From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 132: Flintlock Rifle to Armor and Bow
Without a detonator, there's not much difference between TNT and a brick.

Because the chemical properties of TNT itself are too stable, it must go through the shock wave and high temperature generated by the detonator to trigger a chain reaction and release explosive energy.

These conditions were extremely harsh, and Chen Zhou was completely unable to create one on his own as he was on an isolated island with extremely backward industrial manufacturing technology.

Of course, if he is brave enough, he can try to use black powder to detonate TNT.

However, the risk of that kind of detonation was something he could not afford.

……

On March 3, after moving all three prizes back to the cave, Chen Zhou counted the number of TNTs.

All the TNT explosives were stacked tightly and neatly. There were four layers from top to bottom, with eight columns on each layer and five blocks in each column, for a total of 160 200g blocks.

However, this yellow plastic box contains not only TNT, but also matching detonators and fuse.

These delicate little items are stored at the bottom of the box, divided into two areas.

The diameter of the detonators matches the holes in the explosives, and there are 200 of them in total. This should be because some unexpected situations were taken into consideration during the design to prevent a shortage of detonators.

What made Chen Zhou happy was that these explosives used non-electrical detonators.

Although the delay of this type of detonator depends on the burning speed of the fuse, is easily affected by the environment and has low safety, it is easy to store and use. Even if it is stored for ten or eight years, it rarely gets damaged, making it suitable for his use on the island.

It’s a pity that the cave had already been expanded using black gunpowder.

Now that the interior decoration has been mostly completed, even if he feels that the space in the cave is tight, he cannot risk collapsing his own house by using TNT blasting.

He had no definite idea about what to do with the TNT, so he could only store it properly and take it out for use when needed in the future.

……

Due to lack of sleep, the spirit that was forced up by nervous excitement soon faded away with the reward.

After waving the spear on the platform for a while, as fatigue gradually overwhelmed him, Chen Zhou gradually felt that everything was boring.

He regained his energy after taking a nap in the cave.

When I woke up, it was dark and a drizzle was falling outside.

The wooden and stone walls on the beach had not yet been tidied and built, the pepper seeds had not sprouted, and the crops in the fields and near the cabin had not been checked for some time.

Although there were a lot of things to do during his illness, Chen Zhou took a break and took a night off. He took a hot bath and had a good sleep.

……

On March 3, Chen Zhou, who had basically recovered from his cold, returned to work.

When he got up early in the morning, the first thing he did was to germinate the pepper seeds so that he could eat the peppers as soon as possible.

Then he put on his straw raincoat, ran straight to the beach, and built a wooden and stone wall.

On the way home, he also checked the sugarcane and aloe vera beside the mountain stream.

After diligent cultivation in the past few months, the sugarcane field has grown to a considerable size.

The giant aloe vera is also quite adaptable to the environment here, but the growth rate of the aloe vera is slow. Currently, there are only a few cats and cats. If you want to use it in large quantities, you have to go to the river valley plain to collect it.

I had originally planned to go and see the grapes in the wooden house.

But when they left the sugarcane field, it was almost dusk and the rainfall was about to intensify, so Chen Zhou had no choice but to return to the cave to rest.

……

The rainy season will end in mid-April. During this period, Chen Zhou basically does not go out.

Apart from taking care of crops on a daily basis, occasionally adding salt to the sheep, or going to the pigeon hole to catch a few pigeons and collect saltpeter, and going to the beach every 15 days to collect rewards and tidy up the wooden and stone walls, all his energy is basically focused on expanding the cave and renovating the house.

After the ceiling and floor of the kitchen and storage room were all paved, Chen Zhou devoted himself to digging the cellar and rat house.

Most of the common seafood and plants on the island have been tested for poison, and his emphasis on testing poison rats has declined.

After all, there are only a limited number of poisons available for testing, and this group of mice reproduces a generation approximately every 45 days, and the number of mice keeps increasing.

At first he thought that testing poison rats was not enough.

As time went on, he discovered that it was the resources on the island that were insufficient, not the growing number of rats.

To this end, he even had to catch the thinner, more annoying mice that liked to grind their teeth and use them as companions for the cats in his home to train their hunting abilities.

……

It is easy to feel bored when expanding the cave for a long time. When Chen Zhou is physically and mentally exhausted, he will give himself a vacation and have a good rest for a day or two.

However, his rest was not sleeping in bed or playing games - there were no games to play on the island.

He usually relaxes by drawing, making wooden models or designing drawings.

……

In addition to the design of windmills, waterwheels and buildings, Chen Zhou was most concerned about improving the matchlock gun.

