Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Although there was some pressure, Lu Xiang was not afraid.

As the head of the Equipment Academy and the first person to design weapons in the Ming Dynasty, Lu Xiang was very confident in this regard and even came up with more than one plan:
"This is a pistol with a scimitar-style handle. It is arguably the simplest type and fires 9mm bullets."

"There are also longer hunting rifles that fire bullets ranging from twelve to twenty millimeters, depending on the caliber of the barrel."

This type of musket can be said to be the simplest.

The top is connected to the back half with a movable iron plate for locking, and the hammer also needs to be reset manually.

If bullets are not used, the air leakage will be unbearable, and even the overflowing flames may burn the gunner.

But with metal fixed ammunition, all this is no longer a problem.

The metal loading will constrain the gunpowder to push forward and launch the bullet.

Its cost is not much different from that of a single-shot muzzle-loading pistol. The price of a pair of pistols can be controlled within three taels of silver.

Wang Chengen looked at this hand gun and the longer hunting gun, nodded with satisfaction, and said:
"This musket is great. Why don't you report it to the Emperor and let him know about your contribution?"

Hearing this, Lu Xiang smiled bitterly and said:
"This lever-type locking structure is too simple and cannot withstand powerful bullets."

"It's fine for hand guns and hunting rifles, but bullets used in the military require greater power."

This is why he did not announce the good news after he invented the pistol.

It still plays a supporting role in the military and cannot become a main weapon.

Wang Chengen touched the iron sheet on it and felt that this locking structure was indeed not very reliable.

Then he looked at a strange-looking musket next to him and asked:
"what about this?"

"There's a horizontal iron block behind the locking iron plate. The locking should be more secure, right?"

Lu Xiang explained carefully:
"This is indeed a design with a strengthened locking structure. The manufacturing is slightly more complicated and is used for double-barreled and quadruple-barreled muskets."

"The rotating hammer that fires it is not perfect, and although the lock is more secure, it is not easy to operate."

As he spoke, Lu Xiang picked up the four-barreled musket and showed it to Wang Chengen:

"You see, to open and close the musket, you need to pick it up and fold it open."

“It’s OK to use it while standing, and it’s very convenient for arm movement.”

"It's not very convenient when lying on the ground in an ambush, especially when used on a long-barreled musket."

After demonstrating how to fold the musket while lying on the ground, Wang Chengen nodded, feeling that it was indeed inconvenient.

Although the folding musket is simple and its improved locking structure is relatively reliable, it is not suitable for ambush operations because it folds in the middle to load bullets.

Wang Chengen was curious and asked:

"So what kind of musket do you think is better?"

"Could it be that there is a better design in the Equipment Institute?"

Lu Xiang laughed, picked up another musket, and said:

"This musket can also be said to be a folding design, but the part where it needs to be folded is much shorter."

"You just need to fold it up a little bit so you can put the bullet in."

"And because there is a bolt at the back, its locking structure is more secure."

This is a design made by Lu Xiang based on the principle of center-folding locking, combined with the bolt-action repeating musket he was developing.

Basically, a receiver is added to the rear of the gun barrel, the upper part of the receiver is hollowed out, and a gun mechanism containing a firing pin is installed. The gun mechanism and the receiver are connected like a lock nose, and when pressed down, it is tightly locked and connected to the receiver.

(Schematic diagram of the Springfield M1865 valve rifle structure, which is roughly similar to this, but the connection between the gun and the receiver has changed, more like the lock nose of a traditional cabinet)

This was made by Lü Xiang after he studied various door bolts and door lock structures when he was developing the bolt-action musket.

Its locking structure is somewhat similar to the break-type, and it also combines some of the characteristics of the bolt-type locking, making it more secure than the break-type and able to withstand more powerful bullets.

What made Lu Xiang most proud was the barrel of this musket, which had the same structure as the automatic musket he was developing, both of which were connected to the receiver with threads and could be interchanged with each other.

In this way, his automatic muskets could use rifled barrels exclusively, and the smoothbore barrels that failed to rifle could be used for this single-shot musket.

Its cost is also relatively low, Lu Xiang estimated it to be less than ten taels of silver.

After hearing Lu Xiang's introduction, Wang Chengen's eyes suddenly lit up.

Because he realized that this was the new musket that the emperor needed.

Its cost of less than ten taels and its simpler and easier-to-produce structure make it the perfect choice to replace the old musket.

The emperor must be very happy when he knew this.

