也有点免疫力了。 寒冷致灾的主要方式，还是水旱为主，尤其是旱。但南方地区多年的恢复性水利建设，极大缓解了这个问题。 相比之下，北方清廷控制的地区，农业水利系统几乎已经是彻底崩溃，有些省诸如山、陕那都几十年没修过水利了。 所以秋收结束后，朱树人浮光掠影了解了各省上报的情况，南明各地基本缓解了饥荒，军粮筹集工作还能小有饶余，不得不说是否极泰来，大明在承受了那么多年灾厄后，总算是转运了。 至于北方，今年的人口衰减估计至少又是百万量级的，饿死、瘟疫死、自发组织对抗鞑子被杀死，三项加起来至少过百万。还有额外数十万量级的北方百姓，会持续南逃进入大明控制区。 按照多尔衮现在的竭泽而渔频率，估计顺治二年到四年，北方人口起码比顺治元年累计再下降三百万。到时候多尔衮控制下的总人口，估计也就一千五百万出头了，被奴役汉人至少被压榨到一千二百万以下。 南方的大明朝廷有了点余粮后，朱树人自然也不会闲着。虽然如今对清的大规模用兵不会恢复，但部队要强化训练，新整编的南直隶、江西和浙江兵要磨合出战斗力，也不能完全没有实战演练的机会，哪怕剿剿土匪也是好的。 所以朱树人就琢磨着，趁着即将到来的冬季，以及明年冬季，或许可以对南方尚未归化的地区，进行小范围的肃清，顺便也是根除内患，进一步团结凝聚力量，强化朝廷的控制力。 搞点儿类似后世老山轮战的小规模战斗练练兵，成本只要不比军队日常脱产训练高太多，也是可以接受的—— 当然，朱树人绝对没头铁到想在这种年头去进攻越南，那玩意儿就是个泥潭，当初蒙古和朱棣也都耗费了多少人力财力，绝不是现在的朱树人该考虑的。 朱树人想到的，是趁着冬天凉快，可以进一步对尚未完全控制的云贵地区，进行一番整合，顺便把李定国、孙可望这些原先失身西贼将领和部队进一步跟正牌明军磨合好。 东南边，或许也能趁着冬天，让郑成功把荷兰人前年才彻底占领的大员地区，重新收复一下，这才算是彻底把南方打造成完全体嘛。 历史上，明末大明朝廷倒是一直没能控制大员，但荷兰人也并非一直完全掌握。直到崇祯十五年之前，大员岛上都是西班牙人和荷兰人的势力都有，分别在岛屿南部和北部的重要海港盘踞。 崇祯十五年之后，荷兰人才算是彻底用武力驱逐、迫降了岛上全部的西班牙人，如今才在全岛站稳脚跟两年，所以现在去打，难度绝对比历史同期要容易的多。 历史上，郑成功又过了十六年，才筹划收复大员，那时荷兰人已经经营全岛近二十年了，赤嵌城打狗港这些地方的西式城堡要塞也建设了十几年了，自然强攻难度大得多，害得郑成功只能是围困断粮为主，赤嵌城最后的守军也是饿得不行才投降的，其红夷大炮炮台根本不是被明军强攻攻破。 要是提前十六年去打，大员岛上哪来的赤嵌城等炮台要塞？如今都还是些木头栅栏的简易工事呢。（西班牙人1628年就在岛上修建了“圣多明各城”，是个西式石质炮台要塞，但是荷兰人1643年强攻消灭西班牙人时，是炮轰炸烂才攻进去的。1644年开始荷兰人在原址上试图重修，就是后来历史上的“安东尼堡”，现在才荷兰人刚开工后的第二年） 考虑到这些利好因素，九月份的时候，朱树人就决定召集主要心腹将领和幕僚，讨论一下这两年的冬季行动，为云贵和大员的整合订立一个时间表， 而且还必须兼顾节约成本，不能导致国库空虚，不能影响将来抗清的大业。Under Zhu Shuren's preparation, the "Magnetic Research Institute" in Jiangning Town was established in just one or two months.
Countless craftsmen produced magnetic materials using the local method of hot forging and rapid quenching recorded in "Wu Jing Zong Yao" and "Tiangong Kai Wu", and actually put them into mineral processing production.
On the other side, researchers are slowly climbing up the far-off technological line of electromagnetism, which is considered as a first step to deploy a free chess game.
The steel plant in Ma'anshan was also steadily put into operation. As the first batch of high-quality steel and copper materials smelted in Ma'anshan were released, Wuchang and Daye also sent technical backbones to copy the original arsenal of the Huguang Army to the surrounding areas of Nanjing.
