The first land and sea battle has come to an end. More and more people are eager to see the power of the traveler's first homemade firearm in this time and space. People who have nothing to do for the time being have come and are ready to watch the fun.
Lin Shenhe temporarily acted as an artillery instructor, and first demonstrated the entire firing process of a smoothbore cannon. In Europe in the 17th century, smoothbore cannons had formed a relatively standardized firing procedure, and had many different special equipment. In addition to ammunition,
, the most important thing on the artillery vehicle is the loading tool. It can be said that the gun cannot be fired without the loading tool. During the battle, after the infantry and cavalry attack the artillery position and occupy the position, if time is short and the cannon cannot be towed away or destroyed,
Will try to destroy the loading tools. Similarly, if the artillery needs to abandon the artillery and escape, the first thing to do is to take away the loading tools. This will prevent the enemy from using these artillery to attack us immediately. Secondly, if the position can be regained, there will be loading tools.
It will be ready to fire immediately.
"What the f*ck is this?" Ying Yu took these long and short wooden poles and looked back and forth and said with emotion. He was a retired 130mm cannon artilleryman, and now he wants a young man who has never been a soldier to come here.
Teach how to fuck.
This set of filling tools was drawn by Lin Shenhe one by one in size and shape, and then jointly manufactured by the lumber factory and the machinery factory: the first one is the gun brush, the top of the wooden pole is wrapped with wool, and is used to extinguish the residue in the gun barrel after being dipped in water.
Mars, the artillery team searched the database for a long time and there was no inventory record of wool. The first one was replaced with kapok. The second one was dry artillery brushing, which was similar to the previous one. Its function was to dry the moisture left by the previous step; a top belt
The wooden rod of the spiral iron hook is used to remove any remaining paper or fibers in the gun barrel. At that time, the European artillery charges had already adopted quantitative powder packages, and the gunpowder was filled with paper or flannel according to the weight.
The package; the enlarged head is the loading rod, which is used to stuff gunpowder and projectiles. Finally, there is an ignition rod. The original version is relatively complicated, but Lin Shenhe simplified it and replaced it with a captured short spear wrapped with a match rope.
"Let's start the test shooting now." After several simulated dumb shots, Lin Shenhe saw that everyone had basically mastered the entire shooting process and decided to start the official shooting.
For test firing, the easiest thing is to fire directly into the sea. However, there are no reference objects such as reefs or small islands on the sea outside Bopu, so it is impossible to measure the actual distance of the artillery fire. The final shooting range chosen was a wasteland in the port area.
, close to Lingaojiao.
Targets were set up on the shooting range, and the soil was piled into twelve small mounds like grave mounds, divided into three groups, with distances ranging from 400 meters, 800 meters to 1,200 meters. In addition, a benchmark was erected 1,500 meters away.
"Report, how to aim?" Ying Yu had already entered the role of an artilleryman. He suddenly realized that all his artillery knowledge was ineffective in front of this gun. How to use the sight on the barrel, how to measure the angle, etc.
I don't know.
"Use this." Lin Shenhe unloaded a small suitcase from the front car. This box was completely different from the bare wooden box produced by the Bobu Wood Processing Factory. At first glance, it looked like a product with a long history and excellent workmanship.
"This is a real 18th century artillery measuring tool box I brought from the United States."
"What a bullshit?" The artillerymen's heads crowded over to see this 19th century antique.
There is something similar to an angle meter inside. It is a measuring tool with two copper rulers, one long and one short, nailed into a right angle shape. There is a 1/4 arc ruler connecting the two rulers, with scales engraved on it. Introduction by Lin Shenhe This is called a gun gauge. The purpose of the gun gauge is to measure the elevation angle of the artillery.
He showed everyone how to use it. Insert the long handle into the muzzle, and read the elevation angle of the barrel on the radian ruler through the vertical line.
"What's the use of this angle?" Lin Shenhe said, "Actually, it has to be coordinated with the shooting table." He showed everyone a table engraved on the inside of the box cover, all in English, with a lot of numbers.
"This is the shooting table. The so-called shooting table refers to the specific shooting data obtained by the factory through target shooting tests before the artillery leaves the factory. For example, if a solid bullet is used, the charge is 1 pound, and the rise is 5 degrees, how far the artillery shell can travel. This There are not only solid bullets on the table, but also data on grenades, shrapnel and incendiary bombs.”
"Modern artillery also has it." Ying Yu recalled the firing meter on the 130 cannon he had operated.
"Yes, this is how the concept of the shooting table on modern artillery came about. However, the American guy I used to shoot guns with said that this thing originated very early and appeared in the 16th century."
The word "sex" brings out an obscene smile on some people's faces.
"With the firing table, as long as the gunners can estimate the distance, they will know what angle to adjust the gun to." Lin Shenhe picked up another copper square plate with wires.
"This is the rule, it was the artillery rangefinder at that time." He introduced the principle of distance measurement and how to use it. This is a simple mathematical tool that uses the principle of similar triangles to calculate distance. For travelers who have received a complete modern education Of course it's not worth mentioning.
