Ming Zuo

Chapter 230 Heavy Cannon
The new Zuoying artillery was tested in the battle against the White Lotus Sect.

The effect is very good, and it has won unanimous praise from the whole army.

In fact, the original Zuoying cannon was basically a perfect work except for the occasional problem of the cartridge jumping out of the chamber.

This time, a buckle is added, so that the cartridge will not bounce out anyway, and the safety is guaranteed.

After returning from the front line, the use of weapons should also be fed back to the equipment department.

"Although the appearance of the buckle solves the problem of cartridge bouncing, it is clear that fully enclosed breech-loading guns are the right choice for the best use of the guns."

Zuo Menggeng solemnly reminded that he was afraid that the weapon developers of the new army would be complacent.

In that case, sooner or later, the weapon advantage of the new army will cease to exist.

He didn't say it, but Bi Maokang, Tu Yixian and others knew this very well.

In fact, because the treatment here is very good and the rewards are generous, the enthusiasm of the craftsmen is very high, and they are very willing to carry out technological transformation.

"Sensei, we have already trial-produced a heavy artillery, and we are preparing for an optional test. You came back just in time, please help us give pointers."

Tu Yixian is now a lieutenant colonel, a senior officer in the new army.

For a craftsman to become an officer, everyone was not used to it at first, and felt that it did not conform to the rules.But I also thought that Wang Xiuqin, who made clothes, was a major. Why not a lieutenant colonel who made guns and cannons?
Moreover, the fact that craftsmen can also be officials has given great encouragement to all craftsmen, making them work harder on sharpening their skills.

Hearing that the heavy artillery was manufactured, Zuo Menggeng was very happy.

The trip to Gyeonggi made the new army realize that Zuoying Pao still has great limitations.

Although the range of the Zuoying cannon was not inferior to that of the red cannon, it was still worse.Often because of such a small difference, there is no way to face the enemy's artillery.

The huge casualties of the Fourth Battalion and the sacrifice of Li Xiangzhu were all caused by this reason.

The best way is to have your own heavy artillery.

The new army will definitely carry out siege warfare in the future, even if there are no weapons to break the city.

The heavy artillery developed by Bi Maokang and others is still made of all-steel cold forging.

Now the top and bottom have reached an agreement that steel must be used for casting cannons.

Cannons cast in this way are much lighter than wrought iron cannons.

For example, such a heavy steel cannon only weighs more than [-] catties.

The gun barrel is 4.1 meters long and has a caliber of 125MM. It is made of double-layer all-steel casting. With the power of black powder, there is no need to worry about the explosion of the chamber.

This heavy gun is a front-loading smoothbore gun.

This is also impossible. If heavy artillery wants to exert its power, it can only use front-loading charges in this era.

The front charge must be a smoothbore. If there are rifling, how can the shells and gunpowder be loaded?
The weight of the entire artillery is only because of the load-carrying considerations, and the gun mount and wheels are also cast steel.

The wooden gun mounts and wheels are completely unable to withstand the shooting of such heavy artillery.

Like the Zuoying cannon, because it is made of steel, the whole body of the heavy cannon exudes a silver-white light, which is soul-stirring and heart-wrenching in the sun.

Bi Maokang feels a sense of accomplishment when touching his own works.

"We made two types of shells, one is solid shells for siege and destruction, and the other is explosive shells for range damage."

The craftsmen brought up both types of shells for everyone to see clearly.

Solid bullets are not the kind of iron balls used in traditional artillery, but are made into long barrels with a rounded and smooth arc at the front end.

"We have calculated that compared with spherical solid bullets, shells with this shape fly farther and can maintain accuracy better. The use of arc-shaped bullets is also afraid that the shells will sink into the soil after landing and will not be able to roll."

Compared with the solid bullet, the warhead of the blasting bullet is very sharp, and there is even a thin iron needle at the front end.

"Look, Qianza, this iron needle is actually a striker, and we installed a fire cap underneath. After the shell is fired, the striker will detonate the fire cap through the impact of the warhead, thereby igniting the gunpowder in the warhead and forming an explosion harm."

This invention made Zuo Menggeng very happy.

Because this is equivalent to the development of a collision fuze.

Not only heavy artillery can be used, but also Zuoying artillery can be used later.

Zuo Menggeng looked at Zuo Dai.

"Can your gunpowder factory guarantee the supply of caps?"

Zuo Dai is full of confidence.

"Currently, the number of workers in our gunpowder factory has increased to [-]. And the technical proficiency has been greatly improved, and we can produce [-] caps per day."

This output is already very remarkable under the pure manual production method.

