Qiming 1158

Chapter 925 The times have really changed
Although the arquebus has various shortcomings of hurting oneself first and then hurting others, in the era of low human rights, this shortcoming of the arquebus is not a big disadvantage at all.

It is difficult for the ruler to even feed the soldiers, and the army may not be paid out. A dead person is like a dead ant. There is no such thing as nothing. The so-called pension can be swallowed up by more than half. They will care about the arquebus. These shortcomings that cause soldiers to be injured?
Such a cheap and powerful unit, even if it is piled up with human lives, it can also pile up economic victories.

Therefore, this shortcoming is instead a huge driving force for countries to develop musket technology faster, allowing them to refit the army more quickly, gradually phasing out expensive weapons with high training costs and replacing cheap weapons with low training costs.

In the process, firearms gradually became the mainstream of the world military.

Of course, Su Yonglin is also a ruler, and the low training cost of firearms is also a huge temptation for Su Yonglin.

Before the birth of the musket, the God Arm Bow was really expensive!Crossbows are really expensive!

Although they have mature technology, the man-hours spent to build them are really long and long. Compared with the production cost of muskets, divine arm bows and strong crossbows really have no advantages.

And it's really hard to train!It's very expensive!
For the same money, it is possible to train a musketeer that is several times more powerful than a crossbowman. Why not do it?
What's more, this is the mainstream development direction of future wars. If there is no better choice, how can we stop?
Su Yonglin then decided to train the 200 people to death.

When more muskets were manufactured, more high-quality soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were brought in to start training, preparing to build them into the first musket team and the earliest reserve officers of the musket team in the Daming army.

After the number of muskets increases in the future, they can immediately serve as the backbone of the army, pull out a large-scale musket unit, and officially put them into battle on the battlefield, opening the prelude to the war in the musket era.

That being said, some intractable problems remain.

For example, the barrel size problem caused by hand-made muskets.

In the era of no machine manufacturing, two guns made by the same craftsman will have different barrel sizes, so the fixed ammunition will be threatened.

What if the size is not big enough to fit in?
Stuck in?

Then wait for the blast.

Su Yonglin encountered this problem when training musketeers.

Some gun barrels really can't fit iron bullets, even if lubricated with oil, but some die-hard soldiers still foolishly push in and don't report it. personal.

fracture.

Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, Su Yonglin decided to abandon the iron bullets and change the projectiles fired by the musket to lead bullets that are easier to polish and have a softer texture. Tube diameter technology.

The Firearms Bureau provides the projectiles and tries to keep the barrels of the same size as possible, but when that is not possible, the musketeer will have to use their own tools to sharpen the projectiles that fit their firearms.

After a period of time, the musketeers have mastered the skill of grinding lead bullets. They will grind the lead bullets to almost match the size of the barrel, then wrap them in a thin linen cloth and apply a little oil, and then they can be inserted into the barrel smoothly.

While most of their polished buckshots come in irregular packs, such ammunition does have advantages.

During the experiment, Su Yonglin found that when a lead projectile hit the target, the lethality brought to the target was very large.

For example, a wooden box can be broken directly.

In the mobile shooting experiment with pigs, ten musketeers shot together, and only one hit the running pig.

But it was this lead bullet that hit, which directly burst the stomach of a pig weighing several hundred kilograms. Blood flowed all over the place, and the internal organs flowed all over the place, and the pig died on the spot.

Su Yonglin felt that many modern firearms did not have such lethality.

Su Yonglin didn't quite understand the principle, but he thought that this kind of hand-ground irregular round ammunition, perhaps because of its irregularity, can cause such terrifying lethality to living things that once it hits , which is basically a blasting blow.

The probability of death is high.

Although the shooting accuracy and range are far inferior to modern firearms, as long as this firepower is concentrated and the number is large enough, the damage to the enemy will be very terrifying.

