please make me king

Chapter 187 "Golden Cannon"

Zhang Shun was still enjoying himself in the camp of the Rebel Army at this time, how could he have imagined that his brother had already taken the blame for him.

In the past few days, I took the time to pay a visit to the two rebel armies of the "Hunshiwang" and "Guotianxing", and bought a lot of bronze wares from them by the way.But when added together, it is only more than a thousand catties of copper.

So Zhang called the coppersmiths he had recruited and asked them about using copper to cast cannons.As a result, as soon as the matter was brought up, the craftsmen themselves quarreled.It turns out that this red copper is very close to pure copper, it is too soft to use, and other metals are often added to cast it.

The artisans recruited by Zhang Shun from Zhangzi County believed that one tin and nine copper should be used as the formula, while the artisans recruited from Lucheng County believed that to make copperware tough, it should be like the method of casting money, four lead and one copper.The two sides quarreled for a long time, neither giving way.

Zhang Shun asked carefully for a long time before he understood.It turned out that the coppersmith who made musical instruments liked to use a copper-tin alloy called "sound copper", which was solid and most suitable for use; while the other party thought that "Japanese lead" combined with copper was cheap and durable.

In fact, the two formulas are simply the difference between bronze and brass in the world in his previous life.Zhang Shun didn't come from a related industry, so he doesn't know much about it.When he read online novels in his previous life, he only thought that bronze cannons were the most suitable. He didn't know the difference between tin bronze and lead bronze.

He didn't know that this so-called "Japanese lead" was actually the zinc he said in his previous life, although even if he knew it was zinc, he would not know that it was the formula of brass.

Zhang Shun thought about his previous experiments in the classroom, and then ordered: "Since everyone is arguing, let's make three copper bars with their own recipes, one point wide and one foot long, and test their performance. Let’s draw conclusions.”

As for how to experiment, Zhang Shun actually didn't know at the beginning.However, after pondering for a long time and drawing the force diagram of the cannon, he realized that he had made the cannon too hastily.

The gunpowder burns and expands in the gun bore, and the shear force that should be caused to the gun is just broken down into tension by the circular gun body.From this point of view, tensile strength is the most important property for cast gun materials.

Then, the gunpowder burns and expands very quickly, theoretically speaking, it should have the most powerful destructive power on the gunpowder chamber, and other unnecessary parts become dead weight instead.

Although the western cannon he seized was more advanced in design, Zhang Shun believed that the plan that had been verified by his own scientific means might be even more advanced.

On the second day, the two groups of craftsmen really came up with their own plans.By the way, Zhang ordered Wukong to carry the stone and perform a stretching test.As a result, the weight of the tin-copper scheme after it broke was placed on the lead-copper scheme, which actually withstood the fracture.Facts have proved that the material of the lead-copper scheme is better, so Zhang chose the lead-copper scheme by the way.

This is because the demand for this "Japanese lead" suddenly increased. Zhang Shun visited several rebel leaders again, but none of them could buy "Japanese lead".It turns out that this item is cheap, and there is no rebel army to snatch it.

It is precisely because of this that Zhang Shun sent his righteous brother Chen Changbing to buy back four to five hundred catties of "Japanese lead" soon after, which solved the problem of materials.

Zhang Shun managed to gather enough materials that were convenient for casting cannons, so he naturally became ruthless and wanted to cast a large-caliber cannon.Gritting his teeth, Zhang Shun preliminarily determined the caliber of the five-inch cannon, and ordered the coppersmith to first cast it into a thin-skinned cannon for testing.

After casting, gunpowder is ignited in the medicine chamber for bombardment, often blowing up the medicine chamber of the cannon to pieces.The nearby rebels heard the sound of the guns and came over to ask about the situation.Zhang Shun only let people say that the soldiers under his command were practicing shooting.

After Huang Hu's four adopted sons came to Zhang Shun's camp, they looked forward to Zhang Shun's teaching the art of war every day.As a result, Zhang Shun not only neglected to teach the art of war, but instead kept them under surveillance at home to prevent them from spying on his casting of cannons.

The last time Huang Huqiang forced these four boys over, Zhang Shun also recalled that this was trying to steal his art of war.Although Zhang Shun didn't care much about it, the matter of casting cannons was the foundation of his life, and he must not disclose it to others.

So Zhang Shun ordered Wukong and Jidan to bring their own personal guards to supervise them day and night and not allow outsiders to approach the test site.

After several days of experimentation, I don't know how many cannons the craftsmen blew up before finally blasting out the ideal form of the cannon.It turns out that the most suitable shape of the cannon is not the thick and thin cannon like the Western cannon, but the design similar to the shape of the wine bottle of later generations is the best choice.

Fortunately, the material of this cannon is copper, which can be melted and recast after the chamber is exploded, and it is not easy to hurt people. That's why Zhang Shun took a stupid method and found the best design form of the cannon at that time.

Since zinc is easy to vaporize, the "lead copper" used in the artillery lost a lot of "Japanese lead" in the process of repeated melting and recasting, and Zhang Shun had to buy a lot of it.

Unknowingly, Zhang Shun's actions raised the artillery design level of the late Ming Dynasty to that of the nineteenth century.It turns out that in later generations, there was a bottle-shaped cannon called Dagren cannon that was cast using similar to the original.

However, the design concept of this Dagren gun is more advanced. Not only the best shape of the gun was tested, but also the best multiple diameter of the gun at that time was tested.

Zhang Shun originally planned to extend the length of the cannon as much as possible on the basis of ensuring the caliber of the cannon.As a result, the weight of the cannon was greatly increased, and Zhang Shun found through experiments that when the cannon’s multiple diameter exceeds ten, the range of the cannonball will be reduced.

It was only then that Zhang Shun suddenly realized why the tiger crouching cannon was only ten times the diameter. Qi Jiguang, who designed this artillery at the beginning, might not know the way, but the artillery fired a lot of cannonballs, and gradually found the nearest standard for the diameter.

Therefore, on the basis of this experiment, Zhang Shun borrowed the design of the lugs, front sights, rear sights and tail balls of Western cannons, and re-cast a five-inch caliber bottle-shaped copper cannon with ten times the diameter. .

This cannon was originally made of brass, after the casting was finished, it was very golden and dazzling, just like it was made of gold.Zhang Shun smashed his teeth, and estimated in his mind that only this cannon, and only the materials are worth more than [-] Tongbao. If labor, loss and his own hard work are added, it may not be worth [-] to [-] yuan.Sure enough, when the cannon fired, it was worth ten thousand taels of gold. Zhang Shun simply named the cannon "Golden Cannon".

Fortunately, the power of this cannon is astonishing, the iron ball fired only weighs twenty catties, under one cannon, it is almost invincible and unstoppable.Zhang Shun also ordered the craftsmen to refer to the Western gun mounts and improve a new artillery mount based on the gun mount structure designed by himself, which is specially designed to carry this gun.

After weighing and estimating by Zhang Shun, the cannon weighed [-] jin, and the gun mount and other items weighed [-] jin in total.It was far from reaching the [-]-jin transportation limit Zhang Shun estimated based on the weight of the Taiping truck.

Zhang Shun simply dispatched ten mules and ten skilled gunners to serve the cannon, known as the "flying iron cannon", in order to enhance the mobility of the cannon.

　Thank you fans for the big reward of "[-]:[-]", thank you for your support!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)