To this end, he not only conceived more than a dozen improvement plans and drew nearly a hundred drawings, but also carved wood by hand and made several gun models.

Finally he found that it was impossible to improve the matchlock gun into a semi-automatic rifle overnight.

The limitation on bullets is difficult to solve.

The poor industrial base in the 17th century produced cast iron barrels that could not withstand the extremely high chamber pressure.

The residue produced by the burning of black powder can also seriously affect the precision of the firearm.

Unless a batch of modern firearms parts can be obtained, no modern person, even Kalashnikov, the genius weapons designer who designed the AK series of rifles, would be able to make a semi-automatic rifle under the constraints of many conditions.

But this does not mean that the knowledge he learned is useless.

After some thought and improvement, Chen Zhou actually created a unique firearm whose performance far surpassed that of the matchlock gun.

……

Looking at the evolution history of modern firearms, we can find that the difference between matchlock guns and modern firearms, just in the ignition system, is a whole generation away.

The reason why the firing rate of the matchlock gun is so slow is actually due to many limitations.

The most affected are muzzle loading and matchlock ignition.

The matchlock ignition is very easy to improve.

As long as you understand the firing structure of the flintlock, it is quite simple to convert a matchlock gun into a flintlock gun.

In the process of studying firearms design, Chen Zhou had already successfully modified a flintlock rifle, and the performance of this gun was better than the flintlock rifle that had matured in the late 17th century.

However, the firing rate of the flintlock rifle still did not improve qualitatively. This was because only one paper-wrapped bullet could be loaded into the muzzle at a time. The gun had to be put away, gunpowder poured, and the bullet pushed in with a cleaning rod. The steps were too slow and cumbersome.

To solve this drawback, it is necessary to subvert the entire gun's loading system and turn it into a breech-loading firearm.

……

However, when moving from a muzzle-loading rifle to a breech-loading rifle, there are more things that need to be improved than just the ignition system.

The bullets, firing methods, and even the gun structure all need major changes in this process.

The most important of these is the impact ignition system, which requires not only a firing pin structure, but also the cooperation of a bullet primer.

Chen Zhou couldn't rub the metal bullet casings with his hands, and he didn't have the nitrocellulose to make the filling powder.

In the process of improving the matchlock gun, he tried to remove the cotton wool from the bedding, soak it in grease, dry it, and stuff it into the homemade fixed bullet instead of nitrocellulose, but the result was naturally ineffective. His lack of chemical knowledge caused him to encounter various failures.

During this period, he regretted more than once why he did not study chemistry in depth when he was in school.

If he had enough knowledge of chemistry, he would definitely be able to make his own concentrated nitric acid solution on this island where saltpeter could be found and there were volcanoes, and then produce low-quality nitrocellulose and hand-roll low-quality bullets.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he could not get back the forgotten knowledge, let alone acquire knowledge that he had never learned out of thin air.

……

In the end, the firearms he made could only remain within the scope of "modified flintlock".

The gun still uses the traditional flint impact ignition and muzzle loading, only some creative adjustments have been made to optimize the fixed ammunition.

In order to cope with long and short distance shooting environments, Chen Zhou specially designed two improved versions of the flintlock rifle, long and short.

The accurate range of the long-barreled flintlock rifle was limited to within 100 meters.

There is no way. Without rifling, its bullets can fly more than 200 meters, but beyond 100 meters, where they can hit basically depends on luck.

There are two types of fixed ammunition for the improved flintlock rifle, one is paper shell lead bullet and the other is wooden shell lead bullet.

Chen Zhou carved the wooden shell lead bullets one by one by himself. They have a larger charge than paper shell lead bullets, and are more airtight and accurate, but the production speed is very slow. Without delaying daily work, he can only produce two bullets a day.

Generally speaking, using paper shell fixed bullets is enough.

In addition to the long-barreled flintlock rifle, Chen Zhou also made two flintlock rifles with shorter barrels to deal with enemies within 30 meters.

These two short-barreled flintlock rifles are easy to carry, and the fixed bullets are filled with many fine metal fragments.

These metal fragments will splash when they are fired, and their power is similar to that of a severely weakened shotgun. They have a large attack area and cause little damage to armored units.

But it is just right for dealing with the indigenous people who don't like to wear clothes and like to fight naked. One shot can turn them into blood gourds.

……

Among the matchlock guns brought down from the ship, there were limited high-quality firearms available for modification.

Chen Zhou modified a total of four long-barreled flintlock rifles, plus two short-barreled flintlock rifles, loaded with bullets in advance. In the most ideal situation, it is estimated that two rounds of bullets can be fired.

