Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 318 Artillery Military Academy
At the beginning, most of Ming's firearms and cannons were manufactured by the Bingzhan Bureau under the command of the Neifu. The ordinary border town guards could only make some "Jing" type handle muzzles, while the more powerful "Sheng" type, "Tianwei ", "Lie" and other powerful firecrackers are all manufactured by Bingzhan Bureau, let alone let them make artillery.

The strict control of this kind of firearms was not until the 36th year of Jiajing, when the imperial court authorized Jizhen to buy fast guns, lead bullets and gunpowder for the host and guest officers and soldiers, and then approved Baoding and other places to build wagon camps, so that the guards on all sides made Only then did the atmosphere of firearms pervade.

Ji Town is an important town in the north, and its firearms are considered advanced compared to Jiubian Yuzhen, and its border town guards only produce some general firearms.Of course, compared to Bingzhanju, the firearms they made were crude, and not many military craftsmen had the skills to make cannons.

Of course, Shanxi Town is also the same. It was not until a few years ago that Wuzhai Fort was allowed to make blunderbusses.Moreover, most of the cannon-making talents in Ming Dynasty are monopolized by the Bingjue Bureau of the Neifu and the Military Weapons Bureau of the Ministry of Industry. Even if the towns want to make cannons, they don't have such craftsmen.

After Huang Laifu, the governor of Datong, Shanxi, was allowed to make cannons for military affairs, Shanxi Town was allowed to make cannons. Huang Laifu was excited and told Emperor Wanli that he hoped that the inner government would allocate some artisans to make cannons. After coordination, the military battle bureau allocated a few Hundreds of craftsmen gave Huang Laifu, and Huang Laifu brought them back together when he returned to Wuzhaibao from the capital.

After these cannon-making craftsmen were brought back to the Wuzhaibao Military Factory, they enjoyed very good treatment, which greatly increased their enthusiasm. Everyone is gearing up and ready to make some achievements, so that the Governor can take a good look.

……

The cannon-making craftsmen were in full swing and made some samples, and respectfully asked Huang Laifu to have a look.

However, Huang Laifu found many problems. The first is that the artillery is expensive. Because the material of the iron cannon is difficult to pass, heavy, and easy to explode, so bronze and brass are mostly used for making artillery. Although copper is used as a material, it is not easy to explode. But the cost is very high.

Huang Laifu did not say anything about this point. After all, even in the early 60.00th century, the use of bronze cannons was the trend of all countries. During the first Opium War, [-]% of the artillery used by the British army was bronze cannons. During the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army Bronze cannons are still used extensively.Generally speaking, iron can only be used to make some small-caliber artillery when the material of iron is not qualified.

If you want to use iron cannons in large quantities, you can only refine qualified steel later.

It's a question of cost first, and manufacturing second.

At present, both the Ming Dynasty and the West are using sand-casting molding methods, but there is not much standardized production at this time.The level of artillery is only roughly divided according to the weight of the shells it fires. However, this crude standard is often not taken seriously. Cannon-casting craftsmen often do whatever they want, and each has their own standards.

Moreover, among these cannon-making craftsmen, their cannon-making craftsmanship is regarded as a private skill and will never be passed on to the outside world, which makes it difficult for standardized production.

Huang Laifu frowned as he looked at the few sample cannons that had been built. Among these cannons, no two were made exactly the same, and the quality was unknown.

The gunner also frowned when he tried to shoot. The inner diameter of the gun is different, which brings a lot of trouble to the gunner's aiming. serve.

Not to mention the cost of materials, it seems that the quality and standardized production of artillery are imminent.

These days, these gunsmiths from the Neifu Arsenal are mostly making prototypes of the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Buddha Wolf Machine. After all, these two types of guns are the most popular in Ming Dynasty, and they are also good at them.

However, in Huang Laifu's calculations, he believes that in the future, Shanxi Town only needs three types of guns, the tiger squatting gun, and the cannon that fires six-pound solid shells (similar to Western-style six-pound guns), and the one that fires three-pound solid shells. Medium cannon (similar to Western-style three-pounders).

The tiger crouching cannon is good for melee combat. It is powerful at twenty paces, light in weight, and easy to carry. It weighs only a few dozen catties and can be carried away with a horse.Moreover, it is easy to make, low in cost, and easy to form a scale.

As for the six-pounder gun and the three-pounder gun, the six-pounder gun weighs about a thousand catties, and the three-pounder gun weighs about five hundred catties. The effective lethality of both is between 400 and 600 meters. Large, suitable for long-distance strikes, as long as the quantity is sufficient, it is enough to form a very large lethality.

In fact, in Huang Laifu's concept, the six-pound gun and the three-pound gun are similar to the Hongyi cannon introduced in the late Ming Dynasty, and they are both front-loading guns.Although there are Buddha Wolf machine guns in the various armies of the Ming Dynasty, it is a pity that due to the breech loading, the gunpowder gas is not well sealed, and the range cannot be increased. If you want to increase the range, you have to increase the weight, and it is very difficult to march.

