Lord of the House

There was a loud "bang", and he was about to strike a thunderbolt from the flat ground. The eardrums trembled and the tinnitus kept ringing. Lin Meng couldn't see the iron bullets spraying from the crossbow mouth, but only saw the fire from the crossbow mouth forming a jet that spewed outwards. At the same time as the heavy crossbow body retreated violently, white smoke filled with the pungent smell of sulphur also rose from the crossbow mouth, covering a large area...

Lin Fu, Gao Zongting, Wu Qi, Ge Cunxin and others all used the telescope to observe the shooting area. Lin Mengde did not expect that the movement of the bullet would be so earth-shattering during the launch. The bullet has already splashed a huge wave with a height of more than ten meters in that sea area——

The target boat was about 12 or 12 feet away from the surf. As the waves rose and fell, from the view, the waves could be clearly seen splashing on the deck of the target boat.

Although the shooting accuracy can only be regarded as unsatisfactory, but the earth-shattering movement during the launch and the huge flying waves caused by the falling bullet show that the threat is by no means comparable to the traditional scorpion crossbow and bed crossbow. Lin Meng asked Lin Bing in surprise: "Such a weapon is very beneficial for siege, why not equip it with horses and infantry first? It is mounted on a cart, dragged by mules and horses, and it is invincible when used in field battles!"

Although Lin Mengde is good at support, he has been with the generals day and night over the years, and has been immersed in military affairs for a long time. Although he is not as good as Gao Zongting, Wu Qi, Ge Cunxin, etc., he is by no means comparable to a layman, and he can also ask the key questions. point.

Lin Fu was thoughtful, and Gao Zongting answered Lin Mengde's question by the side: "The several fire crossbows tested by the ordnance supervisor weigh more than three thousand catties. Although they can shoot objects four miles away, they can attack cities, but For field battles, a crossbow requires fifteen soldiers and four military horses. An ambulance crossbow with a range of less than one kilogram has a range of about two to three miles, and it can shoot iron bullets under twelve kilograms. At that time, only three solid bullets can be fired. Therefore, the time for one bullet is enough to make the enemy cavalry rush to the front of the formation. Thinking of the longer range and the larger the charge, the possibility of blasting the chamber will increase, which is not suitable. At least At this time, the fire crossbow is still not as good as the intensive use of bed crossbows and scorpion crossbows in battle..."

Huaidong's tactics of using bed crossbows and scorpion crossbows in foot battles have been perfected. In siege battles, the use of heavy catapults can completely suppress the enemy, so the motivation for tactical innovation is not strong. In particular, the early technology of the fire crossbow is not very perfect, and the military naturally does not advocate that the army is too eager to equip the fire crossbow.

The fire range of the fire crossbow is also doubled compared to the traditional bed crossbow and scorpion crossbow, but at sea, the enemy does not have the method of using cavalry to quickly impact the battle formation as in the infantry battle. for superiority.

More importantly, the scorpion crossbow is a projectile weapon and can only be placed on the deck, and the deck space of the ship is always limited, and there is no way to install too many scorpion crossbows. Although the bed crossbow can be placed in the cabin, after it is placed in the cabin below the deck, due to the problem of the shooting angle, it can only attack more enemy ships, but the attack power of the bed crossbow is very limited. —

Although Lin Fu has always wanted to upgrade the naval warfare tactics, but limited by the weapons, the naval warfare is still based on the traditional melee combat, and even relying on the sturdiness of the hull, brutal collision has become the most important tactic of the Huaidong Navy.

The ambulance crossbow that can be placed in the cabin, as long as it can be shot, can have enough destructive power to the enemy ship; in theory, it can also increase the number of crossbows equipped on a Lin Zhengjun-class warship to 100. More than one frame, the long-range strike density of the warship has been increased by ten times and the strike range has been doubled——

In comparison, the accuracy of the fire crossbow is worse than that of the scorpion crossbow and the bed crossbow, which is already an insignificant shortcoming.

Because the accuracy of the fire crossbow is only unsatisfactory, it is necessary to equip a warship with a more intensive crossbow. Within one mile of the near side, there are forty or fifty ambushes fired at the same time on one side of the cabin, and the enemy ship needs to be lucky enough to escape.

The Fire Crossbow's combat capability against warships has improved beyond the times, and it is a super weapon that can eliminate the near-side naval warfare tactics from now on. Although there are still various shortcomings to be overcome, as long as the advantages of the fire crossbow are recognized, none of the military officers advocates that the naval divisions should give priority to equipping the new fire crossbow, which can increase the combat power of the Huaidong Navy to 100%. Calling the East Hu people to the point of despair.

