Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 468: Chu Cannon!
The Chu State's artillery was already a breech-loading cannon - and it was a breech-loading cannon with a threaded breech block and a good seal.
Historically, muzzle-loading guns and breech-loading guns were born in basically the same period, but until the 18th century, breech-loading guns had a fatal weakness - they were slow!
Its power is far less than that of a muzzle-loading gun of the same caliber, so it is not favored.
The reason is simple - air leakage.
For a muzzle-loading cannon, as long as a hole for the matchlock is left, the other parts are completely integrated and there is no problem with airtightness. Until the Napoleonic period, the army mainly used muzzle-loading matchlock cannons.
During battle, the gunpowder, filler, and shell body are "pushed" into the barrel in turn, and then an iron stick is inserted into the fuse hole at the tail of the barrel - corresponding to the gunpowder part inside, and then the fuse is inserted and ignited.
After completing a shelling, use a long gun brush to quickly clean the remaining combustion residue in the barrel.
However, when various types of sealed breech blocks appeared, breech-loading guns gradually became the mainstream...
Even when the breech block is closed, it still requires a lot of manual operation, but it is faster than "pushing" gunpowder and shells in from the front. And because it can be opened from the back, cleaning is also faster, and the rate of fire is at least half that of the front loading.
Even though the Chu State missed out on some "excellence" because of its technological leap, and... its gunpowder production was relatively weak, after all, there was no formula for high-explosive gunpowder on the Internet.
But now the Chu State's breech-loading matchlock cannon can fully reach the level of the Fa (fourth tone) State's muzzle-loading cannon during the Napoleonic period.
Unfortunately, the Chu State's artillery had not yet entered the era of firing - the flintlock cannon was barely acceptable, after all, whether it was the flintlock mechanism or the breech block, there was no epoch-making technology. What was lacking was only creativity and...mechanism structure.
However, the flintlock has limited advantages over the matchlock, because the ignition hole of the cannon is much larger than that of the musket, so there is no need to pursue flintlock.
To enter the firing stage, "full of mercury" that can be ignited is needed. As for how to refine and make fulminate of mercury, Baitu is not very clear. After all, the information on the hard drive was searched legally on the Internet. At most, there are some theoretical explanations, and it will not really teach you step by step how to make fulminate of mercury that can ignite.
Bai Tu only pointed out the general direction and hoped that Yu Ji could use his "drawing talismans" to discover the method of making fulminate of mercury.
At the same time, the Chu cannon still used separately packaged cannons in terms of shells, that is, the gunpowder and shells were separated.
This makes the artillery in front of him look not very simple to operate, but fortunately it is already rear-loading - otherwise the method of slowly poking with a small stick would seem too primitive.
In fact, in general, the Chu State lagged behind other industries in terms of military equipment.
Compared with steam armored ships, breech-loading guns appeared half a century earlier. Similarly, the Chu State’s trains were just lacking in power, so there was no rush to lay the tracks.
If we look at it a few years later, as long as the source of Qi power is solved, the State of Chu is actually a small era ahead in military equipment in many aspects.
After all, it is enough to crush the opponent. Bai Tu does not want to focus too much on armaments. Being ahead of armaments in other aspects is actually beneficial to human safety.
Facing Gao Shun's charge, the timing and noise of Xu Shu's first round of artillery fire were far beyond everyone's expectations.
The first round of volleys was launched when the distance was still a thousand meters, and the range was comparable to that of a fully-strung Qi crossbow.
Although Gao Shun's cavalry also had ten cannons, one could tell from the look of it that the casualties were significantly higher than those of the previous Baigong Cannon!
Moreover, the loud noise made Gao Shun slightly stunned, and the war horses began to "malfunction". This was an inherent weakness of war horses and could not be compensated by Gao Shun's command.
then……
The interval was similar to that of the Baigong Cannon, and Xu Shu was ready for the second artillery attack - after all, cleaning the inside of the cannon was still inevitable, and because of the poor quality of the gunpowder, there were even more residues. It was just that the breech-loading cannon was easier to clean, but continuous firing was impossible.
