Three Kingdoms.

  Chapter 2445 Technology and accumulation

  Everyone has distress, and not everyone's distress is the same.

   Just like when Cao Cao and Sun Quan were worrying about how to deal with their powerful local clans, Fei Qian was also worrying about how to deal with grenades.

It's not that Fei Qian went to the battlefield, but Fei Qian is facing a difficult problem, that is, the style of the grenade at the moment has to kneel down in front of the current productivity of the big man, and bears the helpless technical suppression, resulting in a certain degree of "degeneration".

Originally, Fei Qian wanted to reach the stomach in one step, bah, in one step. After all, the best model of grenade, or the style with relatively high lethality, is the oval grenade, but in the actual process, the oval grenade Hand grenades have a lot of troubles and restrictions due to production technology.

On the one hand, the demand for oval grenades is higher, and it is more expensive to use iron. On the other hand, there is no stable and reliable detonator, ignition powder, delay fuze, etc. in the ignition, so the grenadier was originally in Before igniting the grenade, you must first ignite yourself, um, ignite the matchlock you carry, and then use the matchlock to ignite the primer of the grenade.

The destructive power of the black powder grenade is extremely limited, but it has a very destructive power to the current intensive infantry battle formation. This destructive power does not mean directly killing the body, but destroying its array. Not many people can throw bombs Under the grenade in his hand, he can still maintain his steel will, tenacious and unyielding. Among the many battle reports, there is often only one round, at most two rounds, and the opponent's infantry line is completely collapsed.

Therefore, Fei Qian believes that although the lethality of the grenade is limited, it should increase research as much as possible and continue to develop it. ’ style grenade, but it looks like a kind of ‘backwards’.

  Because this new grenade has a long wooden handle.

  It's ugly, weird, and unspeakably ugly.

  There are actually many versions of the "Grenade" under Feiqian, but it has not been fully finalized. The main reason is that it has not been able to achieve the ideal of Feiqian, or the version that meets the ideal model for the time being.

In the beginning, it was a gunpowder bottle similar to incendiary bombs, mixed with kerosene, and the explosion force was pitifully small, but it was a little scary at once, which was equivalent to the larger firecrackers of later generations, and it was not very reliable. Closer, the lethality is almost equal to no, and it is good to be startled by the sound.

Later, it developed into a black powder bomb in a crock pot. It was ignited with a rope soaked in kerosene. The lethality and shocking power have been improved to a certain extent, but it was broken before it was thrown out. The ones that went out, the inconsistent burning speed caused the explosion time to vary greatly, and some even threw them behind their own buttocks because they were not easy to handle...

   Fortunately, these black powder throwing bombs have a relatively small charge, and even if a throwing accident occurs, they will not cause too much damage, which is considered a blessing among misfortunes.

Later, Fei Qian gradually understood that the current level of industry and chemistry in Dahan was not enough to manufacture grenades similar to or close to those of later generations. to research. As a result, Fei Qian did not expect that the master craftsman of the Huang family brought it over, which had exactly the same impression as the old-fashioned grenade left over from Fei Qian's childhood. No, it was even uglier than the old-fashioned wooden-handled grenade.

  However, after changing to this, the throwing distance will increase a bit, right?

   Remember that you can throw it up to fifty or sixty meters?

  The grenade in Fei Qian's hand has only the appearance and is hollow without filling. After adding black powder, the weight may increase, but it is not too heavy and acceptable.

  The wooden handle is too long. If you don’t know it’s a grenade, it’s like…

  Think about it, what does it look like?

  Fei Qian always felt a little familiar. He held it in his hand for a long time and pondered it for a long time, and suddenly remembered that it was like two wooden hammers shaking and rustling in the western musical instruments of later generations. What should they be called? Maraca? It's probably a little smaller than that thing, and the wooden handle is longer, and the color doesn't have any decorations, iron black and wood green.

   It's not as good as the old-fashioned wooden handle grenade, at least the wooden handle grenade is the same size, and it still looks like a product of industrialization.

