Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 396 Change Your Thinking
Xiao Yufang asked cautiously: "Is this breech-loading rifle so difficult to get?"

Shan Danyang complained bitterly: "Madam, you don't know, this rear-loading rifle is not difficult to get, but it is impossible to get it!" Pointing to the big skylight, "Look, because we changed the loading method, we can only load it here. The sub-gun, the loading speed is much faster, but the air leak is serious, and the range is half shorter than that of the front-loading gun!" Pointing to the barrel, "The barrel is so long and narrow, I want to carve it inside. Rifling, that's a hell of a lot of trouble!"

Yang Menglong shouted: "It's wrong, it's not here to open the skylight! You have to be here, yes, it is to open a hole where the gun ear is, and put the shell in!"

Dan Danyang roared: "Don't command me blindly, okay! If you do what you say, the blunderbuss won't be able to fire at all! Put the ammunition at the ear of the cannon, I really don't know if you want to use it to hit the enemy, or you want to shoot it!" Use it to blow up your own people!"

In fact, as early as the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty imitated a primitive breech-loading artillery according to the Franco cannons it had obtained from the Portuguese. Put the pre-loaded gun into it and tighten it, and then it can be ignited and fired, which greatly improves the rate of fire.The front-mounted smoothbore cannon may not be able to fire a single shot after tossing for 1 minute, but this kind of sub-cluster can fire all five or six sub-guns in 2 minutes, and the firepower density is greatly improved. The gun is the earliest metal shell shell.What Shan Danyang is doing now is the mother-child gun.

Yang Menglong said: "You are mistaken! This loading method is wrong. What I want is to load from the back, not from the side!" He gestured with his hand at the lug of the bronze cannon, "In Open a three- to four-inch round hole here, stuff the cannonball into it, then close it, ignite it and launch it. After the cannonball flies out, open it again, eject the shell, then load it again, and continue firing... If you just want to make trouble Female gun, do I need to spend so much money!"

Dan Danyang looked skeptical: "It's okay like this? How can you close the mouth if you open it in the ear of the cannon?"

Yang Menglong said: "So there must be a breech block, and the breech block should be used to close the loading port to avoid gas leakage!" Talked for a whole hour.Shan Danyang fell into deep thought, and said after a long while: "It may be feasible to load the bullet from the position of the gun lug, close it with a movable breech block, and then fire it, but...the rifling still can't be solved!"

Xiao Yufang said: "You can try this method first to see if it works, and if it works, then go back and find a way to process the rifling. Let's take it step by step, and don't always think that one step is in place."

Dan Danyang turned his attention to Yang Menglong.

Probably because he realized that it was too difficult to complete the breech-loading rifled gun in one step, Yang Menglong reluctantly lowered his standards a little: "Then let's get out the breech-loading smoothbore gun first, and then think about it after finishing the breech-loading smoothbore gun." Way to get rifled guns..."

Shan Danyang burst into tears instantly... Thank God, thank God, he can finally get rid of this damn rifling temporarily!He's been driving the damn rifling crazy this year!
However, Yang Menglong expressed a certain degree of affirmation for this kind of mother-in-two blunderbuss, saying that when the breech-loading smoothbore gun is produced, all the shells will be made into sub-cuppets, and they can be fired once they are inserted into the barrel of the gun. There is no need for shells and gunpowder So troublesome.Shan Danyang said: "This gun is not easy to handle, it is made of iron, and the scrap rate is quite high..."

Yang Menglong said: "Don't use iron in the future, use brass for shell casings, brass is easier to process."

Dan Danyang was dumbfounded: "Use... use brass! How much copper will be used!"

Yang Menglong curled his lips and said, "It's not like throwing it away once you use it. It can be recycled. What are you afraid of?" He patted the bronze cannon that was still being processed, "Don't use bronze to cast cannons in the future, try to use steel Or cast it with wrought iron. If it doesn’t work, use bronze to make the gun barrel, and then wrap it with a layer of wrought iron. This not only greatly reduces the weight, but also can withstand greater pressure, and it is not easy to explode the chamber..."

Use steel to cast cannons! ?
Dan Danyang wants to cry but has no tears, if this bastard doesn't come, nothing good will happen, what can he do with it!

However, in any case, the breech-loading smoothbore gun is a little easier to handle than the breech-loading rifled gun, but the way of loading is changed and the locking mechanism is added, which is much easier to deal with than that annoying rifling.Dan Danyang complained a lot, and then devoted himself to the new research work with vigor...