On the crossbow field, there were 12 fire crossbow squatting there. The huge crossbow body, also called Lin Mengde, Liu Shidu and others who saw the true face of the fire crossbow, looked at them and gasped.

It was far away, and the exact size could not be accurately estimated at the moment, but the ambulance crossbow squatting in the middle of the crossbow field, directly far from the crossbow mouth, was definitely much larger than the traditional scorpion crossbow and bed crossbow.

At present, a heavy bed crossbow together with the frame of the vehicle only weighs more than 1000 kilograms. At this time, the heaviest ambulance developed by the Ordnance Supervisor weighs more than 3000 kilograms with the crossbow shot alone. In terms of weight alone, the two can be absolutely indistinguishable. Will not be the same level of war crossbow

Lin Mengde and Liu Shidu were also full of curiosity. With the test firing, they kept asking around Gao Zongting, Ge Cunxin, and the Ordnance Supervisor officials who were in charge of supervising the manufacture and testing of the fire crossbow...

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Forced to squeeze 200,000 silver dollars out of his pocket, Lin Mengde couldn't come to Haizhou for nothing, so he naturally took advantage of this opportunity to take a good look at Haizhou. Before that, in order to build Haizhou into a logistics support base for the Northern Army, the Privy Council had invested a lot of resources in Haizhou.

Just in time to catch up with Xu Si's first snow, the road back to Jiangning was blocked by snow for a while, and Lin Mengde and Liu Shidu followed Lin Fu across the sea to the east and west islands to see the military defense of Haizhou. In particular, the cost of a new type of warship in the design is as high as 500,000 silver dollars. As an appropriator, how can I blindly follow the opinion of the military without seeing the shooting situation of the fire crossbow?

Although there is also a test site in Jiangning, the test of the large fire crossbow is still in the stage of absolute confidentiality. It is necessary to hide from the enemy's spies. The test of the large fire crossbow is carried out on an isolated island. The test crossbow field has just been built for two years.

Lin Meng had to look at the shooting situation of the fire crossbow, and he could only travel to the island on a boat.

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The East-West Link Island, also known as Yingyou Island, is named after the ridge on the west cliff of the island, which is actually divided into two Dokdo islands, located in the sea east of Haizhou City. Standing on the Houyuntai Mountain in the south of Haizhou City, facing each other across the sea, Yingyou Island lies in a long strip in the clear sea waves.

Yingyou Island is nearly twenty miles long from east to west and four miles wide from north to south. It is like a natural barrier on the periphery of Haizhou Port. There is a ferry on the east island. There are also several fishing villages. The strange peaks and ridges with a height of four or five feet stand out in the sea. They are opposite to the cliffs of Yuntai Mountain behind the shore like a door, and they lock and protect the Haizhou Port on the inside.

In addition to fishing villages and docks, there were also monasteries, tide-watching pavilions, and sea-fighting beacon fire posts on the island in the early years.

From the second year of Yongxing, the Huaidong Army took over the defense of Haizhou, and started to build a water village, a fortress and a test site for ordnance supervision on Yingyou Island. Even more important, the waters on the eastern flank of the island are even designated as a military restricted area, and fishing boats and merchant ships are prohibited from approaching.

The test crossbow field was built on the east side of Antler Rock in the northwest corner of Yingyou Island. Although the Lujiao Rock is only 20 feet high, standing on it, you can see the firing situation of the test crossbow field below, and it can also avoid being affected by accidents that may occur on the crossbow field. on the rock.

The fire crossbow shooting was presided over by Yang Shi, the deputy commander of the Jinghai Division. Lin Fu, Lin Mengde, Gao Zongting and others sat on the crossbow platform of the Antler Rock, surrounded by guards with knives and halberds, hunting with banners and flags. The sea breeze was rustling...

Because the fire crossbow has great significance beyond the times for the innovation of naval warfare tactics, the design, testing and firing of fire crossbows and new warships are also one of the most core military affairs at present.

Lin Bingdian asked Yang Shi, the deputy commander of the Jinghai Division, to personally capture the firing of the fire crossbow on land and warships, as well as the design of new warships.

Lin Fu's knowledge of the fire crossbow is no less than that of the engineering officials in charge of the shooting exercise. However, during the shooting exercise, he had no time to explain to Lin Mengde and Liu Shidu the various abnormalities during shooting. Instead, he repeatedly used Wangjing to observe the crossbow field and its falling. In the case of the bomb area, groups of data were continuously recorded on the white paper beside him.

