The Assassin Empire of the Three Kingdoms

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, China has used a projectile weapon "礮" [Note].In the late Warring States period, the Qin army first attacked Zhengcheng, South Korea, and used stone cannons to shoot long-range towers, causing bricks and rubble to roll.By the tenth century, after gunpowder was used in military affairs, it was used to throw gunpowder packets and gunpowder bombs.In the Song Dynasty, a tubular firearm "fire gun" with a giant bamboo tube appeared;The appearance of this barrel shooting firearm is of great significance to the production of modern artillery.

Smoothbore artillery appeared in the Yuan Dynasty at the latest.In the Yuan Dynasty, the oldest artillery "fire gun" was produced.There are two square holes in the tail of the gun, which can be used for trunnions.In the Ming Dynasty, there were two bureaus of "Bingzhan" and "Military Weapons", which separately manufactured firearms. In the period from Zhengde to Jiajing alone, dozens of types of artillery were manufactured. The "Tiger Crouching Cannon" uses iron claws to limit the recoil. When shooting, the recoil is no more than five inches, and it can hold more than [-] small lead bullets. The "Attacking Cannon" is mounted on a car and fired, which is convenient for mules and horses to drag, and an iron anchor is used to limit the recoil. The "Invincible General Cannon" weighs a thousand catties and is loaded on a cart. It can hold [-] irons and has a strike width of more than [-] feet. "Poison Fire Flying Cannon" and "Flying Destroyer Cannon" can launch explosive bombs.This kind of shell is a hollow body made of iron, which contains gunpowder and other chemicals, and is equipped with a fuze that puts the gunpowder wire in the bamboo tube.When launching, the projectile is loaded into the barrel, the fuze is ignited first, and then the propellant in the barrel is ignited, and the projectile explodes after reaching the target.

After the spread of gunpowder and firearms to the West, artillery began to develop in Europe.In the first half of the fourteenth century, Europe began to manufacture artillery that fired stone projectiles.At the end of the sixteenth century, shotgun shells made of bullets or metal fragments packed in iron cylinders appeared, which were used to kill people and horses.Some countries have begun to use the propellant of the drug pack, which has improved the firing speed and shooting accuracy.And replace the bulk gunpowder in the ignition hole with a tube filled with gunpowder, which simplifies the aiming and loading process.

From the appearance of artillery to the mid-nineteenth century, artillery is generally a smoothbore front-loading gun, which fires solid ball bullets, and some artillery fires spherical explosive shells, shot and shrapnel.The original rifled guns were straight rifled, mainly for the convenience of front-loading projectiles.This kind of artillery has slow firing speed, low shooting accuracy and short range.The Italian Major Cavalli made a spiral rifled gun, which fired a long explosive bomb with a cone head and a cylinder.The spiral rifling makes the projectile rotate and the flight is stable, which improves the power and shooting accuracy of the artillery, and increases the firing range of the artillery.At the same time as the appearance of the rifled gun, the breech block was improved, the gun was loaded after the gun, and the firing speed was significantly increased.The adoption of rifled guns was a major change in the structure of artillery.

The ancient gun body was connected to the gun mount through the trunnion, and the gun mount of this kind of artillery was called a rigid gun mount.The rigid gun mount is stressed when the gun is fired, the gun is heavy, the mobility is poor, the aiming is damaged when the gun is fired, the firing speed is slow, and the increase in power is limited.Anti-recoil device, the gun body is connected with the gun mount through it, and the gun mount of this artillery is called elastic gun mount.When the elastic gun mount artillery is fired, due to the buffer of the recoil device, the force acting on the gun mount is greatly reduced, the weight of the gun can be reduced, the gun will not be displaced during firing, and the firing speed is improved.The adoption of the elastic gun mount eased the contradiction between increasing the power of the artillery and improving the mobility, and the structure of the artillery tended to be perfect, which was another major breakthrough in the history of artillery development.

Because Long Fei got it, and his research on gunpowder.Under the guidance of Long Fei, the Empire's Ordnance Department had already produced a breech-loading smoothbore gun with rifling and reaction devices.Like other weapons, the artillery shell adopts a unified copper cylinder structure, with gunpowder inside, and a conical warhead in front, with a built-in fuze, which is a burst bomb.Basically, there is not much difference with modern artillery.Only in the manufacturing process and not finalized to be improved.

Especially the refining of gunpowder is not pure.In order to increase the power of the cannon, Long Fei deliberately lengthened the barrel to fill more gunpowder, and extended the barrel of the cannon to increase the initial velocity.The barrel of the current imperial artillery is more than two feet long, and the size of each shell is more than three feet.The base is also made of iron, and the smoothbore device Longfei uses the principle of hydraulic pressure. There is a huge water tank behind each cannon.

When these cannons were placed under Hulaoguan, the soldiers inside were dumbfounded, and no one knew what they were.A long pipe is supported by huge iron rods, and the huge muzzle is aimed at its own city wall.A group of soldiers in different clothes were busy behind the things.The huge nest cart stood aside, and the soldiers on it kept waving the flags in their hands.The large underground pipe swayed up and down.

"What is this?" Sima Zhao asked Sima Yi.

Sima Yi shook his head, of course he had never seen it before.Compared with other weapons, it doesn't look like a weapon at all, it doesn't have a sharp point, and it's huge, making it look cumbersome.If it is a battering ram or the like, it is enough, but it is enough to shut down four or five, and prevent it from a long distance.What's more, there are no protective measures above.Could it be that Long Fei thought that his soldiers and horses were invulnerable?

