In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 510 The most advanced artillery shells appear

In March of the twelfth year of Yuanzhen, the Mongolian army launched a large-scale westward expedition. When Meng Ge captured Damascus, Zhao Yurui from Lin'an City left the palace again.

Today he has to go to many places and needs to see many new things.

The first stop he came to was the firearms bureau, where he watched Song Jun's new designs and gadgets.

At the shooting range, a large number of officials from the Firearms Bureau of the Craftsmanship Bureau were present, and of course they were all craftsmen.

Zhao and Rui were assigned to serve as messengers. Although the officials in the Craftsmanship Bureau and the Firearms Bureau were called officials and received official salaries, they actually had to be craftsmen.

And they usually have to do it themselves. The bigger the official, the more they have to contribute to some important technologies.

Most of the officials in later generations only had to talk and have people below do the work, but Zhao Yurui's officials in these technical departments had to do it themselves.

Of course, the main focus is on improving and innovating technology. These people invest more time, and there is no need to use them in front-line work.

The most popular craftsman official in recent years is Xu Li.

The first two were eliminated by Xu Li one after another because of their low efficiency and the need for a lot of manpower.

Xu Li used several different rifling methods under the advice of Emperor Zhao Yurui.

If you use other simpler cutting methods, you still have to cut line by line, and the distance must be the same, which requires higher technical requirements.

This person is quite smart and can draw inferences from one instance to other cases. In recent years, Zhao Yurui has also reused him and asked him to lead people to specialize in research and development.

In the end, Xu Li used the combined ring-knife broaching method. Zhao Yurui had only heard of this method, let alone used it. He could only rely on explaining the theory and efficacy and let Xu Li and others study it. This method lasted for five or six years, and finally Out.

This scraper was more difficult to cast, and the craftsmen relied on precise manual polishing for most of it. However, its advantages were much greater than the first two. Xu Li finally let Zhao Yurui watch the live performance.

For example, the scraper method, the hook knife broaching method, which is the easiest to use in this era, and the combined ring knife broaching method, which originally only existed in the 18th century and became popular in the 19th century.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yurui realized that the efficiency was not very good because it was slow to make a sharpening knife.

"Your Majesty, please take a look." Xu Li was very proud at this time. It took him five or six years to finally figure out the cutting method that His Majesty wanted.

Xu Li also asked why it was not reloading from the back and why it was so troublesome to insert it from the front.

By the 19th century, a sharpening knife could theoretically be used one hundred or even two hundred times.

A flintlock barrel is clamped on the shelf. The broach goes in from the back and comes out from the front. It squeaks and water is kept on it. The whole process takes about a minute. The cutting is relatively slow, but only one knife is needed to cover the entire vaginal rifling. It comes out, and the distance between all the lines is still the same.

"We use 28 carbide steel rings, the distance between each steel ring is equal, and the number of equidistant scrapers is the same as the number of cavities -" Xu Li explained the principle and preliminary casting process to Zhao Yurui.

Xu Li said, we are still studying the ratio of cemented carbide and hope to use better ones.

The difficulty is that sharpening knives needs to be made by hand and requires highly skilled craftsmen.

At that time, Zhao Yurui proposed that the flintlock gun could be rifled so that it could shoot farther and more accurately. Xu Li immediately drew inferences and asked whether the barrel of the gun could be made in the same way. Zhao Yurui immediately looked at it differently.

"Don't use them continuously. Let's sharpen the knife and wait for a while (about five minutes) before cutting off a barrel. It can be used about sixty times."

These people were not from physics or chemistry, so Zhao Yurui assigned them related students, but these students were not as good as Zhao Yurui. They could only rely on experience and exploration to slowly find the most suitable ratio.

Xu Li is now an official to the rank of doctor, a fifth-rank official.

"How many times can this sharpening knife be used?" Zhao Yurui focused on the key points.

This popular knife technique in the 19th century was already the most advanced before modern comprehensive industrialization. It can be rifled in one go and is very efficient.

The rifling of flintlock guns can solve it, and the rifling of artillery can also solve it.

The Song Army already had wooden fuse shells, but they were rarely used in actual combat. They were mainly put into the wooden base. Without rifling, the air tightness would be too high and the launch would not be smooth enough.

Now that there is rifling, it is different. Xu Li and the others installed a wooden base behind the shell, and the air tightness problem was solved.

And Xu Li officially changed the artillery to rear-loading.

This step is of cross-epochal significance, as front-loaded artillery enters the era of rear-loading.

Zhao Yurui watched the firing of the rifled cannon live. His artillery can now be called a rifled cannon and has rifling.

The shape of the cannonball is already like that of later generations, except that the back is made of wood. The craftsmen tried many lines inside the cannon, including six, eight, ten, and twelve, and finally adopted eight lines.

Zhao Yurui even walked closer to see how they loaded the ammunition while they were shooting.

