Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 137 The Unexpected Strength of Manqing Firearms

"Tom!"

With the sound of gunfire, 30 meters away from the wooden target, two puffs of white smoke rose from the fire cover and the muzzle of the gun respectively.

This is the Qing army equipment that Wang Yuanfang and others seized during the test on the shooting range.

"My lord, my lord! I've finished practicing the blunderbuss!" A Qing army prisoner with a shaved head knelt on one knee, holding a bludgeon in his right hand.

Around the prisoner stood ten soldiers armed with lever rifles.If the prisoner dares to make any changes, he can be shot at any time.

"Can you tell me again what this gun is called?" Ding Guofeng didn't catch the prisoner's name when he said the musket.

"My lord, this gun is called the 'Xin Hui Bu Hua Tuo Gun', but the little ones usually call it the 'Hui Hui Gun'."

The "Xinhuibu Flower Gun" is a kind of matchlock gun of the Manchu Eight Banners standard. This time, nearly [-] guns were seized on the battlefield, and the others were ordinary shotguns.

The "Huihui gun" is not heavy to start with. Wang Yuanfang specifically said that the gun used by the captives weighed 3.96 kilograms (cleared, six catties and ten taels); Weighed it, it was about 4 kg, the error is not too big.

话说现代军用95式步枪的重量是3.25公斤，赵新给安保部六人组装备的HK416 A7是3.69公斤。

It should be pointed out that the weights and measures in the Qing Dynasty were not very accurate. According to the actual weights left by later generations, the weight of one tael is between 35 and 37 grams.The set of weights inside the Qing Palace is one or two 35.05 grams.And the length of a foot is also divided into three standards: the clothing ruler, the ground measurement ruler, and the construction ruler. The length of the construction ruler is 32 centimeters.

The body length of the "Huihui gun" is three feet five inches and seven minutes. The barrel and bolt are all made of cast iron. The barrel is square.The butt is made of basswood and painted black; there are three fine hemp ropes around the gun body; two wooden forks are installed under the butt to support shooting.

The color of the gun body also has something to say.According to the provisions of the "Great Qing Huidian", the musket bodies of the Eight Banners of Manchuria are all painted yellow; the Eight Banners of the Han Army are black; and the green camp of the Han Army is red.

The gunpowder of this kind of gun is 9 cent and [-] cents, and the bullet is made of iron, which weighs [-] cent and [-] cents, which is [-] grams, more than half the size of a middle knuckle.

"Report to the instructor! The plank has been pierced." A soldier from Beihai Town came over carrying a wooden target.

Several people from Liu Sheng stepped forward to check and found that two 10 cm thick wooden boards had been shot through.

Wang Yuanfang said: "It's not surprising. If you can't penetrate such a short distance, how can the Qing soldiers fight the Burmese! Go on, try 50 meters, 100 meters, and 150 meters!"

So from time to time in the shooting range this morning, there will be a musket sound.

The soldiers in Beihai Town had a two-hour rest every night after the literacy class, and then went to sleep.

Since the six-member team of the security department had to make room rounds and check post positions every night, they held a meeting in the two-hour gap after class.Zhao Xin, Chen Qingsong, and even Liu Zheng who claimed to be "queuing up to shoot the party" also came.

Holding a stack of thick records, Liu Sheng began to talk about the situation of the musket shooting drill in the morning.

"Let me first talk about the quality of the shotguns of the Qing soldiers. At present, the shotguns we have seized are divided into two types, one is the 'Xinhuibu Flower Set Gun', commonly known as the 'Huihui Gun' by the Qing Army; the other is an ordinary shotgun. About the two All kinds of data records of the guns are in the hands of everyone here, so I won't go into details.

It should be noted that the craftsmanship and production level of Manchu shotguns are still good.We randomly selected 50 muskets from each of the two types of muskets; after comparing the measurement results of weight and length, we found that they were basically consistent.The error in weight is not more than 5 grams, and the error in length is not more than [-] cm. "

Liu Zheng carefully looked at the data on the paper, raised his hand and asked, "These are matchlock guns! Then why should we equip soldiers with SKS! How nice it is to let Zhao Liang make 'Brown Bass'!"

Seeing that no one answered, Zhao Xin said, "Let me explain this question. According to the interrogation of the Qing army prisoners these days, especially the shotguns of the two Zhenglan Banner Huobi battalion, the gun Xiaoqi participated in the leadership... This name is really long and convoluted!"

Everyone pursed their lips and smiled, listening to Zhao Xin continue talking.

