.According to the silent instruction, Qi Jiguang narrowed his eyes and looked at the chamber of the second gun with the other eye. Finally, he found a clue. He saw that there was a circle of spiral-shaped lines in the chamber that should have been smooth. He couldn't help but look up and asked, "Is it these lines working?"

"yes.

"Silent jaw said: "This is called rifling. Don't underestimate it, but it can make your bullets hit farther and more accurately."

After taking over the Ministry of War, Chen Mo specially ordered people to conduct an investigation to find out the current defects in the military equipment. Among them, the most criticized by the officers and soldiers is the problem of range, because it is a round bullet and the barrel is not standard, and it is often aimed at deer underground, but after firing, it almost knocked down the birds in the sky.

Chen Si handed this problem over to the craftsmen of the Arsenal General Factory and the experts from Taixi, and he was also thinking about a solution. Although he was just a layman, he had more than five hundred years of experience and could always find some inspiration from the successful experiences of later generations.

He thought of two methods, one was to rifle the gun. Because from the information collected, the Prussians had already rifled the gun barrel seventy years ago, but from the guns they got, their rifle was several straight lines, which should be used to speed up the loading speed, not to improve accuracy. The real rifled musket should have appeared in the Prussian region thirty to fifty years ago. Silence obtained several Swiss made in 1544 AD, and it was engraved with very exquisite and practical spiral rifles. Because in Western languages, the rifle pronounced as, "Rule", this kind of gun is also called rifle.

As for the aiming device, it was invented about seventy years ago. Among the exquisite noble guns, there are the most basic sights and gate equipment.

With rifling and aiming devices, the accuracy of shooting was greatly improved, reaching 200 meters away. It is said that in the early 16th century, sixty or seventy years ago, the magical great painter and inventor Leonardo da Vinci once came to the walls of Florence with his homemade rifle, aiming at the besieged enemy troops and firing a shot, hitting an enemy soldier 300 meters away. It was then that the bore rifle began to be widely used in Prussia and Austria.

However, because the rifle of rifles in this era had to be carved by hand, it was expensive. Making a rifle that meets the requirements was enough to produce two good smoothbore rifles. However, the main problem is that when using rifles, the bullet and rifle must be closely linked, and it is impossible to use bullets with a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the barrel like a smoothbore rifle. Therefore, the loading of the rifle rifle is very difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, in order to maintain a large amount of firepower, regular troops of various countries still equipped them with smoothbore rifles.

Moreover, through long-term actual shooting, people have explored an effective way to increase the warhead, such as wrapping the bullet with grease-soaked cloth or fur, to facilitate the loading of the front bore. For skilled shooters, the loading speed is not much slower than the smoothbore gun, so this rifle is still widely sought after in Europe.

Like the silent, jaeger, hunting rifle, the barrel is very short. The main purpose is to hunt and competition. It is said that in recent years, this rifle has become popular in Europe. "The nobles often hold shooting competitions using rifle. Of course, such weapons with long range and powerfulness are not just toys for the nobles. At that time, the main income of the princes of Germany was exported, and they provided military services from various European countries. They were equipped with this kind of German mercenaries, so these German mercenaries are also called jaegers. They usually appear as scattered soldiers in war, have the power to move at will and shoot independently, and are responsible for reconnaissance and sniping tasks, just like thorns in flesh that make the enemy uncomfortable.

For this weapon, silence naturally could not be indifferent. So the Arsenal also developed rifling technology. For Director Philip, who was familiar with various gun manufacturing in this era, "rifting the barrel is not difficult. In just a few days," he tinkered with a manual rifling machine (note). He carved qualified rifling on the Longqing rifle.

一“一“一凵一,一,一“一“一“一,一“一“一,一,一“一“一“一“一“一,一“一,一“一“一,一“一“一“一凵一“一“一,一,一“一“一“一,一”

Another suggestion for improving the accuracy of gun shooting. Silence is to change the ball-shaped projectile into a pointed long projectile. This is not technically difficult, just a layer of window paper, if it is not poked open, I don’t know when someone will think of this inspiration.