   And the one in this hand is more like an entertainment tool...

  But after listening to the explanation given by the master craftsman of the Huang family, Fei Qian gradually put aside his contempt or contempt, and began to take this ugly little guy seriously.

   It has indeed been improved to the current form, er, well, it is considered an improvement, and it is aimed at solving some of the previous problems. For example, with a wooden handle, it is relatively easier to throw. Although there is also the possibility of losing your hand, it does greatly reduce the difficulty of throwing, and the wooden handle has a better grip.

  In addition, due to the lack of chemical basis of the primer, some compounds are either impossible to manufacture or impure. Perhaps the desired effect can be achieved once or twice, but it is very difficult to produce in large quantities.

   Fei Qian looked at the wooden-handled grenade and sighed insignificantly.

  Manufacturing the ideal grenade requires many different chemicals.

  Gunpowder is used as the explosive, mercury is used as the primer of the detonator, potassium chlorate is used as the propellant, and red phosphorus is used as the friction agent. This is the limit of what Fei Qian can know, but what is the specific composition of thunder mercury, how to make potassium chlorate, how to purify red phosphorus, Fei Qian is helpless.

   Perhaps the most troublesome of all is potassium chlorate.

  Mixed organic compounds like potassium chlorate are quite scary in terms of toxicity and stability. After all, the foundation of middle school chemistry is still there. Fei Qian knows that chlorine acid and potassium are not good babies. Perhaps for later generations, it is not difficult to produce potassium chlorate, but for the Han Dynasty at present, what? Don't think about electrolysis or chemical combination.

  If you really want to do it, you need to build a power generation system first, such as direct current and alternating current, and then the foundation of direct current and alternating current is high-quality materials, at least able to withstand high temperature and high pressure, otherwise it will be like a hand generator, which will not be stable.

So like the current situation, hiding the fuse inside the wooden handle and adding a wax seal on the outside can relatively guarantee that the fuse will not be affected by moisture, and the combustion will be relatively stable, and there will be no chance of accidentally smashing the fuse on the ground on, and then off the case.

  The body of the grenade is made of wrought iron that cannot be used for steelmaking. It is directly cast, and there are some lines on the shell...

  Fei Qian pointed to those lines and said, "Don't use a file, see if you can make a finer mold and pour it directly..."

   If mass production is really needed, how can there be any effort to frustrate the files one by one?

  『And this wooden handle...』 Fei Qian continued, 『Is this made with a wooden drill? It's too much work, let's see if we can use bamboo instead...』

  Wood takes too much effort, would bamboo be better? Try it before you talk.

"Besides, this handle is too long, so it should be shorter. See if the fuse can be made thinner, and then it can be coiled in it..." Fei Qian simply said according to his previous impression of the wooden handle grenade, "Seal it with wax paper." Hold on, add a wooden cover, when you need to light the fire, open the wooden cover, you can pull out the match to light it if the wax paper is broken...』

  It’s really troublesome to not have gunpowder, but this basic industry is so weak...

  『Also, there is no need to engrave patterns on the exterior…』

  『Simple, practical, less mistakes, is the best...』

  『Make a batch first, try to see how it works, and then make changes...』

  The master craftsman of the Huang family left with a new grenade,

   Fei Qian let out a long sigh.

  Black powder.

  Quality is really difficult to guarantee.

  Sometimes it is very curative, but sometimes it is hard to describe.

   This kind of pain even reached the period of the Anti-Japanese War in later generations. The earth-made black powder grenade often split into two halves. Until the period of aiding North Korea, the rice soldiers joked that our grenade was a "shock bomb" rather than a fragmentation grenade...

  So the effect of the current explosion is not as earth-shattering as some movies and TV shows, and the appearance of flying sand and rocks is more like the thick gunpowder of guns queuing up and shooting before the First World War in the eighteenth century.

   It looks cool, but the effect is poor.

