Anti-Qing: Starting from the Reincarnation of the Ming Dynasty

After watching the artillery production demonstration at the Beijing Arsenal, Zhu Jing'an praised the workers' performance.

Then he ordered the person in charge of the arsenal to reward and promote outstanding workers.

Amid the cheers of the workers, Zhu Jing'an turned around and said with a smile on his face.

"Get ready, take me to see the doorway to the breech-loading gun and breech-loading cannon!"

Zhu Jing'an came to the arsenal for inspection this time to watch the demonstration of breech-loading guns and breech-loading cannons.

As for inspecting the production of the arsenal in the capital, it would be a good idea.

Soon, Zhu Jing'an led the team out of the production workshop and went to the new weapons testing site of the Beijing Arsenal.

This so-called experimental field is actually a relatively open valley.

It is surrounded by low hills, surrounding the valley in the middle.

The terrain is relatively closed!

Naturally, it can be kept more confidential.

Nowadays, the most important thing in Ming Dynasty's ordnance production is confidentiality.

The main reason is that no matter which of the ordnances studied by the Ming Dynasty is placed outside, they are epoch-making products.

They are all weapons that may directly change the shape of war.

It’s not an exaggeration to pay attention to it.

Zhu Jing'an walked into the experimental site, and Wang Wei, the person in charge of the experimental site, came forward to pay his respects.

"I am here to see your majesty. May your majesty be blessed and safe."

Zhu Jing'an nodded slightly.

"The Qing family is exempted from courtesy!"

After hearing this, Wang Wei stood up from the ground and said.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Jing'an nodded and continued.

"Lead the way and arrange experiments on the new musket first."

Wang Wei responded and began to lead the way for Zhu Jing'an.

Under the leadership of Wang Wei, Zhu Jing'an came to a corner of the experimental field.

There are several long tables in the corner here.

On these long tables, there are several guns of various lengths and shapes.

In front of each gun stood a senior engineer from the arsenal.

These senior engineers are the designers of these new guns.

They came to the capital this time to show their latest achievements in front of the emperor Zhu Jing'an.

In order to obtain more research and development funds and more awards for the arsenal.

Now that the emperor is really here, they are naturally excited.

After Zhu Jing'an came over, several people bowed down together.

"I am here to see your majesty, long live your majesty!"

Although the senior engineers in these arsenals are not high-ranking officials, most of them have official status of sixth or seventh grade.

In front of Zhu Jing'an, they can naturally call themselves humble ministers.

Zhu Jing'an heard this and said with a smile.

"The Qing family will be fine, haha, the Qing family will be fine soon."

"In order, please introduce these new firearms to me."

When saying this, Zhu Jing'an seemed very interested.

Several people looked at each other after hearing the words, and one of them stood up and said according to the previously determined order.

"Your Majesty, this humble minister is Li Ru, a senior engineer at the Guangzhou Arsenal."

"Next, I will introduce to Your Majesty the new rifle recently developed by our Guangzhou Arsenal."

While talking, Li Ru picked up a rifle from the table.

This rifle is quite similar to the breech-loading gun in Zhu Jing'an's impression.

Li Ru held a rifle in his hand and showed it in front of Zhu Jing'an.

"Your Majesty, this musket has a barrel length of 1.3 meters. After adding a bayonet, the total length of the barrel can reach 1.6 meters."

"This type of musket uses metal fixed-loading ammunition, with a bullet diameter of 7 mm. The bolt structure adopts a rear-swinging bolt action. The firing method is striker firing, and the sealing method is sealed by a rubber gasket."

"The loading method of this musket is single-shot breech loading, the magazine capacity is one round, the average firing rate is six rounds per minute, the effective range is 200 meters, and the maximum range is 450 meters..."

Compared with the rifled guns currently equipped on a large scale by the Ming army, the range of breech-loading guns is actually somewhat inferior.

But there is nothing that can be done about it. Due to the loading method of the breech-loading gun, if the processing technology is not enough, the air tightness cannot be guaranteed.

Even if the Ming Army's current breech-loading gun is sealed with a rubber gasket, the range of the musket will still be lost.

However, given the technological conditions of this era, it is already very good to be able to make a breech-loading gun like this.

Zhu Jing'an listened to Li Ru's introduction and nodded with satisfaction.

He immediately took the gun from Li Ru, opened the magazine, stuffed a yellow bullet into the magazine, and then pushed the bolt.

He raised his gun and aimed at the target a hundred meters ahead, pulled the trigger, and there was a pop, followed by a burst of recoil, and a cloud of smoke and fire came out of the muzzle.

The next moment, the human-shaped wooden target a hundred meters away fell to the ground.

Zhu Jing'an put down the gun in his hand, rubbed his shoulder that was sore from the recoil, and said with a smile.

"Not bad!"

"This gun is powerful enough."

It's not that Zhu Jing'an has never shot before, but after being pampered for a long time, his whole body is tender and tender.

If you suddenly play with a gun now, the recoil will inevitably have an impact.

This is still the current breech-loading gun with a bullet caliber of 7 mm. If it were the same as the front-loading gun, and the bullet caliber reached 14 mm, the recoil would be too great.

