The manufacture of Mini bullets is indeed a big problem. It does not increase the strength of the bullet and is easy to hang lead; To increase the strength of the bullet, it is necessary to wear out the rifling and seriously shorten the life of the barrel, so it is necessary to increase the strength of the barrel. However, increasing the strength of the barrel involves smelting and material processing, and the barrel must be forged with high-quality steel. When that kind of technology is reached, you can directly get on the metal cartridge firing pin type rear loading gun!

However, Dai Cang and his son later came up with a solution: to create a batch of arrow-shaped bullets that were easy to reload and could be loaded with a front-loading smoothbore gun, so that the smoothbore gun could play the effect of a rifled gun. It's just that the cost of arrow-shaped shells is too high, and it can't equip the army in large quantities.

This small gun-making technology and bullet technology involve the science and technology of basic industry and material industry, and it needs to be supported by the development of science and technology trees.

Although there has been no improvement in gun technology, in terms of artillery technology, the Dongfan Gun Factory has made significant improvements. Since the introduction of British-made three-pounder guns and four-pounder guns, Dai Cang, Song Yingxing and others have imitated the British-style big wooden gun carriage and copper cannon on the one hand, and on the other hand, they have improved these portable guns.

With the improvement of smelting technology, the walls of the three-pounder and four-pounder cannons have become thinner, which means that the weight is lighter, and the body of a three-pounder gun is less than 200 pounds, and the firing range is about 400 meters. The gun carriage of the three-pounder gun was completely replaced with a small iron frame, which was fixed to the axle of the two-wheeled gun carriage. The gun carriage with large wheels can give the cannon a high maneuvering speed.

Dai Cang and Song Yingxing also modified the gun carriage, and installed the bearings produced in Qiongzhou on the gun wheels, so that the gun carriage could run more lightly. In addition, they were also inspired by the samples of Western-style four-wheeled carriages brought back by Wang Xinyu, and Wang Xinyu's suggestion that the front wheels of four-wheeled carriages could be used as a reference.

"Let's go, take us to see this new gun carriage." Wang Xinyu said to Song Yingxing, who has become the president of the Academy of Sciences.

Song Yingxing and Dai Cang stood up: "Son, please!" ”

The artillery test site and the musket test site are not in the same place. The artillery test site is in an open place outside the city, and the gun factory at this time is already located in the urban area of Tainan. Before Wang Xinyu and his entourage reached the gate of the artillery test site, several technicians and workers from the artillery factory came out to greet them: "Lord Wang, adults, please come inside!" ”

Walking into the artillery range, I saw a two-wheeled three-pounder gun and a two-wheeled ammunition truck placed on the shooting range, the ammunition truck and the artillery were separated, and there were two horses on the side. Looking at the ammunition truck again, there are still three seats on the car.

"The gun truck can be connected with the ammunition truck!" Wang Xinyu saw these two kinds of cars. I was immediately surprised.

"Not bad! You can connect them together and you can become a four-wheeled vehicle! Song Yingxing said with a smile.

This design was indeed very advanced, and the design of the gun carriage and ammunition cart to be combined into a four-wheeled vehicle was not invented until the Napoleonic era in the eighteenth century, and two horses could pull a three-pounder cannon at the speed of a cavalry march! And the gunner and ammunition can also gallop with the gun truck.

Wang Xinyu nodded and said, "Connect the gun truck and the ammunition truck, hang up the horse and run!" ”

Three gunners in charge of the test stepped forward, and the three pushed the gun cart to the ammunition truck. Soon. The two cars were side by side, the gun cart and the ammunition cart were hung together on hooks, and the soldiers stuffed a wooden stick into the hook and tied it with an iron chain. The two cars are connected together. After that, three soldiers jumped into the car, and the horse, which had already been attached to the ammunition truck in advance, led the four-wheeled vehicle with the integration of the gun truck and the ammunition truck, and led the car to run at high speed.

"It's fast! Two horses. can run fast with a cannon, and the speed of this march has caught up with the speed of cavalry! Wang Xinyu said very happily.

After having such a fast and mobile artillery, the firearms were in the counterweight to the cavalry. to gain the upper hand! With such a cannon, the cannon can follow the cavalry and move at any time to intercept the opponent or avoid the threat of the opponent's cavalry. As long as the road conditions are good, the speed of the horse pulling the cannon is not inferior to that of the cavalry.

A bronze three-pounder cannon weighs less than two hundred pounds, plus an iron gun mount, a wooden gun carriage, plus an ammunition cart, plus the weight of three gunners, all add up to about eight hundred pounds. The wheels are equipped with bearings, and it can be said that two horses pull an 800-pound car.

