Granular gunpowder is a step up from powdered gunpowder. Powdered gunpowder easily absorbs moisture and gradually separates due to bumps during storage and transportation, resulting in more charcoal powder in the upper layer and more sulfur powder in the lower layer, resulting in uneven mixing.
, which has adverse factors for the power and safety of gunpowder.
Li Modao watched the craftsmen's granulation with great interest and inquired about the details. It turned out that this technology was also introduced by Westerners. The craftsmen said that such gunpowder not only exploded reliably, but was also less susceptible to moisture. Compared with the original gunpowder,
Powdered gunpowder is much better.
"This is another Westerner's idea!" Li Modao had a hope in his heart, hoping to meet a Westerner and ask him face to face about the uses of these Western firearms.
"How much gunpowder was made?" he asked.
The steward of the Gunpowder Bureau reported: "Replying to the master, we have now made ten thousand kilograms. Most of them are powder, but also a small amount of explosives. There are also poisonous gunpowder and medicine cakes."
"This is too little. Ten thousand kilograms is not enough."
"Yes, it's just that the hemp charcoal we need is hard to find, so we are switching to willow charcoal." The manager said, "Making gunpowder today is different from before. Saltpeter and sulfur must be purified before they can be used. To make sulfur for light, butter is used.
Ten kilograms of lard will cost two or three kilograms, so it takes a lot of time to raise it."
Coming out of the gunpowder station, black smoke towered into the sky three or four miles away. This is where the blacksmith camp is located. Most of the weapons in the army are made of iron. Although the government has a special bureau to manufacture weapons, the army still has some blacksmiths.
Tools, iron materials and charcoal are used to repair weapons at any time. When necessary, they can also make some expensive weapons, such as arrows and iron. Now the blacksmith camp is busy making cannon bullets day and night.
In the camp, there was clanging and repairing of swords, spears and guns in a shed, while there were seven or eight iron-melting furnaces in the open air, with roaring fires melting pig iron and pouring cannons. The ground was covered with large and small clay molds.
Li Modao saw that the stockyard on one side was filled with all kinds of iron materials, including iron bricks and iron rods bought from the iron yard, as well as various weapons and objects replaced by the army. Used crucibles and hammers were used.
The broken clay molds were piled up into a hill several feet high. Newly cast cannon pellets were placed in rattan baskets, which were already piled up on several acres of land. Li Modao knew that the small baskets were filled with big cannons, and the big baskets were filled with cannon balls.
Pretending to be a group.
When General Manager Guan Yingqian saw him arriving, he hurried out to greet him. Like gunpowder, Li Modao had an urgent requirement to produce more cannon pellets as soon as possible. Cannons consume a lot of money during a war, not to mention that this time he is still preparing to surround the enemy.
If the firearms camp ran out of artillery pellets and missed the opportunity to fight, his head would be in danger.
He looked at the cannonballs in the basket. The cannonballs were cast at uneven levels. Some were very round, while others had very different diameters. The smoothness of the projectiles was also different. The surface of some cannonballs was very rough, almost honeycomb-like.
What's even more terrible is that the same five-pound cannons are actually slightly different in size, and some are very different. There is a big error in the size at a glance.
"This cannon scores one point." He said to Mr. Qian who was in charge of the blacksmith camp who greeted him. "The roundest and brightest cannon can be used for the Hongyi cannon. The others can only be used as seals. And there is this size.
, the big ones are big, the small ones are small. Also score points.”
Li Modao knew that such a big cannon would not have a big problem when used as a door seal for old-style artillery such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon, but when used on artillery such as the Folan Cannon or the Hongyi Cannon, there would be a serious problem of lag in firing.
Sometimes it may even cause an explosion.
Years of experience with point igniters told him that if the projectile is not smooth and round enough, no matter how well-cast the artillery is, there will be air leakage, and the shell will not be able to travel far, or even more terrifyingly, the chamber will explode.
The next day, He Rubin was talking to his staff in the big tent. Suddenly someone came to report that someone from Qiongshan had applied for the army. He claimed that he was a native of Lingao. He had fought against the Kun bandits and knew the details of the Kun bandits very clearly.
Report your service before coming to the army.
"Okay, I will send this person to Guangzhou as soon as possible." He Rubin perked up. So far, he has not recruited a Lingao native, let alone this person who claims to have fought with the Kun bandits.
.
"According to the report from the prefect of Qiongzhou: This person's name is Gou Chengxuan. He was once stripped of his honor as a scholar by the province for being a 'traffic gangster' and is also wanted by the county. I'm afraid he is not a kind person."
