The big man is on the run

Chapter 171 The Gunboat
A few months ago, Mei Wu.

This place was first built in the third year of Chuping. Dong Zhuo's 25 people built a dock in Mei, which is seven feet high and is adjacent to Chang'an City.

In the third year of Chuping, Wang Yun, Shi Sunrui, and Lu Bu planned to kill Dong Zhuo, and sent Huangfu Song to lead troops to Meiwu to destroy Dong's three clans and take away the gold and silver treasures hidden in the dock.

Dong Zhuo's place of pleasure in the past has now been transformed into an arsenal. The tall and thick walls and relatively closed environment have become an excellent place to block the eyes of others.

"Your Majesty, this is the current progress of gunpowder development."

Liu Yi took a deep breath and watched the demonstration in front of him.

No, it might be more appropriate to say that it is a performance.

With a "bang", the tail of the original "gun" shaped like a bamboo pole with an iron hoop was ignited, and smoke rose in all directions, and the huge thick smoke formed by the gunpowder began to spread rapidly.

Afterwards, dozens of soldiers lined up and rushed out, as if appearing out of thin air.

Then there is no more.

"So, are you here to let me hear the sound and see the smoke?"

Looking at the scene in front of him, Liu Yi couldn't help but smile wryly.

"His Majesty."

The member of the Ministry of Industry, Wailang Mengda, who was thrown over to take charge of this matter, replied anxiously: "What Your Majesty said, the charcoal of one nitrate, two sulfur and three charcoals is indeed made according to this."

"So, shouldn't the black powder explode with a 'bang'?"

Meng Da explained: "The black powder that His Majesty mentioned is like this. It burns quickly, but the effect of the explosion is not good."

Meng Da asked someone to demonstrate it alone. A small pile of black powder could indeed burn quickly, but the explosion range was extremely limited and the smoke was particularly large.

"The one in the bamboo pole?"

"According to what His Majesty said, the black powder is sealed, and the fire wire is added to the tail to ignite it."

Liu Yi took the bamboo pole and looked at it, and it seemed that there was nothing wrong with it. The bamboo pole was already the best tube-shaped object under the condition that the iron smelting technology was not up to standard, and a few iron hoops were added to increase its strength.

"Then why can't you put iron beads and the like?"

"What Your Majesty said is very true. With the addition of iron beads, the effect at close range is not bad."

Liu Yi has heard this kind of thing a lot, and generally speaking, the situation is that the ministers feel that Liu Yi is wrong, and they are embarrassed to point it out in person.

"How close is close?"

"Five steps."

Meng Da responded boldly: "Besides, if the black powder is filled too little, the contents will not be sprayed out, and if it is filled too much, the bamboo pole will be easily exploded."

Liu Yi took a breath, isn't this the original shotgun?And if nothing else, it also has the characteristics of easy bombing, difficult loading, and extremely low reuse rate of gun barrels.

So, the basic metallurgical technology is not enough, and the technology is useless?

"Show me the black powder."

Liu Yi took a look, the black powder is fine, but why is it ground like flour?

"Can it be made into granules? The reason why it can't be sprayed may be that the powder burns too fast."

"The minister obeys the order."

Liu Yi thought for a while, and added: "Also, since iron smelting is not possible, then use copper to cast round pipes, which are not afraid of sinking or large, and first solve the problem of whether they are there or not. The copper pipes will not explode easily, right?"

"Your Majesty, if you use copper, a pipe will cost tens of thousands of copper coins."

"Try first, I will give you the money."

With these words, Meng Da finally felt relieved.

In fact, he didn't understand these things either, and he recruited royal craftsmen to do them according to Liu Yi's instructions.

Liu Yi's instructions also seem to be quite reliable, such as "one nitrate, two sulphur, three charcoal", and "bamboo tube stuffed with steel balls". People are satisfied.

After spending so much money, I have been working for two years, that is, listening to the sound and watching the smoke.

In the battle of ten thousand people, nothing will work.

"His Majesty."

"Say."

"This black gunpowder burns so fast, I and several master craftsmen feel that it can be combined with kerosene, which may have a miraculous effect. After all, the previous kerosene tank needs to be shot into a rocket to burn."

"Oh?"

Meng Da obviously attached great importance to Liu Yi's node inspection this time, and also considered that the poor effect of the bamboo gun might make Liu Yi unhappy, so he came up with a remedial plan.

Meng Da brought over a clay pot. Interestingly, this pot was carefully split open and belonged to a section structure.

The clay pot has two layers, inside and outside, and the inner pot is divided into upper and lower parts by a bottom plate.

Meng Da explained: "Look, Your Majesty, the outer clay pot is to prevent it from breaking during transportation or projectile, and there will be sand in the middle. The inner clay pot is divided into upper and lower layers. The upper layer can be opened from the mouth of the pot. Fill in the kerosene, and then the mouth of the tank can be sealed. The lower layer is the gunpowder placed before the bottom plate is separated, and the bottom is the windproof combustion line."

"So this can be ignited and projected from a cannon cart."

"Yes."

"You really put your heart into it."

Hearing Liu Yi's praise, Meng Da said hastily: "It's all thanks to His Majesty's guidance and the advice of several master craftsmen, not the merit of the minister."

"Continuing, if the projected destination is far away and the fuel line burns out in the air, will it explode in the air?"

"Yes, so the approximate marking line is dyed red on the burning line. It is divided into fifty steps, one hundred steps, and 150 steps. It is calculated according to the distance that our army's heaviest gun can project."

"Well, that's not bad."

It is basically a flammable cannon battle, which is much less difficult than making muskets and artillery.

After all, guns and artillery still need barrels and barrels, and projectile weapons do not need such good craftsmanship, just like many indigenous grenades.

