After eating the Lantern Festival with the soldiers of the camp in the northern suburbs, Chongzhen returned to the capital with the officials, and the sky had begun to darken faintly.

On the way back to the city, Zhu Youzhen and Sun Chengzong and Yu Zhigao beside him said: "Today's drill is still good on the whole.

However, because the arrangements were too hasty, the armies did not show their real strength. However, it is obvious that the current outlook of the various armies has changed a lot compared with last year, but it has changed for the better.

The results of the military exercises in the school field may not be the actual performance of the various armies on the battlefield in the future, but at least we can see how well they are doing in peacetime training.

Therefore, you should not be indignant about the results of today's exercise, but should take this opportunity to thoroughly review whether the training plan you have drawn up on a daily basis meets the needs of actual combat.

I hope that the General Staff will adjust the training plan, first of all, to clarify what is the purpose of each training plan, which is to train the soldiers' physical fitness. The marching speed of the army? A hypothetical battle against the target enemy? Or is it a retreat in front of the enemy that tries to preserve the living forces after the defeat on the battlefield? ”

Regarding the problems mentioned by Chongzhen, Yu Zhigao was only submissive, but Sun Chengzong really aroused his interest and carefully discussed a few words with the emperor about the training of the army.

When this large team entered the Desheng Gate, Chongzhen said to Sun Chengzong, who was about to break up here: "I hope that the General Staff will draw up a plan for marching exercises, and let the new army and the Jingying armies conduct a long-distance marching exercise after the beginning of spring.

Let Wu Huai draw cavalry troops as an imaginary enemy and attack on the march. I hope that when the General Staff designs the marching exercises, it will be as close as possible to actual combat. ”

Sun Chengzong was also very interested in Chongzhen's proposal, and he agreed without hesitation. Yu Zhigao, who was on the side, thought that after going back, he would tell the generals to prepare for more marching training, so that the Jingying troops could regain some face from the marching exercises after the beginning of spring.

After breaking up with Sun Chengzong and others, Zhu Youzhen suddenly remembered that there seemed to be a few people who were not present today, and he couldn't help but call his guard commander Lian Shanxiang and asked him: "Why didn't Sun Yuanhua come today, didn't he be informed of the inspection of the camp in the northern suburbs today?" ”

Lian Shanxiang bent half of his body and replied in a low voice: "Since before Zhengdan, Mr. Sun has already taken several experts from the Ordnance Supervision to the Shijingshan Artillery Factory.

It is said that what kind of iron mold casting cannon technology, Director Sun seems to have grasped the key point, and will soon break through the difficulty, which can be used to cast real cannons. It's no longer the same as last year, and you can only cast some small cannons like tiger squat cannons.

Director Sun didn't return to the city for the whole annual leave for this? He also pulled several experts and craftsmen to spend Chinese New Year's Eve in the factory together. ”

Hearing that Sun Yuanhua was so obsessed with the research of artillery production technology, Zhu Youzhen was also deeply moved.

Originally, in his plan, artillery research was always put last. Although after the appearance of artillery on the battlefield, it became an important factor in determining the outcome of the war.

But if the problem of logistics supply and loyalty of the Ming army is not solved first, no matter how good the artillery is made, it will either become a waste placed on the wall, or it will become the most ferocious weapon in the hands of the enemy.

So he has always suppressed the enthusiasm of Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua and others to develop cannons.

What's more, in his opinion, the Franc cannon and Hongyi cannon that Sun Yuanhua and others wanted to imitate were actually early types of artillery that Europeans had just begun to explore and manufacture, and large-scale imitation of this kind of artillery was just a waste of resources.

For example, although the Franc cannon has a fast firing speed, because of the flaws in the design of the breech reload, the gas leakage is too serious, and the wall thickness of the reloaded gun is too thin, so the charge cannot be too much, resulting in too low power.

The Hongyi cannon purchased from the Macao people was just a non-standard naval gun used on a British merchant ship, and although it was more powerful than the Franc machine, it did not meet the requirements of the Ming army.

A total of 30 of these Hongyi cannons were purchased by the Ming Dynasty, and one of them exploded during the test gun, killing the Portuguese gunner John Goliath.

Of the remaining 29 Hongyi cannons, 18 were left at the head of the capital wall, and 11 were sent to Ningyuan. This is also the magic cannon in the battle of Ningyuan, which was touted as a myth, not only can a single cannon erode dozens of miles, but also seriously injured Nurhachi and made him have to retreat.

In the past use of the Ming army, the Hongyi cannon was roughly 18 catties of ammunition each. In this era, being hit by an 18-pound solid bullet, and being able to go to the hot spring as if nothing happened, this is probably no longer a creature that belongs to the category of humans.

Since Chongzhen ascended the throne, he ordered Sun Yuanhua and others to study the 18 Hongyi cannons left in the capital.

After eliminating all the remarks of the gods and families, there is finally a more realistic assessment of the real data, power, and range of the Hongyi cannon.