"Traffic gangster?" He Rubin thought to himself, could this person have done something for a gangster before? If so, he would be more controllable. If he is a scholar, he has to be polite. Since he is a fugitive from the traffic gang, he must
If he is square, then he will be round. "Ask Qiongzhou Prefecture to send the person over as soon as possible."
Gou Chengxuan escaped from Lingao a few months ago. When he was in Qiu Fu, he was expecting the gentry and landlords to fish in troubled waters once they started to cause trouble, making a big fuss and making the thieves suffer a lot. Unexpectedly, Huang
Kun Kun didn't bother to form an alliance with him. He started to do it on his own, but failed miserably, allowing Kun Thief's Zhang Tian's plan to come true.
The police who took advantage of the opportunity failed, and he could no longer stay in Lingao County. As the Chuanchuan Group took over the county government, a large-scale cleanup and rectification of Lingao County began. All the beggars and vagrants who had been living in the city were all
Arrest. Gou Chengxuan knew that it was no longer possible to continue disguising himself as a beggar and staying in the city. If he was caught by the thieves, even if his identity was not exposed, he would be arrested and quarried sand, and he would be whipped by Fu Youdi. Now he quickly started from
He took out clothes and a small amount of silver from a hiding place, and escaped from the county town under the cover of the Lai brothers.
Seeing that he could no longer stay in Lingao, Gou Chengxuan could only prepare to flee. He asked Lai Xiao, who was working in the county school, to continue to lurk in the city, and he took Lai Da to Qiongshan County to settle down temporarily. But he went to Baopangshan
Gou Xunli, who went to seek refuge with his sworn brother, was never found. Without any news of his father, his family fortune was lost, and he had no way to take revenge. In despair, Gou Chengxuan almost wanted to commit suicide by drowning. Fortunately, Da Sui was always by his side to persuade him.
When he heard in Qiongshan that the imperial court was going to attack Lingao, Gou Chengxuan, who was already in despair, finally felt that God's eyes were open. He saw that there was a recruitment of people who knew the inside story of the Kun thief, so he immediately applied.
After Gou Chengxuan was interrogated for a while in Qiongshan, he and Lai Da were sent to the camp in Guangzhou by the Qiongshan County Magistrate.
He was shackled and sent to the Humen camp like a prisoner. After getting off the boat, he was unshackled and asked to wait in a tent.
Gou Chengxuan was in a panic. It seemed that the government was very rude to him. I wonder if it was because the government knew that he was guilty of "traffic banditry"? He had to defend this matter no matter what.
Before he could take a breath, a soldier came to say:
"The Commander-in-Chief has an order: tell Gou Chengxuan to come in!"
"Yes, please lead the way, deputy master." Gou Chengxuan felt nervous - this was his first time seeing such a big official.
He couldn't help but shuddered, hurriedly adjusted his clothes, and followed the soldiers towards the central army. A group of soldiers standing at the gate of the camp blocked him with their swords. A small leader of the soldiers looked him over and asked:
"Are you Gou Chengxuan?"
"Yes, the villain is Gou Chengxuan." He replied in a low voice, his voice a little trembling.
"Do you have a sword with you?"
"The villain is a scholar..."
"Stop talking nonsense, do you have any belts?" The leader of the guards at the gate looked impatient.
"No, really not." Gou Chengxuan quickly defended.
The leader of the soldiers was still worried and searched his body before letting him into the camp gate. The Chinese army brought him to He Rubin's case and knelt down. His heart was beating like a drum and he did not dare to raise his head.
said:
"Little citizen Gou Chengxuan comes to see Master Zhentai!"
"You were the one who announced the application list and said you knew the inside story of the Kun thief?"
"Exactly the villain."
"You said you know the inside story of the Kun thief, so you must actually serve the imperial court, and the imperial court will naturally put you in high regard." He Rubin looked at him and felt that this man had a cunning face and was not a kind person. He did not make Gou Chengxuan angry, but he just
Drinking tea slowly, he asked after a while:
"You know all the details about your claim to be a thief. Who are you?"
"Sir, my surname is Gou..." Gou Chengxuan first told her life experience. Of course, she didn't dare to talk about the glorious history of the Gou family in Lingao - the home of pirates and local bullies. She didn't even mention that she was once a scholar.
Dare to say it, for fear of asking about the expulsion of honor - you must know that he is still a key criminal named by the government. He only said that the Gou family is an ordinary rich man. When the bandits first landed, they had no food or property in their hands, so they took the idea of Goujiazhuang.
