prosperous age

"Master Lei, Master Sun, you are both veterans in this industry, look here."

Wei Guangde pointed at the end of the gun and said, "This hole is where the ignition is, and it's where the fuse is placed."

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, both of them nodded slightly.

"I just want to ask, do you have any way to make a mechanism here that can make it fire by itself, without installing a fuse to ignite the projectile?"

After saying that, Wei Guangde looked at them expectantly.

"How is it possible to make a fire with such a small hole?"

Master Sun exclaimed first, facing the ignition hole.

Master Lei didn't say anything and was still thinking, but Jiang Zhi, Liu Shouyou and others were also attracted.

“I just proposed a hypothesis to see if it can be solved.

For example, do you know things that are flammable? Materials that can start fire with just a little collision or friction?

This material is installed at this position, and the trigger hits or rubs here to create fire, igniting the gunpowder in the barrel and launching the projectile. "

Wei Guangde had no choice but to tell everyone what he knew about the principles of later bullet primers, hoping that by this time in the Ming Dynasty, craftsmen had already come into contact with similar materials.

If it does exist, it would be a great success.

The Ming Dynasty's firearms were at least two or three hundred years ahead of the West.

Wei Guangde knew that during the Opium War, when the lobster soldiers crossed the Wanli period and arrived in China, they were still using flintlock rifles.

The reason why he knew about this was because Wei Guangde had read a report in his early years, which said that the Opium War happened to be the time when British rifles transitioned from flintlock rifles to percussion rifles.

At that time, the British Guards had just been equipped with percussion rifles for less than a year.

In fact, Britain had a large number of flintlock rifles at the time, and the military was also hesitant about whether it was necessary to replace all flintlock rifles with percussion rifles.

Therefore, the Royal Guards became the guinea pigs for this experiment. The military first converted the flintlock rifles equipped by the Royal Guards into percussion rifles. After using them for more than a year and summarizing the pros and cons, they made up their minds to replace the equipment.

Then, the British spent several years replacing all the flintlock rifles in the army with percussion rifles.

As a result, the flintlock rifle withdrew from the world military stage after more than a hundred years and became a thing of the past.

Of course, there is also news that after the flintlock rifles became ineffective due to wind and rain in the Sanyuanli ambush, Britain urgently mobilized a batch of percussion rifles to China to replace some of the infantry regiments.

Due to the corruption of the Qing government and the backwardness of its military weapons, China ultimately lost the Opium War, which ushered in a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society for more than a hundred years, the darkest era for the Chinese nation.

In later generations, everyone knew that bullets were actually metal fixed-load bullets that were center-ignited. However, Wei Guangde had read reports at that time and knew that in addition to the center-ignition method, there was actually an edge-ignition method.

In fact, there are two types of center ignition: Boxer primer and Berdan primer.

Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. The primer is easy to reload, and the cartridge case is more convenient to process because you don't need to bring your own firing platform.

The Berdan primer is not easy to reload, the cartridge case processing is relatively complicated, and the percussion cap of the Berdan primer is also easy to manufacture, so most bullets in later generations use the Berdan primer.

It is said, just said, that Europe prefers Baudin primers, and the United States prefers Baudin primers.

It is also said that civilian gun enthusiasts prefer blog match primers because they are convenient for reloading.

In fact, there are quite a few videos online on how to reload shotgun bullets from the Internet, and they actually use the blog competition primer.

Basically, the difference between these two types of primers for military and civilian use is very obvious.

However, Wei Guangde also knew about a rimfire primer, which is a primer that ignites the charge by hitting the edge of the cartridge case with a firing pin, and is commonly found in sports rifles.

It is said that because it relies on the firing pin to hit the edge of the cartridge case to ignite the primer charge, the thickness of the bottom of its cartridge case is limited, which makes it difficult to withstand higher chamber pressure, so it is usually only used for low-power ammunition and is not suitable for military bullets.

Because the manufacturing technology was relatively backward at the time, the firing pin or hammer could not accurately hit a specific area of ​​the base of the bullet.

In order to ensure the success rate of firing, the designers simply "expanded" the area that the firing pin or hammer can hit to the entire base of the bullet.

Generally speaking, in order to smoothly ignite the propellant, the bottom rim of the rimfire bullet's shell is hollow and very thin, and the propellant is loaded in the bottom rim.

When shooting, the firing pin or hammer will hit the bottom edge and deform, thereby igniting the firing charge and pushing the bullet forward.

However, precisely because the base shell is thin and the chamber pressure it can withstand is limited, the amount of powder in the rimfire bullet is relatively limited and its lethality is average.

