Drive the RV back to Datang

Chapter 433 Chapter 444: Building Artillery
"You are Wu Lei?" Li Hao looked up and down the young man in front of him, feeling that this person looks quite upright, and his speech and demeanor are quite elegant, which is very attractive.

"Back to King Qiongnan, the villain is Wu Lei." Wu Lei saluted respectfully, obviously a little excited.

Li Hao nodded, and said: "I am very curious, how did you make enough money with one penny within three days, can you tell me about it?"

"Of course." Wu Lei said, "The villain bought two mustard pancakes with a penny given by Commander Lu, and then went to the construction site south of the port and sold them to the workers. Because there were no vendors near the construction site, the villain felt that the workers were hard workers. Hard work, it should be easy to get hungry, and the cake should not be difficult to sell, so I came here to sell it, and some people were willing to buy it, but the villain raised the price, and each cake sold for a penny, so the villain earned a penny, and then the villain continued. Go to buy Hubing to sell..."

"Wait!" Li Hao raised his hand to stop him, and asked in surprise, "You can't make enough money with this method, can you?"

"No." Wu Lei shook his head and said, "The villain went back and forth several times and earned a hundred coins. When others saw that the villain made money, they also came to sell cakes, and others came to sell tea. The villain knew that if he continued to do so, he would not make much money. I found a bamboo tube and put fifty bamboo sticks in it. One of the bamboo sticks had a little red paint on the bottom, but it was placed in the bamboo tube so that no one else could see it. The villain went In the teahouse, let the tea drinkers draw lots, and whoever draws the lottery with red paint on the bottom, the villain will give him fifty cents, but if he fails, the person who draws the lot will give the villain five cents.

"Wait!" Li Hao interrupted him by raising his hand again, frowning, "This is gambling, no...why does it feel like a lottery..."

Li Hao was stunned for a moment, and then he remembered that the lottery itself is a kind of gambling.

When he heard that he gambled, Wu Lei was extremely nervous, because Li Hao had issued an order to Lu Yun that it was strictly forbidden to open gambling shops in Liuqiu. The people in Liuqiu knew about this, and it can be seen that Li Hao was very nervous. I hate gambling, so it's no wonder Wu Lei is nervous.

Li Hao was not angry because of this matter. On the contrary, he admired Wu Lei's talent very much. It can be seen from selling cakes that he is very smart and can grasp business opportunities. Don't underestimate the matter of selling cakes. With a lot of knowledge, the place where the cakes are sold, and the choices of the buyers, it shows that Wu Lei has a unique eye and can find business opportunities. When other people came to sell cakes one after another, he chose to accept it as soon as it was good, and retreat bravely. It also proved that he has insight into the current situation and is not greedy.

The way of making money by drawing prizes is Wu Lei's original creation, which did not exist in ancient times. It has exceeded this era for more than 1000 years. From this, we can also see that Wu Lei is really smart, and he can walk ahead of others in thinking, so he can naturally Spot business opportunities one step earlier than others.

With two simple things, Li Hao saw a very deep potential in Wu Lei. This is a natural business genius, and he must make good use of it. What books do he still study?

Li Hao thinks differently from the ancients. The ancients thought that everything was inferior, but reading was high. The ancients also believed that there was no business without adultery, so they looked down on businessmen, whose status was low, but Li Hao believed that money is the last word. If he can make Motuigui, if he has no money, how can he develop Qiongnan and Liuqiu so prosperously, how can he build such a large fleet, how can he start his own business empire, how can he set off the age of great navigation, all of these, They are all piled up with mountains of gold and silver.

Li Hao didn't need to listen to Wu Lei anymore, he showed a satisfied smile and asked, "Wu Lei, do you have any ambitions?"

Wu Lei saw that Li Hao was not only not angry, but also smiled, and he also asked himself what his ambition was, so he couldn't help but happily said: "Back to the lord, the villain's greatest ambition is to travel all over the world, because the villain recently read from the book I learned that this world is very big.”

"Oh?" Li Hao raised his eyebrows and said with a smile, "The world is so big, do you want to see it?"

