Nanming: I can build wonders

Chapter 158 Industrialization and Napoleonic Tactics

Rifled guns and rough smoothbore guns have completely different requirements. Rifled guns require a close combination of projectiles and rifling, which has high requirements for accuracy.

Especially if Minie bullets are used, the barrels and bullets must be standardized. Only when all Minie bullets are the same size and the rifled guns have the same caliber can any bullet be suitable for any rifled gun.

Therefore, if you want to have a qualified Minie rifle production line, you need to solve the problem of standardization.

Even if Zheng Kezang has now entered the steam age, and no longer purely manpower to build barrels and rifling, there will still be certain errors.

Then you need a standard measure!
If a worker wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools. Zheng Kezang spent 50 points in exchange for 500 vernier calipers and 500 micrometers for the craftsmen to measure.

At that time, those that meet the standards will be used to make rifled guns, and those that do not meet the standards should not be wasted and used to make smoothbore guns.

One of the reasons for the success of modern industry is standardization and scale. Craftsmen in this era are all doing their own thing, and there is no standard at all. This phenomenon must be eliminated in Dongning Manufacturing Bureau, and standards must be emphasized in everything.

Therefore, in order to form a standardized concept, craftsmen were training throughout January 1682, and even the craftsman Su Laocheng could not escape.

During the training, Zheng Kezang first instilled in them the measurement units of meter, decimeter, centimeter, and millimeter, and then taught them how to use vernier calipers and micrometers.

In addition to vernier calipers and micrometers, other tools that craftsmen may need must also be popularized, such as pencils, blueprints, building rulers, set squares, compasses, protractors, and so on.

With vernier calipers, these instruments have no technical content and are easy to make, only pencils are slightly more difficult.

But it is difficult to do. In order to mass-produce the Minie gun, Zheng Kezang worked hard!
The only difficulty with a pencil is making the lead.

In fact, it should be a graphite pencil stick, which was called black lead in this era. No matter the East or the West, graphite was used for writing and drawing early on. However, graphite sticks are easy to stain hands and break easily. This is the dilemma of pencils at this time.

Too soft, not hard enough!

What should I do?
Add some technology!
After spending 5 points, Zheng Kezang got his wish to get the pencil lead formula of later generations.

That is to use a certain amount of clay, clay, and then mix graphite to heat, and the pencil lead produced will be firm and wear-resistant.

Finally, the pencil lead is put into the groove of the pen barrel, and the two wooden strips are tightly aligned and glued together, and a practical pencil comes out!
In the future, this type of pencil will become a sharp weapon in the hands of craftsmen, making great contributions to the industrialization of Ming and Zheng.

After a short operation, Zheng Kezang spent 135 brilliant points to solve the problem of the Mines gun.

In March 1682, after three months, the Dongning Manufacturing Bureau finally successfully trial-produced ten Minie-style front-loading rifles.

When Zheng Kezang learned that the first batch of guns had been successfully produced, the first thing he did was to take Pan Aqiang and other Guards officers to test the guns.

After everyone's tests, the effective range of this new rifle from the Dongning Manufacturing Bureau is about an astonishing 400 meters!

All those who participated in the test couldn't believe it, because before the guards' standard flintlock guns were added with sugar gunpowder, the farthest was only about [-] meters.

In order to facilitate shooting, the barrel of the new rifle has a simple rear sight and front sight, which can be used as a sniper rifle.

New guns are always more popular, Zheng Kezang couldn't help but fired a few more rounds, just to test how many rounds he could fire in one minute.

When Zheng Kezang was shooting, gunfire sounded nearby, a burst of black smoke erupted, and seven or eight orange-red spots of light flashed across the Dongning Military Academy.

"How is it? Who has the fastest loading speed? Who has the best aim?" Zheng Kezang smiled and threw the rifle to Su Laocheng who was aside, and then asked with great interest.

As Zheng Kezang put down the rifle in his hand, all the officers at all levels who participated in the test firing of the Minie rifle stopped their movements.

Su Laocheng took a new-style pencil to write and draw in the small book for two seconds, then raised his head and began to announce the results.

"Your Majesty, your reloading speed is the fastest. You fired six times in one minute, but Pan Aqiang managed the town with the best accuracy. All five shots hit the target accurately!"

"Okay! Ah Qiang is worthy of being the Guan Zhen of the No. [-] Guard Town, a natural sharpshooter!" Pan Aqiang's marksmanship was very good in the Dongning Military Academy graduation exam.

After praising Pan Aqiang, he then looked at Su Laocheng, "Old Su, this gun is called a trigger rifle, or a trigger gun for short."

New equipment can never be named after a foreigner, so I pay tribute to the electric gun developed by Zhao Shizhen, a firearms expert of the Ming Dynasty.

"Immediately order the Dongning General Manufacturing Bureau to produce a thousand bolt-action rifled rifles, and install them in the first battalion of the first guard town first!" Zheng Kezang continued to order.

For the new equipment, we must first take care of the first battalion that can fight toughest battles first. With this kind of rifle that can shoot four to six shots per minute and has a long range, the cavalry facing the Tartars will not be afraid at all in the future!

It is just a little troublesome. With the innovation of weapons, the tactics also need to be innovated. The previous tactics of queuing up and shooting are definitely not suitable for the new rifles.

Zheng Kezang knew very well that once this kind of front-loading rifle using Mines bullets was equipped with Ming Zheng's army, then Ming Zheng's army would be able to sweep the entire Qing Dynasty with 3 to [-] people.

Because there is no way to fight at all, even if the green battalion of the Qing Dynasty will hold flintlock guns in the future, how can they fight with rifled guns with an effective range of up to 400 meters?
The only pity is that the rate of fire of this gun is not fast enough!
If the rate of fire was faster, Zheng Kezang felt that he could change the line tactics to skirmish tactics.

The so-called straggler tactics are to adopt the method of dispersing the formation to fight. The army is divided into several small groups, skillfully uses the terrain, moves quickly to disperse the formation, disperses and hides in the forest, hangs on the shore, and uses rifled guns to fight. Accurately aim and shoot, use mobility, and surprise the enemy.

This tactic can give full play to the role of rifled rapid-fire weapons, combining firepower and mobility, and fighting on various terrains.

However, Zheng Kezang found that he still took it for granted. If he really wanted to change to skirmish tactics, it would definitely cost a lot of money.

Not to mention the cost of rifled guns, the training cycle of skirmishers is definitely much longer than that of private soldiers, and in this era, the enemy is queuing up and shooting tactics. It is better to use the tactics of combining horizontal and vertical teams in the original Dongning Infantry Code, and then use Mines guns If you suppress the enemy remotely, they will have nothing to do!

In addition, skirmishers have higher requirements for morale. Because line infantry is in the square formation, it is difficult to escape, while skirmishers can flee at any time.

Of course, guards with spectacle bonuses do not need to consider morale.

However, you can change your thinking. With the new Minie gun, you can study the strongest tactics of Napoleon's French army!
(End of this chapter)