please make me king

Chapter 842
The "thousand catties of red barbarian cannon" mentioned by Zhang Dudu is a typical attacking gun, which is commonly known as a siege cannon.

Zhang Shun and others followed Dudu Zhang out of Yanxiang City, and had just walked two or three miles.There was only a loud noise, like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, which frightened everyone to turn pale.

Before Zhang Shun could open his mouth to ask, Dudu Zhang couldn't help but his expression changed, and he blurted out: "It exploded again?"

"What's going on?" Zhang Shun couldn't help asking.

"Just now, Dewen King Shun cast two heavy cannons before he arrived in Yan Township. I specifically told them to wait for my return before testing the cannons. I think they must have disobeyed my order. Unexpectedly, the cannons failed and exploded again! " Dudu Zhang replied somewhat ashamedly.

After another mile, they came to a mountain depression, where they saw tents all over and people's voices buzzing. It turned out that it was the place where Dudu Zhang cast the cannon.

Under the guidance of Dudu Zhang, Zhang Shun and others came to the test site not long after, and saw a group of people picking up debris on the ground there.

Some are as big as a watermelon, some are as big as a fist, and the biggest one is as big as a black pig.

It seems that the shape is curved, and they are all fragments of heavy Hongyi cannons. The largest piece is the tail end of the cannon.

Zhang Shun walked up to him and bent down to pick up a piece from the ground, shaking it heavily in his hand.

He looked at the fragments carefully and found that the workmanship was very rough.

Zhang Shun couldn't help but shook his head and said, "Where is the problem? Do you have any guesses?"

Zhang Dudu also shook his head helplessly, and sighed: "At the beginning, I suspected that the molten iron was not good, so I added quicklime and refined it, but it's still the same."

"So that pig iron can be wrought iron, I had no choice but to take the opportunity to ask the blacksmith to forge the 'Flying Bullet', which can be used for siege."

While speaking, Zhang Dudu pointed to Zhang Shun the four heavy mortars lined up not far away to show the results.

Apart from the fact that these so-called "flying guns" are consistent with the modulus from the West, the actual data deviates greatly.

Since they are all forged with wrought iron, the actual weight is only about two thousand catties, and they are used to launch "blossom bombs", which are very powerful.

In addition to being difficult to destroy the city wall, it is also very effective in dealing with the defenders who are closed by the officers and soldiers.

Zhang Dudu continued to narrate: "When I found out that there was no big problem with the molten iron, I suspected that the craftsmen were not skilled."

"I sent people to Yangcheng again, and hired a few old craftsmen with a lot of money to recast it, but it was still difficult to succeed."

"A master craftsman gave me some advice, thinking that pig iron is hard and brittle, and wrought iron is soft and tough. If you combine the strengths of the two, you should have no worries."

"So, I ordered the craftsmen to forge the barrel and then wrap it with pig iron. However, judging from today's test shooting, it still doesn't work."

"Now that I'm at the end of my rope, I still ask King Shun to give me some pointers."

What?Composite metal guns are out?Zhang Shun couldn't help being quite surprised.

He remembered that he seemed to have heard of copper compound guns in his previous life, but he did not expect Dudu Zhang to come up with pig iron and wrought iron compound guns.

In fact, Zhang Shun didn’t know this. After the artillery was first spread to various places, due to the different levels of pig iron casting technology, many civilizations either directly cast copper cannons or wrought iron cannons.

However, when making heavy siege artillery, the artillery made of copper or wrought iron may be unacceptably expensive, or the technical difficulty will increase sharply.

As a last resort, everyone unanimously chose composite metal as the material of the artillery.

For example, in the Ming Dynasty, there were many Fulang machines made of copper, copper and iron composite casting, and India also had a siege red cannon similar to copper and iron, pig iron and wrought iron.

Although Zhang Shun was not ignorant of the situation, it did not prevent him from understanding the huge advantages of compounding pig iron and wrought iron.

When casting the "Golden Cannon" before, Zhang Shun had carefully analyzed the stress on the cannon bore.

From a longitudinal point of view, the main stress point of the artillery is the medicine chamber.

The moment the gunpowder burns, a huge impact will erupt, and then a large amount of gas will be generated to push the shell in the barrel to accelerate and work.

Horizontally speaking, the rapid combustion of gunpowder will have a huge impact on the cannon wall.

This kind of impact requires the gun body itself to have good tensile strength to resist, which is also the main theoretical basis for Zhang Shun's "equal strength substitution" in the original architectural design.

According to this theory, brittle and hard pig iron is not the material that meets the needs of artillery at all; copper and wrought iron are slightly better, but not much better; only high-strength steel is an excellent material for artillery.

But this is an era when "steel guns" and "steel arrows" are rare objects. How can there be so much steel for Zhang Shun to "waste"?
Even copper and wrought iron, he still could not afford.

Think about the [-]-jin heavy artillery that consumes [-] jin of copper or wrought iron at one time, and Zhang Shun is also in pain.

Especially wrought iron forging small cannons is okay. If forging heavy cannons, the welding of iron pieces will be a big problem.

The relatively basic soldering agent like yellow mud can still meet the demand when forging and welding relatively small objects.If you want to forge and weld large pieces of wrought iron, the technical difficulty is very great.

Therefore, it is a wise choice to properly forge the inner wall of the artillery, and then strengthen the cannon body with cheap pig iron.

Zhang nodded by the way: "Don't dare to give pointers, let's discuss one or two together!"

"First of all, the method of compounding pig iron and wrought iron is very good, and it must be the first choice for heavy-duty Hongyi cannons."

"Secondly, I see that the cast iron has many holes and gaps, like a honeycomb, so why not explode it?"

Zhang Dudu stretched out his hand to take it, and couldn't help but blushed, and quickly argued: "King Shun doesn't know something, it's not because the craftsmen didn't work hard, it's really the difference between large castings and small castings."

"When the molten iron is poured in, it is inevitable that there will be some inconsistency, which will lead to such a situation."

"As far as I know, even if it's Western Cannons or Guangzhou Cannons, it can't avoid this!"

"What's this called?" Zhang Shun was dissatisfied when he heard the words, "Others can't do the best, so can't we find ways to solve the problem?"

"I don't know much about casting cannons, but I have seen craftsmen casting gold and silver jewelry. It is exquisite and exquisite. How can this fool compare?"

It turned out that Zhang Shun took several wives and two dolls at home, so it was inevitable that he would find a gold and silver craftsman to make some jewelry, longevity locks and other things.

Although the gold and silver ornaments of this era are also a little rough, at least they are not as "bold and unrestrained" as this cast iron cannon.

Zhang Dudu almost cried when he heard the words, aren't you rude and unreasonable?
He quickly explained: "The craftsman making jewelry is completely different from casting cannons."

"Jewelry is delicate, and it is mostly cast with fine sand to achieve its essence. However, artillery pieces are large, so it can only take time to make clay molds for casting..."

"Wait, wait!" Zhang Shun had a flash of inspiration when he heard the words, and hurriedly asked, "Since that's the case, how can you cast a cannon without fine sand?"

(End of this chapter)