Make France Great Again

Looking at the 12-pound field bronze cannon in front of him, which symbolized the pinnacle of French muzzle-loading cannon, Jérôme Bonaparte's thoughts seemed to suddenly return to a summer in his previous life.

At that time, he was reading an online novel called "Lingao Qiming". Although he can no longer remember the content clearly, the only thing that left an impression on him was the two "Lingao Five Hundred Baboons". Bring 19th century weapons. With these two weapons, the Five Hundred Baboons were a dimensionality-reducing blow to the late Ming Dynasty.

It just stems from the continuous internal fighting since the birth of human beings. The importance of the internal line struggle of the "Five Hundred Baboons" is far greater than the external war.

Among these two weapons, one is the Minigun currently in service in France, and the other is the product of the Napoleon Cannon placed in front of Jerome Bonaparte.

Back then, in order to satisfy his curiosity, he deliberately pulled the production drawings and firing videos of the Napoleon Cannon from the Internet.

Now, when the real object of the Napoleon Cannon was placed in front of him, Jerome Bonaparte felt an inexplicable sense of trance in his heart.

Time has passed, and after all, there is still no going back.

Thinking of this, Jerome Bonaparte couldn't help but sigh.

Just when Jerome Bonaparte was looking at things and missing his "hometown", Vernia, who was standing aside, noticed something strange about Jerome Bonaparte. She called out to Jerome Bonaparte in a low voice: "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"

The shouts brought Jerome Bonaparte from his memories to reality. He showed an apologetic smile to the two slightly nervous artillerymen in front of him. Then, he asked the people around him in a friendly manner: "Can any of you introduce this artillery to me?"

Basilio, who was standing behind Jerome Bonaparte, glanced at the team of field artillery engineers behind him, and used his eyes to signal one of the main design engineers to explain the structure of the new artillery.

The engineer who received the hint from Basilio's eyes immediately understood what he meant. He hurriedly stepped forward and bowed to Jerome Bonaparte: "Your Majesty, let me introduce to you the structure of this artillery. !”

"Are you its creator?" Jérôme Bonaparte looked up and down at the engineer in front of him. Judging from his old face, upright figure, and the callus on the middle finger of his right hand, this engineer should be from the army.

"It's not just me!" The engineer smiled shyly and added: "There are more than ten people in our team, and they are all the creators of this cannon!"

"Okay! It's you!" Jérôme Bonaparte pointed at the engineer and said.

The engineer adjusted his condition and came to the 12-pound bronze cannon with a serious face. He stroked the bronze barrel and said: "This gun is a 12-pound field gun that we improved and designed based on the original 6-pound field gun. The barrel of the gun is The caliber is 114 mm, which is 21 mm larger than the 6-pound field gun (the caliber of the 6-pound bronze gun is 93 mm). The large-caliber barrel allows the entire gun to accommodate 12 pounds (5.44 kg) of heavy iron. Making artillery shells.

Only 2.5 pounds (1.13 kilograms) of standard propellant is needed to launch a 12-pound shell at an extremely fast speed (439 meters/second). When the muzzle is at a shooting angle of 5 degrees from the horizontal plane, the precise distance It is about 1480 meters. When the muzzle is 10 degrees from the horizontal plane and the shooting supervision is carried out, the accurate shooting distance can reach about 1880 meters. "

"1880 meters!" Jerome Bonaparte touched his chin while thinking about the data of the Napoleon cannon in his mind.

After a long time, Jerome Bonaparte spoke again: "As far as I know, the maximum range of the 6-pound field gun is only about 1,300 meters! Right!"

"That's right!" the engineer responded without hesitation: "And when it is about 200 meters away from the target, the power of the 6-pound field gun will decrease. Its power cannot even penetrate half a company column, and the 12-pound field gun Enough to penetrate the entire company column at a distance of 550 meters!"

"What about the weight?" Jérôme Bonaparte asked again.

Faced with endless questions from Jérôme Bonaparte, the engineer had obviously already made full preparations: "In terms of weight, the total weight of the whole gun is 1109 kilograms. If you add the five ammunition boxes on the trailer, it will be about 1750 kilograms. ! Although it is much heavier than the previous six-pound cannon, it is also greatly strengthened. Furthermore, the weight of this field gun is much lighter than the cannon used for sieges!"

"Sounds good!" Jerome Bonaparte responded, and then changed the topic: "However, after hearing so much you said here, I just want to know if it is possible to conduct a live ammunition shooting! After all, , what you hear with your ears may not always be true, it can only be true if you see it with your own eyes.”

"Of course!" the engineer replied without hesitation.

The reason why the artillery was moved to the shooting range today was not just to let the military people see if they were cheating. However, the emperor's arrival forced the suspension of the live-fire shooting that was already underway.

