Chongzhen and I became partners

Chapter 881 Type A
The eunuch in charge of the Bingzhan Bureau had been informed a long time ago and led a group of subordinates to greet him at the door.

Seeing Emperor Chongzhen and two court officials coming leisurely, he hurried forward to salute.

"Pingshen!" After the Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand, he asked lightly, "The things that I told you are all done!"

"Go back to Lord Long Live, everything is done." The eunuch in charge quickly responded, "Just wait for Lord Long Live to verify and give instructions!"

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen showed a smile on his face, turned his head and said to the two trusted ministers behind him: "You two love ministers, you two lead troops to fight a lot, please comment later!"

After finishing speaking, under the guidance of the eunuch in charge, he entered the inside of the military battle bureau.

In a ventilated workshop, a thick wooden anvil is placed on the front table, which is the most eye-catching.

Du Yinxi and Sun Chuanting also noticed this thick wooden anvil for the first time, and they were a little strange, wondering what it was for?
When the two of them were looking at it, the eunuch in charge carefully picked up a piece of white powder the size of a rice grain and put it on the thick wooden anvil from somewhere, and then respectfully handed over a hammer.

Emperor Chongzhen took the hammer and was actually a little excited in his heart.Now, he will verify all the things Liu Weichao told him.

He turned his head to look at the two confidant ministers, and after a slight smile, he took the hammer and knocked on the rice grain-like thing.

Sun Chuanting and Sun Chuanting knew that this white thing like a grain of rice might be the key to the new firearm, but they couldn't figure out what it was, so they stared at it.

There was a "pop" sound, and the white thing made a crisp sound under the hammer's strike, and the white rice grains disappeared.

Sure enough, it was exactly the same as what Liu Weichao said, Emperor Chongzhen thought in his heart, and gave the hammer to the eunuch in charge, then turned his head, looked at Sun Chuanting and the two, and asked with a smile: "You two loves, do you know what I just hit? thing?"

After hearing this, Sun Chuanting and Du Yinxi couldn't help but look at each other in blank dismay. If they could see it, it would be a strange thing.

They had followed Emperor Chongzhen for a long time, and of course they understood what kind of mentality the emperor had at this time, so they cooperated very well and shook their heads together.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw it, he said lightly: "This thing is a new gunpowder, also called thunder mercury!"

When he said this, he remembered what Liu Weichao had introduced to him.

In the original history, the Manchu Qing could not invent this thing by themselves. During the Opium War, after being bullied by the British army with rear-loading firearms, they asked Western powers for a lot of money to buy it.

Fortunately, this thing has become popular in the West, and it is available in every country.Man Qing gave a lot of money, and finally bought this secret recipe from Germany.

At that time, Ding Shoucun, the king of the Ministry of household affairs, please follow this secret recipe to make the western self-fired control method.[-]. First imitate the western style to make the fire system, and then make self-made gunpowder, that is, to make guns. The guns are made of red copper, with different diameters and longer lengths, hollow, and a layer of white medicine on the bottom. .

Ding Shoucun's records are very detailed: first make nitrate, then make alcohol, and then mix it into water, put silver flakes into water, dissolve it into white powder, pour out water, dry the white powder in the shade, and then it becomes Baiyao.This is a very simple method without technical difficulty.

And this Baiyao has another more well-known name, called Thunder Mercury.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen was proud, especially compared with the Man Qing who destroyed the Ming Dynasty, it gave him a sense of superiority.

Manchu Qing asked Xiyi to buy it, but today's Daming is the first in the world to make Thunder Mercury.

The method Liu Weichao gave him was even better than the secret recipe bought by Manchu Qing at that time, and it was also simpler. It was to dissolve mercury in cold nitric acid, and then add this solution into a flask filled with pure alcohol to start a violent reaction to produce nitric acid. mercury, and precipitated white crystals.At the end of the reaction, pure alcohol is added in 2 times, and mercury nitrate reacts with pure alcohol to obtain erythromer.Use a cloth filter to filter out the mercury, wash it with water, and then use dilute alkali to remove the acid.

But Liu Weichao said it was simple, but this kind of chemical experiment was still difficult for the Ming Dynasty at this time.If there is no basis, it is absolutely incomprehensible.

Fortunately, the special scientific examination of Gephysics has been held for so many years, and his daughter and son-in-law are the leaders in the field of chemistry.

Before that, the three acids and two alkalis were produced, and the foundation of chemistry was also established. The production process given by Liu Weichao was not difficult for the husband and wife.

In fact, what Emperor Chongzhen wanted more was nitroglycerin, the real explosive.

However, even if Liu Weichao can provide the production method, it is definitely a risky thing for beginners to do this.Not to mention that his daughter and son-in-law have family ties, but other people are also Daming's most valuable talents in chemistry, and Emperor Chongzhen is absolutely unwilling to lose them.

Therefore, after much consideration, Emperor Chongzhen decided to follow what Liu Weichao said and take it step by step first.

For the production of nitroglycerin, of course, it must be done eventually, but it is best to be in a laboratory with low temperature, and there can be a lot of glycerin, etc.

Liu Weichao also suggested that a laboratory could be set up in Hokkaido, Japan, where the temperature is low and there are whales, so a large amount of glycerin can be obtained.

But in the end, this plan was rejected by Emperor Chongzhen.It's too far to go to Hokkaido, the country of Japan.

