I will be the prince at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 130 Tiger Mighty Cannon
In the 17th year of the Yongli calendar, on September 26, at three o'clock in the morning, it was located at the base of the Firearms Division of the Ministry of Industry in Longjiang Shipyard.

Zhu Cixuan was standing on the top of a man-made earth mountain, and Song Yingxing, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, stood behind him (Zhu Cixuan sent someone to find it in the Waxi archway in Fengxin County, Jiangxi Province three years ago, and received the Minister of the Ministry of Industry in Jiangning. He is now 75 years old)
Li Dingguo, King of Jin, Zheng Chenggong, King of Yanping, Bai Wenxuan, King of Gongchang, Qi Sansheng, Marquis of Xianning, Mu Tianbo, Duke of Qian, and He Jiuyi, Duke of Guang.

General soldiers Wei Yong, Wang Qilong, Gong Xun, Wu Chengjue, Wang Zijin.

Wang Chengyuan, doctor of the Shipbuilding Department of the Ministry of Industry (Zhengwupin, Longjiang Shipyard), and Song Shiyuan, doctor of the Firearms Department of the Ministry of Industry (Zhengwupin).

The prince's guest Chen Gong (the third rank), Zhang Liao (the third rank), the commander of the Longxiang Guard, Gao Shun (the third rank), the commander of the Long Xiangwei, and Cai Jiuyi, the commander of the Long Xiangwei.

Long Xiangwei's commanders are Cao Xing (Zheng Sipin), Wei Bao, Wang Sheng, and Chen Qian.

Long Xiangwei Zhen Fu Mu Zhongliang (the fifth grade), An Chaozhu and others.

(After Emperor Yongli returned to Jiangning City, Longxiang Guard was ordered to be established, under the independent command of Prince Zhu Cixuan, and belonged to Prince Yiwei Division.

Originally, the rank of the Yiwei Division was only the fifth rank, but the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang decreed that the Yiwei Si Tige was the commander of the guards, and the rank was also upgraded from the fifth rank of the Yiwei Division to the third rank of the Wei Commander. ).

This is the base of the Firearms Division. It has been almost four years since we moved here from Kunming. The original large wasteland has changed drastically. There are cement roads, walls, dormitories, warehouses, artillery casting workshops, gunpowder casting workshops, and gunpowder manufacturing everywhere. workshop and so on.

A large group of senior generals of Ming Dynasty looked around curiously.

Song Yingxing, Song Shiyuan, and Wang Chengyuan stood behind Zhu Xu. The three of them were excited and their eyes were shining.

Song Yingxing said: "His Royal Highness, I used the steel produced in the blast furnace designed and built by His Highness for the new artillery, so the weight of the cannon is nearly double that of the red cannon.

The gun cart also borrowed from the design of the Fran robot, which is convenient for transportation. It can be deployed quickly even against cavalry, and it is more than enough against infantry. "

Zhu Cixuan looked at the pitch-black cannons rolled out from the warehouse not far away. Each cannon was equipped with a carriage with wheels, which looked a bit like a flatbed cart. The shadow of towed artillery in later generations.

"What is the caliber and range of this new type of artillery?" Zhu Cixuan asked.

In fact, range is what he cares most about. Isn’t there a saying in later generations that always says, “Is the truth always within the range of a cannon?” It can be seen that range is the most important indicator for artillery.

Song Yingxing opened his mouth to this, raised his hand and pointed at the cannon below, and said, "Your Highness, the caliber of the cannon is 120mm measured with the measuring tool His Highness sent you.

The shooting range is due to the use of the newly developed granular black powder. After many tests by Song Shiyuan and his firearms department, this new type of artillery has an effective range of up to [-] feet under the condition of ensuring that the chamber will not explode and the maximum charge. It can reach about [-] feet.

And get the instruction of His Highness, the artillery propellant we are using now, wrap the granular black powder with gauze, compact it into a cylindrical shape, leave a matchlock at the bottom, and the loading speed is greatly improved.

