The Rise of the European Emperor

With the opening of the steel-making open-hearth furnace, the quality of the steel in East Frisian cannons has undergone a fundamental change. Before, Marin just asked Old John and other artillery craftsmen to use high-quality wrought iron smelted in a reverberatory furnace. Although the quality was better than the artillery of other European countries, the strength of the gun body was not enough.

After all, wrought iron is soft, and it is used to cast artillery, and its toughness is enough, but the strength of the tube wall is not enough. Therefore, the gun needs to be cast very thick.

But now, because of the use of open hearth, Marin has medium and low carbon steel, which is more suitable for casting guns. Although it is said that due to technical limitations, Marin's current craftsmen are not proficient in controlling carbon content, resulting in unstable steel quality. Medium carbon steel is often smelted into low carbon steel, and low carbon steel is often smelted into medium carbon steel ( The quality of high carbon steel is a good control point, and graphite clay lining can be used, similar to the crucible steelmaking method). But in any case, as long as it is not high carbon steel, it is suitable for casting guns, much better than wrought iron guns.

Therefore, after using steel, the gun body can also be "thin"...

To this end, Marin gave the foundry a task to develop a large-caliber, short-barreled Karen naval gun (also called Karon gun)...

In fact, Marin issued a total of two artillery research and development tasks. Old John and his team were mainly responsible for upgrading the original 12-pound wrought iron cannon. Marin's request was to keep the gross weight the same, but to upgrade the caliber from 12 to 18 pounds. That is to say, after the upgrade, Old John's iron cannon has become an 18-pound "Hongyi Cannon".

The second task is to develop a large-caliber, short-barreled Karen naval gun. However, this team is not the same as Old John's team. The main craftsmen of this team are the group of local blacksmiths that Marin went to help Old John and learn techniques.

Now, a few years later, these blacksmiths are also skilled in casting 12-pound wrought iron guns. This time, Marin separated them separately and set up a new research and development team to start developing a large-caliber, short-barreled Karen gun. After all, old John was British, not his own. The important thing, Marin still believes in his own people. Therefore, he used this group of cannon-casting artisans from his own serfs to make Karen cannons.

As a military and sailing fan, it is impossible for Marin not to know the place of the Cullen Cannon in the British Navy. The close-range firing of the Karen gun within 500 meters is a magic weapon for the Royal Navy to win.

The Karen Cannon has two advantages: First, it has a large caliber and can shoot heavy iron balls to smash enemy ships. The larger the iron ball, the more likely it is to smash the hull of the enemy ship. The Pecsan Cannon in the mid-19th century is an outstanding representative of them. The 68-pound weight of the shell alone can easily smash through the thick, reinforced sides of an enemy ship.

Although it is said that the destruction of enemy ships, the Peksang artillery mainly relies on explosive bombs. However, if the side of the enemy ship cannot be smashed and exploded inside the enemy ship, the Peksang Cannon is not that powerful, and its destructive power to the battleship is limited. Therefore, the 68-pound weight of its shells is also very important. The Peksang gun is a classic large-caliber, short-barreled heavy gun, which is an upgraded and enhanced version of the Karen naval gun.

Second, the Karen cannon has a fast rate of fire. Front-mounted artillery, the longer the barrel, the more difficult it is to load, and the longer it takes. At the same time, the long-barreled artillery, because it is much heavier than the Karen of the same caliber, is also difficult to reset.

For example, the 32-pound Karen gun weighs only 771.8 kg and is only 1.2 meters long. The 18-pound "Hongyi Cannon" weighed 2 tons, or 2,000 kilograms, and the gun was about 3 meters long.

That is to say, the shell weight of the 32-pound Karen cannon is almost twice that of the "Hongyi Cannon", but the weight of the cannon is only about one-third of that of the "Hongyi Cannon"... If you replace it with a 32-pound long barrel Cannon, God knows how heavy...

The heavier the gun body, the more difficult it is to reload the gun, and the more troublesome it is to reset. Many sailors are needed to help move the gun to reset. The heavier the gun, the more difficult it is to reset.

This also leads to the same caliber of artillery, whether it is much easier to reload or reset the Karen gun. Then, the average rate of fire is naturally higher. Generally speaking, skilled Royal Navy artillerymen who use long-barreled heavy artillery will take at least 2 minutes to fire a shot (Note: Because of the complex environment on board, the rate of fire is slower than on land. Because, on land, The turret artillery is not easily displaced, and the recoil is directed to the ground, but it does not need to be reset, which saves a lot of time and has a higher rate of fire.). The Karen Cannon can fire a cannon in about 1 minute.

...

Although it is said that the long-barreled artillery has a longer range. Perhaps bombing land targets, long-barreled guns are better, and coastal defense guns are also more suitable for long-barreled guns. However, in naval battles, the range of long-barreled guns is meaningless.