Built in Jiangning Town.
By July and autumn, Jiangning Town has gathered China's first batch of science and engineering research talents who are interested in "strange skills and tricks". They were all hired by Prince E with a lot of money. As long as they are tested and have scientific and technological talents,
With one skill, you can get generous salary.
In August, the first batch of guns from the Jiangning Arsenal also officially rolled off the production line, announcing that the Ming Dynasty's second military industry system had sprouted.
Perhaps the quality of the high-end steel produced by refining the ore, coal, and steel produced by the magnetic separation method has improved a bit compared to before. The quality of the first batch of guns and forged steel breastplates in Jiangning Town has also been slightly improved compared to those made in Wuchang.
In particular, the water-hammer press-forged breastplate has obvious quality feedback on the toughness of the steel. It has obviously surpassed the level of the cuirassiers in the Napoleonic era in the West - the overall forged breastplate in the Napoleonic era in the West did not use magnetic separation of the steel.
There is no way to screen the ore in advance. Basically, the West will not start this thing until after the second industrial revolution, that is, after electricity becomes available.
After the latest water-forged breastplate came off the production line, Song Mingde had someone test it with a musket. When the thickness of the steel plate was one and a half minutes (approximately 4 mm), it could actually withstand the single-point bullet fired by the new "Made in Wuchang" musket!
This "attacking the son's shield with the son's spear" can be regarded as ending in a complete victory for the shield side.
Fortunately, the Qing army on the opposite side still couldn't produce such high-quality overall forged steel armor. They could only equip the iron cavalry with up to two layers of iron-clad cotton armor. This level of defense could still be defeated by the powerful "Wuchang-made" armor.
The bullet penetrated the head.
…
Because Jiangning Town is not far from Nanjing, just outside the city, Zhu Shuren can of course inspect it at any time.
After learning that there are so many new developments, he will often go to the scene as soon as possible to understand the current situation.
Jiangning Arsenal never disappoints him. Every time he inspects, in addition to the results reported in advance, he can also make some unexpected surprises and discoveries.
Maybe it’s because there are too many achievements, and people below don’t bother to report on some small things as soon as possible. They want to be more solid before reporting them.
For example, this time in August, Zhu Shuren originally went to inspect a new batch of "Wuchang-made" and water-forged breastplates produced in Ma'anshan, but he ended up seeing the prototypes of two new gadgets at the Jiangning Arsenal.
The first is the blooming projectile artillery that was developed and put into actual combat last year. It has finally made new optimization progress. At that time, the Ming army's artillery used blooming shells, mainly relying on low-bore pressure mortars. The other ordinary heavy-duty Hongyi cannons wanted to use blooming projectiles.
When using explosive bombs, there is also a problem of relatively low fuze reliability.
Now, after more than a year of silent development by boiling frogs in warm water, the reliability of the explosive fuse has been somewhat improved. The most important thing is that after the arsenal technicians have figured out how to make the fuse safe, they can make it relatively smaller and lighter.
On the artillery shells, explosive ammunition with delayed fuses was also made, which greatly lowered the threshold for using explosive ammunition.
The shell of the original blooming artillery shell must be made of at least one inch thick cast iron to isolate the internal and external gunpowder, so as to avoid the severe shock, high temperature and overload caused by the external propellant when firing, which will detonate the explosive charge inside the shell in advance.
Nowadays, the process has been improved, and after repeated tests, the thickness of the iron shell of the cannon shell can be reduced to less than one inch, and the cast iron used has also been slightly improved.
In this way, under the condition of the same shell weight, the heavy artillery can stuff more explosives inside to increase the power and killing radius. It can also increase the number of fragments of the shell itself after the shell explodes, killing more soldiers.
This is not the most critical thing. The most critical thing is that when the quality of the original explosive fuse was poor, the bulky and thick shell made it impossible for high-mobility artillery of the six-pound cavalry gun level to use explosive ammunition.
Because the caliber of the six-pounder was too small and the iron shell was so thick, there was no room for gunpowder and iron slag shrapnel inside. So even in the final battle against Duduo, Jiang Shoude and Lin Chengcheng bombarded Li Chengdong across the Hengtang River.
At that time, the forward-deployed cavalry guns also fired iron balls. As for the small amount of explosive shells on the main battlefield, they were all fired by mortars.
Now that the fuze shells have been double improved, the cavalry cannon can finally fire explosive shells. Although the charge is still very small and the number of fragments formed after the explosion is also very small, this is after all a qualitative change from scratch, which can be called
milestone.
