In a col on the North Main Island of the Wufeng Islands, this is where the North Main Island Garrison Barracks is located, and there should be 500 soldiers stationed here in the plan, but because the recruits are still training, the number of soldiers here is less than 50, and it seems that this place is empty and unpopular.

On this day, Zhen Qian appeared here, followed by all officers in military uniforms, only Zhen Qian and a slightly thin young man beside him were wearing ordinary clothes, which seemed a little out of place with the surroundings, but no one showed displeasure on their faces.

Today is no different from the usual, but everyone knows in their hearts that today will be a special day, a moment that makes everyone excited and eager.

In a huge open space, Zhen Qian stopped, there was a long row of tables in front of him, there was nothing on the table at this time, the young man waved his hand gently, and immediately several soldiers behind him lifted out the ten long wooden boxes, and opened the wooden planks of the wooden boxes with a crowbar, revealing the neatly arranged objects inside.

The objects in the wooden box were strange, neither swords and spears, nor fire oil bombs and thunderbolts, but iron pipes more than one meter long embedded in wooden handles treated with tung oil, which looked different from the common weapons of the Tang people.

The young man walked to the wooden box, bent down and reached out to take out one from the wooden box and held it in his hand, and took out a small boxy wooden box from another wooden box and put it on the table in front of him, his hands trembled slightly, the excitement on his face was difficult to hide, and his expression was even more solemn, as if the object in his hand was a treasure.

This young man is Zhen San, he turned his head to the people beside him: "This is the third generation of musket developed by the wolf's den, and it is also the closest to the master's requirements of a musket, this musket weighs about eight catties and six taels, is about one meter two long, the barrel is made of the best hundred steel, there are two spirals in the barrel, which can make the fired bullet rotate, become more stable, and double the range, and at the same time use conical gunpowder, so that soldiers are more simple and reliable in operation and use, Let me first show you how to use the Huaxia Type 3 musket ....... ”

After Zhen San's words were finished, except for some people who knew the principle of artillery firing, most of them heard for the first time what muskets, what spirals, and what fixed bullets, but they vaguely knew from the mouths of some people that this weapon would become the most important weapon in the hands of everyday soldiers, and it was impossible for non-elite troops to come into contact with it, which made the musket even more mysterious.

Except for Zhen San, only Zhen Qian knew best what the appearance of the musket meant.

Even Zhen San, who personally made the musket, didn't know very well what the appearance of the musket really meant for the future war, but from the manufacture and use of the musket, he could feel that this musket was extremely powerful, except for the artillery, beyond the scope of all cognitive weapons.

Zhen San only knew that muskets, like artillery, oil bombs, and thunderbolts, were used by Zhen Qian as a hot weapon, a weapon that could generate a lot of heat after use, and other weapons were used as cold weapons.

After Zhen San's first contact with gunpowder, he began to study various firearms under Zhen Qian's deliberate guidance, the first firearm was not the original musket, but a cannon that looked a little stupid, the development of artillery in the wolf's den has also gone through four generations, the first generation of artillery is not strictly speaking, it is not artillery, the reason why it appeared is entirely because Zhen Qian wanted Zhen San to know the history of the development of artillery.

The first generation of artillery is a hole in a cylindrical boulder, which is only filled with a small amount of gunpowder, and it is also fired with stone bullets, and the firing distance is only a dozen zhang away, except for the louder sound, it really has nothing to do with artillery, but this is the prototype of the first stone cannon in history.

With the demonstration of the first stone cannon, Zhen San knew the huge impetus generated by gunpowder after burning, the amount of gunpowder determines the size of the propulsion, the greater this propulsion, the heavier the projectile that can be fired, and the farther the distance it can fire.

However, the amount of gunpowder cannot be blindly increased indefinitely, when the amount of gunpowder exceeds the bearing limit of the launch carrier, the phenomenon of exploding will occur, and the stone artillery will naturally not work, and the artillery must be made of harder materials.

Without any hint from Zhen Qian, Zhen San's second-generation artillery materials were made of ordinary steel, and steel was indeed the best material for making artillery, but Zhen San soon discovered that although ordinary steel was hard, it was too brittle and did not have any flexibility, and there would be trachoma in the casting process, and it would crack after almost a few hits.

Zhen San's gaze fell on bronze again, this material was soft and tense, and it was more durable than ordinary steel cannons.

However, bronze materials are not easy to come by, and the cost of iron cannons has increased by more than twenty times, and the value of one of the smallest cannons has exceeded three hundred, unless there is a large supply of bronze, the construction of artillery can bring down the economy in the wolf's den, so there are no more than thirty cannons cast in the wolf's den so far.

The first generation of artillery is made of stone, the second generation of artillery is made of iron, and the third generation of artillery is made of copper, in this regard, Zhen Qian does not have too many hints for Zhen San, on the one hand, he does not know much, on the other hand, a person's knowledge system is a process of accumulation for a long time, even if he tells Zhen San the history of the development of firearms, it will not only help Zhen San now, but will affect Zhen San's state of mind at this time.

But at some critical times, Zhen Qian relied on his thousand-year-old knowledge to make Zhen Sanshao take a lot of detours.

Zhen San is indeed a rare genius in the world, even if he can't become a peerless genius like Newton and Einstein in later generations, it is not impossible to become a second-class genius like Watt.

The artillery and musket were developed almost simultaneously in the wolf's den, and at first the musket barrel was also made of copper, but after taking out the first samples, it was immediately rejected by Zhen Qian.

Zhen Qian calculated an economic account for Zhen San, a copper barrel weighs about five catties, and the cost alone needs more than five runs, and the barrel itself is a consumable, the service life of the copper barrel is about two or three hundred rounds, and the cost of a musket with a copper barrel will not be less than ten runs.

Not to mention the performance of such a musket, the cost alone can make Zhen Qian's family bankrupt, and the musket is not very powerful when used alone, it must form a dense attack formation, and tens of thousands of muskets are needed, even if the current Zhen Qian's family property is increased by ten times, it cannot support such an army of 10,000 people.

(End of chapter)