After Zhu Jingyuan arranged the armor formula, he went to the Ordnance Department to find someone from the Artillery Design Bureau.

Li Rui, the head of the Arms Department, happened to have returned from the testing site in the suburbs. When he heard Zhu Jingyuan coming to look for someone, he immediately followed him to see what was going on.

When Zhu Jingyuan saw that the familiar Li Rui was back, he simply stopped looking for the people from the Artillery Bureau.

The artillery design bureau is similar to the armor design bureau. Many craftsmen stay in the factory in Xincheng for a long time, working on the production processes of various artillery and shells on site.

Most of the staff in the yamen of the Ministry of Industry are stay-at-home and contact personnel.

Since you have to find someone to communicate and convey the information, it would be the same if you let Li Rui do it directly.

Zhu Jingyuan asked Li Rui to find a small conference room. After both parties sat down, he first asked about their situation:

"Mr. Li, is the naval gun turret designed by the Artillery Bureau a shared saddle gun? In other words, the two or three gun barrels in the turret can only be raised or lowered at the same time."

Li Rui recalled the contents of the Artillery Bureau's report:

“Some craftsmen mentioned this design, saying that it can reduce the structural complexity of the triple turret and reduce the overall weight of the turret.

"The side effects of this are foreseeable. The shooting accuracy will definitely be reduced. Does Your Highness want to support this design?"

Zhu Jingyuan waved his hand very decisively and said:

"No, I just remind you not to design it like this as much as possible, especially on the large-caliber artillery of the battleship."

There are many common-saddle guns in history, such as the American battleships Nevada and Oklahoma, as well as the Cleveland-class and Brooklyn-class light cruisers.

The shared saddle gun still has some firepower density advantages on light cruisers, but it is almost meaningless on battleships that pursue long range.

If the main gun fires repeatedly on the battlefield, and the shells always trace around the target, that is, they always miss the target, it will definitely increase the blood pressure of the commander.

Li Rui wrote down Zhu Jingyuan's request in his notebook:

"Understood, I will tell them not to engage in shared saddle guns at the next meeting. In fact, I don't really agree with it myself. Does Your Highness have any other requests?"

Zhu Jingyuan tilted his head and thought:

"Others, there seems to be nothing particularly important, that is, the artillery shells should be as heavy as possible, the speed should be as high as possible, and the development of larger-caliber artillery should be started in advance.

"Oh, right……"

Zhu Jingyuan suddenly reacted:

"Cap - what material are the caps of current artillery shells made of? Is there a surface hardening process like armor steel?"

After Ming Dynasty's fourth-generation armor applied surface hardening technology, the tip of the cannonball was easily broken by the armor.

As a result, the shells were simply discarded if they could not penetrate the armor. As a result, the main guns of the battleships were unable to penetrate the cruiser armor.

It once embarrassed the battleships to the extreme, and also made the cruisers become bigger and bigger.

But craftsmen slowly found ways to deal with it.

They used ductile metal materials to make a round, flat "hat" and welded it to the top of the armor-piercing warhead.

In this way, when the shell collides with the armor, the cap contacts the armor first, which is equivalent to installing a buffer cushion.

This protects the warhead of the armor-piercing projectile from being shattered by the armor surface.

At the same time, the quilt cap also acts as the rubber on the sole, so that the cannonball will not slip when hitting it at an angle.

The resistance can straighten the tilted shell and achieve better armor-piercing effect.

This kind of armor-piercing bullet with a cap is called a capped armor-piercing bullet.

With the introduction of capped armor-piercing projectiles, capital ships were finally able to bully cruisers, and the battleships' protective armor was once again thickened.

But Zhu Jingyuan knew that the cannonball was simply capped so that the tip of the cannonball would not be broken. This was still not the limit of capping.

You can also "treat others in their own way."

The cover is made using the armor's surface carburizing hardening process, which in turn breaks the armor's surface hardened layer.

Apparently no one in the world is doing this now.

When Li Rui heard Zhu Jingyuan's question, he was a little surprised and shook his head and said:

"There is no surface hardening process, it is just a quilt cap made of ordinary alloy steel. Your Highness means...to apply the surface carburizing hardening process to the quilt cap?"

Zhu Jingyuan smiled and nodded and said:

"Yes, we can try to enlarge the cap and at the same time use the armor's surface carburizing hardening technology to try to use it to break the hardened layer of the armor.

"Without the surface hardening layer, the fifth-generation armor becomes ordinary homogeneous armor, and the thickness is significantly reduced, which should improve the armor-piercing ability of the artillery shells.

"Of course, in order to prevent the shell itself from being shattered, the material and production method of the shell must also be optimized simultaneously. How to do this is the task of the craftsmen."

Li Rui understood Zhu Jingyuan's intention and immediately imagined the effect of this operation, so he couldn't help showing an expression of surprise:

"I'll find someone to do the test right away! The modified artillery shell test can be done right away!"

Zhu Jingyuan thought about the task of peace talks. They shouldn't be able to complete it before he left, but he could send it over after completing it.

"Have it done as soon as possible. Once it's done, a batch will be produced immediately and sent to the Western Cape by cargo ship. Maybe the negotiation process can be used."

Li Rui immediately understood Zhu Jingyuan's intention. The new armor-piercing artillery shells that could break the surface hardened layer would definitely have a good deterrent effect.

This effect may even be better than that of aircraft, because aircraft are currently unable to deliver a fatal blow to warships, but new armor-piercing projectiles can.

Li Rui solemnly promised again:

"I will definitely urge everyone to get it done as soon as possible."

Zhu Jingyuan thought for a while, recalled the situation related to armor-piercing bullets, and reminded Li Rui again:

"By the way, a larger cap can better protect the projectile tip, but it will increase the flight resistance of the armor-piercing projectile, thereby shortening the range of the projectile.

"So we can add a pointed hollow shell on the outside of the quilt.

"Making the cannonballs sharper again can make them sharper than the original ordinary armor-piercing projectiles, which should increase the speed of the cannonballs again.

“Referring to the previous quilt, I call this shell ‘hood’.

"The hood is hollow and should disappear as soon as it is touched. It should not affect the armor-piercing effect, but the actual effect still needs to be tested."

Li Rui now just nodded in agreement:

"Okay, great. Your Highness's idea is very valuable. Although it has not been directly tested, it will definitely be useful if you can imagine it.

"I'll have someone test it as soon as I get back. Does Your Highness have any other requests?"

Zhu Jingyuan organized his thoughts again:

"Yes, yes, you can try to design a cannonball that will cause flames when it hits something, as well as a machine gun bullet.

“You can try adding materials like white phosphorus.

"These shells and bullets are mounted on anti-aircraft guns and airborne machine guns, and their main purpose is to attack enemy airships.

“First, use ordinary bullets to penetrate the airship, allowing the hydrogen gas in the airship’s airbag to leak out, and then use incendiary bombs to ignite the hydrogen gas.

"This will turn the airship into a burning gas tank.

"If you make it, remember to send some to the Western Cape, and then use the scrapped airship for testing."

Li Rui imagined that scene for a moment and subconsciously took a breath.

If these bullets and cannonballs were produced and matched with Zhu Jingyuan's combat ideas, the airship would be completely useless.
Chapter completed!