This is true for breech-loading rifled guns, let alone breech-loading rifles... With the level of metal processing technology at that time, no one would think that engraving rifling in a barrel with a caliber of only a dozen millimeters would be better than hundreds of barrels. Is it easy to engrave rifling in the barrel of a millimeter?When Yang Menglong arrived, Ye Xin and a group of engineers were gesticulating with a rifle with a heavy sense of historical vicissitudes, and even put their fingers into the barrel to touch the rifling inside.That's right, this rifle was dug out by Yang Menglong from the Dengzhou arsenal, and he hurriedly sent it back to Wuyang.Litton, a foreigner, explained to them in not very fluent Chinese: "The most precious thing about this rifle is not the buttstock made of high-quality wood and the ornaments made of ivory, but the beautiful lines inside. The rifling..."

Ye Xin asked: "How did you carve it?"

Litton said: "Find the most skilled craftsmen and use the best knives to carve one by one. It will take more than half a year to carve a barrel, and the scrap rate is still high!"

Everyone was discouraged when they heard it. The best craftsmen would spend more than half a year to make one, so what's the point?Firstly, it is extremely difficult to do, secondly, it is extremely expensive, and thirdly... Thirdly, it does not meet Yang Menglong's standards at all. What Yang Menglong wants is a rear-loading rifle, and this is a front-loading rifle.
Yang Menglong walked over and asked, "How is your research on those two guns?"

Seeing him coming, Ye Xin cried out: "Master, you're here! You don't know, we've been doing nothing for a whole year, just thinking about how to carve that rifling!" He pointed to the front-loading rifle in his hand, "We have carefully studied the two firecrackers that your lord sent back from Shandong. What your lord said is absolutely right. With rifling, they can indeed hit farther. It is more accurate and more lethal, but its shortcomings are also very obvious..."

Yang Menglong asked: "What shortcoming?"

Ye Xin said: "Reload! Because of the rifling, it reloads much slower than the firecrackers without rifling. Other firecrackers have fired two or three shots, and it may not be able to fire a single shot!"

Yang Menglong asked for the front-loading rifled gun, and tried to load it with lead bullets. After a few gestures, he gave up: the bullets of the front-loading rifled gun were slightly larger than the caliber of the musket, so they had to be hammered in little by little. Only in this way can we ensure that the bullet is fully embedded in the rifling, otherwise the rifling will not be able to exert its power.The consequence of this is that loading is much more difficult than that of a musket. Even after two or three shots, it may not be able to load a single bullet.This is an important reason why Western countries made rifled guns in the seventeenth century, but did not mass-produce and equip them until the nineteenth century: In terms of firepower density, it is not as good as a smoothbore gun. Who would use this thing to play in a queue to be shot? , [-]% will make the opponent fight like shit!Of course, processing difficulties are also a major reason. It is unimaginable to make a rifled gun entirely by hand. It takes a highly skilled craftsman almost a year to make one, so the cost is naturally not much lower. , it’s okay to use it for hunting for nobles, but forget about mass production and equipping troops, the Minister of Finance will go crazy!As for the jokes that often appear in novels of the late Ming Dynasty, first carve rifling on the iron sheet, and then roll it into a barrel to solve the problem of rifling processing, just laugh at it. The barrel made in this way will not explode in a battle. Killing hundreds of people would be a disgrace to those craftsmen.

Being able to manufacture and being able to manufacture in large quantities are two different things. Europe was able to manufacture rifled guns in the early [-]th century, but it did not have the ability to manufacture rifled rifles in large quantities until the middle of the [-]th century. The Artifact of War, the Minie Rifle.The cruelty of the fact lies in the fact that the Minie rifle they admired so much has only been in service for more than [-] years, and it has disappeared from the army's equipment sequence forever-if the level of industrial technology can reach the point where a large number of Minie rifles can be manufactured , It is not difficult to manufacture a breech-loading rifle, and it is purely self-made to make a Minigun.

"We sawed one of the gun barrels and carefully studied the rifling inside." Ye Xin took out a stack of drawings, all of which were the barrel structure and rifling patterns drawn with a quill pen, which shows that they have worked hard Yes, it is really stroked according to the rifling line, without any difference.Master Ye's expression was a bit depressed: "There is nothing complicated about this rifling, it's nothing more than carving a spiral line in the barrel with a knife. carve rifling into the barrel of the gun!"

Yang Menglong pointed at a working machine tool: "Haven't you ever thought about drilling directly with a machine tool?"

The craftsmen were stunned for a moment: "Drill with a machine tool?"

Yang Menglong said: "That's right, first drill the barrel with a drilling machine, and then process the rifling with a threading machine!"

Ye Xin's eyes lit up: "Yes, why didn't I think of it? Our hands can't reach in, and the machine can't reach in! Yes, let's do it like this!"

Litton was a little skeptical: "Is there such a sharp knife?"

Yang Menglong almost kicked it: "Without you guys, wouldn't you think of a way to make it? There are so many steels for you to choose from, I don't believe that there is no one kind of steel that is suitable for making knives!"

(End of this chapter)