Eunuchs who traveled through the Qing Dynasty

"I have no family, no worries." As soon as the words came out, Cheng Tong seemed to suddenly realize something, and took a wary look at Xiao Ran.

"Yeah, what a carefree person!" Xiao Ran laughed, and said word by word: "If you go, Han Qiang's family can rest easy."

"Ah?! My lord... I don't understand what you said!"

"Really? A smart person like Brother Cheng can't understand, who else can understand? Oh, I'm really envious. How can a traitor and scum like Han Qiang hand over you? What about the brothers who are loyal to each other?"

"My lord! My lord!" Cheng Tong climbed up from the grass, hugged Xiao Ran's leg in a hurry, and shouted loudly: "My lord, be kind! I, Cheng Tong, would rather die, and let my elder brother and his family go no matter what. A way out for the young and old!" After saying that, he kowtowed again and again, tears streaming down his face.

Things quickly became clear.

Han Qiang is a man of righteousness, but he likes to gamble like his life.After coming to Daxing Mountain, he often carried Cheng Tong on his back to the county town below the mountain to gamble a few hands. Duan Xingnian was lenient, and the money distributed to everyone was quite a lot, which made this Han Qiang gamble bigger and bigger.But when he caught up with his bad luck, he inevitably owed a huge amount of gambling money, so he naturally set his sights on Daxingshan's treasure.

On this day, I met a gambler at the casino, who claimed to be an antique calligrapher and painting. Han Qiang was moved at that time, thinking that there are so many treasures hidden in the grotto, and buying eight or ten pieces is nothing.Unexpectedly, this person was running errands for Wood, a big smuggler in the United States, and made a fortune by spying on these antiques and national treasures.The man didn't dare to be negligent, so he quickly set up a bridge, and soon Han Qiang hooked up with Wood.Unexpectedly, Cheng Tong and Duan Xingnian were determined not to buy it, so they had to take advantage of the dark to raid the cottage.This Wood knew the strength of the Chinese army. He thought it would be a piece of cake, but he didn't expect that the firearms battalion was so powerful that the entire army was wiped out. Jumbo's big smuggler, Wood himself, was reimbursed.

Han Qiang knew that this matter would be revealed sooner or later, so he and Liu Xiaopi planned to steal a few treasures in the dark, and then put oil on the soles of their feet. In fact, the careful Cheng Tong had already discovered the clues at this time, but he had selfish intentions and did not dare to tell Duan Xing Years later, he went to persuade Han Qiang to abandon evil and do good, not to be a traitor.Liu Xiaopi, who was with him, saw him, and simply became murderous, and went around behind to attack Cheng Tong.After all, it was brotherhood for many years, Han Qiang suddenly realized his conscience, blocked the knife for him, and saved his life again.

Cheng Tong and Han Qiang are indeed close friends.Back then, the two of them had Ma Chao, and they had gone through life and death together on the battlefield, and Han Qiang even saved his life.Now that Han Qiang died, if he told the truth, it would be no wonder that his family would not be stripped alive by the brothers.This Cheng Tong is a straightforward man who always repays his kindness. When he thought that he had nothing to worry about, he was so bloody that he was charged with such a big crime.If it wasn't for meeting Ma Chao at Xiao Ran's place by chance, and telling the secret of the three people's sworn vows, I'm afraid they would have entered the Hades Palace by now.

After explaining the whole story, Cheng Tongtong said, "Although Han Qiang deserved what he deserved, his family members are innocent. Considering that his father is old and his youngest son is still in his infancy, Cheng Tong is willing to die in exchange for the lives of his family. Please forgive me!" "After that, he cried and kowtowed again and again.

