was glared at by the prime minister of the current dynasty, Han Gang's expression was still calm, and the anger in Cai Qu's heart subsided little by little.

Han Gang is not a person who likes to joke like Liu Chu and Shi Yannian, since he is sure, then the pine wood in front of him may indeed be the artillery he is talking about.

Cai did cast his eyes on the piece of wood for the third time, and this time he observed more carefully.

Or pine. One zhang long, one foot thick. The front end has a hole, the mouth of the bowl is the size, and it is a small bowl. If you look closely, you should use a saw to cut this section of pine wood in half vertically, and then hollow out a section of the core, leaving the other end as it is. After the last one, nail it back with an iron nail, and then use an iron hoop to tie it up.

Cai really can't see an eyebrow, but it is obviously a shoddy product.

"Yukun, how does this work?"

Han Gang beckoned Fang Xing over, "How many times have you tried?" ”

"Four times. Replaced two cannons. This is the third gate. Fang Xing replied, "The first cannon was tested three times, and the third time, the wood was blown apart. The second cannon, probably not done, the fire came out of the cracks. So two more hoops were added to this third gate. ”

"Prepare for launch." Han Gang asked Fang Xing to go over, turned around and said to Cai Qu, "The power of gunpowder is not small. If the barrel is not strong, it will be blown up like the paper shell on the outside of a firecracker. The wood is still not strong enough. But just give it a try and let people see how it works. ”

Cai Qu realized that the air did have a faint smell of sulfur.

"I've tried it a few times, and it doesn't seem like there will be a problem."

"I haven't seen the experiment with my own eyes, and Han Gang doesn't know if it will work or not."

"Yukun is too humble. If you are not sure, you will not boast in the temple. ”

I mean, I'm not sure it's a pine cannon. Han Gang still didn't say anything, the pine cannon had only heard about it in the story, and he hadn't actually touched it, no more than the metal cannon he wanted to build, he had seen a lot of real things when he traveled around, bronze, wrought iron, he had seen them all.

And this pine cannon is also the result of temporary rush. At present, there are no lathes, milling machines, and boring machines in the real sense, only simple processing platforms. When this wooden cannon was built, it didn't come in handy. The first cannon was hard chiseled out with a chisel, and when the second cannon was made, a craftsman proposed that the center of the trunk be burned into charcoal directly with a red-hot iron rod, and then shoveled off and then finely polished to match the size. It's fast and fast, and at the end of the day, three doors were built.

While Han Gang and Cai Qu were talking, Fang Xing's side was already ready.

Several handymen fastened the artillery to the shelves with ropes, and used ropes to bind the shelves firmly to several stone foundations in the corridors on both sides. Directly in front of the muzzle was the thick plank, but then another sheep came and tied it to the plank.

"I haven't used a live object as a target a few times before, so I'll try it this time."

Another handyman came out with a bowl that was black and full of gunpowder.

"It's dangerous when there is too much gunpowder, so I don't dare to get too close." Fang Xing walked back and said to Han Gang and Cai Qu.

The handyman took the gunpowder, but instead of pouring it directly into the gun's mouth, he poured it on a piece of silk first

"What is this?" Han Gang asked suspiciously. Wrapping up the gunpowder gave him a familiar feeling.

Fang Xing explained: "The gunpowder is too finely crushed, and it always leaks a lot on the inner wall, and it can't get into it at first, so it wastes a lot. So I thought of a way to simply wrap it in spun yarn. It's also convenient. ”

The miscellaneous servant wrapped the gunpowder in silk, kneaded it, adjusted the size, and stuffed it into the muzzle, and the other miscellaneous servant was already waiting with a long wooden pole, and when he saw that the gunpowder bag was put in, he picked up the wooden pole and rammed it hard.

Immediately afterwards, a cast iron ball with a diameter of only three inches was placed into the muzzle of the gun, and it was also tamped. This was ordered by Han Gang. For Daikinsaku, it's a very simple job.

"It's a cannonball, the equivalent of a thunderbolt. It's all smashed out. Han Gang said, and asked someone to take another one to show Cai Qu.

Cai Qu watched intently, and by now, he had gradually understood the principle. It's just that I don't know how powerful the Dao is.

The gunpowder and shells were all placed, and another handyman took an iron drill and pierced it from the top of the artillery, and Cai did find that there was a hole in the back of the artillery, which was not big, but it seemed to be deep into the hole in the artillery.

The craftsman pounded the iron drill twice with a pestle, pulled it out, looked at the tip of the iron drill, and then put a string in it.

"That's the flotine rope, which is used to ignite the fire." Fang Xing continued to explain, looking at the front of him and getting ready, and said: "Xianggong, Xuanhui, it's on fire, please move a little,"

As he spoke, he pointed to the side of the artillery. There were straw bags of soil and a wall was piled up, as if it were used for flood control.

Facing Cai Qu's puzzled gaze, Fang Xing accompanied him with a smiling face: "Xianggong, Xuanhui, this artillery was made in a hurry, maybe it will explode like this." The two of them are concerned about the safety of the country, so it is safer to stand a little farther away. ”

Fang Xing is also difficult to do, in order to show the power of the artillery, he can't reduce the amount of charge, but he has to ensure the safety of the two big men present, which really gives him a headache.

Han Gang didn't embarrass him, "Be upright, look, let's take a few steps back?" ”

Cai Qu nodded and walked behind the wall.

"What about them." Han Gang asked Fang Xing, who came over.

"Xuanhui don't worry, they'll go there."