The two horses pulled the cannons, ran around the test site, and stopped.

The soldiers separated the gun cart from the ammunition cart as fast as they could, and pulled the ammunition cart away for some distance. The soldiers set up the cannon, nailed the cannons at the tail of the cannons into the ground, and the cannons were ready for firing.

The chambers of the guns were cleaned in advance, and the gunners stuffed the fixed charge packets, stuffed the shells in, and then stuffed them through the fire door with a sharp cone, punctured the packets, and then stuffed the fuse.

"Fire!" Dai Cang gave an order.

A gunner picks up a torch and lights the fuse. When the fuse disappeared from the fire door, a fireball erupted from the muzzle of the "boom" gun. The shells whistled and smashed into the target more than 400 meters away.

"The three-pounder gun has a relatively short range, and the maximum range is 400 paces, which is still our improved gun. And the range of the six-pounder gun is more than a thousand steps! If we were heavily armed with six-pounder guns, we could fire from a thousand paces away, and by the time the opponent was within range of their bows, how many rounds had already been shelled by us! Dai Cang explained, pointing to the target in front of him.

"Lord Wang, can we say a few words alone?" Dai Zi asked.

"Absolutely!" Wang Xinyu smiled and asked the people around him to avoid it for a while.

"Little prince, I think there is something wrong with my father's statement." When the people around him avoided it, Dai Zi lowered his voice and said. He had a different opinion of his father's statement, but in order to save face for his father, he did not say it publicly, but secretly said his opinion to Wang Xinyu alone.

"Tell me, then, what's wrong with his statement?" Wang Xinyu asked with a smile.

"This field cannon is a killer, and it has high accuracy within four hundred steps. If you go beyond 400 paces, the shell doesn't know where it goes. If it is against cavalry, it is not effective at all at a distance of a thousand paces. The six-pounder gun was too heavy, and the maneuvering speed was much less than that of the three-pounder gun. Dai Zi put forward his own opinion.

Wang Xinyu nodded: "We still have to equip a large number of three-pounder guns, and six-pounder guns and four-pounder cannons are supplementary strength." Although the larger caliber is not as good as the three-pounder gun, those with large calibers are better at loading shotguns, or can come in handy during sieges. So all three types of guns have to be built. It's just that the main thing is to produce more three-pounder guns. ”

All four-pounder guns and six-pounder guns are the same, and they are also two-wheeled gun carriages plus ammunition carts, a four-pounder gun itself weighs more than 240 pounds, plus gun carriages, gun carriages, ammunition carts, the total weight is more than 1,000 pounds, and three horses can pull the gun carriage and run quickly; A six-pounder gun, weighing more than 700 catties, has a maximum firing range of 1.3 kilometers. The power is obviously much greater than the four-pounder cannon and the three-pounder gun, and it can be competent for siege warfare tasks, but this kind of cannon is also heavier, plus the ammunition truck and gun car, the total weight is more than two thousand catties, and it needs four horses to pull it, and the speed is not so fast.

"We also have a twelve-pounder field gun now, which is a newly produced product." Dai Zi introduced.

"Let's go, let's go!" Wang Xinyu nodded happily.

Twelve-pounder field cannon cast in bronze. This is a powerful siege cannon, the weight of this cannon is only more than a thousand catties, only one-third of the weight of the Hongyi cannon! However, it can fire the same twelve-pounder shells as the Hongyi cannon, and it is not inferior to the Hongyi cannon in terms of range! The maximum firing range can reach more than 1,900 meters.

Some of the ancients' books are exaggerated. It is said that the range of the Hongyi cannon can reach seven or eight miles, but in fact, the range of the Hongyi cannon is within three miles.

The twelve-pounder bronze field gun, known in real history as the Napoleonic cannon, was a very powerful maneuver. Field heavy artillery with ferocious firepower. The weight of the gun body is more than 1,100 catties, plus the gun carriage and gun carriage, the total weight is more than 2,200 catties; Plus ammunition carts and gunner's seats. The gunner, the ammunition, the full weight reached about four thousand catties. The gun wagon and the ammunition cart, both using large wheels with a diameter of five feet, had a total of six gunners, who could sit on the ammunition cart and the gun carriage and run alongside them.

This cannon was heavier and required six cattle to tow. Because it was a heavy artillery that did not require too high maneuvering speed, the people of the gun factory were reluctant to use horses to tow it, so they chose mules to tow the twelve-pounder field gun.

With field artillery with much higher mobility than the original artillery, the Ming army's field combat capability was greatly improved.