In the face of the intensive inquiries from Lin Mengde, Liu Shidu and others, the Ordnance Supervisor's craftsman can handle it calmly, but Lin Fu, in addition to his supreme status as the supreme commander, is also a first-level master of new learning and new craftsmanship. Characters, the pressure he put on the officials at the shooting scene is naturally not comparable to Lin Mengde, Liu Shidu and others.

Lin Fu is the master of Chongxueguan. Maybe in the eyes of outsiders, Lin Fu wants to gild himself with a layer of gold, but in the eyes of tens of thousands of craftsmen and hundreds of thousands of craftsmen under the jurisdiction of Huaidong, including Chongxue Many bachelors in the academy would not think that Lin Fu did not have this qualification——

Although it was necessary to ensure that the exercise would not be interrupted by accidents and the firing speed should be strictly controlled, 200 iron bullets were quickly fired, and only three iron bullets hit the Qianshi target ship four miles away.

Lin Mengde, Liu Shidu and the others didn't know if such a hit rate was good or bad, but after watching Lin Bie calculate the numbers after sitting in the long case, it was unclear whether he was satisfied or dissatisfied with this performance. The atmosphere was a little stagnant.

Under the blowing of the cold sea breeze, Shi Fengtai, an engineering official who was a junior official in the Jiangning Ministry of Industry in the early years, sweated from his forehead.

"Yang Shi, come here," Lin Fu summoned Yang Shi and Shi Fengtai, an engineer who was stationed in Yingyou Island by the Ordnance Superintendent, and said, "Five bullets or one hundred bullets are used to describe the fire. The accuracy of crossbow shooting is very unreasonable; an ambush crossbow is manufactured through a crossbow field, and the accuracy of shooting should be relatively consistent, but in actual test shooting, it may even fail to hit the target ship with two or three hundred rounds. Could it be that the accuracy of this fire-bombing crossbow is far inferior to others? Without the concept of accuracy, what does the Ordnance Supervisor use to explain the performance of the fire-fighting crossbow to the military?"

"..." In the face of Lin Fu's question, Shi Fengtai replied bravely, "What the lord said is exactly a problem. There are discussions in the Ordnance Supervisor, but there is no good way." He knew that there was no way to call Lin Fu with such an answer. Satisfied, but that's the only answer. To form a new system, it will take some years of accumulation. At present, all kinds of work are still based on the scope of traditional craftsmanship, or based on the rich experience of craftsmen and craftsmen.

Lin Fu didn't mean to criticize Shi Fengtai, he beckoned him to come closer, pushed the paper on the case in front of Shi Fengtai, and said, "I just fired 200 bullets, all targeting the target boat, and hitting the target three times; Within ten feet of the target boat, twenty-six bullets fell; within twenty feet, one hundred and seven bullets fell, and the rest were all twenty feet away. ..." Having said that, Lin Bie paused for a while, "I'll give you this data, do you know what I'm going to tell you?"

"Master wants to talk about the "Speculation" played by Song Xueshi?" Shi Fengtai asked nervously.

"Yes," Lin Fu smiled and said, "Just based on your answer, you are indeed qualified to assist Yang Shi to preside over this crossbow field. I am not dissatisfied with your work, but you can't relax because of this. And the shooting accuracy, I will not ask you to hit the target boat with how many bullets. There is no way to determine this. There are too many interference factors during the actual shooting. The percentage of dropped bullets within a zhang can be clearly defined as a standard; this work, you have to do it right away and improve it..."

"Master Dazhi, not..."

When Shi Fengtai wanted to say something, Lin Fu waved his hand and said with a smile: "Stop talking about slapping horses. If I want to do the actual work, you go down and arrange the next shooting..."

In the past, the shooting accuracy of the combat crossbow, even the highest-level engineer, had only a vague concept, and there was no way to accurately describe it. Therefore, during the test, it could only be described by experience, lacking an accurate and clear standard.

There is no precise and clear standard, and the progress of any technology can only rely on the slow accumulation of experience; and once the standard is established, the level of the different crossbow fields will be clear at a glance, how to improve and improve the technology according to the standard, There is a clearer direction.

Shi Fengshi and Yang Shi first went to the crossbow field to arrange the second batch of shooting exercises. Lin Fu saw that Lin Mengde and Liu Shidu were a little puzzled, and only then did he have time to explain to them with a smile: "The "Speculation" translated by Song Shixian, It's gambling again. Two people roll dice to bet against each other, if one rolls a point, the second person has a high probability of winning, but how big is this possibility, have you ever calculated it?"

