Become a feudal king from today

"Back to Your Highness, during your Highness's expedition to Goryeo, I ordered the craftsmen to polish a broach specially used to cut the rifling of artillery. Ten days ago, they began to improve the artillery in the army. Wang Ying signaled Zhao Xu to go to the artillery workshop and introduced Get up, "Thirty-six cannons have been improved at the moment for His Highness' inspection. "

Zhao Xu nodded. A rifled gun is an enlarged version of a rifled gun.

In this era, guns and guns are indistinguishable.

The Bingzhan Division can rifling rifled guns. With slightly improved technology, it will naturally be possible to rifling rifled guns.

Therefore, it is natural and not surprising that Wang Ying successfully improved the smoothbore cannon into a rifled cannon.

As the two of them talked, they arrived at the warehouse of the artillery workshop.

Here, thirty-six field guns were arranged in sequence.

Zhao Xu walked over and stared at the barrel of the gun to inspect.

Regular rifling is etched inside.

Satisfied with this, Zhao Xu looked at Wang Ying and asked: "There is no problem with this rifled gun. However, in order for this rifled gun to exert its power on the battlefield, there is still one thing that needs to be solved. Do you know this?"

He did not explain directly, but asked Wang Ying instead.

This is not to show off.

But it was to test whether Wang Ying had his own independent thinking when it came to firearms.

After returning from Korea this time, he believed that it was necessary to build a firearms research and development institute in the Department of War and War, just like the research and development institute.

Then select some students from the Science and Technology School and give them to Wang Ying, asking him to independently develop firearms according to the tasks he gave.

After all, the structure of firearms will only become more and more complex in the future, and Wang Ying alone cannot do it.

Otherwise, this will slow down the speed of updating weapons.

"Your Highness, this is not a problem for me." Wang Ying heard the words and smiled softly.

He carried it to the box on the left side of the field gun and took out a conical shell from it.

Coming to Zhao Xu, Wang Ying said: "Like rifled guns, round bullets are difficult to load. Inspired by rifled guns, I also improved the cannonballs, so I got this conical cannonball."

Zhao Xu showed a satisfied look and asked, "But round cannonballs can roll on the ground and bounce to kill enemies, but conical cannonballs don't seem to be able to do this, right?"

"Hehe..." Wang Ying smiled proudly, knowing that King Yan was testing him.

So, he said: "So, these conical shells are explosive shells and can be exploded. Your Highness, please take a look."

While talking, Wang Ying twisted the bottle cap-like structure on the front of the cannonball, and soon he unscrewed a long screw.

Wang Ying showed Zhao Xu the screws and the top hole of the cannonball.

"I replaced the wooden plug of the round explosive shell with a bolt. There is a small hole in the middle of the bolt, which can be inserted into the wire. The mouth of the shell is threaded. You can control the time of the shell explosion by rotating the screw." Wang Ying explained.

"Well, that's very good. You've got the right idea for the development of rifled cannons." Zhao Xu patted Wang Ying on the shoulder.

In fact, when Wang Ying came up with this kind of cone-shaped shell, he actually changed the shape of the previous round shell, and changed the wooden plug into a metal bolt to ensure that the yellow gunpowder exploded the projectile body instead of just like fireworks. The shell ejected from the top of the mouth and turned into a dud.

But this improvement is very remarkable, just like the change in the shape of rifle bullets, it is enough to cause a military revolution.

Just like the current Western countries, they have the ability to make rifled guns, but hundreds of years of habits have prevented them from thinking that bullets can also be tapered.

But once they understand it, they quickly apply it.

In modern times, the changes in rifled gun bullets have also gone through this process.

One side first used a rifled gun with conical bullets on the battlefield, and the other side immediately followed suit.

Therefore, Zhao Xu has been worried that the two wars in Nanxia and Goryeo may expose the secret of the tapered bullet.

The other party will definitely study the secret of Yanzhou rifled gun.

But he wasn't worried about that.

From research to comprehensive follow-up, the other party needs at least two or three years.

This period of time is enough for the royal army to equip the next generation of rifled guns.

It was precisely this consideration that made him decide to restructure and formalize the Department of War and War, and create a modern military industry research and development system.

"Your Highness is so complimentary. It sounds like he was just inspired by the tapered bullet." Wang Ying said politely.

Zhao Xu took the cone-shaped cannonball and looked at it again, becoming more and more satisfied.

With the conical shells, the rifled field artillery will have the same accuracy as a rifled gun. It can hit wherever you point it, and it will exert terrible power on the battlefield.

Not only can it kill enemies through straight-line impact, but it can also kill enemies through explosions.

But the biggest change in the combination of rifled guns and conical shells is actually not the army, but the navy.

First, the navy will install rifled guns, and the range and accuracy of naval guns will be greatly improved again.

Secondly, tapered shells are more likely to pierce the hull than round shells.

Just imagine what a terrifying scene it would be if a cone-shaped cannonball exploded inside a wooden battleship.

In modern history, it was precisely because of the emergence of conical bombs that wooden sail warships declined rapidly, and ironclad ships covered with thick iron armor appeared.

At the same time, so many gun positions are no longer needed on the battleship.

Because it only takes a few hits and the opponent is basically finished.

Thinking of this, he said to Wang Ying: "Send a team of people to Jinghai County, transport the steam engines and artillery broaches, improve the navy's naval guns, and manufacture a batch of conical shells needed for the naval guns."

"Yes, Your Highness." Wang Ying answered simply.

Then, Zhao Xu told Wang Ying about the firearms research and development institute.

Wang Ying was naturally very happy about this.

His son is in charge of a research and development institute, and he, as a father, is not as good as his son.

Now that he was eating at home, he didn't have the confidence to teach Wang Chong a lesson.

After accepting this important task, he suddenly felt straightened.

After staying in the Bingzhan Division for a while, Zhao Xu returned to the palace.

The arrangements have been made in the past few days.

Next, he just needs to wait for the fruit to mature.

In addition to these, Chen Shou originally promised him that the steamship would be launched in November.

It is already mid-September, and in just over a month, there should be good news.

Thinking of the Ship Department, Zhao Xu thought that he should continue to build a number of shipyards and make dumplings.

After all, in the future, the British fleet in the East will be just the tip of the iceberg of the British fleet.

Currently, Britain has more than 500 warships spread all over the world.

This does not include the warships of other Western countries.

Moreover, the Western countries now have the ability to build steamships.

This is not reflected in peacetime. Once a large-scale war breaks out, they will explode their production capacity.

In time, more steamships will be commissioned.

Therefore, we must not lag behind in terms of shipbuilding capabilities.

Of course, there is one more thing.

Steamships can be used not only for military purposes, but also for civilian purposes.

He wanted some steamships to participate in water transport.

In this way, relying on Dasong's developed water network, coal from Jinzhou, soda ash from Yuzhou, graphite from Qizhou, and iron ore from Yanzhou can be circulated in the north of the Yangtze River to promote industrial development.

…

At the same time, Lincheng.

A steamship docked slowly at the pier.

The British envoys entered the palace under the leadership of Prince Liang Feng.