Three Kingdoms

Everyone has troubles, and not everyone's troubles are the same.

Just like Cao Cao and Sun Quan were worrying about how to deal with their powerful local clans, Fei Qian was also worried about how to deal with grenades.

It's not that Fei Qian went to the battlefield, but that Fei Qian faced a thorny problem, which was the current style of grenades. He had to kneel down in front of the current productivity of the big man and endured helpless technical suppression, which resulted in a certain degree of of degradation.

Originally, Fei Qian wanted to hit the target in one step, bah, he did it in one step. After all, the best mode of grenade, or the relatively more lethal style, is the oval grenade, but in the actual process, the oval grenade However, grenades have a lot of troubles and limitations due to production technology.

On the one hand, oval grenades are in higher demand and consume more iron. On the other hand, there are no stable and reliable detonators, ignition powder, delayed fuzes, etc. in later generations for ignition. Therefore, the grenadier originally used Before lighting a grenade, you must first ignite yourself, well, light the match rope you carry, and then use the match rope to ignite the ignition powder of the grenade.

The lethality of black powder grenades is extremely limited, but it is very destructive to the current intensive infantry battle formation. This destructive power does not mean direct damage to the body, but the destruction of the array. Not many people can throw grenades. Despite the grenades in his hand, he could still maintain his iron will and tenacity. In many battle reports, it often only took one round, or at most two rounds, for the opponent's infantry line to completely collapse.

Therefore, Fei Qian believed that even though the lethality of grenades was limited, research and development should be increased as much as possible. However, Fei Qian never expected that when the Huang craftsmen who were engaged in this kind of lethal weapon presented the latest style grenade, but it seems like a step backwards.

Because this new type of grenade has a long wooden handle.

It's ugly, weird, and indescribably ugly.

There are actually many versions of grenades under Fei Qian, and they have never been completely finalized. The main reason is that they have never been able to meet Fei Qian's ideal, or are temporarily in line with the ideal model.

In the beginning, it was a gunpowder bottle similar to an incendiary bomb. It was mixed with kerosene. The explosion was pitiful, but the bang was a bit scary. It was equivalent to the larger firecrackers in later generations. It was not very close. The lethality is almost non-existent, but the effect of being startled by the sound is quite good.

Later, it developed into a black powder bomb in an earthen jar, which was ignited with a rope soaked in kerosene. The lethality and shocking power were improved to a certain extent, but it was damaged before it exploded when thrown. Half of it was burned by lighting the match rope. The ones that went out, the burning speeds were inconsistent, resulting in huge differences in explosion times, and some even threw them behind their butts because they were difficult to handle.

Fortunately, these black powder projectiles have a small charge. Even if a throwing accident occurs, there will not be much damage, which is a blessing among misfortunes.

Later, Fei Qian gradually understood that the current level of industry and chemistry in the Han Dynasty was not enough to produce similar or close to the grenades of later generations. It could only guide the direction and let the great craftsmen of Huang's workshop continue. Go and research. As a result, Fei Qian didn't expect that what Huang's master craftsman brought over was exactly the same as the old-fashioned grenade that Fei Qian had left from his childhood. No, it was even uglier than the old-fashioned wooden handle grenade.

However, after changing to this, the throwing distance will be increased, right?

I remember it seemed like I could throw it to 50 or 60 meters?

The grenade in Fei Qian's hand only had an appearance, and was not filled with any medicine. It was hollow. The weight may increase a bit after adding black powder, but it is not too heavy and is acceptable.

The wooden handle is too long. If you don’t know that this thing is a grenade, it will look like

Think about it, what is it like?

Fei Qian always felt that something looked familiar. He held it in his hand and pondered it for a long time. Suddenly he remembered that there were two wooden hammers that made a rustling sound in later Western musical instruments. What should they be called? Sand hammer? It is probably smaller than that thing, and the wooden handle is longer. The color is without any decoration, iron black and wood green.

It's not as good as the old-fashioned wooden handle grenade. At least the wooden handle grenade is still the same size and looks like a product of industrialization.

And what’s in this hand is more like an entertainment tool

But after listening to the explanation of the great craftsman Huang, Fei Qian gradually stopped his contempt or contempt and began to take this ugly little guy seriously.

It has indeed improved to its current form, uh, well, it can be regarded as an improvement, and it is aimed at solving some of the previous problems. For example, with a wooden handle, it is relatively easier to throw. Although there is a possibility of losing your hand, it does greatly reduce the difficulty of throwing, and the wooden handle feels better to hold.

In addition, due to the lack of chemical basis for ignition powder, some compounds either cannot be manufactured or are impure. The desired effect may be achieved once or twice, but it is very difficult to produce in large quantities.

Fei Qian looked at the wooden-handled grenade and sighed inaudibly.

Making the ideal grenade requires a variety of chemicals.

Gunpowder is used as the explosive, mercury fulminate is used as the detonator initiating agent, potassium chlorate is used as the explosive, and red phosphorus is used as the friction agent. This is the limit of what Fei Qian can know. As for what the specific components of mercury are, how to make potassium chlorate, and how to purify red phosphorus, Fei Qian is powerless.