It can be imagined that if the thinner bottom rim of the cartridge case is blown apart by the gunpowder in the chamber, it would be equivalent to a barrel explosion.

Of course, it is very dangerous for Sagittarius.

However, Wei Guangde, who is a jack of all trades, certainly doesn't understand.

In his opinion, this edge-firing method could perhaps be replicated by the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty today.

As long as we find the right firing charge, it seems that it will not be difficult to achieve some technologies that would take a hundred years for the West to achieve.

So Wei Guangde explained the structure of the edge firing method of memory in detail to Master Lei and others.

Master Lei and Master Sun understood it, Jiang Zhi and Liu Shouyou had a vague idea, but Liu Shouyou had already guessed that what Lord Wei had in mind was actually something similar to the self-propelled muskets that the Aneliya delegation sent as tribute, except that it seemed more sophisticated.

"Master Wei, your idea is very clever, but it is too difficult to implement.

I have been making firearms for decades, but I have never heard of anything that can meet your requirements and ignite gunpowder by impact alone.

Quite the contrary"

Master Lei started to speak, but his words were a little hesitant.

"But what?"

Wei Guangde immediately asked.

"That's the method of self-ignition you mentioned. I think it's worth a try on a bird gun. Just put a flint on the firing port and a flint on the bolt. The flint will hit the flint to draw sparks into the powder chamber to ignite the gunpowder and fire the projectile."

Master Lei said it according to his idea and based on the main way of making fire in Ming Dynasty at that time.

"hiss"

Before Wei Guangde could speak, Liu Shouyou on the side reacted.

Well, he knew that the self-generating musket presented by Elijah was actually made in this way, so he was surprised that a craftsman could draw inferences from the experience and think of installing flint on the musketeer for use.

Just when Wei Guangde was about to praise Master Lei and encourage him to try this idea, Master Lei shook his head and said, "Although this idea is good, it takes a lot of strength to hit the flint with the machine head, and it may be difficult to do it with the current materials."

"Yes, it takes a lot of force to strike the flint against the steel to create sparks, and I'm afraid that this spark can't enter the chamber to ignite the gunpowder.

But if you put the tinder in the fire door, you don't know how many times you have to strike the fire to get the spark to ignite the chamber, it's still not as convenient as a matchlock." Master Sun next to him also interrupted.

This is talking about their profession, but there are countless things to say.

"The barbarians put gunpowder at the firing port, and the sparks directly ignited the gunpowder at the firing port, igniting the gunpowder in the chamber to launch the projectile. They did not use sparks to ignite it."

Wei Guangde knew the key point, so he explained it to them directly and pointed out that the barbarians already had this kind of musket.

"The biggest problem with this type of flint gun is that the spring needs to have enough elasticity to ensure that a spark is created and the gunpowder is ignited."

At this point, Master Lei and Master Sun looked at each other, shook their heads and said, "It feels like it's still not as stable as a matchlock gun."

In fact, the flintlock rifle of this era really has no practical value and is just a large toy.

It was not until more than a hundred years later, when smelting technology improved and more elastic steel could be produced, that the flintlock came back to life.

But this time was almost after 1690.

Wei Guangde saw that the two experienced craftsmen were also somewhat at a loss. He was actually just proposing an idea and hoped that they could find a solution.

Considering how fast the West developed, it took one or two hundred years to achieve such firearms technology. Perhaps he overestimated the technological strength and craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty.

So, Wei Guangde said with a cheerful smile: "It's okay, it's just to give you an idea. It would be best if you can do it, but it doesn't matter if you can't.

However, you can discuss it privately with familiar craftsmen to see if others have a solution.

Not only this method of ignition, but also the flint gun you just mentioned, which is the self-generating fire gun we just mentioned. Although the barbarians already have this thing, there should be many restrictions.

According to the court, the barbarians did not use this type of firearm in large numbers, and it was obvious that there were many problems that could not be solved. They still used the same matchlock gun as us. "

Wei Guangde smiled and said, "By the way, when the barbarians deliver the self-propelled musket to the palace, I will lend it out to you to have a look. If you understand its structure in detail, you may be able to find a way to solve this problem."

At this point, Wei Guangde looked at Jiang Zhi and said, "Shunqing, the Ministry of Industry should pay attention to this matter. The barbarians are now equipped with a large number of firearms and regard them as weapons of war.

During the years of fighting in the Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of War has long regarded firearms as the most important weapon of war. The Ministry of Works and the Armory Bureau should think carefully about how to provide the best firearms for the Ming soldiers to use in combat."

"Siyun, the Jinyiwei should also keep an eye on the firearms of the barbarians. It would be best to get their latest firearms for the craftsmen to refer to."