"But, does this thing make sense?" Zhang Bolin asked doubtfully, "We all have telescopes. Can we roughly measure distances with telescopes? There are also special instruments."
"If you want to build an indigenous artillery unit, this is just right for them. It's simple to make and not difficult to use. I won't feel bad if you lose it."
"This is a gun ruler. It's actually a special scale ruler, used to measure the amount of gunpowder." Lin Shenhe took out another copper ruler.
As the propellant of artillery, Western artillery experts believe that the most ideal charge value is when the gunpowder is completely burned, the cannonball will just exit the muzzle. If it is too early, the gunpowder is wasted. If it is too late, the distance between the barrel wall and the cannonball will be Friction will reduce the muzzle velocity of the projectile.
This ideal value is of course difficult to achieve, but gunsmiths have been testing the best ammunition-to-munition ratio through experiments. Since the 16th century, European gunsmiths have included a musket ruler with every batch of cannons shipped from the factory. Used by gunners to calculate the charge when using different ammunition.
With the gun ruler, the gunner can roughly calculate the approximate charge of projectiles of different weights through simple calculations. Not only can it save gunpowder and enhance the safety of artillery shooting, it is also of great benefit to the accurate calibration of the range. This Technology was introduced to China by Western missionaries in the 17th century. Although China claims to be the earliest inventor of firearms, it has basically no research on gunnery. The concept of gunpowder ratio is relatively vague, and gunpowder loading is very arbitrary. When the battle is fierce, it will Loading a large amount of gunpowder often caused the gun to explode. Therefore, as soon as the gun ruler was introduced, it was quickly regarded as a "secret method", so that many gunpowder weapons books published at that time either did not mention it at all, or mentioned it briefly.
China invented gunpowder and cannon, but not artillery. This weird contrast made everyone feel a little uncomfortable.
"Start shooting."
Since there is no shooting table available, the traverser starts shooting from 0 degrees of the body tube.
The first thing to try was the artillery made with traditional cast iron technology. Several people moved the gun mount and aimed at a mound four hundred meters away with the crude front sight on the barrel.
"This accuracy -" Ying Yu felt a bit like an adult playing games with children in a kindergarten.
Smoothbore gun shooting is divided into 11 steps. Because it is a cold shot, the first and second steps are omitted. The gunpowder is fine-grained gunpowder produced by the chemical team using seized black powder to granulate. It is wrapped in rough paper. Each package
250g.
"Pack two bags?"
"Okay, two bags."
The 6-pound iron round bullet rolled in from the muzzle, and there was no obstruction in the sound. Zhang Bolin grasped the play well, and carefully pressed the ammunition firmly with the loading rod - this was considered a technical job and could not be pressed too hard.
If it is too tight, it will cause smoldering and will not explode.
Lin Shenhe immediately inserted a long iron awl through the ignition port, broke the powder bag, and then filled the ignition port with gunpowder.
"Get ready to shoot!" As he shouted, the people next to him quickly raised a red flag to remind him that the gun was about to be fired.
"fire!"
"Foreign slaves!" someone from the Navy commented.
Following Lin Shenhe's roar, Ying Yu, who was in charge of igniting the fire, blew the match rope wrapped around the short iron gun and moved to the ignition port - his heart was beating so hard that the recruits didn't even have the chance to fire live ammunition for the first time when they came out of the unit.
So nervous.
The black powder on the ignition port squeaked, and the ignition port spurted out half-foot-long sparks like fireworks, making a hissing noise. In an instant, the cannon slammed back, spraying out thick white smoke and fire, accompanied by
With the roar of cannons, a black cannonball flew out.
The iron bullet flew 400 meters away, dragging blue smoke, and hit the ground firmly. The earth mixed with the embers of gunpowder flew up.
"It's so powerful." Zhang Bolin's face turned pale. This artillerist had obviously never seen a cannon being fired. The violent explosion, the vibration of the back seat of the cannon, and the spicy smell of gunpowder made people feel how powerful this thing was. Compared to
In the past, I tried setting off various types of artillery and large firecrackers, and it felt completely different.
The cannon moved back a few meters, but the barrel and frame were intact. Lin Shenhe ignored the heat of the cannon and the choking smell of gunpowder smoke and carefully inspected the barrel.
"How is it?" Ji Wusheng was a little worried. After all, it was the first time in his life to make a cannon.
"everything is normal."
"Don't be careless, and check again to see if there are any cracks or anything like that -" Zhan Wuya reminded that cast iron cannons are no better than cannons from modern arsenals, "By the way, I have a flaw detector there, do you want to pull it back and take a look?
"
"This is unnecessary." Lin Shenhe thought this was too extravagant. "The flaw detector should be used later when the steel cannon is cast."
Ying Yu also ran over, his face stained with the black smoke of gunpowder: "Is the cannon okay?"
"It's okay, it's very strong."
"Let's go and see the condition of the shells together."