Zheng Chenggong knew that the explosion rate of flowering shells was extremely low, and it would be too wasteful to use precious new gunpowder to make flowering shells, and only three or four out of ten could explode after they were shot. Therefore, Wang Xinyu's proposed method of using a giant trebuchet to launch a pill pack was agreed. However, he thought about it for a while, and felt that it was inappropriate: "Xinyu, but how long can the range of the giant trebuchet be?" The red-haired ghost is in the fort on the castle, and he can fight for seven or eight miles! Can a trebuchet throw that far? ”

This question made everyone stunned.

Zheng Xingying also touched his beard and said, "Virtuous nephew! A target the size of a trebuchet, before it can be approached, I'm afraid it will be smashed by the cannon of the red-haired ghost, right? ”

For a while, everyone was talking.

Someone went back to try and used the flowering cannonball against the Dutch castle, but was quickly vetoed by the king of Yanping, because the flowering cannonball not only had a low explosion rate, but also the flowering cannonball had a short range, and it was blown up by the Dutch because it was impossible to deal with the Dutch castle with heavy artillery at the head of the city.

Wang Xinyu secretly said in his heart: I didn't expect that it was easy to get Dana explosives, but it didn't come in handy. Could it be that this kind of sharp weapon can really only go back to the cave attack, digging tunnels from the ground to blast the castle? What's the point of going to such great lengths to develop such explosives? At this time, Wang Xinyu suddenly thought of a weapon: no conscience cannon!

The conscienceless cannon is a kind of projectile that converts oil drums into projectile explosive packets. Wang Xinyu could consider building a projectile to launch explosive packets. Of course, there are no oil barrels in this era, so you have to build your own iron barrels.

But is this thing reliable? If it blows up, it will kill a large number of your own people! And the accuracy is not high, in later generations because there are many explosive packs, which can be used intensively, it doesn't matter if you waste a lot of explosive packs, it's better than taking human lives to fill them. But in this era, sulfuric acid and explosives are very valuable and cannot afford to be wasted like that. Could it be that after thinking about it, in the end, you can only return to the old way of the tunnel blasting method?

Before Wang Xinyu could figure out how to use this weapon to blow up the castle of the Dutch, Zheng Tai first opened his mouth and put forward a suggestion: "Fighting the red-haired ghost is next year's thing, you make him a hundred catties of gunpowder first, and we will build a trebuchet and blow up the Tartar Zhangzhou City first!" ”

Wang Xinyu had a difficult face: "Everyone, this new type of gunpowder can only be made about ten catties a month, which is a lot, if you start to make it now, it will only be enough to deal with the red-haired ghost at that time, where is there any excess to deal with the tartar?" ”

Zheng Xingying said again: "The virtuous nephew has this kind of thing, put it in the national surname bottle, ignite it and throw it out, the power is much greater than the current national surname bottle!" ”

Zheng Chenggong thought for a moment, and then gave Wang Xinyu an order: "Xinyu, this new type of gunpowder, let's make more first!" Whether it's putting it in a bottle of the country's surname, or trying to find a way to blow up the castle of the red-haired ghost, I'll talk about it later. It's really not good, use the method of cave attack to blow up the castle of the red-haired ghost! With this kind of sharp weapon, you don't have to dig too big in the tunnel, as long as you dig under the castle of the red-haired ghost, you can explode! The amount of engineering can be saved a lot. ”

"The last general obeys!" Wang Xinyu saluted.

In the next few days, Wang Xinyu went to the laboratory of the Alchemy Institute every day to prepare Dana explosives.

During this period, Zheng Yun came to Wang Xinyu, but Wang Xinyu was too busy to go out with her, so he could only take her and Liu'er, and then bring his own personal soldier Li Rui, the four of them had lunch in a hurry, and he rushed back to the laboratory, continued to work hard, nervously preparing Dana explosives. worked overtime like this, and before the fleet returned to Xiamen, Wang Xinyu also prepared five catties of this new explosive.

The Dana dynamite was kept in a sealed clay pot and no one was to be allowed to approach it.

Seeing that her fiancé was too busy, Zheng Yun didn't bother again.

However, Li Rui often went to Zheng's Mansion when he had nothing to do and asked Liu Er out. Sometimes Zheng Yun is bored and wants to find Liu Er to accompany her to go outside for a walk, but she can't call anyone.