Coming out of the workshop, Wei Guangde was still talking to Jiang Zhi: "Master Lei had the idea of ​​installing a flint on a bird gun. This is a relatively innovative idea. Regardless of whether it can be realized, at least it is technically feasible. The Ministry of War should reward these craftsmen.

Good firearms are made under this kind of innovative thinking. If everyone sticks to the old ways and makes firearms according to the old methods, then in ten or a hundred years, our firearms will just stay where they are without any progress.

It is important to use silver as a reward to stimulate the enthusiasm of craftsmen and encourage them to take the initiative to find solutions.

Also, regarding the primer method I mentioned earlier, if there are craftsmen who can find the materials to solve this problem, the Ministry of Industry should inform me in time, and the Ministry should also give these craftsmen a generous reward."

"Shan Dai, I understand what you mean. I will have someone draft a charter and list the reward rules for these craftsmen."

Jiang Zhi immediately said, "By the way, do the barbarians really have self-propelled muskets?"

When Master Lei mentioned the flint gun earlier, Jiang Zhi's eyes lit up, but when he heard Wei Guangde say that the barbarians had it, his heart tightened for no reason.

How can the great Ming Dynasty, the Celestial Empire, be more backward than the barbarians?

As the Minister of Works, Jiang Zhi felt that he had failed in his duty here, so he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

"Siyun, you should speak for yourself."

Wei Guangde did not directly answer Jiang Zhi's question, but asked Liu Shouyou to speak.

So Liu Shouyou told the Jinyiwei about the news that they had discovered two self-propelled muskets among the gifts brought by the Egyptian delegation.

The Jinyiwei also have muskets. Although their standard equipment is the Embroidered Spring Sword, don’t forget that there are many guards under them.

The Embroidered Spring Sword was actually mainly used by the imperial guards and four cavalry units, also known as the Tiqi, but the other guards were still equipped with the standard weapons of the Ming army.

The news about the flintlock rifle was heard from below, so it was reported immediately.

After all, compared to the bird gun, the flintlock rifle is obviously more advanced.

Knowing the whole story, Jiang Zhi nodded slightly, "I didn't expect the barbarians to be so thoughtful and come up with such an ingenious design."

He was the Minister of Works, and he had countless skilled craftsmen under him. Naturally, he had seen many fine things.

Nowadays, most products, whether from the East or the West, actually have little technological content.

As long as there was a sample, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty could easily imitate it.

After all, the memory level of Chinese craftsmen is quite high. Even with the sophisticated European watches, the money earned by the skilled craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty is not that good.

Think about how many exquisite clocks there are in the Forbidden City. In fact, they were all made by craftsmen who understood the principles and became familiar with the craftsmanship.

After saying this, Wei Guangde looked at Liu Shouyou and Luo Bingliang he brought with him and said, "Jinyiwei, select a group of soldiers to come here as soon as possible.

The workshop will produce ten more of these automatic muskets later on, and the Imperial Guards must master them as quickly as possible.

During training, we continued to test the power of this musket.

As for the grand review, I will arrange for you to participate in the drill.

At least two rounds are required, as I have already said before, so they also need to be proficient in changing the barrel, but they are not required to complete the barrel reloading quickly. "

Wei Guangde instructed again: "Tomorrow, Luo Bingliang will bring people here to train with the existing musket first, so as to increase the speed of replacement as much as possible."

"I understand."

Luo Bingliang bowed hurriedly and agreed.

"Well, I just heard from your parents that you are the son of Luo An, the former commander of the Jinyiwei. You should know how difficult it is to get to the capital from Anlu.

Work hard and you will have a bright future. "

Wei Guangde said this and walked towards his sedan chair.

The ancestors of the Luo family had served the emperor since the early years of the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty for their military merits. Luo An's father, Luo Shengyu, was a captain of the Linwei Army.

In the seventh year of Hongzhi, King Xingxian was enfeoffed in Anlu Prefecture, Huguang, and Luo Sheng was selected as the guard of the palace. Luo An followed his father to the Prince Xing's palace.

In the 15th year of Zhengde, Luo Sheng passed away, and Luo Ancheng took over his father's position. He was diligent and cautious in his work and achieved great political achievements.

In the 16th year of Zhengde, Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty succeeded to the throne. Luo An was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the Jinyiwei for his meritorious service in protecting the emperor. He was later promoted to the position of the director of the Jinyiwei and the commander-in-chief.

Luo Bingliang is not well-known. After Luo An, the most outstanding person in the Lu family is actually Luo Bingliang's son Luo Sigong, who took over the Jinyiwei again from the 40th year of Wanli to the 4th year of Tianqi in the Ming Dynasty. (End of this chapter)