In the experiment at the Arsenal, it was soon discovered that elongated projectiles are indeed superior to spherical projectiles. First, when the weight is the same, the diameter of the elongated projectile is much smaller than that of spherical projectiles, and its head is made into a pointed shape, which can reduce the air resistance during flight. It can greatly reduce the caliber of the gun, and reduce the weight of the gun and improve the firmness of the gun. Second, the contact area of ​​the elongated projectiles with the barrel is much larger than that of spherical projectiles, which can better embed the rifle, thereby reducing the depth of the rifle, which is undoubtedly a blessing for reducing manufacturing costs.

Moreover, during the experiment of the warhead material, ammunitionists found that tin or lead warheads often block the barrel when they are activated because of their soft texture. This material should be abandoned, but some people thought that it could reduce the diameter of the projectile, and the effect was excellent after the test. After some exploration, the warhead was shaped into a slightly concave bottom, so that the warhead could expand rapidly after the gunpowder was ignited. The warhead was tightly attached to the barrel rifle, and under the pressure of the rifle, the warhead could rotate out at a high speed. The hit accuracy was greatly improved. It would immediately deform after hitting the target, which could cause greater trauma, especially for large animals, which had a strong stopping effect.

However, because this kind of warhead can only be made of soft metal, the most suitable ones are lead and tin. Among them, the melting point of tin is lower, the texture is softer, and the effect is better. However, craftsmen are worried that soldiers will embezzle this expensive metal, so they have always decided to use cheaper bells to make this warhead... And because this warhead is too easy to deform, the arsenal is not responsible for producing finished products, but only provides molds, which are cast by soldiers themselves before the war.

In addition, in order to quickly deform the bullet in the gun chamber, the craftsmen also improved the ratio of gunpowder, increased the charcoal and reduced the nitride while the sulfur remained unchanged, and used the best quality charcoal to achieve the goal of increasing combustion heat... This is also the experience obtained by hundreds of years of smoke production.

In this era, playing with gunpowder is better than the Ming Dynasty, and there is no such thing as yet.

"The shot you shot just now" is the improved long projectile." Silence said to Qi Jiguang: "Otherwise, the effective range of this gun is only 80 steps at most." He pointed to the rifled Longqing style and said: "But the gun that can exert the power of a long projectile is this kind of gun, so why not give it a try."

Qi Jiguang followed his words and retreated to 150 steps away first. "Aimed, hit, then retreated to 180 steps. Then hit... you can't retreat again, because the yard is so big. But Wu Dui said confidently that there is no problem to hit the target within 200 steps.

The firearm demonstration ended. "When they returned to the meeting hall, the generals were unable to get out of the shock just now... This unprecedented fast, accurate and cruel Longqing style is enough to allow the infantry to fire a dense enough rain of bullets, and even facing the cavalry's charge, they are no longer weak and powerless. Some people can't help but start to imagine that their troops hold the Longqing style, and end the world, and win the dream of being famous during and after their lives.

Finally, someone couldn't help but ask Wu Dui: "Mr. Wu. When will we change into this Longqing style?"

Wu Dui shook his head and said, "There is no plan yet."

"It's okay to give me some time." Everyone said angrily: "You have to give me some hope."

Wu Dui looked at the silence. This question was not something he could answer.

Sinu put the teacup in his hand and smiled and said, "Everyone, who told you that you want to change into this kind of gun?"

"It's all shown in military exercises. Why don't you pretend to be there?" Ma Fang laughed with a big face.

"That's called shock. Do you understand?" said silently and smiling: "Those shots were shot to the toasts, and you just benefited from it."

"Then I won't understand." Ma Fang opened his eyes wide and said, "Why don't you give equipment such a good gun?" He said, "When I saw this, Longqing style, who would use that kind of ragged bird system?"

"I'm sorry," Chen Si shook his head gently and said, "Most of your troops" still have to use birds to fight."

"Why?" Ma Fang was anxious.