This made Wang Chengen pull Lu Xiang and say:

"Such a good musket, why don't you take it and report the good news?"

"Hurry up and bring its model with you to the palace with us."

Without waiting for Lu Xiang to explain, he took him into the palace in a carriage.
-
In the palace, Zhu Youjian was very happy when he saw this musket.

He had already planned to use the folding shotgun as a last resort, but he didn't expect Lu Xiang to come up with a better design.

This kind of musket reminded him of the American Springfield M1865 valve rifle and the British Schneider Enfield rifle in history.

Both can be modified from old muzzle-loading rifles and become equipment during the transition period from muzzle-loading rifles to breech-loading rifles.

Zhu Youjian didn't understand this before, but now he realizes that Ming Dynasty also needs similar equipment.

Even though we know that this type of musket is outdated when it was first produced, it is still indispensable today.

This made him ask Lu Xiang:

"Can it be modified using a muzzle-loading musket?"

"The matchlock and flintlock guns produced previously had their barrels shortened, threaded, and then connected to the receiver."

"Can it be transformed into this kind of trapdoor musket?"

Lu Xiang thought for a moment and replied:

"It can be modified like this. Even the buttstock of the gun needs to be changed."

"I'll think about it after I go back, and I should be able to fix it."

This made Zhu Youjian very happy, and he asked Lu Xiang to come up with a reform plan as soon as possible.

If successful, the Ming Dynasty would quickly have 20,000 to 30,000 single-shot muskets.

Both the Imperial Camp and the New Army could use modified muskets for training and explore new tactics.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian promised Lu Xiang:

"If Lu Qing can modify it, this type of valve musket can use some of the original production tools and go into production as soon as possible."

"Its name is Breech-Loading Fire Gun Type 2, abbreviated as CH."

"After it is finalized, the production of smoothbore breech-loading muskets, self-priming flintlock muskets, and other muskets can be stopped and we can switch to this one."

Lu Xiang was very happy to hear this, because the existence of the self-flowing flintlock musket was a stain on him.

The secondary ignition mechanism of this musket was once rejected by him, and the main designer was also Bo Jue.

Xu Sen and other craftsmen who were dissatisfied with him often complained about this kind of musket.

The reason why he spent some time designing this musket that specifically uses a smoothbore barrel when designing the automatic musket was that he intended to replace the self-flowing flintlock musket.

He used this new musket he designed to completely replace the flintlock musket. Now it really worked, which made him overjoyed.

But thinking of the design of the Equipment Institute, he reminded the emperor:
"Your Majesty, the Armaments Institute has designed more than just this single-shot musket."

"Also, the Gunpowder Research Institute is perfecting the fourth-generation electric gun named by His Majesty."

"I think we can organize a competition to select the standard musket."

As he spoke, he also took the initiative to mention the shortcomings of the musket he designed, and thought it still had some deficiencies:
"The fire gun I designed is low-cost and easy to produce."

"But its locking structure is inferior to that of the fourth-generation electric gun, and it cannot be used with powerful bullets."

"The high-charge bullets that Your Majesty proposed cannot be used on this type of musket, otherwise the locking mechanism may loosen."

"It can only use bullets with normal charges, and it can't be too powerful."

This behavior of exposing one's own shortcomings was praised by Zhu Youjian.

At the same time, he also understood why the British equipped the Martini Henry rifle after they modified the Enfield rifle into a breech-loading rifle.

After all, the locking structure of the valve rifle is not reliable and is not as good as the specially designed breech-loading single-shot rifle.

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However, Zhu Youjian did not know much about the structure of this little-known rifle, and he did not think it was necessary for the Ming Dynasty to equip itself with this kind of musket.

He comforted Lu Xiang:

"It would be better if we could use high-charge bullets, but it's okay if we can't."

"As long as we can use normal ammunition, it will also simplify military logistics."

Thinking of the multi-fire musket that Lu Xiang was designing, Zhu Youjian asked him:

"How is the design of the rapid-fire musket going?"

“When can it be equipped?”

When this was mentioned, Lu Xiang's face suddenly turned bitter.

In fact, it was precisely because the research on the automatic musket was not going well that he took the time to study the single-shot musket.

Xu Sen also saw an opportunity at this point and developed a revolving structured automatic musket to compete with him.

He complained to the emperor:
"I have tried all the other types of machine guns that Your Majesty has drawn."

"But their reliability is not as good as the current receiver design."