Zhu Jing'an pulled the bolt of the gun, and with his movement, the gun structure automatically ejected the bullet casing and dropped it to the ground.

There was still smoke curling out of the bullet casings.

Zhu Jing'an glanced at the bullet casings on the ground and asked.

"Can this bullet casing be recycled?"

The cartridge cases these days are made of copper, and Ming Dynasty has always been a copper-deficient country.

If musket shells cannot be reused, the cost will be too high.

Li Ru heard this and replied.

"To tell you your Majesty, we have already done experiments. As long as we can replace the primer and recharge the powder and projectiles, it will be fine."

"It does not affect normal use!"

Zhu Jing'an nodded, feeling that his shoulder was almost relieved, and asked someone to change the target to a farther target. He wanted to continue to test the gun.

Load, aim, shoot.

There was another crisp snap, and a wooden target instantly fell to the ground one hundred and twenty meters away.

Pull the bolt, eject the cartridge case, load, and then aim and shoot.

There was a gunshot, this time the target was hit at a position of 140 meters.

After several consecutive shots, the target at 150 meters was successfully hit with one shot. The target at 180 meters was missed, and another shot was fired before hitting the target.

Zhu Jing'an fired three times at the 200-meter target before he hit the target.

However, Zhu Jing'an is still very satisfied with this.

As a person, only when you are content can you always be happy.

Although the performance of the Ming Army's current breech-loading rifle is not comparable to the rifles of World War I and World War II, in this era, it is definitely epoch-making.

At the very least, within the next ten years, it will be difficult to see a musket on earth that can compete with this rifle of the Ming Army.

In the past ten years, it was enough for Ming Dynasty to continue to improve or develop more advanced rifles.

Zhu Jing'an weighed the rifle in his hand, nodded with satisfaction and said.

"Yes, I am very satisfied with this rifle!"

"Have you ever named it?"

Zhu Jing'an now has the idea of ​​naming this rifle.

Hearing this, Li Ru shook his head and said.

"When I replied to Your Majesty, I didn't give it a name, so I asked Your Majesty to give it a name!"

When Zhu Jing'an heard this, he touched his chin and started thinking. After a while, he spoke. "Since this rifle was developed in the first year of Chongwen, let's name it the first year rifle."

When Li Ru heard this, he spoke with a very excited expression.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the name!"

Zhu Jing'an nodded slightly when he heard the words.

“Let’s finalize it as soon as possible and prepare for mass production.”

"The first batch of producers will produce 10,000 rifles and 1 million rounds of ammunition, which will be used to equip the 1st Guards Division and explore the tactics corresponding to breech-loading guns."

It is common sense that weapons innovation will inevitably usher in changes in the mode of war.

Therefore, although the Ming Dynasty now has a new type of breech-loading gun, Zhu Jing'an is not yet ready to completely integrate it into the army.

Instead, they will first be equipped with a small amount of elite troops to conduct tactical exploration.

When the tactics are almost explored, it won't be too late to start equipping the entire army.

But even so, Zhu Jing'an still opened his mouth to set a production capacity of 10,000 pieces, which shows that Ming Dynasty is now wealthy.

When Li Ru heard this, he spoke with excitement on his face.

"Here, I obey the order!"

For an arsenal, orders are production capacity, funds, and everything.

The emperor gave an order for 10,000 rifles and one million rounds of ammunition at once, which was of extremely great significance to the Guangzhou Arsenal.

I managed such a large order all at once. When I go back, I will definitely be rewarded by the factory.

Zhu Jing'an smiled and nodded, and immediately looked at the next new type of firearm.

This is a typical rear-mounted single-barrel nozzle.

A senior engineer from the Nanjing Arsenal stood up and introduced him.

"Your Majesty, this musket is a new type of lance developed by our Nanjing Arsenal."

"The gun is 20 centimeters long and uses metal fixed shotshells. The loading method is rear-loading. It can load one bullet at a time. The diameter of the bullet is millimeters."

"The cavalry fire rate is five rounds per minute, and the effective range is seventy meters, but it is suitable for cavalry combat in most situations..."

After saying this, he began to demonstrate to Zhu Jing'an how to use the cavalry rifle.

Load, aim, and pull the trigger. As the smoke fills the air, the grass target dozens of meters away is sieved by flying shotgun pellets.

Shotguns may not make sense against some armored targets, but if they are used to hit unarmored targets, then everyone is equal.

In addition, it is difficult for cavalry to aim effectively on horseback. Therefore, shotguns that can perform coverage shooting are still quite practical.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that most of the enemies the Ming army needs to face now use front-loading muskets, or even bows and arrows.

After all, the range of both of these is relatively limited, and they may not even be able to take advantage of the Ming army's shotguns.

Once the enemy begins to equip rifled guns on a large scale, the practicality of the Ming army's shotguns will be greatly reduced.

Of course, this is something for the future.

As of now, the Ming Dynasty is still the only one in the world that has the ability to equip the army with rifled guns on a large scale.