"This leader is Jialazhangjing; there are five cattle records in the Eight Banners and one Jiala. According to the interrogation of these people, we learned that the Qing army was equipped with flintlock guns..."

"Ah?" Liu Zheng was taken aback. Didn't it mean that before the Opium War, the Manchu Qing didn't have flintlock guns?How is it different from what I understand?
"To make a digression, according to historical records, during the Kangxi period, that is, during the second battle of Yaksa, the Manchu Qing came into contact with flintlock guns and captured them, but they did not pay attention to them in the end."

"Why?" Liu Zheng raised his hand to ask again.His habit is really good.

Deng Fei explained with a smile: "Because the advantage of the flintlock needs to be reflected by another kind of equipment and tactics."

Liu Zheng said excitedly: "I know! Line tactics and bayonets!"

Deng Fei nodded: "The bayonet can turn the gun into a short spear, so as to obtain better melee combat capabilities. However, Qing soldiers don't need it!"

"Why? Could it be that the two iron forks under the arquebus can be used as bayonets?"

Liu Sheng explained: "Those two forks can't be used as bayonets. Most of the gun forks are made of wood. The main reason is that all musketeers are equipped with waist knives!"

The military system of the Qing Dynasty was inherited from the Ming Dynasty, and the Yanling Saber, Lancet Knife, and Yanwing Saber used in the Ming Dynasty army continued to the Qing Dynasty army.The waist knives commonly equipped by the Qing army are all in the shape of Yanling knives, with a length of two feet, six inches and four inches, and a blade length of two feet and two inches.

Zhao Xin explained: "In the daily training of Qing soldiers, the assessment of sword skills is a very important part. If you change to a flintlock gun and equip a bayonet, let alone other things, just the cold weapon training and assessment mode will require Make big changes.

Of course, for the emperor, whether to change or not seems to be a matter of one sentence; but for the entire solidified bureaucratic system, it is a big deal, and it is unknown how many people's interest circles will be broken during the process.If the whole Qing Dynasty didn't settle this account clearly, no one would take this bad luck as a target. "

It sounds simple to change the waist knife to bayonet, but it involves a major adjustment in the Qing military system.Before suffering a major blow, no one in the Qing court would think this was a problem.Isn't it possible to show the bravery of a soldier by using a waist knife to fight the enemy in close quarters?

Liu Sheng lit a cigarette and saw that Liu Zheng didn't ask any more questions, so he said, "Liu Zheng, you'll ask your question later. I'll finish the report first."

"Ok."

"Just now I said that the Qing army is now equipped with flintlock guns, but most officers and soldiers are unwilling to use them. The source of flintlock guns is not only the second Yaksa war mentioned above, but also the Huojizhan rebellion in the northwest and the Qing-Burmese War. We believe that the Yaksa and the Northwest War's flintlock guns came from Tsarist Russia, while the Myanmar side came from the British and French.

The bayonet of the flintlock has already been said, another very important issue is the misfire rate.The captives of the Qing army all mentioned that although the reloading of the arquebus is slower... Oh, after our experiments, the reloading speed of experienced musketeers is two rounds per minute. ...Arquebus shoots more accurately and fires more often than a flintlock. "

Although the flintlock guns at the end of the eighteenth century were faster to load than matchlock guns, the misfire rate was a very prominent problem.The solution to this problem will have to wait until 1825, when the British chemist Shevreri proposed the "Best Chemical Reaction Equation for Black Powder" after many experiments.

Based on this equation, the British formulated the optimal propellant ratio for guns and cannons.And in the production of gunpowder, such as purification, crushing, mixing, pressing, drying and other processes, it has entered the mechanized production stage of modern factories.

The British used physical and chemical methods in the production of gunpowder, and refined high-purity nitrate and sulfur with advanced industrial equipment;
These advanced techniques ensured the excellent quality of British gunpowder, and it would still maintain a good use effect even after long-distance sea transportation.

"The next one is the ammunition and kinetic energy of the matchlock guns of the Qing army. The charge of the 'Huihui gun' is 7.5 grams, and the bullet weighs 9 grams; the charge of the ordinary shotgun is 15 grams, and the bullet weighs 5 grams. The bullets of the two guns They are not lead bullets, but iron bullets.

This time we used two 10 cm thick pine boards to observe the shooting effect.According to the data obtained from actual shooting, these two kinds of guns have the greatest damage at a distance of 30 meters. Half, the ordinary shotgun can only penetrate one piece of wood; at a distance of 50 meters, neither the return gun nor the ordinary shotgun can penetrate a single wooden board, but the penetration depth of the return gun bullet is more than that of the ordinary shotgun.