"This..." Lin Meng was born in a businessman, and his knowledge may not be extraordinary, but his experience in dealing with practical affairs is very good. When Lin Fu talked about the problem of new learning, he didn't understand and just smiled.

Liu Shidu, who was a jinshi, frowned and thought deeply. He couldn't say in front of Lin Fu that "The Art of Guessing involves gambling, and non-Confucian scholars can account for it". , Lin Fu's simple question, he can roughly guess the answer, but if he is not sure, it must be correct, so he simply hides his clumsiness and says, "The minister is ignorant..."

"The issues discussed in "Speculation" are basically similar issues. The discussion of gambling is only an introduction, but the application is far less than that. Today, Heishuiyang and Nanyang Shipping Society also use this technique to calculate shipwrecks and insurance money. It's worth reading carefully; I have a booklet on my desk, which is still Song Shixian's handbook, and I'll give it to Duke Liu when I get back." Lin Fu said to Liu Shidu.

"Thank you, Lord, for the book, Shidu will definitely study it carefully." Liu Shidu replied respectfully.

Liu Shidu is almost sixty years old. When Lin Fu first entered Chongzhou, he was the prefect of Hailing, and he was Lin Fu's immediate boss. Different from others, Liu Shidu has a gentle temperament and is also very accommodating. Even if his status is not as good as his own, he appreciates the new policy implemented by Lin Fu. He was the first to promote it in Hailing Mansion.

Therefore, after the rise of Lin Fu, he also respected Liu Shidu; among the old officials of the Jianghuai Department, Liu Shidu was the most important, followed by Wu Meijiu, who had just come out of Weiyang's house.

Of course, Lin Fu's amazing rise from Jianghuai was also witnessed by Liu Shidu all the time, so he also deeply felt Lin Fu's ability to govern politics and the army. And once he accepted the New Deal thinking promoted by Lin Fu, Liu Shidu naturally abandoned his loyalty to Yuanyue and surrendered to Lin Fu's subordinates, both physically and mentally, without wavering.

Lin Fu added: "I mentioned a little bit earlier, Shi Fengtai thought of speculation; Duke Jingxuan sent Shi Fengtai to Haizhou, and he saw the right person. You have to put a burden on his shoulders if you have the chance; there is only one Song Shixian, only one Jiang Yue, is still far from enough..."

Everyone laughed. Characters like Song Shixian and Jiang Yue are brilliant and amazing. It is a luxury to have one person in a hundred years. Lin Bude and Zhao Shuhan, who has already become soft in Jeju, are not enough to develop a new school. greedy.

Speculation is actually the prototype of probability theory.

In the early days of Jiangning and Chongzhou, Lin Fu praised miscellaneous arts and craftsmanship, mainly sorting out and summarizing the traditional craftsmanship in the Central Plains. In the later period, especially after the opening of the Haidong Commercial Road and the continuous extension of the Nanyang Route to the west, the focus of new learning was Translate and absorb advanced craftsmanship and theories from areas outside the Central Plains.

It's not that Lin Bie is greedy, but that when traditional craftsmanship and miscellaneous learning accumulate to a certain level, quantitative changes will inevitably lead to qualitative changes, resulting in the eruptive development of new learning.

Everyone is not familiar with the speculation technique, so Lin Fu put it down and discussed with Gao Zongting, Ge Cunxin, Lin Mengde, and Liu Shidu about the fire crossbow. It is necessary to use the actual experience of everyone to study the shortcomings and improvements of the fire crossbow. method.

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The Fu Fire Crossbow is the artillery that Lin Bie was familiar with in later generations.

The ancients used saltpeter as the main ingredient in alchemy, but using saltpeter for alchemy would explode at any time. Many alchemists throughout the ages have racked their brains to mix other refining substances in it to suppress the explosiveness of saltpeter. Fire".

Therefore, the gunpowder in the eyes of later generations is called Fuhuo Dan in the world - and there is no concept of "cannon" in the world, only the word "crossbow" is the most suitable for its shooting image. Since the new type of warfare uses Fuhuo Dan It's a matter of course to use the explosion to launch iron bullets, and the name "Fu Fire Crossbow" is a matter of course - Lin Bie also called it "gunpowder" and "artillery".