In addition to field artillery, another surprise was the birth of howitzers. Howitzer, which is a type of curved artillery between a mortar and a cannon, because the barrel is shorter, the caliber is larger, the reloading speed is also faster than the cannon, and the weight of the shells fired is larger. The barrel of the howitzer is slightly longer than that of the mortar gun, which is about the same length as the barrel of the Navy's Cullen gun, which can fire both flowering shells, howitzer shotguns and solid shells, and is also the same as the Navy's Cullen guns, which can fire both flat and curved fire.

In fact, the birth of the howitzer was inspired by the naval short-barreled cannon by Dai Cang's father and son, and the naval short-barreled cannon was moved ashore after a certain transformation to become a new type of field artillery.

After the advent of howitzers, it was possible to use them to protect the safety of cannons. At long distances, howitzers can fire flowering shells; At close range, the howitzer can be flattened to fire shrapnel. The howitzer's gun carriage is also made of iron, mounted on a large-wheeled gun carriage, and a twelve-pounder howitzer weighs about the same as a six-pounder gun, and it can also be combined with a gun truck and ammunition truck to form a four-wheeled vehicle, which is pulled by mules and horses, and can maneuver at high speeds.

With this kind of howitzer, Wang Xinyu can consider mixing a part of the howitzer in the artillery team of six-pounder guns or twelve-pounder field guns to protect the safety of these guns.

However, at present, the most powerful are the two powerful weapons of the new swarm of bee fire vans and thunderbolt fire vans. After the appearance of bearings, Daikura and his son also improved the swarm of fire vans, and also adopted two merger methods in which the ammunition truck and the fire van could be combined into one four-wheeled vehicle, or two ammunition trucks could be merged into one four-wheeled vehicle. Because of the bearings, a lot of livestock can be saved, and more ammunition can be transported by the same number of livestock.

The Thunderbolt fire box car has also been greatly improved, which is a primitive, multi-barrel fire door ignition tube firearm, in fact, it is a multi-barreled firearm, but because the Thunderbolt fire box car has the advantages of fast replacement of the gun tube and high rate of fire, so although this firearm is primitive, it is equivalent to a primitive machine gun.

The thunderbolt made by Zhao Shizhen back then was just a five-barreled musket, and it may not be better than the three-eyed gun. And now, after Dai Zi and others, the Thunderbolt Gun installed on the fire box car is a hundred Thunderbolt guns! After lighting the fuses that are connected together, 100 projectiles can be fired sequentially according to the order in which the fuses burn. After all the 100 guns were fired, the soldiers in charge of the thunderbolts only had to move the planks to remove the guns from the wagon and replace them with a new set of planks with 100 guns full of bullets.

Of course, even the improved Thunderbolt Fire Box still made Wang Xinyu not very satisfied, because the effective range of this weapon is not far, it has a lethal effect within 100 steps, and it can accurately hit the target within 50 steps. Compared to a real hand-cranked machine gun, it is still a big difference.

The improvement of heavy weapons gave Wang Xinyu the confidence to fight in the north. It's just that these heavy weapons take time to produce, and it will take time to accumulate a considerable number of heavy weapons.

"It can produce two swarm of bee vans, two thunderbolt vans and six cannons a month. The pace of production of such weapons is not slow, but the production of artillery shells and flowering rockets has not been able to catch up. Song Yingxing said.

"We are not in a hurry to attack the north, we should first take the south, take Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as southern Zhejiang, and wait until we have a firm foothold in the south of the Yangtze River, and then steadily seek to take the Central Plains. By that time, we'll have had enough of these powerful weapons. Wang Xinyu replied.

However, in the camp of the Qing army in Anqing, Ao Bai was also studying the new firearms of the Ming army.

"The Ming dogs are powerful with firearms, and they have also developed a way to dig trenches and build earthen walls to counteract the power of our cannons! This dog is really not easy to deal with! Jie Shu said.

Ao Bai held a captured short gun and played with it in his hand: "In the future, the battle will be in this mode!" Firearms are becoming more and more powerful, and individual martial arts cannot resist firearms! Not even a strong city can stop firearms! But digging trenches can neutralize the power of firearms. The soldiers shot at each other in the trenches and fought to the death. ”

"Lord Ao, if we also dig trenches, wouldn't it be detrimental to our cavalry?" Jie Shu asked.

"Fighting in the south, cavalry doesn't play a big role. If you want to conquer the Han people, you still have to use the Han people. We can use the Han Chinese scholars and let them form Lian Yong. Here is a plan from a person in Hubei, look at it, it's not bad! Ao Baidao. (To be continued.) )