Three Kingdoms, at the beginning of the game, recognize the thief as the father, hit the spectacle,

"On the contrary, when the amount of gunpowder used exceeds four standard units, especially after we use seven standard units of gunpowder for loading, the power of the artillery not only does not increase, but also decreases a lot."

"For this situation, I preliminarily estimate that there is insufficient air in the gunpowder chamber due to too much charge, and the gunpowder cannot be ignited smoothly."

"For this point, judging from the cleaning of the gun bore dregs after ignition, after the charge exceeds four standard units, there is indeed a lot more dregs left in the gun bore."

"Therefore, the preliminary conclusion I got here is that this kind of artillery is most suitable for use with a charge of four standard units."

Kneeling and sitting next to the table in front of Zhang Yan, at this moment, Ma Jun was holding a series of experimental data in his hand, and reported the experimental results to Zhang Yan in a low voice.

In front of him, Zhang Yan, the protagonist, was gnawing pickled vegetables while listening to the other party's report.

After Ma Jun's words came to an end, Zhang Yan frowned, and then asked a question that he cared more about and was more critical to a weapon.

"Four times the amount of charge? That's not bad, the cost of firing a shot is much lower than I originally expected."

"It's just that, if we use this optimal amount of charge, what is the actual power of our artillery and how far is the range?"

Asked to the other party, since no outsiders were present at the moment, Zhang Yan had no intention of keeping these core data secret, so he asked directly.

As for Ma Jun, there was joy on his face, with a slightly beaming gesture.

"My lord, after a reasonable charge, the range of the test-fired artillery can reach more than 150 steps, and the 'effective killing' distance you have been emphasizing before is at least about [-] steps."

"Within 150 steps, no matter whether it is a wooden target or an iron target, as long as it is directly hit by a shell, it will inevitably be shattered, and there is no reason for it."

"Even at the end, we experimented with temporarily piled bricks and stones to simulate a city wall. For a city wall of the level of Wancheng, as long as three or four shots are fired within a certain length, the structure of the city wall can be broken and collapsed. A gap comes out."

"Although the actual thickness of these city walls is several meters, according to General Xu Huang and the others, as long as a part of the city wall collapses, the soldiers can use this as an entry point to launch a fierce attack on the opponent's formation."

He told Zhang Yan triumphantly that Ma Jun was indeed proud of such impressive statistics.

In ancient times, especially in the Han Dynasty, the distance of "one step" was different from the modern "one step".

During this period, the modern step was called "跬", and the combination of one left and one right could be counted as one step.

Therefore, the range of two hundred steps mentioned by Ma Jun is converted into a unit that Zhang Yan is more familiar with, that is, a distance of about 260 meters to 280 meters, which is already comparable to the "Shenwei Invincible General Cannon" in the early Ming Dynasty .

In the entire history of China's weapons development, I am afraid that only the Hongyi cannon of the Qing Dynasty, which "corroded dozens of miles in one cannon" and had an actual range of more than a thousand meters, could completely crush it.

As for the relatively early time of 188 AD, the artillery that can bombard the enemy at a distance of more than 200 meters and nearly 300 meters has been completely crushed at the technological level, which fully satisfies Zhang Yan's current understanding of firearms. needs.

After confirming that there is no problem with the safety of this type of artillery, that is, under the full charge, this type of artillery has no tendency to deform or explode after repeated firing for more than an hour, Zhang Yan quickly turned his attention Moved to the next aspect that he cared about very much.

That is the cost of this kind of artillery, or what is the level of construction cost.

……

"—My lord, don't worry, in order to ensure the quality of the artillery, we all adopt the method of casting copper cannons with iron molds. The entire cannon body is cast and formed at one time, which is safe and seamless, and the barrel is extremely thick, which can ensure the safety of the user. "

Anyway, if Zhang Yan remembered correctly, when he just talked about safety, his dear right-hand man, Ma Jun, the spokesperson of Lujiang Science and Technology Department, said this to him.

Regarding the impact of the thickened gun body and integral casting on the safety of the gun, Zhang Yan actually didn't have any obvious feelings.