Because the two emperors of the previous dynasty Chen Guo died suddenly after eating pills, several emperors of the Chen Dynasty who succeeded to the throne hated alchemy to the bone, setting off a vigorous movement to ban pills; surgery is strictly prohibited.

Although the alchemists three or four hundred years ago realized that the fire-fighting sulphur pills and fire-fighting nitre pills they made at that time had the properties of explosion and smoke, they stopped there. In the past three or four hundred years, the development and application of gunpowder have not made any substantial progress. After the ban period of three or four hundred years, the people of the time were quite unfamiliar with gunpowder.

When the ship first woke up, Lin Fu even thought that this was a world without gunpowder at all.

Lin Bie developed miscellaneous studies in Jiangning, and never shy away from heresy. Song Shixian presented the "Fuhuo Fang" that he collected and sorted out. There are a total of 26 kinds of Fuhuo recipes left in the world, and after experiments, there are as many as five kinds of Fuhuo Dan whose performance is similar to the gunpowder of later generations.

Lin Fie knew that charcoal, saltpeter and sulfur were traditional black powder formulas, but the current formula of Fuhuodan was mainly based on saltpeter. Each is different, and all are explosive.

In the end, the fire-fighting recipe that was actually used was a mixed powder of bitter ointment, saltpeter, and sulfur and sulfur.

Bitter ointment is a kind of light yellow ointment extracted from the kiln bottom oil of smoldering coal. It is called bitter ointment by alchemists in the previous Chen Shi because of its bitterness in the mouth.

After the improvement of this Fuhuo Dan, the explosive power is much greater than the black powder in Lin Bie's impression, and it also exceeds the range of Lin Bie's understanding of black powder.

If it weren't for the threat of bombing, this Fuhuo Dan could easily increase the range of the early artillery to more than four miles.

In the later stage, Lin Bing simply handed over all the development of gunpowder to Song Shixian and others. He just gave Song Shixian and the others a rough and clear development direction.

With a generally clear development direction, and a large amount of resources and manpower that have been continuously invested over the years to continuously improve the formula and preparation methods, Huaidong's gunpowder technology has become relatively mature in the past two or three years.

Although gunpowder can be used to blast mountains and open roads and blow up city walls, when directly blowing up city walls, it is necessary to dig holes under the enemy city so that a large amount of barrels of gunpowder can be buried in it to detonate—however, if it can be opened directly under the enemy city To dig holes and tunnels, it is better to dig down the enemy city directly, and there is no need to use gunpowder.

In addition, although the improvement of gunpowder is still satisfactory, the source of saltpeter is very troublesome.

Before alchemy was banned, several caves developed by alchemists were all deep in the mountains of Jiangxi. The Chen Dynasty banned pills, and these caves were dug and buried by the government. It was only after the battle of the upper circle that Lin Bie had the opportunity to dig the nitrate caves buried in the cave to refine the nitrate, and solve the problem of the source of the nitrate.

The technology of gunpowder and the source of saltpeter are not a problem, the widespread use of artillery can become a reality, and the development of artillery has been secretly carried out by the Ordnance Supervisor for several years.

The manufacture of artillery is actually still on the basis of traditional craftsmanship.

However, the new learning inheritance and research system established by Lin Fu is incomparable with the traditional craftsmanship inheritance passed down from father to son, master and apprentice.

In the inheritance of traditional craftsmanship, there is a problem of ancestor worship, which limits the improvement of the craftsmanship by the inheritors; the spread of craftsmanship is very limited from father to son, master and apprentice; thirdly, traditional craftsmen and craftsmen, Although it is classified as a lowly household, the level of education is very low; another, according to legend, there is a defect of "teaching the apprentice to starve the master to death", so many key skills, the master must not pass it on to the apprentice before he dies. Often due to accidents, many craftsmanships have been lost-the development of traditional craftsmanship that has been severely restricted. A craftsmanship may take several generations to improve and make breakthroughs.

In Huaidong, Lin Fu first divided the traditional Ministry of Industry into divisions and supervisors of industrial manufacturing, ordnance, ship administration, metallurgy, industrial and mining, and machine and horizontal manufacturing. Civil affairs, education, admiral and other county supervisors are the same. The Chongxue Hall was also set up, which enabled those who had outstanding achievements in miscellaneous arts and craftsmanship to gain an extraordinary political status. In fact, the new industry and the new academic system had become the largest faction within the Privy Council, rather than the traditional sense of residence. The bottom of the six ministries.

