The reason why it took nearly ten years for the Wanli Type-1 musket to be developed and officially put into service is mainly because this gun has two major technological innovations compared to previous muskets.
The first is the addition of the bayonet, which has been mentioned before. The metallurgical requirements for the bayonet can be described as "extremely high" in this era, and it is not something that can be accomplished easily.
In fact, for a long time in the original history, most of the bayonets equipped on muskets were not dagger-type bayonets, but the famous three-edged military bayonet.
In an era before firearms were born, the mainstream move in cold weapon combat was stabbing.
According to Qi Jiguang's military training philosophy, the biggest advantage of stabbing is that it is easy to learn and suitable for new soldiers, but it is difficult to block and very practical. Moreover, the "stabbing" action is extremely lethal and it is difficult to stop bleeding and suture the wound.
Therefore, on the battlefield, weapons based on spurs account for the majority. Even in the era of hot weapons, spurs were the mainstream equipment for hand-to-hand combat. For a long time, triangular spurs were a frequent sight on rifles, and many opinions were derived.
Later, it was even promoted to the altar and became the so-called most perfect weapon.
As for whether it is true, we have to start with the use of three-sided military bayonet in history. The three-sided bayonet has been used in the army for a long time. It is the first and most widely used bayonet in history. The holster in the early 18th century
The barrel and subsequent bayonet collar are basically three-sided.
At its peak, the bayonet of the Brown Bess flintlock of the British Redcoat Army was a three-sided bayonet. This gave many people the illusion that the killing effect of the three-sided bayonet was far greater than that of the dagger bayonet.
actually not.
The dagger bayonet only appeared in the second half of the 19th century, and it was born to eliminate the three-edged bayonet. During that period, bayonet fighting was still an important way of fighting. The military must have replaced it with a knife with better performance.
Backward Bayonet.
The reason why the triangular bayonet is so popular is entirely because of its simple production process and low cost. In that era when the metallurgical industry was underdeveloped, the triangular bayonet was the most cost-effective close-quarters weapon because the triangular bayonet had a triangular cross-section.
Prismatic shape, very strong, not easily deformed when stabbed hard.
This characteristic determines that even if the material is of poor quality, it can still meet the needs of the bayonet. The sword-shaped bayonet itself is a sword (and it is thin). If it is made well, the cost will not be much worse than that of a sword.
In the flintlock era, steel was made by folding, forging, carburizing and quenching. Many processes could only be completed by hand and repeatedly. Calculated in this way, the price was of course very high. If every soldier was equipped with a dagger and bayonet,
The cost may be higher than equipping a flintlock gun, so for the best cost performance, all countries uniformly equip their armies with triangular spikes.
In modern times, especially after the emergence of open-hearth and converter steelmaking, the metallurgical technology of major industrial countries has achieved qualitative breakthroughs. All countries with strong industrial strength will use daggers and bayonets. Even Japan's new post-industrial army is all uniform.
Sword-shaped bayonet.
Only the equipment of the Soviet army at the end of World War II was relatively backward. For the sake of large quantities and convenience, they still focused on three-sided bayonets. Due to historical reasons, the Red Dynasty also copied them after the founding of the People's Republic of China, but when they later made their own, they quickly replaced them with
It's sword shaped.
Military spurs are generally prismatic and have blood grooves. They can be directly installed on individual long-barreled firearms and can be folded away or detached for use. The focus of military spurs is on the spines, so the front end is very sharp and the contact surface of the front end is very narrow.
, easy to stab. Therefore, it is called "thorn" rather than "knife".
Bayonet, also known as bayonet, and the Japanese call it gun sword, is also a cold assassination weapon installed on the front end of an individual's long-barreled firearm. It is used for hand-to-hand combat and can also be used as an auxiliary tool for combat operations. The bayonet consists of two parts: the blade body and the handle.
.
According to the shape, it is divided into two types: blade-shaped (knife-shaped or sword-shaped) and prism-shaped (three-sided or four-sided); according to the connection method with the rifle, it is divided into separate type and can be removed from the gun and put into the scabbard for carrying.
There are two types of foldable bayonets that are hinged on the side of the gun. The detached bayonets are mostly in the shape of a sheet, and some have serrations engraved on the back of the blade. They can be connected to a metal scabbard to form scissors and have multiple functions.
Therefore, there is still a slight difference between a military bayonet and a bayonet. A military bayonet must be a bayonet, but a bayonet is not necessarily a military bayonet.
On the ancient battlefield, there is a saying that "three arrows are not as good as one sword, and three swords are not as good as one spear." Of course, you have to say that the average Zhebie is an expert archer. Everyone is a Qataiji, and a bow can kill with one arrow; or Liu Wei is an average person.