"Yes." Wu Lei nodded vigorously, "The villain wants to go and have a look."

Li Hao said happily: "The king recommends two books to you, one is "Kuo Dizhi", and the other is "Da Tang Western Regions" by Master Xuanzang. Master Xuanzang's book should still be in existence. It is in the process of being compiled, but it should be nearing the end of the compilation, and it is estimated that a book will be completed within a year or two, and when the book is completed, this king will send someone to send it to you."

Wu Lei was flattered when he heard the words, and hurriedly saluted excitedly: "Thank you, my lord!"

"Don't thank me in advance." Li Hao said with a smile, "There are still good things. I think you seem to be a talent for doing business, so I want to use you again. From now on, I will hand over all of my commercial fleet to you. But right now, you are still a newcomer, you still need to work hard, let Lu Yun arrange for you, and you will be with the ship for two years, after two years, you will be my king's maritime trade manager, and you will help me manage maritime trade, how about it?"

"This... this... the villain, what can he do!" Wu Lei was really surprised this time. It was the first time we met, and Li Hao entrusted such a small person with such a heavy responsibility. It was unimaginable. He was really More fright than surprise.

"Don't be afraid." Li Hao said, "You are very smart. As long as you accumulate a certain amount of maritime business experience, after two years, you will be a bright star in the sailing age. In this way, you can also bring the fleet to every place in the world. A corner."

Wu Lei was so excited that his eyes were red. He never expected that the flood brought a tragic change in his life, but it also made him meet his idol King Qiongnan. What surprised him the most was that King Qiongnan treated him so favorably. And reuse him, he really doesn't know how to express his mood in words at this moment, he tried his best to calm down his emotions, let his tone be as gentle as possible, and said: "My lord is very kind, villain... a villain can't repay even if his body is broken!"

"Why do you say it so seriously?" Li Hao waved his hands with a light smile, turned his head to face Lu Yun, and said, "Lu Yun, didn't you prepare translators from many countries? Choose a few important country translators and ask them to call Wu Lei Speaking foreign languages, he will be the king of the sea in the future, learning these is useful, but... this king still hopes that in ten years, or 20 years, the language of our Tang Dynasty can spread to every corner of the world, and all of this, It depends on you, Wu Lei."

Wu Lei was shocked when he heard the words, let Datang's language spread to every corner of the world, what a grand ambition this is, Wu Lei compared Li Hao's ambition with his own, Fang felt how great Li Hao is, no wonder he To be able to become King Qiongnan from a mere body at such an age.

The fleet docked in Qiongnan for four days. Li Hao and Lu Yun planned all the routes. Then Li Hao personally sent Lu Yun to board the ship and watched them go out to sea. The materials they provided were more than ten times that of last time, and they also shouldered the two important tasks of Xuanwei and spreading the Tang culture, which was of epoch-making significance. If this voyage is successful, it is very likely that this will be the first in the era of great voyages. This voyage is also the starting point of the era of great voyages.

After sending Lu Yun away, Li Hao gave another very important order to build artillery.

Although he has a ship now, his ship is not too powerful. The power of the bed crossbow is limited after all, and it cannot meet Li Hao's requirements. His requirements are very high. He feels that these sea ships can only Only with artillery can one be stronger than other countries and dominate the sea, so it is imperative to manufacture artillery.

There are also many kinds of cannons. For example, the red-clothed cannons of the Ming Dynasty are relatively old. Although the power can shock people, the range is not far, the power is not satisfactory, and it is too troublesome to load. After all, Li Hao is As a traverser, he either does not do it, or he does it well. He intends to skip the step of old-fashioned artillery and directly manufacture shell-type artillery. His goal is the cannon.

It can be seen in the anti-Japanese war movies that those cannons with wheels and a gunner stirring the shaft behind to adjust the direction of the muzzle are the kind of cannon. The cannon is characterized by a longer barrel and a higher firing angle. It is small, has a low trajectory, can be aimed directly at the gun, has a high muzzle velocity, and has a long range. The range of cannons in the future world can reach 15 kilometers, which is 30 miles. What a concept.