Another, Lin Fu completely abolished the craftsman household system, and after taking over the Jiangning Ministry of Industry, he further integrated tens of thousands of craftsmen and hundreds of thousands of craftsmen into the supervision and jurisdiction of the various divisions, forming a Chongxue Museum with Song Shixian, Ge Siyu, Jiang Yue and others. A huge system that exists headed by a bachelor.

When the traditional craftsmanship can not meet the needs of Huaidong, Huaidong's approach is completely different from the traditional.

For example, the grinding problem of the four-wheeled carriage is becoming more and more serious, and when it must be solved, the Ordnance Supervisor clearly puts forward this requirement, and Jiang Yue is the leader, and organizes a group of people to repeatedly study, design and test. A small roller bearing is introduced in between. The initially manufactured small roller bearings had very limited friction and damage to the carriage axle wheels. The Ordnance Supervisor's research and improvement work has been followed up by a group of people.

In the process of bearing development, a large number of cooperation requirements were also put forward to other military craftsmen departments in Huaidong, pushing other departments to follow along. In the past three years, the workshops under the Machinery Manufacturing Division have developed and produced the third-generation bearings, and for the first time, the concept of lubricating oil has been introduced, which makes the kiln bottom oil of smoldering coal and Bharat kerosene more widely used.

Without a new system, if the bearing technology is to be born spontaneously in the traditional craftsmanship field of "interlaced and separated mountains, master and apprentice", I don't know how many years and how many generations it will take.

The same goes for the development of gunpowder and artillery technology.

Around the development of gunpowder and artillery, Huaidong gathered a large number of outstanding talents headed by Song Shixian, Shi Fengtai and others. Among them are experienced craftsmen, and there are scholars who are highly literate and graduated from the imperial examination, such as Song Shixian and Shi Fengtai, who are attracted to the new school. They focus their energy on the research and development of gunpowder and artillery, supplemented by the first The prototype new learning system and the R&D efficiency of three to five years may be worth the hundreds of years of experience accumulated by traditional craftsmen.

Only the test data and materials from the material selection, casting, structure and other aspects of the artillery, the Ordnance Supervision has accumulated half of the house, these are the preliminary accumulation of artillery technology in Huaidong in the past few years.

The research and development system of modern disciplines is incomparable to traditional craftsmanship, but the resources to be invested are also extremely amazing. The research and development system of modern disciplines must also be supported by the strong financial resources of emerging industries to form the possibility.

In order to break the tradition, Lin Fu rewarded the dissemination and development of new learning and craftsmanship in the form of rewards. In the past ten years, the rewards issued in the name of the Neifu alone have accumulated as much as 1.2 million silver dollars.

The official iron yard under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council will produce 50 million catties of iron materials this year. In addition to the tax of 1 million silver dollars levied by the Privy Council, it can also retain millions of silver dollars in profits, and a considerable part of this will be consumed in the iron yard next year. Development and transformation of new technologies.

Twelve catties of cast-iron projectiles, to be made to meet the standard, currently cost two silver dollars to cast one; plus the gunpowder, the cost of a test shot is five silver dollars.

The artillery has not yet been put into actual combat, and the test firing has produced tens of thousands of cast iron bullets, consuming hundreds of thousands of kilograms of gunpowder, not to mention the consumption of cast gun materials over the past few years and the explosion of gunpowder and the explosion caused by the explosion. The casualties of a craftsman and 127 crossbowmen—the consumption of these resources and manpower was by no means what Huaidong could bear in the early days, and only gradually increased investment in recent years.

Of course, artillery technology is gradually improving, but due to the development of artillery, more and more stringent requirements are placed on cast iron, ironmaking, shipbuilding, machinery manufacturing and other departments, which promotes their development. The first batch of qualified gunners came.

Lin Fu can see the rapid development of new technologies on the basis of traditional craftsmanship, and can see that new learning is increasingly taking shape on the basis of traditional craftsmanship.

Before waking up on the Weiyang ship, Lin Bie, who had just raised his son, was cowardly. Even though he was a rare scholar in the world, his knowledge of the world was still within the scope of traditional scholars. It also limited Lin Fu's initial understanding of the world. In the past ten years, Lin Fu has been advocating and developing Zaxue. For him, it is also continuous learning. He did not produce the later scientific system that he is familiar with, but the accumulation of traditional craftsmanship and miscellaneous learning has actually reached the ceiling level. In many cases, he just acts as a catalyst.

