Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 209 Western Gun
"There is no formality." Zhu Niang spat softly after hearing this, "People say it is serious."

"Because we need a name for foreign exchanges." Lin Hai suppressed his smile and replied. After the battle on Dongshan Island, Zheng Zhilong was nothing more than a withered bone in a grave in his eyes. Next, he would start to fight to overthrow Badawi. The subthrone is laid out.

Of course, Lin Hai's strategic goal is not just Batavia. He is to completely drive the Dutch out of the east of Malacca. To do this, he needs to clear all the Dutch strongholds in Southeast Asia, including armed fortresses and basically unarmed ones. The commercial center prevents VOC merchant ships from receiving stable supplies, repairs and maintenance in Southeast Asia.

Only by achieving this goal can it be possible to completely change the VOC's strategy in Asia and let them go to the Indian Ocean to fight dog-eat-dog with the Portuguese and British. After all, VOC's capital was already quite strong at this time, and the shipbuilding industry in the Netherlands was also very developed. Their ability to recover blood was much stronger than that of the Spanish, Portuguese, and British colonists.

But to achieve this, it is not feasible for Huiyou Company to fight alone. VOC is getting along well with many Asian countries. Of course, there are also some enemies. Lin Hai must use some combination of vertical and horizontal methods to do this. It involves the name of the company's external relations.

VOC has encountered many obstacles in its interactions with Asian countries in the name of the company, including the Japanese who did not understand that the company had diplomatic rights granted by the country, which caused a lot of extra trouble for the Dutch.

In fact, even the Japanese shogun himself had this problem. The reason why he used the title King of Japan was largely to have an equal status in diplomacy.

After listening to Lin Hai's explanation, Zhu Niang asked: "In other words, the company is still operating according to the original model, but it is just described as a country to the outside world?"

"That's more or less it, but you don't just say this externally, you also say this internally. Anyway, you are both the king and the president of the Civil Affairs Yuan. You are in charge of civil affairs, and it is the same for the people under the company's rule. ”

Lin Hai said and added: "As for the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Navy, they are the army of your kingdom in name, but in fact they are responsible to the company's board of directors just like the Civil Affairs Yuan. As long as the top brass of the army know this, it will be fine."

"Of course, I've set up a target." Lin Hai smiled when he heard this, "But the action of this gun is a little different from the gun we use. Can I teach you how to use it?"

Zhou Yifa then stepped forward to get the blunderbuss. As soon as he took it, he exclaimed, "Isn't this too heavy? Isn't it as heavy as our blunderbuss?"

Zhou Yifa has been obsessed with muskets since he was a child. Hearing this, he took the lead and approached. Lin Hai saw this and asked: "First of all, which of these muskets are you most interested in?"

Lin Hai pointed to the cavalry target that was seven feet high and two feet wide three hundred steps away, and said to Yifa: "Hit that target."

"It's called the Golden River Country, a country where gold can be found in the river." Lin Hai said with a smile, "Your name is the Queen of the Golden River."

Zhu Niang said thoughtfully: "Are you afraid that Daming will notice the company's presence in Dongfan?"

In choosing this name, Lin Hai was actually well prepared. If he was unable to serve as an official in the Ming Dynasty in the future, it would be more difficult to recruit immigrants through semi-official means. At that time, he would have to rely on the gold rush to absorb the population.

In addition to Lin Hai, there are mainly Wu Guoyi, Feng Yidao, He Liangtao, Zhou Yifa and Valdes. The latter is the first and last Spanish governor of Taiwan. Now he is nominally a senior consultant of Huiyou Company, but in fact he is just a jobber.

"Actually, it's not that many. Except for the Xu family, they are basically our own people." Lin Hai added, "The emperor of the Ming Dynasty lives in the ninth level, and his ministers are all human beings. Many times, even domestic affairs are deceived. , not to mention that most things overseas are based on rumors, and it is even more difficult to distinguish the truth from the false. Even if someone wants to use this to attack me, I can find someone to tell the emperor that this is all slander. In short, it is better to have this cover than not. ”

"Then what should our country be called?" Zhu Niang then asked.

Zhu Niang heard this and said doubtfully: "But can this really isolate you? There are many people who know the details of the company."

"This seems to be a rifle like the Lumi Gun?" Zhou Yifa glanced at the trigger under the wooden butt of the gun, and then added, "But the faucet is facing backward, which is a bit strange."

"I called you here today mainly to take a look at these muskets." Lin Hai pointed to the various muskets that had been placed on the table in advance. These were all seized from the Spanish four months ago, and he selected some from them. represent.

