141, the evolution of the fire door gun, matchlock gun, and flintlock gun
At noon, Zhang Geda stood on the reviewing stand at Dongshan Camp and looked at the assembled veterans of the 600th Regiment. They were all the backbones who had experienced the bloody battle on the rocky beach.
Behind the veterans were 1,200 newly trained militiamen from various villages. There were also 100 students from Xinghe School.
More than a thousand people were mobilized, and they were responsible for transporting heavy supplies, driving carts, and taking care of horses and livestock.
"Everyone is here, let's reorganize the team. The veterans will re-establish the team according to their previous duties. Those who have been team leaders and squadron leaders will come to the front." Zhang Geda shouted loudly.
Soon the officers all came out and stood behind Zhang Geda.
The original team leaders and team leaders organized teams, replenished the militia, and reorganized sixty teams.
Each team is divided into three groups of ten people.
The first group was equipped with standing shields, waist knives and spears. It was mainly composed of militiamen.
The second group was equipped with old-fashioned nine-shot door guns. It was mainly composed of militiamen.
The third group was equipped with newly manufactured flintlock rifles and was mainly composed of veterans.
In addition to these sixty groups, there is also an artillery battalion in the Dongshan camp. Yang Fan installed the ten large bronze cannons captured last time on the artillery cart and equipped a field artillery battalion. However, Yang Fan did not intend to expose this now. These people
First, follow the army's artillery battalion training and be used as an artillery training team. Responsible for training subsequent gunners.
When Beitang Shipyard's clipper ship matures, Yang Fan plans to install these ten cannons on the clipper ship. After all, going to sea without cannons is equivalent to giving money to pirates.
Regarding the next development of muskets, Yang Fan was also a little entangled, because he knew that every advancement in weapons had profound reasons. He was a little hesitant about whether to skip the matchlock gun and directly develop the flintlock gun.
Yang Fan consulted his military comrades in the Guns and Roses group.
The experts answered this question for Yang Fan in detail.
The beautiful girl of the Medici family: To achieve the ideal effect of the fire door gun, it is best to work in groups of two, one holding the gun to aim, and the other person responsible for igniting.
Later developed fire door guns all had a hook, which was used to hook the city wall as a support point, and the other hand was used to light the fire.
Therefore, the main purpose of developing the matchlock gun was to free up the right hand for aiming and firing.
Holding the handguard of the rifle with one hand, holding the handle with the other hand, pulling the trigger with your finger, dropping the match rope, igniting the gunpowder and firing. This turns the live-valve gun, which actually requires two people to aim and fire, into one that can be fired by one person.
Matchlock gun. (Yang Fan’s nine-shot firelock gun is special, not a serious firelock gun.)
The trigger structure of the matchlock is developed from the trigger structure of the crossbow invented in China.
Yang Shiyilang (Yang Fan): What are the advantages of the matchlock gun replacing the fire gate gun?
Emperor Sauron: The advantages of the matchlock gun are epoch-making compared to the previous generation of fire door guns. The early fire door guns were made of cast copper or cast iron, were very short, the gunpowder stroke was not long, and the shooting range was short.
One of the reasons is that the casting technology was not up to standard at the time, and the barrel could not be made too long. In addition, the gunpowder at that time was very poor and not powerful enough. A short barrel was enough, and there was no point in making the barrel longer. It increased the cost and weight in vain.
Later, gunpowder improved, but the barrel was still the same. There were many bubbles and cracks in the casting, and it was easy to explode the barrel, so I didn't dare to charge more. The effective range was only thirty meters, and the direct shooting distance was only about ten meters.
Later fire door guns began to roll wrought iron around a steel column to make the barrel. Wrought iron is soft, and bubbles and cracks can be squeezed out by tapping to obtain a dense barrel. The hardness is then increased by quenching, so that
The barrel can be lengthened and propellant added.
Pharaoh's Slipper Holder: At this time, another problem arose, that is, it was inconvenient for two people to fire the fire door gun together. So someone got inspiration from the trigger of the crossbow and installed the trigger on the fire door gun.
This saves one person and frees one hand, allowing one person to complete loading, aiming and launching.
Yang Shiyilang: What is the principle of match rope?
The Pharaoh's slipper-bearing official: it was very simply made of hemp rope, and the materials were available everywhere. Generally, a thin rope or strip of cloth made of linen was soaked in liquor or sour vinegar dissolved with saltpeter for 24 hours (in other salts
Solution or plant ash, lime concentrated alkali solution can also be soaked), and then dried.
Sometimes in order to pursue a slow burning effect (of course the longer the burning time, the better), the rope is soaked in urine and then dried in the sun to form a match rope that burns very slowly but always maintains an open flame.
The burning rate is about 80 mm to 120 mm per hour. In this way, after the soldier presses the metal hook into the fire door, he can hold the gun with one or both hands and keep his eyes on the target. According to historical records, a well-trained shooter can burn the gun every minute.
It can fire 2 to 3 bullets, and the long-barreled gun has a range of about 100 to 200 meters.
You see, this matchlock gun is much more powerful than the fire door gun. This is an epoch-making change in gunpowder weapons.
Yang Shiyilang: I understand, I feel that when it develops into a matchlock gun, it can be considered a real musket. Is there anything wrong with the matchlock gun?
You can travel a thousand miles if you hold your urine in, but you can't walk an inch if you have diarrhea: there are too many problems, some of which are simply mind-numbing.
Problem one is that there are never enough match ropes.
Since a length of match rope is required to fire a matchlock gun, every musketeer at that time had to carry a match rope several meters long on his body.
Before going into battle, they must first light the matchlock, because it is extremely difficult to light the matchlock when the weather is humid, and when it rains, there is no need to use the matchlock gun.
Moreover, experienced soldiers will light both ends of the match rope so that they can fire the second shot at any time. In this way, a match rope will not burn for long.
Although a match rope burns slowly, it is still an open flame no matter how slow it burns.
It is also very dangerous when ignited. If you are not careful, the sparks will ignite the ammunition carried on your body, causing an explosion and injuring the musketeer himself.
Moreover, a lit match rope can easily expose itself at night, making it impossible to sneak attack the enemy at night. You may also become a living target for the opponent's crossbowmen.
Question 2: There are as many as 25 steps in firing a matchlock gun, which is very complicated.
Problem 3: It cannot be used on rainy days. It rains heavily on the battlefield, and your matchlock gun turns into a fire stick in minutes.
Question four, this is the most terrible thing, the accuracy is poor! It is not ordinary. The effective range is short, it can only shoot targets within 100m, and the direct shooting distance is much lower than that of a crossbow.
The power is still small, because the use of lead bullets with a diameter smaller than the barrel of the gun results in air leakage and a lot of waste of gunpowder and gas. As the distance becomes longer, the penetration of armor protection drops sharply.
Yang Shiyilang: Wouldn’t it be airtight if the lead bullets were wrapped in cowhide?
The fan’s previous life was a potato: That’s not possible either. The inaccuracy of the matchlock gun was not only due to air leakage. More importantly, the technology at that time was unreliable and there was no boring machine.
Without a boring machine, how can you ensure that the barrel is absolutely straight? This cannot be seen with the naked eye. The barrel is curved, and you still expect the bullet to come out of the chamber to go in a straight line.
Yang Fan was shocked that this situation still existed.