It is precisely because the traditional craftsmanship has accumulated to such a level that Lin Fu catalyzes the development of new learning and new craftsmanship so smoothly and smoothly. Some of the new concepts he proposed will be given to Song Shixian, Jiang Yue, Zhao Shuhan and other figures. Only by understanding and accepting can these characters take root on the basis of tradition, making the outline of the prototype of the new academic system more and more clearly visible.

In the late spring and early summer, Lin Bie raised the issue of re-analyzing Confucianism. After several months of discussions, Zhao Shuhan, Jiang Yue, Ge Siyu, Song Shixian, and other Confucian masters such as Zuo Chengmu and Hu Wenmu, he initially put forward new ideas. Learning to graft on the alternative method of traditional Confucianism has also caused fierce debates in various aspects.

This kind of debate will not stop in three or five years, and Lin Fu doesn't care; but it also finds a vent for the traditional gentry, which can actually weaken the power of the traditional gentry, so Lin Fu did not deliberately suppress the debate. Instead, create conditions as much as possible to make the voice of new learning grow louder and louder.

The most obvious benefit of the debate between the old school and the new school is that the sales of the postal newspapers held by the Secretary for Xuanzheng and Political Affairs have soared, from the original one issue every ten days, with eight pages per issue, to the current five-day issue with eight pages per issue huge page. The content published by the post is also becoming more and more abundant; the content of the publication also extends from the announcement of government decrees to the summary of current affairs, reviews, debates between old and new studies, publicity of new studies, and an overview of expositions in overseas countries.

Through the postal system, the distribution of the post has penetrated into every county under the jurisdiction of Jiangning. Even the most distant counties can see the latest issue of the Post within three days. Although the price of each post is as high as one dime, and the print run of 30,000 copies per issue is still in short supply.

Although the Department of Propaganda and Administration and the Department of Posts and Communications calculated that a post was only counted as four cents of silver dollars, the excess was counted as the income of postal communications in various places, in order to make up for the cost of distribution and sales.

Even so, the distribution of the post has become a considerable income to this day. Seventy post a year, 30,000 copies are issued, and the net profit is almost 30,000 silver dollars.

Although the profit of the post cannot be compared with the lucrative sea trade, Lin's annual net profit was only about 30,000 silver dollars in the control of Shanglinli and surrounding large tracts of land back then; Banned.

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The ambulance drill in the morning is for land shooting, and the afternoon drill is for warships at sea.

Large-scale warships above the Jinhai class have not yet been equipped with fire crossbows, but Chongzhou Shipyard has already manufactured a number of new Jiyun-class warships. The new warships are equipped with fire crossbows, which are currently mainly used for sea trials.

At this time, these new warships currently exist as the special brigade of the Jinghai Division, and are directly led by the deputy commander Yang Shi. While participating in the test of the fire crossbow, the Jinghai Division must also gradually adapt to and accumulate new naval battles tactics.

There is a huge difference between the launch of artillery on land and the launch of sea ships. Without the accumulation of corresponding tactics and technologies, it is obviously unrealistic to build new warships above the Jinhai class at once.

The basic cost of a Jinhai-class iron-boned warship is 40,000 silver dollars; and the initial cost of a new-style Jinhai-class warship is 200,000 silver dollars, or even higher, which is not too unimaginable.

For the new Jinhai-class warships, to be able to deploy more fire crossbow, one or two cabins should be added under the deck; since fire crossbows and slide rails are to be equipped in the cabin, the strength and fire resistance of the internal structure Higher requirements must be put forward; dozens of doors or even dozens of ambushes can be fired on the broad side. In order not to cause the huge backlash to cause the side of the warship, the balance of the warship will also be more demanding. The requirements of this kind - without the accumulation of previous experience, it is difficult to develop qualified new large-scale warships.

For the design and development of the new warship, Lin Bie named Yang Shi to directly preside over it as a military general, instead of being solely responsible for the Department of Shipping. The intention is here - without the accumulation of experience of marine divisions, relying only on the Department of Shipbuilding to build ships behind closed doors is Can't build a new warship.

Lin Fu, Gao Zongting, Lin Mengde and others went out to sea on Lin Fu's ship, the Lin Zhengjun, to watch the naval exercise - the result of the naval exercise was even less satisfactory. The new standard Huai, the accuracy of the sea test is actually three times worse.

After the naval exercise ended, and returned to Yingyou Island, Lin Fu presided over the exercise summary and said, "Although the shooting accuracy of the fire crossbow is still not satisfactory, it may not be completely satisfactory for a long time in the future, but, We must also see that the dense configuration of ambushes has the advantages of traditional and incomparable weapons in range strikes and in attacking enemy land targets..."