I found that it was similar to that of later generations. There was a cover at the back. I opened the cover, stuffed the shells in, then closed the cover, and another person poured the cannon on it and then lit it.

Boom, after a huge cannon blast, the shells flew out like meteors.

After a while, a cavalryman came over and reported that the range was eight miles and the direction was six steps off.

There were cheers at the scene. Many people saw the range of the breech-loaded rifled gun for the first time. Everyone couldn't believe that it could shoot so far and it was relatively accurate.

Xu Li explained to Zhao Yurui: "This is a 650-pound medium-heavy breech-loading rifled gun. It uses 12-pound heavy shells. On flat ground, the firing angle is 25 degrees and the range is the highest. The bomb range is seven steps."

The artillery of the Song Army has adopted the latest technology of copper-core iron cannons, which not only reduces the weight, but also reduces the probability of bombing. Xu Li's medium and heavy artillery is mainly used to defend cities and warships. Of course, it can also be used in field battles.

Twelve-pound artillery shells fired on flat ground at an angle of 25 degrees can hit the furthest distance, up to about eight miles, far exceeding the current field artillery used by the Song Army.

The explosion range is only seven steps, and the range seems to be quite large, but the lethality cannot be compared with later artillery shells. The main reason is that the lethality is greater in the middle of the impact point. According to Xu Li's experiments, it is difficult to hit a target covered with armor three steps away.

Of course, in this era, minor injuries are not serious, and a large number of bombs can be blown up in the infantry camp and the horse group, which is very lethal to the dense infantry camp.

And because it was changed to a rear-mounted gun, the rate of fire has been greatly improved, and it can fire one round in about a minute at the fastest.

Considering the life span of the barrel, Xu Li still suggested firing a shot in about five minutes.

If this cannon is mounted high, such as at the top of a city, it can hit the farthest at an angle of seventeen and a half degrees, and can hit more than ten miles.

Of course, the specific distance you can shoot depends on how high your city wall is, and the required angles are also different. This is something artillery needs to learn. Zhao Yurui can just listen.

Of course, there is room for improvement in this range. The main rear loading method and strike method need to be improved. The air tightness needs to continue to be improved, and the artillery shells need to be improved. But based on the current industrial level, this is already the most powerful artillery. According to Xu Li, this medium-heavy artillery weighing more than 600 kilograms can be used to defend cities and warships, but it can also be used in field battles. In the future, this kind of artillery can be used mainly in field battles.

You must know that the Song Army's field artillery used to be about three hundred kilograms, and occasionally it would bring heavy cannons of one thousand kilograms. Now it is necessary to carry more than six hundred kilograms of cannons. Xu Li decided after considering the Song Army's logistics.

The Song army had a good habit. Every time they captured a place, they had to draw maps everywhere and determine the roads. Which roads were easy to walk, which roads could be walked and ridden, which roads could be used by artillery and horse-drawn carriages, and which roads needed to be repaired. The first thing the army has to deal with every time it occupies a territory.

Then the Song army would decide whether to bring mules, horses or oxen based on the terrain of the expedition.

For roads that are easy to walk, there are usually four horses, and each two horses take turns pulling a cannon, accompanied by several artillerymen or civilians. For roads that are not easy to walk, or on rainy days, they may also bring oxen.

Oxen move slowly, but their pulling power is no less than that of horses, and they are more suitable for difficult roads and rainy and muddy days.

This was learned from Zhao Yurui and Hou Jin. When Hou Jin went to war in the late Ming Dynasty, he basically used oxen to pull cannons, and rarely horses and mules.

According to the current horse power and ox power, a cannon weighing more than 600 kilograms can be pulled. The Houjin cannon can also pull a thousand kilograms. The Song Army can naturally pull it better, and the speed will not be too slow.

The reason why heavier artillery is no longer used is because at this stage, the Song Army's medium and heavy artillery of more than 600 kilograms is sufficient after upgrading and transformation, and is now close to the level of breech-loaded rifled artillery in the mid-19th century.

"The cannons on the city defenders and warships behind can be upgraded to heavier and farther-firing cannons, but I think." Xu Li said at this time: "The cannons on the city guards and warships can be upgraded slowly first. The top priority is to upgrade the artillery. According to His Majesty's wishes, we will completely build new artillery shells, which can bring the power and range of our artillery to new heights."

Xu Li showed this cannon to Zhao Yurui, and he did not plan to promote it to the entire army. According to him, he would first build hundreds of them for the front line to prepare for the Western Expedition and defense.

There is no war in the country now, and there is no need to upgrade the warships. We only need to build a number of spares on the front lines in Persia and Qianzhou, and the focus is to upgrade new artillery shells.

"What Xu Qing said makes sense, and I mean the same thing." Zhao Yurui immediately expressed his support.

Then he asked, how is the development of your new artillery shells going?

