Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 470: Qi Gun
Just when Yu Ji wanted to continue "talking incessantly", Bai Tu temporarily stopped him and reminded everyone that there was another experiment.
What needs to be compared with the artillery is not an ordinary white bus - what is the value of comparing it?
In comparison, the only advantage of the white bus is that when conditions are met, it can be made on-site with materials and there is no need to consider the issue of movement!
Even if we consider the cost of training an engineering company that can quickly manufacture white buses, the cost of white buses is not much of a bargain...
What should be compared with the artillery is the Qi cannon developed by Huang Yueying!
Of course, although Bai Tu had not paid close attention to it before, he had heard Huang Yueying mention that in the battle between firearms and true qi, it seemed that Yu Ji had always been ahead in terms of "cannon"...
But since Huang Yueying has no intention of giving up, Bai Tu will not pour cold water on her directly. Whether it is a mule or a horse, he will take it out for a walk!
Upon hearing this, Huang Yueying bit her lip and gestured to Xu Shu - Xu Shu was actually very familiar with all the new weapons, and he had already made a decision in his mind.
But since it is up to the 26 people in front of him to make the final decision, Xu Shu will use his best attitude to demonstrate the power of the two types of cannons!
Gao Shun's experimental cavalry was replenished again...
The same 1,500 people started charging from 1,500 meters away.
However, what he had to face this time were more "fancy" looking Qi cannons. They were slightly larger than artillery, with a folding structure in the middle, steel chains and winches around the cannon body, and a Qi furnace at the rear that was as thick as a man's embrace...
It looks more expensive than those big, black and rough ones!
When the cannon was fired, the Qi furnace at the tail of the cannon flashed, and then under the huge kinetic energy of the Qi , the capstan was locked and the steel chain was pulled. There was also a loud bang, and the whole gun body suddenly shortened - the rear of the cannon suddenly rushed forward, causing the folding part in the middle to fold up all of a sudden. At the same time, there was a push rod at the tail that extended out of the folded barrel, and a shell was pushed out directly.
The source of the loud noise was the collision of the front and rear gun barrels. Compared with the explosion of gunpowder, it felt like a metallic collision...
As for the effect?
Well, the shells fired have the same effect as solid bullets...
The only difference from artillery was that after the experimental cavalry approached, the Qi artillerymen skillfully removed the front body of the cannon and replaced it with a fan-shaped muzzle with an obvious mechanical structure!
This time the gun barrel was shortened from the beginning, and when the push rod was pushed out, it was pushed into the front end mechanism structure.
The output of true energy was not as strong as before, but it was more sustained, which made the fan-shaped muzzle shoot out waves of arrows continuously. Thirty-six short arrows could be shot out in one round. The loading structure built into the muzzle could be filled with arrows for six consecutive rounds...
The firepower was indeed very strong, and it almost caused the experimental cavalry to collapse!
The number of cavalry that finally rushed into the safety line was about the same as when they faced the artillery before...
Although because of the previous example of artillery, the generals were less surprised and were able to focus more on the performance of the Qi cannon, analyzing the pros and cons of the two under seemingly similar results, but... after Huang Yueying gave a detailed introduction to the cost of the Qi cannon, the generals fell silent.
It is undeniable that the Qi Cannon does have its advantages. In particular, the Qi furnace can be used as the power to drive the cannon carriage, which is a great advantage.
but……
The cost of a Qi Cannon is more than ten times that of a cannon, while its durability is only one-third of that of a cannon!
The control of the Qi furnace is no simpler than the control of gunpowder and ammunition, which means that the training costs of the two types of artillery are comparable.
As for the filling cost of the Qi Furnace, it is also higher than that of gunpowder. Especially if you want to use the locomotive function, the battle will be very difficult. It seems... it is better to push it yourself!
Even in terms of preservation, true Qi has more advantages than gunpowder - after all, the true Qi furnace does not have to worry about moisture, and... a large amount of true Qi is in the bodies of military generals, which are all potential reserves.
But it is also difficult to convince everyone to accept it!
After all, if you choose the Qi Cannon, it means that the equipment rate is much lower than that of the artillery, and it needs to be charged by a general. In a continuous long-term battle, it is not as durable as gunpowder, and its advantages are completely covered up...
Everyone's expressions already told the result.
In fact, Bai Tu also knew that the reason why Huang Yueying thought that she lost in the "artillery" category was actually because of a more fundamental reason - under Bai Tu's guidance, the continued development of artillery at least had a direction.
Huang Yueying's Qi machine gun is still a mechanical art at its core, but it has a Qi furnace as a kinetic energy provider...
Huang Yueying has reached a bottleneck when it comes to weapons with large-scale killing capabilities.
In other words, unless there is continued progress in energy, Huang Yueying is very vague about the development direction of the Qi machine cannon.
So when it came to the "cannon", Huang Yueying had no choice but to sigh and temporarily shelve the project of the Qi machine cannon.
However, in the next exercise, "firearm VS qi gun", Huang Yueying is full of confidence!
The generals had not expected that there would be a next item - after all, the previous "cannon" was already amazing enough.
At first, it was called a "gun", and everyone thought it was a long weapon. However, after seeing it in person, they found that it was indeed long, and there was a three-edged spike in front of the musket, so it was indeed possible to use it as a short gun...
