The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Bang bang."

Two cannon shots were heard in the distance at very short intervals, and the sound was dull.

"Let's go over and see the effect."

Zhang Shigui, who was standing at the front of the crowd, spoke at this time.

This place is already a certain distance from Jiujiang Pier, and there is a group of soldiers standing guard far away from the place where they tested the artillery.

Several soldiers nearby began to clean the barrel of the cannon after firing the cannon, preparing to reload it. However, when they saw the crowd approaching, they temporarily stopped what they were doing.

Zhang Shigui and the others did not stop at the artillery position, but continued to move forward through them. About fifty steps ahead was a mountain wall. At this moment, the originally intact mountain wall had been riddled with wounds from a large number of small lead pieces. hole.

Looking at the crowd that was already moving forward, Wei Guangde did not follow, but squatted next to an artillery piece and observed carefully.

The barrel of this artillery barrel is about 2 feet from end to end. Seven iron hoops are added to the barrel. Two iron claws are set up on the head of the barrel to allow the barrel to have a slight elevation angle when firing.

However, this gun was not placed directly on the ground. Instead, a small hole was dug at the rear of the gun to fix the gun tail. The two iron claws on the gun body were also inserted into the ground, both for fixing the gun.

Wei Guangde touched the tail of the cannon and it felt a little warm.

"Is the belly of this gun two inches long? How much powder is loaded in each shot? How much lead?"

Wei Guangde saw that the cannon was thin and the wall was not too thick, but because it was too thin, the caliber of the cannon was also very small.

"have."

A soldier next to him knew Wei Guangde. He was a soldier of the Wu family. He naturally knew who the teenage boy in front of him was. This was Wei Xiucai, Wei Wenqu.

Well, Wei Guangde was very satisfied with the answer he got. It was in line with his impression that the bigger the body-to-body ratio, the better.

The gun is about two feet long and has a running distance of two inches, which is almost ten times the body-to-barrel ratio.

Although it is incomparable to 40 times or 50 times that of later generations, the current technical level should not be bad at all.

You must know that the craftsmen who forged this cannon were the craftsmen of the guard station, not the master craftsmen of the Ordnance Bureau and the Staff Bureau of the capital. They could make it without exploding the barrel, which is already very good.

The man continued: "This cannon costs six dollars each time it is fired. Wrap it in cloth in advance and put it away immediately."

At this time, the cleaning work of the gun barrel had been completed. Wei Guangde stood there watching the gunners loading, and also listened attentively to the man's introduction.

This man is the leader of this team of soldiers, so he has a little leisure time, while the others are busy working.

A gunpowder package wrapped in cloth was put into the barrel, and then someone put a stick into the barrel and pounded it, which should have compacted the gunpowder.

But at this point, they stopped moving and did not continue to reload ammunition.

Wei Guangde didn't ask, because he saw in the box next to him, there were small lead pieces and a few slightly larger ones, about the same size as the barrel. In other words, in addition to shooting shotguns, this cannon could also fire solid bullets. bomb.

Wei Guangde knew that they were waiting for orders. There were many important people in front of the cannon at this time, so they did not load ammunition into the cannon for safety reasons.

Wei Guangde felt that what he saw here was almost the same as placing a bowl-mouth gun, except that this one looked smaller and much lighter than the bowl-mouth gun.

Immediately, Wei Guangde smiled and nodded to the soldier captain, and quickly chased the person in front.

Soon, Wei Guangde arrived at the mountain wall. Zhang Shigui, Wu Zhankui and Wei Lao had been standing here for a while, measuring the impact area of ​​the shotgun.

Wei Guangde followed from left to right and estimated that the two hundred cannons fired more than 200 lead pellets, and the approximate killing width was about 20 meters.

The lead sank into the soil. Wei Wencai and Wu Dong measured the depth of the lead, which was about an inch.

But these are not important, because Wei Guangde has heard the discussion of Zhang Shigui and others.

"It's no problem to break armor in fifty steps."

"Well, iron armor can also be penetrated. If the two cannons are placed one step apart, they can hit a width of twelve steps, which is very good."

"Has this gun been tried in Pengze?"

At this time, Zhang Shigui turned around and asked Wu Dong.

"I tried five or six cannons, and both of them are about the same."

Wu Dong hurriedly answered his uncle's question.

"Then how about trying the power of solid bullets."

Zhang Shigui had an idea in his mind, nodded and said to the others with a smile.

"good."

"That's how it should be."

Wu Zhankui and Wei Meng naturally would not refuse.

Not long after, two more cannon shots were heard from the gun emplacement.

The crowd still passed through the gun position and went to the mountain wall to check the shooting power. Wei Guangde went over first and felt the temperature of the gun barrel. This time it was much higher than the previous time.

As the soldiers cleaned the barrel with sticks wrapped in linen, the temperature of the barrel also dropped, but it was still very hot.

"If this cannon is fired continuously, how many times can it be fired?"

Wei Guangde felt that the heat dissipation of the barrel was poor, and he was worried about the properties of the iron material these days.

Well, when I was still at Bengshan Fort, I often heard people talking about firearms exploding their chambers.

In fact, Wei Guangde knew that some of these news might be true, but many of them were also made up, so that he would be less likely to take advantage of others.

Just kidding, everyone knows that firearms explode, will other guards still practice firearms without any problem?

How could there be so many explosions of firearms?

When I was in Bengshan Castle, except for playing with firearms myself, I didn't see anyone else using this thing.

Even if some gunpowder was collected from above, in my memory, my father took it to the city and exchanged it for money and firecrackers.

This is the memory of young Wei Guangde, but now Wei Guangde firmly believes it.

"The maximum number of shots is five. The barrel of the gun will be hot and you can't continue firing. You need to cool down before you can continue firing."

The soldier captain immediately said, "I tried it before in Pengze. After firing five cannons in a row, the craftsman and the gunner touched the cannon and said they couldn't continue firing."

Wei Guangde smiled and shook his head, not because he disliked the small number of shots, but because he felt that this thing didn't have many chances to fire a second shot.

With the reloading speed of these soldiers and the distance of fifty steps, they have almost already run in front of you while you are still preparing for the second shot.

Even if the opponent is slower and allows you to reload and then fire, the third shot is absolutely impossible to fire.

The next two cannons fired three more times, for a total of ten shots. Zhang Shigui and others stood next to the cannons and reached out to touch the hot barrels.

They also knew about the test carried out by their cousin in Pengze, and now they came to inspect the gun barrel in a simulating manner.

"Five times is enough. This is such a close distance, unless we are defending the city."

Zhang Shigui was very satisfied with the performance of this iron cannon, nodded and said to Wu Zhankui and Wei Meng.

"Yes, the range of this cannon is not far. If it is a field battle, I think two cannons are the limit. If you are defending a city, you can prepare cold water to cool down."

Wei Meng also said in agreement.

"What do you think of our proposal, uncle?"

Wu Zhankui stood next to Zhang Shigui and asked in a low voice. Apparently he wanted to collect the bronze cannons in the guardhouse.

"It's feasible. Let's think about it again when we get back. We can have a meal at the house during the Chinese New Year and finalize the matter then."

Zhang Shigui nodded slightly and said.