Become a feudal king from today

"Could it be that His Highness is talking about a mortar?"

Before Zhao Xu opened his mouth, Wang Ying suddenly said. read

Then, he continued: "Actually, during this period, I also had this idea. Now that yellow gunpowder has appeared, it is even more important to recast the mortar. I believe that in the future, the mortar will be the main force on the battlefield, and the current smoothbore cannon is more suitable. Battleship."

Zhao Xu looked at Wang Ying, a little surprised, just like when he faced Chen Shou in Jinghai County.

If Chen Shou's thinking about steamships was just accidental, then it seems inevitable that Wang Yinghui also had a forward-looking understanding of weapons.

Although Wang Ying and Chen Shou were chief officials, they would go to the Science and Technology School to attend lectures whenever they had time.

The atmosphere of the science and technology school will definitely cause changes in their way of thinking.

Now, like the students in the Science and Technology School, they are all actively thinking and exploring deeper mysteries in their respective fields.

This is also the fact that the spark of Yanzhou science and technology continues to grow.

"You're right." Zhao Xu said.

Before the howitzer technology matured, it was the main force on the battlefield.

But later, the howitzer replaced the smoothbore gun.

In contemporary World War I and World War II, smoothbore cannons only existed on tanks and battleships, and the battlefield was basically full of howitzers.

Smoothbore cannons were only suitable for shooting in a straight line, but the battlefield was full of obstacles.

A howitzer that can fall in a curve to avoid obstacles can kill more soldiers.

But even so, for Wang Hu's Qing army, it is not the time to completely abandon smoothbore cannons and equip all field howitzers.

But it is necessary to increase the proportion of old guns, that is, howitzers, in field guns.

It should be improved rather than used as an auxiliary firearm.

After all, with the addition of yellow gunpowder, the most powerful weapon is the blooming bullet.

The gun barrel and gun barrel need to consider the amount of gunpowder to prevent the chamber from exploding, but this is not required for explosive ammunition.

"Then have you thought about how to improve the mortar?" Zhao Xu asked, but did not immediately tell Wang Ying his plan.

After pondering for a while, Wang Ying said: "First of all, of course, the mortar must be equipped with a pair of wheels. Secondly, the weight should be reduced like a field gun to facilitate the mortar's flexibility on the battlefield. Finally, the range of the mortar should be increased. That way, flexibility, range and power are all there.”

Zhao Xu nodded slowly and agreed with Wang Ying's words.

There is no doubt that Wang Ying gained a lot of experience from modifying smoothbore field guns, and now applied it to mortars.

However, I have to say that he is on the right track.

But before, this kind of improvement to the mortar was not possible.

Because the power of black powder is limited, more black powder must be filled to increase the range, and the barrel must be made narrower and thinner to reduce weight.

This is contradictory.

If you do this, the power of the mortar will be reduced.

Now yellow gunpowder and converter steelmaking have solved these two problems.

Higher-quality steel can make the barrel of the mortar thinner and narrower, and yellow gunpowder can make the shell more powerful.

In this way, a perfect mortar was born, and it could even be officially renamed a howitzer.

"Just follow this path." Zhao Xu patted Wang Ying on the shoulder.

However, like the full-form rifled gun, the new mortar or howitzer will still need to wait for some time before it can be installed in the royal army.

For him at the moment, the most important thing was to replace the gunpowder for the artillery and muskets in the army.

After all, the current situation is very serious. It can be seen from the arrogant attitude of the Qi State envoy that this alliance has greatly expanded the Qi State.

Moreover, both Beidi and Dongying are afraid of instability in the world.

They will definitely provoke Qi State, Nanliang and the Xie family to take risky war actions against Yanzhou.

Therefore, he cannot yet expect new rifled guns and howitzers, but just puts these two firearms on the manufacturing schedule.

And yellow gunpowder is the key to the next period of time.

Before, he had asked Qu Sheng to stockpile a large amount of glycerin, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid. Now he only needed to synthesize nitroglycerin and then use diatomaceous earth to absorb it.

Immediately, a steady stream of yellow gunpowder will be produced.

These yellow gunpowder will increase Yanzhou's military strength by a huge leap.

The effective range of 350 meters and the maximum range of nearly 600 meters are enough.

Not to mention other firearms would benefit.

When he thought of this, he felt relieved a lot.

Lucheng.

royal palace.

When Zhao Xu was experimenting with yellow gunpowder, the envoy from Qi returned in panic.

This morning, it was time for the morning meeting.

Han Zheng announced Han Yang to the palace and asked him to report on his mission to Yancheng.

"Your Majesty, King Yan is arrogant and ignorant. Not only did he fail to agree to your Majesty's request, but he also humiliated our country Qi. It is really unreasonable." Han Yang shouted angrily in front of all the ministers.

Han Zheng frowned when he heard this and said to Han Yang, "Have you told King Yan that Beidi and Dongying have also joined the alliance?"

"Return to your majesty, I said so, but King Yan just laughed and told me to go back to Qi. He kept saying..."

At this point, he didn't dare to say any more.

"What did you say!" Han Zheng looked stern.

"He said he would personally capture the emperor alive and dance for him to entertain him."

"Bold maniac."

"Ignorant child!"

"I have never seen such a rebellious person."

"..."

When Han Yang's words came out, the officials in the palace were furious and pointed in the direction of Yanzhou and yelled.

Han Zheng had a long face, sneered, and said: "I want to see if he captured me alive, or if I captured him alive with my own hands!"

As soon as he patted the dragon chair, he stood up and shouted, "From today onwards, we will prepare our troops, prepare our troops, and wait for the second alliance meeting to prepare our troops to send troops to Yanzhou!"

"Yes, Your Majesty." The ministers bowed and responded.

Han Zheng snorted again, waved his hands and left the hall.

Back in the study, he invited Sato Zhenjiu and told him what Han Yang said.

This time he sent an envoy to Yancheng, and Sato Zhenjiu also agreed.

They believed that after the alliance, their power had greatly exceeded that of King Yan.

So he tried to intimidate the King of Yan and make him hand over his firearms craftsmanship and declare himself a vassal to Qi.

King Ruo Yan couldn't bear it anymore, so he obediently handed over his firearms craftsmanship and went to Qi State to receive a title.

They took the opportunity to kill King Yan and conquered Yanzhou in one fell swoop.

But they didn't expect that they would get such a response.

"In this case, the only option is war, and it's time for Your Majesty to give up other ideas." Sato Masaku's eyes narrowed.

Their plan in Japan is always the same, which is to instigate a civil war in Dasong and use Dasong people to fight Dasong people, causing both sides to lose.

King Yan did not give in, which was more in line with his wishes.

In order to embolden Han Zheng, he continued: "The range of our Japanese flintlock guns is one hundred and thirty meters, which is only twenty meters away from King Yan's flintlock guns. At this distance, the King of Yan's soldiers cannot fight on the battlefield. Take an absolute advantage.”

"Coupled with the fact that we have many soldiers and generals, we will definitely be able to kill King Yan's soldiers and horses without leaving a single piece of armor. Next, we only need to step up the forging of flintlock guns and train the soldiers."

As he finished speaking, a eunuch hurriedly came over and said, "Your Majesty, the envoy from Nanliang wants to see you."