While Zuo Menggeng was relieved, he did not forget to remind.

"While ensuring production, don't forget about research and development. If you can realize the industrial production of fire caps, I will not hesitate to reward you here."

Dai Zuo expressed his understanding, and he will implement it in the factory after returning home.

The artillery was drawn to the firing range.

Unlike Zuoying Pao, which can be pushed by two people, heavy artillery must use mules and horses, and they must have two horses.If it is in rough terrain, even three horses are needed.

For this request, the generals of the new army were quite troubled, but Zuo Menggeng thought it was too normal.

Xiaobian, have you never seen a super-large heavy artillery with sixteen horses?

With the increase of artillery, the number of operating personnel also increased.

Zuoying artillery only needs six people, but heavy artillery requires ten people.

Among other things, a cannonball weighs tens of kilograms, and it is simply impossible for one person to carry it.

Bi Maokang and others seem to have used a lot of brains when developing it.

They made a tool for lifting and loading shells, which is somewhat similar to a net bag.

Two people put the shells in and sent them to the muzzle.Once aligned, pull out the baffle at the bottom and the shell will slide smoothly into the barrel.

In addition, in order to ensure that the shells reach the bottom of the barrel for compaction, the push rod is also specially made, and the head is a bit like a convenient shovel.

In this way, the shell can be sent to the bottom close to the bottom of the barrel without worrying about hitting the firing pin and detonating the shell.

The first shot, the test is the range.

The soldiers raised the muzzle to a forty-five-degree elevation angle and lit it.

The roar of the heavy artillery was far more violent than that of the Zuoying artillery, and the ground could be felt trembling within a radius of [-] meters.The rising smoke and dust completely obliterated the surroundings of the cannon, making it impossible to see anything.

What Zuo Menggeng and the others watched were only the trajectory of the shells.

The solid bullet does not have any obvious rotation, but the flight condition is relatively stable, and there is no mysterious movement of the Brown bullet.

Flying to an extreme distance, the shell hit the ground, and then rolled irregularly continuously, sweeping up the tens of meters in front of the landing point into a mess.

The staff followed immediately and began to measure the range.Another group of personnel began to cool down the artillery and prepare for the next firing.

Soon, the datagram came back.

Tu Yixian was as excited as if he was about to enter the bridal chamber.

"San Zuo, [-] meters, a full [-] meters!"

Zuo Menggeng silently calculated in his heart, 3.7 kilometers.This range is really exaggerated for black powder artillery.

After all, even if it is a ten-thousand-jin red cannon, the farthest is only 2.3 kilometers.

In the future, if you meet on the battlefield, you can bully your opponent casually.

The results of the first round of testing were good, which made everyone happy and ready for the second round of testing.

This round of firing is still solid ammunition, testing the destructive ability.

Bi Maokang and others built several sections of the city wall, respectively imitating the capital, Linqing and ordinary cities.

For the first wave of tests, Linqing City Wall was chosen.

The city wall of Linqing City is considered average in the whole world.It is not as strong as the capital, Nanjing, Jinan and other strong cities, but it is much stronger than ordinary cities.

Experimenting with the city walls of Linqing is actually setting a standard for heavy artillery.In the future, when attacking the city, the generals will be able to know what they are doing.

Amidst the roar of cannons, dust and smoke filled the city walls.

After they were all gone, everyone walked forward and found that a large part of the originally good city wall had collapsed.In other words, if there are two or three more shots, this section of the city wall will definitely collapse.

"Nine out of ten walls in the world can't stop our heavy artillery."

The craftsmen and generals were all very excited, and fell in love with the new artillery more and more.

Then we tested the city wall of the capital level, and found that only a part of it was broken after bombarding a position with more than a dozen cannons in a row.

This result is really frustrating.

"In such a fortified city, apart from attacking the heart, we can only use explosive bombs to sweep up the defenders at the top of the city, and then attack by force."

It is true that places like the capital have never been attacked by force.Basically, the general situation is gone, people's hearts are lost, and they surrender without a fight.

Anyway, with the current artillery technology, it is really unbreakable.

Even so, the performance of the heavy artillery is very satisfactory to everyone.

All the people present unanimously expressed their opinion and agreed to the deployment of heavy artillery.

Zuo Menggeng also made a suggestion to Bi Maokang and others.

"Go and find Mr. Deng Yuhan, ask him to help cast a bastion, and then test the power of the heavy artillery."

Zuo Menggeng's eyes were not always limited to the country.

In the future, if we compete with world powers at sea, we must also consider breaking the bastion.

(End of this chapter)