The next day, Lin Zhiyang and Li Gefei came to the General's Mansion excitedly, but they were stunned. Only Ye Yaoying was receiving them because Shang Yi had already arrived at the arsenal to deal with important things.

So Lin Zhiyang could only tell Ye Yaoyang that he was willing to invest in the glass factory. Ye Yaoyang also agreed to say that after Shang Yi came back, he would definitely tell him.

It turned out that after returning from the glass factory yesterday, Shang Yi was pulled by Sun Heding and rushed to the arsenal.

Now the arsenal has begun to operate, and Spanish craftsmen have also manufactured some machine tools, rotary beds, drilling machines, wire drawing machines, calenders, cranes, gravity clocks and other mechanical equipment that have been started in Europe have also improved the production efficiency of the arsenal a lot. At present, the arsenal has reached a production capacity of 300 to 400 muskets and 40 to 60 artillery pieces per month. Moreover, with the increase and continuous improvement of machinery and equipment in the future, the productivity will be further improved.

The several new weapons and technological improvements that Shang Yi was most concerned about have made certain progress. The mud model of the Napoleon gun has been made and is being dried; the organ gun is also being debugged, and the rifled gun has been done. Domingos, a Spanish craftsman who was responsible for this work, made two rifled machinery, used steel jade as a carving knife, and had made twenty rifled barrels and assembled twelve rifled guns. Sun Heding invited Shang Yi to come to test the gun.

After the rifled line is engraved in the barrel, it is indeed very different, and the range is immediately more than doubled. Generally, the effective range of a flintlock rifle is about 80 steps, but after replacing the rifled barrel, it reaches 1670 steps, which is even further than the Lumi gun. Moreover, the accuracy is greatly improved. Within a distance of 100 steps, the musketeers conducted test shots, shot eight shots and pulled to 130 steps, and also hit six shots. It can be said that this hit rate is quite considerable. Moreover, the glass has been made now. If the sight can be installed in the future, the accuracy will be further improved.

However, rifled guns also exposed many problems. First of all, the filling of bullets is extremely slow. Because rifled guns use cylindrical bullets, and the diameter of the bullet is slightly larger than that of the barrel, so that they can achieve a good sealing effect. However, when filling the bullets, you must use a small Zhong to put the bullet into the barrel. In addition, the wear of the barrel of the rifled gun is much larger than that of the smoothbore gun. Generally, a bore tube that can be fired about 60 times can only be fired ten to fifteen times after the rifle is carved out. The rifle will basically be worn out and cannot be used anymore. Therefore, the life of the borehole is far lower than that of the smoothbore. Another point is that the borehole gun is fired with cylindrical guns, and the ignition is very unstable. The most exquisite borehole guns also have a dull rate of about 20%. The diameter of the rifled gun is slightly larger than that of the barrel. Once it is dull, it is extremely troublesome to pour ammunition out.

These problems have all occurred during the development of rifled guns. Therefore, although rifled guns had appeared in this era, they have not been popularized. It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that people slowly figured out solutions. The rifled guns were not used widely until the early stages of World War I. But for time travelers, of course, there is no need to explore slowly, and they directly use the ready-made experience in history.

The first problem is easy to solve. In fact, the famous Minni rifle actually solves the problem of difficulty in filling bullets. Rather than saying that the Minni rifle changed the status of the rifle, it is better to say that it is the function of the Minni bullet. The diameter of the Minni bullet is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the bore tube, and there is a small conical hole at the bottom of the projectile, which is stuffed with a piece of cork. When the Minni bullet is fired, gunpowder gas expands the cork at the tail of the projectile, closes the rifle, seals the gap between the bullet and the barrel, making the gas unable to leak out, and makes the bullet rotate at a high speed under the pressure of the rifle. Therefore, the Minni bullet solves the problem of difficulty in loading the rifle in front and the smoothbore gun with too low range accuracy, which also makes the rifle finally surpasses the cannon and becomes the decisive weapon on the battlefield at that time.

In another time and space, after solving the loading problem, the front-loaded rifled rifle was quickly popularized on a large scale around the world. This craft was not difficult in this era. It was just that Shang Yi did not want Spanish craftsmen to know this secret, so he built the barrel first and then the bullet.

The second problem is difficult, mainly because metallurgical technology is backward, and the iron material used to make the barrel is not hard enough. The result is similar to the copper material. This is also an obstacle to the manufacturing of rifled cannons. Therefore, Shang Yi also decided to try it with steel. Although the steel of this era cannot be compared with later generations, it is much harder than cast iron and cast iron. At the same time, Spanish craftsmen can also help improve China's steelmaking technology. If each rifled barrel reaches a shooting life of thirty to forty times, it is very ideal. In a battle, generally speaking, a musket fires between twenty and thirty times, and more than thirty times, it is a very big battle.

Although the third problem is very troublesome, once solved, not only will the performance of the rifled rifle be greatly improved, but the flintlock smoothbore rifle can also reach the level of upgrade and completely eliminate the mezzanine. The solution is to have better ignition materials, namely fire hats, which are difficult and easy. Now Shang Yi must start to solve the problem. The materials have been prepared.

