Anti-Qing: I'm actually an honest person

Chapter 166 Settle the suspicion (two in one)

Outside the city, Zheng Jun, who barely stabilized his morale by relying on the word "Prince Jane" who didn't know whether it was reliable or not, was digging tunnels day and night.

Inside the city, the workers are still working in full swing, and the merchant ships are also non-stop around the clock, and the trade is carried out by sea. On the contrary, they are almost too lazy to pay attention to the army digging trenches outside the city, sending hundreds of people from time to time. The team is a small-scale army of combat units, and they do not carry grenades out of the city to harass them, and they are all used as training.

The soldiers on the top of the city started shooting training under the guarantee of sufficient bullet supply. The rifled guns made by the weapon factory, which are extremely rare, expensive, and actually not practical at all, were used in the trenches. The enemy army came and launched a marksmanship contest.

It's funny to say that this rifled gun was originally a secret weapon prepared by Liu Dapao for himself, and it was always kept secret, Wu Sangui and Geng Jingzhong didn't tell.

He was full of joy and thought that he was an epoch-making invention. When he made the first rifled gun, he showed it in front of Lao Le, but Lao Le completely stunned him with one sentence: "You made it What is this useless thing for?"

Liu Dapao thought that Lao Le was ignorant, and explained the principle of rifled guns and the function of rifling to Lao Le in detail. As a result, Lao Le looked at Liu Dapao like a fool and said, "Liu, it seems that you also It’s not as special about the world as I thought, and it still has the limitations of you Asians.”

Liu Dapao didn't know why, but Lao Le told him that rifled guns were studied in Europe in the 100th century. They have been studied for more than [-] years, but because they are not practical, they have not become the mainstream equipment of European firearms.

Liu Dapao was still a little unconvinced at first, and arranged for the cronies of the Tiandihui to conduct a large number of test shots, so he had to admit that what Lao Le said was right.

This kind of thing of weapon advancement is really not a simple small invention that can take a big step forward.

The reason is also very simple. There is nothing complicated about rifling. The most primitive and simplest rifling is just a circle of spiral patterns carved on the inner wall of the barrel. The same is true for the rifling made by Liu Dapao.

In this way, the bullet will rotate at a high speed when it is ejected from the chamber, and the high-speed rotation will greatly increase the stability of the bullet, reduce the influence of the wind on the bullet, make the bullet hit farther, and the trajectory is straighter, that is, the middle and long distance aiming finally has significance.

You only need to make a long screw made of stainless steel with extremely sharp edges. The radius is smaller than the outer wall of the barrel and larger than the inner wall of the barrel. The inner wall of the barrel is lined. Of course, this requires high precision. The diameter of the long screw and the barrel must be perfectly matched. In the era when there was no standardized machine tool, making such a screw can make the manual master half dead, and after grinding a few more firearms, the screw The sharpness will also be greatly reduced, resulting in a substantial increase in costs.

Of course, Liu Dapao is not unacceptable when the issue of cost is applied to weapons. The big deal is that the cost will be higher and the output will be lower. It will be handed over to the elite for centralized use.

However, the problem is that due to the spiral structure of the inner wall of the barrel, this kind of rifled gun will leave a lot of gunpowder residue, combustion residue, etc. Every time the gunner fires a shot, he must use a long brush to carefully clean the inner wall of the barrel. Remains to fire a second shot.

Otherwise, the gunpowder slag squeezes the bullet in the trajectory to deform the bullet, which will damage the barrel and cause the chamber to explode.

This is without taking into account the difficulty of handling the lead bullets under the influence of the rifling during the loading process.

In fact, unless it is a new gun, no matter how carefully it is cleaned, the gunpowder scum is not so easy to clean up, and the service life of the gun can be said to be extremely short.

In other words, with the support of the paper-packed gunpowder created by Liu Dapao, the original smoothbore gun can be fired every 20 seconds, and a gunner with a particularly fast hand speed can achieve the ultimate loading of every 12 seconds. With a single bullet, the power of a volley is already very impressive. It is nothing more than a shorter range and less accurate head, but there is no need to be too accurate in a short-range salvo, right?

Since rifled guns take much longer to clean the barrel than smoothbore guns, they may not be able to fire a single shot in a minute, and it is extremely difficult to fire a volley, let alone a three-stage shooting that requires accurate loading to the second. The production cost of the rifled gun is extremely high, and it is so easy to break, and it is especially easy to explode.

The conclusion is: as long as this thing can be used a little bit, it will not be useless at all.

So Liu Dapao can only throw this thing to the defenders for fun. After all, in this kind of low-intensity war, a cold shot from time to time can kill people from time to time. A little psychological pressure.

