When he was planning to build an ordnance station, Zuo Menggen had plans for artillery. Therefore, many of the craftsmen recruited through Zhang Jimeng and Hou Xun were cannon makers.
During this period, other craftsmen were very busy, but these artillery craftsmen suddenly fell ill.
They thought that there was no need for artillery craftsmen here, and that their and others' craftsmanship would be wasted.
I was in constant panic, and finally got the call.
Next to the gun building is the gun building.
The site was planned early and everything about the building was already built.
In addition to these original ones, the craftsmen added about twenty others from the gunsmith who had a certain level of skill.
Building cannons was a big deal, even Bi Maokang and Zhang Jimeng came.
Bi Maokang is an expert on firearms, including artillery.
It's a pity that future generations will remember him only with his flintlock gun.
"Our army is small and weak, so the need for artillery is actually not great."
As soon as he came up, Bi Maokang had objections to the cannon building.
But he wasn't wrong either.
Although the rear camp was overstaffed, it only had more than 3,000 people. It was equipped with tiger crouching cannons and a few Folan cannons.
But if he gets a red cannon, he can't hide it.
Zuo Mengeng did not flinch.
"You must have artillery, otherwise it will be disadvantageous in combat. The squatting tiger cannon is not useful, and the red cannon is not practical. So what I decided to build is an improved version of the Franco machine gun."
Everyone seemed to have guessed it a long time ago and was not surprised.
Craftsman Tu Yixian said: "Thousand-seat Folang machine guns are suitable for field battles because they are easy to move. However, their power is limited and they cannot reach far. Unless there is a numerical advantage, they are of little use."
Zuo Mengeng asked in his heart: Do I need you to remind me?
I am the best weapons expert of this era.
"Of course the current Folang machine gun is not perfect, but after improvement, it is guaranteed to become a magic weapon."
Everyone was surprised when they heard that he was going to make changes to the Folan cannon.
When this kind of artillery was introduced from the West, people in the Ming Dynasty were amazed and thought it was a fantastic idea, so they imitated it one after another.
The shortcomings of the Franco cannon always exist.
First, the air tightness is not good.
The Franco machine gun was a breech-loaded gun. Although it was easy to load quickly, the craftsmanship of this era could not achieve a tight fit, so the gap between the cartridge and the barrel (belly) was very large.
As a result, after the gunpowder exploded, a large part of the energy was wasted.
A good Folang machine gun is very good if it can hit 500 steps.
Coupled with the needs of field operations, the caliber of the Franco machine gun is very limited, so the lethality is very low.
Many times, the effect in the wild is not as good as defending the city.
Therefore, when everyone heard that Zuo Mengeng was going to use the Folang machine gun in field battles, they were not very optimistic about it.
But everyone is very curious about how he wants to improve the Folan cannon.
As a result, Zuo Mengeng's first big move stunned everyone.
"The artillery used by our unit must all be made of steel."
"Steel?"
"Is there...this much steel?"
Bi Maokang was so frightened that he pulled off a strand of his beard, fearing that Zuo Mengeng would mess up.
"Boy, don't blame me for not warning you. If you use steel to make a cannon, I'm afraid you won't be able to afford the materials."
How did he know that Zuo Mengeng had already thought about it.
"Although artillery uses far more materials than muskets, the overall scale is not as large as the number of muskets. Therefore, steel cannons seem to consume a lot, but they are still within the range of our army."
He didn't bother to talk nonsense with everyone and just took out the drawings.
"Come on, everyone, take a closer look. This is the steel artillery I developed."
Seeing that he had even brought out the blueprints, everyone had nothing to say, so they all came over to watch.
At first glance, everyone discovered that the artillery painted by Zuo Menggeng was very different from today's Fo Lang machine cannon.
The size of this gun is very small, the barrel is slender, and it doesn't have much cumbersomeness.
There is a mark next to it with the specific data of the gun.
The inner diameter is 57 mm, the tube wall thickness is 1.8 cm, and the barrel length is 1.7 meters.
Because new units have been popularized in the rear camp, everyone here can understand it. However, what everyone is confused about is that compared with the normal Folan cannon, these data have all shrunk a lot.
Zuo Mengeng solved the mystery.
"The biggest advantage of using fine steel to make artillery is that it can reduce the use of materials and reduce the weight of the artillery."
When he said this, everyone reacted.
The Fo Lang machine guns manufactured by the Ming Dynasty were generally made of wrought iron or iron-core copper cannons.
