Qiming 1158

Chapter 921
Because they are still worried about the strength of these new cast irons, the craftsmen still use the iron core copper body method to cast the guns.

In the end, ten copper-iron alloy cannons with a length of about ten feet were cast.

According to Su Yonglin's request, the barrels of these guns are the thickest at the breech, and then keep getting thinner upwards, while the muzzle is the thinnest.

The gun body is cylindrical, and the whole is fixed on a thick wooden frame.

And because the gun is very heavy, close to [-] catties, if it is to be transported, it requires a relatively large and heavy vehicle.

When Su Yonglin heard the news and came to inspect, he saw the craftsmen preparing for a test shot.

According to previous experience, because of the huge launch recoil, basically, when launching, it is necessary to dig a pit and place the gun in the pit, and absorb the recoil with the help of the power of the earth.

At the beginning of the test, Su Yonglin didn't say anything, and the craftsmen didn't care. They pulled the barrel of the cannon to test it, but the terrifying recoil almost killed the craftsman in charge of the launch.

Now they understand that during the test firing, they must dig a hole to bury the gun body and reinforce it, so as to be safe.

They stuffed five cannons into the iron bullets, aimed the muzzles at the test firing city wall built by them about 200 meters away, and dodged after lighting the fuses.

Then the big guys blocked their ears together.

Su Yonglin's long-awaited picture finally appeared.

With a deafening sound, five iron bullets shot out, galloping towards the city wall in the distance, and smashed hard.

Su Yonglin took a clairvoyance and looked over there, good guy, he made five big pits in an instant, and the dust was flying.

It was a sturdy and savage blow. It is estimated that a normal city wall would collapse at least part of it within a few times of bombardment. Unless it is a particularly powerful city in the world, it is possible to fight against such a terrifying weapon of war.

But as long as the number of shots is enough, the final victory must belong to the artillery.

Su Yonglin clenched his fists and shouted ok.

The craftsmen and their entourage were overjoyed and hugged each other to celebrate.

This journey is indeed not easy, they spent a lot of effort to finally complete such a powerful weapon of war.

From Su Yonglin's point of view, if the body of this cannon could be longer, it would almost be the Hongyi Cannon, an artifact of war at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the artillery at this time was very rudimentary, it was only emerging, and its poor stability and firing accuracy made it only used to shoot large-scale non-moving targets, such as cities.

Even because of the strong recoil, a lot of mud was shaken out of the launched mud pit, so that the original shooting direction was biased. After each shot, the design angle needs to be re-corrected, which is very time-consuming to launch.

These problems are the big problems of early artillery.

However, compared with the possible explosion problem of a simple iron artillery, the structure of the iron core copper body greatly enhances the safety of the artillery.

And it's really powerful.

Its direct shooting method greatly increases the kinetic energy of the impact, and the kinetic energy of the explosion generated by the gunpowder explosion is far from the elastic kinetic energy of the wooden structure.

The structure of the traditional city wall is very effective against the bombardment of general kinetic energy and the falling bombardment of the trebuchet type, so it is difficult for the trebuchet to destroy the city wall.

However, in the face of the direct bombardment of artillery, the traditional city wall will face huge challenges. In a certain period of time, the traditional city wall will be defeated like a mountain, and it will not be able to resist the outstanding artillery.

The present experiment is the proof.

So despite the many problems and difficulties, Su Yonglin decided to continue the experiment, determine the maximum number of shots at one time, and find ways to improve the recoil problem.

Then calculate its maximum range and maximum effective range.

After all these are determined, you can send excellent soldiers to practice. After the excellent soldiers are familiar with the artillery, they can bring the artillery to the battlefield.

The mass production plan for artillery has also been determined, and the Ministry of Finance will allocate a special fund to the Firearms Department. Although Daming's finances are far from adequate, the Firearms Department does not need to worry about money at all.

They only need to worry about whether they can complete the tasks given to them by Su Yonglin on time, quantity and quality.

In order to reward the craftsmen and officials of the Firearms Department, Su Yonglin decided to upgrade the level of the Firearms Department to the Firearms Bureau, which is directly under the Ministry of Industry and is not tied to any other department.

Qiu Yuan, the director of the Firearms Department, was promoted to the director of the Firearms Bureau. He had the right and qualification to bypass all channels, directly submit the form to Su Yonglin, and seek to see Su Yonglin.

Craftsmen will also take credit according to the size of their contributions, get opportunities for promotion, and receive generous material rewards.

This is the reward mechanism that Su Yonglin set for the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry. This emperor is not bad for hungry soldiers. Su Yonglin knows the importance of science and engineering to the country, so there are science and engineering examinations in the imperial examinations.

A large number of students who pass the exam will also enter the Ministry of Industry to study new technologies. At present, more than 30.00% of the craftsmen in the Firearms Division are from the imperial examination, and the rest are traditional craftsmen.

With the passage of time, in the future, the craftsmen of the entire Ministry of Industry will have high quality, the ability to organize and inherit, and have scientific thinking, rather than relying only on experience accumulation to promote scientific progress.

The treatment of craftsmen in Ming Dynasty is quite good. From the very beginning, they have already had the status of officials. In the future, they will be promoted according to their respective contributions and achievements, and rely on their skills to become brand-new technical officials. .

If you have a good ability to invent and create, and have made great contributions, you can even receive normal state rewards like civil servants and military generals, stand out, and honor your ancestors.

Su Yonglin smiled and encouraged them to make persistent efforts.

However, Su Yonglin would not be satisfied with the current situation.

Since the quality of steel has barely reached the standard, and a leap in quality has occurred, it is necessary to continue to promote the production of qualified steel, to promote the continuous rise of steel quality, and to promote the production of more styles of artillery.

Su Yonglin felt that he could start to promote the firearms of the army.

"This type of artillery is powerful, better than attacking fortifications, but shorter than maneuvering and rapid-fire. Except for attacking tough battles, it is not very useful, so I hope you can also develop lighter artillery with an increased rate of fire, such as this."

Su Yonglin took out a pen and paper, and drew a picture according to the style of the Fran machine gun in memory, focusing on the settings of its sub-and-mother guns, introducing the concept of fixed ammunition, and informing the concept of sub-guns and mother-guns to artisans.

Su Yonglin hopes that this type of artillery can move along with the large army, and can also be used when the army is in the field.

It is relatively light in weight, and can move with the army through a wooden wheeled vehicle. During combat, it can be loaded and launched relatively quickly, and it can strike the enemy army within a certain range.

"The current combat mode of the army is mainly to attack the army against each other. The army and the army form an army to attack and fight each other. Therefore, although the artillery cannot fire the exploding Thor cannon, the solid iron bullet can destroy the enemy's army. Think about that picture."

Su Yonglin described the way the artillery fired solid iron bullets to destroy the tight army formation.

An iron bullet roared towards the enemy's army formation, directly penetrating the army formation at super high speed, the scorching breath and powerful explosive kinetic energy would tear apart all the flesh and blood that blocked it.

Just one hit can basically destroy a dense army formation.

This is the exclusive ability of artillery, and the existing powerful long-range weapon catapult cannot do this.

If the trebuchet could do this, perhaps the military formation would not have developed to the present, and perhaps the hollow phalanx would have been born long ago.

(End of this chapter)