The Great Buddha wolf machine used in many places in Ming Dynasty has a range of more than one mile, and the gun body reaches seven feet, that is, almost two meters long, and weighs eight to nine hundred catties. Three pounders are comparable.

For example, the five-foot-long and three-foot-long small and medium-sized Buddha Wolf machine guns are lighter, but unfortunately they have a shorter range and less power, so they cannot form much combat power.

However, the artillery craftsmen in the current military factories have no experience in making muzzle-loading six-pound guns and three-pound guns, so they can only slowly explore in the future.However, Huang Laifu was not too anxious. The light, medium and heavy Buddha wolf machine guns in the army are still very powerful, at least when facing those prairie cavalry.

The top priority is to establish standardized production, and to optimize the existing artillery, such as reducing the weight of the artillery, shortening the gun body, reducing the gun mount, and reducing the types of artillery.

Huang Laifu's request is that this kind of big Buddha wolf machine gun that uses sub-guns and is loaded in the breech should preferably be shortened to 1.2 meters long, and weigh about [-] catties together with the gun mount. This will increase the mobility of the gun and achieve Soon the purpose of fighting with the army will come.

If the bore diameter can be standardized, the use of shells is also a problem.Right now in the armies of the Ming Dynasty, due to the high cost of gunpowder, there are very few opportunities to use it for testing or training. This problem was very prominent in both the East and the West at that time.

Moreover, due to the uneven composition of gunpowder and the shortcomings of being susceptible to moisture are also big problems, no gunner can really know how much gunpowder to add to fire the gun with the best effect.

For this problem, Huang Laifu thought of the self-contained shells from the paper shell shells he used not long ago.

This kind of projectile, its propellant charges are all contained in the cartridge, connected together with the projectile through the cartridge.The shell has a compact structure and high body strength, and the loading of the entire ammunition part can be completed at one time, with high efficiency.

Gustav also used this kind of shell in history, and achieved good results due to the simplified loading procedure and increased firing speed.Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages. Since the gunpowder used in the self-contained shell is fixed, it is difficult to achieve different ranges for the projectile to achieve different muzzle velocities.

However, Huang Laifu believes that the advantages of the self-contained shell outweigh the disadvantages, and it is worth using.

There is also the problem of artillery maintenance. Daming has always respected artillery as gods, and armies in various places are also very diligent in maintaining artillery. Remnants of burning black powder.

However, Huang Laifu believes that such maintenance is actually not very effective. The best maintenance should be to check the bore of the gun with a boring machine, and then use it again after checking, and then use the boring machine to re-boring and polishing the gun barrel. In this way, the inner diameter of the gun barrel is consistent, the resistance of the cannon to eject from the bore is small, and it can withstand greater chamber pressure, which improves the life of the artillery and can shoot farther.

As for those guns that have not been calibrated with a boring machine, after a long period of use, the bore will be distorted, and the speed of fire will be affected.

But when it comes to boring machines, Huang Laifu can only express his regret. Historically, until the 19th century, the British invented boring machines, planers, and milling machines for the needs of the steam engine and other industrial revolutions.Huang Laifu now wants to use a boring machine, but with the current development of technology, it is really difficult to do so.

At most, in the future, the craftsmen can only be ordered to polish the barrel more by hand.

……

Regarding the above problems, Huang Laifu ordered Liu Tianlu to deal with them, formulate relevant regulations, pay close attention to the production quality of artillery, and at the same time speed up the development of six-pound guns and three-pound guns loaded in the front.For these artillery craftsmen from the capital, as before, those who work hard will be rewarded, those who are lazy will be punished, those who make excellent artillery will be rewarded, and those who make unqualified products will be severely punished.

In the end, Huang Laifu decided to train the artillery. At this time, the gunners in the East and the West were not professional, and many of them were craftsmen in the army.Huang Laifu believes that artillery is a highly professional arm, and artillery is also a weapon with extremely complicated technology, so a formal artillery system must be established.Use artillery as a separate class.

Thinking of this problem, Huang Laifu thought more and more. Not only artillery talents, but also engineering talents, various staff talents, surveying and mapping talents, logistics talents, etc. all need to be cultivated. It seems that related military schools should be opened.

Since the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty, martial arts schools have also been established in the two capitals, thinking that they are used for the country's storage and maintenance, and they are under the control of the Arsenal Department of the Ministry of War.However, it is obvious that the children who enter the martial arts study more Confucianism and focus on righteousness. There are only two days, the second day and the [-]th day of each month.

It is called martial arts, and there is very little teaching about military affairs, let alone teaching and training artillery talents, engineering talents, and staff talents. They taught some basic things, which shows the lack of professional military knowledge and professional talents in the armies of Ming Dynasty at that time.

Huang Laifu has this plan to open a military academy in Wuzhaibao, which will recruit and train all kinds of military talents, especially those with strong professionalism.

……

(End of this chapter)