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Chapter 141 Front-loading Mini Rifle
The emperor is very busy in early March every year. What is he busy with?Busy with ancestor worship during Qingming Festival!Hong Tao deeply hates this activity and is unable to do anything about it.

It is said that worshiping ancestors is a Chinese tradition. Even if you have traveled through time, it shouldn't be too strange. After all, you have taken over someone else's body, so you won't be so embarrassed just pretending!

How to put it, if it is just kowtow and burn incense in the family temple, Hong Tao will not say anything about it, let alone once a year, once a month is fine, there is nothing difficult to accept.

But every year during the Qingming Festival, we have to visit our ancestors’ tombs, which are the Ming Dynasty emperors’ tombs in Changping.In later generations, it would take several hours to drive on the expressway. Now, with thousands of honor guards, guards, officials, and concubines in the harem, the journey takes two full days, and you have to stay in a palace for one night on the way.

Wanting to buy some weapons and pay more for the border officers, the ministers immediately complained that they were poor and couldn't squeeze out tens of thousands of taels of silver.But when it comes to worshiping ancestors, they spend at least 10,000+ taels every time they go out, but they don't feel bad at all, and the scene is extremely luxurious.

Sometimes Hong Tao would like to take advantage of the gathering of people at the beginning of the dynasty to bring the armed eunuchs from the royal horse supervisor and personally carry the sword to chop down all the officials who are not doing their job in their positions and who are betraying their fathers and not feeling sorry for themselves. .

Keeping these people in high positions will only do harm to the country and the people, but no good. Sometimes they are more vicious than the border invaders. They specifically dig at the foundation and dig conscientiously.

According to convention, the emperor must hold at least three large-scale memorial activities every year, on Zhengdan, Qingming and Zhongyuan. If you wish to go at other times, the Ministry of Rites can make temporary arrangements. There is no limit on the number.

Hong Tao went there twice in the first year after he ascended the throne, and only once in the second and third years.No way, if you don't go, not only will you be stabbed in the spine by the courtiers, but you will also make the empress dowager and empress dowager complain, and the public will be too angry.

But this year he took the initiative to go there, nominally to worship his ancestors, but actually to see the mausoleum.After four years on the throne, it’s time to prepare his own grave.The Ministry of Rites has already found a geomantic treasure site, and will start building it slowly as soon as the emperor nods his approval. It will take a little while every year, and it will take ten or eight years to get it done.

However, they still underestimated the emperor's evil intentions. Hong Tao was not interested in the mausoleum at all. He just came up with a trick and took this opportunity to visit the imperial village along the way.

Passing by Changping, he suddenly felt unwell. There happened to be a royal palace nearby. It was normal to rest there for the night before leaving, and it was unlikely to attract the attention of the courtiers.Of course, it must be a pure coincidence that this imperial mansion happens to be the royal gunpowder factory built two years ago!

Arranging the accompanying Jin Yiwei and officials to camp a mile away, and letting the Royal Horse Supervisor be solely responsible for the security work of the Imperial Village. Hong Tao took Wang An and twenty Cuju team eunuchs without even eating dinner, and rushed into the cement factory. , met Zou Yi and Zhao Shizhen who were waiting specially.

"Well, the color is almost the same this time, and the particle size is also suitable. How is the effect?" Looking at the small dark brown particles spread on the wax paper, the brows that were furrowed due to fatigue finally relaxed a little.

"Back to Your Majesty, the same barrel with the same charge can fire [-]% more without going red or exploding, and the range will not be reduced but increased. If the charge is reduced, the range will be the same, and the number of shots can be increased by [-]%!"

Facing the emperor's inquiry, Zhao Shizhen was full of confidence. He had no choice but to do so. The hard facts were right in front of him. Without any water, good is good. Even the King of Heaven could only answer like this.

Brown gunpowder, a type of black gunpowder, was invented by Europeans in the 19th century.It is named because the raw material charcoal is not fully carbonized and its color is dark maroon. It is also called maroon gunpowder.Brown powder burns slightly slower than traditional black powder.This is strange. The faster the burning speed of gunpowder, the more powerful it is. Why do you deliberately reduce the burning speed? Is this a mistake?

It was definitely wrong. Brown gunpowder was one of the products that Hong Tao named as the focus of research. Not only did he provide a detailed formula, but he also asked the Mentougou Coke Kiln to cooperate closely and built two charcoal kilns to test-fire the charcoal until the composition was satisfactory.

In the era of thermal weapons, gunpowder is roughly divided into two types, propellant and loading.The propellant is responsible for pushing bullets and shells out of the barrel, and the filling powder is responsible for explosive killing.If you want bullets and artillery shells to fire farther, the chamber pressure must be high enough, but if the chamber pressure is too high, the barrel and barrel cannot bear it.

After hundreds of years of exploration and summary, the Germans at the end of the 19th century finally found a compromise. By reducing the sulfur in the black powder formula, increasing the nitrate, and combining it with incompletely carbonized charcoal powder, the deflagration speed of the propellant was reduced, making it It burns more completely.

The use of this improved propellant can increase the firing range without increasing the chamber pressure too much without reducing the charge. The product is brown gunpowder.

To be precise, this kind of gunpowder is more effective when used on large-caliber weapons, such as artillery. The larger the caliber and the longer the barrel, the more suitable it is.On the contrary, it is not much better than granulated black powder for smaller caliber muskets. If the barrel is short enough, such as a pistol, the performance will decrease.

"Is this blunderbuss a new one?" In addition to a small pile of brown gunpowder, there were four blunderbuss neatly placed on the table, two long and two short.Hong Tao casually picked up the gun with the longest barrel and weighed it. It was heavy on the hand and weighed seven or eight kilograms.

"It is a whole stainless steel gun tube made by a hydraulic machine in Haihe Machinery Factory. Four negative wires are pulled out. The caliber is 5 cents and 2 centimeters. The lead bullet weighs 5 cents and the charge is 1 cent and 5 cents. It caught fire due to the friction between the flint and the steel wheel.

A two-inch poplar board can be worn within 10 steps, a one-inch poplar board can be worn within 30 steps, and a single layer of leather armor can be worn within 100 steps.No matter cattle or sheep, the wounds they hit were the size of fists. They were bloody and incurable. It was so cruel! "

Speaking of this new fire gun, Zhao Shizhen felt both love and fear in his heart.It has completely surpassed its own understanding of fire guns, from the manufacturing of gun barrels to broaching rifling to pointed concave bottom lead bullets and flint firing mechanisms, as well as sights and rulers, all of which are unheard of.

But its shooting effect is outstanding, it is easy to load, and its power is amazing.Lightly armored soldiers had almost no defense capability beyond a hundred paces, and heavy armored infantrymen within thirty paces would also be hit one by one. Even if they were holding thick wooden shields, they would be knocked to their knees by the powerful impact.

Making such a powerful firecracker by yourself, even if the drawings and ideas came from the emperor, is something to be happy and proud of, but there is always a slight worry in my heart.

If this kind of firecrackers were equipped on the battlefield in large numbers, the soldiers would probably be out of luck.If it is only used by one's own side, it can be tolerated, but if the enemy takes it and learns it, the future combat scenes will be unimaginable.

(End of this chapter)