More importantly, he has practiced marksmanship. Although it seems useless for the time being, Liu Dapao has not completely given up the research on rifled guns. Compared with the natives, his biggest advantage is that he knows exactly which research method is right. Soldiers with good marksmanship will come in handy sooner or later.

Besides, the marksmanship of the musket is always useful when shooting at close range. If you practice well at long-range shooting, isn't it sure to shoot at close range?

In fact, the solution to this problem is obvious, and it is nothing more than working hard on bullets.

I've heard of a bullet called Mini, but Liu Dapao doesn't know how to make it.

In fact, I don’t want to make one. I heard that this thing is the prototype of modern bullets, so why not just make modern bullets directly?

Because of the rifling, there is no need to use round lead bullets in firearms. Modern long bullets can also be used, so you can consider separating the bullet head from the bullet casing, reloading, and using the recoil to eject the bullet casing. , and then improve the musket according to the bullet technology.

The guns made in this way should be very different from those made in Hanyang.

But the processing technology of the bullet is too complicated. With Chenghai's current technical conditions, the manufacturing cost and output are a bit touching. If there is no machine tool, the workers and masters will go crazy.

Liu Dapao can accept that the gun is more expensive, but if the bullets are made too expensive, the cost of the war will be too high.

And the new type of bullet puts forward further requirements on the purity of gunpowder. For black powder... the purity of gunpowder extracted by the stacked nitrate method is not enough. Use black powder, especially black powder that is not particularly high in purity. For gunpowder, even if modern bullets are made, it will still greatly affect the life of the gun. The burning speed of gunpowder is too slow. I am afraid that the bullet must be made longer than a finger, which will in turn affect the loading and mechanical design.

And if you want to further purify it, or go further to engage in nitrocellulose, Liu Dapao won't do it either. After all, he didn't do chemistry in his previous life.

So, in the 19th century, the large-scale replacement of smoothbore guns by rifled guns was not an advance in gun technology at all, but a revolution in bullet technology, and the revolution in bullet technology was essentially social productivity, especially machinery. The fruit of the flowers of the development of processing and chemical technology.

However, who stipulates that chemistry cannot backfire?Liu Dapao didn't understand it himself, so he spent money on it. Isn't basic chemistry just obtained through random experiments?

Even if Liu Dapao doesn't know chemistry, he knows that nitric acid can be obtained by soaking saltpeter in sulfuric acid, and nitric acid can be obtained by soaking cotton. As long as there is nitric acid and cotton, the rest is just a matter of application ratio. Cotton is the mainstream bullet gunpowder even in the 21st century.

So the key is to make sulfuric acid. For this reason, Liu Dapao specially built the Royal Academy of Sciences. There are hundreds of original grassroots scientists in the Academy of Sciences, both in China and Europe. They study this sulfuric acid all day long without doing anything. With a high salary of 100 taels of silver a month, Liu Dapao has already issued a death order. Whoever can come up with a feasible method for large-scale production of sulfuric acid, whether domestic craftsmen or foreign, will reward 10 taels of silver and seal ten thousand households. .

Sulfuric acid, when the sulfur comes out, use all kinds of messy things in various containers and add water to boil it together. I don’t believe that sulfuric acid can’t be boiled out. As for whether it will explode or corrode during this random experiment, I don’t care It's nothing more than a waste of time.

Those who died during the research will receive pensions, and those who are disabled will be provided with pensions by the company.

There must be a brave man under a heavy reward, but I don't believe that a chemist can't be rewarded.

Tighten your belt and make nitrocellulose.

As long as this thing is used for war, all shareholders of the company will unconditionally support it, even if it reduces dividends or even makes no money.

Hmm... As a matter of fact, the major shareholders of the company are already reducing dividends as much as possible, and Liu Dapao's options are really a bit aggressive, and major shareholders want to bypass dividends and withdraw cash from the company, no matter in ancient times or modern times, it is not difficult .

As for the mechanical aspect, this can only climb the technology tree bit by bit. Liu Dapao imitated the principle of the pedal sewing machine and made a suggested pedal machine tool. The pedal saw can also be used for cutting jadeite. To cut bullets, processing machinery, etc.

Recently, as long as he is free, he will personally participate in the improvement of the steam engine and put forward many valuable suggestions. Although I read popular science books when I was a child, it was said that Watt was inspired by boiling water to invent the steam engine, but in fact, even Kangxi’s There is a model steam engine in the study, and Watt has not even made a sound.

It's just that the steam engine has never been practical. This is not difficult in Liu Dapao's view. He plans to invent a steam-powered machine tool for guns and bullets. As for the textile machine, he is not in a hurry.