Therefore, even if the arquebus has so many obvious and intractable shortcomings, the low training cost and high lethality rate are enough to make the ruling class unable to give up, and continue to strive for excellence in the development of this individual musket.

Of course, Su Yonglin was not immune to the vulgarity. He constantly transferred high-quality soldiers from the Ming Dynasty from bowmen to musketeers. Shield hand, training battle formations.

By the mid-fourth year of Hongwu, he had formed a musketeer force of 2000 people.

On the other hand, in the middle of March of the fourth year of Hongwu, with the accumulation of advanced technology, the light artillery of the child and the mother required by Su Yonglin was born.

The same iron core copper body, about 1.7 meters, eight lengths, and a weight of three to five hundred kilograms, can realize its own mobility through its own wooden wheeled cart, and can achieve relatively fast mobility through the cooperation of pack horses, donkeys, and mules with manpower. .

Moreover, the number of soldiers that such light artillery needs to operate is far less than that of heavy artillery, which is relatively easy and can be put into the battlefield on a larger scale.

Su Yonglin watched the strategic test firing by the craftsmen and artillerymen.

They arranged a large pile of more than 600 scarecrows in an orderly manner, posing as a military formation, and then listed five light artillery, firing them at a distance of about 200 meters.

After a roar, all five iron bullets entered the scarecrow army formation, causing different damage to the scarecrow army formation.

But this army formation is basically abolished, there is no doubt about that.

Looking at the scattered scarecrow army formation, Su Yonglin was thinking that if it were replaced by the flesh-and-blood army formation of the Song army, the scene would be very bloody.

In the next month or so, Su Yonglin obtained some very accurate data.

For example, the limit effective range of the current type of heavy artillery, that is, the direct shooting distance at an elevation angle of no more than five degrees, is about 700 meters.

Within this distance, heavy artillery can cause an effective direct hit on the target.

If the elevation angle is raised so that its range exceeds this distance, the shell can still fly, but where it flies depends on its own thoughts.

It is free.

This is the launch data after improving gunpowder and launch technology.

The initial data could not reach this level, so Su Yonglin suggested that the iron bullets should be bound to the wooden base, using their experience of launching Thor cannons, so that the iron bullets and the wooden base could form a badminton-style top-heavy self-stabilizing structure to enhance the stability and improve the performance. range.

The craftsmen improved the ammunition structure accordingly, so that the effective range and accuracy of the heavy artillery were improved.

The launch effect of the heavy artillery with the addition of granular gunpowder and self-stabilizing structure has reached a level that makes Su Yonglin more satisfied.

The light artillery is also blessed with the above technologies, and has achieved an effective range of 250 meters to 300 meters, which makes Su Yonglin also quite satisfied.

After that, if you want to continue to increase the effective range and shooting accuracy, you need not only technical blessings, but also the use of rear sights, front sights, etc., and the calculation of ballistics. You need to let the artillery have certain professional knowledge and develop towards a more professional direction. .

And this newly established firearms troop does not have such a strong professional strength for the time being, and many things can only be figured out by their constant groping.

During this period, all Su Yonglin could do was to provide them with sufficient funds and sufficient training grounds and materials so that they could become more proficient.

At the same time, he also asked educated and high-quality officials from the Imperial Examination Bureau in the Firearms Bureau to come to statistics data, provide mathematical support to the officers and soldiers, and teach them basic mathematical knowledge.

After such accumulation, the artillery can play a decisive role after it is really on the battlefield.

But anyway, times have changed.

Gunpowder and steel are transforming the Ming army.

Su Yonglin quickly promoted the military revolution of the Ming army in Zhongdu, making the Ming army stronger and more professional. At the same time, the Southern Song Dynasty did not make any progress, and even retreated.

The investigation into the Xutong incident came to a conclusion after a period of time that the magistrate of Fuyang, who had come all the way from Fuyang County, told the court what he knew. Only finally figured out what happened.

(End of this chapter)