In an era of rampant natural disasters, although food is extremely important, Zuo Mengeng is not in a hurry.
Just because the scale of Zuoying is now limited, it does not need much food.
Buying from the market is enough to supply.
Compared with food, Zuo Menggeng feels that a rich diet is more important.
The most important thing is that you can make money by planting vegetables in a big city like Linqing with a population of one million.
Now that the weather is warm, you can plant vegetables in the ground.
Waiting until this winter, Zuo Mengeng decided to let people of this era experience the power of scientific farming.
Zuozhuang has Lao Qintou and Chen Zhi cooperating with each other, so there is not much problem in management.
What Zuo Menggen is most concerned about is the research and development of artillery.
The casting of new artillery still uses the mold casting method.
The advantage of this is that when the forging process capability is insufficient, the quality of the artillery can be guaranteed to the greatest extent.
Moreover, when steel is cast, its molecular density is much higher than that of iron, which is much better than segmented forging and welding.
When Zuo Menggen came to the artillery factory again, Bi Maokang told a new situation.
"Originally, we built it according to the size of the traditional cartridge, but after testing, we found that compared to our new artillery, the original cartridge was a bit too big."
Although the new artillery is an improvement based on the Franco machine gun, the difference in materials used will inevitably have a great impact on the specifications of the weapon.
First of all, the caliber of the new artillery is larger than the traditional small Folan cannon, but smaller than the medium Folan cannon.
The Franco cannons cast by these craftsmen in the past were all medium-sized or above, so the cartridges were inevitably too large.
Another reason is that the gunpowder used by the rear camp is not comparable to that of the Ming army.
The optimal proportion of black powder requires much less powder. For the caliber of new artillery, the inherent powder charge is too much.
Since the amount of charge needs to be reduced, the cartridge does not need to be made so large.
In addition, the cartridge is made of steel and can be made thinner and lighter, so craftsmen need to redesign it.
As the size of the cartridge changes, the size of the barrel also changes.
The thickness of the latest artillery built by the craftsmen is only 5 centimeters more than the barrel.
This reduces the overall weight of the artillery by about 100 kilograms, which is more conducive to the movement of the artillery.
The casting of warheads is the fastest.
However, the appearance of the wrought iron cartridge case is too rough and is not conducive to firing, so it requires specialized craftsmen to polish it after it is made.
The thickness of the cartridge case is 5 mm and can hold 0.6 catties of ammunition.
Tu Yi first explained the reason for this design.
"We have tested several times and found that a cartridge case that is thinner than this cannot withstand the vibration when the gun is fired, and it breaks directly in the barrel. If it is thicker than this, the gunpowder will be difficult to break. In fact, our craftsmanship can still
Improvements can only be made in the future. Maybe it won’t be long before we can make a 3 mm bullet casing.”
The craftsmen in the back camp are very motivated because the rewards are real.
The craftsman who tested the optimal thickness of the shell was awarded a full twenty taels of silver, and is now the team leader of the artillery shell production line.
Craftsmen can also get promoted and make a fortune. Who doesn’t work hard and hone their skills?
But when it comes to getting promoted and making a fortune the fastest, Tu Yixian is the first.
Because he solved the problem of engraving rifling on gun barrels, he is now the director of the artillery factory.
He used the rifling machine of the musket to change one boring tool into three, and arranged them according to the caliber of the gun barrel. In this way, after starting the rifling machine, the three tungsten steel boring tools could rotate in the gun barrel at the same time.
Pull out riflings at equal intervals.
At the end of March, the first artillery piece was finally released after many corrections.
This was such a big event that all the officers from the rear camp came to visit.
The most exciting one among them is Lixiangzhu.
He, the de facto commander of the artillery brigade, finally had someone in trouble.
The shooting range in the field has long been cleared, and six soldiers pushed the artillery into position, and the separated gun mounts were hammered into the soil with a clanking sound.
The cannon is fully deployed and has a length of 3.7 meters.
The design of the gun mount was also the work of Zuo Mengeng.
When deployed in battle, it plays a fixed role. In normal times, it is folded to form the shaft of the cart, which can be used by oxen and horses to pull it.
Originally, for the sake of portability, the craftsmen used solid wood. However, after only one shot was fired, the gun frame broke. In desperation, they had to replace it with iron.
The frame is also made of iron, and all the requirements are that it can withstand the huge force when firing.
Only the wheels are made of solid wood, double-layered and thickened, and iron bars are used, and the iron nails are riveted.
The new artillery made in this way weighs 505 kilograms and is as high as an adult's chest.
The weight and size are definitely a big surprise.
Compared with those Folangjis that can easily weigh up to 1,000 pounds, three or four soldiers can push them around even without oxen and horses.
In the artillery brigade, Zuo Menggeng specially added a unit, that is, the squad.
There are six people in a class and five classes in a team.