   This is also the case, making Fei Qian's desire for the development of artillery has not been very high.

  Because the effect is really not good.

   It's just like a hand grenade, you can't stop doing it just because it looks ugly.

   The bronze cannon is still being tested and improved, but is it effective...

In the original version of the bronze cannon, there were many problems. If it were not for Fei Qian’s continuous encouragement and guidance, the research would have been abandoned early, or it would have turned to some weird route of wooden smoothbore guns like a wooden handle grenade Going up, after all, earth cannons made of trees are also used in later generations, which are much cheaper and lighter than bronze cannons.

The bronze cannon displayed in the shooting range of the Beiqu Military Workshop is really too short, and the amount of charge is not easy to control. If it is less, the range is short, and if it is too much, it will cause pressure on the cannon body. It will be scrapped after a few times, and the cannon has no The front sight is just a general shooting direction, and the composition ratio of the bronze was not grasped at the beginning of casting, which caused the cannon to deform under the high temperature and high pressure of the gunpowder...

  As for the bronze cannon, the outer mouth of the barrel is wide, the inner part is small, and the proportions are not coordinated. It cannot effectively ignite the black powder, cannot effectively gather the gunpowder gas, and the inside of the barrel cannot be a qualified circular shape, and there is no bore in the barrel...

   There is also the size and shape of the shells as you like, the size is different, and the gap is too large, the airtightness is not good...

  Bronze cannons had no lugs at first, and they were top-heavy. If the charge was too dense, they would blow upside down when firing the cannon...

  The progress of technology is the result of experimenting again and again, and then getting up from failures, summarizing and summarizing. Of course, in this link, there is the most important point, which is the record of craftsman experiments. Without the record of craftsman experiments proposed by Fei Qian in the early days, it would be impossible to have a relatively complete craftsman system at present, and it would be impossible to support the development of bronze cannons.

In fact, in history, some of the so-called Hongyi cannons introduced in the Ming Dynasty were essentially the same as the various traditional artillery manufactured and equipped by the Ming army. Black powder and solid shells.

However, thanks to the relatively standard manufacturing process in the West at that time, and the detailed requirements for certain items, rather than the fuzzy quantification of "probably", "a little", "a few", etc., Western artillery is more advanced from design to practicality. The Ming Dynasty developed better. For example, the Hongyi cannon at that time had a thicker barrel wall, a larger cannon diameter, and the cannon body gradually became thicker from front to back, and there were some cannons to reinforce the cannon body, so it has advantages in terms of range, lethality and safety. .

  At the same time, these Hongyi cannons basically have front sights and rear sights, and cannon lugs are cast on the cannon body, which is convenient for erection on the cannon carriage, and it is easy to adjust the shooting angle and move.

As a time traveler, benefiting from patriotic education and historical museum exhibitions in his childhood, as well as supplemented by some film and television impressions, Feiqian has some general ideas for the bronze smoothbore guns he needs to manufacture, which is also based on similar The shape of the Hongyi cannon of later generations was imitated, but there may be some differences in material or fine structure.

Fei Qian didn't know that the bronze cannon he made now should be classified as a few-pound cannon. Anyway, there is no concept of a few-pound cannon at all, but he generally knows that the range of the bronze cannon should be around a thousand steps. Far beyond the range of ordinary bows and arrows by several times.

  Bronze cannon, this kind of gun next to the word fire, is worthy of being the **** of the future battlefield. Even in this shallow form, the shooting accuracy and shooting distance are far beyond the catapult.

  The most important thing is that the bronze cannon can be used to blast the door directly!

  This is unmatched by Catapult.

Although the accuracy of the bronze cannon is actually very poor, and the killing effect of long-distance shooting is not much better than that of the catapult, but the bronze cannon is more useful than the catapult in that it can use the gun mount to approach the city within a hundred steps. Door!

   At a relatively short distance, the hit is basically guaranteed.

   The trebuchet will not work, not to mention whether the structure of the catapult can throw a nearby target, even if it can, it may not be able to hit it.

