Facing the two Dukes who were obviously a little too excited, Gao Pragmatic was also a little dazed and hesitated: "Do you two... find it difficult?"
"No, no, no difficulty."
"No, no, no, we mean this is a great idea!"
The performance of these two people seemed to be a bit vying for the first place. Gao Pragmatic couldn't help but said in surprise: "Don't you two treat the Spaniards as ordinary barbarians?"
Zhu Yingzhen waved his hand and said: "Of course it's unusual, they are Hongyi! We know this, we know it."
Zhang Yuangong coughed slightly and said: "Is Rixin trying to make trouble with the Hongyi cannon? Ah, they can make cannons, so of course they are not ordinary barbarians, but looking back now, the level of the Hongyi cannon is just like that. Jinghua
Aren't our cannons better than theirs? Then what should we be afraid of!"
Gao pragmatic frowned and said, "Who said this to you?"
The two princes were stunned and said in surprise: "Isn't it true?"
Gao pragmatic shook his head decisively and said: "Back then, Portugal, that is, the Francois, the Hongyi cannons they sold to the Ming Dynasty were not necessarily their best cannons. This is just like we will not sell our best firearms to others.
Same, can you understand what I say?"
"Oh, you mean they have more powerful cannons?" Upon hearing this, Zhu Yingzhen obviously became cautious.
But Gao Pragmatic said: "In fact, whether it is the Portuguese or the Spanish, I am not sure to what extent their artillery skills are. But based on the brief exchange of fire between the Nanyang Fleet and the Spanish fleet at sea,
Look, the range of Spanish artillery may be slightly lower than that of Jinghua's artillery."
Zhang Yuangong breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good, then Jinghua's artillery is more powerful."
However, Gao Pragmatic still shook his head: "This is not necessarily true. For artillery, with the same gunpowder thrust, the range and bullet weight cannot be both. The problem now is that we don't know whether the Spaniards used thicker cannon walls.
, artillery with a larger barrel and shorter barrel. If they do this, it is possible that they emphasize close range and high power, rather than emphasizing range and accuracy like Jinghua's artillery."
"This..." Zhang Yuangong coughed lightly: "I don't really understand artillery and other things... Rixin, what do you mean? I just want to know, what are our advantages and where are our disadvantages?"
"What I want to say is that even I am not very clear about what the specific comparison will be at the moment. You must know that when we purchased the Hongyi cannon, it was still during the Jiajing period. Who knows in the past few decades?
How much progress have people made since the past?
Just like our Ming Dynasty, when we first got the Hongyi cannon, our cannons were not as good as theirs, but we soon imitated them, but they were not very durable, they were easy to explode, and the yield rate was pitifully low.
After Jinghua was established and got involved in artillery manufacturing, due to technological advances in various aspects, the durability problem was first solved, and the situation of inexplicable explosions was basically controlled. At the same time, Jinghua’s yield rate was also far higher than that of the Ordnance Bureau’s products in the early years.
It is much higher and truly has installation value.
In terms of more critical combat indicators, since the imperial court has been financially tight, I thought that gunpowder should not be wasted. First, the accuracy of artillery fire must be improved. Secondly, as the range of the muskets gradually increased, from the perspective of tactical coordination, I asked
Jinghua's craftsmen are focusing on improving the range. Correspondingly, there must be little progress in the power of the artillery."
Ancient China has always attached great importance to projectile weapons of mass destruction such as artillery, and its origin was very early. In the Spring and Autumn Period, China already used a projectile weapon called the 礮. In 1164, the Southern Song Dynasty army invented the earliest artillery
——Flint cannon (thunderbolt cannon), but there is still controversy. The artillery piece unearthed in Heilongjiang in the second year of Yuan Dade was the earliest artillery relic at that time.
After the spread of Chinese gunpowder and firearms to the west in the 13th century, artillery began to develop in Europe and was rapidly promoted and used. It largely replaced the outdated siege machinery that relied on tension and torsion in Greece and ancient Rome. It was a long time after the advent of black gunpowder.
For a period of time, this kind of trebuchet has been in use. This kind of machine is simple to make, low in cost, has a large throwing capacity, and is very reliable in use.
