Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

If they adopt the tactic of lying on the ground and ambush, they will naturally be equipped with breech-loading smoothbore muskets.

However, the difference between smoothbore muskets and rifled muskets is that their power is relatively small under the same caliber.

If it is only equipped with a 12mm caliber like a rifled musket, it may face the problem of insufficient power.

In this regard, Equipment Minister Bi Maokang said:
"After the cost of arrow-shaped bombs has been reduced, they can be distributed and used on a large scale in the military."

"And because the new arrow-shaped bullet is thinner and longer, it is more suitable for use with 12mm caliber muskets."

"Its power is enough to penetrate the armor of the Jianlu at a distance of 300 meters."

"Besides, because the 12mm musket is lighter, soldiers prefer it, and it is also more convenient to use it for bayonet fighting."

"I think it is entirely possible to only equip the city with 12mm light muskets, and only use the 20mm heavy muskets for special purposes such as city wall muskets."

This is a new situation that emerged after the large-scale deployment of arrow-shaped missiles.

After improving the charge and bullet type, the arrow-shaped bullets fired by the light musket were also enough to penetrate the armor of the Jianlu at a distance of 300 meters. This made the heavy musket, which was originally known for its powerful power, less popular with the soldiers.

After all, it was too heavy and had a strong recoil. Most soldiers preferred the light and easy-to-use musket, believing that this musket, which was closer to a bird gun, could be more accurate.

As rumored, some soldiers were able to shoot down flying birds.

Zhu Youjian nodded in approval, considering that the range and power of the 12mm rifled musket were better than the original 20mm heavy musket.

It is believed that the problem of insufficient power of the 12mm smoothbore musket will not be particularly prominent when combined with the rifled musket.

Coupled with the extremely powerful bullet type such as the arrow-shaped bullet, twelve millimeters is indeed enough.

Moreover, Bi Maokang mentioned one thing, which gave him a surprise:
"We imitated the Yisan bullet, which had one large and three small projectiles, and combined the arrow-shaped bullet in the same way to make an arrow-shaped bullet with three arrows."

“Although its power and range are not as far as a single arrow-shaped bullet, at around 100 meters, its lethality and accuracy are good.”

"Even around 150 meters, there is a certain degree of accuracy."

"Lü Gong is still leading people to develop arrow-shaped bullets composed of more small arrows based on shotgun shells."

This was something Zhu Youjian had not expected. He did not expect that Lu Xiang and others would delve so deeply into the research of arrow-shaped bombs that they even began to develop cluster arrow-shaped bombs.

This type of ammunition is one of the types of lethal ammunition used in shotguns in later generations. When Lü Xiang and others were developing arrow-shaped shrapnel shells, they thought that arrows could also be used in firearms after being shrunk, so they developed this type of ammunition.

In order to maintain the accuracy of several arrows, it uses a more complex sabot, which is one of the reasons that limits its use.

But if it is used for projectiles and close-range spraying, just add a wooden shell to bundle a few arrows together -

Inspired by the crudely made arrow-shaped bullets made by the North Koreans, Lu Xiang and others no longer pursued accuracy blindly, but only tried to get the bullet out.

According to the tests of the Equipment Academy, this crudely made cluster arrow-shaped bomb has good accuracy within 50 meters and considerable lethality. If the requirements are not high, it can be put into use now.

Zhu Youjian was very pleased with this, and ordered that Lu Xiang and others be commended and rewarded, allowing them to continue their research and development and strive to make better arrow-shaped bullets.

At the same time, the smoothbore musket is also equipped with a conical bullet, which can be regarded as a single-headed bullet for a shotgun. Moreover, because the barrel is longer than that of a later shotgun, the effective range can reach two hundred meters, which is also very powerful.

After comprehensive consideration, Zhu Youjian determined:

"As a supplement to rifled muskets, breech-loading smoothbore muskets are allowed to be produced and equipped."

"Its name is Breech-Loading Fire Gun Type 1, abbreviated as CH."

"For breech-loading rifled muskets, the letter X is used exclusively, abbreviated as CX1."

After deciding on the numbers for the two types of muskets, Zhu Youjian continued:
"For rifled musket barrels, the best quality steel should be used."

"The barrel of a gun that failed to rifle can be ground flat and used in a smoothbore musket."

"Except for the barrel, all other parts must be completely standardized to facilitate mass production. The most accurate and fully interchangeable parts should also be used first for rifled muskets."

"The rifled muskets with the highest accuracy are selected as sniper muskets for use by snipers in the army."

This request has some problems, Bi Maokang said:

"Sniper rifles still use spring-wheel lighters. Will future sniper rifles use flintlock lighters?" "They all use spring-wheel lighters. The equipment department cannot produce them, and the cost is also high."

