Global colonization began with Ming Dynasty pirates.

As the test progressed, on the sixth shot, the Lumi gunner was the first to hit the dummy target at a distance of 100 paces.

This put enormous psychological pressure on the musket operators, even slowing down their loading speed.

Then the test ended with the last shot, and the musketeer still missed. But the Rumy musketeer only managed to hit with that one shot.

Therefore, it seems that the accuracy of the Lumi gun at a range of 100 paces is much better than that of the arquebus.

Lin Hao immediately ordered his men to check the damage to the armor that had been hit by Lu Mi's gun.

The results came quickly: the first layer of armor on the dummy that was hit was almost completely pierced, while the second and third layers were unaffected.

This power impressed Lin Hao. To inflict such damage on armor at a distance of a hundred paces was quite remarkable. Keep in mind, this Lumi gun only had 4 qian of gunpowder and 3 qian of ammunition. In the West, it would be considered a standard light matchlock musket.

However, judging from the penetration effect at the scene, the residual force was insufficient after penetration. If the opponent was wearing a layer of armor, being hit at a distance of 100 paces would most likely result in serious injury rather than death.

Lin Hao then ordered the target to be moved forward ninety paces, and had the two men fire ten more shots.

As the distance increased to ninety paces, after ten shots, the musketeer hit once, while the musketeer hit twice.

The examination revealed that the Rumy gunner had completely penetrated the first layer of armor and caused some damage to the second. At this distance, being hit with only one layer of armor would almost certainly be fatal. Even two layers of armor could potentially be damaged.

However, the musket shot that hit its mark failed to penetrate the first layer of armor. It only created a deep dent in the first layer. In other words, at a distance of ninety paces, the musketman could not penetrate the armor of a target wearing a single layer of lamellar armor.

This result caused Lin Hao to frown deeply. He knew that the Ming Dynasty military manuals and records he had consulted indicated that the Ming army in the north would begin firing muskets at a distance of 100 paces, and only start firing arrows at a distance of 50 paces.

If even ninety paces cannot penetrate a single layer of armor, what is the point of firing at a hundred paces? No wonder the Later Jin soldiers, clad in heavy armor, could treat Ming firearms as nothing. It's not just that the Ming firearms were of poor quality, but also that these men fired too early.

Lin Hao couldn't understand why the Ming army would do such a thing. But that didn't stop him from continuing his tests.

The target was then placed 80 paces away, and the two men took turns shooting again.

At eighty paces, their accuracy began to improve significantly. The musketeer hit twice, while the Rumy musketeer hit three times.

As for the results, the arquebus finally managed to penetrate the first layer of armor, while the Rumi gun could penetrate two layers of armor.

The target was then moved to 70, 60, and 50 paces, and the tests were conducted in sequence.

Lin Hao eventually obtained detailed data on the two muskets.

At long range, the accuracy of the Rumy gunner was far superior to that of the musket gunner, but within 60 paces, the accuracy of the two was almost the same.

In terms of power, the Rumi musket could deter armor-piercing targets at 100 paces, penetrate one layer of armor at 90 paces, completely penetrate two layers of armor at 70 paces, and completely penetrate three layers of armor at 50 paces.

The arquebusiers, however, performed much worse. It took 80 paces to penetrate one layer of armor. Two layers required 60 paces, and three layers almost 40 paces. Test results showed that to reliably penetrate three layers of armor, the distance should ideally be reduced to 30 paces.

It can be said that, except for the loading speed, the Rumi gun was superior to the arquebus in every respect.

"Young master, the power of this Lumi gun is terrifying. I think we should focus on producing Lumi guns from now on. We can put this musket aside."

"Lin San, you're in charge of firearms training, what do you think?" Lin Hao didn't answer directly, but turned to Lin San beside him and asked.

Lin San thought about it carefully for a while, and then hesitated before saying to Lin Hao, "Young Master, in theory, if we equip ourselves with Lumi guns, it seems we can crush opponents with muskets, but I always feel there's something wrong with it."

As the young master told us before, an excellent weapon should not only pursue the best quality and the greatest power.

Instead, the better, while meeting performance requirements, the easier it is to manufacture and maintain. This Lumi gun seems overly complicated to forge, and it doesn't appear to be readily available on the market.

