Ming Zuo

Chapter 1623 Edinburgh Naval Battle (3)

Can the front-mounted black powder smoothbore gun fire conical shells?

To be honest, Zuo Menggeng didn't know either.

He has never seen it before!
If you have the technology to make conical shells, it means that the casting technology of the gun barrel has also made considerable progress, and the rifling is also available.

In this way, why bother to make front-mounted artillery?

Therefore, front-loading smoothbore guns and conical shells should not belong to an era.

But on the side of the empire, this happened.

In order to maintain its leading position, the rear-mounted artillery and explosive shells must not be sold to the outside world, and they must be kept as secret as possible.

In this way, the bronze-cast Napoleon cannon became the flagship product of the Imperial Arms.

Facts have proved that this kind of artillery also had an unparalleled leading advantage in the seventeenth century.

For the bronze artillery, the Dutch and the Portuguese were all very jealous, and they generously donated money to buy it.

For this reason, the National Defense Forces also use bronze artillery from time to time to facilitate the confidence of customers.

But for the Wehrmacht who are accustomed to using rear-mounted artillery, the power of the bronze artillery really makes them feel dissatisfied.

Therefore, some soldiers had an idea and created conical shells that effectively reduce air resistance.

Of course, this so-called conical shell cannot meet the standards of later generations.

With the craftsmanship of this era, it is already the maximum limit to be able to create a cylinder with an oval pointed tip.

But even so, after the experiment, the National Defense Forces were gratified to find that the range of the bronze artillery had increased by a full third.

The most important thing is that the pointed shell can break through the defense of the battleship with more powerful potential energy.

Although shells cannot explode, they are also a good means of increasing power.

The imperial navy visiting Europe was equipped with this shell.

In addition to the cylinder and oval pointed tip, this shell has another feature, that is, the tail of the shell has a certain concave.

This is to allow the energy of the gunpowder explosion to act on the cannonball as much as possible, giving the cannonball more kinetic energy.

In view of the large number of warships in the British Navy, the pressure was a bit high, so Kong Zhiguang took out the best weapons as soon as he came up.

Just when the shells were loaded, the entire fleet had completed its turn, and all their sides were aimed at the oncoming British fleet.

Because the turning maneuver point was started when the distance between the two sides was 2000 meters, when the fleet moved in place, the distance between the two sides was only seven or eight hundred meters.

And this distance is still a little far for the current naval battle.

Although the heavy artillery equipped on British warships can hit more than 1000 meters, once it exceeds 300 meters at sea, the accuracy is completely out of control.

Because of this, both sides in the current naval battle will try their best to get closer to the opponent, preferably within a distance of 100 meters to 300 meters, pouring all their firepower with all their might.

It can be said that this is a way of playing with a bayonet on a cannon.

Of course the Imperial Navy would not do this.

They only have seven battleships. If the British fleet rushes in front of them, no matter how strong the battleships are, they will not be able to withstand the siege of wolves.

The best way is to use the bronze artillery's longer effective range, higher accuracy, and faster speed to bully the British.

After the observation post measured the distance between the two sides, it was immediately passed to the command platform.

"Order the lower artillery positions to fire first."

Kong Zhiguang was very decisive and ordered on the spot.

The adjutant next to him picked up the wooden hammer and slammed it on the iron sheet.

The sound quickly spread throughout the battleship through the metal pipes, and at the same time the orderly on the observation post also passed the order to other battleships.

After receiving the order, the gun positions on the bottom layer immediately began to aim under the command of the chief gunner.

If it is an authentic imperial warship, the measurement and aiming are done by the observation post, and the firing is ordered by the command station.

After all, imperial battleships equipped with rear-mounted artillery have a range of up to 3000 to 5000 meters.

At this distance, it is almost impossible for the gunner in the cabin to see the enemy.

Only on the observation post at the highest point can the calculation be completed, and then the data can be transmitted to the gun position.

However, these warships are equipped with bronze artillery with a relatively short range, and the maximum effective range will not exceed 700 meters.

If there are still observation posts to carry out calculations and pass them on one by one, it is easy to miss the opportunity.

Therefore, the task of aiming was left to each gun position to be responsible for itself.

The gunner of the No. [-] battery on each deck is also the chief gunner.It is faster and more effective for him to observe, aim, and then command other artillery positions.

After receiving the order, the chief gunner quickly moved to the scope and quickly locked on to the target.

"Distance 669, height plus 3, left 5 degrees..."

De Ruyter was next to the No. [-] gun position, and he couldn't help being dumbfounded when he saw the chief gunner using the scope.

Today's European artillery technology still uses naked eye aiming and empirical calculations, and there is no scientific artillery measurement tutorial.

Seeing the actions of the Imperial Navy, he just felt unaware.

And then, the movement of the Imperial Navy to operate the artillery made him more knowledgeable.

The gunners who received the data quickly operated the various handles on the gun mount, and then saw that the gun barrel began to move slowly, obviously aiming.

It is completely different from European artillery, which requires human power to push the gun body, which consumes a lot of effort.

The most important thing is that the artillery of the Imperial Navy can swing left and right at a certain angle.Unlike the guns of the Dutch Navy, only up and down can be adjusted.

As for left and right, it is very difficult.

After receiving the reply that each gun position was ready, the chief gunner gave a loud roar.

"fire!"

All the gunners pulled the rope almost at the same time, and more than 20 artillery pieces roared in unison, smashing the hot shells at the enemy.

When de Ruyter was on land, he had seen the way bronze cannons were fired.

It is known that the mechanism is pulled with a rope, and then the mainspring is released to push the ram, which hits the fire cap to achieve ignition.

This method is exactly the same as the Minie rifle, but it is much faster and safer than the method of open flame and flintlock.

Thinking that the Dutch Navy will be able to replace this kind of artillery in the near future, his heart is extremely hot.

Robert Blake was not in the mood at all.

Seeing that the Imperial Navy fired at a distance of nearly 700 meters, he couldn't understand it at all.

Is such a long distance scaring people?
The rapid flight of the cannonball quickly woke him up from his confusion.

I saw a lot of water jets suddenly sprang up in front of the British fleet, and then fell from a high altitude, causing many people to get wet.

Obviously, quite a few shells missed their targets.

But naturally there are also hits.

Robert Blake saw a shell hit one of the fastest boats.

This kind of small boat can be regarded as a victim, relying on extremely fast speed to pounce on the opponent, and then give the main battleship a chance, and at the same time play the role of support and cover for the main battleship.

But even so, it would take dozens of shells to sink such a small ship in previous naval battles.

But what he sees now is...

The cannonball was like thunder, smashing into the front of the boat, and then rushed out of the back end of the boat without hindrance, hitting a big boat behind again.

A big hole was made in the front of the big ship on the spot, and sawdust flew across, screaming again and again, and blood was like mist.The artillery placed on the bow rolled around and completely lost its effect.

Looking at the boat again, it was as if the bread had been cut open by a knife, and it suddenly split into two pieces on the left and right, and was quickly submerged by the sea.

Robert Blake gasped and shuddered.

He realized that the British Navy was in trouble!

(End of this chapter)