Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 629
While talking, suddenly a soldier came to report that the cannon sacrifice ceremony was ready.In order to deal with the firearms of the Kun thieves, Foshan sent ten newly cast red barbarian cannons.The dignitaries He Rubin decided on an auspicious day, and personally sacrificed and tested the cannons.

Today is the auspicious day of the zodiac, He Rubin came to the school grounds with his staff, all the main generals under his command came together, Lu Yizhong also came, looking around.I saw ten gleaming blue cannons installed on the newly made old elm two-wheeled and double-legged cannon carriage, which looked very thick and strong.In front of the cannon, set up an offering table with a red cardboard on which the inscription "God of General Pao" is written.In front of the memorial tablet are three animal offerings, sake, incense burner, candlestick and so on.

He Rubin took the garrison firearm and Li Modao, the commander of the battalion, washed his hands and burned incense, worshiping the gun god three times.He also recited a prayer prepared by his staff in advance, then picked up the jug and filled the cup, pouring it on the ground.The ten gunners knelt down to salute the chief soldier first, then walked to the cannon, knelt down and kowtowed three times before coming to push the cannon.

The next step is to show the cannon - the so-called "fire the cannon".Newly cast cannons are tested as usual, which is very common in military manufacturing. However, once the cannons are used, the traditional weapons such as siege machines and trebuchets used in China are immediately inferior in comparison, and it is inevitable that they will be infected. It became mysterious and created various ceremonies. Since the Yuan Dynasty, Da Pao has had titles and rituals.

He Rubin attaches great importance to sacrificial cannons.On the one hand, he thinks this will help improve morale, and on the other hand, he also wants to know how powerful the Hongyi cannon made in this province is.He came into contact with the Hongyi Cannon earlier. When the Hongyi Cannon was introduced for the first time in the Tianqi Years, he had watched the test shooting, learned Western artillery skills, and even made a book on firearms.
At that time, the technology of imitating Hongyi cannons was quite mature. The cannons made in Li Luoyou's foundry were not only the cannons borrowed from Macau, but also the German missionary Ma Yangchun who was hiding in his house to point out at any time. Li Luoyou After returning from Lingao, according to what he saw and heard in the Lingao gun factory and the instructions of the Europeans around him, he built some earthen equipment and applied the technology of boring the gun bore with a boring knife.Therefore, the cast Hongyi cannon is obviously better than other artillery fields.

"These cannons are well cast," he admired.He has already seen that these cannons are relatively light Hongyi cannons, "Who made these?"

"Responding to your lord's words: This is the foundry of Li's family in Foshan." Li Modao reported, "His foundry is different from others, and the cannons are especially excellent."

He Rubin thought for a while and asked, "Is that Li Luoyou?"

"Exactly. I heard that he is very flattered by casting cannons, so I specially asked Fujun to write a book and asked the Frang robot to borrow the cannons for him to imitate."

"It's no wonder that his cannons are well made. This master Li is half a foreigner." He Rubin laughed, "I heard that when he was young, he served as a servant boy for the monk Folang Jiyang in Haojing, and he was quite close to the monk. Frangji's human feelings are different after all!"

Everyone laughed.Everyone knows that He Rubin is very disgusted with foreign religions, and of course he hates people who are Christians and have a deep relationship with the Christian Church in Macau.

"Please show me," Li Modao said with his hands crossed, "Do you want to fire the cannon immediately?" After obtaining He Rubin's consent, Li Modao waved the flag in his hand:

"My lord has a life, test the gun immediately!"

Following an order, ten gunners immediately ran over and pushed one of the cannons out.The Hongyi cannon is very heavy. Even if it is a light artillery that fires five-jin heavy shells like this, the cannon body weighs [-] jin. At that time, the cannon carriage was made of heavy materials in order to bear the heavy load and durable, and a lot of iron nails were added to the cannon wheel. The hoop, the whole artillery is very heavy, and it is quite difficult for ten gunners to push it.

The gunners push the cannon into place, one of them first measuring the angle with a gun gauge.Hongyi cannons are actually cannons, and are generally fired at a smaller angle of fire for maximum range.

The gunner reported loudly: "The gun gauge is six points higher!" Then a gunner hammered the triangular wedge between the barrel and the gun mount with a hammer, so that the gun body gradually rose.

The gun gauge is six points high, roughly equivalent to a 45-degree firing angle, which is the elevation angle used by the smoothbore cannon at its maximum range.

