Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 401: Gun
"At present, the Qi crossbow has an absolute advantage in terms of firing speed and power, but it is expensive to make, and it requires either the gilded warrior to inject Qi to charge it, or to consume physical strength manually...
Gunpowder crossbows... Yes, that's what the king said about 'guns'. The steps for loading the bullets are too complicated, the firing speed and power are far behind, and the gunpowder also involves the problem of preservation, and there is no accuracy at all, but the manufacturing cost and training cost are very low, and the advantage is that it saves physical strength. As long as there is no problem with the barrel, the soldiers will not get tired even if they shoot for several hours continuously. "Huang Zhong said after careful consideration.
It is actually very easy to deal with a muzzle-loading rifle. After all, it is essentially just stuffing gunpowder and bullets into the barrel, then igniting the gunpowder to blast the bullets out.
The barrel can be made by hand, and the seams can be sealed with iron powder. The technical content of lead bullets and gunpowder is not really high. At most, there are some small gadgets to assist in loading bullets...
However, muzzle-loading rifles are basically smoothbore rifles - smoothbore means there are no rifling, which means that the bullet does not rotate when it comes out, and the deviation angle is random.
It is not impossible to carve the rifling by hand, but the loading method of a muzzle-loading rifle means that the rifling will wear out after a short time. In addition, a muzzle-loading rifle with rifling is difficult to load. It is more cost-effective to increase the rate of fire and shoot in a queue.
Therefore, the era of muzzle-loading rifles was mainly dominated by smoothbore rifles that could be fired at will, and at most, sharpshooters were equipped with rifles with a very short lifespan.
Although the sample of the Chu State Ministry of Industry was not a matchlock gun, it was still a flintlock gun with separate bullet and powder. That is, after pulling the trigger, the flint would hit the firing port, igniting the gunpowder in the gun, causing the lead bullet to fly... one can imagine its safety and stability.
Even in the second half of the 18th century, when muzzle-loading rifle technology was relatively mature, the hit rate at a distance of 100 meters was less than one-tenth. After skilled loading, the firing rate could reach an astonishing three rounds per minute. It was so terrifying...
"Han Sheng, you don't offend anyone." Bai Tu rolled his eyes silently at Huang Zhong's ambiguous statement.
Huang Zhong smiled awkwardly after hearing this: "Ahem... If I had to choose in the future, I would probably equip all the generals with Qi crossbows, and the soldiers... use ordinary bows and crossbows for attacking, and gunpowder for defending the city."
It is easy to understand that bows and crossbows are used for attacking and muskets are used for defending cities. After all, the loading process of a muzzle-loading rifle is to use a push rod to push the bullet into the muzzle, which requires the gun to be held upright, so one cannot lie down and can only stand upright and shoot.
In addition, a single smoothbore musket cannot hit the opponent, and only a volley of fire in an array can be a deterrent. This led to the emergence of "line shooting" in modern times.
It makes sense that the veteran, who was used to cold weapon tactics, could not think of such a "straightforward" tactic and hoped to have cover when defending.
There is also a weakness that Huang Zhong did not think of at the moment - a muzzle-loading rifle with separate ammunition is prone to jamming. Once a volley is fired, the soldiers may not know that there is a jam. Sometimes after a big battle, they feel that they have enjoyed shooting, and go back to check the barrel... and find that it is filled with more than a dozen bullets. This kind of thing is not uncommon!
Huang Zhong finished speaking, and added with concern: "Of course, if the bandits also start to equip muskets on a large scale, then I suggest that muskets be quickly promoted in the training of ordinary Ji-made soldiers."
Huang Zhong saw this very clearly, and Bai Tu actually understood it too - even the matchlock gun could promote a replacement, and if we really compared it with the more mature chambered flintlock gun and the crossbow, its advantages would be obvious.
The threshold is low, the cost is low, and the difficulty of training lies mainly in courage and obedience to command of volley fire. Other than that... there is almost no physical requirement.
If others
Qi crossbow? The cost of one Qi crossbow can make dozens of flintlock rifles, and it does not require much training. As long as you are brave, you can mobilize 10,000 young and strong men and go to the battlefield to "shoot and kill" in a month.
Or if Bai Tu traveled to more than a hundred years later, to the more chaotic and precarious Southern and Northern Dynasties period, when the city could be massacred at any time, and brutal acts that are difficult to understand in modern civilization were happening everywhere and at any time... then Bai Tu would definitely climb the flintlock rifle technology tree as soon as he stabilized his position.
However, the white picture is still "wearing shoes"...
Therefore, he can remain stable and is even willing to pay a higher price for less casualties. The situation is far from the point where Bai Tu can give up his fantasies and dignity.
"Han Sheng, you can rest assured about this. Including the one in your hand, the Ministry of Industry has only produced five samples now. What's more... even if we really give them samples, this is not something that can be mass-produced within one or two years." Bai Tu was still confident about this.
Bai Tu paused and then said, "And to be on the safe side, unless the musket can be further improved, the equipment will still be mainly Qi crossbows and ordinary bows and crossbows, and this kind of gun will not be really used."
"Going one step further...if the musket can reach half the firing speed of an arrow, even if it maintains its current accuracy, it will be enough to sweep the world!" Huang Zhong said confidently.
"Well... the problem is that Huang Jijiu also said that her Qi crossbow can be further improved." Bai Tu sighed.
Originally, Bai Tu thought that the Qi crossbow was the limit of cold weapons - after all, Bai Tu had never heard of a Qi crossbow in his "previous life", and even a modern sniper crossbow was only as strong as the current Qi crossbow!
As for the guns...
Although the information in the hard drive is incomplete at this point, after all, Baitu is just a ghostwriter and it is impossible for him to cover all the technologies , especially the various gunpowder ratios. He only has the general direction and cannot find accurate information.
But at least the direction is clear!
To transition to a breech-loading rifle, you must acquire several necessary technologies.
First of all, the barrel must be sealed. If it is simply polished by hand by craftsmen, the output and specifications will inevitably be insufficient. At this time, the use of a stamping machine is indispensable.
The stamping machine has now been developed, and what Yu Ji needs to solve can still be attributed to the material problem - the material must be both strong and tough, and must also ensure that it can be formed in one go using a stamping machine.
The second type is fixed bullets, which are bullets with gunpowder wrapped in shells similar to modern ones.
Continuing the "bullet + gunpowder" model and forcing the breech to load the bullet had too many flaws. It existed in the 17th century, but it could not be called a mature breech-loading rifle and was not used on a large scale.
The first mature breech-loading rifle equipped by Prussia in the mid-19th century was already a percussion rifle, that is, after pulling the trigger, the "firing pin" was inserted into the firing powder of the bullet, thereby igniting it and giving thrust to the bullet!
It was this change that made breech-loading possible, allowing soldiers to finally lie down and shoot, with a rate of fire five times higher than that of a muzzle-loading rifle. Prussia used this to defeat Austria in seven weeks...
However, the bullets at that time were not copper-shelled like those in later generations, but copper bullets with paper shells, but the principle was already very similar.
However, in terms of the Qi crossbow, Bai Tu had no idea and could not think of how it could be developed in the future. He was not even sure whether it could be developed at all.
But... this is Cheng Ji's world after all, and Bai Tu doesn't dare to argue with Huang Yueying, a professional, and insist that he is right.
