Great Tang Southern Emperor

You have to be able to calculate the drop point of ammunition, right?

If you want to learn these, you must have at least a junior high school mathematics foundation, right?

Without this knowledge, why do you think artillery is called a technical arm?

It can be said that calibration and maintenance are the core professions of artillery, and they are also obstacles for ordinary soldiers to become artillerymen, blocking most ordinary soldiers from the threshold of artillery.

But still the same sentence, I haven't even figured out the performance of my own cannon for the topic, and it's too early to learn these things.Besides, these things are basic mathematics, so it is completely possible to hold night classes and teach them the knowledge at night, and it is more appropriate for them to learn how to shoot cannons directly during the day.

"Attention everyone, the most critical moment has come." Li Zhen's voice became louder and louder, pointing to a pile of cannon balls beside him and said: "Now everyone has almost learned the most basic knowledge before the cannon is fired, and there is only one last thing left. Now, that is to let you actually operate the cannon, now listen to my order, every two people, everyone is free to form a group."

"Yes." Everyone's eyes were bright, including the surrounding soldiers. Didn't they wait for so long just to see the scene when the cannon was fired?

In less than ten breaths of "crash, clatter", everyone has assembled, exactly [-] groups, and today I brought ten boxes, that is, [-] shells, which is just right for all the groups to practice for two rounds.

"Li Ergou, bring your team up."

"Yes." Li Ergou and his partner Wang Jin came to Li Zhen with their heads held high and their chests held high under everyone's envious eyes.

"Do as I said, Li Ergou, you pull the breech bolt right, it's good, open the locking mechanism, that is, this is done well, everyone take a good look?" Li Zhen directed Li Ergou to operate Cannon, while praising him.

"Very good, next, Wang Jin, you put a cannonball in, remember that the tip is facing forward, but you must not put it backwards." Here is a special reminder, because in history, there have been artillerymen who put the cannonball backwards, causing the cannon In the case of bombing, Li Zhen is not willing to have such a thing happen to her artillery (early shells did not have inertial unlocking, and whether they explode or not depends entirely on the firing pin on the head. It will explode, and if it doesn't touch the firing pin in the mud, it will be a squib).

Wang Jin put the cannonball in as he said, and his expression was normal. He was not nervous when he came into contact with explosives at such a close distance, and he was in a good mood.

"Except for Li Ergou, everyone stay away from here immediately and plug their ears." Li Zhen was the first to run out after speaking. Only then did he notice the three of Li Jing mixed in the crowd, but now is not the time to talk , dodge first.

When others saw that Li Zhen had run away, everyone started to run too, and they didn't stop until they ran behind the sandbag thirty feet away from the cannon.

"Lord Changshi, why did you run away?" Yuchi Jingde squeezed over and asked.

"I've seen the deputy director." Li Zhen saluted before explaining: "This is the first cannon, which is experimental in nature, and I can't guarantee its quality. Living things exist."

"But didn't the cannon be fired once last night? Didn't there be any problem?" Su Dingfang also came over and interjected.

"What is a cannonball?" Li Zhen asked back: "You must know that in the formal cannon performance test, the entire cannon must be destroyed to be considered acceptable."

"Abolished? Isn't that a pity?" Yuchi Jingde said with a distressed expression.

"Compared to human life, what is a cannon?" Li Zhen said indifferently: "You must know that the explosion of a cannon is very terrible, and it is also the most dangerous time when it is fired. Cracks will kill the entire artillery team. Therefore, for the safety of people, let alone one, even if ten or eight should be abolished, they must be abolished. Anyway, the cannons can be recast if they are gone. Without artillery, if you have cannons, no one will release them for you.”

"That's the reason too." Su Dingfang and Yuchi Jingde felt better now, but Li Jing who was listening beside him didn't change much.

Chapter 120 Fire!

Chapter 47 fire!

"The preparations are complete, and the cannonball is about to start. Please a few adults to make amends. Everyone plug your ears." Seeing Li Ergou made a ready gesture, Li Zhen apologized to them, and then held up A loudspeaker shouted to Li Ergou: "Li Ergou, get ready to fire, pull up the gun rope, listen to me count one, two, three, then pull the gun rope, and then immediately jump into that pit, understand?" ?”

For safety, Li Zhen dug a person-deep explosion-proof pit near the cannon, just to allow the artillerymen to jump in immediately, so that even if the barrel explodes, the artillerymen have a greater chance of saving their lives.

"" Li Ergou replied with a clear gesture.

"Fine, start counting, one!"

"two!"

"Three! Fire the cannon!!!" After shouting the cannon, Li Zhen also quickly threw away the tin horn, and covered her ears with a jingle of bells, while staring at Li Ergou with both eyes, for fear of any accidents .

After hearing the order to fire, Li Ergou pulled the white rope violently, then quickly dropped the gun rope, and plunged into the explosion-proof pit. Then he heard a "boom", and his ears were almost deafened.

From the perspective of others, after Li Ergou jumped into the pit, he saw the cannon shake violently, and then let out a roar that shook the sky, and a ball of flame rose from the muzzle of the cannon, which was more than three feet long. binocular

Immediately afterwards, I saw a ball of fire flying out of the muzzle of the gun, carrying a shrill scream, flying in the air for a while, and then suddenly plunged into a mountain bag two miles away;

Almost instantly, a group of brighter fires rose up than before, and the surrounding bushes and weeds were blown away in an extremely exaggerated posture, flying sand and stones in an instant, and dust was flying.