Since the emperor said it could start, they no longer had to worry about other issues.

"Let's begin!" The engineer nodded to the two live-fire artillerymen beside him.

The two artillerymen immediately took action after receiving the engineer's order. One of the artillerymen took the worm placed next to the gun mount, and then pushed the worm deep into the muzzle to scrape out the debris left in the barrel from the previous shot.

After the skilled artilleryman scraped out the debris at a rapid speed, another artilleryman put a wet sponge into the gun chamber for secondary cleaning. The wet sponge could clean out the hot debris that had not yet been removed by the worm. After two wet sponge cleanings, the standard propellant weighing 2.5 pounds was wrapped in a nylon bag and stuffed into the barrel of the gun.

Immediately afterwards, the heavy solid shell weighing 12 pounds was difficultly stuffed into the bore.

The last step is to use the guide rod to stuff the solid shell and standard propellant into the correct position of the gun body.

For a skilled artilleryman, the entire process only takes 30 seconds.

However, the two artillerymen took more than 40 seconds, and it was obvious that their skills were not up to par.

When everything was ready, the engineer turned to ask Jérôme Bonaparte if he wanted to take the shot himself.

Naturally, Jerome Bonaparte, who loved hot weapons, would not let go of this opportunity. He slowly let go of Vernia's hand and came to the front of the big Napoleon cannon.

"Your Majesty, you just need to pull here!" Since the big Napoleon cannon uses the principle of a pull cord design, while the small Napoleon cannon uses the principle of a lead wire, in order to prevent Jérôme Bonaparte from being embarrassed online, the engineer thoughtfully He said to Jérôme Bonaparte, pointing to the drawstring of the Great Napoleon Cannon.

Jérôme Bonaparte gently grasped the white cord and placed it on the side of the big Napoleon cannon. Jérôme Bonaparte knew very well the recoil of the Napoleonic cannon in front of him.

Then, Jérôme Bonaparte pulled hard.

Along with the roar like thunder, the muzzle of the big Napoleon cannon formed a circle of white smoke similar to a cone. This shape of smoke is exactly what can be produced when the cannonball breaks through the sound barrier.

The solid artillery shell that broke through the sound barrier sprinted forward in an all-out manner, and 700 meters in front of it, there happened to be a group of dummies made of straw.

A few seconds later, the slightly weakened cannonball rushed into the pile of scarecrows like a tiger descending a mountain.

One, two, three... more than a dozen scarecrows were knocked down by solid shells at the first opportunity. If all the cannonballs were converted into real people, the entire scene would be filled with flesh and blood.

The artillery shells that "knocked out" nearly a company column of scarecrow soldiers continued to fly, and then hit the forest behind the scarecrows.

A dull sound came from the forest nearly 1 kilometer away from Jerome Bonaparte. The birds living in the woods took off quickly after being frightened, showing a scene of hundreds of birds galloping.

"Not bad!" Jerome Bonaparte nodded with satisfaction, then turned around and asked Niel: "What do you think?"

"As far as the power of the artillery is concerned, it is indeed very good!" Niel was also very satisfied with the Napoleon Cannon itself, and then he added: "It would be better if the price could be lowered! "

"Huh? How much does this artillery cost?" Jérôme Bonaparte then realized that the price of this artillery was probably not cheap.

Just looking at the amount of bronze used in the cannon itself, we know that the total price quoted for a cannon plus the labor costs of the workers is likely to be more than 2,000 francs.

What is the concept of 2000 francs? This is equivalent to the total expenses of a Parisian family of three for a year!

"Our quotation is 2,500 francs!" The engineer told Jérôme Bonaparte the price.

Jérôme Bonaparte gasped after hearing the engineer's quotation.

At a price of 2,500 francs, this is equivalent to the money that two ordinary workers can earn in a year.

Now it takes two workers and one year's money to build such a cannon. It really makes Jérôme Bonaparte feel a little pained.

Moreover, it is not enough to buy one artillery, but hundreds or thousands of them. Calculated, the initial cost of artillery and shells is at least 5 million francs.

"Can this... be a little cheaper?" Jérôme Bonaparte had no worries at all. This was his own company and he discussed it with the engineer openly.

The engineer looked at Basilio helplessly, he really didn't know what to say.

Basilio, who was originally standing at the rear, walked to the front and said to Jérôme Bonaparte: "Your Majesty, 2,500 francs is already the best price we have given the military! If we engage in foreign trade, an artillery piece like this At least 3,000 francs are needed.”

"Is there really no way to get it cheaper?" Jérôme Bonaparte asked again.

"Let's do this!" Basilio said to Jérôme Bonaparte as if he had made a great determination: "2,400 francs per cannon, no less! This is already a small profit but a quick turnover!"

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