They gathered people and defeated Zhuangzi, killed his uncle's family, robbed food and property, and took all the villagers hostage. Only he and his father escaped alone.
When Gou Chengxuan mentioned the painful part, he secretly shed tears. But inside the Zhongjun Gate, he did not dare to cry. He just explained the cause and effect.
He Rubin saw that he was gnashing his teeth and his eyes were red. Knowing that what he said was true, it was unlikely that he was an undercover spy sent by the Kun thief, so he asked:
"Both your father and son are the key criminals named in the arrest of 'traffic gangsters' in Lingao County. What do you have to say? Tell the truth!"
Gou Chengxuan's head was pounding. This was what he was most afraid of. After he composed himself, he kowtowed and cried:
"You are really unjust!" When he said this, he had countless thoughts in his mind. The first one was whether to tell the truth about Wu Mingjin's collusion with the thieves? What he wanted to do was to give the county a hard bite.
He ordered, but he didn't dare. As the so-called officials protect each other, who knows what kind of background Wu Mingjin has. If he starts to bite, it would be easier for an official to kill him than to kill an ant.
Now I can only put all the blame on the thief, and wait until I can win the full trust of the government to take revenge.
"The villain was wronged by the thief." Gou Chengxuan sadly made up a story, saying that after the thief broke his village, he was afraid of the government's investigation, so he bribed the bad officials in the county and deliberately took the pirate's flag, documents and seals.
Framed on him and so on.
As for who this bad official is, it doesn't matter. Anyway, the subordinate officials in the county were either killed by the thieves or have become thieves outright, so I'm not afraid of them biting back.
"Master Wu misunderstood Xiao Xiao's words and thought that the villain's family was colluding with pirates. The villain was indeed wronged. Please tell me clearly!" He kowtowed repeatedly.
He Rubin didn't care whether he was unjustly accused or not, but he just used this opportunity to give him a beating to make him obedient and ready to be driven. When he saw him kowtowing like he was pounding garlic, he said:
"Whether you are unjustly accused or not, I will give you an explanation after you defeat the thief! But you have to do your best, even if you have to deal with the crime, you can still get rid of the crime. If you really have great merit, it is not difficult to gain a good background."
"Thank you, Commander-in-Chief, for your kindness!" Gou Chengxuan heard that not only did he no longer pursue his charges, but if he had meritorious deeds, he would also be able to gain fame. He couldn't help but shed tears of gratitude, and knocked his head on the ground with a thumping sound, "I will definitely do my best to repay you, sir."
It’s a huge blessing!”
"Kun Thief's firearms are said to be sharp, have you ever seen them?"
"To my lord," Gou Chengxuan said cautiously, "the firearms of the Kun thieves are indeed sharp. The sharpest ones are their blunderbuss and volley guns."
Nowadays, it is said that there are two types of bird blunderbuss, one is for use by the fake kun, and the other is for the real kun's own use. Regardless of the real kun or fake kun, the bird blunderbuss equipped does not require a match rope, and the gun can be fired by raising one's hand.
.
"The gun used by the fake Kun is named Mi Ni. It is similar to the muskets used by officers and soldiers. It only does not use match ropes or fuse sticks when firing the gun. Just put a copper piece on the fire door to shoot, even if it is windy and rainy.
It can be used to fire blunderbuss. Each blunderbuss only uses one stick, but it is extremely powerful. It can not only penetrate iron armor, but also has a range of 400 steps."
Everyone in the Chinese army's tent showed disbelief. If a cannon can be fired four hundred steps away, can it still be called a cannon? Even the medium-sized Fo Lang machine cannon can't hit that far.
Gou Chengxuan then said that the bird gun used by Zhenkun was more powerful, and it could be loaded once without firing it once. All the ammunition and powder were stored in the iron box of the gun body, and the soldiers could release it at will, which was called the continuous bird gun.
Now everyone didn't believe it even more. Gou Chengxuan knew that everyone didn't trust what he said, so he quickly confessed:
"A few days after the bandits landed, Wu Ling ordered thousands of warriors from all over the county to attack the enemy camp fiercely. However, the enemy's bullets rained down like bullets. Most of the warriors were killed or injured before they could get close. Everyone in Lingao knows about this. It is not a villain who deceives you.
grown ups."
"What's a volley of guns?"
"A platoon gun is made up of more than ten bird guns connected into one, and the gun hand can be fired by hand. The bird gun can be fired continuously, or three or four times in a row, or seven or eight times in a row, or it can be fired all at once. The power of the projectile is as much as
Dense mud is no different - iron armor can be penetrated from four hundred paces away."