After hearing this, Xiao Ran sighed a lot.After all, he has been nurtured by later generations, so he would not engage in such things that harm his wife and children, but in ancient times, such things were not mentioned. If one person committed a crime, the whole family would be thieves. This was a matter of course at that time.If he openly let his family members go, I'm afraid it will be hard to appease the public anger.Now he helped Cheng Tong up, thought for a while, and finally wrote a letter, and asked Wang Meng to send it to Duan Xingnian to explain the whole story and let him secretly arrange Han Qiang's wife and children.In order to prevent further business trips, the group of brothers who escorted Cheng Tonglai were specially kept for two days before letting them go back in order to buy time for Duan Xingnian.

Cheng Tong didn't expect Xiao Ran to be so open-minded, and he was so grateful that he couldn't believe it.This guy suffered a lot along the way, and his body was very weak, so Xiao Ran asked him to stay in the mansion to recuperate.

Three or four days later, on this day Xiao Ran got up early and ran in the garden to do morning exercises. When he arrived at the Xishou garden, he heard a bang. feet.Then I saw Cheng Tong running over in a panic, knelt on the ground and shouted repeatedly: "Damn it! The villain should die! I frightened my lord, please punish me!"

Xiao Ran helped him up, and wondered: "What are you doing throwing stones around this early in the morning?"

Cheng Tongtong: "My lord doesn't know, this is aiming practice. By throwing stones, on the one hand, you can correct the aiming angle, and on the other hand, you can also measure the distance you visually observe. We lack artillery shells in the Qing Dynasty, and gunners usually rely on this method Practicing. Rough is a bit rough, but it’s better than no practice.”

Xiao Ran smiled and said: "There is another way, just throw another one and I'll see."

Cheng Tong picked up a fist-sized stone, weighed it in his hand, took two steps towards the run-up, suddenly twisted his waist, turned his arm over his head from the back of his waist, and threw the stone with a very strange posture.With a whoosh, the stone turned somersault and flew out far away, a full seven or eighty meters away!Xiao Ran cried out: "Brother Cheng, it's a pity that you don't win the Olympic shot put discus championship with this skill!"

Cheng Tong also couldn't understand the Olympics, so he smiled blushingly and said, "The accuracy is still a little bit off. The distance is okay, one hundred and three steps."

Xiao Ran thought he was joking and didn't believe anything he said.Cheng Tong was in a hurry, he dragged Xiao Ran all the way to measure the past, a total of one hundred and three steps, and there was no difference of half a foot from front to back.Xiao Ran was dumbfounded, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses, and said, "Brother Cheng is really not an ordinary cow! If I give you a grenade, I think you can throw it into the enemy's machine gun, and it's no problem!"

"Grenade?" Cheng Tong scratched his head, "Cheng Tong doesn't dare to boast, but he is very familiar with shells. What is this grenade, I have never heard of it."

Xiao Ran raised his eyebrows, beaming with joy, and blurted out: "Ah, hasn't it been invented yet!" Seeing his surprised look, he hurriedly explained with a smile.

Only then did Cheng Tong suddenly realize: "It turns out that the adults are talking about foreigners throwing flower bombs. This thing has been around for a long time. When I fought against foreign devils at Baihekou two years ago, the French used this kind of thing, but nothing happened. Power. Unless it hits someone, it's about the same as setting off a big firecracker."

After talking, he explained in detail. It turned out that the gunpowder at that time was usually black powder, and the explosion strength was not enough, and the effective killing radius was at most about two meters.Moreover, in the firearms battle at that time, in addition to the shelling, the two armies lined up and fired in salvos. The distance caused this kind of hand-throwing flower bombs to not have much effect.So in the later period, foreigners rarely use this kind of thing.

After hearing this, Xiao Ran almost jumped up excitedly, thinking that you don't know how awesome the grenade will be in the future!

Immediately ordered someone to find Li San, the blacksmith who made the mold for the massage stick, drew a pattern for him, and asked him to cast it out.What Xiao Ran drew was in the shape of a melon grenade, "big-headed stick" (the nickname of the old-fashioned wooden handle grenade. This kind of grenade produces less shrapnel when it explodes, and sometimes it even explodes in half, so the killing effect is very low). We don't use it at all. I can't afford to lose that man!