Just as a normal person, he knows that if the barrel of the copper cannon is thicker, the amount of copper that needs to be consumed must be more...

Chapter 27 Cost

"Um, what's the cost?"

"Actually, it's not much, just around 60 yuan..."

Scratching his head in embarrassment, Ma Jun heard Zhang Yan ask this question, first recalled his expenses roughly, then his face turned red, and his voice towards Zhang Yan became much quieter.

As for Zhang Yan, he slapped his forehead and rolled his eyes subconsciously, feeling a little speechless to Ma Jun's statement.

……

"What did you say?!"

"60, isn't that too much?"

Taking a deep breath, even though Zhang Yan had already made mental preparations, when he actually came into contact with this number, he still felt a little terrified.

Unlike Ma Jun who has become less sensitive to money figures these days, Zhang Yan is well aware of the heavy weight of the 60 yuan cost.

Although he provided Ma Jun with a total fund of nearly 300 million yuan for the research and development of artillery at the very beginning, research and development and mass production are completely different things.

It is completely understandable for Zhang Yan to invest more in research and development, but if the mass production of this weapon still costs 60 yuan, it is a bit too expensive, or extravagant, for Zhang Yan.

60 yuan, converted into gold, is about [-] Han Jin of gold, which is enough to buy dozens of horses or cattle, which has brought about quite significant changes in the development of Lujiang.

And this is only the price of a bottle of copper cannon, not counting the matching gunpowder and shells.

Assuming that a battalion at the lowest level is equipped with ten copper cannons, if Zhang Yan wants to replace the existing archers with artillery in the Lujiang Bingma Division, at least fifty copper cannons must be cast .

Under such a huge quantity demand, the huge amount of funds with a total price of up to 3000 million is very likely to completely collapse the economy of Lujiang, which is not rich at all.

Melting 3000 million copper coins into copper casting weapons, let alone Zhang Yan, even Qin Shihuang, who built the Twelve Bronze Men, never did such a crazy thing.

"No, no, it's too expensive."

"Ma Jun is not what I said. For the price of 60 yuan, I can still live with two or three cannons. If there are more than ten cannons, it will definitely cause a severe economic crisis in the current Lujiang River."

"At that time, not to mention using military force to defend the Lujiang River, even the people's basic necessities of life may have serious problems."

"Isn't there a slightly more economical plan?"

Frowning, he asked Ma Jun, Zhang Yan was very satisfied with the power of this copper cannon, but for the high cost, not to mention the high quality and low price... At least it can be said that his family was poor, I can only reluctantly say goodbye.

Hearing this, Ma Jun lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then shook his head decisively at Zhang Yan and said:

"My lord, the manufacturing plan of this artillery is already the best route we have determined so far. If we make further cuts, it is very likely that there will be serious problems in the quality of the finished product, and there may even be a risk of bombing."

"On the contrary, the current artillery, according to General Yang and the others, although the effect against first-rate generals is unknown, it can pose a very effective threat when facing second-rate and third-rate generals, even against lower-level soldiers. Form a spike effect with the general."

"I don't think there is any need to shrink the artillery method itself."

……

"But my lord..."

"If I remember correctly, a large part of the 60 copper coins is because we need to use pure copper to cast the cannon body, and the local copper mine production in Lujiang is extremely low, and it is not cost-effective to import ore from other places."

"If the lord can obtain a sufficient amount of ore, instead of directly using copper coins to cast it, the production cost of the artillery should be much lower than before."

First, he politely rejected Zhang Yan's statement. As the inventor of this weapon, Ma Jun can be said to be familiar with the parameters of the artillery. Naturally, he also knows that some things are like the power supply of a desktop computer, and he can't shrink it.

But other than that, he changed the topic again, giving Zhang Yan, who was a little dull, a glimmer of hope that he could mass-produce artillery.

……

"You mean a lot of copper mining?"

Frowning slightly and asking Ma Jun, Zhang Yan only felt that although this condition was somewhat difficult, it was much better than the astonishingly high cost before.

Opposite him, Ma Jun nodded, and after estimating the amount of bronze used, he gave Zhang Yan a rough reference number.

"My lord, the total weight of our cannon is about 400 catties. Calculated at one penny and five baht, that's about 20 pennies worth of bronze."

