King Luhuang of the Ming Dynasty: My father, Ming Taizu

Chapter 171 Firearms ahead of their time! tire! spring!
Yanzhou.

suburbs.

Firearms Workshop.

Tao Wanhu looked at the musket in front of him.

It has a jet black color, a long and straight gun body, and the wooden stock has been carved and polished, with extremely smooth lines.

Far from comparable to today's fire guns!
The current firecracker is actually a small artillery piece.

A round tube with a hole at the end for the ignition lead.

When fighting, first load the black powder, then the projectiles, insert the fuse into the small hole at the back, light the fuse when in use, wait until the gunpowder ignites, and launch the front projectile.

Not only is it heavy, it's also rough.

Fortunately, the manufacturing process is not complicated, so it can be made anywhere.

Of course, the power is also very limited.

Short range, low power, poor accuracy.

It's okay to be an attack supplement, but in real battles, we still mainly rely on cold weapons and various fire mines, rockets, and artillery.

Firegun really can't be put on the stage.

But the musket in front of me is obviously not comparable to a blunderbuss!

According to the revelation given by Zhu Tan.

The musket developed by Wanhu is not the same thing as the blunderbuss!
Because of the extravagant use of steel, the barrel of the musket is relatively strong and much lighter.

At the same time, the ammunition for muskets was changed from separately loaded gunpowder and projectiles to fixed ammunition.

The front end is a projectile, and the rear end is an enhanced version of granular gunpowder. Compared with traditional black powder, it burns faster and generates greater thrust, further enhancing the shooting performance of the gun.

Moreover, Wanhu also added a trigger and flint firing device according to Zhu Tan's request!

There are many and complex processes to be solved, such as how to ensure that the ammunition in the barrel is fired smoothly while ensuring that the barrel will not burst due to high pressure.

Wanhu and Zhu Tan spent countless days and nights in the newly built steel plant, conducting countless tests and improvements on the steel, and finally found a special alloy formula that not only maintained the hardness of the steel, but also added enough The toughness allows it to withstand the high pressure generated when fixed ammunition is fired.

In addition, in order to make the musket shooting more accurate, Wanhu also introduced the concept of aiming device. On the top of the musket, they carefully designed a simple sight. Although the structure is not complicated, it greatly improves the shooting accuracy and greatly enhances the practicality of the musket.

At the same time, the design of the trigger and flint firing mechanism was also a challenge.

Traditional matchlocks need to be ignited by an external fire source, which is cumbersome and not fast enough.

Wanhu adopted Zhu Tan's suggestion and designed a mechanical structure. By pulling the trigger, the flint was driven to hit the flint, causing sparks to ignite the gunpowder. The introduction of this mechanism makes the shooting of muskets faster and more convenient.

In terms of ammunition, Wanhu also made innovations.

At this time, the Ming army's firecrackers were all round lead bullets, steel balls, stones, etc.

Under Zhu Tan's suggestion, Wanhu designed an aerodynamic cone-shaped projectile. This design makes the projectile more stable in flight, has a longer range, and is more powerful.

Wanhu was still worried about what to use to fill the fixed ammunition at first. After worrying for a long time, under Zhu Tan's guidance, he finally designed a paper shell bullet!
It encapsulates projectiles, gunpowder and ignition powder, and wraps them in a paper shell. This design greatly simplifies the loading process. The shooter only needs to load the paper shell bullet into the gun chamber as a whole, and then use the firing mechanism to ignite it to complete the preparation for firing, which greatly improves the speed and convenience of shooting.

Another advantage of paper-cased bullets is their ability to keep the gunpowder dry. The paper shell can effectively prevent moisture, ensuring that the gunpowder can maintain stability in harsh environments. In addition, the paper shell will be quickly burned by the high temperature when fired, leaving no residue. This not only avoids the trouble of cleaning the gun chamber, but also reduces the risk of firearm failure.

Wanhu also took special consideration into its production efficiency when designing paper-cased bullets. Compared with traditional ammunition, paper-cased bullets are easier to mass-produce and transport, which is of great significance to improving the army's logistical support capabilities. Through standardized production, we can ensure that the quality and performance of each round of ammunition are maintained at a high level, providing more reliable support to soldiers on the battlefield.

In short.

Nowadays, the musket that has truly formed combat effectiveness can be regarded as an epoch-making weapon.

Skipping the three-eyed gun and bird gun directly, we came directly to the era of muskets!

of course.

Zhu Tan still kept a hand.

What Wanhu is about to mass-produce now is a smoothbore gun, but Zhu Tan also asked Wanhu to pre-research the rifled gun!