To make a fire cap, there must be mercury. Rad mercury is a detonating agent. The process of mercury is not complicated: simply put, it is the product that dissolves mercury in nitric acid, mixes it with alcohol, and finally reacts.

Mercury is mercury. Although Shang Yi has only collected hundreds of kilograms of mercury at present, the amount of mercury required for a fire hat is extremely small, so it is enough. Alcohol is easier to do. In fact, high-liquid wine has appeared in China now. Only by steaming high-liquid wine once can you get alcohol with a concentration of more than 96%.

Nitric acid is a problem, but it is not impossible to overcome. In the eighth century AD, when the Arab alchemist Jabir Ibn Hayan discovered and made nitric acid when distilling saltpeter, which is the earliest record of nitric acid in humans. At the same time, he was also the discoverer of sulfuric acid and aquatic regia. In Verne's [Mysterious Island], he also said that nitric acid can be made of sulfuric acid. As long as there is sulfuric acid, there is nitric acid.

In this era, the preparation of sulfuric acid was introduced to China by Western missionaries, which was to extract green alum oil from soap and alum oil to obtain sulfuric acid. However, this value has not been discovered by the Chinese in this era. But when Shang Yi was in the hands of him, he had a place to use it. After the concentrated sulfuric acid, he could make nitric acid. This is to add saltpeter to the sulfuric acid, and then slowly heat it up to obtain concentrated nitric acid using the volatile nature of nitric acid.

In this way, all the materials for mercury are prepared and you can start making mercury.

The manufacturing of gunpowder products is also the most dangerous part of the entire military chemical system. Even in a modern factory environment, dangers occur from time to time, not to mention in ancient times when the production equipment and environment were very simple. Therefore, Shang Yi had very strict requirements on the manufacturing specifications of gunpowder and gunpowder products, and he was finally lucky. Until now, there has been no major accidents in arms production.

Although lysys and dangerous, it is relatively safe to react in humid environments compared to other detonators. However, Shang Yi was the first time to make lysys. It was impossible to say that he was not afraid. Moreover, he only had common sense and experience in this area, so the first production could only be completed by him. He also completed it alone in a laboratory. For safety reasons, everyone else left the laboratory for reaction. But he also chose ten craftsmen to watch it, because it was their turn to complete this dangerous work next time.

Of course, before the operation, Shang Yi also copied the entire process and gave them to read it over and over again until they could recite it completely.

Shang Yi also put on a bulletproof vest, a steel helmet, and was fully armed. He took a few deep breaths first, and thought that since he had arrived in this era, he would be so easy to hang up without any reason. Then he pulled off his windshield and started to do it.

(Since the method of making mercury belongs to the content of river crabs, I don't write it in detail.)

After about an hour and a half, the production process was completed at a speed. A total of about one pound of radius mercury was obtained, which was basically enough for the test. However, radius mercury had to wait until it was completely dry, so it would have to be used for a few days. The ten craftsmen who watched the entire production process would also independently make radius mercury starting tomorrow.

The fire hat is best made of copper. Although it is a little extravagant, a fire hat cannot waste much copper. Moreover, Shang Yi has also started to mine copper, so it is still acceptable. Now all work has been completed. Although the steel barrel is still difficult to do well, this does not prevent the rifled rifled gun testing.

Three days later, the first batch of Minnie bullets for testing were prepared, and the fire hat had been prepared, so you can start retesting again.

The result this time was also very satisfactory. After switching to the fire cap, the success rate of shooting was almost 100%. After replacing the Minnie bullet, the range was further improved, and the effective range had reached more than 200 steps, which is a distance of 300 meters. Moreover, the warhead of the Minnie bullet is conical, so the penetration is extremely strong. It is enough to penetrate a layer of iron armor, about 180 steps. If you penetrate a three-layer armor, you can reach more than 50% at a distance of about 150 steps. Within 120 steps, almost every shot can penetrate three layers of iron armor. It can even be used as a blocking rifle. But even if the rifled rifle accounts for only 100% of the entire army, it can greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the merchant army by one level.

Before this, the farthest Lumi gun must have a distance of about 80 steps to achieve this effect. The bird gun must be within fifty steps, and it has a breakdown rate of only 60% to 70%. Of course, even if you cannot penetrate the three layers of armor within this distance, it can cause great pain and lose combat effectiveness.

Shang Yi was also very satisfied with this result. Now he only waited for the steel pipe to be done before looking at the effect. At the same time, the test of the fire hat can eliminate all the clamps and enter the era of flintlocks. In the future, breech guns can be developed from consideration. In addition, thunder mercury can also be used as the detonating gunpowder for grenades and blasting bombs, greatly improving the efficiency of these two weapons. Therefore, although rifled guns cannot be manufactured for the time being, they can also make the equipment level of the merchant army a big step beyond this era.
Chapter completed!