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The poor quality of the firearms of the Ming army and the frequent explosion of the chambers are closely related to the poor raw materials. Iron is divided into pig iron and wrought iron, and the most suitable for making firearms is wrought iron, which is better. However, the cost of wrought iron is comparatively higher. In order to save costs, the Ordnance Bureau and the War Bureau used a large number of relatively brittle pig iron to make firearms, and the results were naturally conceivable. If steel is used to make firearms, the chance of exploding will definitely be greatly reduced. However, in that case, the cost will have to multiply several times. This is something that the imperial court cannot afford.

Xu Xingxia pondered for a moment and said, "In that case, I'll build fifty first!" ”

With the addition of the original thirty, Xu Xingxia now has eighty black feather arrows, which is basically enough. The strength of the human body, after all, has a limit, and eighty arrows can basically drain all of Xu Xingxia's strength. From the Tatars' point of view, after the death of eighty people, no one should continue to attack the Oxhorn Pier. Sacrificing eighty lives for a small beacon pier is completely worth the loss.

The total price of fifty black feather arrows was sixty taels of silver. Xu Xingxia immediately took out twelve silver ingots and handed them to Guo Fuquan. Each silver ingot is five taels, which is exactly sixty taels. Guo Fuquan immediately said that as long as he has ten days, he will be able to deliver the goods. It took ten days to create fifty black feather arrows, which made Xu Xingxia deeply feel that the production efficiency was really low. But there was no way, the production conditions at that time were like this.

After dealing with his Black Feather Arrow, Xu Xingxia continued: "Now, let's talk about the fire gun. ”

Hearing that Xu Xingxia was going to build a fire gun, the four craftsmen suddenly became excited again. This thing is a long-term deal. It would take even the most skilled craftsman three months to create a complete firecracker. As long as Niujiaodun pays for the construction of ten firearms, more than a dozen of them craftsmen will have a few months without worrying about their livelihood.

Xu Xingxia wants to build a fire gun, of course, it is not a whim. As a time-traveler from the next generation, it is simply impossible not to pay attention to the development of the firecracker. It's a complete reversal of history. Why was it that the firearm gradually replaced the bow and arrow as the main equipment of the army? The most critical reason is not the power of the firecracker, but the low cost, mass popularity, and fast training speed. These are the prerequisites of crowd tactics.

In fact, in the forty-fourth year of Wanli, the power of the Ming army's guns was not as good as the traditional bow and arrow. The Ming army's most powerful flying bird gun, with an effective range, that is, sixty or seventy meters, is not as good as the compound bow of the Mongols. However, the biggest feature of the firearm is that it is easy to make and easy to train. A military household who doesn't know anything can basically shoot with a firearm after three months of training. Accurate shooting is impossible, and it is still possible to shoot in line. And the training of bows and arrows, without three or five years, will basically not have obvious results.

In terms of cost alone, the cost of a bow and arrow is also higher than the cost of a firecracker. To make a firebolt, you only need iron and wood. Bows and arrows are different. The materials required for bows and arrows are very complex, in addition to wood, they also need to use bones and tendons of animals and plants, as well as glue and glue. To make a bow, the whole process takes about a year. A musket, on the other hand, can be made in just a few months. If the assembly line of later generations is adopted, the speed of manufacturing will be faster.

However, Xu Xingxia was very dissatisfied with the firearms currently used by the Ming army. With such a firearm, it's a bit difficult to even play in line and shoot, let alone anything else. At present, the firecrackers used by the Ningxia Zhenwei Army, whether it is the most common bird-beaked gun, or the slightly more advanced bird-beaked gun, the thunderbolt gun, or the three-eyed thunderbolt, are all arquebuses. This firecracker, it's terrible. Rainy days aside, the power and range are far from satisfactory. What Xu Xingxia needed was a flintlock pistol, a flintlock pistol that could be fired even on a rainy day.

Of course, when it comes to flintlock pistols all of a sudden, Xu Xingxia estimates that these craftsmen are difficult to understand, so he decided to start slowly with the most basic common sense, and put forward his demands step by step to see if it can be realized. It's one thing to have your own needs, but it's another thing to be able to do it with your own technology. He wanted an AK47 to surprise the Tatars, but unfortunately he couldn't. He poured a cup of coarse tea for each of the craftsmen, and said with great interest, "You will first tell me about the making of the bird gun." ”

A craftsman named Zhao Mengji, who seemed to specialize in the production of fire guns, explained in detail with a teacup. According to his introduction, Xu Xingxia found that the production process of the Ming army gun was really complicated. It's not easy to improve the technology. His hopes of quickly assembling a strong musket corps, relying on castles and favorable terrain to hold back the Tatar cavalry, were quickly dashed.