Although the artillery is very "bulky" compared to ordinary infantry, it is very clever compared to the catapult. Its size and height are much smaller than the catapult, and one person can push it in a small range. After adding a turntable structure, it is not easy for cavalry to go around the flank!
They quickly aimed at Gao Shun's test cavalry again, but by then Gao Shun had already circled to the test field, where the land was even more bumpy and muddy.
Originally, Gao Shun thought that these different ground settings were meant to restrain cavalry, otherwise it would be a bit bullying. Now Gao Shun finally understood...it was actually to restrict this strange iron cannon!
Although it happened in a split second, Gao Shun saw it clearly. These solid iron cannons could bounce back and cause damage after landing. After each shell bounced three or four times, it was still fatal to the Ji-zao soldiers. Moreover, for ordinary Ji-zao soldiers, being torn apart would only slightly reduce the speed of the shells, so the casualties were so great!
From hitting the first row to penetrating a thousand-man formation, this shell was always lethal...
Gao Shun was at the back of the formation, and saw an iron bullet, which bounced slightly from his side, so he bent down and grabbed it...
Tsk!
Gao Shunyi grinned - it seemed that the speed was not fast, but it was still a little shaking!
If he is hit head-on in front of the formation before his speed is consumed, even an ordinary gilded warrior will suffer a setback.
As for the part below gilding?
I'm afraid that only by wearing plate armor can there be a chance to survive a serious injury, provided that you are not hit head-on and have a chance to relieve the force. For ordinary Ji-made soldiers, even if they are wearing plate armor, they can only consume more of their speed...
Just like the ordinary Ji-made cavalry being simulated now, the array of a thousand people was directly penetrated by artillery shells, and the artillery shells could even make General Jin Yu's hands tremble!
No wonder they didn’t feel bad at all about selling the plate armor - many of their generals did feel bad about it!
In order to limit the iron bullets, Gao Shun commanded the cavalry to actively bypass the bumpy ground. At least in this way, the shells could not bounce effectively. If the fist-sized iron bullets rolled, the impact would be far smaller than that of the huge stone bullets. Xu Shu had noticed this long ago, and when commanding the reloading of the bullets, he also ordered more gunpowder to be loaded than last time.
While quickly turning the gun head, he ordered the gunner to raise the angle of the gun head, and then another round of salvos was fired!
With a loud bang...
If the previous one was a bouncy ball that could kill you or hurt you when it touched you, then this time it’s a bowling ball falling from a high altitude!
Previously it was a ricochet bullet that was almost shot flat, but this time it was a straight bullet that cut in from high altitude - this required the commander and the artillerymen to have sufficient judgment to determine the amount of gunpowder and the firing angle.
Within the cut-in angle, including the collisions between the "bowling pins" , each shell could still cause 20 to 30 people to fall off their horses...
In terms of direct power, it is more powerful than a ricochet bullet. It would be dangerous for a general like Gao Shun who is not good at direct combat to take it head-on - of course, it is still very easy to dodge. After all, the intuition of a warrior is at the level of swordsmanship. The momentum of a direct bullet falling from the sky is very conspicuous to a warrior even in a melee.
However, Gao Shun also secretly encouraged his troops. Not only did he ignore the signs of collapse, he even forced the cavalry to disperse their formation and continue their advance.
With the artillery's firing rate, there was only one chance to fire, and before the enemy's artillery fire, the cavalry could get within 200 meters...
Gao Shun could also see that the cannonballs of this iron cannon not only had a long range, but also a long killing distance. However, as long as the formation was sparse, the damage caused by the iron balls at close range might not be greater.
However, Xu Shu also directed the artillery to load another type of shotgun with small pellets wrapped in aluminum foil...
