Wanli 1592

Chapter 453
The reason why Xiao Ruxun sits firmly on the Diaoyutai is not blind self-confidence and arrogance, this kind of stability is exchanged for millions of taels of silver.

His navy has a new look, and he is sure that the performance of the ships of his navy is not weaker than that of Spanish ships, and they are even stronger than these guys in terms of artillery firepower.

First of all, apart from other things, Xiao Ruxun didn't publicize the telescope after finding craftsmen in North Korea. Basically, only his own and his generals have it. Other places only have one in Magui's hands. Liu Ting He and Deng Zilong each have one in their hands. These three are pure military generals, without scientific and technological minds.

The rest is that the army under his command is equipped with binoculars. When dealing with pirates before, he used binoculars to gain the upper hand many times, and it is the same now.

Moreover, Xiao Ruxun specially instructed that this telescope is an important weapon of the country. Every general who has a telescope must report the whereabouts of the telescope every time he comes back from a battle. It is absolutely not allowed to lose it for no reason, let alone trade it. Unforgiving.

So Xiao Ruxun was very sure that the Spaniards didn't have binoculars and could only observe with the naked eye, but he had binoculars. Jiang Dahai found the enemy army earlier and made arrangements and battle preparations earlier, which in itself was an advantage.

Then there is artillery.

Xiao Ruxun has basically eliminated the Francois guns in the regular army and the navy, especially in the navy. Some of the larger and heavier Francois are still in use in the army, but the arsenal no longer produces the Francois.

Now the main battle artillery in Xiao Ruxun's army is all cannons, in other words, they are the red barbarian cannons in people's mouth, but this is not quite accurate.

Because the Hongyi cannon is a broad concept, basically all Western-style front-loading cannons are called Hongyi cannons by the Chinese, and the gap between the cannons themselves is directly ignored.

Compared with the rapid change of muskets, the change of artillery was from the appearance of cannon until the middle of the nineteenth century before the breech-loaded rifled gun replaced the front-loaded artillery. The cannon, which became mainstream in the seventeenth century, was still the mainstream.

At most, some improvements will be added to the length, thickness and rifling, and some improvements will be added to gunpowder and shells. The artillery itself has not ushered in a major development.

And most importantly, unlike the increasing range and power of muskets, the range of artillery has not been greatly developed.

When the French army and the Prussian army fought at the end of the eighteenth century, the two sides used hundreds of artillery and tens of thousands of shells in a bloody battle, but the casualties were extremely slight. The reason is that the range of the artillery was too short to reach.

At that time, the effective range of the most excellent artillery in the West was less than 300 yards, that is, a distance of about [-] meters. Such a distance could also be achieved by early cannons and cannons.

There is no way to update the technology, so we can only increase the number and power, research gunpowder, manufacture more guns, and improve the performance of guns in various aspects, such as increasing accuracy, it is actually tinkering, no Big innovation.

Before rifled guns became the mainstream of artillery, the maximum range was just to fool the general public. Everyone knows that if the maximum range is the effective range, why add a much shorter effective range to add to the liking?

Smoothbore guns are just like firearms. After a certain distance, the shells will fly to nowhere. The so-called maximum range is just a joke, and by the way, it is used as a future expectation.

In fact, can the effective range of the Franji machine be farther than the effective range of the Hongyi cannon?There are many exaggerated techniques in the history books, even increasing the shooting range to ten miles or twenty miles. According to the Ming system, one mile is 559 meters, which means that the Franc gun can shoot 5000 meters and 1 meters away?

The effective range of the most powerful Francophone is only about one mile, and it will not be higher. The Hongyi cannon is twice as long, about 1000 meters, and the up and down fluctuations will not exceed 100 meters, which is almost the effective range, and this range By the mid-nineteenth century, there was no leapfrog improvement, and it rose by 200 meters, which is the furthest effective range.

The Western artillery of this period was better than the Ming Dynasty artillery because of the front sight and artillery training, the casting technology was not so high, there was no generation gap, and there were no technical barriers.

The Ming army obtained the Hongyi cannon from the Portuguese in Macau to deal with Houjin, and it will soon be able to produce it by itself, and later Houjin will be able to produce it by itself.

Not long after Xiao Ruxun arrived in Myanmar, he established contact with the Portuguese in Macau, and then obtained two red barbarian cannons, one iron and one copper, from their Bucarao Cannon Foundry, and also obtained ten capable cannons by poaching corners. Experienced Chinese workers successfully cast the first bronze cannon after a month, which is amazingly powerful.

To be precise, the difference between copper cannons and iron cannons is that in the [-]th century, when the cast iron technology was not up to standard, iron cannons were easier to explode, while copper cannons were less likely to explode due to their better ductility. Speaking of it, the difference is not big, but under the conditions at the time, the guns that did not explode were much, much better.

In fact, if the cast iron technology is passed, the iron can reach the level of steel. Steel cannons are definitely better than copper cannons. Later, steel cannons replaced copper cannons. Copper cannons are expensive, and China's copper mines are not abundant. Copper has been used to make coins since ancient times. , but there is not much copper. How can copper cannons be mass-produced under such circumstances?
In desperation, the ultimate wisdom of people played an important role, and the iron-core copper cannon came into being. However, at its root, it still cannot be compared with pure copper cannon.

Ming Dynasty was short of copper, but Xiao Ruxun is not short of copper now. He found a large copper mine. Myanmar has a small population and the demand for copper is not large. Business with foreigners is basically settled in silver, and the amount of copper used by the people is very small.

He will not be so stupid as to tell the court that he has a lot of copper. The [-] jin of copper given to the court every year is all ore. , It is very difficult to supply the court, and it is difficult to keep a little for personal use, that's all.

Since there is no shortage of copper, and the cast iron technology cannot be improved for a while, it is better to use copper. He introduced Western-style aiming methods to train artillery in an all-round way, and used Chinese methods to increase the mobility of artillery. Equipped with a large number of Hongyi cannons, and eliminated the Franc machine guns and some other weapons, the ferocity of the navy's firepower is astounding.

Since the range cannot be improved, Xiao Ruxun used various shells to increase the combat effectiveness of the navy, and further processed the gunpowder into sesame-sized granules for filling, increasing the explosive power of the blooming shells, increasing the weight of the solid shells, The navy is also equipped with naval warfare equipment such as grape bombs and chain bombs, specifically to attack their sailors and masts.

All in all, Xiao Ruxun can provide his navy with weapons and equipment that are not weaker than those of Spain, and he can even provide a telescope that is the first to catch people's attention. Then the next thing depends on the performance of the navy officers and soldiers. He absolutely trusts Jiang Dahai's ability. Surprise yourself enough.

(End of this chapter)