As for the gunpowder, I chose nitrocellulose, with a ratio of 14% potassium chlorate and 7% saltpeter. This ratio was close to the optimal ratio obtained by Rolto through repeated experiments. The explosive power was at least higher than that of ordinary black powder. more than six times.

Li San's craftsmanship is indeed extraordinary. On the second day, more than a dozen shells of melon grenades have been cast.Although there is no spring ignition equipment like the real cantaloupe grenade, at least the shape is similar to the casting pattern of the shell, and it really looks like that.Xiao Ran couldn't wait to hang five or six on his chest and buttocks, and looked around in front of the bronze mirror, no matter how he looked, he looked like Rimbaud.

After loading the gunpowder, Xiao Ran discovered that there was a big flaw in the design.Since there is no pull-ignition fuse, even if such a grenade is manufactured, it can only be thrown out by igniting the fuse manually, which greatly limits the flexibility on the battlefield.Of course, nitroglycerin and thunderbolt are also considered, but because such substances are too unstable, easy impacts during transportation and carrying can easily cause explosions, so we can only give up.After thinking for a while, there was no solution, so he called Cheng Chengtong and asked, "What do you use to get angry when you see hands throwing flower bombs?"

"It's friction medicine." Cheng Tong replied with certainty, "The fuse made of friction medicine can be ignited as long as the fuse is pulled out. This friction medicine is sulfur, potassium chlorate and silicon powder (elemental silicon is Pioneered by J.J. Berzelius of Sweden in 1824) or glass powder."

"Do you know potassium sulfate and silicon powder?" Xiao Ran was very surprised. It was really inconceivable that this little gunner could call out the names of chemicals.

"What I know is really limited." Cheng Tong explained with a smile, "Before the firearms battalion was disbanded, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs supervised the manufacture of firearms, and they often asked us for advice. Especially when I fought with foreign devils I am familiar with the new Western firearms, so I usually ask me to help the staff. After going back and forth in this way, I also know a little about these medicines and gunpowder ingredients. But I only know the names. If the adults let me do it, then It’s impossible to do it.”

"Okay, you, it turns out that you are just like me, you are a guiding talent!" Xiao Ran excitedly pulled Cheng Tong and ran away, "Let's go, find that foreign devil Luo Erto, he will definitely be able to figure it out!"

The composition of sulfur-containing friction medicine is 60% potassium chlorate, 10% sulfur, and 30% silicon powder.It only took Rolto a whole morning to tinker with it, and after testing, the effect is very satisfactory.The next job is much simpler, load the nitrocellulose explosives, make a pull-ignition fuse, and at dinner time, a standard melon grenade is born!

"Boom!" With a deafening bang, a large bush in the garden was blown to pieces.The rising snow and mist rolled up dead branches and leaves and flew high into the sky, and the frozen soil as hard as pig iron was blown out of a pit the size of a jar.After careful counting, there were more than [-] pieces of shrapnel formed by the explosion, and some of them were deeply embedded in the tree trunk.According to preliminary estimates, the killing radius is at least six meters or more!

Cheng Tong was surprised for a long time and said, "Oh boy, it's amazing! If this is thrown in the pile of devils, it won't knock down a lot of it!"

Xiao Ran was even more ecstatic.In the age of firearms, whoever has advanced weapons is the strongest!With this guy, it is definitely enough for any powerful enemy to drink a pot.Immediately ordered a big banquet, called Wang Mengzhong's brothers, and drank a lot as a celebration.

While drinking, he asked Cheng Tong about his knowledge of firearms and shells.This guy is really well-informed, after a few glasses of wine, he started talking endlessly.

It turns out that before Xianfeng, many super weapons appeared in Chinese history, but due to various reasons, most of them were buried or lost.Cheng Tong even mentioned some weapons that are still used in later generations, which made Xiao Ran dumbfounded.