An artillery squad can be responsible for one artillery piece, that is to say, a squadron has fifteen artillery pieces, and a group has forty-five artillery pieces.
Each cannon was equipped with five pre-charged cartridges and ten barrels of gunpowder.
In the time it takes to fire five shells, it is enough to fill the empty cartridge with gunpowder.
In the design of Zuoying cannon, Zuo Mengeng also added something that transcends the times.
That is, under the barrel of the gun near the breech block, there is an iron plate that fits the gun body. Under the iron plate is an iron pillar with spiral patterns on the iron pillar.
This iron pillar passes through the gun mount, which also has spiral patterns.
Under the gun mount, there is something similar to a rudder.
Once the rudder is shaken, the artillery can adjust its angle up and down to hit targets at different distances.
As for the left and right firing range of the artillery...
Sorry, this is really beyond the times. Zuo Mengeng has no choice but to manually adjust it by the soldiers.
The officers were all surprised when they saw the targets being laid out.
"My dear, this must be a thousand meters, right?"
Zuo Rong shouted while simply measuring it himself.
Others also felt that the artillery brigade was trying to show off its strength.
"It's such a small thing, can it hit that far?"
Li Xiangzhu held his chest high and his head high, enjoying the feeling of being the center of attention.
"When we really fire the cannon, I'm sure to scare your big teeth out."
Zuo Rong couldn't see how arrogant he was.
"Don't you think I've never seen Fo Langji?"
Li Xiangzhu patted the barrel of the gun as if appreciating a treasure.
"Does Fo Langji have such a good appearance?"
Everyone really can’t argue with this.
Because it is a cannon made of fine steel, the entire body of the cannon shines with crystal white light under the sun. Coupled with the dark muzzle, it is breathtaking.
The target was made up of a dozen wooden figures, also covered with cotton armor, mainly to test the lethality of new artillery shells.
After everything was arranged, Li Xiangzhu ran over to ask for instructions.
"Qianza, do you want to start now?"
Zuo Mengeng smiled and said: "We are here just to check out the new artillery. If we don't start, why don't we eat first?"
Amid the roar of laughter from everyone, Li Xiangzhu hurriedly ran back to give instructions.
Following his order, two soldiers immediately came over with warheads and cartridges respectively.
Li Xiangzhu reported the numbers in person.
"The target is one thousand meters away, adjust the fuse."
The soldier holding the warhead immediately took out his scissors and cut off a section along the mark on the fuse.
Under Zuo Mengeng's prompts, the gunpowder craftsmen finally mastered the relationship between the burning speed and distance of the fuse after experiments day and night.
There are marks on the produced fuse to facilitate artillery adjustments.
Another soldier peeled off the mulberry paper from the mouth of the medicine cartridge and handed it to his companion.
After wrapping the bottom of the warhead with mulberry paper, the two soldiers worked together to assemble the warhead and cartridge together.
The gunner opened the breech, asked the loader to put the shell in, and then closed the breech again. The shell was stuck in the barrel and did not move at all.
The artilleryman responsible for ignition uncovered the mulberry paper on the wall of the cartridge, handed it to the loader, inserted the fuse into it, and waited for ignition.
Li Xiangzhu personally adjusted the rudder, and saw the gun barrel slowly descending, and only stopped when it reached a certain angle.
Everything was ready before starting the fire, and Li Xiangzhu was also very nervous.
After all, this is the first time that Zuoying Artillery and the Artillery Brigade have appeared in front of everyone. If something goes wrong, it will be very damaging to morale.
But there was no turning back when he opened his bow, so he could only pray for everything to go well.
"Fire."
The igniter put the torch on the fuse, and after lighting it, all the artillerymen immediately retreated a certain distance.
The fuse used for launching burns much faster than the fuse used for the warhead, and the cartridge is quickly submerged in the puff of smoke.
Then there was an earth-shaking loud explosion, which caused many people to lose their hearing.
Amid the black-red smoke steaming from the muzzle, a shell visible to the naked eye quickly came out of the barrel and headed straight into the distance.
The ground under the cannon's feet was filled with dust, which quickly obliterated the cannon, making it difficult to see clearly.
No one cared about the artillery; everyone's eyes were fixed on the direction of the shells.
Although in Zuo Mengeng's eyes, the cannonballs flew very slowly, in the eyes of others, they were as fast as lightning.
In just over a second, a deafening explosion sounded in the distance.
I saw a thick black-gray smoke slowly dissipating, and sand and rocks flying within tens of meters around it, as if an earth dragon was turning over.
Everyone was dumbfounded, watching all this in a daze, and couldn't help but think to themselves, if such a shell exploded around them...
But Zuo Mengeng couldn't wait and ran away immediately.
The others suddenly woke up and quickly followed.
The Zuoying Cannon was tested for the first time, and the sound and light effects alone impressed the generals.