In addition, we have improved the fuze of the flower bomb, and changed the previous matchlock fuze to the steel wheel flint trigger device used in our landmines.

A set of transmission mechanism is installed in the casing of the head of the cast iron projectile. When the casing installed on the head of the projectile falls to the ground, the falling stone in the casing falls, driving the steel wheel to rotate, rubbing against the flint sharply to ignite, and detonating the projectile. .

Zhu Cixuan was slightly startled.

One is: the effective range is one thousand feet, which is 3200 meters, 3.20 kilometers (1 foot = 10 feet in Ming Dynasty, one foot = 32 cm).

One thousand five hundred feet is 4800 meters, 4.80 kilometers.According to his understanding, the range of 3.20 kilometers has already exceeded the range of European cannons.

The second is: the application of propellant powder with quantitative charge greatly shortens the loading speed of the artillery.

The third is: install the trigger fuze on the landmine on the artillery shell. Is this clearly the ancestor of the modern artillery shell?

It turns out that during this period, there were more than ten kinds of landmines used by the Ming army.According to the way of detonation, there are combustion, pulling, tripping, machine and so on.

In addition to the single mine, there are also group mines that use a fuze to control the explosion, and a mother mine that explodes and detonates several child mines.

According to operational needs, landmines can also be placed on vehicles or buildings, or animals can be used to carry mines into the formation. It can be said that it is very advanced and has reached the forefront of the world at that time.

Zhu Cixuan turned his head to look at Song Yingxing, and said approvingly: "Well, not bad! Next, we still need to improve the range, and the power of gunpowder, and we must continue to experiment, so that we can compete with overseas red-haired ghosts and Francophones." Communicate, but keep it secret, understand?"

Song Yingxing nodded solemnly and said, "I understand."

While a few people were talking, cannons were pushed out of the warehouse, lined up in a row, and the black muzzles pointed obliquely at the sky.

There stood wooden figures and a stone wall.

Li Dingguo, King of Jin, Zheng Chenggong, King of Yanping, Bai Wenxuan, King of Gongchang, Qi Sansheng, Marquis of Xianning, Mu Tianbo, Duke of Qian, and He Jiuyi, Duke of Guang.Many people are also looking forward to the test firing of the new artillery.

Song Yingxing handed over the command to Song Shiyuan and asked him to direct the artillery shooting drill.

The muzzles of the five artillery pieces were slowly raised towards the shooting range.

On the dirt hill, everyone's eyes were on the past, and they also eagerly wanted to know how powerful the new cannon cast by the Ministry of Industry was.

"Get ready!" A thousand households shouted, waving the small red flag in their hands.

There are thirteen gunners next to each cannon, four adjust the elevation angle of the muzzle, four loaders, three gunners, and two gunners.

"Start!" With the little red flag in the hand of Qian Hu, he waved down fiercely.

The gunners stepped forward quickly, they were well-trained, and each cannon had four gunners who began to adjust the elevation angle of the artillery muzzle and aimed at the distant shooting range.

A loader took the cylindrical gunpowder bag handed over by his companion, quickly inserted it from the breech of the cannon into the barrel, pulled out the matchlock at the end of the gunpowder bag, and closed the wedge-shaped breech lock to lock it.

The loaders standing on the left and right of the muzzle, one of them, took the shell handed over by a loader, and slid the shell into the barrel from the muzzle, and the other loader standing at the muzzle, used A wooden stick tamps the shell.

Finally, a gunner raised the torch and lit the matchlock with the gunpowder wrapped outside the barrel.

The matchlock "chi chi chi" burned.

Then "boom boom boom" sounded like muffled thunder one after another, and thick blue smoke burst out from the muzzles of the five artillery pieces.

Then there was a deafening explosion in the distance.

The wooden dummies in the distance, near the stone-built city wall, smoke and dust rose into the sky, the broken wood and rocks flew randomly, and the wooden dummies were torn apart in an instant, and the stone-built city wall collapsed into a pile of ruins .

(End of this chapter)