"Whatever it is? Tell the brothers to be careful, and don't let the dragon army get close to the city wall!" Sima Yi ordered and observed carefully.Back then, I heard that Long Fei had many strange things, scaring Dong Zhuo's Thunderbolt, and capturing Zhu Ti's pile of gunpowder.I wanted to get some to see what it was, but it was a pity that Long Fei was so guarded that even the people around him couldn't get it easily, let alone himself.

Long Fei was far away from the artillery, he clearly knew the power of the thing, and also knew its danger.Although it has not been tested seriously, with the current smelting technology, it is impossible to produce high-quality things.Just these few statues are still exhausted, buying high-quality iron ore from various places, and practicing the technique of making sabers by people outside the Great Wall.In the eyes of ordinary people, if it is made into a weapon, every piece is a treasure.

Ma Jun checked everything for the last time and nodded to Long Fei.A soldier in the uniform of a school lieutenant said loudly: "Your Majesty, everything is ready, please give your order!"

These soldiers were carefully selected by Long Fei himself and transferred from various troops.These soldiers have all attended private schools, and some of them have also studied in military division schools.Take this school lieutenant as an example, his rank is not high, and he can be regarded as a veteran of Long Fei's subordinates. He followed Long Fei all the way from Luoyang when he was a teenager, and even Dian Wei was polite when he met him.His family was originally wealthy, and the most important thing was to be able to settle accounts, so Long Fei transferred him to be the captain of his first artillery team.

Long Fei nodded: "Okay! Then come one by one!"

"No!" The captain turned around, grabbed the red flag behind him, and shouted loudly: "One shot, one shot, the first shot, height 25, one shot, let go!"

"Boom!" The loud noise not only made everyone dizzy, but also the earth trembled.At that moment, everyone seemed to lose consciousness, and their minds went blank.Thick smoke spewed out and dispersed in the air, making it impossible to see anything.I could only hear someone screaming and clanging.There was an unknown piece of thing that fell in front of Long Fei, it was so dark that he didn't know what it was.

Dian Wei stretched out his hand to pick it up, and as soon as he touched it, he immediately retracted his hand: "Damn, it's so hot!"

Ma Jun rushed over, looked at it and shook his head: "It's the breech bolt, or that problem, it can't be sealed, it's a remake!"

With the smoke cleared, the place where the first cannon was originally placed, the cannon had fallen apart, and the soldiers were either dead or injured.The soldiers of the medical team rushed forward to treat her and carried down a dark object.Long Fei frowned.He knew that the sealing problem was the biggest problem, and if it was not done well, the chamber would explode.He thought of many methods, but the research on new materials could not keep up, so he had to adopt this method, which is the combination of mechanical seal and rubber ring seal. For this reason, Long Fei specially asked Wang Wei to go to Nanban to purchase a lot of rubber.However, rough technology still cannot achieve [-]% sealing.

"Hahaha..." Sima Zhao laughed loudly: "This Long Fei is really dead. He made these things, made a lot of noise, but killed his own people. This is a joke for us to see him, hahaha..."

Sima Zhao smiled, and the soldiers on Hulaoguan City laughed together, and the laughter made people feel even more aggrieved.Dian Wei yelled and was about to rush over, but Long Fei gave him a hard look, which made Dian Wei pause for a while.Ma Jun hastily checked the other cannons, and they all had the same effect. Whether they can become smart depends on God's will.The captain stopped his movements and turned to look at Long Fei.

Long Fei didn't speak for a long time, looked up to the sky, closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then said loudly: "Continue!"

"No! Continue!" The lieutenant turned around again: "Second Artillery, height 25, one shot, let it go!"

"Boom!" There was another loud noise.This time everyone was alert.A sharp whistling came into my ears.Long Fei stood up.Not long after, Hulaoguan City not far away, followed by a loud noise.The gravel rolled, and the cries and wailing of the soldiers came down immediately.Wei Jun, who was still laughing wildly, felt the threat of death, and ran down without looking back.

Sima Zhao's sharp eyes threw Sima Yi to the ground.When the father and son got up from the ruins and looked at the city wall again, a huge gap appeared not far away.Wounded soldiers were lying on the ground moaning loudly.Looking at the dragon army position on the opposite side, the black smoke has not cleared yet.Sima and his son were dumbfounded, what is this thing that is so powerful, it is many times stronger than their Thunderbolt car.

"Boom!"Sima Zhao hurriedly pinned Sima Yi under him.Sima Yi was furious, and pushed Sima Zhao away. Seeing the smoke rising from the city wall not far away, his feet trembled. He hurriedly supported the female wall, and the broken stones flew everywhere, and one of them rubbed against Sima Yi's body. The cheek flew across, leaving a long bloodstain on his face.

"Mighty! Mighty!" Changing from the downturn just now, the soldiers of the Dragon Army are now more confident. No matter how tall the city wall is, this thing is not a problem. Compared with attacking the city, it will deal a greater psychological and physical blow to the enemy. many.Except for the bombing of the first cannon, the other five were still up to the mark. Five shells in a row smashed five big holes on the top of Hulao Pass, and the morale of the Wei army dropped to the lowest.

Note: 礮 (read pao), same as gun.An ancient war tool that uses the principle of leverage to throw stone bombs.Abbreviated as cannon.Also known as ◀, cloud ◀, flying stone, riprap and so on.In ancient Europe, it was called a trebuchet.Before the appearance of artillery, 礮 has always been an important weapon in ancient offensive and defensive warfare.