Daming Military Empire

Chapter 693 New Gunpowder, High Explosive Shells
Zhu Cijiong looked carefully at the experimental field for a while, but he still didn't understand how the grenades and artillery were used to test the new gunpowder.

However, he didn't ask anything, but raised his hand to signal for the accompanying experimenters to start the experiment.

Anyway, it just depends on what they do next. If you want someone to explain, you may not understand the explanation for a long time.

Those experimenters got the emperor's order and hurried to the wooden table where the grenade was placed.

The strange thing is, they didn't go to get the grenade on the wooden table, but lowered their heads and moved out a bunch of shields from under the wooden table!
Good guy, this experiment is really dangerous, you have to use a shield to block it!

Zhu Cijiong still didn't say anything, he took a shield naturally, and held it in front of him like the people next to him.

Only now did he realize that this was no ordinary shield, there was actually an observation hole inlaid with thick glass in front!
Seeing that the emperor was ready, one of the experimenters stepped forward to pick up a grenade, held the grenade in one hand and the shield in the other, bit off the safety bolt on the grenade, and then threw it into the wood pile in front of the low wall.

With a loud "boom", Zhu Cijiong felt that the whole ground seemed to shake, and then there was a rain of sawdust in front of him!

I rely on it, it's so powerful.

After all the sawdust had fallen, Zhu Cijiong put down his shield and looked into the pile of wooden boards and wooden pillars. A hole several meters in diameter had been blasted there, and neither the wooden boards nor the wooden pillars in the middle were gone, and the surrounding wooden boards and wooden pillars were also in dilapidated condition. ,a mess!
This is comparable to the grenade of the later generations. It seems that the power of this high-explosive gunpowder is already comparable to the explosives of the later generations!
Zhu Cijiong nodded excitedly, then pointed to the cannon next to him and said, "Go on, go on, you go on."

When the experimenters heard this, they immediately dropped their shields, quickly opened the back cover of the naval gun, stuffed in a sub-tube that had been prepared, and then closed the back cover.

After doing all this well, they looked to Zhu Cijiong, which meant they were ready.

Seeing this, Zhu Cijiong nodded without hesitation to signal that it was time to fire.

I saw an experimenter forcefully flip the flintlock behind the naval gun, and with a "boom", a shell flew out immediately and hit the high wall in front, fragments splashed everywhere, and the high wall was smashed immediately A crater the size of a washbasin was formed, and the deformed shell immediately fell to the ground.

This power is similar to that of the original artillery, but there is no flint on the flintlock, and there are no sparks behind it when the cannon is fired. Obviously, it is because something in the form of a firing pin hits the primer inside, and then the shell is fired. of.

After reading these two experiments, Zhu Cijiong praised him with satisfaction, and then asked Bi Maokang to lead him to the office, seemingly wanting to say something to Bi Maokang.

From the results of the experiment, it can be seen that both high-explosive gunpowder and detonating gunpowder have been successful, and the effect is no different from that of later generations of gunpowder. However, their usage is a bit wrong, or too one-sided. Zhu Cijiong wants to tell Bi Maokang It is these.

According to his intention, Bi Maokang led him to a separate study room, then took out the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and stood there to sharpen the ink himself.

Zhu Cijiong didn't care about him, but sat at the desk and thought about it carefully.

What should I do first now?
Rifles, no, he is familiar with rifles with magazines, and the magazine alone cannot be completed in a short period of time, not to mention that bullets need to be made, and the structure of the gun body needs to be greatly changed. With the current industrial base, no samples can be made without more than half a year.

A howitzer, it seems that it won't work either. It will not take a few months to manufacture the simplest howitzer in the future under the existing industrial foundation, and it will take at least a year. Obviously, it will not be able to catch up.

It seems that we can only improve on the existing basis first, and use the existing weapons as the blueprint to improve it so that it can play the functions of high-explosive gunpowder and detonating gunpowder at the same time. This speed should be the fastest.

In fact, the grenade he just saw can perform the functions of high-explosive gunpowder and detonating gunpowder at the same time, but this thing is too limited and can only be thrown at close range. Not all battles can be effective, especially Naval battles, this thing is useless at all.

To play a role in deciding the battle situation, only artillery can be used. If the fired shells can be loaded with high explosives like the shells of later generations, and can detonate by themselves, the destructive power will be astonishing.

He thought about it for a while, and then came up with a more suitable solution, which was to modify the sub-tube of the naval gun.

The naval guns equipped by the Ming Empire Navy are all sub-mother howitzers. The sub-tubes can be pre-loaded with ammunition.

This sub-tube is somewhat similar to the shells of later generations, but the bullets fired, that is, the structure of the shells is different from the shells of later generations.

In fact, this problem is not difficult to solve. Just change the shape of the shell, make it into a cone, fill it with an appropriate amount of high-explosive gunpowder, and then use the detonating gunpowder to make a fuze.

To put it bluntly, it is to make a simple warhead.

A simple warhead is not difficult, Zhu Cijiong thought about it and began to draw.

He first drew an outline drawing of the current sub-tube, and then said to Bi Maokang: "Meng Hou, this is the sub-tube of the ship-mounted sub-female howitzer, do you know it?"

This Bi Maokang naturally knew, he nodded quickly and said: "Go back to the emperor, I know."

Zhu Cijiong nodded, and then drew another sub-pipe, but this time the sub-pipe is a bit special. The second half is made like a cannon shell, with a spark cap and a powder chamber. The first half is directly a conical shape. warhead.

After finishing the painting, he said to Bi Maokang again: "Look, Menghou, this is the improved sub-tube, here is the detonating powder, here is the high-explosive powder, and here is the shell, do you understand?"

Bi Maokang looked at it carefully, then nodded and said: "I understand."

In fact, they had already considered the ignition cap and powder chamber, but the structure was slightly different, so he could understand it at a glance. As for the cannonball, it just changed from round to pointed, so there was nothing difficult to understand.

Zhu Cijiong nodded, and then drew a separate diagram of the internal structure of the shell.

After finishing the painting, he said to Bi Maokang again: "Look, Menghou, I want you to make the shells into explosive shells, here filled with high-explosive gunpowder, and here filled with detonating gunpowder, instead of using flint to detonate, but directly use The detonating powder detonates, do you understand?"

This is actually similar to flowering bombs, Bi Maokang naturally understood it at a glance, he nodded immediately when he heard the words: "I understand."

Zhu Cijiong nodded in satisfaction, and then asked: "How long will it take to make this kind of pipe?"

Bi Maokang thought for a while, and then replied: "Go back to the emperor, if it's just a sample, plus the test time for one month."

Zhu Cijiong asked again: "What about mass production?"

Bi Maokang thought about it again, and then replied: "Go back to the emperor, if we want to mass produce, it will take another half a month."

Zhu Cijiong heard the words and immediately made a decision: "Okay, start the research and development immediately, and achieve mass production as soon as possible."

(End of this chapter)