Liu Yi nodded, "Well, let me know if you need any support, and let the craftsmen do the work. This time, the focus is to produce a batch of these pottery pots that can be projected first, and then make black pots with the bronze cannon as the focus. As for the gunpowder, there is no need to invest too much manpower in the barrel part for the time being.”

"Black powder itself can be used not only on the battlefield, but also in other fields in the future. I hope you can produce more black powder as soon as possible. At present, I still want to use it in the army first."

"Here, I will do my best."

Liu Yi, who was splashed with cold water by the research and development of primitive muskets, calmed down and said.

"Go and see the gunboat."

The progress of scientific research on installing counterweight trebuchets on ships is not smooth, mainly because of the process of miniaturizing the cannons and loading them on board.

Because the counterweight trebuchet for normal field combat generally has a counterweight of 5 jin (15 tons) to 50 jin (150 tons), and the fired projectile generally weighs [-]-[-] jin. Weight and ammunition are even heavier.

This is just the cannon itself, not the operator.

At present, the ships that the navy can use as vehicles, such as warships and battleships, basically cannot meet the two needs of gun carriages on board and stable launch.

The reason is also very simple. Battleships are designed for water warfare, considering their strength and speed. They are generally long and narrow. It will be caught in the spin under the interference of the reaction force, and the next shot will not necessarily go where it will go.

Therefore, in order to get the guns on board and achieve the goal of long-range strikes by relying on the river, it is necessary to redesign the heavy-duty special ships suitable for inland rivers, and the guns must be appropriately miniaturized and the center of gravity must be adjusted.

The main craft of the large ship in front of me is also driven by oars, so it needs to be redesigned. When designing, it must have enough weight and must be wider.

Therefore, during this period of time, the craftsmen in the workshop have spent nearly five months redesigning and manufacturing the main structure of this large ship, and also perfecting the work of the "turret".

The "turret" is not on the central axis of the ship, but is in a slightly left position, and the weighted right side compartment is used to offset the influence of the reaction force on the position of the ship.

Now, the platform of the large-scale ship modification has been equipped with gun carriages.

The hull of this ship is equipped with three forts, and each gun mount is equipped with an adaptive counterweight weighing [-] jin. The length of the gun mount is one foot and five feet, and the width is five feet.

The base of the turret is fixed in a ring shape. At the top of the ring, there are several iron bolts connected to the tail of the turret, which can firmly bear the weight of the turret. This is why it can carry three guns. Throwing stone bombs The weight has also reached thirty catties, which is the most reasonable weight.

More than this weight, continuous firing will not only cause the hull to deviate significantly, but also damage the internal wooden structure of these turrets due to excessive weight.

This weight not only cannot damage the turret, but also can offset the impact force brought by the launch of the stone bullets. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone. It not only protects the turret, but also guarantees the stability and accuracy of the cannon.

Another characteristic of this gunboat in industry is that it can be mass-produced in a modular manner.

The height of the gun position is determined by the main shaft and the main rod of the turret. The turret is an oblique stud-shaped tower, the main shaft is arc-shaped, and an arc-shaped iron shield is added to prevent enemy attacks. , the most vulnerable structural parts of the cannon can be attacked.

But now, the craftsmen in the dock are still working overtime on the test ship of the same model, striving to complete it as soon as possible.

"Try a boat target with a counterweight trebuchet on the river."

"Your Majesty, please see."

As the craftsmen in the shipyard moved the stone bombs to the deck, the person in charge of the shipyard immediately put a wooden raft in the artificial lake, and then asked the workers to test the hit rate of the stone bombs.

The artillery position of the fort on the ship is about 30 steps away from the shore, and the distance from the fort to the target is about a hundred steps.

"Boom! Boom~"

A round of shells was fired from the three forts and hit the rock on the rockery next to the raft. Immediately, that rock sank, and the other rock instantly became fragments.

The power of this stone bomb can be seen.

These stone bombs are all improved. Although they are not as powerful as modern cannons, they are already the strongest long-range projectile weapons in this era.

After the first round of proof shooting, two more rounds later, the stone bullets hit the raft with precision, smashing the raft to pieces.

One of the nine stone bullets hit one, this kind of accuracy is already quite remarkable.

Of course, in actual combat, it is necessary to consider the disturbance of the ship by the flow speed of different waters, and the problem that the enemy is definitely not all fixed targets.

Liu Yi looked at the stone bullets on the turret, and tried to hug them himself. They were all ground out of mountain stones, and they would shatter when they hit the ground, so the killing effect was pretty good.

For a 150-jin stone bullet, based on a counterweight of [-] catties, the range is about [-] steps. Now with a counterweight of [-] catties, it should be able to shoot over a hundred steps.However, there is no way to do this, the weight is too large, the damage effect of the stone bullet is too low, and the weight is too light, it cannot exert its due power at all.

However, this is enough to prove the power of this shell.

This range is already very good.

"I heard that the keel has been installed long ago. How long will it take for the craftsmen at the dock to complete the first batch of ten gunboats?"

"Your Majesty, there is still one month to complete and test the water."

Liu Yi nodded. The construction of these gunboats exhausted the energy of these craftsmen. Liu Yi promised that after the construction of these gunboats, their remuneration would increase. Therefore, these craftsmen would never dare to relax.

"Pass it on, everyone will receive rewards according to their ranks today."

"According to the order."

"Long live Your Majesty."

The crowd shouted in unison.

　Thank you for the reward of 2005 coins from Xueshan Yuanfeng [-], thank you big brother.Thank you for the monthly tickets voted by all book friends. There is an operating fund. Next month, there may be a monthly ticket activity to give back to everyone.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)