"Don't worry about the direction of the faucet, just shoot it like a Rumi gun. This is the ammunition." Lin Hai said and motioned Viper to lift the oilcloth covering the table, and saw a buckskin loaded with lead bullets underneath. Pockets, and gunpowder packed in bamboo tubes.

"This kind can only go far if the barrel is long." Zhou Yifa pointed to the five-foot-long Spanish heavy matchlock gun without hesitation, and then said to Lin Haida, "Chief, can you let me try shooting twice?" ?”

The reason for such a tacky name is mainly to attract immigrants from the southeast coast. Gold always attracts people.

Three days later, a somewhat strange combination appeared on the Security Department campus outside Guandu City.

"That's right, now that we have occupied Keelung, we will no longer be able to hide this matter." Lin Hai said with a smile, "The main reason for letting you become the king is to keep me away, otherwise my career in the Ming Dynasty will be ruined. That’s it.”

"More than that, I had someone weigh me yesterday. This weighs fifteen kilograms, and the lead bullets cost one, two, and five cents." Lin Hai said, picking up the musket rack on the table, handing it to Zhou Yifa, "You'd better use this rack to shoot." , In addition, the butt of the gun must be pressed against your chest, otherwise your wrist may be injured.”

This Spanish heavy fire is the so-called Double Musket. The standard weight is 20 pounds (about 18 jins), which is 15 jins. It is the same weight as the Gangrou brand. The three coins most commonly used by the Ming army Bird guns generally weigh 5 to 6 pounds.

"Can it shoot so far?" Zhou Yifa was a little excited when he heard this. He always felt that the range of the three-coin bird gun could not bring out his shooting skills.

After loading the ammunition, Zhou placed the musket on the U-shaped bracket, then opened the medicine tank cover and pulled the trigger.

The faucet holding the match rope slowly rotated backwards, and finally fell into the medicine pool opened above. Flames emerged from the medicine pool and the muzzle of the gun, and a loud bang sounded like thunder, startling He Liangtao and others. , the sound of this gunshot is louder than that of a three-dollar gun. "Take a few more shots and see." Lin Hai then said to Yifa.

Zhou Yifa then took the musket off the stand and started loading with the butt facing the ground. The total length of the musket was nearly 1 meters, which was a bit taller than him. Loading ammunition was very laborious.

He then fired five more shots, which took almost two quarters of an hour. Everyone was a little impatient waiting, but seeing that Lin Hai had been watching with interest, it was hard to say anything.

Finally, Lin Hai ordered someone to check the cavalry target, but only one of the six shots hit. Zhou Yifa shook his head and said: "It's too far, and it can't hit. Although this gun has a long range, it has no accuracy at a distance, and it's too far." It’s heavy and slow to reload, so it’s useless in actual combat.”

The average rate of fire of the Great Mushtek is only about one-third of the three-coin gun, which is one shot every three minutes. Because it was used for the first time on Monday, and because it took a long time to aim, the average firing rate was one shot. It took 3 minutes.

"Don't deny it in a hurry. Long range also has the advantage of long range. No matter how inaccurate it is, it is much more accurate than a rocket." Lin Hai then asked, "What do you think of this gun?"

"No, I don't like it anyway. The faucet rotates too slowly, which is not conducive to aiming." Zhou Yifa then added, "This is actually a gun like the Lumi gun. The fire rate is higher than that of ordinary bird guns." ”

Lin Hai nodded when he heard this. Originally, he only knew a little bit about the gun mechanisms of the muzzleloader era. He also knew the differences between match ropes, spring wheels, flintlocks, and flash caps, but he did not know each of the gun mechanisms. There have been relatively complex evolutions throughout history.

It wasn't until he read a lot of military books from the Ming Dynasty in the past two years that he realized that the trigger of the Lumi gun was different from the three-coin bird gun. The trigger of the former drove the faucet through the two-axis lever principle, while the latter was used to release the energy storage. The limit of the reed is ultimately driven by the elastic force of the reed to drive the faucet.

The trigger of the Rumi gun is not so much used for picking as it is used for pressing. Because the lever must be pressed to a certain distance before the match rope on the faucet comes into contact with the priming powder, and even if the trigger is pulled halfway, you will regret letting go and give up shooting, so some people in later generations called it a press-fire slow-fire bolt.

The faucet of this type of gun rotates far faster than the reed drive, and it suffers greater disturbance when shooting, so it is not popular with marksmen. But slowness also has the advantage of being slow, that is, the match rope is not easily extinguished during movement and impact, and the firing rate is higher than that of a quick-fire bolt.