If the total number of cannibal natives is around 30, at least 8 people will be reduced after two rounds of shooting.

According to the description of the natives in the book, the loss of nearly one-third of their numbers was enough to destroy their morale. Even if there were a few fearless guys who rushed forward, they had revolvers to use.

If an unexpected situation occurs, such as the natives "locking their morale" and being full of courage even after losing two-thirds of their troops, Chen Zhou will have no choice but to fight and retreat.

……

These days, in addition to expanding the cave and designing and manufacturing firearms, he also did not forget to continue learning rattan weaving and researching armor.

He planned to make a set of rattan armor inlaid with metal to protect against the wooden arrows of the natives.

A rattan shield was also made to resist the powerful wooden spears of the natives.

Initially, he planned to cut Damascus steel billets into small cubes and tie them directly to the rattan armor.

After estimation, he found that such a set of rattan armor was too heavy. The weight of the helmet and breastplate alone was more than 50 kilograms. He could not move normally after putting it on.

Fortunately, there are many usable materials among the rewards delivered in the past - such as the thin iron sheet on the outside of the safe.

By using time-space cutting to cut the Damascus steel billet into a chisel, holes can be made in the iron sheet, and then tied tightly to the surface of the rattan armor with hemp rope.

The whole process is not complicated. Chen Zhou made three sets of rattan armor.

……

Due to his lack of experience, the first set of rattan armor he made was too thick and heavy. It had great defensive power but the joint flexibility was extremely poor.

The second set of rattan armor that was made later was slightly lighter and gave the joints enough room to move, but it was not as comfortable.

By the third set of rattan armor, Chen Zhou had improved its flaws and achieved relatively high defense and light weight, as well as sufficient space for movement.

However, in terms of comfort, the only solution is to use seal skin as lining in the rattan armor.

A set of battle armor can't be worn as comfortably as home clothes.

Just adapt, there's nothing you can't get used to.

After all, it is the source of defense that is vital to life and death. Not to mention a little discomfort, even if it makes your body swollen and painful, you have to endure it.

……

As for the shield, Chen Zhou made a large shield that could cover the entire body. As long as he lowered his head and hid behind the shield, he could resist the attacks of the natives.

In fact, according to the book, the bows and arrows used by the natives could not break through the defense of ordinary rattan armor.

But who told them to use wooden spears in addition to bows and arrows? Those things have amazing piercing ability when thrown. Chen Zhou doesn't want to be pierced like a hedgehog from a few meters away.

Therefore a large shield is essential.

When the natives have used all their long-range means to get close, he can put down his big shield and let them see the power of his armor.

……

Of course, advanced equipment is only one of many factors for victory.

In order to prevent various accidents, Chen Zhou also practiced other skills.

For example, bows and arrows.

He knew that the traditional bow, the composite bow, performed extremely well, with its limbs made of a composite material of wood, horn and animal tendons.

However, he didn't know much about the manufacturing methods of traditional composite materials, so he could only make pure wooden bows.

To this end, he selected various types of wood for experiments and made more than a dozen longbows of different sizes, which were hung on the walls of the storage room. At first glance, it looked like a bow and arrow exhibition hall.

After making the bow, he began to make arrows.

Even though the bow arms are made of outdated pure wood material, Chen Zhou spent a lot of money to make the arrowhead, directly using Malaysian steel billets cut into triangles.

The arrows cut from the super time and space are extremely sharp and can easily penetrate thin iron sheets within thirty meters.

Use homemade fish bladder glue to glue the arrowhead to a straight arrow shaft of moderate weight and sufficient strength, and then wrap it with fine wire to reinforce it. The exquisite and practical Damascus arrow is then two-thirds complete.

The final arrow feathers were made from wild goose feathers. They were not excellent, but they were pretty decent.

In the process of making bows and arrows, many detours were inevitable.

However, since arriving on the isolated island, Chen Zhou has experienced more than a few failures and setbacks, and he has become accustomed to it.

……

From carrying the rewards back to the cave, to completing the modification of the firearms, weaving the armor and shield into use, to successfully making the homemade bow and arrow.

It took nearly two months in total.

During this period, the rainy season ends and a new round of dry season begins. Crops are harvested and sown, peppers grow and bloom, garlic is expanded, and lambs gradually grow up...

Combined with the development of the cave, the completion of the cellar excavation, and many other matters, as well as the collection of four rewards, Chen Zhou was extremely busy.

In the blink of an eye, it was May 1661, 5.

(End of this chapter)