How else to put it, war is the first source of power for the development of science and technology.

Anyway, the war was carried out in an orderly and quiet way, in the methodical and quiet way of the rifle gun test firing like the defenders in Chenghai City, and in the tacit understanding between Liu Dapao and Zheng Jing, slowly and orderly with.

Even if Zheng Jing's trench was dug all the way to the city, the artillery was not enough at all, and it was of no use except for training the defenders of Chenghai City.

He even dared not come out of the trench at all. If he dared to come out, he would be bombarded immediately.

And Liu Dapao's waiting finally slowly blossomed and borne fruit.

The first thing that came to mind was the news from Wanwan. After all, Chen Jinnan did not disappoint Liu Dapao. On the sixth day after the start of the war, Chen Jinnan appeared in Chenghai City in person, making Liu Dapao very happy.

"Master, why are you here in person?"

Chen Jinnan didn't greet Liu Dapao at all, he could see that he was really anxious, and when he saw Liu Dapao, he directly talked about the business:

"Xu Yao, Chen Shengwu, Huang An and others have been fighting with the people of the country with Lao Le, and they really can't get away. The Dadu natives are making trouble again. I have also sent Wu Shurao to lead the army to suppress it. I really don’t have any soldiers to use. I left Xiaohe to guard Penghu. I brought all the soldiers I could. There are 3000 soldiers in total, but there are only 9000 soldiers in Dongning, and the remaining [-] are all servants. Soldiers, most of them are newly domesticated niggers."

"I don't know if it's enough, but it doesn't matter, as long as you stay on guard for a while, at least Old Wu should be able to draw his hand, and at least you can capture tens of thousands of prisoners with big belly. You can gather another group of servants, you can earn money in field battles, and defending the city should be enough, how is the battle going on here?"

Liu Dapao smiled and said: "It's okay, the war here is basically under control. If Labu doesn't come, Zheng Jing is nothing to worry about. I think they can be wiped out within a day. The reason why Hanging and refusing to go out of the city is purely for delaying time, I want to see the reaction of my officials from all over the Ming Dynasty, and also want to try to see if I can hang Labu here."

Chen Jinnan was taken aback when he heard the words, and soon his tense body relaxed, but he smiled wryly and said, "You...the so-called test of Ming officials is mainly to test me, right?"

Liu Dapao smiled without denying it, and said, "Seeing that Master brought so many reinforcements personally, it makes me happier than winning this battle."

Chen Jinnan was silent for a while when he heard the words, and said: "In any case, I have been running around for half my life just to fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. No matter how difficult I was between you and Zheng Jing before, but now he is attacking my capital of the Ming Dynasty. He is an undisputed traitor, and it is even possible that he has already surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Would I choose to follow Zheng Jing to be a traitor to the Qing court because of my loyalty to the Zheng family? Are you thinking of me as a traitor? Who is it? No matter how foolish and loyal you are, you should at least have a limit, right?"

Seeing this, Liu Dapao looked at Chen Jinnan's white hair covering almost half of his head. He knew that during this period of time, he was under great pressure and the pain in his heart was unmatched by anyone. Feeling sad.

In any case, Chen Jinnan is actually okay with him as an apprentice. If it weren't for his strong support, he would not be able to become the chief helm of the Tiandihui so smoothly. Besides, no matter what he said, he is indeed a respectable people.

But I couldn't help but feel very emotional, and said sincerely: "It's me, I misunderstood Master, it's all my fault, but to be honest, I really think that Zheng Jing's surrender is a good thing, at least let me Letting go of the previous grievances with the master and reconciling with each other, this alone, this battle is worth fighting for me."

"Hey~"

Chen Jinnan's heart softened when he heard the words, and tears welled up in his eyes. Excited, he hugged Liu Dapao and burst into tears.

In the past few months, he has been suffering so much from the words of loyalty and righteousness, and he can't sleep at all. If he didn't care about the great cause of anti-Qing Dynasty and knew that he was still useful, he would have wiped his neck and killed himself. From the point of view of modern medicine, It is clear that he is already depressed, and it is at least moderate.

So in fact, when he learned that Zheng Jing had rebelled and had even surrendered to the Manchu Qing, Chen Jinnan's first feeling was not anger, but relief from the inside out.

Whether he was deceiving himself or not, he finally had an explanation to himself, and when he saw Zheng Chenggong under Jiuquan in the future, he could finally face him calmly.

Lei Zhentian was on the side, he didn't know if he was infected by this anger, but he just hugged the two of them together and cried.

It made Liu Dapao, who didn't want to cry at all, feel a little sad. After thinking about it, it didn't seem appropriate not to cry, so he cried too.

(End of this chapter)