For example, the earliest flowering bomb in the world originated from the firearm "Huozhu" in the Northern Song Dynasty. , In the Southern Song Dynasty, iron cannons were used to fire.Later, there appeared iron-clad firepots, which are flower bombs.The specific time of invention cannot be confirmed. It is speculated that it should be after the invention of the iron-cased explosive firearms "Thunderbolt Zhentian Cannon" and "Fire Tribulus", roughly in the late Southern Song Dynasty.

A generation of hero Nurhachi was killed by the Ming army's bullets.After his death, his son Huang Taiji came to the throne, bent on avenging his shame, and personally led an army to attack the Ningjin defense line of the Ming army.The Qing army crossed the Daling River and besieged Jinzhou City. Yuan Chonghuan sent reinforcements to contain the Qing army's actions.The Qing army failed to capture Jinzhou and turned to attack Ningyuan.The Ming army lined up giant cannons at the top of the city, and the commander-in-chief Man Gui went out of the city to fight, luring the Qing army into the range of the cannons, and then violently bombarded the Qing soldiers, causing countless casualties and retreating in a hurry.This is the famous "Ningjin Great Victory" in history.

The three-eyed blunderbuss, which was later reduced to a salute, was once an important individual gunpowder weapon of the Ming army. It could be fired continuously to form intensive firepower, which was conducive to suppressing the fast-moving cavalry.When Chongzhen left the palace when Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, the weapon in his hand was the three-eyed gun.

At that time, the artillery of the Ming Dynasty army was not only equipped with flowering ammunition, but also equipped with solid ammunition (also known as "grape ammunition") and shot shells.Solid bullets are made of iron or lead, and a small amount are ground into balls with stones. This kind of bullet is mainly used for siege and piercing city walls; shotgun is a powerful bullet for field artillery, consisting of several liters of lead and iron pellets. , It can form a barrage when shooting, which is extremely lethal, but the disadvantage is that the range is too short, generally not more than one mile.

There is also a kind of divine fire flying thunder, which is mainly used to kill people and horses. It was invented by artillery craftsman Li Changsun during the Japanese Invasion of Renchen in the Ming Dynasty, and it is a kind of artillery shell.It looks like a ladle, with gunpowder and a thin iron sheet inside, and the wood grain wrapped with a matchstick is inserted into the bamboo tube of the wood grain with glue.If the groove of Mugu is long, the explosion time of the shell is long, and vice versa.

The famous multi-stage rocket "Fire Dragon Out of Water" is recorded in the "Wu Bei Zhi" of the Ming Dynasty. The first-stage rocket is tied outside the paper paste tube, and the second-stage rocket is inside the dragon's mouth. After shooting, the range is increased to hit the enemy. Ships, used for water attacks, can even reach a range of 1 kilometers!

The original flamethrower, the fierce oil tank, was also born in China.Menghuoyou, that is, oil, was described in Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan" as a precedent for the development and use of oil in Northwest China.

The earliest multiple rocket launcher "swarm", this is the ancient Katyusha rocket launcher, with multiple rockets in one launcher.Xiao Ran also remembers a detailed introduction to a swarm of bees in "Wu Bei Zhi" in the Ming Dynasty. There were various specifications at that time, from the "magic machine arrow" with 3 bursts to the "hundred tigers running together" with 100 bursts. category.

As for the oldest grenade, it is called Zhentianlei, and it has a number of hook-shaped iron pieces called "fire mice" inside, which are used to enhance lethality. This is the same principle as the steel balls placed in modern American grenades.This kind of cruel guy who doesn't conform to "martial arts" was probably also used as a weapon of terrorists at that time.

In addition, there is also the gas bomb "thunderbolt poison fireball", which should be the earliest chemical weapon.And it appeared much earlier than the Ming Dynasty. During the battle of quarrying, it was an important weapon of the Song army. In addition to gunpowder, there were croton, chamaejasma, lime, asphalt, arsenic... When the explosion produced poisonous smoke, The victim's mouth and nose were bleeding, which was no less than sarin gas!