The spring wheel lighter is expensive and complex in structure, which is why it has not been widely used before.

However, its success rate in igniting fire is indeed quite good. Considering the needs of sniping, Zhu Youjian thought about it and said:
"Sniper rifles are manufactured separately and can use spring-loaded locks, longer barrels, more rifling, and even special bullets."

"A rifled musket with good accuracy is used as a precision musket by precision shooters in the military and as a candidate for sniper."

"They also have a certain degree of freedom when fighting, giving priority to shooting enemy generals."

"In the future, the sniper teams of each brigade will be changed to precision shooter teams, and separated from specialized snipers."

Zhu Youjian was somewhat surprised by the rapid maturity of sniper tactics, so he imitated the snipers and precision shooters of later generations and distinguished the two.

In the future, the sniper brigade will receive more investment and more resources. They will also have greater tactical freedom and will even be directly under the Privy Council.

The officials of the Privy Council all agreed with this. In just a few months, the sniper team shot and killed two Beile and one Efu, which was an unprecedented record in the Ming Dynasty.

The effect was so significant that there was even a proposal in the Privy Council to expand the number of snipers to tens of thousands.

However, because the Korean War has not yet ended, various experiences are still being summarized and have not been completely finalized.

The Equipment Department is the most supportive of this, because the snipers' achievements are closely related to the equipment they provide.

Anyone who dares to question the achievements of the Equipment Department can use a sniper rifle to crush the doubts. The research and development officers of the Equipment Institute are also waiting to get their achievements after the war.

Now, the emperor has set up precision shooters as a backup for snipers. Equipment Minister Bi Maokang is delighted and calculates:
"The cost of producing a spring-wheel-ignited breech-loading rifle is about thirty taels of silver."

"The main cost is the gun barrel. On average, it takes 13 taels of silver to successfully manufacture one."

"But the failed gun barrels can be used for smoothbore muskets in the future, so it can be recycled and reduce costs a bit."

"Other smoothbore muskets don't need rifling, so the cost is about the same as before."

"Changing the spring-wheel lighter to a flintlock lighter can also reduce some costs."

"According to my estimation, the cost of an ordinary breech-loading flintlock smoothbore musket is about seventeen taels of silver."

"When we become more skilled in production, we may be able to reduce the price even lower, to around 15 taels."

This price still made Zhu Youjian frown, and he asked:
"What is the current cost of a muzzle-loading flintlock smoothbore musket?"

Bi Maokang calculated the number of babies produced during this period and replied:
"The current cost is about six taels, which is more than one tael higher than the original matchlock gun."

"It was mainly due to the switch to a flintlock and the increased costs associated with the gravity-priming system."

"In the future, when production becomes more sophisticated, it may be possible to reduce the price to around five taels."

This was consistent with Zhu Youjian's previous estimate. He nodded slightly and said:

"It seems that the cost of a breech-loading musket is three times that of a muzzle-loading musket, even though both are smoothbore muskets."

"Where are the differences? Tell me in detail."

Bi Maokang has something to say about this. First of all, the gun mechanism used in the breech-loading musket needs to be tightly fitted to minimize the air leakage caused by the hole in the breech.

Then there is the receiver that holds the gun mechanism, which also needs to be made of steel, and has grooves and tubes cut into it to prevent the gun mechanism from falling out.

It can be said that the craftsmanship of these two is very complicated for the current Ming Dynasty. The cost of the receiver and gun mechanism is no less than that of the rifled gun barrel.

This is something Zhu Youjian didn't know. The manufacture of the Mauser rifle was also somewhat complicated compared to the rifles of the same period. The structure of the Mauser rifle he took out was very difficult for the Ming Dynasty, which relied entirely on manual labor at that time.

(The receiver of the Mauser rifle needs to be cut and dug out. Fortunately, the bolt does not need an extractor and firing pin for the time being, so the manufacturing is relatively simple)
(The Mosin-Nagant rifle receiver is open at the top and back, unlike the closed receiver of the Mauser rifle, which is easier to cut and can also be forged)
In this regard, he could only draw a few more mechanisms, including pictures of the Mosin-Nagant, Lee-Enfield and other rifles he had seen, and let the Equipment Institute explore the structures inside and try which structure was easiest to manufacture and could reduce costs.

At the same time, a reward was issued to encourage people to find ways to improve the manufacturing of the gun mechanism and receiver, reduce the cost of breech-loading muskets, and facilitate large-scale equipment in the future.

In this regard, he also proposed forging, stamping and other manufacturing methods commonly used in later firearms, and asked craftsmen to explore hydraulic forging hammers and hydraulic presses for the manufacture of muskets and cannons, as well as for creating protective steel plates.

As for now, we are producing a batch of breech-loading smoothbore muskets and putting them into the Korean battlefield for testing. (End of this chapter)