"Your Majesty, please." The people from the Firearms Bureau took Zhao Yurui to the new factory.

This was a newly built factory in the first two years of the Song Dynasty, specifically to develop new artillery shells, which Zhao Yurui said were rear-loaded copper shells.

This kind of artillery shell is almost the same as that of later generations, reaching the level of the nineteenth century.

After Zhao Yurui went in and looked at it for a while, he still felt a little weird. It had a full sense of technology and a rustic look.

There is a huge steam engine in the middle of the factory, and the boiler is at the far north. You can see many cylinders and various pistons on the site. There is also a large smoke pipe at the back of the factory to discharge sewage outside, which will completely pollute the air for future generations.

There is a river outside, and there are hydraulic machinery beside the river. They are used in combination.

To the south of the factory are machines, and from east to west are a complete set of machines for making new artillery shells.

The first one was a rolling machine, which required two workers to remotely control it with their mobile phones. Zhao Yurui and a group of ministers watched as someone pushed a stack of copper plates on a cart.

The copper plates had been processed in another factory and were all rectangular in shape, exactly the same standard.

A worker picked up a copper plate and put it into a machine.

There are several long steel columns at the front end of the machine. After the copper plate is put in, the steel columns are rolling. In an instant, the copper plate is rolled into a hollow cylinder.

Zhao Yurui noticed that the steel columns needed to be manually shaken when rolling.

In fact, it is semi-automatic. There is steam pressure on the side to drive the gears and then drive the steel columns. However, due to the industrial level of this era, some parts require manual assistance. It is similar to the human-operated machinery, and the workers are rotated.

After this copper plate is rolled into a copper pillar, it will be the lower half of the cannonball of later generations. In the near future, it will replace the current wooden cannon stock of the Song Dynasty, making the cannonballs of the Song Dynasty more modern.

But the process is not a one-step process. Now Xu Li and the others are constantly experimenting and researching.

This machine can not only make gun casings, but also warheads.

The warhead invented by Xu Li is not a pointed round head. Due to the industrial limitations of this era, the front is not very sharp and resembles a trapezoidal cylinder. It only needs to be made into fan-shaped pieces with lead, and then rolled with this machine to become a warhead.

The warhead is relatively thin, and Zhao Yurui's explosive part is mainly inside. It does not rely on penetration but explosion to kill.

Not far away, there is a machine that is making the base and capping the shell. The entire shell shell needs to be made in four parts and then spliced. At that time, explosives, ignition devices, and lead beads will be put in, and then compressed and spliced.

There were many machines at the scene, and all the ministers were dazzled and amazed.

New machines have been coming out in the Song Dynasty over the years. Although everyone has gradually gotten used to it, every time they see a new machine, they always have to express their surprise and admiration for His Majesty the Emperor.

Xu Li told Emperor Zhao Yurui that there were still some difficulties with the cannonball this time.

The first is the matching of elastic belts, which is more troublesome and requires a lathe and cutting.

Smoothbore guns require ammunition belts. When matched with the rifling, the ammunition belts can fit tightly into the chamber. When fired, there will be no air leakage, no energy loss, and the gun can shoot farther.

Moreover, the ammunition belt is deeply pressed into the rifling, so that the cannonball can play the role of rifling. It will be rotated by the rifling, so that it can fly more stably and hit more accurately.

The process of adding warheads and ammunition belts to the gun shell was relatively simple in later generations, but in the Song Dynasty, it was divided into seven or eight steps, with only four parts requiring four steps. Then there are many manual operations, such as final filling, compression and combination. .

In later generations, a 155mm shell cost more than knives, and many countries only produced hundreds of thousands of rounds a year.

Zhao Yurui's construction was even slower. It was just a factory covering an area of ​​nearly five acres, with nearly fifty workers inside. It could only produce parts every day, which could be combined into thirty rounds of shells.

The ten-hour work system used by Zhao Yurui is about three rounds per hour.

But Xu Li and the others have not made a cannonball. There are still two main technical means that have not been solved. One is the problem of the breech firing pin. They still use the ignition type. The firing pin is technically fine, but the materials need to be improved. The second is the problem of the gunpowder ratio and installation inside the shell, and the third is the problem of the efficiency of the ammunition belt.

Therefore, the Firearms Bureau's artillery, shells, and even machines still need to be upgraded. Now Xu Li is making shell accessories and storing them first. After these three problems are solved in the future, they can be assembled immediately to save time.

Zhao Yurui also frowned after hearing this: "Five acres of land, fifty workers, thirty rounds per day?"

The construction of this factory cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The monthly salary of fifty workers plus food and drink is hundreds of guan, at least more than 2,000 guan a year, not counting the related craftsmen and officials.

He also has a prerequisite: the front copper and lead sheets also need to be made in another factory.

The same goes for other gunpowders and accessories.

(End of this chapter)