Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 170: Mother-and-child cannon

The power of large ships is mainly driven by sails. Although human power can also add some power to the ship, the increased proportion is very small.

Relatively speaking, human power is very capable of driving a small boat.

Therefore, if rowing is done solely by human power, the small boat can catch up with the large boat.

Originally Yuanbao was very confident that he could catch up with the two flying dragon boats, but they were only focused on escaping.

And from time to time they would fire a shot towards the back to cause interference. Although because of the long distance and the fact that the boat was moving, they were not hit once after firing for a long time, it still caused some interference to the soldiers rowing the boat.

Apart from anything else, everyone would be scared if a shell fell nearby, and the waves caused by the shell would also have a certain impact on the small boat.

Seeing that he had not caught up with Lao Piao by the time he reached Hejiang, Yuanbao had to arrange for a small boat to dock, and then sent people to borrow a few fast horses from Lao Piao and rush back to Jiangjin County for help.

Jiangjin County has ten thousand-jin cannons. Not to mention directly destroying the two Flying Dragon ships, as long as Yuanbao can hit one or two ships with one or two shells and slow down their speed, he will be able to destroy them.

When Lao Piao saw Yuanbao chasing the two flying dragon boats across Hejiang, he knew that his trip to Chengdu might not be so fast, so he simply sent someone back to Fobao and asked Zhang Haomin to send some bullets, detonators and other munitions, and it would be best if he could also bring the submachine gun.

When Le Bao and Na Yancheng led a large army to attack Fobao, Han Yuanxiao was worried that Chen Gu could not hold on, so he sent a large amount of supplies to Chen Gu. Of course, in the end Chen Gu did not take the supplies for nothing, but converted them into silver and paid with gunpowder and preservative oil.

The things Han Yuanxiao sent included ten cluster guns and one hundred cluster gun shells.

The technology behind the submachine gun is very close to that of later artillery, and it is also breech-loaded. Well, it is actually similar to the technology behind Chen Gu's rifle.

It was definitely an advanced weapon in this era. After all, the imperial navy was still using muzzle-loading cannons.

Therefore, Chen Gu did not use it at the beginning because he was afraid that the imperial court would wake up and start manufacturing submachine guns on a large scale. If the war broke out, the casualties would be huge.

Especially before Chen Gu developed, its war potential was far inferior to that of the imperial court.

The imperial court was planning to manufacture submachine guns on a large scale, so Chen Gu was afraid that he would really run into the mountains.

After Chen Gu obtained the cluster gun, he did not use it, but gave it to Wu Hua, asking him to imitate the cluster gun and improve the craftsmanship of the shells.

Although the shells for the cluster gun are also made in advance and can be directly loaded into the cannon and ignited and fired, the point of ignition rather than firing needs to be improved.

What's more, the shell of the cluster gun is not actually a large shell, but countless tiny lead bullets, which are used to kill soldiers on a large scale.

One shot could fire dozens or even hundreds of lead bullets at the same time, which could kill a large group of people at the same time. When fighting against Dzungar, it was said that three shots were enough to make the enemy flee in panic.

This thing is really useful for dealing with large-scale dense formation charges, but the war situation in the future will inevitably change, and large-scale dense formation charges will hardly appear on the battlefield.

Therefore, Chen asked Wu Hua to modify the artillery shells to the same technology as his rifle bullets, which consist of two parts: the shell and the projectile, and there must be a firing device behind the shell.

There are two types of projectiles. One is a solid bullet like a rifle bullet, which is specially used for armor-piercing and targets warships. The other is a hollow bullet filled with gunpowder, which can explode again after landing, relying on shock waves and shrapnel to injure people. During this period of time, Wu Hua has already made both types of shells. Referring to Chen Gu's rifle, Wu Hua also carved rifling for the sub-cannon, and then designed the size of the shell just right to increase airtightness, so that the original 100-jin sub-cannon only had a shooting distance of about 200 meters to about 500 meters.

The range has more than doubled.

Compared with the small barrel of a rifle, it is much easier to modify a submachine gun, for example, it is much easier to carve the rifling.

Hejiang is actually very close to the Buddhist treasure. In later generations, the Buddhist treasure was placed under the jurisdiction of Hejiang. It can be reached in one and a half hours by fast horse.

Upon learning that it was Lao Piao who needed the mother-and-child cannon, Zhang Haomin was somewhat hesitant. After all, even Chen Gu didn't use the mother-and-child cannon. Now that Lao Piao came to ask for it without Chen Gu's order, it was somewhat against the rules.

Fortunately, Chen Gu did not order others not to requisition the mother-and-child cannons, so Zhang Haomin simply took the things and went there himself. He gave the mother-and-child cannons to Lao Piao first, and he went to Luzhou to meet Chen Gu.

If Chen Kui disagrees, we can just bring the things back and see if Chen Kui needs anything. The Buddhist treasures are not too far from Luzhou.

There are many wheelbarrows specially used for transporting Buddhist treasures. A small cannon weighing over 100 pounds can be pushed very fast on a wheelbarrow.

However, in order to save time, Zhang Haomin still used a horse-drawn carriage. After all, it was not the busy farming season, and other things could be postponed, but the fighting must not be delayed.

So on that day, Zhang Haomin personally brought submachine guns, bullets and other military equipment to the Chishui River in Hejiang.

Seeing Zhang Haomin bringing thirty carriages of stuff, Lao Piao was very excited. He ran over from a distance, jumped onto Zhang Haomin's carriage, and asked, "Did you bring the mother-and-child cannon?"

"I brought it, but you know that Chen Ke asked for it to be kept confidential. Did you ask for Chen Ke's consent in advance?" Zhang Haomin asked with a frown.

"What the hell is asking for conscription? A general is not subject to orders from his sovereign when he is away from home. The Chishui River is so long, and the imperial navy consists of small boats that are as slippery as loaches. How can I fight them?
If the situation continues like this, how long will it take me to get to Chengdu?" Lao Piao lamented.

Zhang Haomin couldn't help but sigh and said, "You are so impetuous, how can Chen Gu let you lead the troops to Chengdu alone?"

"I'm not going to Chengdu alone. The guys from the ten major clans in Jiangjin, Yunhua will also go to Chengdu, and Lao Nian will go with us. Don't worry, there are a lot of people!" said Lao Piao.

"That's better. Wu Hua is in the carriage at the back. Ask him how to use the mother-and-child cannon. I'm going to Luzhou to meet Chen Gu first. You take it easy." Zhang Haomin warned with some concern.

The old migrant is quite capable, but he always gives people a sense of being impatient when doing things, which makes older people feel uneasy.

In fact, Chen Gu felt that Lao Piao was a man of rough but delicate character, and he could be trusted.

Not long after Zhang Haomin left, Lao Piao chatted with Wu Hua, and after learning about the performance of the mother-and-child cannon, he set off with his army. Half an hour later, they found the imperial navy. With only one salvo from the mother-and-child cannon, the navy lost three small sampans and a river pilot boat, and a large sampan was seriously damaged.

The navy directly lost half of its ships and personnel.

(End of this chapter)