   It is precisely this obvious advantage that made Fei Qian promote the development of bronze cannons. No one whispered behind his back that the Hussar General was in a daze, and that he used bronze instead of minting coins, but prodigal...

   After all, it can be said that those who cast bronze cannons are all small money!

   After all, the territory governed by Feiqian is constantly expanding, commercial trade is also becoming more and more prosperous, and the demand for copper mines is also expanding. In terms of currency circulation, if Feiqian had not launched the gold coin and silver coin system early on, I am afraid that it would be difficult to rely on copper coins to support the demand for commodity circulation transactions.

Of course, Feiqian also helped Feiqian not have to produce a large amount of currency. In many cases, the trading platform endorsed by the Dahan Chamber of Commerce made merchants feel more at ease in adopting the Feiqian model, which saved the cost of currency collection and settlement. link...

After all, even big merchants have started to use gold and silver coins, as well as flying money, and small merchants and small caravans will naturally use them. It’s like hyping up some commemorative gold and silver coins in later generations. It may not be that the actual value of gold and silver coins is so high. , but someone recognizes its price, as if it has so much value.

  It’s like now, Fei Qian thinks that the bronze cannon has some value, so he starts to continue to study, and the difficulties encountered are not only reinstallation and retreat, but also re-aiming...

Originally changing the pitch angle can only be solved by moving the gun mount, but for the heavy bronze gun, this is definitely not an easy job. If there is a direction mechanism to replace the manpower to adjust the direction of the muzzle, it will naturally make Many things are much easier.

  In order to build a strong gun mount, Fei Qian added a batch of steel, which made the overall weight of the bronze gun soar. It is estimated that it should exceed half a ton, which may have the weight of a small QQ in later generations.

The bronze cannon with a brand-new gun mount was then tested on the shooting range, which proved that the direction mechanism does have some effects, but the direction mechanism lacks a direction locking and recoil device, which causes the barrel to be produced under recoil when shooting. Offset, and then every time it needs to be readjusted, of course it is much lighter than manpower.

Later, a marching drag test of a hundred miles was carried out, which proved that the new four-horsepower gun mount can be advanced on a relatively smooth road. It is relatively acceptable in terms of flexibility and traction performance, but the inferior quality The ball bearings caused several mid-course repairs.

The gun carriage bracket is divided into two parts, front and rear. The main reason is that the weight of the bronze cannon is very heavy. It is not easy to grasp the balance when dragging. If you are not careful, there will be an upside-down scene. Separate the front and rear carriages to share the weight, and Guaranteed to balance the center of gravity while pulling. When attacking, the frame of the towing tail is removed, and then the device for braking due to recoil is placed on the frame...

   After another improvement, the bronze cannon barely passed the shooting range test and marching test, and no chain dropping would become a burden. In the end, Fei Qian approved to try to produce some in small quantities, and then form an artillery company.

  The current bronze cannon, of course, can only use solid bullets.

  Fei Qian always thought that as long as the materials were uploaded, he could make a musket, but in fact he thought too ideally. Even if there is a relatively tough steel material, knocking out the barrel with the local method cannot guarantee that the upper and lower walls of the barrel are even. Is it inevitable that the chamber will explode, and it has to be said during the shooting process If you can kill the opponent, you will kill yourself instead.

  The relatively mature bronze pouring technology, after all, lasted from the pre-Qin period to the Han Dynasty, and the stupid, black and thick structure is more practical than a smoothbore gun.

  At the same time, it is an indisputable fact that smoothbore guns were not as easy to use as bows and arrows in the early days when the technology was poor. Therefore, the current development of smoothbore guns is just to make a show, or to build a cornerstone first, and wait for subsequent development and technological progress.

  And these various novel equipment and advanced technologies in the Fiqian territory have also ushered in the test of them, or the test of their protectors.

  The spies who stole the latest battleship technology in Xuanwuchi gradually surfaced...

  (end of this chapter)