"...When the scorpion crossbow shoots at a target five hundred paces away, it can only hit two or three out of ten; if the range of the scorpion crossbow can be increased to 1,500 paces, the shooting accuracy will also be reduced to one per hundred shots. The very low level of the second medium; when attacking an independent, low-value single unit, such a low shooting accuracy is really unbearable,” Lin Fu said, “but when attacking in an area, the enemy troops are densely formed. , the fire crossbow will shoot the cast iron projectiles into the enemy's range, and the lethality will be terrifying, almost ten projectiles can kill three or five people, and a concentrated salvo may destroy the enemy's dense battle formation. ——This can greatly reflect the battlefield value of the fire crossbow. If the cost and use factors are not considered, the function of the fire crossbow in the battle formation is unmatched by the scorpion crossbow, bed crossbow and stone throwing crossbow , so the staff should also arrange for the horse infantry to participate in the test firing of the fire crossbow, in order to adapt to the new tactics..."

"...Furthermore, when attacking high-value targets such as enemy warships or city walls, the low accuracy of fire is tolerable, and it is even worthwhile to deploy more intensive ambulances to increase the hit rate. We are in front of the enemy city, regardless of the cost of deployment. Hundreds of heavy slingshots are the same reason. Since the fire crossbow can reach a shooting distance of two to three miles, the safety of one's own ship should be ensured first, and the enemy ship will not have the opportunity to fight close to the side, even if a thousand pieces of cast iron are used. Only bombs can destroy and sink enemy ships, and it is absolutely worthwhile. The staff should not underestimate the enemy's army while formulating the battle plan and strengthening the morale factor. Excluding other factors, the warships of the two armies will fight close to the side of the army. The possibility of sinking the enemy ship and the enemy's sinking our ship is equal, that is to say, the probability of winning is five to five, and the probability of winning will increase sharply when the new warship is put into the battlefield. To 80%, 90%; this is just a simple battlefield scenario where two ships confront each other. Both armies enter the battlefield in a formation mode. The advantages of the new warships will be further expanded. How much will this possibility increase? Da, I suggest that the generals of the staff should also read "Speculation"; the battlefield can be said to be a **** casino, and the outcome is sometimes in the line of sight. To be a seasoned gambler who often wins and never loses, also Some knowledge..."

"... Having said so much, the staff and the Privy Council are required. In the near future, a considerable amount of energy and resources should be devoted to the improvement of the fire crossbow and the adaptation of new tactics. As for whether to invest in actual combat on a small scale~www.readwn .com~ I don't think it's too late to wait another year. Strategically, our aim is to attract Yanhu's attention to the east, and induce them to invest a lot of resources in building the sea-locked defense line, so that they will be in Yanji and The combat readiness of the hinterland of the Liangliao and Liao will be greatly weakened accordingly. In the end, we want to tear open the sea defense line of Yanhu, but we must tear it apart violently and completely at once, without giving them the opportunity to react and adjust. To achieve this battle For the purpose, we need to have more patience.”

Yanhu has already imitated the counterweight catapult. On Huangcheng Island and Miaoshan Island, he built large crossbow platforms, deployed heavy catapults and a large number of scorpion crossbows and bed crossbows, blocking the direct landing of the Huaidong navy. Duo Island's beachhead and narrow water inlet. To attack Huangcheng Island and Miaoshan Island with traditional tactics, Jinghai Division and Denghai Town Division have to make great sacrifices, and there may not be more than half of the hope of success.

However, Huangcheng Island, Miaoshan Island, Jinzhou Tieshanzhai and Dengzhou Daoyu Village jointly organized Yanhu to block the sea-locking line of defense at the mouth of the Bohai Sea. If this line of defense could not be torn apart, Jinghai Marine would not be able to enter the Bohai Sea on a large scale. The small-scale warships forcibly broke through and entered, but the threat to Yanhu's Yanji and the hinterland of Liangliao was very limited, and the danger was greatly increased, and the gain was often more than the loss.

Under such circumstances, the development and actual combat work of ambulances and new warships has become particularly important.

If Yanhu invested 3 million taels worth of resources on the sea-locking defense line, as long as the strategic advantage could be ensured, Huaidong was completely worthy of investing double or even more resources in the fire crossbow and new warships.

Yanhu's sea-locking defense line, the enemy's island defense fortresses that invested a huge amount of resources to build and almost clings to the coastline, will be the best hunting targets for Huaidong's new warships and fire crossbows in the future. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter