The Rise of the European Emperor

Soon, the old craftsman Niu Dafu brought Chen Jin, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and his party, surrounded by the brigade of guards, to the southwest corner of Luorong County.

Niu Dafu pointed to a section of the city wall:

"Sir, it's here! Back then, the flash flood came and rushed over from the west. There were masters in the thief chiefs who proposed to use a large boat with some iron tools on the bow. Then, thousands of people pushed the big boat, along the flash flood, and hit the city wall, causing the city wall to be destroyed. Hit a gap..."

Chen Jin stroked his beard and said:

"This way of breaking the city is wonderful!"

Niu Dafu nodded and said:

"Although it was wonderful, it also followed the trend. At that time, the mountain torrent came from the west, and the water flow was very fast. If the water flow was gentle, the impact force would not be so strong, and it might not be able to break through the city wall. However, because of Hu Zhuzhu's corrupt behavior, the This section of the city wall is not reliable. It is not made of glutinous rice juice and brown sugar, etc., plus more than 30 years of wind and rain, it is definitely not very reliable. Therefore, the old man thought that he could try to hit it with artillery, or The gap can be opened."

"So good!"

As a result, the Ming army mobilized 20 earthen guns to bombard that section of the city wall according to Old Man Niu's instructions. Sure enough, I heard the difference...

If it bombards a normal city wall, the shells hit the city wall, and it will make a relatively clear sound. However, when the shell hits this section of the city wall, it will make a muffled sound. This muffled sound is somewhat like a weakened drum sound... Obviously, the city wall is indeed hollow...

As a result, the Ming army shelled more vigorously. After all, the Ming Dynasty was not short of gunpowder. The ingredients of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur are three kinds of gunpowder, only the sulfur is slightly insufficient. After all, Daming does not produce natural sulfur, and alchemists often get sulfur from pyrite. So, quite different from the situation in Europe, in the Ming Dynasty, sulfur was the most expensive, while saltpeter and charcoal were cheaper...

Of course, the so-called expensive sulfur is also relative. Compared with Europe, sulfur here is still cheap, only a few dozen yuan per catty. Therefore, the cost of Daming Gunpowder is relatively low, and it is not necessary to be stingy when using it. After all, ordinary civilians now set firecrackers made of gunpowder during the festivals.

But after banging around, everyone was a little embarrassed to find that those native cannons produced in the Ming Dynasty seemed to be less powerful...

why? First of all, the caliber of those soil guns is relatively small, similar to the Fran cannon, or even smaller. In addition, the barrel is shorter... In this way, the speed of the cannon is slow, and the impact force is small...

More importantly, Daming's artillery at this time was made of stone bullets. After all, using iron bullets is somewhat of a luxury.

Moreover, these earthen guns are usually used to bombard the enemy's battle formations in front of the formation, and are rarely used to bombard the city walls.

Two days later, Mr. Niu brought Chen Jin to observe the results and found that it was not ideal. The city wall was bombarded with stone bullets, and it seemed to be loose, but it was just a little bit worse...

"It would be great if it was replaced with iron bullets!" Niu Dafu shook his head and said.

"It's difficult, iron balls and shells are not without them. However, it is difficult to make suitable shells. After all, if they are not suitable for guns, iron balls are difficult to polish, while stone bullets are easy to polish." An old gunner said.

At this time, Master Zhou, Chen Jin's aide suddenly said:

"Dongweng, have you forgotten the Fran cannons sent by the ten Fan Gui?"

Chen Jin slapped his head suddenly and said:

"Yes, I almost forgot about them!" Chen Jin hurriedly ordered the Governor's personal battalion to drag all 10 Fran cannons to the front of the battle...

Then, these 10 Fran cannons replaced the short-barreled Daming cannons and began to bombard the city wall...

These 10 Fran cannons are all equipped with iron bullets, a total of 500 rounds. And the firing rate of the Fran cannon was very fast, and the shells were fired in ten minutes... Although the city wall was also shattered by 500 iron balls, but there were no shells...

So, the Ming army let the sword and shield soldiers hold the shield, and went up to the city wall to recover the iron balls and shells...

However, there were generally moats around the Ming Dynasty city walls, and most of the 500 iron balls fell into the moat. In the end, after paying some price, the Ming Sabre and Shield Soldiers only recovered more than 90 shells - these were all hit on the city wall and bounced back to the ground... If you want to recover more, you have to sneak into the moat to fish . But the insurgents on the top of the city are not blind. If you dare to go into the river to fish, they will definitely stone you to death, or shoot you with arrows... So, only so much can be recovered...

"Not enough to fight!" Chen Jin suddenly felt a little depressed.

At this time, Baihu Li Sanshui, who was mobilized from Guangzhou avant-garde to help train artillerymen, suddenly came out in a crowd and said:

"Sir, we can cast more shells!"

"Casting cannonballs? How to cast them?" After all, Chen Jin was a civil official and didn't understand this.

Li Sanshui waved his hand and asked his subordinates to bring up a sand box, pointing to the sand box and said:

"We can turn sand and cast iron bullets, very fast!"

After that, Li Sanshui briefly explained the process of casting shells using wet sand. This method was actually introduced to him by Kong Tai. Even this sandbox was sent by Kong Tai.

Niu Dafu raised a question at this time:

"Master Li, this old man is a craftsman. Although he is mainly engaged in civil engineering, he has a little understanding of casting. If you cast iron bullets according to your method, the iron bullets must be full of pits! After all, pouring wet sand into molten iron will definitely The water vapor rises straight up, leaving the cannonballs with many gaps! Such cannonballs are unreal!"

Li Sanshui remembered what Kong Tai said at the beginning, shook his head, and said:

"Brother Niu, this is a bad statement. This kind of casting law enforcement will indeed make the shells empty. But so what? Aren't iron bullets with gaps and iron bullets without gaps used to smash people and walls? As long as the size is right, the artillery can be used, so why care if there is a gap?"

Niu Dafu thought about it, it really is...

It is not that the craftsmen in Daming did not understand sand casting, but using wet sand casting, the iron has many gaps and is often not reliable. Therefore, regardless of whether to cast guns or cast iron balls, the clay mold method was later used.

But the biggest disadvantage of the mud mold method is that the drying of the mud mold takes at least two or three months. Moreover, after one use, the clay mold will be useless. Therefore, casting iron cannons and iron ball cannonballs is so troublesome. In addition, iron is more expensive, so Daming artillery mostly uses stone bullets. After all, stones are everywhere.

In fact, Ming Dynasty craftsmen also fell into a misunderstanding. Because the artillery can resist a certain chamber pressure, naturally it cannot have air holes, otherwise it will explode. However, artillery shells are not so expensive. They are pushed out by gunpowder gas to smash people, so they don't need to be so precise.

After all, a cannonball needs the kinetic impact of its mass, not its durability. As long as the quality is similar, a flawless iron ball and an equal quality iron ball full of voids will actually produce similar results.

Also, casting with wet sand is very fast. As long as the molten iron is poured through the sprue into the hollow part of the iron ball pressed out in the two halves of the sand box, the shell can be formed quickly. Although the water vapor will make a lot of honeycombs on the iron ball because the wet sand is heated and transpired, but so what? It's an iron ball that smashes people and walls. Why is it so precise?

After thinking about this section, Chen Jin quickly ordered to collect iron materials everywhere, and then opened the furnace to melt molten iron. At the same time, I got dozens of sand boxes, and then went to the river to get some river sand, and started to use the wet sand method to batch cast low-quality iron balls...