The hardness of the iron is not enough, and the iron produced in China contains too much sulfur and phosphorus, so it is very fragile and can easily explode.
In order to solve this problem, either the outside of the barrel is coated with a layer of copper, or the barrel of the artillery is made thicker.
But no matter which method is used, the result is that the artillery is extremely heavy.
Even the Folang machine gun, which should be famous for its lightness, was also called a thousand-pound cannon in the Ming Dynasty.
Once steel is available, it will be different.
The hardness of steel can be much higher, so the barrel can be made thinner and lighter to restore the advantages that the Folan cannon should have.
Zuo Mengeng was even bolder and reduced a huge part of the materials used for the artillery.
The reason is that the propellant of this era was black powder, which had limited power and was unlikely to cause much damage to the steel barrel.
As for the biggest change he made to the Folan cannon, that is...
"The inner wall of the barrel must be rifled."
Li Xiangzhu is also here.
Accompanying Bi Maokang during this period of time made him interested in the manufacture of firearms, which really helped him. With the advantage of being a scholar, he was much better at least in theory.
When Zuo Menggen saw him, he simply transferred him to the artillery brigade and served as deputy commander.
Because Zuo Menggeng's team has many affairs, it is impossible to spend all the time in the artillery brigade, so a person in charge is needed here.
At this time, when he heard that the artillery was about to be rifled, Kuri Xiangzhu asked questions.
"Qianzao, the current boring tool is not hard enough to carve rifling on the steel."
Zuo Mengeng smiled slightly and told everyone extremely exciting news.
"The problem you are worried about has been solved."
Of course, boring tools made of tungsten steel are available.
Regarding how to smelt tungsten and fuse it with steel, Zuo Mengeng really struggled with his memory before he found the way.
It is impossible to expect to obtain tungsten by smelting.
The melting point of tungsten is a full 3410°C. It is a fantasy to refine this metal with current technology.
Zuo Mengeng used the method of reacting tungsten ore and soda ash to first obtain tungsten trioxide, and then used carbon reduction to obtain tungsten powder.
By the way, the soda ash problem that had troubled him for a long time was also solved by him.
The only soda ash production method currently available is the Lubrand method.
That is, soda ash is produced using salt, sulfuric acid, coal and limestone as raw materials.
The method for making sulfuric acid was already available when Zuo Mengeng made mercury fulminate. Naturally, there was no obstacle to making soda ash.
Zuo Menggeng can't care about the many problems such as insufficient utilization of raw materials for the Lvbrand method, poor working conditions, and poor product quality.
The usual temperament of soldiers is to only look at results.
He needs soda ash, so he must obtain this important industrial raw material.
The smooth production of tungsten steel milling cutters has solved the problem of rifling the gun barrel, but everyone has more doubts.
"Most of the projectiles fired by the Fo Lang machine gun are round balls. If you engraved rifling on the barrel, can the projectiles still be fired?"
Facing Bi Maokang's question, Zuo Mengeng was very interested and pulled everyone to the drawings again.
This time, he drew something similar to a pointed hat on the drawing in front of everyone, and then asked: "Can such a warhead be made? No steel is needed, just wrought iron. It is hollow inside, and the projectile body requires
Thin enough.”
The hollow pointed cannonballs are extremely novel to everyone.
But the craftsmen didn't hesitate at all and gave the answer directly.
"This thing is not difficult, just cast a mold and pour molten iron to make it."
Tu Yi couldn't understand it at first, so he asked: "Qianzuo, this hollow cannon is in this shape, so it has no power to hit people, right?"
Zuo Mengeng sneered, with a cold light coming from the corners of his eyes.
"Such a cannonball is of course not very powerful at hitting people, but what if the hollows are filled with gunpowder?"
Warhead stuffed with gunpowder?
Everyone was shocked by this novel idea.
Is this feasible?
Zuo Mengeng ignored them and continued drawing.
What he drew this time was a cross-sectional view of the warhead and something like a thick plate.
"Look carefully, this thing is the base of the warhead. After putting the gunpowder in the warhead, if you want to prevent it from leaking out, you need to use this thing to block it. How to block it? Look carefully, there is something inside the warhead near the edge.
Threads. And there are threads around the base. In other words, you have to make the two things look like this. When the base rotates along the threads, it will be integrated with the warhead, and a sealed space will be formed inside the warhead."
He looked at everyone with bright eyes and asked: "Can it be done?"