prosperous age

"Can Elijah make his own musket?"

Wei Guangde was stunned for a moment, and in a competitive mood, he couldn't help but say: "It's a pity that the Ministry of Works hasn't developed the rapid-fire musket yet, otherwise we could really shock those bumpkins in Europe after returning to the capital."

The self-propelled musket is actually a flintlock rifle, which was invented by Bi Maokang in the early 17th century.

Bi Maokang named this new type of firearm "self-generating firearm" and included it in his "Illustrated Explanation of Military Equipment".

The "Illustrated Explanation of Military Equipment" states: "It is inconvenient to fire a gun in wind and rain, so the gun must be opened before it can be fired at the enemy.

Often, some are wetted by wind and rain and cannot be fired, and some are fired by mistake because they cannot see the stars. You need to change the faucet to make the flint strike the trigger and the powder will ignite spontaneously. This way, the wind and rain will not wet the gunpowder and it can be fired in an emergency.

However, this type of musket had many defects and therefore did not attract the attention of the rulers.

It is generally believed in later generations that the self-generating musket was another major technological leap compared to the matchlock gun.

The flintlock uses a trigger that drives the hammer through a spring to strike the flint piece, and the rapid friction with the flint piece produces sparks that ignite the gunpowder. Therefore, there is no need to drag a long burning match during combat like a matchlock gun. It cannot be used on rainy days, and the bright light of the matchlock at night can easily expose the shooter.

In fact, whether in the East or the West, for a long time after the appearance of the flintlock, soldiers and military leaders did not like this weapon.

One reason is that the manufacturing cost of the flintlock is very high, far exceeding the technologically mature matchlock.

Secondly, the power of the flintlock is not actually the same as that of the matchlock, because it involves the need to consider the firing spring, so the gap at the ignition position at the tail of the gun is large and not sealed. As a result, its bullet initial velocity, trajectory, range, etc. are generally inferior to those of the matchlock, which had quite mature technology at the same time.

Third, to generate the energy that can rub the flint to ignite the gunpowder, the hammer needs to hit the flint piece with great speed and force. This requires a considerable amount of force for the soldier to pull the trigger. Too much force concentrated on the index finger pulling the trigger will interfere with the action of holding the gun and affect accuracy.

The fourth is the striking spring. The spring has very high requirements. With the current backward forging technology, some springs are unqualified, which leads to a very low delivery rate of flintlocks.

You know, even if the hammer hits the flint flake, it is not the result. What is considered a success is that the spark can ignite the gunpowder and launch it.

With current technology, there are many problems in this regard, whether it is materials or design, resulting in a high misfire rate.

Therefore, even if Wei Guangde knew about the flintlock rifle, he did not prompt the Ministry of Works to put a lot of effort into researching this weapon.

As for the flintlock rifle presented by the British to Emperor Wanli, Wei Guangde believed that it was just a fun toy and would not be very practical.

The flintlock rifle was actually more than a hundred years old, and it was not until the technology of the flintlock rifle matured that the Western army eliminated the matchlock rifle.

However, his words just now still made Liu Shouyou think.

As the leader of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he didn't even know that the Ministry of Works was secretly researching the automatic musket under the instruction of Lord Wei.

The name of the rapid-fire musket gives you an idea of ​​what it is. It must be a more powerful weapon than the bird guns used by the Ming army now.

Continuous firing actually explains the usage characteristics of this firearm.

Of course, the automatic musket that Wei Guangde asked the Ministry of Industry to research was definitely not the machine gun of later generations. It would have been impossible to make that thing without fixed bullets.

Fixed bullets are a technology that came almost 200 years ago and cannot be produced now.

The automatic musket that Wei Guangde asked the Ministry of Industry to make can actually be regarded as a revolving rifle.

There are many types of revolvers, but when it comes to revolver rifles, not many people know about them, because compared with the wide variety of revolvers, revolver rifles are indeed rare and extremely rare.

To understand the reason, we actually have to start with the characteristics of the revolver.

The history of the revolver can be traced back to the 15th century or even earlier, but the truly modern revolver was born in the United States in 1836.

In an era when percussion cap rifles and even flintlock rifles were still popular, revolvers that could carry 6-8 rounds of bullets immediately became popular throughout the United States and were promoted by the heroes who pioneered the West.

Compared with traditional single-shot pistols, the advantage of a revolver is that it has a revolving chamber that can hold more ammunition, thus achieving continuous firing.

But this brings up a problem: the larger the caliber of the gun, the larger the size of the revolver chamber.

Of course, the enlarged revolver chamber is not a big deal when used on a rifle. After all, one is a two-handed weapon and the other is a one-handed weapon.