The Qi gun is much shorter, but it is about the same as an ordinary Chu sword.
Moreover, the biggest function of the "gun" is actually long-range attack!
This time, Gao Shun will not be used to command the experimental soldiers. Instead, each army will directly select a hundred people and the two armies will face off against each other!
The one using the musket was still Xu Shu, while the one using the qi gun was replaced by Pang Tong.
Huang Yueying was not good at directly commanding soldiers, and... everyone almost forgot, or even many people didn't know at all, that the Minister of Works Pang Tong was actually a master of both strategy and tactics. They were a little surprised to see him appear on the testing ground.
This time, both sides have only a hundred people - of course, they are all Ji-zao soldiers. This is a fight with real swords and guns. Ordinary generals... have no mercy on swords and guns!
There is only one Gao Shun, an ordinary first-class general, which is the level of a hundred Ji-made soldiers.
Especially Pang Tong and Xu Shu, both of whom were strategist-type generals. It was amazing that they could directly command hundreds of Ji-made soldiers without relying on flags.
As for Xu Shu and Pang Tong, they both hid in the trenches at this time to avoid being accidentally injured.
The two armies were only 500 meters apart, which made the generals breathe a sigh of relief. Just now they thought that the range of the Qi crossbow would also be exceeded...
Especially after seeing that both sides rushed forward for a while at the same time after the test started, I felt even more relieved - the range of this crossbow is still much worse than that of the Qi crossbow.
When the two sides were about 300 meters apart, the Qi Gun side all lay down.
Because there was no artillery fire support and no defensive fortifications were built, they directly confronted each other head-on, which seemed rather "cute (stupid)".
Pang Tong and Xu Shu also knew that the demonstration was mainly of muskets and qi guns, without any fancy moves.
The style of the Qi gun is quite different from that of the musket. It is generally long, but much shorter than the musket.
Generally speaking, the right-hand grip of the Qi gun is relatively bulky. The right-hand grip is a cylinder with a diameter of ten inches, and the front end of the cylinder extends out to a slender , two-foot-long spear shaft...
(To put it simply, imagine a handheld, enlarged version of a Dyson vacuum cleaner^_^)
That's right, Huang Yueying absorbed the experience of the musket and gradually made significant changes to the individual long-range weapons, which looked more like "guns".
The left-hand grip is equally slender, inserted into the rear part of the slender barrel.
The bloated right hand cylinder contains the Qi core and the ejection mechanism, while the slender grip on the left hand also serves as the magazine for loading bullets!
The killing range is about 300 meters, and... the six "bullets" in the magazine can be fired continuously!
After all, Huang Yueying was a crossbow maker, so she possessed amazing skills and talent in designing repeating mechanisms.
Moreover, the bullets fired by the Qi gun, although without the gunpowder part, are indeed similar to bullets, just longer, and still have the shadow of crossbow arrows...
In contrast, while the Qi gunners were lying down, Xu Shu also ordered the musketeers to lie down, but... in fact, the musketeers had no advantage at this distance, and they even slightly raised the muzzle of the gun and fired upwards.
Obviously, the range of the musket is shorter than that of the incantation gun. The range of the incantation gun is at least similar to that of the incantation crossbow in non-incantation mode, while that of the musket is shorter.
However, since they could be pulled out for a walk, at least Yu Ji had "solved" the problem of the rear loading, which allowed the musketeers to lie down.
but……
Yu Ji's musket was obviously far inferior to the real breech-loading rifle in history. Its range was only about the same as , and... everyone had a pair of glass lenses and wooden fitted eye patches!
That’s right, the problems of gunpowder and sealing have not been completely solved.
In terms of sealing, Yu Ji simply imitated the artillery and also used a bolt structure. However, for the sake of speed and cost of changing ammunition, he did not dare to use bolts that were too troublesome.
As for the problem of gunpowder irritating the eyes...
Yu Ji said, although I can't stop the gunpowder from smoking, I can protect my eyes!
It must be said that after Yu Ji joined, the glass-making technology has greatly improved...
In general, Yu Ji's breech-loading rifle is currently... equivalent to a muzzle-loading smoothbore rifle that can be loaded from the back, but has no obvious improvements in other aspects.
It just has the power to lie down, but it is not like a real breech-loading rifle, with a range and rate of fire that increase several times!
In comparison, the firing rate of the inflatable gun is better than that of the musket - the main difference between the inflatable gun and the musket is that there is a time interval for changing magazines, and the rapid firing of six bullets is basically one shot per second. However, like the repeating crossbow, after pulling the trigger once, the gun can only shoot until it runs out of bullets.
If a new magazine is replaced directly after a round of shooting, it will take about fifteen seconds, or about three magazines per minute. The firing rate is three times that of a musket, equivalent to the firing rate of a real breech-loading needle-fired rifle, not a copycat version like Yu Ji. However, the range and power are still far inferior to a real breech-loading rifle.
If he wanted to load the bullets into the magazine, it would take about fifteen seconds longer, which was still faster than Yu Ji loading the gun later...
As for entering close combat?
Xu Shu and Pang Tong also gave a special demonstration - the musket was equipped with a three-edged spike at the front end of the gun body, so it could be used as a spear for stabbing, while the Qi gun... in close combat, the muzzle was held reversed, and the heavy cylinder was swung to strike, which was equivalent to a short-handled hammer!
