Chapter 230: The Powder of Disappointment
Zhao Xin didn't know how powerful the black powder he carefully prepared was, it seemed to be four or five catties, which was already quite large, not to mention, the explosives package was also loaded with iron pieces and the like, in order to protect the period, he chose to dig a bulletproof crater, this kind of crater in the training of later recruits, to increase the throwing experience of recruits. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
The earth has a huge effect, even on the battlefield, hiding in the crater, you can avoid a lot of attacks, let alone this kind of specially designed.
Because of the power of gunpowder, the test was placed near the first embodied fortress, which was remote and uninhabited, and it was far away from Miaojiazhuang, so no sound could be heard.
A silk cloth bag that can't be seen, and a long wire, some like firecrackers, dug a bulletproof pit, a few people hid in it, near the explosives, put a few wooden stakes, respectively put on foot armor, chain mail, leather armor and paper armor, even if Sun Ji realized it later, he also knew that this was probably an offensive weapon, but what kind of offensive weapon, would be so careful, this kind of protection, it can be said to be mad.
Ignite the wire, because the fuse is not very well done, it was broken three times, which scared Zhao Xin enough, explosives, this thing, the danger is too great, if you are not sure to turn off the fire, run over and just explode, it will be beautiful.
The power of explosives is far from being comparable to that of cold weapons, and the power at close range definitely exceeds that of the Divine Arm Crossbow, especially the messy iron pieces, so that there is no way to dodge.
Although Sun Ji is wearing soft armor, he doesn't know the protective strength of this software, and the most important thing is that he doesn't know anything about the power of explosives.
The whole process of the experiment lasted an hour, and three of them were a full quarter of an hour, but fortunately, some time was wasted, but there was no danger, and finally, when the black powder of the fuse was remade, it finally exploded.
The huge sound and firelight made Sun Ji also startled, it was similar to what he expected, it was a huge artillery battle, but this one seemed to be a little louder, and in terms of sound, it also had huge lethality.
When the smoke cleared, they came to the place of the explosion, and the scene was a mess, and the place where the explosives bag was placed was blown out of a small pit, and the iron pieces pushed by the explosives turned the surrounding area into a chicken coop, covering a large area.
But if you really take a closer look, even if the location of the explosives exploded, it was only about 5 meters away from the position of these armors, and there was almost no damage to the infantry armor.
That's right, the infantry armor is a thick piece of iron after cold forging, and the entire protection capacity is quite high, and even the divine arm crossbow can block it under the premise of not shooting directly at close range, let alone this explosive bag.
If it's just like this, the power of this explosive bag is acceptable, only the foot armor can block it, and it is the killing of the surface, which is quite useful in the strength of defense, but the chain armor, the paper armor is like this, it is difficult to penetrate, especially the paper armor, the paper armor after 3 inches, is broken almost an inch and a half, but for people, the impact is not great.
Zhao Xin sighed, no wonder in the era of cold weapons, the power of gunpowder packs was not too great, that is, in the era of the popularity of hot weapons, it gradually became popular, the reason is very simple, that is, protection.
In the era of cold weapons, there was only the peasant army without armor, and even the box army of the second-line army had simple armor, and even some iron pieces were inlaid with it, and the protection was quite high.
In the face of a tall building like a fortress, the opponent either surrounded it and did not fight, and if it wanted to attack the city, it must be all heavily armored, which was also the main method of the forbidden army to attack the city.
The excellent protection ability of the step armor, so that they are very good in the battle, this weapon, if it can't deal with the step armor, can only redeem the unprotected target, even if it has an effect, it is limited, at most, the sound is a little scary.
Zhao Xin knew that if a larger equivalent of black powder was used, it would definitely produce huge lethality, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the gunpowder of a coffin was enough to blow up the city wall, but this kind of use was too much, and it must be sealed, otherwise, most of the power would spread to the surroundings and could not produce huge lethality.
"It would be nice if we could use our power in one place!" Xue Yu said with some regret, he really got to the point.
Zhao Xin laughed a little, that's right, what is needed for thermal weapons is to concentrate the power in one direction, whether it is artillery or guns in later generations, it is like this, in a confined space, the driving force generated by all gunpowder is used in one direction, and finally produces a huge penetration and lethality.
If the era he crossed was the Ming Dynasty, there are still some possibilities, hundreds of years, China's steel refining, has produced great progress, it is no longer cold wrought iron, but steel, even if it is only the most basic steel, it is enough to meet the use of ordinary arquebuses, and even flintlock pistols, Zhu Yuanzhang, it is the combination of firearms battalion and cavalry method to chase the dead and chase the north, expelled Yuanmeng from the Central Plains, and even the next Zhu Di and a group of Ming Dynasty emperors used firearms to occupy the advantage.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, steel appeared, but the price was too high, only excellent blacksmiths could make it by chance, Zhao Xin also knew how to turn iron into steel, and even had some mass production capabilities, but unfortunately there is no era to make now, and it is impossible to improve.