However, in addition to this old-fashioned machinery, new types of guns have begun to show their prominence. The cannons invented after the advent of black powder were more efficient and easier to use. This was the initial significant impact of black powder on siege guns. However, it was not until
In the second half of the 15th century, the cannon truly effectively replaced the trebuchet and became an important siege artillery.
In fact, a wide variety of heavy cannons appeared as early as the 14th century, the most important of which was a giant cannon called a sparger. This cannon had a shorter barrel, usually cast from bronze or iron, and sometimes
Also made of copper and brass.
Because the stone projectiles it fires weigh 300 pounds, a large amount of gunpowder must be used. The gunpowder often fills the entire barrel, and the stone projectiles protrude outside the barrel, so the firing is not accurate and the muzzle velocity is extremely low.
.In order to improve the effectiveness of the cannon, the cannon had to be placed very close to the city wall so that the stone bullets could hit the target.
It is said that cast-iron stone cannons were used to bombard the Italian city of Terni in 1340. The British may have used smaller stone cannons to attack Cresay in 1346.
By the end of the 14th century, people welded wrought iron bars and fixed them with rings to make longer stone cannons. Richard II once made some such cannons to defend the Tower of London. Written by Edinburgh, England
The famous Monsmeg gun was made by connecting several sections of cast iron with screws, and then welding and strengthening the entire barrel with rings.
Before the middle of the 15th century, cast iron blocks were smelted in Dijon, France, but this was just an isolated technological achievement that was still in its infancy and not very successful. In the early days of the Tudor Dynasty in England, this new technology of cast iron was spread to England, thus providing a
The foundations were laid for the ironmaking industry in Sussex.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! After this, the ironmaking industry in Sussex has always occupied a dominant position in the gun manufacturing industry in Europe. The advantage of cast iron is that it is cheap, not its
It has better performance than other metals, whether brass or bronze. Although it is expensive, it is tough and not easy to burst.
The casting of large cannons draws on the casting technology of bells. It is made by pouring molten metal into a clay mold. The mold consists of a mold core and a transverse shell. The clay model is placed in a pit, and the iron furnace has an outlet.
The molten iron flows into the mold. When the casting cools, the mold is broken and the casting is taken out.
Each cannon cast at this time is like a sculpture. It is an independent product with different fine decorations. The quality of the cannon depends on the casting skills of the craftsmen.
It took 200 years before people managed to continuously cast cannons from one mold.
After the mold is broken and the gun casting blank is taken out, a drill bit mounted on a long shaft is used to drill holes using the power of a water turbine. Since the drill bit only has a bracket at one end of the shaft, the boring is often not accurate.
Moreover, due to problems with the boring process, the original errors on the mold cannot be corrected.
After boring, the cannon must be tested, including visual inspection, hammering, and gradually increasing the amount of gunpowder. The last shot of gunpowder must be equal to the weight of the projectile. If the test passes, the gun can be delivered for use.
Although there are slight differences in the level of cannon casting in major European countries, a high pragmatic estimate is that they should all be at this level.
According to Gao Pragmatic's recollection, it was not until the 18th century that the Netherlands took a leading position in the boring technology of integrally cast gun barrels.
However, since Jinghua has always placed "heavy industry" in an important position in development, of course he is highly pragmatic and will not ignore the development of artillery. Although he can not give much guidance on specific casting technology and other aspects, most of the time
He can only provide guidance, but because he can draw on history, this guidance is still very important.
From the perspective of technological and historical development, before the middle of the 19th century, in the manufacture of guns, in addition to naval heavy guns, bronze cannons and brass cannons always had an advantage over cast iron cannons. However, the barrels of bronze cannons were relatively soft, and in many cases
When firing a round cannonball, the cannonball passes through the barrel in an irregular manner, easily deforming it, so bronze is not suitable for making heavy cannons.
Therefore, in addition to finding ways for Jinghua to improve its iron smelting level, Gao Pragmatic still manufactured a large number of bronze cannons, especially the cannons used by the fleet. This is because bronze cannons have good casting performance and are not easy to rust, while iron cannons are used in large quantities.
The Age of Sail can only be said to be low-end products.
Under the technical conditions at this time, iron cannons not only had more bubbles than bronze cannons, but were also prone to rust. The only advantage was that they were cheaper. According to historical development, until the emergence of crucible carbon steel and related casting processes, iron cannons
Only then did it become mainstream.