Anyway, we are still in the farming period during the truce with the Tatars, so Zhu Shuren still has time to continue iterative improvements.
After he learned of this breakthrough, he immediately offered another heavy reward, asking for continued optimization of the technology of cavalry artillery with explosive shells. As long as the killing radius of high-mobility artillery shells could be increased by one foot, he would be able to offer an additional one thousand taels of silver.
bounty.
If the killing radius could be increased by ten feet, wouldn't the R&D personnel be directly rewarded with 10,000 taels? There is no upper limit to this number. Of course, the safety and reliability of the artillery must be ensured, and the gun cannot be blindly charged to cause the chamber to explode. This is the bottom line.
…
In addition to the improved stability and lightweight success of the flowering artillery shells, another new achievement in military farming that made Zhu Shuren's eyes shine this year was the "rifled gun" that he had previously explained as a casual move.
After all, Zhu Shuren is not the protagonist of an online novel, so there is no need to consider the problem of "reverse cheats to control the protagonist's upgrade speed, so as not to grow too fast, the plot will not conflict, the rhythm will collapse, and the writer will make less money."
He is a real time traveler, and of course he does it in whatever way is beneficial to him! He must take advantage of it and try to make the most of it!
He had never mounted a rifled gun before, not because he didn't want to, but because of the industrial base, and he didn't understand the technical details.
Therefore, since Daye started to build a military factory two or three years ago, he casually mentioned it as a casual move and asked the craftsmen to ponder the problem of "how to make tapered projectiles fly stably."
And as an inspiration, I casually mentioned "grooving the tail of the projectile through rifling to stabilize the airflow." This is not necessarily the case and is left to the craftsmen to experiment on their own.
It is indeed very difficult to make a rifled gun. Zhu Shuren only raised the demand and paid for it, but did not provide any technical ideas. Naturally, the first things made by the craftsmen were very different from the models that had been tested by history.
For example, this time, Song Mingde vowed that after more than two years of leisure debugging, Zhou Tietan finally created a method that draws straight rifling on the inner wall of the barrel and can carve grooves into the tail of the tapered lead bullet to stabilize the airflow.
Projectile.
It is also said that after test firing, the range of this kind of projectile can reach three to four hundred steps! This is directly double the maximum range of the current round projectile smoothbore gun! Although the accuracy is not good, it is still acceptable.
After Zhu Shuren heard about it, his first reaction was to be shocked: Aren't rifled guns all spiral rifling? Isn't the purpose just to make the projectile rotate and achieve self-stabilization? What is the use of straight rifling?
But this is actually because he did not learn history well. In real history, in the early days of the emergence of rifled guns, there were indeed straight riflings. In the infancy of any technology, there is a relatively primitive and clumsy stage.
In the West, until the American War of Independence, the British army still used straight-rifled rifled guns to fire long-range projectiles to kill French officers. The American army's "Kentucky Long Rifle" also had a straight-rifled version.
This kind of straight rifling is really not helpful if you are firing spherical projectiles, but when you are firing conical projectiles, you can carve a few grooves on the tail of the projectile to form a stable airflow similar to the fletching of an arrow when it misses the flight.
The effect is just not obvious.
Historically, the number of riflings in early rifled guns was also varied, and the version produced by Zhu Shuren's craftsmen was obviously influenced by Zhu Shuren's description. They imagined that the "bullet tail groove" was the tail feather of the arrow, so they made it up and down.
Four symmetrical rifling lines,
When firing, a lead bullet with a slightly hollow bottom and a cork plug is used. The cork pushes forward to squeeze the soft lead and expand it into the rifling, ensuring that four symmetrical grooves are pressed out of the tail of the bullet when it exits the chamber.
To put it bluntly, it is to adapt to cone-shaped ammunition similar to Mini bullets. This kind of projectile structure is not difficult. Zhu Shuren also made some suggestions in advance, and the craftsmen have already made it.
After Zhu Shuren inspected the effects of live ammunition shooting, he could only admit that with the introduction of straight-rifled and tapered Mini bullets, the range had indeed been increased and the flight stability was slightly better, but the accuracy still needed to be improved.
However, he also knew that the twist of the spiral rifling was a big problem, and he could only let the craftsmen slowly try and improve it slowly. Anyway, there is still time before the next large-scale war, and it should be solved in another year or two.
Compared with the shooting accuracy, when Song Mingde reported this result, he said that there is another technical indicator that cannot be significantly improved at all, and that is the loading speed of this rifled gun.
