Taking the heavy-duty Franco machine cannon "Invincible General" as an example, each main cannon is carried on a gun carriage with 3 sub-cannons. When firing, the sub-cannon is loaded into the main cannon. After firing, it is taken out and the second sub-cannon is loaded.
According to the actual drill, the first three shots took less than 20 seconds in total.
At this time, the pirate regiment was equipped with a small, weighing more than 80 kilograms, lightweight bronze Franco machine cannon cast in a unified manner by the Xincheng Arsenal. This cannon used one-pound solid spherical lead bullets. The caliber was only 75mm.
The reason why such backward artillery is cast separately for pirates is because they often perform the task of robbing all merchant ships on the southeast coast as pirates. They cannot use the advanced artillery of Yang Fan's system, which will show their flaws.
However, Yang Fan still made as many improvements as possible to this artillery. Its performance was greatly improved compared to the Franco machine cannons and eagle cannons cast in the East and West.
Yang Fan's Franco machine cannon has a wrong thread on the front end of the semi-open rear barrel. Similarly, the front end of the blunderbuss also has a wrong thread.
When loading, just load the gun with the handle into it, and then rotate the handle 90 degrees to the right to tighten the staggered threads to achieve a sealing effect.
However, even though metal processing in later generations has reached a very precise level and the screw mouth is very smooth and flat, air leakage will still occur under high pressure, affecting the range. Therefore, sealing rings must be used.
Yang Fan's sealing ring is made of rubber.
In this way, Yang Fan's Pirate Group's Franco machine gun can not only quickly replace the gun, but also has a very good sealing effect. It can reach the point where no air leakage can be seen with the naked eye.
In addition, the maroon propellant burns in a straight line, and the range of Yang Fan's Fran cannon exceeds 750 meters, which is much larger than the maximum range of 300 meters of the small Fran cannon of this era. It even exceeds the range of the large Fran cannon.
The author estimates that based on the gunpowder level in the late Ming Dynasty, the range of the heavy Fran cannon was between 300-600 meters.
According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", the range of the Franco machine gun was about "more than a hundred feet."
Converted to modern measurement units, it is approximately between 300-600 meters.
In addition, some data show that the range of the 7-foot Fo Lang machine gun in the Ming Dynasty was more than one mile, that is, about 576 meters (one mile in the Ming Dynasty was about 576 meters).
Many small Fran cannons have less ammunition and more air leakage, so their range is only 200-300.
However, this range is much further than that of a bow and arrow.
In this era, the cavalry bow can only project 150 meters, and the direct shot is usually about 50 meters. It is difficult to shoot accurately beyond this distance. If you can shoot with a hundred steps, you will be a sharpshooter.
Crossbows have some advantages over bows. They only have a direct shooting range of 75 meters, and accuracy cannot be guaranteed no matter how far it is.
The lead bullets whizzed away so fast that the naked eye could not see them clearly.
Harduntapbu Nang, who was riding a white horse, felt a hot wind blowing past his eyes. The corneas of his eyes seemed to be burned.
He squeezed his eyes and felt a little better.
A one-pound cannonball flew half a meter in front of him. It didn't hit him. But the strong wind blew in his face, and he felt his cheeks being scratched and hurt.
He was currently galloping in front of the formation, shouting loudly to boost morale.
On his side was a dense array of cavalry. These cavalry, wearing leather armor and leather robes, were very elite. The Heshuote people were able to hold the position of leader of the Oirat alliance for more than a hundred years not just because of the blood of the golden family of Orqitu Khan.
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There was a loud bang, and the lead bullet hit a centurion who was holding a scimitar and shouting.
A one-pound lead bullet, although not large, is much heavier than a lead bullet of dozens of grams.
The power is several orders of magnitude higher. No matter how small the cannon is, its kinetic energy cannot be compared to that of a bullet.
The lead bullet directly shattered half of his body.
He was still shouting with his scimitar raised, but a huge semicircular gap appeared on the right side of his torso.
After the shot put passed half of his body, its kinetic energy barely diminished and it continued to roar backwards.
A bloody alley of blood and flesh splattered directly. Along the way, flesh and blood, broken leather armor, and iron armor blades spattered.
Hardun reined in his horse in shock, turned his head and looked around, almost breaking his neck.
Only seven or eight people were seen. Some were hit by the shells, and some were grazed by the shells. They fell down with a crackle.
With a final loud noise, the small lead ball hit the head of a war horse and penetrated the chest. The entire belly of the war horse exploded instantly.
Internal organs, flesh, blood, and broken bones were splashed in all directions. After entering the horse's body, the lead ball changed its trajectory. When it flew out from the side in a different direction, it took one of the knight's legs flying with it.
The brutal impact of spherical solid bullets on dense military formations is vividly demonstrated.
Isma slapped the cannon in annoyance. He had not calculated it well in advance and almost hit the officer on the white horse.
"Quickly withdraw the gun. Reload it, quickly." He shouted anxiously.
At this time, other artillery groups also fired. A burst of smoke filled the outside of Camel City.
The two gunners hurriedly pushed the handle of the gun back to the vertical position, then one person took out the fastening block at the back, and the other pulled the gun back and lifted it off.
One person immediately installed the new gun, then installed the rubber fastening block at the back and tightened it. Then he rotated the handle ninety degrees to the right to allow the thread to rotate and lock.
Isma used a steel needle to pierce the medicine package at the fire door again, and then inserted the fire tube.
"Okay, in less than five seconds, aim again." Isma shouted excitedly.
Their group is the fastest reloading group on the ship at sea.
This lightweight Franco machine gun weighs eighty pounds and has a rotating bearing in the middle. It can move with six degrees of freedom. It is very convenient for aiming the front muzzle.
The center of gravity of the artillery is placed on the gun carriage on the back of the camel. The four legs of the gun carriage are supported on the ground.
The two gunners carried the crossbar on their shoulders and moved back and forth. Isma, as the gunner, used the rear sight and front sight to aim. He carried the short rod at the rear of the gun on his shoulders. The three of them moved up, down, left and right together.
The remaining two people were responsible for loading and removing the empty muskets.
At this time, I saw Hardun's horse stopped and looked at the military formation that had been penetrated by lead bullets in surprise.
Isma was excited for a while. She thought to herself, don't move, yes, just don't move.
Seeing the right moment, he suddenly pulled out the fire hose.
There was a loud bang, and thick smoke and flames erupted from the muzzle again. A one-pound lead ball once again flew out of the muzzle and flew towards Hardun's man-horse joint.
Hardun felt a violent shock. Then he saw a lead bullet once again hit a bloody alley. Only belatedly, he realized that his upper body was flying up.
His torso and horse were completely shattered from the waist down.
"Okay, I hit it. This is a big fish." Isma slapped the tail of the cannon excitedly.