"Boom!!!" It wasn't until this time that the loud noise that was almost comparable to a thunderstorm reached everyone's ears. Almost instantly, several people groaned. After the sound, the blocking effect of the palm was obviously too small. Many people were still startled by the thunder, and some even peed their pants.

When the smoke dissipated, Li Zhen was the first to run to the cannon and inspect it carefully. Fortunately, except for a slight displacement, no other damage was found for the time being.But he was still worried, and took out a crystal magnifying glass to check the gun barrel, but fortunately there were still no cracks or cracks.

"Don't worry, Your Highness, there won't be any problems." Li Ergou couldn't wait to see the effect of the shelling, so he couldn't help urging from the side: "Let's go and see the effect of the shell explosion, they all ran over. "

"You can go if you want to go. Why do you have to drag me? I have to check it carefully before I can rest assured." Li Zhen said without turning her head: "The cannon is not a thing that can make do. It will kill people, but it can't be a little sudden. Besides, this is our first cannon, it's just a test product, let alone a little sloppy."

"Then this subordinate will stay with His Highness." Li Ergou said and wanted to help.

Li Zhen quickly shied away: "No, you should go and have a look too. You are a gunner, and you have to know the effect of your own bombardment in order to have more confidence in the cannon. You don't have to worry about me, I'm not in any danger."

"Then take a look, and I'll be back right away." Li Ergou looked around, and there was indeed no suspicious person, and everyone ran towards the bombing point desperately, and he really wanted to take a look. The effect of his own shelling, after apologizing to Li Zhen, he stepped on the steed and galloped away to the point where the shells fell

"Your Highness, Your Highness, what a powerful cannon, there is nothing standing within three feet of it, it's too powerful." In fact, Li Ergou went there quite late, and just as the two of them were talking, Li Jing The generals in the army who are qualified to ride horses have already straddled their horses and ran to the place. Even Fang Yi'ai has finished watching and reported the situation to Li Zhen on horseback.

"What is your Highness? It should be called Master Changshi." Du He reminded that although everyone in the army knew Li Zhen's identity, the rules in the army were like this. You can only be called according to your military position.

"There's no one else here, so I can call myself whatever I like." Fang Yiai defended, scratching her neck.

Du He took a look at Fang Yiai and ignored him, but asked curiously: "Your Highness, why didn't you go and have a look? You don't know, the power of that cannon is really great, with a radius of three feet and a root There’s no grass at all, it’s amazing.”

"Stop yelling, I know it all." Li Zhen's tone was still indifferent, and she didn't even turn her head when she was speaking, but focused on examining the cannon with a magnifying glass, not missing a single inch.

"Phew, the inspection is finally over." Putting down the magnifying glass, Li Zhen exhaled. At present, the condition of the cannon is still very good, at least there is no problem on the surface, but I don't know what the internal situation is. Zhen can't help it either.

"Your Highness, there is no need to check this cannon so carefully, right?" Fang Yiai said only after Li Zhen finished checking, "If you really want to be like you, it takes so long to check each cannon, how can this cannon be practical?" value?"

"Be careful, it's always good to check more. After all, cannons are not other weapons, and many people will die if there is an accident." Li Zhen put down the magnifying glass, took out the water bottle and took a sip of juice: "But in In actual combat, it is not as exaggerated as you said to check it after firing a cannon. As long as the cannon can be finalized and mass-produced, it will be fine as long as it is maintained regularly. But it is not possible now. This is the first cannon, and I made it by myself. , who knows if there are any defects, it is still necessary to check more, and the mass production will not be so troublesome in the future."

Du He's expression changed: "Mass production? Your Highness, is the cannon really mass-produced?"

"Of course it's okay." Li Zhen wiped off her sweat. It's still the end of spring, but it's so hot, and took another sip of juice: "There are only three issues restricting the mass production of cannons. The first is enough materials. , the second is a fast enough processing speed, and the third is a sufficiently precise processing accuracy.

My blast furnace has already been built. As long as I build a few more blast furnaces, the materials are completely sufficient, and the first point has been solved.

The processing speed is also easy to solve. After the number of craftsmen is increased, the processing speed should be able to go up to a higher level. If it is not possible, we can also solve the problem by recruiting more craftsmen.

Only the third point is more troublesome. If the machining accuracy is not enough, even if I can make a cannon, I dare not use it. "

"The accuracy problem is really difficult to solve." Du He has been in contact with Li Zhen for a while, and through Li Zhen, he also knows that the most important thing about cannons is accuracy. If the accuracy cannot be improved, no matter how big the cannon is, it will be useless.

"It's not difficult to solve." Li Zhen corrected: "The reason why there are so many waste products now is entirely because the processing tools are unqualified. For example, the rifling of a cannon, this rifling is completely relying on craftsmen to use whetstones and files ( It is also made of gun steel) one by one, how can such a tool produce qualified rifling?"

The effect of the whetstone is similar to that of the whetstone of later generations. It is not bad for grinding, but it is too difficult to use it to carve rifling.

The material of the file is the same as that of the gun barrel. Although its structure can leave marks on the gun barrel, but if you want to file a rifling line, even Li Zhen feels sorry for the worn out file, and the accuracy is really not very good. .

The rifling made with these two things can be imagined with high precision.

"That's right, so what should we do?" Du He asked.