Others such as the earliest non-triggering mine - the underwater dragon king gun, the earliest mortar - the tiger squatting gun, the earliest gliding bomb with a booster rocket - the Shenhuo Flying Crow, the earliest heavy lifting gun - the anti-war gun , and even the earliest large-caliber revolver - the Five Thunder God Machine... All these are derived from the wisdom of the Chinese nation, but in the end they failed to save China's fate of decline.After speaking, Cheng Tong's voice gradually became choked up, and finally he couldn't help but lay down on the table and cried bitterly.Wang Meng and the others cursed even more. These brothers all came from the hail of bullets from the foreign devils. Thinking of how a huge country and a former military overlord have fallen so badly now and let others bully them, how can they be filled with indignation and righteous indignation!

Looking at this group of tough men, Xiao Ran was filled with emotion.If it weren't for this special status, he would even have an urge to lead these brothers across the battlefield, leaping and showing off their horses, "Aspirations hungry for Hulu meat, laughing and thirsty for Huns' blood"!What kind of pride should that be...

♂ Volume 5 Military Age ♀

→Chapter 046 - The Secret Base←

Everyone was drunk that night.Xiao Ran was already too strong to drink, and when he woke up the next morning, he felt a splitting headache.Just as he was about to wash his face, suddenly Cheng Tong came to see him, and straight to the point he said he wanted to go back to Daxing Mountain.

"Brother Cheng is worried about Han Qiang's family?" Xiao Ran pondered, "Brother Duan is making arrangements over there, so there shouldn't be any problem. I heard about the advanced weapons you mentioned yesterday, and I just wanted to discuss it with you , let’s see if we can invent something new.”

Cheng Tong hurriedly said: "No, my lord has misunderstood. Who can Cheng Tong communicate with? Can you still not trust your lord? When I go back this time, I want to discuss with Duan Xingnian to see if we can change the treasures to another safe place. "

"Ah? Isn't that Wood already dead?" Xiao Ran was taken aback for a moment, but then suddenly realized.Although Wood and his group are all dead, they are not sure whether the news of the hidden treasure has been leaked.If someone spies on him again, it will be troublesome.Immediately said: "Brother Cheng is really as careful as cotton, I really forgot about this, thank you for thinking about it. But if this treasure is not placed in Daxing Mountain, where else can it be placed?"

"No, it's still the Daxing Mountain Grottoes, but this time we'll change the place." Seeing Xiao Ran was a little puzzled, Cheng Tong quickly explained: "This Daxing Mountain Grottoes are said to be where King Chuang hid his treasures, and a lot of treasures were excavated inside. The secret road extends in all directions. The one I have been to is just one of the smaller ones. When I go back this time, I plan to find some safe brothers to see if I can find other entrances. If possible, it is not just for hiding treasures, You can even move all your brothers there, and it won’t be a problem to settle down there.”

Xiao Ran was overjoyed, and said: "Okay, Cheng Tong, I really have you! If this is really the case, we will have an extra secret base! But you have to go and come back quickly, the research and development of firearms cannot be delayed. Waiting for you Come back, I plan to let you go to Dai Tong's Ministry of Industry, and find a way to make you a part-time official, so that you can get a top job, what do you think?"

Unexpectedly, Cheng Tong shook his head and said: "Although I was born in a bag, it stands to reason that being able to be a top man can be regarded as a glorious ancestor. But after serving as a soldier for more than ten years, it is not bad if I can keep my life. What else do I need?" What about the top guy? The officialdom is dangerous, General Er Longze, didn’t he just have his head chopped off for no apparent reason? Hmph, Cheng Tong is not a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death, but a man who stands up to the sky. If he dies, he must be vigorous. Blood spilled on the battlefield. To die in the hands of villains like this is not worth it!"