"Damn girl! Where did you run away with that big-headed soldier again! Hum! When she comes back, punish her well, let her go to fetch water and chop wood! Zheng Yun muttered to herself.

But after Liu Er came back, Zheng Yun forgot to punish her, and the two of them fought together again.

In the past few days, Wang Xinyu has also found the husband he found for Dai Zi, and he teaches Dai Zi every morning. In the afternoon, Dai Zi soaked in the weapons workshop, researching new weapons with Chen Shuijie and Claire.

Claire actually knows a little Cantonese, and there are many craftsmen in the weapon workshop who can speak Cantonese, so it's easier to communicate. However, Claire still felt very unaccustomed, and after hard work, he finally barely knew a little Jianghuai dialect and could communicate with Dai Zi in the simplest way, but most of the time, he could only rely on gesturing and drawing to talk.

With vernier calipers, one weapon can be produced separately. Chen Shuijie and his craftsmen were responsible for the barrel and runner, several blacksmiths were responsible for the production of springs, and several carpenters were specialized in the manufacture of gun handles; Claire took a few apprentices and was responsible for the production of delicate small accessories in guns, such as turning devices, small machinery, etc.; Dai Cang and Dai Zi, father and son, are responsible for inspecting spare parts and final assembly.

Because the first gun was an experimental article, it was not made by means of molds. If the gun can be successfully tested, then an iron mold will be made, and in the future, the barrel and runner will be made using molds. Some of the other small accessories in the gun are still hand-made.

With the efforts of everyone, before Wang Xinyu set off again, the first revolver was built.

Although this gun was manufactured separately, under the strict requirements of Dai Cang's father and son, and the precise measurement of each part with vernier calipers, the tightness of this gun was quite good.

"That's it!" Dai Cang picked up the revolver that had been assembled, played with it in his hand for a while, then turned around, held the pistol and pulled the trigger again and again.

With the pull of the trigger, the rotating belly of the revolver rotated continuously, and the bolt spring pushed the flintlock to collide continuously, and the flint spewed out bursts of sparks.

Dai Cang looked at this precision weapon, which had condensed the efforts of hundreds of people and took eight days to build, and said to himself excitedly: "The flexibility is still good, and the ignition rate is also very high!" There is almost no dumb fire, and as long as you add a little more oil to the top of the reel, it will turn more flexibly. ”

This was followed by a test-firing of a revolver.

Twelve guns have already been made, because there are vernier calipers, and each one is the same size, which is exactly the same as the caliber of the barrel. Someone filled the gun with primer charge, then gunpowder, and finally put the lead bullet into the gun with a strip, so that the gun was loaded.

A craftsman who is testing the gun pulls the knob in front of the belly of the gun, and then pulls the belly of the gun, and the belly of the gun that can be turned is ejected. Looking from the front, you can see that there are six tubes inside the runner.

The craftsman stuffed each of the six guns into the tube, then pushed the revolver, closed the belly of the gun, and opened the safety so that the revolver was ready to fire.

Then the craftsman held the gun in both hands, aimed at the target thirty paces away, pulled the trigger, only to hear a loud "boom", the muzzle of the gun spewed out a puff of white smoke, and the bullet was shot, leaving a large hole in the target.

I turned the gun around and looked at it again, and found that the gun was very airtight, and there did not seem to be any air leakage between the belly and the barrel, only a small trace of white smoke coming out of the joint.

The craftsman continued to test the firing, and he pulled the trigger again and again, and shot out all the remaining five projectiles in one go.

"Good stuff! This kind of thunderbolt is indeed a good thing! Hong Xiguan, who came to watch the test launch, was full of praise.

Next, Hong Xiguan took the revolver, opened the belly of the gun according to the method taught by the craftsman, took out the bullets from the revolver, and then loaded six new guns, and completed the loading.

Hong Xiguan aimed at the target 30 paces away, pulled the trigger again and again, and the gunfire rumbled, and six bullets rushed out, turning the target 30 paces away into a hornet's nest.

The craftsmen loaded the guns again and asked Hong Xiguan to take ten steps back and test firing.

By forty paces, the revolver, which had no rifling, a short barrel and a little leakage, was not very powerful, and six projectiles were fired, all of them missed the target, and not a single bullet hit the target.

"This short gun is not as accurate as a bird's gun! The range is also too close! Hu Dedi said.