"In the actual forging process, considering that the bronze needs to be mixed with some tin ingots, and considering the wear and tear during the casting process, after the two phases are offset, more than 60.00% of the cost is actually spent on the bronze itself. Cast it."

"If the Lord can solve the source of a large amount of copper, only calculating labor and time costs, the price of the 15-type artillery can be suppressed between 18 and [-] yuan."

After reporting the general data to Zhang Yan, Ma Jun stepped back to the side, leaving Zhang Yan a space to think.

In fact, he does not support too much cost saving on this kind of weapon with certain risks, because once the artillery explodes, neither the impact on morale nor the direct loss of soldiers can be directly measured by money.

On this point, Zhang Yan naturally has the same understanding as him.

Soon, after a few minutes, when Ma Jun was still hesitating whether to add a fire, he saw Zhang Yan let out a sigh of relief, and then he relaxed as if accepting his fate, and leaned against the wall behind him . ,

……

"Hey, that's all, 18 is 18. Although it is a bit more expensive, it is still much cheaper than before."

"Ma Jun, you are right. Some money will have to be spent sooner or later. If you save some money here, it will be returned by the enemy sooner or later in the course of future marches and operations."

"Although the overall casting is expensive, at least the safety is guaranteed, and it can be used for a long time..."

"That's how it is. The production price of 18 yuan is not completely unacceptable if you bite your teeth."

……

Waving his hand in Ma Jun's direction, Zhang Yan officially confirmed the production plan of this weapon.

On the other hand, seeing that the weapons he personally designed and supervised were recognized, Ma Jun was naturally overjoyed and beamed with joy.

"Come on, pass my order down—"

Greeting outside the door, Zhang Yan called some officials who ran errands for him, and ordered:

"Pass me an order. From now on, the Lujiang Industrial Division will be in charge, and the production of Type [-] artillery will begin according to the drawings of the Science and Technology Division."

……

"By the way, since mass production has been decided, this kind of artillery can't be called a trial model, it has to be changed to an official name."

"Just call it Type [-] Artillery Type I."

Chapter 28 Strong Copper Smelting

"The initial output... let's set it at ten, first produce ten cannons and equip them with the bow troops of Lujiang Bingma Division, and at the same time, gradually increase this number to fifty in the next six months. about."

"In other words, I want each archer battalion to be equipped with ten cannons as a standard. At the same time, when the artillery is fully equipped, the corresponding archer battalion will be officially renamed the artillery battalion, and will no longer be responsible for using bows and arrows for long-range suppression. Instead, it turned to artillery fire."

"If the most elite archers are allowed to get acquainted with and accept this new type of weapon, it should be the fastest to get acquainted with it."

After bowing his head and talking to himself for a while, Zhang Yan raised his head to look at those little officials:

"Then let's do this, first produce ten, and then gradually increase to fifty... No, it's better to have sixty, and reserve some more equipment, so that the artillery will not be worn out and affect the combat effectiveness of these soldiers."

As for the other army in Lujiang, the rebellious soldier Masi whose main task was to guard against the Shanyue forces in the direction of Danyang, was ranked even lower by Zhang Yan because of relatively low training and battlefield experience. level.

You must know that this is the case. The more powerful and rare the equipment, the more elite the team should be given priority. There is nothing much to say about this.

As for Ma Jun, a great hero who left a strong mark in the history of firearms development, Zhang Yan asked with a smile:

"Okay, then this matter will come to an end. The production of dozens of cannons is not a trivial matter. It is estimated that the Technology Department and the Industry Department will be busy in the remaining months of this year. "

"As for you, Deheng, as the great hero this time, do you have anything you want? Just tell me, you know who I am, and I've never been ambiguous about my own people."

Smiling and patted the other party, Zhang Yan originally thought that according to Ma Jun's character, he must be evading himself again, repeatedly saying that it is an honor to serve him, so that he began to think about it, this time If Ma Jun is rewarded, how much money should be rewarded is appropriate.

It's just that he didn't expect that after he finished speaking, Ma Jun actually smiled at him, and there was a hint of hope in his eyes.