At the same time, front sight and scope designs were also introduced.

The reason why current muskets are not equipped with sights is because the accuracy of muskets is relatively poor.

The reason for the poor performance is that the projectile is smaller than the barrel, so the direction of the projectile will be random when it flies out. When fighting, maintaining the density of firepower is the best way.

Only when there are rotating riflings in the barrel, the bullet will rotate at high speed due to the rifling when shooting, so that the flight stability will be better, the accuracy will be greatly increased, and the shooting range will be longer.

And these processes are actually pretty much the same.

If Zhu Tan is willing, he can see mass-produced rifled guns within a year or two.

but.

Even if he really had a rifled gun, Zhu Tan would hide it for the time being.

After all, once this musket comes out, Zhu Yuanzhang and other generals will definitely find its terrifying value!
When the time comes, I will definitely not be able to keep it to myself, as I will definitely be raped by the Ministry of Industry.

The Ming Dynasty will be full of muskets.

What is more likely is that there will be more ingenious craftsmen who will develop rifled guns!

What makes Zhu Tan wary is that this year has already reached the 19th year of Hongwu.

Good brother Zhu Biao only has about six years to live.

Later, if Zhu Yunwen became the emperor's grandson, he would even become the emperor.

Zhu Tan must have weapons stronger than those of the imperial court. It is best to bring Maxim and tanks, and simply rush to Yingtian in a few days to Fengtian Jingnan!

In short, we cannot let Zhu Yunwen, who cheated his uncle, be the emperor.

Otherwise, as the King of Lu, he was in charge of military power, administrative power and even legislative power in the three prefectures. He would probably be a greater threat to Zhu Yunwen than Zhu Laosi.

Moreover, according to the way Zhu Yunwen was fooled by Fang Xiaoru into engaging in the ancient well-field system as soon as he ascended the throne, it is probably inconsistent with his changed political philosophy.

At that time, not only will he be his mortal enemy in terms of political philosophy, but he will also be the greatest threat to him. Maybe Zhu Yunwen will send a large army to besiege him as soon as he ascends the throne.

If you don't keep a hand.

At that time, half a million troops armed with artillery, rifles, machine guns, and tanks would besiege Yanzhou.

Zhu Tan's scalp went numb when he thought of that scene.

Must save a hand!
The most powerful weapon can only be owned and used by yourself!
Tao Wanhu wiped the black gun body and couldn't help but sigh.

What a work of art!

In my life, I have made many kinds of firearms, such as rockets, artillery, fire mines, and even muskets.
Of course, this kind of musket is just a toy-like thing.

Load ammunition into the head of the gun, wait until the enemy is close, ignite it and fire it. After firing, it can be used as an ordinary spear, which is slightly more powerful in close combat.

Wanhu had never even dreamed of a musket like this one.

The key is that this new musket is really powerful!
It has a farther range than a bow and arrow, a faster firing speed than a bow and arrow, and is more powerful than a bow and arrow!

The most important thing is that the threshold for use is lower than that of bows and arrows.

Similarly, it takes a long time to train an archer, but a musketeer can be trained in just a few days.

The archer's shooting range also depends on his physical strength, but in theory, the musketeer has no chance of running out of physical strength after a battle.

Wan Hu looked at the musket in his hand and felt extremely excited.

This is a product that transcends the times!

Wan Hu looked at his apprentice Xu Bin and asked, "Has this gun been tested five hundred times?"

Xu Bin nodded and said: "Yes, master! I have fired more than 500 times, and there is still no problem with the gunfire! This time the steel is finally easy to use!"

Wanhu nodded.

“I’ve made a hundred guns in this batch, and I’ll randomly select ten more guns to try!
If there is no problem, mass production will begin immediately! His Royal Highness King Lu has set off for Peiping, we have to hurry up! "

Hearing this, Xu Bin smiled bitterly and said, "Then we will continue to shoot."

Wan Hu put his hands behind his back and said, "Of course!"

Xu Bin hesitated and said: "Before this, five brothers were injured due to gun explosions. The most seriously injured one even lost an eye."

Wan Hu frowned and said: "Making firearms is the most dangerous thing in the world! Otherwise, why would we recruit more than 100 of you brothers if we have nothing to do? Stop talking nonsense and go! Didn't you notice that your five injured brothers are all crazy?" Wealth? Your Highness, Prince Lu, has plenty of money, so what are you afraid of?"

Xu Bin had a wry smile on his face.

Can that be the same?

If the gun explodes and becomes disabled, although you can get a large sum of money, you will not be able to work in this firearms workshop in the future!

The salary in the firearms workshop is really high. Naturally, he is willing to have a full meal, but he doesn't want to be full!

soon.

