Zuo Wuwei asked everyone to retreat ten zhang, and the rest of the many soldiers also retreated into the distance, ready for the eventuality. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Zuo Wuwei only stepped back a foot away, waved the small flag in his hand, and shouted: "Point! ”

A gunner lit the lead with a torch, and the gunners immediately retreated to Zuo Wuwei's side, looking nervous, and stared at the hissing sparks that quickly ignited the short lead.

Although the cannon was very powerful, the cannon casting at that time lacked process management, and the casting materials were uneven, and the quality could not be guaranteed. At the same time, there was a lack of experienced gunners, and they learned Western artillery books that were translated without considering the conversion of weights and measures, which made many artillery guns explode on the first firing, often killing and wounding many people.

The lead fizzled into the fire door with hissing sparks, and suddenly, the fire door flashed red, followed by a fire from the muzzle of the gun, and there was a loud "boom". Everyone only felt a shock to the ground under their feet, and in an instant there was a thick smoke in front of the cannon. When the cannon sounded, the staff and soldiers instinctively threw their waists together, and the gunners also squatted down.

Zuo Wuwei bent over, and he quickly opened his mouth when he saw the red light. After the cannon sounded, he quickly ran close to the cannon, checked it and touched it with his hand, put his mind at ease, and hurriedly came over to say: "Zhentai, the cannon body is intact." ”

He Rubin and his staff and generals approached to observe, inspected the gun body and gun mount, and they were as strong as ever, and they were very satisfied. After a while, a soldier galloped back from the mound two miles away: a cannonball flew over the mound and broke a tree behind the mound.

"It is said that the thieves have sharp firearms, how can they compare to this cannon?" He Rubin said with a smile.

"No matter how sharp the thief's cannon is, it's nothing more than that." A staff member said.

"Hehe, this is just a small cannon of five catties of cannons, if it is a cannon that radiates fifteen catties of cannons, one cannon can erode three or four miles. No matter how sharp the thief's firearms are, that's the case. He Rubin was confident, "Left garrison, how many cannons are there in the firearms battalion now?" ”

"Huiyu Zhentai: With the addition of these ten Hongyi cannons, there are a total of one hundred and sixty-four new and old cannons."

"Tiger squat cannons and the like don't count. Remove these small cannons, how many? ”

"Huiyu Zhentai: there are thirty-eight."

He Rubin was quite satisfied, with such sharp artillery, supplemented by more than 10,000 troops, the thieves would definitely be vulnerable.

He then inspected the firearms battalion. This firearms battalion was newly established after he took up the post of commander-in-chief, and many artillery pieces were mobilized and many new artillery trucks were built. He Rubin saw that the firearms battalion was neatly arranged, the armor was well-equipped, and the soldiers were either practicing or maintaining the equipment, and they were busy, and there were no slacking soldiers, and he felt very satisfied.

He praised Zuo Wuwei's good training, and left in the stars of a staff member.

Sending He Rubin away, Zuo Wuwei instructed his subordinates: "After the cannon chamber is cleaned, pack up the things and prepare to set the horse and return to the camp." ”

The soldiers brought in the newly purchased Sichuan horses and put on the cannons. The body of the Sichuan horse is small and weak. Not to mention the bulkiness of this type of gun carriage, and without the artillery front carriage, the horses had to be pulled forward, but also had to bear the weight on their backs. The efficiency of the use of animal power was very poor, and it took seven or eight horses to barely pull it. Zuo Wuwei knew that local Mongolian horses were very rare, and Jiangnan and Guangdong did not raise mules, so he had to use Sichuan horses to make up the numbers.

"The strength of this horse is too small, it is not as good as a mule." A boss around him always said.

"This is a small Sichuan horse in the south, smaller than a donkey in Shandong." Zuo Wuwei said, "You can't pull up the cart and not reach a donkey." It is okay to take the mountain road to carry the goods, but it is not possible to pull the cart and pull the cannon. ”

"There are a lot of cattle here, so it's better to use cows."

"The cows are too slow." He shook his head, "And easily frightened." When a cannon is fired on the battlefield, the cow is startled, and it will be a bad thing immediately. ”

After returning to the camp and settling the cannon, Zuo Wuwei went to the gunpowder factory again, about five or six miles away from the barracks battery, there was a large shack, which was a workshop for making gunpowder. Day and night, the materials for making gunpowder were brought in by ship from all over the country: sulphur, charcoal, and saltpeter, and occasionally other things, such as sun-dried human dung, poisonous Chinese herbs such as aconitum aconitum, and lime and tung oil.

As the commander of the firearms battalion, Zuo Wuwei was most concerned about the supply of gunpowder and artillery. He commanded the firearms battalion, and gunpowder and artillery were matters related to life and death, and they could not be ignored.

"How much gunpowder has been made?" He asked.

The steward said: "Lord Hui, now I have made 10,000 catties." Most of them are explosives, but there are also a small amount of explosives. There were also poisonous gunpowder and medicine cakes. ”

"That's too little. 10,000 catties are not used. ”

"Yes, it's just that the hemp charcoal to be used is hard to find, and I am changing to willow charcoal." The steward said, "Now that gunpowder is different from before, saltpeter and sulfur must be purified before it can be used." Butter lard is used for raw sulfur alone, and ten catties will cost two or three catties, which is quite time-consuming to raise. ”

Coming out of the earthen enclosure of the gunpowder factory, three or four miles away the black smoke rushed into the sky, this is where the blacksmith camp is located, most of the weapons in the army are made of iron, although the weapons of the official army are specially manufactured by the government, but the army still carries some blacksmith tools, iron materials and charcoal, which are used to repair weapons at any time, and when necessary, they can also rush to produce some weapons with high consumption, such as arrowheads and iron. Now the blacksmith battalion is rushing to make cannons day and night.

In the camp, a shack was clanging to build and repair swords, spears and guns, and in the open air there were seven or eight iron-melting stoves, the furnaces were melting pig iron, pouring cannons, and the ground was full of large and small mud molds.

Zuo Wuwei saw that the stockyard on one side was full of all kinds of iron materials, including iron bricks and iron rods bought from the iron yard, as well as various weapons and objects that had been replaced in the army. Abandoned cauldrons and broken clay molds were piled up into hillocks several feet high. The newly cast cannons were held in rattan baskets, which were already the size of several acres of land. Zuo Wuwei knew that the small basket was filled with a large cannon, and the big basket was filled with a group.

Seeing his arrival, Li Mo, the general manager of Guan Yingqian, hurriedly came out to greet him. Like gunpowder, Zuo Wuwei had an urgent need to make more cannons as quickly as possible. During the war, the artillery consumption is very large, and if the firearms battalion has no artillery to use and misses the fighter, his head will not be protected.

He looked at the cannons in the basket, and the cannonballs were unevenly cast, some were very round, and some were very different in diameter. The finish of the projectile body is also different. Some of the cannons have a rough surface, almost honeycomb-like. What's even worse is that the same five-pound cannon, the size is still slightly different, and some are very different, and there is a big error when you look at the size.

"This cannon scores one point." He said to Li Mo, "Only the rounder and brightest can be used for the Hongyi cannon." The others can only be used as sealers. There is also this size, the big one, the small one, and the score is also scored. (To be continued.) )