I was the emperor in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 228 Transforming the Matchlock Gun
Daming's gunpowder charity is currently at the forefront of the world.

To Li Tian's surprise, they had already mastered the method of making granular gunpowder at this time.

Although it is only black powder, at this moment, the birth of high-explosive gunpowder such as yellow powder nitroglycerin is far away.

There are still hundreds of years to go, Li Tian is not in a hurry to get these things out.

Gunpowder is fine.

Therefore, the main reason why Daming's muskets at this time could not hit far or accurately was actually because of it.

The production process of the barrel, and the understanding of the musket.

In fact, Li Tian's request is not too high, he doesn't count on flintlock guns.

Although the flint needed for that thing is easy to get, the spring steel sheet used for triggering is not something he can get out at this time.

However, he is still confident that he can improve the matchlock gun so that it can be fired twice or even three times within a minute.

To achieve this point, there is a simple and practical way, that is to use fixed gunpowder.

The so-called fixed gunpowder is actually a fixed amount of gunpowder wrapped in special paper.

When needed, just tear open the paper bag and pour the gunpowder into it.

This has two advantages.

First of all, after the gunpowder is quantified, it is not easy to overfill the gunpowder, resulting in accidents such as bombing or even explosion.

The second is that after using the fixed gunpowder, the trouble of taking the gunpowder from the ammunition bag can be omitted.

This step alone can save at least 20 seconds of loading process.

Gunpowder is easy to solve. Whether it is prepared by a special person in advance, or the soldiers prepare it by themselves before the battle, there is no big problem.

But if you want to shorten the time between firings, you must completely improve the structure and manufacturing process of the musket.

On this point, Li Tian has some ideas, and it is not a big problem to copy several antique guns that later generations have seen.

However, it is a bit difficult to improve the range and power of the matchlock gun.

He thought hard, and the only way he could think of was to improve the airtightness of the musket.

Let the gunpowder explode with a stronger driving force during the ignition process.

The so-called airtightness, to put it bluntly, means no air leakage.

But at this point, there is a great demand for the artisan skills of making iron pipes and copper pipes.

With the superb skills of those master craftsmen, there is no problem in producing a few samples.

If you want to manufacture on a large scale, the difficulty is boundless.

It is only possible to achieve this unless the forging technology of later generations is used to form the steel pipe at one time.

But this again involves issues of materials and forging technology.

Just thinking about it is enough to make your scalp tingle.

He sighed secretly, "In this era, there is no shadow of modern industry. If you want to get something early, it's really hard to beat the sky."

Jumping a little far all of a sudden, Li Tian withdrew his thoughts temporarily.

Reconsider how to improve the existing firearms.

He beckoned and called Liu Baohe to his side.

Pointing to the so-called musket that looked like an iron pipe, he said, "How long will it take for the Bingzhan Bureau to forge such a musket?"

Liu Baohe thought about it carefully and said,

"A skilled craftsman can make one in about seven days."

Li Tian frowned suddenly, and couldn't help exclaiming,

"What? It will take seven days to build such a broken iron pipe."

Liu Baohe thought that Li Tian suspected that they were lazy, so he quickly explained,
"Your Majesty, forgive me, what this servant said is the truth."

"To build such a long iron pipe, craftsmen need to work for two consecutive days without sleep.

Calcined and hammered, then shaped, straightened, and finally polished! "

"It's easy on the outside, but the inside of the pipe is really hard to do. This part alone will take three or four days for the craftsman to complete!"

After listening to his explanation, Li Tian realized that it is so difficult to make firecrackers by hand.

Then he thought of another question, turned around and asked Liu Baohe,
"According to what you just said, this firecracker was made by the same craftsman from beginning to end?"

Liu Baohe, who is fairly familiar with this set of procedures, immediately replied,
"Returning to Your Majesty, in addition to the craftsmen who are in charge of building, there are also teachers and craftsmen who are in charge of acceptance..."

At this time, Jiang Bao also explained beside him,
"The firecracker has the name of the craftsman responsible for forging it. If Your Majesty has any doubts about this firecracker, it's easy to find the person who forged it according to the roster."

Li Tian shook his head with a wry smile, muttering in his heart,
"It's no wonder that Daming has hundreds of thousands of professional craftsmen, and they can't make many firecrackers in a year. It turns out that only one person is busy from the beginning to the end.

It would be easier to find someone responsible if something happened, but wouldn't the efficiency be reduced by more than ten times? "

Although he found the problem of low production capacity, but for the time being, it didn't help his plan.

Putting these questions aside, he asked again,
"How many people in the Bingzhan Bureau will forge firecrackers at this time?"

Liu Baohe thought for a while and immediately gave the answer,
"The craftsmen who can be selected into the military battle bureau are craftsmen with outstanding skills, and basically everyone has a specialty and multiple skills.

Many people know how to forge, but compared with professional firecracker craftsmen, their skills are still a little bit behind. "

Li Tian didn't care too much,

"Okay, call me all the craftsmen who can forge firecrackers, and I have a task for them to do."

Jiang Bao and Liu Baohe couldn't figure out what Li Tian was going to do for a while, so they didn't dare to ask more.

After hurriedly returning to the military battle bureau, Liu Baohe hurriedly summoned all the craftsmen.

Li Tian, ​​on the other hand, came to Liu Baohe's exclusive office area, picked up a paper and pen, and began to write and draw on it.

Jiang Bao was grinding for him at the side, and after looking at it for a long time, he still couldn't see what Li Tian was painting.

Not long after, Liu Baohe, who had summoned all the craftsmen, also rushed over. Seeing Li Tian painting, he didn't dare to say anything.

Waiting quietly with Jiang Bao.

Li Tian drew for about half an hour, and finally drew the analysis diagram of the envisioned matchlock gun.

There are four paintings in total.

The first one is the main structure of the matchlock gun.

The second and third pictures are the appearance of each accessory, and there are detailed dimensions on it.

The last one is a schematic diagram of each component and combination.

It has to be said that Li Tian is quite talented in painting.

The few pictures are clear at a glance, as long as you are not an idiot, you can basically understand them.

He casually threw these pictures to Liu Baohe,
"According to the structure in the picture, I will give you three days to build everything for me according to the detailed dimensions!"

(End of this chapter)