This can be seen in the case of the most common bird guns. The production of the flying bird is first of all the pipe, and the most important thing is the pipe. After the wrought iron is burned red, it is knocked on a steel core, so that it is rolled into an iron pipe, cooled and then wrapped in the second layer outside, and the knocking is fine, and after reaching a certain thickness, the steel core is extracted, and a section of the gun pipe is completed.

After making several sections of pipes, it is necessary to weld them together one by one. This link is very critical, and it is easy to blow up and bored if the welding is not good. A large part of the reason for the explosion of the Ming army's guns appeared in this link. After the preliminary gun pipe is done, the gun boring should be drilled with a steel cone to break out the crosshair. This can take the longest time, sometimes up to a month. If the technology is not enough, two months is possible.

After that, the boring is scraped clean with steel bars, and then various assemblies are carried out. Equip the firing pool, assemble the ammunition pool, assemble the butt...... Wait a minute. According to the production process of the Ming army, a firecracker, from beginning to end, is produced by the same craftsman. Therefore, all kinds of miscellaneous matters add up, and it will take three months at the earliest to make a flying bird. With such production efficiency, you can imagine what the consequences are.

Xu Xingxia frowned and said, "How much does a flying bird gun cost?" ”

Zhao Mengji said cautiously: "Lord Baihu, making a flying bird gun is wonderful with a weight of six catties, but it consumes a lot of iron. Forty catties of crude iron, and in the end, only seven or eight catties of refined iron were smelted, which was not a small cost. If pig iron is used, the quality cannot be guaranteed. ”

According to his estimates, the cost of a bird's hammer is three to five taels of silver, and the cost of a bird's gun, which is not a small amount. You must know that this kind of thing is won by scale. If you don't use 1,000 or hundreds of them at the same time, it will have no effect. In fact, even if a thousand guns were fired at the same time, the effect was not very good. The hit rate of the smoothbore gun is indeed too low.

In response to the problem of low quality in the Ming army, Zhao Mengji pointed out sharply: "My lord, the reason why the bird gun is easy to blow up is that the material is insufficient and it is filled with too much pig iron. The second is that the craftsmen are clever in manufacturing, and the thickness is uneven, especially in the welding of the pipe, many craftsmen are not skilled, resulting in the boring of the bird. However, as long as the adults provide enough materials, the small ones can make fine firecrackers for the adults. ”

Xu Xingxia nodded, indicating that he was taught. Then, slowly, tentatively, he said, "Do you know how to make a flintlock pistol?" ”

Guo Fuquan and the others shook their heads a little blankly.

Zhao Mengji asked curiously, "My lord, what is a flintlock pistol?" ”

Xu Xingxia felt a little bad in his heart. It seems that they have not even heard the name of the flintlock pistol, so they must not expect to make it. However, the flintlock pistol was a must for Xu Xingxia, even if these craftsmen did not understand, he had to encourage these craftsmen to study as much as possible. There was no way, Xu Xingxia had to explain slowly.

For him, the traverser, it was definitely necessary to replace the arquebus with a flintlock pistol and a rifled gun instead of a smoothbore gun. Only in this way can you increase the power of the firearm as much as possible, strengthen the lethality of the enemy as much as possible, and reduce your own losses as much as possible. The research conditions for rifled guns are not mature for the time being, and Xu Xingxia can only find a way to use the flintlock pistol now.

In fact, the technology of the flintlock pistol is not profound, even if there is no him as a traverser, about twenty years later, the Tobe squire Bi Mao Yasuaki will also invent the flintlock pistol. It's a pity that by that time, it was already the middle of Chongzhen. The completely depleted imperial finances, the complete collapse of the military command system, and the crumbling ruling structure doomed the flintlock pistol to be ineffective. At that time, no matter how advanced the weapon, it will not be able to save the situation. However, if the appearance of the flintlock pistol is brought forward by twenty years, then the flintlock pistol will be useful.

In fact, the arquebus and the flintlock pistol are similar in structure, even the plate machine system is the same, the difference is only in the firing device. One is to make a fire by burning, and the other is to use a flint hammer to strike the flint to make a fire, in fact, both are things of the same idea. The only thing that is a bit technically difficult is that the flintlock pistol requires gears.

However, the technology of manufacturing gears is not complicated, and gears were already used in China around 400 BC. The Ming Dynasty also used to manufacture gears in large quantities. During the Jiajing period, the then governor of Shaanxi Province once invented a kind of landmine, a large jar decorated with colorful depictions, filled with gunpowder, known as the colorful spider mine.

This mine has a lead, connected to a firing device, and throws it where the Tatars pass, and the Tatars pick it up and hit the lead, and they will be unlucky. This kind of ignition device is a steel drum ignition machine, that is, a gear device. The invention of the flintlock pistol was inspired by the careful study of this gear.

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