Steel Dynasty - Chapter 757

[Chapter 756: Conscripting Guns]

Along with the messy gunshots, bullet holes appeared one after another on the target in the middle of the shooting range.

“Six shots!”

“Four shots!”

After checking the number of bullet holes, the craftsman told Song Changping the result.

“Not bad, two more shots than a flintlock gun.” Chen Qi pinched his waist and looked at the shooting results. Today he and Song Changping were going to test new weapons.

Song Changping nodded with satisfaction. In order to compare the difference between the percussion rifle and the flintlock rifle, he specially transferred two elite soldiers from the Qingzhou Army.

After testing, it was found that the flash cap percussion guns produced in this batch fired faster, and after being sprayed with water, they were more able to guarantee the firing rate than flintlock guns.

“These two launches are enough to change a war.”

Song Changping exhaled softly. He has been busy for more than two months on this flash cap firing rifle. Now the first batch of 6,000 flash cap firing rifled guns has been produced. , can formally equip the army.

The reason why we were able to complete the production of flash cap firing guns so quickly was thanks to the steam engine.

With the skilled use of steam engine lathes and the two newly built production lines, making barrels and rifling was now very simple.

The production of muskets was separated from the previous tedious processes and went directly to the assembly and production of accessories, which greatly increased the production speed of muskets.

This is also the reason why so many batches of flash cap percussion guns were produced soon after they were developed, and if it were not for the lack of materials, they could make more.

However, in view of this, the Ministry of Military Aircraft has now issued an order that the muskets equipped by the Chongqing army will be returned to the military workshop in batches for modification to reduce the production cost of firearms.

In addition to unrifled flintlocks, these firearms also include matchlocks seized from each battle. Of course, unqualified barrels need to be returned to the steel mill for smelting.

Chen Qi rubbed his brows, “It’s just that I don’t think these two extra shots will have much effect. On the contrary, constantly innovating weapons will add a lot of burden to the imperial treasury.”

“Two shots are enough to change a war, but not We are too lazy to stop innovating weapons because of waste, but the enemy’s firearms are constantly improving.” Song Changping said: “Now the Chongqing Kingdom is only fighting against Goryeo and the Golden Horde. If it fights against the Dutch, it will be the same. You may not be able to gain much advantage with a large number of people, but it’s different with new weapons.” Song Changping retorted.

Chen Qi said: “The main reliance on the battlefield is artillery. This short-term war mainly relies on the long range of artillery to disrupt the enemy’s formation. The musket formation is just a shot fired on the battlefield. Is this true?”

Song Changping’s expression changed .

Blushing, Chen Qi’s words made him unable to refute. He was right. During this period, the Chongqing army mainly relied on artillery, and the musketeers did not play their full role.

But thinking of the recent battle of Haigu City, he said: “But in this battle of Haigu City, Ye Qingyun used rifled guns to suppress the barbarian artillery. This shows that the range of rifled guns can threaten artillery. If your artillery does not increase The shooting range will also be eliminated by muskets in the future.”

After a pause, Song Changping continued: “And now that muskets have more powerful gunpowder, the range of rifled guns can now reach 900 meters.” “

Chen Qi’s mouth appears.” “Type,” Song Changping, are you bragging? How can the range of this musket reach 900 meters? “

Song Changping smiled softly and said, “Yesterday we used smokeless gunpowder to test the rifled rifle. The effect is amazing, with a range of 900 meters and accuracy within 500 meters. I asked people to look for you at that time, but you didn’t come.”

Chen Qi suddenly remembered that Song Changping did go to him yesterday, when he was discussing with the craftsmen. I didn’t have time to pay attention to the matter of rifled guns.

“Are you preparing to withdraw artillery from the battlefield?” Chen Qi smiled bitterly, “But fortunately there has been progress

in rifled artillery.” Song Changping played with paper bullets, which were filled with smokeless gunpowder and cones. Shaped projectiles, relying on rifled guns, the power of muskets has been greatly improved.

When Chen Qi mentioned the rifled cannon, he suddenly became interested and said, “Hasn’t there been no progress in your rifled cannon?”

“There was no progress in the rifled cannon before, but the emperor personally sent me a blueprint, so this matter will no longer matter.” It’s not that difficult anymore.”

“Why?”

Chen Qi shook his head, “In the past, craftsmen always had to load rifled guns from the front, and the rifles would soon be smoothed by the shells. It wasn’t until I saw the drawings given by the emperor that I realized that the rifles The cannon should be loaded from behind the butt, so I am currently studying how to load the cannon from the rear. “

Song Changping couldn’t help laughing when he heard this, “This person eats with his mouth, and the one with his butt…”

At this point, he suddenly stopped. He laughed and looked strange. He knew very well that artillery and muskets were actually the same. Now the emperor’s intention in giving Chen Qi this blueprint seemed not simple. Could it be that he was also telling him that artillery can be used and muskets can be used as well?

Thinking of this, Song Changping stopped chatting with Chen Qi and went directly to the camp with the new firearm.

After the report, he met Xiao Ming.

“Is this a percussion rifle?” Xiao Ming took the musket from Song Changping’s hand with great interest.

In fact, after Song Changping’s experiment, he obtained the data of this kind of musket, with a range of 900 meters and accuracy guaranteed within 500 meters.

And this data finally reached the standard of the contemporary Minie rifle. It was not easy to get to this point. For him, the musket also opened a new chapter.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Song Changping said with a smile on his face. This new musket surpassed the previous rifled flintlock guns in both range and rate of fire, and there was no need to worry about misfires due to rain.

Nodding excitedly, Xiao Ming laughed. He was not surprised that Song Changping took out this firearm, because Qingzhou’s industrial standards are now able to produce this type of musket.

This small modification on a rifled flintlock gun is simple.

“Now that the foreign enemies in Da Chongqing are looking around, this musket came out in time.” Xiao Ming played with the musket, and he pondered for a moment and said: “How about this type of musket be called the Zhenglu musket?”

“Zhenglu musket? “

“Song Changping said: “Does the emperor intend to use this musket to deal with the barbarians?”

“Yes, the Golden Horde has always been a big problem in the north. Until now, the Chongqing Kingdom can only adopt a defensive approach. Now with this Long-range muskets will be easier to deal with barbarian cavalry. In the past two or three years, the military workshop has focused on modifying and manufacturing such muskets. When the country of Chongqing regains its national strength, I will launch the Northern Expedition!” Xiao Ming clenched his fists.

Only by removing the border troubles in the north can he safely participate in the Age of Discovery. Otherwise, the barbarians will always contain most of his troops, which makes him uncomfortable.

(End of chapter)