Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Nine: Yunzhou Gunslinger
The gun shooting range at Jiangying on the east bank of the Baihe River in the north of Yunzhou Fort.
The two sergeants then brought up a side plank of the chariot and stood it in front of everyone, and stabilized it on both sides. On the other side, they were loading the big bird's blunderbuss with lead.
"Commander, the tube of this big blunderbuss is the most difficult to drill. The wall of the tube must be thick and strong to prevent the chamber from exploding. The inside of the tube must be smooth and straight, so that it can shoot far and accurately. It takes a lot of effort to drill and grind. Even if it is an old
Even if the master comes down in a month, he may not be able to drill and grind it into a single piece."
Wang Gancheng, the director of the Fire Gun Bureau, introduced the big gun next to him, and Zhang Cheng also sighed. In this era, there are no industrial machines. Everything is done by hand, which is naturally slow.
It was at his request that all the craftsmen were first assigned to various bureaus according to their skills, and then divided into work groups. At the same time, each bureau was equipped with a vernier caliper to regularly check the scales of each group of rulers, squares, and round rulers.
, no mistakes are allowed.
Such manual control standards were the only one in the late Ming Dynasty. When the country was founded in the early Ming Dynasty, workshops everywhere also had extremely strict requirements, and the ordnance produced was of high quality.
But at the end of the dynasty, there was still no escape from the cyclical law. Corruption in the officialdom would inevitably make the government inefficient, and local powerful and wealthy businessmen would collude with the government to exploit the people even more. They were perfunctory in political and military affairs, and the craftsmen just wanted to complete the work.
How can you care about quality when it comes to tasks?
The poor quality of ordnance has directly led to a large number of soldiers preferring to use old or broken ones rather than using new ordnance issued by the Ministry of War for the sake of safety.
In order to avoid this situation, Zhang Cheng put a number on each part. If you search according to the number, you will know who made it. There is also verification, and only qualified ones can be included in the warehouse.
Strict manual standardization is implemented. The regulations for each gun, armor, etc. are basically the same. Most of the parts can be used interchangeably. The most important thing is to process each component in separate sections, similar to the assembly line operations of later generations, which can quickly cultivate a single section.
Skilled craftsman.
Although this advantage is not obvious in the short term, after a period of accumulation, half a year or a year later, the efficiency of this assembly line production method will make a big improvement, or even explode.
Here, the big gun is mounted in the perforation of the carriage board. The perforation is a rectangular hole with an upper and lower shape. The shooter places the big gun on the perforation and the whole person is hidden behind the carriage board, so he can aim with peace of mind.
"boom!"
As the flames flashed from the gun's muzzle, a cloud of smoke instantly rose up. Fortunately, the barrel of this big gun was very long, so the smoke could not choke the shooter, and the medicine tank was also some distance away from the eyes, so it could not hurt the shooter's eyes either.
The big blunderbuss was pulled back, and the two sergeants were busy loading the blunderbuss. Zhang Cheng looked carefully and saw that the human-shaped target 150 steps away was intact. Apparently the first blunderbuss missed the target.
In the end, I shot five times in total. Except for missing the target the first time, I hit the target four times at four distances: 150 steps, 120 steps, 100 steps, and 80 steps.
.
Judging from experience, this big gun has no problem breaking through a single layer of iron armor at 150 steps, and it can break through double layers of iron armor at 120 steps. Although the distance is not as ideal as that of later sniper rifles, it is still barely usable.
Already.
"Wang Gancheng, can you tell me how many guns our Fire Gun Army Yunzhou has made?" Zhang Cheng asked Wang Gancheng, the director of the Fire Gun Bureau.
Wang Qiancheng replied tremblingly: "Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, we have made 256 new Yunzhou blunderbuss so far, and by the end of August, more than 240 blunderbuss tubes will be drilled and ground."
Zhang Cheng nodded and ordered: "Wang Qiancheng, let me ask you about the 256 Yunzhou guns that have been made. If you modify the gun mechanisms into the Yunzhou gun style, how long will it take and how much materials will be consumed?
?”
Wang Qiancheng thought for a moment before replying: "I'm afraid it won't be possible to rebuild the gun mechanism, but it's not very time-consuming to remake it. It's faster than drilling and grinding the barrel."
"Then we won't change it. These two hundred and fifty-six Yunzhou guns can be packed up. I will send someone to pick them up in a few days. From then on, they will all be made according to the regulations of Yunzhou guns.
Also, that big gun is not easy to make, so let’s make twenty rods first. There is no rush, just make it slowly. Don’t affect the progress of Yunzhou Gun One Style.”
After Wang Qiancheng received the order, Zhang Cheng called Shi Tiogen, the chief of the craftsman camp, and while walking to the artillery bureau's shooting range, asked him about the development of a drilling machine.
Just listen to Shi Tiegen reply: "Commander, this drill press is really difficult to use. I have trial-produced two of them this month. Unlike the previous drilling and grinding of jade or other objects, this blunderbuss tube is both long and extremely solid.
Moreover, it must be drilled and ground smoothly without any deviation.
It is a slow and detailed work. The current drilling machines, whether pedal or hand-cranked, cannot achieve a balanced and uniform speed when exerting and receiving force. Even a master craftsman has difficulty controlling it."
Zhang Cheng naturally knew in his heart that the design and production of this drill press was indeed difficult, but now that he had this idea, he could no longer stop. Even if he continued to fail, it would only mean that he would drill and grind a few less blunderbuss tubes every month.
He then told Shi Tiegen: "Don't be afraid of failure. In this world, any new object that comes out is the result of continuous thinking and summarization by predecessors.
On your side, the two scientific research groups of gunpowder and artillery should not be separated, and don't be anxious. As long as there is a direction, just try to move forward. There is also the gunpowder bureau. You should also be more careful and set up a scientific research group to tackle tough problems.
,
The future will definitely be an era of firearms duels. We cannot stand still in this regard. Let's just say that gunpowder was originally invented by our ancestors, but for hundreds of years it was only used to make fireworks.
Besides, this gun is an improved version of the Japanese iron cannon and the Rumi country's gun. This matchlock gun is faster than the one we used earlier, or it's more convenient than the fire door gun.
There is also the Franco machine cannon, which is better than ours in terms of manufacturing technology, but their muskets are pre-installed and the direct firing method is much faster and more convenient than our artillery.
It can be seen that if you don’t study this kind of thing, others will also study it. We cannot fall behind in this aspect. You should think about it and see if this is the truth!”
Shi Tiegen had already regarded Zhang Cheng as a god, but he kept Zhang Cheng's meaning firmly in mind. As he spoke, the group had already crossed the Baihe River and was heading to the artillery bureau's shooting range.
Zhang Cheng warned again: "When Zhang Guodong escorted Lu Duchen's coffin back to his hometown last time, he didn't bring back so many books. I left those about farming at Dushi Feng Yuanshan's place, and didn't I send all the firearms-related ones here?
Yunzhou Craftsman Camp is here.
There are quite a few literate among you craftsmen, so find these people to carefully polish the records in those books. If there are not enough books, I will assign them to you.
Don’t be afraid of failure. I don’t limit the number of times you can fail. However, in every experiment, you need to find the book office to participate in the whole process and record the process truthfully. Only in this way can you summarize and find the reasons, and then make improvements."
"Yes, I have remembered everything, little one!"
Everyone came to an extremely wide place, with the White River to the east and an empty space to the west, with no end in sight.