Short video spoiler history: The beginning of modern warfare

Chapter 121 Improved version of the musket?
Fengtian Temple.

Zhu Biao also participated in the design and experiments of the internal combustion engine of the Science Department, so he understood how difficult the design of an internal combustion engine is.

Like kerosene lamps, it is difficult to ignite oil in a narrow space, so kerosene lamps use a wick to burn outside the lamp to achieve lighting. The same is true for steam engines. During the process, people are required to manually control the blower to bring air in.

Based on the way fuel and air are supplied to a steam engine, the first thing that comes to mind is that the fuel tank and the internal combustion engine are separated and connected by a conduit. Then there is the control of the amount of air and oil supplied, as well as the design of the ignition device.

If it is used in large vehicles such as trains, perhaps air, oil, etc. can be artificially introduced. Then there is the problem of the ignition device, which is still difficult to solve.

In addition, the sealing properties of the required components are also very high. The components currently delivered by the Ministry of Industry are not very ideal.

These problems cannot be solved in a day or two. What is needed is a direction, inspiration, etc. The only thing Zhu Biao confirmed is that it is correct to separate the fuel tank and the internal combustion engine. Just like a gas tank, isn't it also burned externally?
Hexing Tea and Snack Shop.

Shopkeeper Wan and others were really envious. Although this thing was not a necessity, it satisfied everyone's childhood fantasy.

Although I have seen the wonders captured by drones, there is still a big difference between seeing it with my own eyes, not to mention the dream of flying. The feeling of being able to fly freely in the sky is irreplaceable.

It’s just like the hot air balloon project, although it has gradually declined in the past six months and the cost has also been reduced a lot, there are still many people who go to try it out from time to time.

Manager Wan also tried it once. When he was rising up, his heart almost jumped out of his throat and his legs felt a little weak. But when he reached the highest point and looked down at the mountains and rivers, his depressed mood couldn't help but brighten up. The feeling of freedom and openness is indescribable and priceless.

So when everyone saw the flying backpack, they were all envious. To use the popular words in Jinling City, it was a once-in-a-lifetime series.

[Workers are in luck, it is raining in Guangdong again. This time it is raining heavily in Guangdong. The dragon boat race will be wet for a month, and the typhoon season will come a month later.]

[The rain, which has been falling for almost a month, will not stop but will intensify in the next two days. You can start a 30-day punch-in challenge to work in the rain.]

[When it’s windy and rainy, cows know to hide in the pens, and horses know to hide in the sheds. Only we working cows and horses go to work regardless of the weather. The streets are full of electric cars riding the wind and waves, and buses are rushing forward. Sometimes I feel inexplicably scared when I pass by the distribution box on the bus.]

[The key is that the rain in Guangdong is very fierce. It rains during the working hours, the weekends, and turns off the lights and splashes water in one go. It makes no difference whether you use an umbrella or not. You will get wet. When you get to the company regardless of the weather, you will see sunny weather and a soaking wet self.]

[Think of the streets and alleys full of water, the rainwater from the flushed garbage cans mixed with the water in the streets, and the air was filled with an inexplicable smell. At this time, don’t say anything, I don’t even want to eat]

[Don’t think you’ll be fine if you hide at home. The quilts are damp, the walls are covered with desiccants, and the air conditioner must be turned on all the time, otherwise it won’t work. Forget about clothes, underwear, shoes, etc., they have already started to mold and grow mushrooms.]

Jinling City, Hexing Tea and Snack Shop.

Shopkeeper Wan spat out a mouthful of tea. The province mentioned in the sky should be Guangdong Province. The name has not changed much. When mentioning his impression of that place, it is basically all about barbarians, miasma, lychees, etc. But he did not expect the weather there to be so weird.

Moreover, it seemed that the rainfall was more frequent this time. The water in the sky was halfway up the height of the wheels of electric vehicles and buses. You couldn't even see the road surface clearly. People and cars passing by were directly soaked in the water. With that height of water, rowing would definitely be no problem.