Another advantage is that the structure of the press-fire slow-fire bolt is much simpler, the cost and failure rate are much lower, and its overall performance is better for battle soldiers. Therefore, in Europe where salvos are played, quick-fire bolts have basically been eliminated. However, in the Ming Dynasty, which used bird guns as snipers, they still used quick-fire bolts except for Lumi guns.

However, Lin Hai was not clear about this. He said to Wu Guoyi and He Liangtao: "Please ask the Ministry of War and the Bureau of Firearms to set up a special team to conduct a comprehensive test on this Western gun, including range, hit rate, fire rate, and armor-breaking ability. Wait, prepare a description of the test plan and the required funds, and submit it to me in advance.”

The two of them nodded in agreement when they heard the words. Lin Hai picked up a short blunderbuss with a barrel only one foot long from another table. After loading the ammunition, he held the blunderbuss in one hand and slammed it twenty steps away. The humanoid target was shot out.

"Guoyi, what do you think of this gun?" Lin Hai asked Wu Guoyi with a smile.

"Can this gun be fired with one hand?" Wu Guoyi's face showed excitement. He remembered the scene when he and Lin Hai were discussing cavalry equipment not long ago, and then he understood why Lin Hai smiled and said nothing.

For cavalry who are not good at riding and cannot control the horse with both hands, this is really a very suitable long-range weapon. Not to mention other properties, just being able to shoot with one hand is an overwhelming advantage.

"That's right, you don't need to ignite the medicine line like a three-eyed gun, nor do you need to open the medicine tank cover first and then pull the trigger like a bird gun. Moreover, it is short and light and can be operated with one hand and two feet."

Lin Hai shook the flintlock pistol in his hand as he spoke, and continued: "The barrel of this gun is one foot long. It is the same as the quick rifle and three-eyed gun commonly used by the frontier army. It weighs only a little over two kilograms. The infantry carries five or six It’s not a problem to hold the army, let alone the cavalry.”

Wu Guoyi was a little confused: "Without a match rope or a medicinal thread, how did this gun fire?"

"Just like a fire sickle, fire is made by rubbing flint." Lin Hai said, pointing to the flint clamped in the hammer and the vertically striped strike plate on the L-shaped automatic plate cover.

The reason why it is called automatic disk cover is because the rubbing plate that rubs against the flint and the disk cover that blocks the medicine pool are integrally connected. After the shooter pulls the trigger, the flint hits the strike plate, causing the entire L-shaped automatic plate cover to flip upward, so that the splashed sparks can fall into the medicine pool and ignite the primer.

Looking at the complex evolution history of percussion flintlock bolts, the design of this L-shaped automatic disc cover can be said to be of epoch-making significance. Before this, opening the medicine tank cover and igniting required two steps, including most matchlock bolts. This is true.

It should be noted that manually opening the medicine tank cover is before aiming, and pulling the trigger is after aiming. During this period, the primer in the medicine pool is likely to be blown away by the wind or wet by rain, eventually resulting in the inability to fire, which poses a severe challenge to the environmental adaptability of the gun.

However, this design also brings new problems, that is, it is easy to accidentally fire. After all, there is no need to manually open the medicine tank cover, and you can shoot by just pulling the trigger.

So since then, flintlock bolts have evolved into a variety of safety mechanisms, the more famous of which are several dog machines developed by the British, so named because the firing device is a bit like a dog tied to a chain.

"It's really ingenious to use flint to make fire." Wu Guoyi became even more excited when he heard this, "General Officer, I think this gun machine can be promoted in the army. From then on, gun soldiers no longer need to carry match ropes. Not only can the rate of fire be increased, but also saving money can be saved." Go to a lot of trouble and danger."

"Not only that, with this self-generated firecracker, our firearms soldiers can stand closer together and the firepower density can also be increased. But..." Lin Hai paused and then asked He Liangtao, "Deputy Director He "You have been in Haojing for a long time, do you know anything about self-made fire guns?"

"I have seen a kind of self-generated fire gun with a steel wheel that ignites. It relies on the friction between flint and steel wheel to generate fire. It is somewhat similar to this." He Liangtao was talking about a spring wheel gun, which can also be regarded as a type of flintlock gun. , matured a little earlier than the percussion flintlock.

"I've seen that one in Haojing." Lin Hai handed the flintlock pistol to He Liangtao and said, "Not to mention the steel wheel that fires, just talk about this kind of impact-type self-generating fire blunderbuss. Do you think the Firearms Bureau can make it? ?”

(End of this chapter)