, if you go up there and kill the owl with a knife, just pretend I didn’t say anything.
Generally speaking, on the battlefield in the cold weapon era, especially for armored soldiers, the damage caused by arrows and knives was indeed not as great as the damage caused by spears and spears.
And if it is on a modern battlefield, the damage caused by the stabbing of military spurs is actually incomparable to that of modern firearms and bullets, and it is far from terrible.
In later generations, there was a group of people in the Red Dynasty who had a myth about the five- and six-style three-sided military spurs. They bragged about it until the United Nations banned Barabara, but they didn’t know what was going on. When asked for the reason, they said the wound was difficult to treat and the bloodletting effect was
Exaggeration, arsenide coating and so on.
The arsenide coating is the funniest thing. You can apply it on your triangular spurs, but you can't apply it on other things?
As for the wound being difficult to treat, it is even more ridiculous. Why is it so difficult to suture such a standard and regular wound? Surgeons will encounter situations that are countless times more complicated than this kind of wound.
Just take a random example, such as the steel bar puncture on the construction site, the wound of a child torn by dog teeth, the wound mauled by factory machinery, etc. Which one is not more complicated than this? It is completely inexplicable to say that the three-sided military spur has great lethality because of its shape. If this is the case,
If all kinds of regular wounds are difficult to treat, then all surgeons can be laid off, and all military doctors who treat gunshot wounds and splinter wounds in military hospitals can be laid off.
As long as the bayonet hits the vital point, no matter what style, the effect is the same. If the bayonet does not hit the vital point, the three-edged bayonet is more likely to cause a penetrating wound. As we all know, for people, the damage is greater and more difficult to treat.
For cutting blood vessels and bleeding them, a three-sided bayonet is obviously not as good as a flat bayonet.
Gao pragmatism is also someone who has heard the May 6th myth. Why he would rather spend ten years to develop a dagger-type bayonet than to use a three-pointed bayonet? Naturally, he has carefully demonstrated it - besides, the military of all countries in later generations also did it.
There's a choice.
The shape of the sword was finally determined after thousands of years of human use and cold weapon combat. Compared with the three-sided military bayonet, which has the shape of a cone-like spear head, the sword-shaped blade of an ordinary bayonet has a wider blade.
, so the chance of breaking the blood vessels in the body and damaging the internal organs is much greater.
Moreover, in terms of bayonet tactics, the sword-shaped blade is also more suitable for actions such as cutting down, picking up, turning the knife after stabbing, etc. It is also more suitable to be used as a short sword when taken alone, which can be used to cut or stab. During the special period of that year, the Kokura Arsenal in Japan
The three-zero bayonet was much more powerful than the triangular military bayonet. It was the most feared bayonet in the world at that time.
Therefore, military bayonet does not matter whether it is scary or not. The knife is a weapon for killing people, and the performance in combat is the most important indicator. For example, the British Army P1907 bayonet is 555 mm long. It looks scary when it is bright, and it is really powerful when it stabs people.
It's very good, but the British soldiers don't like it because it's too long, it's troublesome to load, unload and carry, and it's not easy to use.
During World War II, the Soviet army had the highest level of stabbing, because as early as the Tsarist Russia, the Russian army had been training this stabbing technique, and this culture was also inherited by the Soviet army.
During World War II, the Mosin-Nagant rifle was the standard issue of the Soviet Union, and 98k was the symbol of Germany. The length of the Mosin-Nagant rifle was the longest in World War II. In addition, the Soviets were generally tall and powerful. Germany and Japan were
When facing the Soviet Union, everyone suffered a great loss, especially Germany. Germany was good at lightning tactics, but when it came to positional warfare, especially bayonets, it was really no match for the Soviet Union.
Correspondingly, because the Japanese army's men were relatively short, they could not compare with the tall and mighty Soviets. However, the Japanese paid attention to flexibility in stabbing, and their tactical requirements were stability, accuracy, and ruthlessness, so they were equipped with three-zero bayonets.
All in all, the performance of any weapon cannot be discussed aside from practicality, not to mention multi-functionality and cost. The three-edged military spur can only do one thing, and the dagger-type bayonet can also do this. At the same time, the dagger-type bayonet can also do one thing.
If you can do a few other things well at the same time, who do you need to choose?
The last issue of cost and production cycle is the biggest problem that limits the standard bayonet of Wanli Type 1. However, as mentioned before, after Zhu Zaiyu was recruited by Gao Pragmatic, the two worked together for several years to improve the steelmaking method.
