The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde didn't know how much money his father and the others had made in Zhejiang this time, and how much money they had spent on finding a job. These had nothing to do with him now. All he had to do was leave for Nanchang to prepare for the hospital next month. try.

The next day, they contacted Zeng Yuanshu, who was still preparing for the exam in Jiujiang Prefecture, and agreed on a departure time.

There is a waterway connecting Jiujiang Prefecture to Nanchang Prefecture, and you can also take a land route. You can even go around Poyang Lake.

Guarding Jiujiang, and there were so many ships at Jiujiang Wei Pier, Wei Guangde naturally didn't want to have to travel hard. He could go to Nanchang Mansion directly after boarding the ship, so why bother to prepare a carriage or something.

This year's college examination, there are still many children from Jiujiang Prefecture applying for it, but in terms of origin, Wei Guangde is the only one from Jiujiang Wei.

Up to this time in the Ming Dynasty, there were many scholars from the Wei Institute, but most of those who actually got the honors were actually from the north, especially the Wei Institute under the jurisdiction of the Northern Zhili Province. Not to mention the scholars, there were also many candidates and Jinshi. .

In the south, perhaps it is because there are too many talented people in the literary world, and the competition is far more intense than in the north. Therefore, even if there are a few scholars in the guards, not many are actually admitted as scholars, candidates or even Jinshi.

Well, having said all that, it is because of Wei Guangde, the only one, that he now represents Jiujiang Wei.

Of course, if it weren't for Zhang Shigui doing errands in the Wei Command Yamen every day, not many Jiujiang Wei generals would pay attention to him.

If there are people in the guard, there will naturally be a lot of care.

At this time, the news that Wei Guangde's father may be promoted to Jiujiang Wei as Wei Zhenfu has not spread, otherwise Wei Guangde may be cared for even more.

The distance by land is slightly closer than that by water, but since Wei Guangde plans to take a boat to Nanchang Prefecture to take the exam, it goes without saying that Jiujiang Wei directly allocated a sand boat for them to travel.

Sand boats, also known as flat-bottomed boats, are a type of ship developed in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

The sand boat has a unique structure, with a square head, square tip, flat bottom and shallow draft. It is wide, large, flat and shallow. The bottom is flat and can sit on the beach without fear of running aground. The sand boat has a shallow draft and is less affected by the tide. The sand boat has many masts and sails. , with high mast and high sail, shallow draft and low resistance, it can sail quickly on the water and has good seaworthiness.

Having introduced so much, in fact, the sand boat sails smoothly, and the only flaw may be its resistance to wind and waves and speed.

However, Wei Guangde and the others have plenty of time, and all they want is to arrive at Nanchang Mansion smoothly and smoothly.

The sand boat allocated by the guard is also a warship. It is equipped with two bowl-mouth blunderbuss and ten fire blunderbuss. There should also be bows and arrows, but it seems that they are not equipped with enough, only a few bows.

This kind of ship is different from the fast ship they used to go from Pengze to Jiujiang. It is also equipped with firearms. It is still a very novel thing for the Zeng Yuanshu brothers who boarded the ship for the first time.

For this kind of weapons, in fact, they are also common items in the Ming military guardhouse. However, for the Zeng family, who is a civilian household, they have no chance to see them on weekdays. Now they are naturally surrounded by those bowl-mouth guns. Too curious.

Wu Dong and Wei Guangde were both familiar with this type of firearms, so they naturally introduced them to them.

It is worth mentioning that the use of firearms in the Ming Dynasty was really superficial. It was to load gunpowder into the medicine chamber, and then load the ammunition. The medicine chamber had a special opening to insert the fuse. As for aiming, that was a matter of God.

Because the operation is simple, Zeng Yuanshu and Zeng Yuanrui already knew how to use this thing shortly after the ship left the port.

The firearms of the Ming Dynasty were all roughly the same, so it was really easy to train a group of firearms masters in this era, so no one paid much attention to the firearms masters among military households, perhaps only Wei Guangde didn't think so.

Wei Guangde knows that all firearms can be aimed, especially artillery. Aiming is relatively simple. There is no sight, and the gunner's experience is enough. Anyway, it is direct aim. There is nothing you can do about wind speed. You can adjust it while shooting.

However, for the range, there is a special calculation method to determine the shooting angle, so that the correct shooting parameters can be determined in the shortest time.

However, Wei Guangde had never been an artilleryman. When he was studying, he spent three days fishing and two days drying nets. He didn't study hard at all. It was only at this time that he regretted his words, "You will regret less when you use the book."

Of course, this cannot help Wei Guangde. In his mind, if he really needs to consider this matter in the future, he can just send people to Macau to kidnap a few Portuguese people and come back. In his impression, this At that time, there might be knowledge in this area in the West.

If you don’t know how to do it yourself, then you can catch someone and teach him.

The Qing Dynasty people said, "Learn from the strengths of the barbarians to control the barbarians." Although they didn't do it well, they were right.

Learn their strengths and fuck them.

"How about it, keep it simple."

After Wei Guangde gave Zeng Yuanshu and Zeng Yuanrui a detailed introduction on how to use the bowl-mouth gun, he asked with a smile.

"Simple indeed."

Zeng Yuanshu nodded and said with a smile, "It's quite exquisite."

"This thing is a bit bad. The muzzle should not be designed like this. It is the same size as the barrel at the back, which should improve the accuracy of firing the shells."

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde smiled and said to his cousin Wu Dong: "It's just like those bird blunderbuss. You see, the blunderbuss tube is long and straight, so it can be fired accurately, and it can hit farther than a fire blunderbuss."

"This time I heard that the bowl-mouth blunderbuss that Dad and his friends brought over were very successful when they fought against the Japanese pirates. When they came back later, they took off the bowl-mouths and left only the barrels to test their power."

Wu Dong smiled.

"But the barrel is too short and can't hit far."

Wei Guangde didn't know what effect the length of the gun barrel had on the range, but in later generations, in addition to the caliber, there was something called the body-to-barrel ratio, which was the ratio of the length of the gun barrel to its caliber. Anyway, when he passed it on, it was said that all countries had We are working on a 52-caliber artillery piece. It is said that the range of the artillery shells can reach 50 kilometers.

From this point, it can be seen that the greater the body-to-barrel ratio, the farther the range seems to be, which of course means that the barrel must be longer.

As for the technical difficulty, does it have anything to do with it now?

What's the barrel-to-barrel ratio of the bowl-mouth gun in front of me?

"You said that thing is just a close combat shot to kill the elite Japanese pirates rushing in front."

Wu Dong smiled and said, "But it would be better if the gun tube is longer. If you pack more shotguns and shoot it out, you can kill more enemies."

"Cut off the mouth of the bowl to reduce weight. The medicine chamber doesn't need to be so big. It can be supported by a bracket. Two people can carry it to the front of the formation. When the enemy rushes up and shoots it, they run away."

Wei Guangde replied.

"It makes sense. It can be made lighter. Two people can carry it. I'll go back and ask the craftsmen at the guard house to see if they can get it out. In fact, the key is to be safe. It would be bad if this thing explodes."

Wu Dong felt that what Wei Guangde said made sense.

"The boat is about to cross the mouth of the lake."

Now that he figured out how to use the firearm in front of him, Zeng Yuanshu's interest in it disappeared. He looked at the river and the scenery on both sides and said a little uncertainly.