Xia Nan's head was a little dizzy when he was said, and he interrupted Lin Weiye's lengthy popular science course on technical principles: "Speak human words." Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

Lin Weiye blinked his eyes: "To explain it in the vernacular: limited by the maximum load limit of the battleship, the cannon on the battleship cannot be too heavy, and the solid bullet has a limited weight, which can penetrate the hull but is difficult to sink the enemy; If explosive shells are used instead, mortars cannot be used in naval warfare, the range of the Caron cannon is too short, the cannon chamber pressure is too high for fear of exploding, and the explosive shells of the black powder era do not penetrate into the hull and explode...... So get a hybrid, use the principle of the mortar gun, plus the barrel length between the howitzer and the cannon, and find a balance between penetration and the bore......"

Xia Nan frowned: "It's simpler, let's talk about the point." ”

"It's already very straightforward!" Lin Weiye waved his hand in protest, and then explained, "It is the butt of the mortar cannon and the barrel of the cannon, which are specially used to launch explosive shells, and the characteristic is that they can explode after penetrating the hull at a long distance, understand?" ”

"Wouldn't it have been enough to say that earlier? I don't have to say it so much. Xia Nan asked happily, "This kind of cannon sounds very powerful, but what is better than our current Caron cannon and long-barreled cannon?" ”

"It took a long time, and the feelings were all in vain, but you didn't listen to it at all!" Lin Weiye rolled his eyes, "The Caron cannon is short and light, can be deployed in large quantities, and has a large caliber and a fast rate of fire. The disadvantages are also obvious: first, if the range is too close, the casualties will skyrocket when encountering opponents with strong firepower, such as the Dutch; Second, the attack effect is single, the effect of shotgun killing deck personnel is obvious, and although the solid bullet fired at close range can also smash the hull, it has limited damage except for killing a few people on the trajectory......"

Xia Nan interrupted him: "This is not necessarily, William told me that in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, the solid shell of the Caron cannon once penetrated the gun deck of the middle sandwich of the Dutch battleship, and if it was lucky enough to hit the powder keg and detonate, it could blow up and sink the ship." ”

"You also said that it was luck, and the Dutch 13 ships, in such a dense artillery fire, only two ships are so unlucky, the chance is too great, this tactic has no actual combat value." Lin Weiye continued, "You listen to me first, don't interrupt. The cannon had a better range and penetration than the Caron, and could fire from a safer distance, but the actual effect was mediocre, and there were countless examples of scarred ships that had been hit by solid bullets in naval battles, and in fact, until the 18th century, the final solution to the battle was still to make a forced landing or take the ship. ”

"According to you, the cannon is meaningless?"

"Nor can it be said that increasing the caliber of the cannon is an effective solution. 12 pounds can't be sunk, just 18 pounds, 24 pounds, in the 18th century battleships even appeared 48 pounds of giant cannons, hit by such shells, if you don't die, you have to peel off the skin, if you change to Zheng Zhilong's boat, a few cannons will fall ......apart," Lin Weiye said, "But such an endless increase in caliber is not the best solution, the weight of the 24-pound naval gun is close to three tons, and the 48-pound naval gun is nearly six tons, how many can such a behemoth be equipped on an ordinary battleship?" After all, there is a limit to the load of a sail battleship, and too heavy naval guns will slow down the ship, causing the ship to be too deep and more likely to run aground......"

Xia Nan shook his head: "This idea doesn't work, what's the use of abandoning mobility and relying on heavy artillery alone - no matter how heavy the weight of sumo wrestling is, it may not be able to beat a flexible boxer." ”

Lin Weiye nodded and said, "That's right." Because the damage effect of solid shells on battleships is not ideal, and it is not a good way to increase the caliber of the barrel, some people thought of using explosive shells. However, the penetration of the Caron cannon is not enough, and the solid bullet can still use the bonus of its own bullet weight to smash the hull at close range, and the hollow explosive bomb is powerless, and if it explodes outside the hull, the power of black powder is basically to ask the opponent to watch a firework. As for the cannon, it was even worse, because the chamber pressure was much higher than that of the Caron, and the hollow explosive shell was easily crushed by the pressure, causing an explosion in the chamber - so throughout the era of smoothbore guns, the vast majority of the explosive shells fired were howitzers or mortars with shorter barrels, and the navy used Caron guns. ”

Xia Nan nodded and said: "I once heard you say that even if it is a howitzer with a shorter barrel, for the sake of safety, the cartridge case of the explosive bomb is relatively thick, the charge is too small, and the power is small." Later, you also got a Eighth Route Army's Tufa simmering shell, which increased the strength of the shell, which could be made thinner and filled with more gunpowder......"

"It's a good memory, you haven't forgotten it after so long." Lin Weiye gave him a thumbs up, "So, in order to solve the disadvantages of the two kinds of guns, in 1823, the French artillery officer Péxan invented this cannon, and later generations named it 'Paixhans-gun' after him." This kind of cannon elongates the barrel of the Caron cannon, close to the cannon of the same caliber, while retaining the narrow chamber at the bottom of the mortar cannon, the gunpowder burns more explosively in the narrow space, the shell can get good thrust, plus the barrel close to the length of the cannon, it can provide acceleration, and the final effect is: with the range and penetration of the cannon, the explosive shell of about 32 pounds is sent into the enemy ship and explodes. For the all-through gun deck of a sail battleship, this is a disaster! ”

Xia Nan's eyebrows fluttered when he heard this, and he immediately made up the exciting scene of the shells exploding on the gun deck in the middle of the ship, the gunners being blown away, and the powder kegs all detonated. Since the gun deck of the sail battleship was all-through, without any compartments or compartments, the gunners had nowhere to hide or escape.

Lin Weiye still seems not satisfied: "On this basis, the simmering shell and wooden cartridge butting technology that we have applied to howitzers can also be used. This allows for a larger charge than the Paixhans-gun, and the softer wooden butt not only cushions the pressure of gunpowder on the cartridge case, but also seals the chamber, resulting in better airtightness, greater thrust, longer range, and more stable trajectory. ”

The more he spoke, the more excited he became, and he danced to a conclusion about this new weapon: "This cannon also has a Chinese name, called 'bombardment cannon', before the rifled cannon came out, this was the ultimate weapon in the era of smoothbore guns, there is no one!" ”

"Good!" Xia Nan was also infected by his emotions and applauded.