"The height of the cannon is six points, and the bullet can reach 53 steps." He Rubin said to his staff and generals, "If it is seven points, it will be a short step." A set of things can be memorized backwards.

Li Modao said respectfully: "What you see is very true."

When the cannon body was lifted up, the gunner shouted again: "Two catties and six taels of medicine!"

The other two gunners quickly brought a porcelain jar from the pit. This kind of porcelain jar was specially used to hold gunpowder. It was glazed inside and outside, and had a neck for fastening.The gunner opened the sealing glue, uncovered the sealed porcelain plate, measured the gunpowder spoon by spoonful with a wooden measuring spoon, and poured it into the gun bore. A gunner poked the gunpowder into the bottom of the gun bore with a long pestle, and fired it into the gun near the bottom of the gun bore. Insert a fuse made of paper and gunpowder into the door, continue to charge the powder, poke it tightly, and install a wooden code, and then load the iron bullet.

Li Modao asked everyone to retreat ten feet away, and the rest of the soldiers also retreated far away, making preparations for what happened.Li Modao only retreated a foot away, waved the small flag in his hand, and said:

"point!"

A gunner lit the fuse with a torch, and the gunners immediately retreated to Li Modao's side, all nervously watching the hissing and sparking fuse that quickly ignited.

Although the cannons were powerful, the casting of cannons at that time lacked process management, and the casting materials were also mixed, so the quality could not be guaranteed; inexperienced gunners learned Western artillery books that did not consider the conversion of weights and measures when translating... This made Many cannons exploded on the first shot.Many people are often killed or injured.

The lead wire ignited into the fire door with hissing sparks. Suddenly, the fire door flashed red, followed by flames from the muzzle and a loud noise.Everyone felt the ground tremble under their feet, and suddenly there was thick smoke in front of the cannon.When the cannon rang, the staff and soldiers instinctively lowered their waists, and the gunners also squatted down violently.

Li Modao bent over, and opened his mouth quickly when he saw the red light.After the cannon rang, he quickly ran close to the cannon, inspected it and touched it with his hands. He felt relieved and hurried over to report:
"My lord! The barrel of the gun is intact."
He Rubin approached with his staff and generals.Check the gun body and gun mount, they are as strong as ever.Very satisfied.After a while, a soldier galloped back from the mound two miles away to report: the shell flew over the mound and broke a tree behind the mound.

"The thieves claim that their firearms are sharp, how is it better than this cannon?" He Rubin laughed.

"No matter how sharp the cannon of the Kun bandit is, it's nothing more than this," Chang Qingyun said.

"Hehe, this is just a small cannon with five catties of ammunition. If it fires a cannon with fifteen catties of ammunition, it can destroy three or four miles in one shot. No matter how sharp the firearms of the gangsters are, they can only do so at most." He Rubin was confident, "Li Guard, how many cannons does the Firearms Battalion have now?"

"Report to my lord: Including these ten Hongyi cannons, there are 160 old and new cannons in total."

"Tiger crouching guns and the like are not counted. If you remove these small guns, how many are there?"

"Report to my lord: there are 38 people."

"Okay!" He Rubin was quite satisfied, "Here are the latest samples of Western artillery shells sent by the Ministry of Industry, you can try them one by one. If it is useful, immediately order the artillery factory to make more."

"Yes, my lord."

This batch of new shells was cast under the auspices of Tang Ruowang, and distributed to the armies equipped with Hongyi cannons in Liaodong, Gyeonggi, Shandong, Fujian, and Guangdong for trial release.

These shells have different names, such as the so-called roaring dragon shells, refined shells, drill shells, and chisel shells.There are so many things that look strange.Li Modao loaded and tested one by one, but everyone couldn't see any specific effect of the strange shells sent in, and the range was much shorter.Only the loud whistling sound when the Roaring Dragon Bullet was launched made everyone think that it had a certain deterrent effect.

As for the chain bomb, which will be divided into two after being shot out, there is a chain in the middle; the split bomb with a fixed iron bar is in the middle of the two hemispheres, and the wide bomb on the iron button in the middle is held by the four hemispheres with chains. See It looks very powerful, but the range is much shorter. The staff felt that instead of firing these shells, it would be better to directly fire ball bullets and scattered bullets.

"Li Shoubei, what do you think of these shells?" He Rubin asked.