Perhaps the most troublesome is potassium chlorate.

Mixed organic substances like potassium chlorate are quite scary in terms of toxicity and stability. After all, the foundation of middle school chemistry is still there. Fei Qian knows that chloric acid and potassium are not good babies. Maybe for future generations, it will not be difficult to create potassium chlorate, but for the current Han Dynasty, what Don't even think about electrolysis or chemical combination.

If we really want to do it, we must first establish a power generation system, such as DC and AC, and then the basis of DC and AC is high-quality materials, which can at least withstand high temperature and high pressure, otherwise it will be like a hand-cranked generator and cannot be stable.

So like now, hiding the fuse inside the wooden handle and sealing it with wax on the outside can relatively speaking ensure that the fuse is not susceptible to moisture and the combustion is relatively stable, and there will be no chance of accidentally dropping the fuse on the ground. on, and then went out.

The body of the grenade is directly cast from wrought iron that cannot be further made into steel. There are some lines on the shell.

Fei Qian pointed at the lines and said, don't use a file, see if you can make a finer mold and pour it directly.

If we really want to mass-produce, how can we find the time to file them one by one?

And this wooden handle, Fei Qian continued, is it made with a wooden drill? It's too much work. Let's see if we can use bamboo instead.

Wood is too much work, would bamboo be better? Try it first and then tell.

In addition, the handle is too long. It needs to be shorter. Let's see if the fuse can be made thinner, so that it can be coiled in it. Fei Qian simply followed his previous impression of the wooden handle grenade, sealed it with wax paper, and added There is a wooden lid. When you need to light a fire, you can open the wooden lid, break the wax paper, and pull out the match rope to light it.

It's really troublesome to have no ignition powder, but the basic industry is so weak

Also, there is no need to carve patterns on the exterior.

Simple, practical and with few mistakes is the best

Make a batch first, try out the effect, and then modify it.

The great craftsman of the Huang family left holding a new type of grenade.

Fei Qian let out a long sigh.

Black powder.

The quality is really hard to guarantee.

Sometimes it is very effective, but sometimes it is hard to say.

This kind of pain even reached the period of the Anti-Japanese War in later generations. Homemade black powder grenades often split into two halves. Until the period of aid to Korea, the rice soldiers jokingly called our grenades a shock grenade, not an anti-personnel grenade.

Therefore, the effect of the current explosion is not as earth-shattering as in movies and TV shows, with the appearance of flying sand and rocks, but more like the thick smoke of lining up to be shot before the First World War in the 18th century.

It looks cool, but the effect is poor.

It is precisely this that makes Fei Qian's desire for the development of artillery not very high.

Because the effect is really not good.

It's just like a grenade, you can't stop doing it just because it looks ugly.

Bronze cannons are still being tested and improved, but are they effective?

Many problems arose in the initial version of the bronze cannon. If it weren't for Fei Qian's continuous encouragement and guidance, it would be impossible to say that the research would have been abandoned early, or that like a wooden handle grenade, it would have turned to some weird route of a wooden smoothbore cannon. After all, earth cannons made of trees were also used in later generations, which were much cheaper and lighter than bronze cannons.

The bronze cannon displayed at the shooting range of the Beiqu Military Workshop is too short, and the charge is difficult to control. The short range is short, and the pressure on the cannon body is too much. It will be scrapped after only a few firings, and the artillery has no The front sight is only a rough shooting direction, and the proportion of bronze components was not grasped when it was first cast, causing the artillery to deform under the high temperature and pressure of the gunpowder.

As for bronze cannons, the outer mouth of the barrel is wide, the inside is small, and the proportions are uncoordinated. It cannot effectively ignite black powder and cannot effectively gather gunpowder gas. The inside of the barrel cannot be made into a qualified round shape, and there is no boring finish inside the barrel.

There are also things like the size and even shape of the cannonballs, which vary in size, and the gaps are too large and the air tightness is not good.

The bronze cannon initially had no lugs and was top-heavy. If the charge was too dense, it would explode when it was fired.

The progress of technology is achieved by testing again and again, then getting up from failure, summarizing and summarizing again. Of course, the most important point in this link is the record of craftsmen's experiments. Without the records of craftsman experiments proposed by Fei Qian in his early days, it would be impossible to have a relatively complete craftsman system, and it would be impossible to support the development of bronze cannons.

In fact, historically, during the Ming Dynasty, some of the so-called Hongyi cannons introduced were essentially the same as the various traditional artillery manufactured and equipped by the Ming army. They were all smooth-bore front-loading cannons and used the same Black powder and solid shells.

However, thanks to the relatively standard manufacturing process of the West at that time, and the detailed requirements for certain matters, which are not vague quantifications such as roughly, a little, a certain number, etc., Western artillery was better than the Ming Dynasty's own development from design to practicality. better. For example, the Hongyi cannon at that time had a thicker barrel wall, a larger diameter, and a thicker barrel from front to back. It also had some barrels to reinforce the barrel, so it had advantages in terms of range, lethality, and safety. .

At the same time, these Hongyi cannons basically have front sights and rear sights, and lugs are cast on the cannon body, making it easy to set up on the gun carriage, adjust the shooting angle and move easily.