"What you said makes a lot of sense. It's clear you think things through carefully." Lin Hao nodded in satisfaction and then continued to explain.

"Although the Lumi gun is good, it is not suitable for us, or rather, it is not suitable for us to equip with it in large quantities now."

This is not just a matter of manufacturing difficulty, but also a matter of usage scenario. Our main combat location is on ships, and the deck space on the ship is very limited, so such a long musket is completely at a disadvantage for us.

Secondly, our targets are almost never wearing multiple layers of armor; even having one layer is rare. In this case, the firepower of the musket is perfectly adequate.

As for the issue of accuracy, our main method of killing enemies is volley fire, so the accuracy of individual targets is not actually important.

Moreover, in a real battlefield environment, it is impossible to achieve even half of the accuracy of the test firing in the training ground.

In this situation, a shorter reload time and a faster second salvo are actually the most advantageous for us.

After Lin Hao finished speaking, Lin San nodded thoughtfully and said, "Now I understand. The choice of weapon should be more about matching the specific use case, rather than blindly choosing the so-called best performance."

Hearing the conversation between Lin Hao and Lin San, Li Mu, who had been looking forward to it, became uneasy instead.

Judging from this statement, does it mean that the Lumi gun he painstakingly crafted was ultimately useless? Then wasn't all his efforts in vain?

Lin Hao seemed to have read Li Mu's mind and smiled, saying, "Craftsman Li Mu has done a great job in forging this musket and deserves a reward. Li Mu, did you forge this musket all by yourself?"

"Well......"

A look of hesitation flashed in Li Mu's eyes, but he still cupped his hands in a gesture of respect and said:

"Reporting to Chief Shao, I could not have forged two muskets in such a short time by myself. I have to thank the other blacksmiths for their help."

"In that case, Li Mu will be rewarded with five taels of silver, and each of the other craftsmen who helped will be rewarded with three taels of silver." Lin Hao nodded with a smile. In fact, he knew very well who had participated in the creation; he was just seeing if the other party would say so.

"The quality of these muskets and matchlock guns is excellent. It's clear you put your heart into it, and your craftsmanship is quite good." Lin Hao nodded to him, then continued to give instructions.

"I'll give you some people later. You teach them how to make the less important parts for the musket, and then you can focus on making the barrel. As for the design, just make sure it's consistent with the musket."

Also, before you forge the next musket, take some time to have your old tools, especially the measuring tape, aligned with Steward Li Qiang. In our Four Seas Gang, the measuring tape must be completely identical.

"Thank you, Young Master Xie. I will certainly live up to your expectations." Li Mu immediately bowed and accepted the order.

In fact, Lin Hao was not satisfied with either the arquebus or the Lumi gun. The simplest reason was that its bullets were too light. One qian in the Ming Dynasty was about 3.7 grams, and a three-qian bullet weighed only 11 grams. Bullets of this weight carried too little energy.

The Western heavy matchlock musket had a bullet weighing 37 grams. No matter what kind of armor it was, it was as fragile as paper in front of a bullet of that weight.

As for arquebuses and muskets, although they seem to have good armor-piercing effects now, if the enemy replaces one layer of armor with cotton armor, the outer cotton armor can effectively absorb the impact, while the inner iron plate is difficult to penetrate. This can be regarded as an ancient version of composite armor.

Later, Jin was located in the north, where the weather was cold, so they preferred to wear cotton armor over iron armor. In this case, arquebusiers had to get closer to break through the armor.

Once the distance is reduced to 30 or even 20 steps, this is the optimal attack range for Qing archers, allowing the Later Jin soldiers to shoot the enemy into a jumbled mess with their arrows.

Therefore, Lin Hao's ideal standard musket bullet weight, while not reaching the absurd 37 grams of a heavy matchlock musket, should at least be over 20 grams, so that Lin Hao would have the confidence to face the heavily armored soldiers of the Later Jin.

However, for now, since we're only fighting pirates and Ming troops, arquebuses are perfectly adequate. After all, these things can be bought everywhere in the Ming Dynasty, making them the most convenient option under the current circumstances. Only when we have a stable base can we consider designing and mass-producing firearms.