However, although Jinghua's iron smelting technology adopts the local steelmaking methods of the Japanese era copied by Gao Pragmatic, it is still much higher than the current mainstream level in Europe. Therefore, in terms of land artillery, Gao Pragmatic has used No. 3 and No. 4 guns.
We did an experiment and used iron cannons to cast them - but it should be noted that the quality of these iron cannons themselves did not exceed that of bronze cannons. Gao Pragmatic did this entirely to reduce costs and increase the total number of artillery guns.
After all, Jinghua's production capacity in iron and steel smelting is very large, so large that it can defeat major European countries, but the copper mines of the Ming Dynasty are very few - the copper reserves of the later Red Dynasty only accounted for a little more than 5% of the world -
Therefore, it was very cost-effective for him to replace Daming with iron cannons.
It is this realistic contradiction between materials and technology that has led Gao Pragmatic to keep an eye on the Philippines, because the Philippines has large copper reserves, and these copper mines are often associated with copper and gold, and a lot of gold can be obtained from developing copper mines.
.
The attack on Manila is expected to be divided into two parts: sea and land. As for the naval battle, it is easy to say. After all, the main force of Spain's navy is now concentrated in Portugal (Philip II planned to have the fleet set off from Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, and send it to the Netherlands first.
The Spanish army replenished its manpower and then conquered England), so there should be fewer warships anchored in Manila than in previous years. The fleet of the Northern Sea Trade Alliance could swamp them just by relying on their numerical advantage.
But when it comes to land warfare and sieges, Gao Pragmatic is still relatively cautious. The reason is simple: bastions were already very popular in Europe at this time, and Philip II's father, Charles V, had suffered from bastions (in 1552
, Battle of Metz), in the Dutch War that had been going on for some time, the Spanish army's offensive was also difficult because the Dutch built a large number of bastions.
At this time, the Europeans were still able to learn experience from the war, so looking back, the Spanish also built bastions in many of their key overseas strongholds. Manila was one of such key strongholds.
Jinghua itself also has experience in building bastions. For example, during the Bago offensive and defensive battle, Huang Zhiting captured Bago and faced the Burmese army's massive march south. With the advice of Jinghua generals, she quickly transformed Bago City into a bastion, resulting in
Although Mang Ying had a huge numerical advantage, he was eventually defeated and suffered a bloody blow.
Gao Pragmatic was still very wary of difficult things like bastions. He didn't want the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance to be beaten all over in their first joint expedition.
Gao Pragmatic explained everything from the development history of artillery, prospects, technical descriptions, to the key points of bastion construction, Manila city defense intelligence and other aspects, which made the two princes Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong feel ups and downs.
The two of them were obviously relieved when they heard that Jinghua's technology was superior, but they immediately became nervous when they heard that their opponent was difficult. Gao Pragmatic suspected that if he continued to talk for a while, the two of them might have a heart attack.
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This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! After he finished analyzing all aspects of the situation, the two princes finally were not as excited as they were at the beginning, and they both thought seriously for a while.
Then Zhu Yingzhen spoke first and asked: "I have to ask something first. Even if we take Manila, or even Cebu or all of Luzon, how will we make a fortune next? Should we continue to do business with the Spaniards, or should we continue to do business with the Spanish?
Go mining on your own or something?”
Seeing him asking, Zhang Yuangong also agreed: "Yes, this matter is very important. If all we want is to save the 10% tax, I think this battle is not worth fighting. According to Rixin
Judging from what you just said, the strength of the Spanish in Manila is at its lowest point, so we can just send more ships there and force them to lower the tax rate. In fact, there is probably no need for a war."
Oh, I've underestimated you. You actually know how to use naval gun diplomacy?
However, Gao Pragmatic had forgotten that when the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance did business with many famous names in Japan, they often used naval gun diplomacy, and Zhang Yuangong was actually quite experienced.
But before Zhang Yuangong finished speaking, he paused and continued: "If we just want to occupy the entire territory of Luzon, then there are two problems: First, Luzon was conquered and ruled by the Spanish.
After we defeat Spain, do we want to restore the country to Luzon? Secondly, if we don’t restore the country, do we need to petition the imperial court to incorporate it into our Ming Dynasty, and will the imperial court agree?”
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