Now the entire grassland belongs to Daming, and there are many places that meet the conditions, so there is no need to go there.

But no matter what, the invention of nitroglycerin was postponed first.

Having said that, at this time, after hearing what Emperor Chongzhen said, Sun Chuanting still didn't understand, and immediately asked a little surprised: "Your Majesty, this thing is called gunpowder? Is it better than the previous gunpowder?"

"Of course!" After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen immediately smiled and said, "You can go and see the improved Franc cannon first!"

When the eunuch in charge heard this, he immediately led the way and led them to the artillery room that had been prepared.

The Fran cannon is loaded with a cannon, that is, a separate chamber, so the rate of fire is extremely fast.

In other words, in easy-to-understand terms, the bore and barrel of the Francois machine gun are separated, that is, it consists of one barrel and n multiple barrels.

However, the original Fran cannon had an air leakage problem, which not only easily injured the artillery, but also could not hit far.

However, this shortcoming has been improved in the 15th year of Chongzhen with the plug-in of Liu Weichao.

That is to add a flange to the cannon, put it into the barrel and push it forward to fit the cannon barrel, and then fix the rear end with a wedge-shaped plug, which completely solves the air-holding problem of the Franco cannon.For the Ming army's early battles, the Fran cannon became the main artillery type at once, and the rate of fire was very fast, because it was enough to change the gun.

In a sense, the Franc machine gun at this time was already a bolt-type locking rear-loading gun with a bolt, and its locking structure was almost the same as the Krupp cannon in the middle and late 19th century.

However, there is still room for improvement in the Francois machine gun, not to mention the addition of rifling, which has already been improved before, but the key point that really limits the Francois machine gun: the guns it replaces are not cartridge cases, but It is the barrel.The difference between this is huge.

The rear-loading guns of later generations, whether they are loaded separately or as a whole, insert the entire shell case into the barrel, and the shell case can play an airtight role to seal the gunpowder gas, nothing more.It is not the shell case that really bears the explosive pressure of the gunpowder in the barrel, but the barrel that covers the shell case.

However, the cannon of the Francois machine gun is not a cartridge case, but a dual function equivalent to a removable barrel and a cartridge case.

In this way, there is a problem.Since it is used as a gun bore, it must function as a gun bore.The gun of the Franco machine must therefore bear all, or at least most of the explosive pressure, on its own, so it must be made very thick.Otherwise, it will explode.

And this leads to a problem, that is, the caliber of the Francois machine gun is not large.If the caliber is increased, the weight of the gun that also serves as the barrel will increase rapidly, reaching tens of hundreds of kilograms, including the weight of gunpowder and shells inside.

Then the problem comes, very heavy guns, loading is a problem.How many people carry it?It is not realistic at all on the battlefield, and the possibility of rapid reloading and launching of the rear load is also lost.

In fact, as far as the shells of later generations are concerned, there are weight restrictions.Generally speaking, 20 kg of ammunition with shells and ammunition is the upper limit. If it exceeds, it will be changed to shell-less packs, otherwise it will be unfavorable for loading.

It is actually not difficult to solve the problem of the structure of the Franco cannon, just do not load from the rear and top, make the cannon as thin as possible, change it to insert it from the rear of the cannon tail, and then insert a wedge to fix it.

In other words, since subjecting the gun to the explosion pressure will make it too heavy, don't let it bear the explosion pressure, just let the barrel bear it.

It's just that if you do this, all the Fran cannons will be completely changed.In the early Ming Dynasty, there were always wars, wars and wars.

Therefore, this kind of project, which is equivalent to completely changing the Franco cannon, was postponed.After all, the fast Franco cannon, which was only roughly modified, is already enough for war.

Now that there is Thunder Mercury, if we completely improve this Franco cannon, it will become a real breech-loading artillery. artillery.

At this time, Sun Chuanting and Du Yinxi's eyes widened when they heard the introduction of the new Franco cannon by Emperor Chongzhen, and went directly to touch the cannon regardless of the emperor's presence.Looking at the way they caress, it is definitely a very cute thing.

Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied when he saw it, and he introduced it again: "This new type of artillery is completely different from the previous Franco cannon. It has different calibers and sizes. I named it the Shenwei Artillery Type A!"

Artillery is the most powerful of long-range weapons. In the past, it was limited by the rate of fire. Therefore, in land battles, its greatest use was to bombard immovable objects such as city walls. In confrontation, its deterrent power is greater than its actual destructive power.

However, the rate of fire of this artillery has been increased, and in field battles, it will crush the enemy in all aspects.

From far away, the court officials and soldiers can shell at extremely high speed. Even if a single shell is not powerful and can only plow a line, the more shells fired, the damage will definitely be considerable.

More importantly, under the extremely fast shelling, it is likely to destroy the morale of the enemy before they attack at close range.

Not all armies are brave and fearless, ignoring casualties and desperately attacking.Even the Ming army may not be able to do it.Perhaps only the robot army mentioned by Liu Weichao has this possibility.

As long as you are human, fear is instinct!
Touching the Shenwei Artillery Model A in front of him, Sun Chuanting suddenly thought of a question, and quickly asked Emperor Chongzhen, "Your Majesty, what about the Shenwei Rifle? Is there a Model A?"

(End of this chapter)