Yang Zhen held up the short wooden pipe filled with mud, smiled and said to everyone: "Did you see it? This is the solution!"

By this time, those who thought faster had already somewhat realized what Yang Zhen meant. However, most people present were still confused and had no idea what Yang Zhen was doing.

Yang Zhen looked at everyone's performance and said with a smile: "The wooden tube I am holding in my hand can be called a message tube. The problem of the detonation bomb fuse can be solved through it! The mud in this message tube will be pressed with pressure in the future.

Replace it with solid gunpowder!”

While Yang Zhen was talking, he pulled out a dagger from his waist, and in front of everyone, he made several small holes in the lower middle of the wooden pipe, and then said:

"How many holes need to be drilled into the gunpowder-filled message tube? Where to drill the holes requires repeated trials, because it depends on the range of the cannon and when we want it to explode.

"As for opening a few more holes below, it is to prevent such a bomb from failing to explode after being fired, and eventually becoming a dud."

When Yang Zhen said this, he casually handed the wooden pipe that was temporarily used as a communication pipe to Wang Shoutang, whose eyes were widened in front of him.

Wang Shoutang took it, held it in his hand, turned it over and over, looked at it again and again, and finally couldn't help but marveled: "I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it, I'm so old, I didn't think of such a simple truth!"

Wang Shoutang stood up with the wooden pipe in his hand, bent down, inserted the wooden pipe back into the huge round yellow mud ball, and then said:

"In this way, we don't have to worry about the powder being exposed, burning too fast in the barrel, and detonating in advance! Old Pan, Old Pan, look at this, our Commander-in-Chief is really a genius!"

While Wang Shoutang couldn't help but admire, he casually took out the wooden pipe again, turned around and handed it to Pan Wenmao who was sitting next to him.

When it comes to the issue of ammunition, in the final analysis it still falls on the ammunition factory, that is, on Pan Wenmao's head.

The iron shell for filling gunpowder is of course cast and produced by an iron factory, but the final steps of loading the ammunition and installing the fuze are processes in the ammunition factory.

Pan Wenmao has been wondering whether this thing is feasible since Yang Zhen proposed to make a flower bounce. It was not until Yang Zhen took out the wooden tube that served as a fuse that he finally thought that this thing seemed feasible.

For all types of explosive bombs, the issue of fuze is crucial.

The grenades currently used by the Grenadiers, which are stick grenades with iron shells and wooden handles, use the most traditional fuse. Unscrew the cover, pull out the fuse, ignite it with an open flame, and then throw it.

Including the heavy explosive bombs used by the grenadiers, which can defeat thousands of enemies, they also use the most traditional fuzes.

The fuses they use are the same as the gunpowder twisters used in fireworks and firecrackers from ancient times to the present. In fact, the gunpowder twisters used in firecrackers are the earliest fuses.

The length of the fuse of such a thrown explosive bomb can be set according to the distance of the throw. It can be as long as you want or as short as you want. This is also very safe.

However, fuzes such as gunpowder twisters or match ropes used by flying generals and ten thousand enemies cannot be used in the barrel of a gun.

Because after the artillery ignites the propellant, it will form violent flames and fireworks, and these flames and fireworks will directly ignite all exposed fuses instantly.

However, the message tube that Yang Zhen developed now has fundamentally changed the gunpowder twister fuze used before, and also hid the fuze directly in the missile body, which made his eyes light up.

At that moment, he took the mud-filled wooden pipe from Wang Shoutang's hand and looked at it left, right, up, and down, and finally said in deep thought:

"The problem with the fuse can be solved by using the fuse tube that the governor said. However, the huge pig iron shell is filled with gunpowder. Once the gun is fired, the iron shell will immediately burn red in the barrel and come into contact with the gunpowder filled inside.

Isn’t it——, oh——, Governor, I understand! I understand!”

Pan Wenmao was speaking hesitantly at first, but at the end of his speech, he seemed to suddenly realize something. He held the wooden pipe in one hand and pointed to the huge yellow mud ball on the stone table in front of him with one hand, full of joy.

said:

"Yellow mud! If you want to prevent the cartridge case from being in direct contact with gunpowder, you can apply a layer of heat-insulating mud inside the cartridge case before loading the ammunition, just like glazing pottery, leaving only one end of the letter tube as the governor said, and pass it through

Cannon flames ignited! The governor is a true god and man!"

When Pan Wenmao said this, everyone present obviously knew that the method Yang Zhen was talking about was effective.

Although they still didn't understand what was going on, when they saw Wang Shoutang and Pan Wenmao, they suddenly had a look of enlightenment, and when they saw Yang Zhen's confident and steady look, they began to admire Yang Zhen's fantastic ideas.