Although European countries such as Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain also have the ability to produce rifles, their production capacity is certainly not comparable to that of the Ming Dynasty.

Otherwise, Britain and the Netherlands would not buy arms from Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, in the short term, the shotgun is still a very useful weapon for the Ming army.

Therefore, Zhu Jing'an said after thinking for a while.

"This type of musket will be named the First Year Shotgun. After finalization, we will produce 3,000 units for the time being and deliver them to the frontline troops in the southwest and northwest for use, so as to explore tactics as soon as possible."

In Zhu Jing'an's view, shotguns can not only be used by cavalry.

For infantry, whether it is attacking fortresses, street fighting, or mountain combat, shotguns are quite practical.

Especially on the current southwest front, the Ming army is about to attack those chieftains, and fighting in the mountains will be indispensable at that time. It can also be used to test the practicality of these new weapons in actual combat.

The reason why the northwest is said to be the front line is because after receiving another batch of arms funded by the Ming Army, the White Lotus Teaching Army began to give way to Ili and continue to advance westward.

However, in the process of advancing westward, conflicts broke out between the White Lotus Religious Army and the Kokand Khanate.

In order to prevent the front from moving inward, the Ming army in the northwest is now on combat readiness.

If the White Lotus Teaching Army can defeat the Kokand Khanate, then everything will be easy.

If the White Lotus Teaching Army suffers a loss, or even shows signs of defeat, then the Ming Army will inevitably end up personally.

Zhu Jing'an opened his mouth to give a generous order, and the senior engineer of the Nanjing Arsenal said with a happy face.

"Thank you for your grace!"

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Jing'an looked at the next new type of firearm.

This is a pistol, but it has no built-in magazine and no revolver structure.

It is a pistol that can only be loaded with one bullet at a time and must be reloaded after firing.

The only bright spot is the use of metal fixed bullets.

But this is normal. It is limited by the era. People in this era do not have the concept of a magazine.

In everyone's impression, it is natural for a musket to fire one shot at a time after loading.

Not only pistols, shotguns, and rifles all have this problem.

But even so, Zhu Jing'an still expressed satisfaction and did not kill the enthusiasm of the people below.

But after completing the inspection and inspection of these three new muskets, Zhu Jing'an also put forward suggestions for improvement to them.

That is the built-in magazine and magazine.

The intention is to increase the firing rate and firepower density of the musket in this way.

Of course, Zhu Jing'an just made a simple suggestion.

As for the specific plan, he did not interfere.

Although he knows the direction of the next development of firearms, if he proposes this, it will undoubtedly obliterate the creativity of Ming engineers.

In order to prevent this from happening, what Zhu Jing'an is doing now is just to put forward a general framework, but others need to slowly fill in the details.

Although this may lead to considerable waste of resources.

But the current Ming Dynasty doesn’t care about this!

Zhu Jing'an is looking forward to some surprises coming from the Ming Dynasty's arsenal...

After finishing the inspection of the new firearms, Zhu Jing'an turned around and took people to the new artillery test site next door.

Unlike the experimental site for new muskets, which only has a few tables and a few wooden targets, the facilities for the experimental site for artillery are much more complicated.

In addition to bunkers to ensure the safety of observers, there are also trenches designed to simulate actual battlefield conditions, as well as gun emplacements and other facilities.

There are also targets that simulate artillery targets!
After Zhu Jing'an arrived at the artillery testing site, he led people into the bunker.

Then prepare to observe the killing effect of the new artillery from a distance.

Beside him, several senior engineers were introducing him to the specific parameters of the artillery.

"Your Majesty, the artillery currently being tested is a Type 65 breech-loading cannon."

"The overall weight of the artillery is 230 kilograms, and it is equipped with a two-wheeled gun carriage. The ammunition uses a new type of metal fixed cone-shaped explosive ammunition. The loading method is rear-loading..."

The overall design idea of ​​the Type 65 breech-loaded gun is based on the Fran machine gun, which also adopts an integrated ammunition design.

Its advantage is that the rate of fire is quite fast!
Can shoot two to three rounds per minute.

Moreover, after using the new spiral breech block, the Type 65 breech-loading gun has not lost much range.

The effective range remains at around 500 meters.

For a gun of this caliber, this distance is quite good.

In addition, it is the Type 90 breech-loaded gun.

There is not much difference between this artillery and the Type 65 breech-loading gun, except that the caliber is slightly larger.

The ammunition has the same metal mounting.

However, the ammunition for the 120-caliber and 150-caliber heavy artillery is no longer designed like this.

Instead, a design is adopted in which ammunition is separated. The cannonball is a cannonball and the propellant is a propellant.

In this state, you first open the breech, insert the shell into the barrel, then load the propellant and ignite it.

The reason why large-caliber artillery does not use fixed ammunition is because the shells of large-caliber artillery are very heavy.

This also results in a larger propellant charge.

If metal fixed ammunition is to be used, the thickness of the cartridge case can only be increased.

The combined weight of the artillery shell, propellant, and metal shell makes it difficult to transport.

Therefore, simply separate the ammunition.

So far, this design is still very useful. (End of chapter)