You can also see fish jumping around. Some people are fishing with umbrellas. The fish are not small, about five or six fingers big, and look very delicious.
"From what I've heard, is the rainfall in Guangdong too exaggerated?"

"I went there once, and that ghost place is really haunted. It starts raining around the Qingming Festival. It's not as exaggerated as Tianmu said, but it rains every two or three days. It's very humid and most people can't stand it."

Shopkeeper Wan saw the man drink a cup of tea and continued, "When it's May or June, there will be typhoons. When it's severe, trees that need several people to hug can be overturned, and houses will collapse as well. Typhoons usually last for a few days, just like pouring water, it just keeps pouring."

"The worst thing is that typhoons usually come around the time when rice is ripe, so locals either have to be lucky enough to harvest the rice in advance, or they have to wait for the typhoon to destroy it."

Manager Wan and others listened to the man's words, which were almost the same as what Tianmu said. The heavy rain, typhoon, humid air and subsequent high temperature made them feel a little uneasy about this kind of climate. Old people often said that too much humidity would cause rheumatism.

And judging from the comments, this is basically the case. Everyone is complaining about when the rain will stop, as it has been raining intermittently for more than a month.

Miasma, rainfall, typhoons, temperature, etc., are considered harsh conditions in later times, let alone today when technology is not well developed. You should know that since the Tang Dynasty, exile to Lingnan has been one of the more severe punishments.
Everyone stopped thinking about it. They had learned from Tianmu that Guangdong was a relatively developed place in the future, so they all thought about moving there. For example, they could buy some land in Guangzhou and settle down there, so as to find a way out for their descendants. What's more, the maritime ban policy has been abolished now. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that in the future it will definitely be a big city comparable to Nanjing.

But the journey was long, and when they saw the local climate conditions were so harsh, they thought that their descendants might not enjoy the blessing but they themselves would suffer, so some people couldn't help but be scared away.

[The bullet was originally designed to be spherical because the spherical shape is more aerodynamically stable]

[When the spherical bullet is flying, it can evenly disperse the surrounding airflow, thereby reducing the deflection and jitter that occurs during flight and achieving higher shooting accuracy]

[Later, people discovered that changing the bullet head to a sharp cone shape could more effectively penetrate the air and reduce the air's resistance to it, thus achieving a longer shooting distance]

[However, a conical bullet has a defect during flight, that is, it is easily affected by the unstable airflow around it and flips over, which reduces the stability of the flight and affects the final accuracy.] [To explain this problem, we must first start with the structure of the bullet. The bullet is mainly composed of a warhead, a cartridge case, gunpowder and an ignition device at the tail. When the trigger is pulled, the firing pin hits the primer cover, igniting the primer. The burning primer ignites the gunpowder, and the huge expansion force generated by the explosion of the gunpowder pushes the warhead to launch.]

[If this kind of spiral groove is set in the barrel, when the bullet passes through the rifling, the raised part in the spiral groove will exert a rotational torque on the bullet, causing it to rotate around its own axis, just like a spinning top, always keeping the tip facing forward]

[This rotation can make the bullet's flight more stable, reducing the impact of unstable factors on its trajectory. At the same time, rotation can also increase the bullet's penetration of the target]

[It can be said that the rifling is the soul of the barrel]

In front of Fengtian Hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and others were stunned for a moment before they realized, this is an improved version of the musket?

A fire gun can also be called a "long-barreled gun", "long gun", etc.

It appeared decades ago, but due to its complicated operation (like a cannonball, it needs to be loaded with gunpowder, pounded, then filled with iron bullets, and finally the fuse is lit), short range, low accuracy, and lethality that generally depends on the proficiency of the musketeer, it is generally a bit useless.

Even today's Ming army still lacks large-scale equipment, and musketeers have not developed into an independent branch of the military.