Fang Xing said and pointed to the courtyard wall. Han Gang looked over, and there was a row of forbidden army soldiers standing there.

The Firearms Bureau was accompanied by a commanding prohibition as a guard. That's a lot more than a hundred people in the Saber Bureau, and it's the same as today's Plate Armor Bureau. More than a dozen soldiers of the forbidden army were waiting by the courtyard wall, and there were large oars and shields leaning on the wall.

Walk behind the straw bag wall and look through the gap at the pine cannon in front of you. Cai Cheng was also a little nervous at this time, the power of this artillery would not seem to be small, otherwise why was it so solemn?

The people around the cannon dispersed, and they all hid behind the shields, except for one small soldier who cautiously approached with a fire breaker. After a moment on the lead, he turned and ran away.

But there was no movement at all from the flotting rope.

Fang Xing's face was embarrassed, the master craftsman who seemed to be the leader went up and scolded twice, snatched the fire fold and stepped forward to light it, and came back backwards.

There was a sudden silence in the courtyard, and people's attention was focused.

The fiery rope was burning, and the spark was lost in the cannon in an instant.

Cai Qu clenched his hands and looked ahead without blinking.

The next moment, an orange-red flash flashed in front of his eyes, and a deafening explosion burst out, and a puff of blue-white smoke filled the front.

Cai was so shocked that he took a step back, and then stepped forward again. Turning his head to look at Han Gang, he was looking at the front with a solemn expression.

"Alright."

When the smoke cleared, Fang Xing was the first to go around the straw bag wall, and Han Gang and Cai Qu followed.

The artillery is still in place, and it looks the same as before. Only from the muzzle, the lead entrance, and the seam, there were still wisps of green smoke.

Cai Qu looked at the target again, thirty steps apart, the thick wooden board was a shocking blood red, the sheep in front of the wooden board had already fallen, and the blood was leaking on the ground.

The figure around him flashed, and Han Gang stepped forward quickly.

Cai did think about it, and then followed.

A group of people went up together, and as soon as they looked at it, many people immediately looked away.

The shell hit the sheep's head, and the upper part of the eye and brain disappeared directly, and the rotten puddle stuck to the plank. But the sheep's body was still twitching, and the blood was pouring out in bursts.

The iron ball fell in a pool of blood, and it was impossible to see that the iron projectile that could be placed in the palm of the hand could break the bones together at a distance of thirty steps. Even if the soldiers in armor came over, they must have been stoned to death along with the soldiers inside.

Cai Quqiang endured the intense nausea, looked at it twice, and finally looked away, looked at the cannon thirty steps away, and sighed to Han Gang, who was still calm: "Yukun, this artillery is really comparable to a thunderbolt." ”

"It's still far from the expected finished product." Han Gang shook his head, "Gunpowder needs to be improved, and it can't be used as a firecracker." The wood was also to be replaced with bronze or wrought iron, and only a solid copper and iron outer wall could withstand the force of the explosion of refined gunpowder. And that thrust can completely launch a dozen or twenty catties of iron balls several miles away. Now it's toys. The gap is as big as the armor made of leaves by a child, and the real iron armor. ”

"Miles away?!" Cai was dumbfounded, "The Eight Bull Crossbows are not that far." ”

"The bamboo bow that the child plays with is only ten steps, and the yellow birch bow of the ordnance supervisor can reach it in a hundred steps. The principle is still the same, it is all about using the elasticity of the bow back and bowstring. Since this kind of pine cannon can smash a sheep's skull with a hardness comparable to iron armor at a distance of thirty paces, if the angle is adjusted well, the range can exceed two hundred steps. If it is replaced by gunpowder with more powerful explosions and stronger iron cannons, what is the value of a thousand steps? ”

Cai did nod and walked back, letting people clean up the mess. Walking to the pine cannon, he stretched out his hand and patted it, "Yukun, in the future, the finished products of copper and iron cannons will also be of this size?" ”

"Look at the form. Fired cannonballs of the same size, copper cannons and iron cannons can be made a little smaller, after all, they are much stronger than wood. If it's about the size of this pine cannon, it can fire a bigger cannonball. ”

"Thunderbolts are meant to be placed vertically." Cai did groan for a while, and suddenly said again.

"Hmm...... That's right. Han Gang was puzzled in his heart, and he didn't know what Cai really wanted to say.

"So you can't put it on the warship, at most you can install a shooting rod on the top of the fighting ship."

Han Gang understood, but he was very surprised, how Cai Qu's brain turned so fast, "If you change to artillery, you can open a porthole on the lower deck, and behind a porthole is a cannon, and dozens of guns can be placed on both sides of the first floor." As long as the boat can move. ”

Cai Qu closed his eyes and thought about that scene, and shook his head suddenly, "Such a warship, with only one or two, can be comparable to a thousand crossbows." Used in water warfare, it can easily destroy dozens of warships. ”

"Almost." Han Gang knows the power of the sail battleship.

"A smaller ship can put a few guns."

"Even a thousand-material sea ship can carry tens of thousands of catties of goods. One artillery piece is no more than three or five thousand catties, how can it hit five or six guns. How many Thunderbolts can fit on deck? And the higher it is, the more unstable it is. ”

"Because of the center of gravity?" Cai Qu said with a smile.

"Exactly." Han Gang nodded. "If there is really a war with Liao in the future, artillery warships can escort the officers and troops across the sea to land in Liaodong. It can also protect the officers and soldiers to occupy Yuguan. Blocking the only main road from Tokyo Road to Nanjing Road. ”

"Yukun ......," Cai Qu sighed, "You have worked hard." ”