From this result, we estimate that the muzzle kinetic energy of the recoil gun is between 2400 and 3200 Joules, while that of the ordinary shotgun is between 900 and 1700 Joules. "

"Sorry, let me interrupt." Liu Zheng raised his hand again, he felt he had to ask. "Why do you say that the muzzle kinetic energy fluctuates so much?"

"That's what I'm going to talk about next, the issue of gunpowder." Liu Sheng stubbed out his cigarette and drank a big mouthful of water. "We asked the Musketeers among the captives, and finally got the gunpowder ratio of the Qing army. This ratio is really touching!"

After Liu Sheng and the others learned the ratio data of the Qing army's gunpowder, they found that the proportion of saltpeter accounted for [-]%.The ratio is so unreasonable, no wonder the shooting distance is so "gratifying"!
After getting all the test data in the morning, Ding Guofeng, who was very curious, proposed to test it with the propellant of 7.62 rifle bullets.So the six-person team of the security department worked for more than half an hour to get a shelf that was pulled remotely with nylon ropes for safety.

Taking into account the power of modern projectile gunpowder, wooden targets were placed at a distance of 200 meters.The best-made return gun was placed on a wooden stand, and Ding Guofeng stood two meters behind the wooden stand to pull it; everyone tossed for a long time to find two explosion-proof shields in front of him.

When all this was ready, an hour passed.

The result of the test was as expected, two pine boards 200 meters away were shot through!However, the chamber of the return gun that had been fired many times was also blown apart.

According to Deng Fei's calculations, if modern propellants are used, the effective shooting distance of the return gun can reach 200 meters.

"The production of gunpowder in the Qing army is obviously backward compared to that in the Ming Dynasty! The Ming Dynasty still knew about granulated gunpowder, but the gunpowder in the Qing army is still hand-made, very rough powder gunpowder." Liu Sheng changed the subject and said with a smile: "However, this is a big problem for us. We have great news!"

"The third question I want to talk about is the shooting training of the Qing army. According to the prisoner interrogation records provided by Mr. Zhao and our inquiries, the shooting training of the Qing army is polarized.

First of all, let’s talk about the Eight Banners. The Musketeers we captured this time were all the Eight Banners of the Han Army, and the gunpowder and bullets they spent on shooting training were all borne by the Qing court.Therefore, we have determined that the troops of the Manchu, Mongolian, and Han Eight Banners in the Qing army can regularly conduct shooting training.

However, I learned from the captured leader of the Firearms Battalion that the Green Battalion Musketeers in the inland area are completely different from the Eight Banners.All the gunpowder and bullet expenses during their training must be borne by the soldiers themselves and deducted from the military pay!What this means I think everyone here is clear.The more gunpowder and bullets soldiers use in training, the more military pay will be deducted.Only fools will actively participate in training! "

A burst of laughter resounded from the room, Liu Zheng got up and refilled everyone's cups, and said excitedly, "This is really different from what I've learned before."

Liu Sheng lit another cigarette and said with a smile, "I haven't finished talking yet, and you can't even imagine what will happen next."

"The fourth point, the last question, is the Qing army's musket array. Among the Qing soldiers we captured this time, some of the older ones participated in the Qing-Burmese war more than ten years ago. According to these people, the Qing army When the army was fighting against the Burmese, the ratio of musketeers and archers in the army was about 4:1.

According to the historical data given by Mr. Zhao, in the Fourth Qing-Myanmar War, the Qing court had 900 troops on the front line, and after deducting 2000 sailors, the actual number was less than 7000.On the Burmese side, in addition to its own [-] troops, some French participated in the war.

According to the array map of the Qing army drawn by the captives, the Qing army has a musket phalanx!That is, a large square of spearmen on the outer layer and musketeers on the inner layer. "

Liu Zheng raised his hand anxiously and asked, "Where's the cannon? Is the cannon in the center of the phalanx?"

Liu Sheng smiled and shook his head: "No, the artillery is deployed at the rear of the phalanx. Its main function is to attack the enemy troops attacking from both wings, and to cover the large-scale charge and outflank of the cavalry."

"Understood?" Zhao Xin patted Liu Zheng on the shoulder and said, "I've already known how to line up and shoot people! We don't have so many people playing this game with the Qing army."

(End of this chapter)