The manufacture of artillery is very complicated, and the requirements for steel are very high, and the gun body is required to have strong toughness, otherwise it is easy to explode the chamber, which is not a joke, so in the Ming Dynasty, they were all made of copper. The gun body, because copper is a metal with relatively high toughness, even if the gun body is made of copper, the gun body of the ancient cannon was still made extremely thick, because the guns at that time had no shell casings, and gunpowder was directly used to ignite in the barrel. The pressure on the cannon body is too great, so it is easy to explode the chamber, so the mother and child cannon appeared later in the West, which is the predecessor of the shell cannon.

In fact, Li Hao has secretly studied artillery for a long time, and has done a lot of preparation work. To manufacture artillery, he must refine the alloy structural steel that shapes the body of the artillery. He knows the alloy steel material used to make artillery, but it is just some relatively rare metals. It's a bit difficult to make, not because he can't get it, but because the quantity is a bit large. After all, it is a cannon, and he can't just make one cannon, so the amount of rare metal materials needed is not small.

However, Li Hao firmly believes that problems that can be solved with money are not problems. As long as rare metals exist on the earth, he can get them.

The material problem is not the most difficult. The most difficult thing is the manufacture of shells. It is not as simple as the shells of the red cannon to make shells. The fuze on the top touch explosion is a problem. , The shell he finally designed and finalized is a divided shell, the bullet and the cartridge are separated, the fuze part is filled with red phosphorus and sulfur, the tip of the shell is retractable, equipped with a small spring, and the stretching range is only [-]mm. It is connected to red phosphorus, and behind the red phosphorus and sulfur is sealed gunpowder. Although this can also achieve the effect of detonation, it has a disadvantage. The shell is not waterproof, and it will stop cooking as soon as it is soaked in water, becoming a dud.

Although it is a fly in the ointment, but for the sake of safety, Li Hao can only do this step, and he will gradually improve it when he has time.

In addition to the fuze on the top of the shell, the tail fuze seems to be more difficult. Red phosphorus and flint should never be used in the tail, otherwise a random bump may cause an explosion.

Li Hao had been thinking about this problem for a long time. After asking his brother Li Cheng, he came up with a solution. In fact, it is the same as firing a gun bullet. The two methods are the Baxter-style primer and the Berdan-style primer.

In the end, Li Hao chose a Baxter-style primer. In fact, a primer cup is embedded at the bottom of the bullet, and a special primer for ignition is placed in the cup. As long as the primer cup is hit by a sharp object with gravity, the primer will detonate. , the strong explosion pressure will pass through the fuse hole, enter the shell case, push the bullet, and make the bullet launch.

Cannonballs and bullets are actually the same principle, so Li Hao decided to use this method of ignition, which is safe and reliable.

Making cannons is a high-risk industry, and Li Hao was actually very nervous. After two months, Li Hao spent tens of thousands of coins to collect more than a dozen tons of rare metals. At the same time, all the castings for the cannons have been made, and they only need to wait for steelmaking and casting.

It is not very dangerous to manufacture the gun body. Li Hao personally guides each part of the gun body after casting, polishing, and assembling.

Since it is a shell-type artillery, it is loaded from the rear. The thickness of the barrel this time is 8 cm, and the thickness of the bottom barrel is 1 cm. Because the bottom is at the explosion position, it bears the greatest pressure, so it is made thicker for safety.

After the gun body is built, it is installed on the base. It is 1.8 meters long and has a caliber of 130 mm. It is much smaller than a cannon. It is conceivable that the power and range cannot be compared with the cannons in the future world, but in this world, it is definitely a big killer. .

　The fifth volume, Floating Photos Volume, begins. As usual, each volume is accompanied by a poem: In the old days, young people wore green shirts, and their hands were chaotic in Chang'an.A jug of wine, a sword, and a poem.Watch the flowers bloom and fall, watch the clouds roll and the clouds relax, and watch the mountains and hills.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)