After all, on the battlefield, the process of reloading ammunition after you fire a shot is a torture, and the enemy will not wait for you to reload before launching a charge.

The rifled gun technology displayed in the sky can be described as... simple and unpretentious!

Simple and elegant, it perfectly combines the bullet and gunpowder into a whole, then ignites the gunpowder through impact to eject the bullet.

When it was displayed, you could see bullets being stuffed into the magazine one by one, and it could be fired continuously. The structure might not be clear, but it should not be difficult to imagine. After all, the sky curtain was not even mentioned, perhaps because it was felt that it was not worth mentioning.

The key point is the idea of ​​combining gunpowder and bullets, as well as rifling. The combination of the two is really perfect and directly changes the existing war mode.
"That's wonderful!" Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but say excitedly, and then asked someone to present the content that had just been transcribed. He felt relieved only after confirming that it was correct.

After thinking about it, I decided to let the craftsmen use their imagination to simply draw the structure of a musket that can fire continuously with one round of loading. It doesn't matter whether it succeeds or not.

The craftsmen were stunned for a moment, knowing that this was an opportunity that might help them rise to prominence, so they bit their pens and began to think hard.

Except for generals Fu Youde, Tang He and others who followed the army to attack Mingsheng, the generals who were still in Nanjing were all very excited. This was like they had found a treasure.

"An Ran, within five days, I want to see this kind of bullet and the corresponding rifled rifle." Zhu Yuanzhang began to give orders. It doesn't matter if it's almost there at the beginning, it can be improved slowly later.

An Ran agreed without thinking twice. The impact ignition was similar to flint and steel. All he had to do was stuff some flammable materials inside and use them to ignite the gunpowder. However, the rifling production process was a bit difficult. He couldn't just carve it out manually inside a steel pipe, right?

No wonder it is said that this is the soul of the rifle.

"How many steps can the improved bullet reach? Is it a hundred steps?" Zhu Yuanzhang guessed excitedly. In fact, it didn't matter even if it was not a hundred steps. This rifled gun greatly simplified the loading process. As long as the armored soldiers in front could hold on, it could basically kill the enemy with one shot. Even if the enemy was not killed, he would be scared to death.

You have to know that this is not the era of later generations. In this era, people basically relied on swords to fight each other. Few soldiers could even wear armor. We were all flesh and blood. Even if you were dozens of steps away, you would have nowhere to hide if someone shot you.

In addition, when a musket is fired, it is usually accompanied by a loud "bang", which is frightening. Under the double blow to the mind and body, if the enemy is not equipped with a corresponding musket, then the morale will basically collapse at the touch of a button.

Assuming you can get close, it only takes a few breaths for them to change ammunition. As long as the front-line soldiers can delay for a little while, they can launch another round of volleys, or use three-row shooting tactics to shorten the firepower gap. There are too many ways.

It can be said that the improved musket is so powerful that it has seriously affected the stability of this "version", just like coal mines, oil, steam engines, electricity, and motors.

I also learned the word "version" from the comments section. Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't imagine how terrifying a group of cavalrymen with improved fire guns would be.
Hu Weiyong, Liu Ji and others also basically understood that this was a great event. With the improved musket, it would not be a problem for the musket soldiers to become independent, so they all spoke up to congratulate.

Zhu Yuanzhang was in a good mood, waved his hand and responded, saying: "Let's wait for the Ministry of Works to prepare the improved fire gun. It's a pity that Tiande is not here. He will be very happy when he knows the news."

Then I thought, maybe it’s time to set up a musket battalion. If the muskets can be modified to fire continuously after a single refill of ammunition, what effect will the combination of cavalry and muskets have?

No, no, no, maybe if we add more gunpowder, the range can be longer. We need to try these slowly. Maybe we can imitate the kind of muskets in later generations that can shoot hundreds of steps away.
Liu Ji and others looked at each other, all of them envious of Xu Da's favor.

(End of this chapter)