The Wehrmacht garrison camp in Ajaccio is located on the outskirts of Ajaccio. Except for the Northern Army, which is used to prevent Genoese counterattacks, the number of troops garrisoned here is the largest in Corsica.
Even so, according to Major Trifalli, the army stationed in Ajaccio, excluding cooks and handymen, only had more than 500 real soldiers.
The entire National Defense Force was assembled in the northeast. There were more than 2,000 troops stationed in the port city of Bastia, which was also the destination that Lawrence and Trifali were about to set off for.
As soon as the two of them arrived at the gate of the camp, six cavalrymen led eight tall black horses and walked quickly out of the camp.
Lawrence looked at these cavalrymen. Their chests were uniform, with polished breastplates, and their heads were made of iron helmets with two white feathers on them. Even their legs had pure iron greaves.
There was also a leather backpack on his back, with a rolled quilt tied to it, just like the backpacks on the backs of those line soldiers Lawrence had seen in movies.
Lawrence estimated that this armor and luggage alone weighed twenty kilograms, not to mention that they also wore a sharp saber and an exquisitely crafted flintlock pistol around their waists.
"This is the cavalry that escorted us to Bastia." Major Trifali explained.
"How many such cuirassiers are there in total?" Lawrence asked with interest while looking at the equipment on their bodies.
Major Cui Farley took the reins from the leading cavalryman, led the two black horses behind him, and replied:
"Not many, about fifty people. As you can see, these equipment, including the horses, cost at least five hundred gold. Not to mention the cost of training and daily expenses."
Lawrence nodded to express his understanding. No matter in which era, the cost of cavalry is a huge sum of money. Especially for such heavy cavalry, the horses under their legs must be first-class horses, otherwise they will not be able to bear the burden of the cavalry.
The weight of the armor.
Major Trefarley handed over the reins of a horse and asked:
"Can you ride a horse?"
Lawrence shook his head in embarrassment. In his previous life, he was from an ordinary working-class family and had nothing to do with equestrianism. At most, he spent ten yuan to take photos on horseback at the zoo.
Major Trefarley had no choice but to help Lawrence get on the horse, and then ordered a cuirassier to hold the reins for him next to Lawrence.
Ajaccio is located in the southwest of Corsica. To reach Bastia in the northeast, you have to go around the mountains in the center of Corsica and pass through the coastal plains. According to Major Trifali, it takes about two days and one night.
to arrive.
Since most of Corsica's population is concentrated in Ajaccio and the alluvial plains in the south, Lawrence and his party did not see even a few villages or settlements while traveling north.
During the long and boring journey, Lawrence had no choice but to chat with Major Trifali to relieve the boredom:
"By the way, Major Cuifali, you used to be a blacksmith?"
"Huh? How do you know?" Major Cui Farley asked in surprise.
Lawrence smiled, pointed at his slightly deformed and calloused hands, and said:
"Your hands are very strong, and the calluses at the tiger's mouth are especially thick."
"So that's it." Major Cui Farley nodded, touched the tiger's mouth on his right hand, and explained:
"I have been a soldier for seven years. After joining the army, I also worked as a quartermaster in the army for a long time, responsible for supervising the production of weapons and equipment."
Lawrence nodded, pointed to the short knife at his waist and said casually:
"I wonder when you can ask Major Cui Farley to help me forge a sword?"
This sailor's dagger already had many chips when Grosso gave it to Lawrence, and the handle was also loose. After the fight with the Sea Serpents in the past few days, it became even more scarred.
Major Trifari glanced at Lawrence's knife, shook his head slowly and said, "I'm not good at forging knives, I make firearms."
Firearms? Lawrence was stunned for a moment, and then his eyes lit up immediately.
As a mechanical engineer from a later generation, he originally wanted to improve the muskets of the 18th century. However, after leaving CNC machine tools and precision machining equipment, Lawrence found that his hands-on ability was not as good as that of a blacksmith apprentice.
Today, I learned that Major Cui Farley is a skilled craftsman who is proficient in firearms manufacturing, which makes it possible for Lawrence's idea to be realized.
"Major Trifalli, have you ever thought about how to improve the accuracy of muskets?" Lawrence suddenly asked.
"Improve accuracy?"
Major Cui Farley frowned slightly. Although he knew the mechanical structure of the musket, he had not received education in natural philosophy, so he naturally could not understand what Lawrence meant.
The reason why smoothbore flintlock guns have poor accuracy is because the bullets in the smooth bore do not come into close contact with the bore, but leave a certain gap.
This means that after the bullet is excited, it will continue to collide in the barrel of the gun. At the moment it leaves the muzzle, it will also have a large velocity perpendicular to the direction of the crosshair, causing the bullet to have a large scattering range.
.
Although Major Cui Farley had never studied physics, after Lawrence spent some time, he still understood the principle of the deviation of musket bullets from the ballistic trajectory, so he said:
"If that's the case, if you want to improve accuracy, wouldn't it be necessary to narrow the gap between the barrel and the bullet so that they stick together closely?"
Major Cui Farley was already very interested in firearms. After hearing Lawrence's explanation, he immediately began to think about other cases, but this plan was also immediately rejected by him:
"This is impossible. If the inner diameter of the lead bullet is exactly the same as that of the barrel, it will easily explode. Moreover, both the musket and the lead bullet are made manually, and it is impossible to make the two calibers the same without error."
In fact, Major Cui Farley's idea was not wrong. The tank barrels of later generations were smoothbore guns. In order to improve accuracy, the method used was to increase the initial velocity of the shell and reduce the gap between the shell and the barrel. However, this kind of fine craftsmanship could not be used in the 18th century.
accomplish.
Seeing that Major Cui Farley understood what he meant so quickly, Lawrence couldn't help but nodded in surprise, and reminded him with a smile:
"Actually, there is another way. If the bullet rotates forward in the barrel of the gun, it will almost completely advance in a straight line, so the scattering range will be very small."
"Spinning forward? What do you mean? Why?" Major Cui Farley scratched his head in confusion. He neither knew why the rotating bullet would advance in a straight line nor how to make the bullet rotate in the barrel.
Of course Lawrence couldn't say that this was the function of angular momentum and torque, so he smiled and made an analogy:
"Have Major Cui Fali ever seen a child's toy called a top?"
"A spinning top? I've seen it before." Major Cui Farley touched his chin, wondering what the relationship between a spinning top and bullets was.
"It is difficult for a stationary top to stand on the ground, but a rotating top will not fall over no matter how hard you pump it. This is the reason."
Major Cui Farley frowned, stroking the beard on his chin and thinking for a long time, making several obvious inhaling sounds from time to time.
"That seems to be the truth, but how do you make the bullet rotate and shoot out?" Major Cui Farley finally understood the principle and continued to think.
Lawrence smiled and waved his hand, giving it a try, saying that we would discuss it together again if we had the opportunity in the future.
First, Lawrence also wanted to take this opportunity to establish friendship with Cui Farley. Second, in this deserted place, there were no tools. Lawrence didn't know how to explain the principles of rifling to Cui Farley with just his mouth.
However, Lawrence himself knew that even though he understood the principles, the actual manufacturing, processing, and testing and improvement would have to be done by Major Trifali, a skilled craftsman.