There was a burst of surprised sighs in the big tent. Although Akito had never seen a repeating gun, he was still aware of the power of rapid-fire weapons.
Chang Qingyun, who was sitting aside, couldn't help but said: "That's nonsense! How can a firearm in the world ignite gunpowder without a match rope or fuse, and without using incense sticks to ignite the fire door? Put a piece of copper and it will start a fire. Isn't it a monster!"
Other staff were also very skeptical. After all, this was too beyond the common sense of the people at the time. However, Lu Yizhong was more cautious and said: "There are quite strange things overseas, such as crystal mirrors, self-propelled igniters, iron clippers, etc. Kun Thief He is also known for his ingenious and obscene skills, so it is not surprising that he has such a firearm."
Seeing that Gou Chengxuan did not dare to speak, He Rubin said, "You don't have to be afraid, just say it."
"Yes, yes." Gou Chengxuan became more courageous when he saw someone defending him and the Commander-in-Chief did not refute his words, "Australia... no, the gunpowder used by the Kun thieves is actually the same as that of the Ming Dynasty, but their gunpowder The production is more refined, and there are several secret medicines used on guns and cannons, which can withstand wind and rain and cause spontaneous fires."
"Do you know how to make this secret medicine?"
"The secret medicines are all made in Kun Thief's Bairen Village. All the manufacturing is done by the real Kun, and the fake Kun can only do some hands-on work. Therefore, the villain doesn't know how to make it."
Gou Chengxuan then said that all the soldiers of the Lu division of the Kun thieves did not wear armor. They only wore cloth shorts and rattan helmets. No one used knives or the like. They all used dense mud quick guns. The guns were equipped with three-edged short spears, which were very special. sharp.
"...Kun thieves use gunshots from a distance and stabbings with short three-edged spears from close range."
When they heard that the Kun thieves did not wear armor, but only wore cloth and rattan helmets, several generals couldn't help laughing with contempt. Because it had long been rumored that the Kun thieves' troops did not wear armor - not even cotton armor. As for wearing rattan helmets, it was even more Is it strange? Could it be that they are modeled after the vine-armored soldiers in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
"The whole army of Kun thieves uses blunderbuss, why don't they just practice swords and spears?"
"Yes, I have only seen the thieves use blunderbuss and practice stabbing skills. However, some of the people he enslaved are accustomed to using spears."
"I heard that the Kun bandits have a huge cannon on top of the Bopu beacon, which can be fired up to ten miles away. Do you know?"
"You know, I know, there is one on the beacon, and there is one on the deck of the big iron ship."
"One shot makes ten miles, is this possible?"
Gou Chengxuan had seen the test firing of these two cannons. The naval fortress artillery in Bopu fired live ammunition once a month. He had witnessed the astonishing range of the cannonballs with his own eyes, but the reaction of the officials just now made him a little hesitant. It's not that I just made the range smaller according to their wishes. However, if I said it was too small, when the Kun thief fires the gun, his lie will be exposed immediately, and he may be "pushed out and beheaded" by the army. He thought for a moment. He said, "I have never seen it with my own eyes, but every time I fire it, the sound shakes for ten miles. According to people, it can indeed fire the cannon ten miles away."
He Rubin asked again: "How many men and horses do the Kun thieves, the land division and the navy have? How many real Kuns are there among them?"
"My lord, the army of Kunthief has more than 10,000 troops." Of course Gou Chengxuan knew that the Australians did not have such a large army, but he was determined to exaggerate, so as not to offend the officer by underestimating it. "The navy also has 10,000 troops." "People." He quickly added, "There are very few true Kun among them, only more than a thousand, all of them are traitors from the Fujian and Guangdong seas and common people who are hijacked everywhere."
"How many cannons does the bandit have?"
"As far as a villain can see, they are almost everywhere." Gou Chengxuan said that Australian cannons can be seen everywhere in Lingao - many gun towers along the road are equipped with a small cannon. As for the cannons used in field battles, he has seen some
There were more than ten people. He also told He Rubin and others: Kun Thief's cannon is lighter than Hongyi's cannon. The cannon body is not thick, and the gun frame is also very light. It can be easily dragged by horses. The smallest small artillery cart uses a
A Sichuan horse can pull it and gallop away.
"The kun thieves have no mules and horses, and they only use civilian men to pull cannons. One shot requires dozens of people, so they only use light cannons in field battles, not heavy cannons."
"So, the Kun thieves don't have the Red Yi cannon anymore?"
"As far as I can see, there is indeed no such thing." Gou Chengxuan hesitated and said.