One Piece of Song Dynasty

Such a short effective range made Li Xin somewhat disappointed. If faced with cavalry, a queue composed of these matchlock guns would have to go up to fight with the bayonet in three rounds at most. But after thinking about it, Li Xin felt relieved again. After all, it is the first matchlock gun of this era, so it cannot be too demanding.

The most important thing is that the caliber of the gun barrel was increased to mm at his request, exceeding the caliber of about mm to mm common in previous Ming Dynasty bird guns. The quality of the projectiles was also greatly increased. However, for the convenience of use, the barrel It cannot be made too long, which also reduces the ratio of the caliber to the length of the gun tube. In addition, in order to ensure the safety of the gun tube, the amount of powder is not increased much. This results in the effective range being smaller than that of the bird gun with a smaller caliber. It is understandable to lower it a bit.

Although the effective range and accuracy of this kind of matchlock gun are lower than that of the bird gun, its power is actually much greater than that of the bird gun. Especially within the effective range, the power of this fire gun with increased caliber is much higher. It is much more powerful than the common bird cannons. Although the penetration may not increase much, the kinetic energy that can be transferred to the target has increased a lot because the mass of the projectile has increased a lot. Within fifty meters, as long as it hits the Regardless of whether a person wears armor or not, even if the armor does not penetrate their body, the energy they carry can basically guarantee that a living target can be knocked down with one shot, or at least it will lose its combat effectiveness.

If you want to increase the effective range, you can only increase the gunpowder loading and increase the barrel length. However, the recoil will be greatly increased, and it may be difficult for a slightly thinner person to effectively control this matchlock gun. , if the length is increased too much, it will not be easy to travel together, and it will also add a lot of weight. When using it, it will be difficult to ensure the shooting accuracy when shooting without support, so these two methods are not very suitable. After all, this kind of matchlock gun is Muzzleloading musket.

The most effective solution is to draw rifling into the inner bore of this gun barrel and convert it into a front-loading rifled gun. In this way, the projectile is embedded in the rifling and tightly integrated with the bore wall, which can effectively seal the air. By reducing the amount of combustion gas deflation and making full use of the explosive power of gunpowder, the shooting accuracy will be greatly improved. At the same time, the bullet can obtain higher muzzle velocity and kinetic energy, greatly increasing the range.

But if you do this, let's not talk about the technical difficulty of rifling. There is no way to solve this. If you really want to make a rifled gun, then the first thing to solve is the problem of loading.

Historically, rifled guns were actually invented very early, but they could not be effectively promoted for a long time. The most important problem was that the bullets of early rifled guns were difficult to put into the barrel. Early musketeers who used rifled guns, Sometimes you have to hit the stick hard with a hammer to knock the projectile into the barrel. It is extremely inconvenient and dangerous to use. As a result, the user sometimes faces the problem of being unable to put the bullet into the barrel of the gun. Things come up that make it very embarrassing.

Therefore, if a rifled gun is manufactured, the first problem to be solved is the problem of loading projectiles. If the projectiles are too large, they may not be loaded into the barrel. If they are small, they will not be able to effectively combine the projectiles with the bore of the rifled gun, resulting in The air leakage increases and the advantages of a rifled gun are lost.

So so far, when breech-loading guns cannot be produced and modern bullets cannot be effectively manufactured, the only way to solve this problem is to use minie bullets.

Speaking of the minie bullet, we must first talk about the minie rifle. The minie gun is actually a rifled flintlock gun loaded in the front. The minie bullet is actually a round-headed cylindrical lead bullet. The diameter of the lead bullet is smaller than the bore caliber. , when putting it into the gun chamber, it avoids the embarrassment of the projectile being too large to be stuffed into the gun chamber.

Moreover, there are threads on the minie bullet body, and the tail is hollow, with cork stuffed inside. When firing, the gunpowder deflagrates and pushes the cork, causing the projectile to expand, effectively making the projectile and the bore wall of the rifle closely fit together. , plays the role of air sealing, allowing the bullet to obtain greater kinetic energy and initial velocity. At the same time, the round-headed cylindrical lead bullet rotates during flight, which can effectively stabilize the ballistic trajectory and improve accuracy.

As a result, rifled guns were gradually accepted by people and began to be equipped in large quantities with many armies in the world.

Thinking of this, Li Xin asked: "Chen Aiqing, how is the research and development of minie bombs and flintlock guns going?"

Chen Gui replied: "Back to the emperor, there is no problem with the Mini bullet, but the flintlock gun has not been developed yet."

Li Xin asked: "What is the problem now?"

Chen Gui sighed and said: "The main reason is that the firing rate of the flintlock device is never high, and even the firing rate of % cannot be achieved. After several years of research, we have found that the most important thing about the firing mechanism of the flintlock gun is the spring. The reed must have sufficient toughness and elasticity to ensure that the flint can hit the fire door powerfully, knock out sparks, ignite the primer in the fire door, and successfully fire the musket. We are currently working hard to solve the problem of the reed. As long as the reed problem is solved, the flintlock gun will not be a problem."

Li Xin understands that this is actually a problem of materials and technology. The only way to solve this problem is to slowly explore it over time. Once the firing rate of flintlock guns reaches between and %, they can be mass-produced. There is no way around this. In previous lives, the West The fire rate in the era when the country was equipped with large quantities of flintlock muskets was in this range. If you want to further increase the fire rate, you can only wait until the invention of the flash cap, which is not far from the modern rifle.

Thinking of this, Li Xin said: "Chen Aiqing, if the firing rate of the flintlock gun can be increased to seven to eight, it can be mass-produced. This matter can only be done slowly. Now we will build three thousand of this matchlock gun first, and let the craftsmen first Practice your hands more, and also make a mechanism on the head of the gun, and install the bayonet when the time comes."

Chen Gui said doubtfully: "Bayonette"

Li Xin slapped his forehead and said: "I forgot to draw it when I gave you information last time. Li Xin picked up a branch and drew it on the ground. After attaching the bayonet, the gun looked like this. This matchlock You have also tried firing the gun. If you are faced with an enemy cavalry attack, you can only fire one round at most. After shooting, if there is no bayonet, what can the soldiers do to fight the charging cavalry? With the bayonet installed, the matchlock gun can also be used. When used as a spear, even without shooting, the bayonet alone can kill the enemy. In the future, even flintlock guns will also have bayonets."

Chen Gui nodded and said, "I understand."

Li Xin continued: "There are two types of flintlock muskets, one for infantry and one for cavalry. The flintlock muskets used by cavalry do not need to be equipped with bayonets, and the barrels of flintlock muskets used by cavalry are shorter than those used by infantry. This You have to remember.”

Chen Gui bowed and said, "I obey your order."