In principle, revolvers have an unavoidable air leakage problem. After the revolver chamber has rotated into place, there is an unavoidable gap between the chamber and the barrel. When the bullet is fired, the gunpowder gas will inevitably leak out from this gap, causing a decrease in chamber pressure.

This is the biggest and most fatal flaw of the revolver: its lack of power.

The West later solved the problem of the power of revolvers by not attacking the gun but the bullet, using high-powered pistol bullets.

The automatic musket that Wei Guangde asked the Ministry of Industry to research was actually a relatively simple revolver rifle.

After all, compared with today's rifles, the loading speed is there, whether it is the rifles of the Ming Dynasty or Europe.

A rifle that can fire five or even six bullets continuously in a short period of time has an overwhelming advantage in terms of firepower.

Of course, this rifle still cannot solve the power problem caused by air tightness, so it is a weapon for close-range combat.

Weapons prepared for the Ming army to deal with intensive and saturated attacks and cavalry charges.

At medium and long distances, the Ming army used artillery and large-caliber bird guns to attack the enemy, while at close range they used tiger squat cannons and this type of rapid-fire musket to quickly kill approaching enemy troops.

At closer distances, a slow-loading firearm is no different from a fire stick, so in Qi Jiguang's conception, firearmsmen would hide behind the army formation to reload and shoot the enemy calmly.

This requires the military formation to be able to withstand the enemy's attack and give the firearms operators time to reload.

Or, just throw the gun and pick up the knife to kill.

Even Qi Jiguang had the idea of ​​equipping the bird gunners with several bird guns and letting them take turns firing.

Of course, this idea would naturally not be supported by Tan Lun and Zhang Ke.

For long-range combat, we need to think of ways to use cannons and large-caliber muskets.

When it comes to close combat, all Wei Guangde can think of are grenades and this kind of automatic musket.

Current fuse technology and gunpowder power do not support the development of grenades, but of course there is no problem in making grenades for defending cities.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty did have large grenades, which were directly distributed in important military towns.

In fact, throwing explosive bombs have been extremely popular since the Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, major towns in the north and along the Great Wall actually stockpiled a lot of throwing explosives such as stone grenades and iron explosive bombs.

As for the wooden-handled grenades and round grenades that everyone is familiar with, well, they are simply impossible to make under existing technical conditions.

Even if you manage to make it, the power will be so great that you might end up blowing yourself up.

Because at this time, the fuse needs to be ignited before the thrown explosives are thrown out, which is actually similar to a pack of dynamite.

Therefore, all Wei Guangde could do was to ask the Gunpowder Bureau to modify the gunpowder ratio and find more powerful gunpowder.

Relatively speaking, the automatic musket has a certain value, which is equivalent to the power of six loaded bird guns.

As for the hundred-gun muskets made by the Ming army, Wei Guangde had seen the samples a long time ago. Compared with the bird gun, this thing is still too big and a bit heavy for a single soldier or cavalry to use, although it does have the characteristics of a rifle. However, after receiving Wei Guangde's suggestion, the Ministry of Industry showed Wei Guangde a sample two months ago.

In Wei Guangde's eyes, it was actually an enhanced version of the three-eyed gun, and he turned the three-eyed gun into a six-eyed gun for him to see.

The difference is that the barrel has been lengthened. It is no longer short and thick like the three-barreled gun, but uses a three-foot long barrel, which increases the power of the musket.

Because the weight was too great after the barrel was lengthened, a gun rack was installed at the front end. It was very similar to the Thunder Gun that Wei Guangde had seen.

To be more specific, it was an early Gatling gun.

It was only at this time that Wei Guangde realized that the sophisticated wheel design might be beyond the technical capabilities of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen at the time, so the Ministry of Works thought of using a six- or even a ten-barreled gun to get rid of himself.

In the words of the craftsman, this thing can hold more barrels and fire more bullets.

In fact, what Wei Guangde was thinking of was the combination of the revolver and the falconet. The revolver increased the amount of ammunition, and even if it was a manual revolver, a revolver could be emptied in a very short time.

Then, replace the new revolver like a falconet and continue firing.

Such a firearm, equipped with three revolvers, can fire eighteen bullets in a very short time.

In this era of backward firearms technology, how many shots can a musketeer fire in a battle?

Such a weapon is definitely the nemesis of close-range enemies.

However, he still overestimated the craftsmanship of the craftsmen. They chose the simplest way to achieve the goal that Wei Guangde wanted to achieve, which was to fire as many bullets as possible in a short period of time.

After a brief thought, Wei Guangde came up with another idea, which was to equip the Ming army with the most primitive machine guns.