Because the warship, which is the carrier of the artillery, is constantly shaking on the sea due to the relationship between the wind and waves and the recoil of the artillery. Especially in the age of wooden boats, the hull was more affected by sea conditions and swayed more.

The broadside of the naval gun is horizontal. The boat swayed, basically sideways. This is a tragedy, so that the broadside artillery can't lock on the target when it is aimed at the enemy ship. You just aimed at the enemy ship, but the hull swayed and the angle of fire changed immediately. If the distance is short, it cannot be seen, the distance is about long, and the shooting angle changes slightly, which will lead to great errors.

So, on a rickety battleship, the range of the artillery is meaningless. The farther the range, the bigger the error...

Of course, this is at sea. If it is in the Inner Hanoi Lake area, it will be another matter. For example, during the Second Anglo-American War (1812-1814), the Inner Lake water battles on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, because there were no winds and waves in the inner lake, led to the long-barreled guns on the American warships being more calmly on the British warship Cullen Out of range of the guns, aimed at bombarding the British ships. The British ships were all equipped with Karen guns, which had a short range and could not hit the American ships. When trying to get close, the US ship ran away and played with the British ship like "flying a kite". Therefore, it is not appropriate to equip the Karen gun with a short range alone. If you encounter the rogue style of the United States, you may suffer a loss. Of course, in the Atlantic Ocean, the hull swayed violently, and this kind of wretched tactic of the U.S. military might not be useful. On the inner lake, because the wind and waves were calm, the long-barreled guns were able to shoot more accurately.

After this war, the British finally realized that it was not enough to use only Karen cannons. If you meet a rogue like Lao Mei, you will suffer. so. Later, on British warships, the Karen gun and the long-barreled gun were used together. In close combat, enemy ships are mainly destroyed by Karen cannons. And when the distance is far, they use long-barreled guns to bet each other's hit rate...

However, above the sea, if the distance is too far, even if the long-barreled gun has a sufficient range, it is basically impossible to hit. Therefore, when the British warships are in naval battles, they are basically within 500 meters of the enemy ship, taking advantage of the Karen gun.

Even the Royal Navy has close-to-shoot tactics. For example, in the "Battle of Trafalgar" in which Nelson was killed, it was because Nelson's flagship "Victory" and the French battleship "Awe" were side-by-side, and even had a side-to-side battle. Nelson himself was shot and killed by the French musketeers because he was too close.

In short, in naval battles in the era of sail battleships, the closer the distance, the higher the artillery hit rate. If they are side by side, it is basically a hit and a hit. At that time, everyone was completely different.

But at long distances, even at a distance of 500 meters, the hit rate of naval guns is astonishingly low, only one or two percent. If you fight from a long distance, if you hit it, you will win the lottery...

With ready-made experience in the Royal Navy, why not Marin? Therefore, Marin ordered the development of the Karen Cannon, and in the future naval battles, he must also shoot close, using the heavy shells and high rate of fire of the Karen Cannon to directly defeat the enemy ships...

However, Marin didn't want to take too big steps to prevent the egg from being pulled. Therefore, Marin asked the newly independent local artisan-based gun foundry to first develop the 12-pounder Karen gun. When the technology is mature, 18 lbs are being developed. Then, and so on, up to 24 pounds. Then, move on to the most common 32-pounder Karen gun...

Of course, in this era, heavy artillery casting has a very low success rate, generally no 20% success rate. In other words, the scrap rate is as high as 80% or more.

But Marin often went to forums in his previous life and knew the reason. It is because, in this era, the "Rodman Law" that appeared during the American Civil War has not yet appeared.

The so-called Rodman method is the "internal mold controllable cooling technology" when casting guns. Specifically, the cooling rate of the inner wall of the gun barrel is not slower than the appearance. Usually, in the case of natural cooling, the outer layer is naturally cooled first, and then the inner layer is finally reached. But in this way, due to thermal expansion and cold contraction, it is easy to cause the outer barrel to shrink first, squeezing the inner layer of the "thermal expansion", which is easy to cause internal cracks in the barrel, and then lead to scrap.

If the "Rodman method" is used to accelerate the cooling inside the barrel, it is not easy for the outer layer to have a "clamping" effect on the inner layer, and it is not easy to produce internal cracks. In this way, the casting success rate of heavy artillery has been greatly improved, reaching more than 80%. Also, it lasts longer, even five times longer than the old-fashioned artillery…

Marin handed over the principle of the "Rodman Method" to these cannon-casting craftsmen who were born in their own serfs, and asked them to cast cannons according to this principle.

Of course, how to speed up the cooling of the inner wall of the gun barrel, Marin only knows the principle, not the process. This point needs to be explored by the gunsmiths themselves. Once successful, it will be very convenient to cast heavy artillery in the future...

At that time, the Marin warships will all use heavy artillery to blast any opponent's warships that dare to compete with him for maritime supremacy...