"This connection between the receiver and the gun is the most secure. I have tried many other latch structures, but none of them can beat it. On the contrary, they may be more complicated."

(Mauser 98K bolt and bolt comparison)
These words almost made Zhu Youjian laugh, because the receiver design he originally proposed was derived from the Mauser 98K.

This classic structure is still used in later manual sniper rifles. How can it be easily surpassed?
Lu Xiang wanted to develop a better structure than this one, but it was extremely difficult.

This made him comfort Lu Xiang:

"It doesn't matter if the locking mechanism is not as reliable as it is, as long as it can use normal ammunition."

"Single-shot muskets have a magazine length limit, so they can't use extended shells for strong loading."

"The purpose of improving it now is to reduce costs and increase production quantities. The performance can be slightly lowered and the requirements are not so high."

Lu Xiang said:

"The simplest receiver is the one used in valve muskets."

"It can be cast and then polished, with the gun mechanism attached to it."

"I think since we are going to equip this kind of musket, then the receiver design of the musket does not need to be changed, we only need to improve the production process."

This made Zhu Youjian ponder whether the previous request was reasonable after the appearance of the trapdoor musket.

With the existence of the valve-type musket, which is very easy to produce and has low cost, it seems that it is no longer necessary to reduce the cost of the automatic musket.

In addition, rifled barrels are difficult to manufacture nowadays, so the higher cost of the receiver using this type of barrel seems acceptable.

We need to combine the best technologies to produce the best quality firearms.

The effectiveness of the rapid-fire musket will not be unfulfilled due to some shortcomings in the new design.

Thinking of the reputation of the Mosin-Nagant as a "foot-pedal gun", Zhu Youjian gave up the idea of ​​retreating and told Lu Xiang:
"Since Lu Qing said so, let's stick with the original receiver design."

"But we must improve the process to reduce costs and increase production speed as much as possible."

We plan to use this musket to hone our craftsmanship in preparation for producing more firearms in the future.

Lu Xiang happily agreed, thinking that he finally didn't have to worry about designing a new receiver.

However, the story is not over yet. The gun mechanism of the new musket is also a difficult point:
"The bolt action of this type of musket needs a hole drilled inside to place the firing pin and firing pin spring."

"The firing pin is easier to deal with. It's relatively simple to make. If it breaks, you can just replace it with a new one."

"The firing pin spring is more troublesome. It is difficult to manufacture and the steel is not elastic enough. Sometimes it will not spring out, resulting in a firing failure."

This is a more serious problem and is caused by the design being too advanced.

The current technological level of the Ming Dynasty is not enough to produce high-quality springs.

Even the firing pin is difficult and may break or fail.

When Zhu Youjian thought of this situation, he felt a headache, because it meant that the automatic musket was not a reliable weapon.

This made him ask Lu Xiang:

"The valve musket also has a bolt mechanism. How is the spring inside solved?"

Lu Xiang answered him:

"I used the reed commonly used on copper locks to replace the spring inside."

"But the reed is fine for a short action, but it's not enough for a longer action like this."

As he spoke, he disassembled the gun mechanism of the valve musket and demonstrated the structure inside.

Zhu Youjian now understood that Lu Xiang used V-shaped spring sheets to replace the spiral spring.

(V-shaped spring and ancient lock spring)

Putting aside the performance of this spring sheet, the distance it can act is obviously limited.

If they are stacked back and forth, they will take up too much space and are not suitable for use on a very long gun machine.

This left Zhu Youjian helpless and he could only say:
"Try several types of copper and steel and try to find a solution."

"Also, communicate more with the Vehicle Research Institute. They are researching spring suspension."

This made Lu Xiang's eyes light up, and he thought of the rickshaws running everywhere on the streets.

Most rickshaws use leaf spring suspension, which is relatively low in cost.

But there are also some that use spring suspension, which are used as test vehicles.

Judging from the fact that they can carry the weight of a person, the spring manufacturing level of the Vehicle Research Institute is not low.

Maybe I can solve his problem and allow him to make qualified springs.

Then he raised some difficulties. Although Zhu Youjian could not answer them completely, he mostly pointed out the direction and told him where to work hard or cooperate with others.

Lu Xiang left with satisfaction, leaving behind the model of the trapdoor musket he brought with him.

Zhu Youjian also told him to make a sample gun as soon as possible and hold a competition at the nobles' gathering on the tenth day of the first lunar month. (End of this chapter)