After all, with rifling, it is much more difficult to load ammunition from the muzzle. Moreover, rifled guns are high-pressure firearms. With the technological level at that time, it was impossible to rear-load like pistols and short-barreled guns, otherwise the gunpowder would gas
An air leak can directly burn the shooter and seriously injure him.
The use of mini bullets can only solve part of the problem of "the lead bullet is too tightly attached to the wall of the tube when inserted", but it cannot solve the problem of cleaning the black powder residue in the breech of the shot. Once it is not cleaned clean, it can be fired up to three times.
After five shots, the residue inside will prevent subsequent ammunition from being inserted to the bottom and loaded in place.
Fortunately, the Daye Arsenal produced the earliest version of nitrocellulose, also known as collodion, last year. However, the cost was still very expensive at the time, and no particularly suitable application scenarios were found. It was only used by a small number of elite revolver cavalry.
Ammunition equipped with nitrocellulose propellant.
Until the previous battle against Duduo, the mainstream revolver cavalry of the Ming army still used black powder ammunition.
If rifled guns can make progress in the future, Zhu Shuren can consider spending more money to expand the production capacity of "local method of making sulfuric acid and then making nitric acid", thereby expanding collodion production capacity, popularizing smokeless propellants for rifled guns, and reducing the cleaning work of brushing the gun chamber.
quantity.
But no matter how it is optimized, Zhu Shuren has evaluated that when the Manchus are attacked again in the future, using black powder rifled guns, it is estimated that only three or five shots will be fired in a battle, and the loading speed of each round will also be faster than the current smoothbore gun.
The gun is several times slower.
The Ming Army's current "Wuchang-made" rifles can already fire at a rate of three to four rounds per minute, and the breech-loading spray can even reach a rate of six to eight rounds per minute.
As for the black powder rifled gun, you can only fire one shot every two to three minutes, and after firing five shots, you have to clear the chamber slowly and carefully, which means you have to leave the battlefield ten minutes after the start.
If you switch to nitrocellulose smokeless gunpowder, you can only guarantee one shot every two minutes. After firing more than ten shots, you have to send it back to the rear for cleaning and maintenance.
The rate of fire and reusability are so poor that it is definitely not suitable for aiming and shooting as a large-scale army. Ordinary troops do not need such high precision to line up and shoot.
Therefore, the future positioning of this weapon can only be used as a pre-sniper attack on the battlefield, trying to concentrate a dozen or even dozens of sniper rifles from three to four hundred steps away to cover the important generals of the Qing army.
In fact, during the American Revolutionary War, both sides also used rifled guns in this way. How could they be willing to use them to confront the lobster soldiers? Instead of sniping at the general, they had to snipe at least a lieutenant colonel and major.
Before the arsenal in Jiangning Town was launched, Zhu Shuren estimated that the arsenal in Daye alone would only be able to produce a maximum of 20,000 to 30,000 "Made in Wuchang" weapons within two years.
Now the Jiangning side is also getting started. Although the initial output is definitely not as good as that of Daye, by the end of the third year of Longwu, the two sides combined will be able to manufacture at least 50,000 new smoothbore rifles.
Rifled guns will occupy several times more production capacity than smoothbore guns. With the current technological maturity, at least seven or eight smoothbore guns require manpower and equipment man-hours to be used to produce one rifled gun. In the future, after the running-in is mature, it may
It is more efficient, but if you want to pursue the problem of spiral rifling twist, there will still be repetitions.
In general, Zhu Shuren estimates that when war starts again in the future, the scale of the construction of rifled gun troops will be limited to a few hundred or even thousands, which is definitely at least an order of magnitude lower than that of smoothbore guns.
…
The industrial and military departments were farming steadily step by step, and the time soon entered September of the first year of Longwu.
During the busy autumn harvest period, the production expansion and construction of Ma'anshan Iron Mine was slowed down for a time, so as to reduce the manpower of the refugees and put those seasonal workers back to harvest crops. We only waited until the winter slack, and then accelerated the progress.
Anyway, the truce period is likely to last at least two years, so Zhu Shuren need not be too impatient. After years of major disasters, agricultural production has always been the most important thing.
In the land of China in the first year of Longwu, although the successive wave of disasters had not yet passed, and the famine in the north could continue for at least two or three years, the south had been relieved in advance relatively speaking.
After all, disasters mainly caused by cold are always mitigated first in the south. This is a natural principle.
At least there are no locusts in the south this year, nor is there any major plague. The health management work in various places has been pretty good. After the previous wave of major epidemics, most people have some immunity.
