Daming Military Empire

Chapter 107 The Artillery Arrives
Zhu Cijiong was sitting alone in the study, flipping through the signed "Ming Empire and the Portuguese Empire Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance". He couldn't calm down for a long time. He really wanted to pull the Empress Dowager Cixi in front of him and let her take a good look. What is a treaty? Can those signed by the Qing government be called treaties?That's a bond of prostitution!
The Empress Dowager Cixi did not appear in front of him, but the familiar voice of the beauty of the system appeared in his mind:

"Ding Dong, congratulations on completing the sixth survival mission, and the rewards will be distributed below, Artillery Encyclopedia."

This cannon encyclopedia is really big and complete, Zhu Cijiong just felt his head was filled with a ball of paste, and he was dizzy to death.

Before he recovered, the beautiful voice of the system continued: "Ding Dong, please note that the survival mission is over."

Then, the beauty of the system took a rare moment of contemplation, and then said loudly in an impassioned voice: "Sao Nian, go, go and change history, and show off our country's prestige!"

Although he knew that the beauty of the system would not answer, and would not care about his reaction, Zhu Cijiong nodded solemnly, and promised word by word: "I, yes."

After the promise, Zhu Cijiong was a little bit lost. How can it be so easy to change history? Maybe there will be a long period of time when the voice of the system beauty will not be heard. It was going to disappear for a long time suddenly, and he was really not used to it.

To get the help of the beauty of the system again, the only way to change history is to wipe out the peasant uprising army, defeat Houjin, and dominate the world. All these can change history, but none of these can be easily achieved.

Now the most hopeful solution is the peasant uprising army in the northwest. Although Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting have been equipped with [-] new flintlock guns, they are not invincible. The flintlock guns also have their limitations. The power of the tight shield flintlock guns cannot be exerted, and only artillery can blast these turtle shells.

By the way, Cannon, didn't the system just rewarded Cannon Encyclopedia, Zhu Cijiong quickly flipped through it in his mind.

Maybe it's because this is the last survival reward. The artillery knowledge given by the system is really comprehensive, covering almost all the artillery-related knowledge in the black powder era.

The first is the classification of artillery. Artillery is mainly divided into mortars, howitzers, and cannons. There are three main factors for classification:

第一，炮弹直径和炮管长度的比例，比例在1:13以下的都是臼炮，比例在1:14到1:40之间的一般都是榴弹炮，比例在1:40以上的一般都是加农炮；

Second, the launch angle of shells is generally between 55 degrees and 85 degrees for mortars, between 15 degrees and 55 degrees for howitzers, and below 15 degrees for cannons;
Thirdly, the loading amount of gunpowder. The loading amount of a mortar is generally about half of the weight of the shell, the loading amount of a howitzer is generally equal to the weight of the shell, and the loading amount of a cannon is generally about twice the weight of the shell.

The characteristics of these three guns are:

The mortar barrel is thin, light in weight, short in range and low in power, and can attack targets hidden behind obstacles. It is generally used to attack enemy soldiers at close range;
The howitzer barrel is thicker, heavier, has a longer range, and is more powerful. It can attack targets hidden behind obstacles and is generally used to attack enemy soldiers remotely;
The cannon barrel is very thick, heavy, and has a long range and great power. The shooting angle is basically parallel to the ground. It is generally used to destroy enemy fortifications.

There are also mortars that are generally smoothbore, that is to say, there is no rifling in the barrel, while howitzers and cannons are rifled, with dense rifling engraved in the barrel.

Then there is the casting method of the cannon. There is no cylindrical steel for sale in the Ming Dynasty, so the barrel can only be cast.

It is relatively difficult to cast a gun barrel in this era, because the gun barrel itself is very heavy, so it is a bit unrealistic to cast it with a sand mold. It must be molded with clay, and after the clay mold is made, it must be put into the mold. The clay mold is buried vertically in the soil, otherwise the clay mold will be crushed before the molten iron is poured.

This clay mold is too difficult to make, and each clay mold can only be used once, and the success rate of casting is still very low, which has caused the production of artillery to be unable to increase.

Fortunately, the mold manufacturing methods of European countries were systematically summarized, and finally a new casting method with a high success rate was summed up, that is, adding steel bars to the middle of the clay, just like pouring cement in modern times, first the steel bars are shaped, and then the upper Watering, so that the strength of the mold is greatly increased, and the success rate will also increase accordingly.

Moreover, in order to solve the problem that the outer mold and the inner mold are not concentric, the system also gives a solution, that is, leave a round opening at the bottom center of the outer mold, add a round steel to the inner mold, and insert the round steel into the round opening , the problem of concentricity is solved. After the barrel is formed, it is only necessary to carve out the round mouth, and then screw a screw in to block it.

The last is the auxiliary equipment of the artillery. The auxiliary equipment provided by the system is mainly the gun carriage and the gun mount.

Of course, the artillery cart is not a car, but a carriage, which is divided into a two-wheeled simple carriage and a four-wheeled armored carriage.The gun mount is not a dead iron bump, but a gun mount with wheels that allows the gun body to rotate 360 ​​degrees.