But Yang Zhen knew in his heart that he had asked Ma Keqing to make this big mud ball with mud, just to use it as a temporary prop. He did not realize that he could use insulating mud or the like to smear the inner wall of the hollow shell.

This achieves the effect of preventing the shell from exploding in the barrel.

If anyone thought of this, it could only be Pan Wenmao himself. Yang Zhen knew very well that he had never thought about this aspect at all.

The method he came up with was not to coat the inner wall with mud and then dry it before loading gunpowder shot inside the bomb, but to use a tray under the yellow mud ball.

Of course, this is not Yang Zhen’s first initiative. In fact, this approach is still a plagiarism of later approaches.

In the history of the early application of explosive bullets, in order to prevent the explosive bullets filled with gunpowder from being directly red-hot and detonated by the flames or violent smoke in the barrel, users generally adopted the method of using a bullet holder.

In other words, the bullet holder made of thick wood is used to separate the medicine bag in the medicine chamber at the bottom of the mortar from the explosive bullet, so that the violent fireworks in the barrel can ignite the exposed tube, but will not instantly burn the bullet case and detonate the inside.

ammunition.

But in the face of everyone's "adulation", Yang Zhen did not refute, but accepted it with a smile.

After a while, when everyone looked happy and quiet, Yang Zhen pointed at the tray and said: "In addition to the method you just mentioned, Lao Pan, in order to be as foolproof as possible, I have another method here!"

Next, Yang Zhen explained the function of the tray, and the result once again attracted a lot of admiration.

After everyone had fully digested and accepted this method, Yang Zhen said again: "The problem of the message tube, the coating, including the ammunition holder. Today I just proposed this method. We want it to be truly implemented and effective.

In the end, it all depends on the capabilities of your ironworks and ammunition factories!"

At this point, Yang Zhen paused for a moment, thought for a while, and then said to Zhang Degui: "Vice General Zhang, the saltpetre and sulfur we brought back this time will be deployed to the ammunition factory as soon as possible, as well as the iron bars, gun tubes, and other

Copper and ironware, if they have no special purpose, should be allocated to the ironworks as soon as possible!"

After Zhang Degui heard this arrangement, he immediately stood up and accepted the order, while Pan Wenmao and Wang Shoutang also stood up and saluted to express their thanks.

Yang Zhen asked them to sit down, and then said to everyone: "Yang Shen, your artillery team received the new batch of sky cannons made by the iron factory as soon as possible. First, go outside the city to do a blast test to see how powerful it can be.

How much medicine does the medicine pack contain?

"Wang Tiju, your ironworks should cast a batch of spherical hollow iron shells according to the caliber of the sky cannon as soon as possible. The iron shells should not be too thin, but they should not be too thick either.

"In addition, as I just said, holes must be reserved for loading ammunition and the message tube. The size of the hole must be enough to fit into the message tube. Remember not to leave any gaps!"

Speaking of this, Yang Zhen suddenly remembered that the caravan supplies captured from outside the border contained a lot of Shaoguo Laofen wine, so he said to Zhang Degui:

"Vice General Zhang, a small part of the Laofen wine that is used to cook the pot can be reserved in the Huiyi warehouse for future emergencies, but the rest should be allocated to the ammunition factory so that they can use it to prepare medicine!"

In the production process of granular black powder, it needs to go through steps such as wetting, tableting, drying, crushing, and sifting. In the past, this process was relatively slow because Yang Zhen was responsible for it.

No hard liquor.

In the process of granulating powdered black gunpowder, they first sprayed water to make it moist, and later used human and animal urine collected in Songshan City to make the powder moist.

Human and animal urine is better than water, but the process of tableting and drying in the shade still takes a long time, which affects the production and manufacturing of granular black powder.

If spirits are used instead of water or urine of humans and animals, then the process of tableting, drying, and grinding will be greatly accelerated, and the uniformity of gunpowder granulation will also be greatly improved.

Pan Wenmao had raised this problem with Yang Zhen a long time ago, but Yang Zhen had nothing to ask for before, so he could only ask for help and let Pan Wenmao overcome it on his own.

Now that Songshan City has intercepted spirits, this problem will be solved.

"Old Pan, your ammunition factory needs to work together with the iron factory to produce a batch of explosive ammunition as soon as possible according to the method I just mentioned.

"Especially when it comes to trust tubes, we must be careful. Is it better to be thicker or thinner? Longer or shorter? Should I use wooden tubes or bamboo tubes? What kind of gunpowder is best used to compact the gunpowder in the trust tube?

You have to trial and error to find the best results!”

Pan Wenmao saw that Yang Zhen was speaking very solemnly and quickly stood up and agreed. At this time, he heard Yang Zhen say again: "After Yang Shen's chamber explosion test is over and the maximum charge of this sky-high cannon is found out, we will

Go outside the city and try it!
Chapter completed!