The main way of causing disasters due to cold is floods and droughts, especially droughts. However, many years of restorative water conservancy construction in the south have greatly alleviated this problem.
In contrast, in the areas controlled by the Qing court in the north, the agricultural water conservancy system has almost completely collapsed. In some provinces such as Shanxi and Shaanxi, water conservancy systems have not been repaired for decades.
So after the autumn harvest, Zhu Shuren briefly learned about the situation reported by various provinces. The famine in various places in the Southern Ming Dynasty has basically been alleviated, and the army ration collection work can still be done. I have to say whether it is extremely prosperous. After enduring so many years of disasters, the Ming Dynasty has finally turned a corner.
Already.
As for the north, this year's population decline is estimated to be at least on the order of one million. Deaths from starvation, plague, and spontaneous organizations fighting against the Tatars. The total of these three items is at least over one million. There are also hundreds of thousands more.
People in the north will continue to flee south into areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty.
Based on Dorgon's current frequency of fishing, it is estimated that from the second to the fourth year of Shunzhi, the population of the north will have dropped by at least another three million compared to the first year of Shunzhi. By then, the total population under Dorgon's control is estimated to be only fifteen million.
After getting ahead, the enslaved Han people were squeezed to at least 12 million or less.
After the Ming Dynasty in the south had some surplus food, Zhu Shuren would naturally not be idle. Although the large-scale use of troops against the Qing Dynasty will not resume, the troops will need to be strengthened and the newly reorganized Nanzhili, Jiangxi and Zhejiang troops will need to be run-in.
Combat effectiveness cannot be completely without opportunities for actual combat exercises, even if it is to suppress bandits.
Therefore, Zhu Shuren thought that taking advantage of the upcoming winter and next winter, he might be able to carry out a small-scale purge of the unnaturalized areas in the south, which would also eradicate internal troubles, further unite forces and strengthen the court's control.
It is acceptable to engage in small-scale combat training similar to the Laoshan Round Battle in later generations, as long as the cost is not much higher than the daily off-duty training of the army——
Of course, Zhu Shuren would never be foolhardy enough to think of attacking Vietnam at this time. That thing is a quagmire. Mongolia and Zhu Di also spent a lot of manpower and financial resources at the beginning, which is definitely not what Zhu Shuren should consider now.
What Zhu Shuren thought of was that taking advantage of the cool winter, he could further integrate the Yunnan-Guizhou region that was not yet under full control, and at the same time, integrate Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang, the former generals and troops who had lost their virginity to the Western rebels, with the genuine Ming army.
In the southeast, perhaps Zheng Chenggong could take advantage of the winter to regain the Dajuan area that the Dutch had completely occupied the year before last. This would be considered a complete completion of the south.
Historically, in the late Ming Dynasty, the Ming court was never able to control Dajuan, but the Dutch did not always have complete control. Until the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, both Spanish and Dutch forces were present on Dajuan Island, respectively.
Important seaports are located in the south and north.
Fifteen years after Chongzhen, the Dutch finally used force to expel all the Spaniards on the island and forced them to land. They have only established a foothold on the island for two years, so it is definitely much easier to fight now than at the same time in history.
Historically, it took another sixteen years for Zheng Chenggong to plan to regain Dajuan. By that time, the Dutch had been operating the entire island for nearly twenty years, and the Western-style castles and fortresses in places such as Chihkan City and Dagougang had also been built for more than ten years.
, Naturally, it was much more difficult to attack by force. As a result, Zheng Chenggong could only besieged and deprived of food. The last defenders of Chican City surrendered because they were extremely hungry. The Hongyi cannon fort was not destroyed by the Ming army at all.
If the battle had been carried out sixteen years in advance, where would the forts and forts such as the Chican City have come from on Damuan Island? Today they are still simple fortifications with wooden fences. (The Spaniards built the "City of Santo Domingo" on the island in 1628
", is a Western-style stone fort fortress, but when the Dutch attacked and eliminated the Spanish in 1643, they were bombarded with artillery before they entered. In 1644, the Dutch tried to rebuild it on the original site, which later became the "Fort Anthony" in history.
It’s only the second year since the Dutch started working)
Considering these favorable factors, in September, Zhu Shuren decided to convene the main confidant generals and staff to discuss the winter operations in the past two years and set a timetable for the integration of Yunnan and Guizhou and the senior officials.
Moreover, cost savings must also be taken into consideration, so as not to empty the national treasury or affect the great cause of resisting the Qing Dynasty in the future.