As a time traveler, thanks to the patriotic education and historical museum exhibitions in his childhood, as well as some supplementary impressions from film and television, Fei Qian had some general ideas about the bronze smoothbore cannon that he needed to manufacture, and he also had some general ideas about the bronze smoothbore cannon that he needed to make. The shape of the Hongyi cannon of later generations is copied, but there may be some differences in material or subtle structure.

Fei Qian didn't know that the bronze cannon he was making now should be classified into several pound cannons. Anyway, there was no concept of so-called several-pound cannons at the moment. He just generally knew that the current range of the bronze cannon should be around a thousand steps. It is far beyond the range of ordinary bows and arrows by several times.

The bronze cannon, with the word "fire" next to it, is worthy of being the god of the battlefield in the future. Even in its current crude form, its shooting accuracy and shooting distance far exceed that of a catapult.

The most important thing is that the bronze cannon can be used to blast the door directly!

This point is unmatched by catapults.

Although the accuracy of bronze cannons is actually very poor, and the killing effect of long-distance shooting is not much better than that of catapults, the bronze cannons are more useful than catapults in that they can use the gun mount to get within a hundred steps to bombard the city. Door!

At relatively close distances, hits are basically guaranteed.

The same cannot be said for the trebuchet. Let alone the structure of the trebuchet, whether it can throw a nearby target or not. Even if it can, it may not be able to hit it.

It was this obvious advantage that made Fei Qian promote the development of bronze cannons. No one whispered behind his back that the hussar general had lost his mind and wasted his fortune by using bronze instead of casting coins.

After all, those who cast bronze cannons can only make a small fortune!

After all, the territory under Fei Qian's governance is constantly expanding, commercial trade is becoming increasingly prosperous, and the demand for copper mines is also expanding. In terms of currency circulation, if Fei Qian had not launched a system of gold and silver coins early on, it would have been difficult to support the demand for commodity circulation and transactions by relying solely on copper coins.

Of course, Feiqian also helps Fei Qian not have to produce a large amount of currency. In many cases, the trading platform endorsed by the Dahan Chamber of Commerce makes businessmen feel more comfortable adopting the Feiqian model, saving money collection and settlement. link

After all, even big merchants have begun to use gold and silver coins, as well as flying money. Naturally, small merchants and caravans have also followed suit. It is like the hype of some commemorative gold and silver coins in later generations. The actual value of gold and silver coins may not be that high. , but if someone recognizes its price, it seems to have so much value.

Just like now, Fei Qian believed that the bronze cannon had some value, so he continued to study it. The problems he encountered were not only reloading and retreating, but also re-aiming.

Originally, changing the pitch angle could only be solved by moving the gun mount, but for a heavy bronze cannon, this was definitely not an easy task. If there was a directional mechanism to adjust the direction of the muzzle instead of manpower, it would naturally be possible. Many things are much simpler.

In order to build a strong gun mount, Fei Qian added a batch of steel materials, which caused the overall weight of the bronze gun to soar. It is estimated that it should be more than half a ton, and it may be as heavy as a small QQ in future generations.

The bronze gun equipped with a new gun mount was immediately tested on the shooting range, which proved that the direction mechanism did have some effect. However, the direction mechanism lacked a direction locking and retraction device, which caused the barrel to recoil during shooting. Offset, and then need to be readjusted every time. Of course, it is much lighter than manpower.

Subsequently, a hundred-mile march towing test was conducted, which proved that four horses pulling the new gun mount can be used on relatively smooth roads. In terms of flexibility and towing performance, it is relatively acceptable, but it is inferior. The ball bearings caused several mid-range repairs.

The gun carriage bracket is divided into two parts, the front and rear. The main reason is that the weight of the bronze cannon is very heavy, and it is difficult to balance it when dragging it. If you are not careful, it will fall upside down. Separating the front and rear carriages can share the weight, and Ensure the center of gravity is balanced while pulling. When attacking, the frame of the tractor tail is removed, and then a device for repulsing due to recoil is placed on the frame.

After further improvements, the bronze cannon barely passed the range test and march test, and no longer became a burden. In the end, Fei Qian was approved to try to produce a few in small quantities, and then form an artillery battery.

Of course, current bronze cannons can only use solid bullets.

Fei Qian had always thought that as long as the materials were available, he could make a musket, but in fact, his idea was too ideal. Even if there is relatively tough steel and the gun barrel is knocked out using home-made methods, there is no guarantee that the upper and lower walls of the barrel will be uniform. The explosion of the barrel is inevitable and has to be done during the shooting process. If you can kill the other party, you will kill yourself instead.

After all, the relatively mature bronze pouring technology lasted from the Pre-Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, and the thick, thick structure was more practical than the musket.

At the same time, it is an indisputable fact that muskets were not even as useful as bows and arrows in the early days when technology was poor. Therefore, the current development of muskets is just a show, or to lay a foundation first, waiting for subsequent development and technological advancement.

And these various novel equipment and advanced technologies in Feiqian's territory have also faced their own test, or in other words, a test for their protectors.

The spies who stole Xuanwuchi's latest warship technology gradually surfaced.