The inner diameter of the mouth of the 18 Hongyi cannons left in the capital fluctuated around 35 inches, which was 125 centimeters according to the newly determined metric system. The length of the barrel is 3 meters, which is 24 times the inner diameter of the mouth. There are no lugs, but there are knobs in the tail.

According to the confirmation of several Jesuit priests, it was believed that this artillery should be called a cannon by the British, transliterated as a Coferin cannon.

According to Andre's appraisal, he believes that this kind of artillery is not a British military artillery, but just an ordinary self-defense cannon for merchant ships.

According to the decree of Queen Elizabeth decades ago, the British ** team has unified the caliber of artillery, and there is no such standard artillery.

According to his speculation, the standard ammunition weight of these Kofelin guns should be 18 pounds of lead bullet. In that case, the range of these guns should be roughly 00 feet.

According to the information provided by the Englishman, the ordnance superintendent used British-made standard weight shells to shoot, and sure enough, it was farther than the original 18-pound shells. However, the longest firing range of these artillery pieces is only 4,000 meters, which is about 8 miles away from the Ming system, which is far from the erosion of a cannon for dozens of miles.

Moreover, the weight of the Hongyi cannon alone reached more than 2 tons, and the weight of the gun carriage exceeded 4 tons. With the land transportation facilities of this era, each Hongyi cannon needed to be towed by 12 oxen and transported by 30-40 sergeants. A march of 20-30 miles a day is almost the limit.

It doesn't matter if this kind of artillery is used to defend or siege cities, but it is undoubtedly not feasible to use it in field battles.

This is also the reason why Chongzhen wanted to suppress Sun Yuanhua's idea of imitating the Hongyi artillery, and asked them to start research on * and steel properties.

Standardized and machine-made granules* not only greatly reduce the occurrence of accidents, but also greatly improve the quality. For example, in the range verification of this Hongyi artillery, it was the use of granular* that achieved the best effect.

The standard charge obtained after the test not only eliminated the waste of *, but also somewhat eliminated the gunner's fear.

In the blast furnace iron smelting technology was not developed, most of the cast iron was white cast iron, this cast iron used to make agricultural tools is good, but used to cast artillery is easy to blow up.

Before the introduction of standardized charges, although there was a rather rough standard for ammunition, most gunners would reduce the amount of charge to avoid bore accidents.

When the Ordnance Superintendent formulated the standard charge, the gunner began to slowly become a professional position, instead of finding someone to ignite as before.

The refining of pig iron with reverberatory furnaces and the development of blast furnace iron-smelting technology made it possible to supply gray cast iron on a large scale, and the artillery production technology really reached the possibility of improving.

Under Chongzhen's order, the Ordnance Superintendent unified the specifications of artillery, and divided the types of artillery according to the weight of the shells, which were divided into five categories: 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 kg guns.

In the study of the trajectory of artillery shells, the Academy of Sciences found that there is a correlation between the trajectory of artillery shells and the length of artillery guns.

These researchers reclassified the artillery, which was longer in the barrel, more than 16 times the caliber, with a small elevation angle and a low and flat trajectory, called a cannon.

If the body barrel is shorter, less than 16 times the caliber, the elevation angle is large, and the trajectory is relatively curved, it is called a * gun. Finally, there is a kind of cannon with a body barrel of less than 8 times and a particularly curved trajectory, which is called a mortar cannon.

According to Andrei's introduction, the Ordnance Superintendent introduced the concept of distinguishing according to the use of artillery, that is, three categories: field warfare, siege, and fortress defense.

Although in the past six months or so, the ordnance superintendent has only just figured out how to make a cannon, but in the past year, their careful research from all aspects has finally made the cannon fade from that layer of mystery.

At least the current Ming ordnance supervisors have already understood that the artillery is just a metal tube that can shoot projectiles, and the production and power of the artillery have nothing to do with the gods, and it is entirely about the excellence of raw materials and production technology.

Sun Yuanhua and others used this understanding to develop artillery technology, which naturally greatly accelerated the process of artillery research.

For example, the mud mold casting method that has been used for a long time, no matter how to control the process, the gun body cannot avoid the problem of sand holes. According to the research of many people, it is roughly determined that the water permeability of the mud mold is too poor, although the appearance looks dry, but there is still a certain amount of moisture inside.

When the molten iron is poured into the mud mold, the water vapor cannot escape, which eventually causes sand holes on the gun body and an inner chamber that cannot be bored. Therefore, in order to improve the success rate of cannon casting, it is necessary to eliminate the method of clay mold casting cannon.

It was precisely with the efforts of Sun Yuanhua, a highly active ordnance supervisor and craftsmen, that the cannon foundry, which did not receive much attention from Chongzhen, actually developed rapidly.

ps: It's said that there are too many cited materials, so let's just free of charge, sorry to keep you waiting.

Thinking of the artillery that was sent to Java Island for testing, Zhu Youzhen finally instructed Wang Chengen on the side with some emotion: "Tomorrow, you will send some food to the cannon factory in Shijingshan, and comfort the officials and craftsmen in the cannon foundry for me..."