"My lord, the roar of the dragon roar is like a dragon's roar, which can deter the enemy's courage. But it is not the right way. As for the others..." Li Modao felt that these strange-shaped shells were useless. Fee material, and the shot can't go far."

"Foreign monks know how to make up some strange things to deceive people." He Rubin laughed, "We don't use this bunch of messy things."

He Rubin then inspected the firearms camp.This firearms battalion was specially set up to deal with the thieves, mobilized a lot of artillery, and built a lot of new artillery vehicles.He Rubin was very satisfied when he saw that the firearms battalion was in order, the armored battle equipment was excellent, the soldiers were busy practicing or maintaining the equipment, and there were no idle soldiers.

"Li garrison!"

"My lord!" Li Modao hurried up.

"You are good at leading troops!"

"All the Lord Tiger's Might!"

"En." He Rubin nodded, "I heard that you are good at using firearms, and the thief has a reputation for sharp firearms, what do you think?"

"My lord," Li Modao said cautiously, "I have never seen the firearms of the thieves before. I only heard that they have huge cannons, which can reach more than ten miles. In my opinion, such rumors are often exaggerated." place."

“How come you see?”

"I have been in the army for 16 years. I started as a three-eyed gunslinger, and I have handled countless firearms. However, the range of firearms is often exaggerated. I have seen the guns used by the humble staff over the years. The range of the Zhongfulang machine gun is no more than Two hundred steps, a tiger crouching cannon, is only thirty or forty steps. In the book, it is said that it can reach several miles, tens of miles. That is to say, in the case of Hongyi cannon, although there is a difference of one thousand catties, two thousand catties, and five thousand catties, In fact, the furthest a bullet can be fired is no more than three miles away. The giant cannon may not be able to shoot very far.”

He Rubin admired his words quite a lot, thinking that only those with actual combat experience could speak, so he sized up the officer in his thirties.This person has a face with Chinese characters, tall and strong, and powerful.At first glance, he is a general who is good at fighting.

"Have you ever fought in battle?"

"Returning to my lord, I used to be with the Xi army camp to prepare for the Zhou Lord's conquest of Sarhu. After the defeat of the Eastern Route Army, I led my brothers to defend the high hills and defend the enemy with firearms until it was getting late and the soldiers were slack. , just now broke out of the tight encirclement in one go." Li Modao was very proud of this period of history.

"The defense of Liaodong depends on the strength of firearms." He Rubin asked, "Now that the thieves' firearms are not under our control, and the enemy and we are in danger together, how should we arrange the firearms?"

Li Modao's face turned red with excitement, the commander-in-chief asked him about his plans, and it was a matter of great honor to speak out.He had thought about this many times before, and at this moment he made up his mind and said:

"Based on a humble position, although the Kun bandits have tens of thousands of horses, they are either traitors from Fujian and Guangdong or coerced civilians. They will not dare to fight our army in the field. The bandit's plan is nothing more than the reason why Hong Mao was in Penghu. The trick is to set up a strong stronghold and install heavy artillery to guard a corner. Our soldiers are always behind the siege. The range of the enemy's artillery is almost the same as ours. Our soldiers can dig trenches and advance to half a mile or one mile in front of the enemy's wall. The trench must be wide. It is deep enough to handle the artillery carts. My artillery will go forward from the bottom of the trench and reach the wall of the village gate to fire the artillery. My artillery can reach the enemy, but the enemy artillery cannot hurt me."

"What if the Kun bandits go out of the city to grab the guns?"

"For each artillery position, deploy two infantry teams, equipped with tiger squatting guns and three-eyed guns. They are ready to fight at any time. Our soldiers have deep trenches to cover themselves, and the enemy's artillery can't reach them. If there are no troops, we can send new substitutes at any time."

He glanced at He Rubin, and quickly said: "It's a humble opinion to use an ax in a humble class."

He Rubin had never heard of such a method of warfare: digging a ditch on the ground, and letting artillery soldiers walk on the bottom of the ditch.Originally wanted to denounce it as "ridiculous"!After thinking about it, this method may not be useless, if the Kun thief refuses to retreat, he can give it a try.

But he doesn't say good or bad.With a blank face, he left amidst the stars.

Li Modao carefully sent the general soldier away.I felt a little uneasy in my heart: I didn't know whether my remarks made Mr. Zong Bing happy or unhappy, and whether he had any appetite for him.He Zongbing himself was a garrison rank after 16 years of service in the army. Recently, he finally became a battalion general again, and he is very concerned about his future.