The sound of "bang bang bang" shooting came from the firearms workshop.

at last.

The next morning.

All the disciples found Wanhu with red eyes.

"Master! I have tried all these guns! There is no problem with all ten of them!"

Upon hearing this, Wanhu said happily: "Okay! Let the workshop work day and night immediately to make the gun with all its strength! We will try to finish it within ten days and send it to Peking!"

at this time.

Zhu Tan just left Yanzhou on the second day!
Lu Wangwei sent fifty elite cavalry to escort Zhu Tan to Peiping.

More than 4,900 other people all went to sea.

What makes Zhu Tan regretful is that Zheng He's treasure ship has not yet been built at this time, and there are quite a few shipping cannons in Shandong.

The displacement of a ship is about 1500 tons, and the load capacity is 1000 tons. At this time, one stone weighs 150 kilograms, and 50 stones is 7500 million kilograms.

Zhu Tan organized a total of 40 large ships before transporting people, food and other supplies on board.

Zhu Tan originally wanted to go to the firearms workshop to urge Wanhu to see how far the new firearms had been developed.

After all, the amount of money invested has reached four to five million taels, and a full year has passed.

But in the end, after thinking about it, I gave up.

The requirements I set for Wanhu may indeed be a bit high.

It completely complies with the standards of modern rifles, so even if it is slower, it is normal.

But once it was built and armed with Ming border troops.

It is estimated that in the future, the grassland people will all be good at singing and dancing.

Next, the country will be under less pressure and can fully develop its economy.

Beiping.

Zhu Tan sat in a carriage and finally arrived outside the city.

at this time.

Outside the city were three generals, a monk, and an official.

They are the three capable generals of Yan King Zhu Di, Zhang Yu, Zhu Neng and Qiu Fu.

The monk is naturally the famous prime minister in black, Seng Daoyan.

The official was Zhu Di's later Minister of War, and now Shi Jinzhong, the chief minister of the palace.

After all, Zhu Di is Zhu Tan's elder brother, and it would be inappropriate to greet him outside the city gate.

Therefore, all the important officials in the palace were sent out, which was considered to be of a very high standard.

"creak, creak"

Zhang Yu frowned and listened to the sound of the carriage in front of him.

I couldn't help but said: "This sound seems different from the sound of ordinary carriages."

Everyone nodded after hearing this.

It was different from the slightly harsh sound of the carriage "creeping, creaking" that we usually hear.

The sound of His Highness Prince Lu's carriage was a smoother, lower creaking sound. This sound sounded softer and unlike the harsh friction between the wheel axle and the ground in the past.

Upon closer inspection, they found that the overall structure of the carriage looked more refined and stable. Conspicuous metal devices were installed at the four corners of the carriage, which they had never seen before!

What surprised them even more was the wheels of the carriage. Unlike ordinary wooden or iron rims, these wheels are wrapped in a black, soft material.

Everyone looked at each other.

"His Royal Highness Prince Lu's carriage is truly extraordinary."

soon.

Zhu Tan got off the carriage.

Looking at the curious eyes of everyone, his face was full of pride.

He spent a lot of money to build this carriage!

The first was the chassis and spring damping system. He relied on some memories from his previous life and countless attempts with the craftsmen to finally succeed.

Carriages can now easily filter out many messy gravel roads.

Although Lao Zhu was very concerned about the construction of post roads in the Ming Dynasty, engineering construction in ancient times was just like that.

If you still ride in the same carriage as before, you will still be jolted around.

Secondly, it is another epoch-making thing!

tire!

I haven’t been to America yet, so there’s no hope of counting on rubber trees.

But Ming Dynasty can still get rubber.

That is the rubber grass that grows in the Western Region!

Although it was difficult to get hold of them, fortunately, the Lu Shang Salt Store had a developed trade nowadays, so I ended up buying a lot of them.

However, Zhu Tan didn't know much about this thing, so he could only explore with the craftsmen how to make tires.

Finally, I finally found a method that was almost reliable.

It is nothing more than cleaning and cutting the rubber grass into sections, then extracting the juice, solidifying it, and processing it into a rubber block. Finally, a mold is made and placed in the mold. When the rubber block is solidified, it is made into a tire.

Although this kind of tire is easy to wear, and the comfort level is not comparable to that of later generations.

But at least in this era, Zhu Tan's carriage is already considered the ceiling of the Ming Dynasty's carriage.

When everyone saw Zhu Tan getting out of the car, they all knelt down and said: "The lower officials (low generals and poor monks) pay homage to His Royal Highness King Lu!"

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(End of this chapter)