"How do you talk to the elder?" Liang Lun quickly scolded.

Silent waved his hand and signaled that he could not do so, and said to Ma Fangqian: "You only know that this kind of gun is good, but you don't know how much it costs..."

"Yes," Wu Dui quickly introduced, "Don't look at this gun being inconspicuous. But it's not easy to build it. Don't have to say, just talk about this barrel." As he said that, he looked at Qi Jiguang and said, "Brother Yuan Jing has the most say in my Ming Dynasty's Bird Order. "You talk about our original barrel. What's the problem?"

"The problem is not small." Qi Jiguang sighed lightly, "It is easy to rust, it is easy to explode. Moreover, the barrel is not straight. I can only calculate wherever I want."

"Yes, the biggest problem that "our Ming Dynasty's bird regime" cannot be compared with Western mezzanines is that the quality of the iron material is not good." Wu Dui sighed.

"This problem was noticed by the last general when he was fighting against the Japanese," Qi Jiguang nodded and said, "Our weapons can always be cut off by Japanese swords. The iron-making technology of the Great Ming Dynasty is not as good as that of a mere Japanese country. It is really shameful for the people of the country."

"It's not that the technology is inferior to that of people." Wu Dui shook his head and said, "In the past two years, we have inspected the iron smelting technology of more than a dozen steel-producing countries in Taisi and Dashi, and found that their technology was hundreds of years behind our Ming Dynasty." He said with a wry smile: "This is true, including Franchise and Spain."

"Then why are our muskets behind?" Qi Jiguang asked in confusion.

"There are two important reasons." Wu Dui stretched out his two fingers and said: "First, our country lacks high-grade iron ore. The Ministry of War sent personnel to inspect the fifteen large iron smelting factories in the country and found that the iron ore they used had relatively high content of impurities..."

"To be precise, the content of phosphorus and sulfur is relatively high." Chen Si said lightly. In his later era, exploration technology was so developed that China still could not find high-grade iron ore, and still had to import large amounts of iron ore from abroad. He estimated that even the scientific power could not solve the problem at that time. As a liberal arts student, he didn't even think about it.

"The other reason is the fuel problem of iron smelting. Whether it is Japan, Dashi, or Thai, wherever good steel can be produced, charcoal is used to make iron. In fact, our China has used charcoal to make iron since ancient times. Although it was changed to coal to make iron after the Song and Ming dynasties. But the essential reason is not technological progress, but because the northern forest land is becoming increasingly exhausted, the supply of charcoal cannot be guaranteed. We can only use coal to make iron in large quantities." Wu Dui sighed lightly.

"Our coal, like iron ore, is also high in phosphorus and high sulfur." ​​Silence continued: "Under the influence of this coal, it causes a sharp deterioration of iron. In terms of application, iron pipes with too much sulfur are prone to explode. Cast iron with too high phosphorus is brittle, and is easily broken as a sword. It is used to make guns and cannons and cannons, which have the greatest impact on building guns, because building guns cannot make up for the thicker wall thickness and larger weight like building guns."

"At present, there are three solutions to this problem," Wu Dui said: "One is to use copper instead, but that cost is higher, and the Ming Dynasty also lacks copper. There is no possibility of mass production at all: the second is to repeatedly forge it at all costs. To meet the standard of the Taixi gun barrel, the pig iron produced by my Ming Dynasty can only be forged ten kilograms of fine iron, and five or six kilograms of fine iron can be used as a bird system. This cost is not low, and it is too time-consuming."

"Where is a third one?" Yin Feng asked afterwards.

"It is to import iron ore from abroad and use charcoal to smelter iron in China." Wu Dui said: "The current iron materials used in the Longqing style are smelted in Wuhu and then transported to the capital. This cost is actually the highest, but it is the only way to produce energy." He said with a number: "The current cost of a Longqing style is fifty-four taels of silver, which can be reduced to fifty taels in the future, of which the iron pipe accounts for 70% of the price."

"That's not made of sterling silver?" the generals said astonished.
Chapter completed!