"Master! Is Master Bing satisfied with the Firearms Battalion?" As soon as He Rubin left, several confidantes around him called Mr. Qian to join him.

"How did I know?" Li Modao said impatiently, "Just take the brothers one by one! It seems that our firearms battalion is going to do a big job this time to recruit thieves."

After his subordinates dispersed, Li Modao took a look at all kinds of strange shells waiting for the soldiers to recover.He walked over and squatted on the ground, carefully watching the shells cast by the foreign monk.Although the performance of the new shells was not good when fired, Li Modao vaguely felt that these shells had their own uses, but he didn't know it.

"If there is someone who is proficient in Western artillery by my side, I can ask to understand." Li Modao thought to himself.

When it comes to Western artillery, He Zhen is of course No. 1 in the Guangdong and Guangxi armies, but he is only a small garrison, so how dare he ask the Lord Zhentai for advice.

"After the gun bore is cleaned, we are ready to harness the horses and return to camp." He ordered the soldiers to scrub the gun bore and pack up their belongings.

The soldiers brought in the newly purchased Sichuan horses and put on the cannons.Sichuan horses are small and weak.Not to mention that this kind of artillery carriage is very cumbersome, and there is no artillery front carriage. The pulling horses not only have to pull forward, but also bear the weight on the back.The efficiency of using animal power is very poor, and it takes seven or eight horses to barely pull it.Li Modao knew that local Mongolian horses were very rare, and Jiangnan and Guangdong didn't raise mules, so he had to use Sichuan horses to make up the number.

"The strength of this horse is too small, it is not as good as a mule." One of the people around him always said.

"This is a small Sichuan horse in the south, smaller than a donkey in Shandong." Li Modao said, "It can't be as big as a donkey when pulling a cart.

"The humble job sees that there are a lot of cattle here, so it is better to use cattle."

"The cow is too slow." He shook his head. "And he is easily startled. When a cannon is fired on the battlefield, wouldn't something bad happen immediately if the cow is startled?"

However, the ox has long strength, and its strength is stronger than the Sichuan horse that barely drags the cannon.However, there are more than 30 cannons weighing more than 100 catties in the battalion, and each of them needs more than [-] cattle with four cattle, as well as corresponding civilian husbands.I don't know if He Zhen is willing or not for this extra expense.

After returning to the camp and setting up the cannons, Li Modao went to the gunpowder factory at the foot of Yasheniang Mountain. About five or six miles away from the fort of the military camp, there was a large shack, which was a workshop for making gunpowder.There, materials for making gunpowder were shipped day and night from various places: sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter, and occasionally other things were also shipped in, including dried human feces, poisonous Chinese herbal medicines such as aconitum, and lime tung oil. kind.

As the chief general of the firearms battalion, Li Modao paid the most attention to the supply of gunpowder.Although there is no shortage of gunpowder in the army, the quality of gunpowder varies widely.The gunpowder was so poor that only a puff of black smoke could be emitted, and the gunpowder fell out of the gun barrel. Sometimes the gunpowder was too strong and exploded directly, often causing heavy casualties to the gunner.

For this expedition, He Rubin appointed him to concurrently manufacture gunpowder pellets.He leads the firearms battalion. Gunpowder and projectiles are a matter of life and death, and we cannot ignore them.

There are many large iron pots in the shed, and something is being boiled, emitting an unpleasant smell.Li Modao knew that this was purifying nitrate and sulfur.

Not far away are three large stone mills, led by Chuan horses, to crush charcoal; there are many peasants crushing the ashes with "dong, dong", and many people are sifting the ashes, sifting out fine black powder .Some people add sulfur, nitrate and other things to charcoal powder according to the prescribed ratio to make gunpowder.

The finished gunpowder powder was put into the stone trough, and the craftsmen kept pounding the gunpowder powder in the stone trough with a thick wooden pestle. An old craftsman sat aside, rubbing the powder with his hands from time to time, and adding some water.Gunpowder powder should be pounded as finely as possible. Li Modao remembers that it is stipulated in the book that more than five thousand times should be pounded, and he does not know how the craftsmen count.

Some craftsmen spray the slightly viscous water soaked in wheat on the powdered gunpowder, and then use a bamboo sieve to shake out gunpowder particles of various thicknesses.

(End of this chapter)