Speaking of the gun carriage and the gun mount, we have to mention the gun lugs. The gun lugs refer to the two cylinders protruding from the middle of the gun barrel, just like the gun barrel has ears.If you have seen the artillery cast in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in our country, you will find that the artillery we cast basically has no earpieces.

What is the use of this cannon ear?In fact, the function is very simple. It is used to fix the gun barrel. Iron hoops or copper hoops are used to press the gun lugs at both ends, so that the gun barrel can’t run away.For example, the artillery cast in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in our country has no ear, so it can only be fixed on the heavy gun mount, basically unable to move. Even if the gun barrel is carried on the battlefield, it must be fixed at zero time. The tube basically just jumped away, and you can imagine how troublesome it is to operate.

When checking the cannon mount and the cannon carriage, Zhu Cijiong also found a good thing, that is the simple bearing.This simple bearing is not a modern common ball bearing, but a roller bearing.The inside of the ball bearing is full of smooth round steel balls. It is basically impossible to process this thing in the Ming Dynasty.Roller bearings are different. The inside is a smooth round steel column. For Zhu Cijiong who has a lathe and a grinder, this column is easy to process. After turning a bare rod, it is basically no problem to grind it again. .

In fact, there is not much difference between roller bearings and ball bearings used in carriages. Ball bearings can only be self-aligning. That is to say, ball bearings are generally self-aligning ball bearings. Faces remain vertical at 90 degrees.In fact, this function is not used at all on the carriage. Anyway, the distance between the axle and the wheel is fixed at 90 degrees. Using roller bearings and ball bearings has the same effect.

With the bearings, the carriage will be lighter, otherwise, a carriage with at least four to five hundred catties of artillery will need at least twenty or thirty horses to move it.Think about it, when the weight of four to five hundred catties is pressed up, the axle and the axle hole are tightly pressed, and the friction force is like sticking. If there are no twenty or thirty horses, how can the friction force be counteracted? ?
It’s different when you install bearings. No matter how heavy things are pressed on, the bearings are flexible and basically have no friction. Generally, four horses are enough for a cannon weighing four to five hundred catties. eight horses.

Mortars are fine, howitzers and cannons are really good things, but Zhu Cijiong flipped through them in his mind for a long time, and finally had no choice but to decide. At this stage, mortars and howitzers with a caliber below 20 times the caliber should be the main ones. Howitzers and cannons with a caliber of more than 20 times are desperate to think about!

What makes people despair?Just do a simple calculation:

The diameter of a general shell is at least ten centimeters, 1:10 is one meter, 1:20 is two meters, 1:40 is four meters, and the thickness of the howitzer barrel is at least twice that of the mortar, and the thickness of the cannon barrel is at least Three times that of the mortar, the one-meter-long mortar barrel is at least two to three hundred kilograms, the two-meter-long howitzer barrel is at least nearly seven or eight hundred kilograms, and the four-meter-long cannon barrel is at least nearly three hundred kilograms. A thousand catties, not to mention the difficulty of casting and rifling, the weight alone makes people desperate.

Of course, the thickness of the gun barrel is related to the material. In the Ming Dynasty, there were only ordinary cast steel and cast iron, so the gun barrel had to be so thick; it is different in modern times. After forging, special steel is as strong as ordinary cast steel and cast iron. If you want to follow, it is not an order of magnitude, and it doesn't matter if the barrel is thinner.

Gossip less, let's get down to business, and continue to talk about mortars.

The range of the mortar gun is the shortest among the three types of guns. The range of the howitzer below 20 times the caliber is only a little stronger than the mortar gun. Calculated according to the explosion strength of black powder, even if granular gunpowder is used, the range of the mortar gun is only 500. To 20 meters, the range of howitzers with a caliber below 1000 times is not far there, and the farthest is only [-] meters.If you put it in modern times, such a range is a joke. Fortunately, it is enough to deal with archers and cavalry in the cold weapon period, even if it is a siege.

Mortars and howitzers with a caliber of less than 20 times have another advantage, that is, they are light in weight and can be pulled by a carriage, which means that they can be used as field artillery, so you don’t have to worry about facing shields and heavy cavalry in the field up.

The system also provides a variety of shells, such as solid shells, shot shells, and blooming shells. You can choose different shells according to different situations, such as:

When encountering heavy armored cavalry and giant shield soldiers, use solid bullets, and smash them to pieces with one shot;

When you encounter light cavalry, use shotguns, and smash them in black, no matter how fast you run, it will be useless;

When encountering dense infantry, use flowering bombs. A shell falls into the middle of the infantry, and a small iron bullet can injure a large area.

There is also an armored carriage. The outside is a few centimeters thick steel plate, and a layer of wood is added inside. Even if a general earthen gun hits it with a solid bullet, it will hit a hole at most. It is impossible to smash through the armor. Jin's earthen red cannon is an unbreakable mobile fortress.

The system gave too much knowledge about artillery this time, and I couldn't finish it in a while.

In a word, with this artillery encyclopedia, Zhu Cijiong truly felt that the era of hot weapons belonging to Ming Dynasty is coming!

(End of this chapter)