With the addition of carburizing and nitriding technology, the production cycle has been significantly reduced, and the production cost has also been reduced. Although it is not as cheap as the three-sided military spurs, it has reached the range that Gao Pragmatic thinks is acceptable - of course Zhu Yijun still thinks it is very expensive.
In addition to the seemingly low-tech but actually extremely high-tech bayonet, the biggest technological innovation of the Wanli Yi style is the ignition method.
That's right, this time, Ming Dynasty entered the age of flintlock guns.
Flintlock guns first appeared in Europe. Calculating the time, it was the 26th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, which was the year that Zhang Juzheng became a Jinshi.
The principle of flintlock is very simple and there is no controversy, so I won't go into details (for example, the strength of the three-edged bayonet and the dagger bayonet above are controversial, so I will say more).
But knowing the principle does not mean that it can be made immediately. After Gao Shishi provided the idea, the Jinghua Musket Factory spent several years conducting experiments. At the beginning, there were problems of one kind or another. For example, the sparks from the flint sometimes failed to ignite the black gun.
Gunpowder, whether to equip a flash cap, how to prevent water from entering the musket and causing the ignition device to fail during combat in rainy weather, etc.
Every kind of scientific and technological development is not something that can only be accomplished. In many cases, several technologies must meet the standards at the same time to lead to qualitative changes. Therefore, many of Gao Pragmatic's inventions are slowly piled up over time.
As for the Wanli Type 1 musket, many performance factors must be taken into account: for example, the length of the barrel is related to shooting accuracy and distance, and hand-to-hand combat with a bayonet must also be considered; the amount of gunpowder charge must consider the strength of the barrel and ignition efficiency.
As well as waterproof and airtightness, we even have to consider the ease of carrying and storage, as well as the safety during carrying and storage, etc.
Therefore, it is not surprising that this kind of thing can be developed for several years or even more than ten years at a time. After all, practicality, versatility, ergonomics, production costs, maintenance and repair costs, and the possibility of reuse... all need to be
considering.
One or two genius ideas may be able to push human society forward, but no one can be sure when this idea will realize its value. However, a good system can steadily push society forward and take effect immediately.
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic is never eager to deceive himself by producing a very expensive trial product at once. What he wants is a product that can be installed in batches.
Especially when it comes to weapons and equipment, it's okay to go slower. Anyway, the speed of weapons evolution before the second industrial revolution was not very fast. He now has a first-mover advantage. As long as this research and development system is maintained, he is not afraid of not being able to do so in the future.
Produce results.
The Wanli One Style should be unprecedentedly powerful both in terms of firearm performance and hand-to-hand combat performance. The only weakness is probably the high price, but Gao Pragmatic has tried his best.
Now, the first battle to win the title of Wanli One Style is about to break out. Whether they can "debut at the peak" depends on the performance of Zhang Bingzhong and Zhang Wanbang father and son today.
The father and son of the Zhang family have different personalities. Zhang Bingzhong, the father, is a very honest person. When he saw the smoke and dust billowing in front of him, he had already started to form the formation according to the rules and started mobilizing before the war.
"My sons! You must have all received the silver reward from Jinghua in Datong, five taels each, right?!"
"right!"
"That's right!"
"Exactly right!"
Zhang Bingzhong nodded with satisfaction and continued loudly: "But I will tell you that that is only half of the silver reward! In this battle, as long as you obey the orders and act like the previous drills, no matter whether you win or lose, life or death, after the war, everyone will
Everyone still has a reward of five taels of silver to get, and it’s still Jinghua who gives it!”
The whole army was shocked and overjoyed - Beijing's silver reward was different from that of the imperial court. The imperial court's reward was not high at first, but due to the troublesome process, it was always delayed for several months and even withheld in many cases. Moreover, the imperial reward was often withheld.
To get the silver reward, you must have a head level. Without a head level, it will be very difficult.
But Jinghua's reward is different. Jinghua is not only generous, but also does not default on payment. What's more, what they ask for is not the head, but just "whether you obey orders." In other words, as long as you obey orders, Jinghua will definitely get the reward!
In addition, another feature of Jinghua's silver reward is that it will never engulf the reward for those who died in battle, and as long as it is confirmed that the person died in battle, a double reward will be issued to express compensation.
Everyone was very excited when they heard that they still had at least five taels of silver. Some people even thought to themselves: If you are really unlucky and die here in the battle, it will not be a loss, at least you will still have ten taels of silver for settling down.
Zhang Bingzhong, an honest man, directly took money to mobilize the soldiers' enthusiasm for combat. This was so direct.
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Thanks to QQ reading friend "荭, Jipin" for your monthly ticket support. Thank you. I have been very busy during the day recently, and I can hardly keep my eyes open while coding at night...