It seems that the gunpowder that is easy to make is just a kind of goods, maybe it can be made some, and when defending the city, it can impact the opponent's camp by exploding to win them a certain advantage, but it cannot become an offensive weapon.
In addition to sighing, Zhao Xin didn't care, gunpowder was the icing on the cake, to provide some help for their defense, you can use rolling wood, stone, and some other heavy weapons, in a high-altitude falling object, as long as the weight is large enough, not to mention the step armor, even if it is a rush, it can also break the card, under the acceleration of gravity, pure gravity itself, can increase the lethality to a certain extent.
Just as he was about to pack up his things and go back, Zhao Xin suddenly thought of something, that's right, to make arquebuses and artillery, you need steel of a certain strength, otherwise it will be very dangerous, but in the land of China, among the people, because of the lack of steel production, because of the inferior quality of steel, many excellent inventions have also made up for the weakness of lack of vitality, so he remembered a cannon.
This is easy to make, the power is not small a cannon, in the Anti-Japanese War, was widely used by the Red Army, after all, the Red Army was blocked, besieged, all kinds of advanced guns and artillery, simply can not reach the hands, then black powder is the only base area can obtain a large amount of gunpowder.
Based on the power of black powder, a large number of grenades were made in the base area, but the grenades did not have much ability to attack fortifications, and the lethality of fragments was not enough.
To put it bluntly, it is with the help of the toughness and strength of various trees, instead of steel and made of artillery, perhaps this kind of artillery, has such and such shortcomings, but the power is not bad, if the foundation of the tree cannon, add a certain treatment, the strength will increase, not as good as the real artillery, but than the early arquebus, much more powerful.
Tree cannons are usually made of pine, elm, cypress, maple, oak, lychee and other trees with harder wood or good toughness and thicker trunks.
Generally, the trunk of the tree is cut off about two meters, the bark is removed, and a carpenter drill is used to make a large hole in the center as a gun chamber. A small hole is drilled at the lower end to house the fuse.
It only takes two days to build a tree cannon. The propellant and explosives of the tree cannon are black gunpowder, which is mixed with iron sand, iron sheets and other items. Since the gun body is made of wood, it is prone to bore accidents. Therefore, after lighting the fuse of the tree cannon, it must be quickly concealed.
Ordinary tree cannons, the strength is not good, the wooden structure, the amount of gunpowder added is too small, the power is insufficient, it cannot form a penetrating lethality, too much gunpowder is loaded, and it is easy to explode, causing danger.
However, the strengthening of artillery in later generations gave Zhao Xin inspiration, under the premise of using an iron hoop, the strength of the tree cannon itself can be greatly increased, and the flexibility and strength are transmitted to the steel hoop on the periphery, which is equivalent to using the simplest method to improve the strength of the tree cannon.
With the current industrial base of Miaojiazhuang, it is not impossible to make iron cannons, but it takes too long, maybe several months, and may not be able to be produced, and copper cannons are even more so, which costs a lot of money.
There has always been 4 kilograms of money, taking the red-coated cannon as an example, the entire weight is not more than 5,000 kilograms, which also means that the cost of materials alone is as high as 600 guan, if you count others, thousands of guan are at least.
A fortress is only a few thousand, and a red-coated cannon is so expensive, it may not be able to make it, on the contrary, a steel hoop made of fine iron, and the high-quality steel lit by the card system is directly extracted, which takes less time, and may not be comparable with a cannon made of pure steel, but the penetration is quite amazing.
Zhao Xin immediately went back, found a carpenter and a blacksmith, and said the requirements again, all of them were simple requirements, a 2-meter-long, one-person embraced tree, digging holes, but the inside needs to be polished, this is a bit of trouble, nothing else is a problem, as for the steel hoop, it is even simpler, but the refined iron, through cold forging and heat treatment, is finally formed, which are all good at blacksmiths.
It took more than two days to form the iron hoop and the tree cannon, a total of 4 iron hoops, to fix every position of the tree cannon, so that the tree cannon looks weird, a package of processed black powder, plus iron sheets, iron sand and fuse, is similar to the previous black powder, but the container is different.
If you add this, will it have an effect, Sun Ji is also a little unconvinced, because the gunpowder added is much less than before, it was originally about 5 catties, and now it has been reduced to about 3.5 catties, but seeing that Zhao Xin is so confident, they did not refute it, and quietly waited for the test.