Hong Xiguan said: "But this kind of short gun is fast to reload and launch fast, which is especially suitable for people like us." Anyway, people like us don't need to shoot from a distance, mainly in close combat. But forget it, you're in the water, and this thing is useless when it's in the water. ”

Emperor Hu touched the spring crossbow in his hand and said triumphantly: "The rate of fire of this thing of mine is not slow, and the accuracy is higher than yours, and the range is also long." ”

"Your crossbow bolts are too expensive! My projectile plus gunpowder is less than one-tenth of the cost of one of your crossbow arrows! Also, your thing is easy to be dodged by, and my handcuff projectile is not so easy to dodge! Hong Xiguan retorted with a smile.

Thousands of miles away in Borneo, under Pan Ying's supervision, the construction of a glass factory has begun.

Because the dam has not yet been completed, the furnace of the glass factory uses a manpower bellows to supply air. But it doesn't matter, the bellows pulled by humans can raise the temperature of the furnace to a temperature that can make glass.

The foundation has been dug and the refractory bricks have been fired, and Pan Ying personally directs the craftsmen to build the furnace. It only takes about 10 days to set up the stove and start trying to fire glass.

Yanping City and Yanping Port on Luzon Island are also under construction. In order to avoid being hit by the floods of the rainy season, Luo Xiang, who was left behind in Yanping City, led the people and slaves to build a river embankment.

King Banshiran sat in a pergola on the edge of the construction site on Sunday, and watched the slaves at work triumphantly.

In the past few days, the king of Banshilan has launched successive attacks on several small tribes in the vicinity, capturing a large number of prisoners. The captured captives were all sent to Yanping City and used as slaves for Luo Xiang. The gold mines where some small tribes were located were also occupied by the Tuwang of Banshilan, and those gold mines became the private property of the Tuwang.

Of course, it was not all smooth sailing to fight with those small tribes, and some small tribes relied on the advantage of the terrain to resist stubbornly, condescendingly and stoned, making it difficult for the Banshiran warriors to move an inch, and they were repelled again and again.

After sacrificing dozens of warriors, the king of Banshilan felt that he could no longer fight like this, the other party occupied a favorable terrain, and no matter how many people could rush forward, he could only sacrifice the loyal and brave warriors of the Banshilan tribe in vain. So the king of the earth cheekily went to Luo Xiang and asked Luo Xiang to send troops to help him.

Luo Xiang still has to help with his friend's request, but there is no free lunch in the world, and of course there is a price to help. Luo Xiang offered a shell ten taels of gold, and a bullet for a pound of brass.

Although the price is a little expensive, there is a lot of gold and brass from the earth king, so he agreed to Luo Xiang's price.

Luo Xiang led the army, pulled the cannon with a car, and embarked on the journey with the army of the earth king.

When they arrived at the foot of the mountain where the stubborn little tribe was located, the Ming army and the British set up cannons, aiming at the Shengfan cottage on the top of the mountain.

With every cannon sound, the inside of the cottage was full of flesh and blood, and there were screams again and again, but the heart of the earth king also twitched. Because in his eyes, these cannons are not shells, they are all yellow gold!

Luo Xiang was not stingy with shells at all, and fired more than 500 shells at the cottage in one breath before the soldiers charged.

After attacking the cottage, the flintlock pistol and arquebus fired more than a thousand projectiles, but as for the number of people killed, it was pitiful, because Luo Xiang did not come here to kill people, but to catch as many slaves as possible.

conquered the cottage and took away the prisoners, Luo Xiang also carefully searched the cottage three times, and all the gold and brass were unceremoniously scraped away.

In the end, in order to show his gratitude to his allies, the king of Banshilan also paid 5,000 taels of gold and 1,000 catties of brass as the cost of the Ming army's expedition this time. But Luo Xiang still called it a loss: "We cost three hundred taels of silver for a cannonball!" Ten taels of gold is only equivalent to one hundred taels of silver, and we are losing money! But for the sake of our friends, we are willing to suffer a little bit ourselves, and we will also help you! ”

In fact, a solid cannonball is only the price of one to two taels of silver, and the price of a shotgun is only three to four taels of silver, and the black-hearted Luo Xiang directly increased the price by more than a hundred times, shamelessly slaughtering his allies a sum of gold.

On October 8, on Xiamen Island, the convoy carrying goods from Zhoushan returned.

Early the next morning, Wang Xinyu said goodbye to his mother and sister, said goodbye to his brothers, and set sail again.

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