The new task he gave the craftsmen was to increase the number of gun barrels to twenty or even thirty, to use the printed lines to ignite them directly, and to fire them in the shortest time possible.

Don't worry about single shots or continuous shots, just fire them all at once.

Combining the theory of machine gun groups in later generations, Wei Guangde also changed the use of this weapon from a single soldier to a team of ten people, which was also the most basic combat unit of the Ming army.

Led by the squad leader, two sword and shield soldiers were responsible for protection, and the rest of the people were divided into groups of two, carrying gun barrels and additional ammunition.

The gun frame is actually a combination of a bracket and a holster, with a thickened earring on the front and back of the barrel.

Simply put, the holster is two holsters with twenty or thirty holes. When using, remove the rear holster, insert the loaded barrel into the front holster first, fix the earrings directly on the holster, and then insert the rear holster into it to fix it. Finally, leave a small hole in the barrel to install the lead.

Light all the fuses directly and the bullets will be fired out quickly, forming a certain rain of bullets.

Wei Guangde doesn't know yet how effective this thing is, as the Ministry of Industry has not yet provided any samples.

Anyway, regardless of whether it can be realized or not, let the craftsmen in the Ministry of Industry try to make it first, at least to broaden these people's thinking.

Who knows what good ideas they might come up with during the manufacturing process.

Suppressing his shock, Liu Shouyou whispered, "Lord Wei, do you want me to send someone to the Ministry of Works to urge them? There is still a month left, maybe we can make it in time."

What he was talking about was naturally the automatic musket mentioned by Wei Guangde.

He didn't say machine gun, because it really wasn't a machine gun.

Wei Guangde was speechless. He was just saying it casually.

After all, we can’t say that just because Europeans are using flintlock rifles, we in the Ming Dynasty don’t have any decent weapons.

Wei Guangde glanced around and thought about the things he had asked the craftsmen to make, and he felt that it was not something that he could not present.

You know, the principle of this thing was actually used by an Australian company hundreds of years later. It was the so-called "Metal Storm".

The bullets are pre-loaded in the barrel and fired by electric shock, and it is claimed that 160 million rounds of bullets can be fired per minute.

When this weapon system was first proposed, it was once called the "next generation close-in defense weapon" and was believed to be able to intercept swarms of drones and hypersonic missiles.

However, judging from the subsequent development of this weapon system, the "Metal Storm" was obviously exaggerated.

What he asked for seemed to be similar to Metal Storm.

In later times, Metal Storm would certainly not have much appeal, but now is the time and the current technology is just like that.

Having a good design is enough, but verification can only be done through actual combat testing after the weapon is manufactured to determine whether it can be used.

"Send someone back to the capital to ask Lord Jiang whether the thing has been made. I will go to the Ministry of Works to check when we get back to the capital."

Wei Guangde finally made up his mind to show off the Ming Dynasty's firearms in front of the Europeans.

Wei Guangde has received some news. Because many of the Ming Dynasty's firearms now originated from the Western barbarians, this makes them seem to have a mysterious confidence in the firearms they designed, believing that they are better than those of the Ming Dynasty.

Regardless of whether the automatic musket can be used or not, or how easy it is to use, let's first show it to the barbarians and let them drop their jaws.

After receiving the order, Liu Shouyou clasped his hands together and said, "I will immediately send someone to find out the situation and report it to you in a timely manner."

"Ah."

Wei Guangde handed the note in his hand directly back to Liu Shouyou.

These will be recorded and organized in the secret files of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and Wei Guangde does not need to take them away.

Liu Shouyou left quickly, and Wei Guangde returned to his sedan chair. A long-servant whispered in Wei Guangde's ear, "Master, I just received news that when His Majesty rode on horseback, he summoned the Marquis of Ningyang, the Marquis of Anyuan and other nobles to accompany him."

"Oh? Are they all nobles?"

Wei Guangde stood in front of the sedan chair and asked in a low voice.

"Yes, they are all nobles."

The attendant said in a low voice.

The news just came from the front, but Wei Guangde was talking with Liu Shouyou on the roadside, so naturally he did not report it in person.

Wei Guangde didn't say anything else and got into the sedan chair.

He did not ride his horse to catch up. Since the little emperor did not summon him, he naturally could not go.

Officials all want to show up in front of the emperor to facilitate future promotions. At least the emperor knows that you exist, even if the emperor is still in power.

But Wei Guangde obviously doesn't need to do this.

After entering the sedan chair, Wei Guangde murmured, "Your Majesty has also started to play tricks. No wonder they say that serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. He has grown up and has his own ideas. He is no longer easy to serve." (End of this chapter)