Chapter 76 Comparison
"You may need this." Wang Tom handed Luo Shengdong a strange small object.
Luo Shengdong took it and put it on his face according to Wang Tom's instructions. He found that his eyes were covered by a layer of transparent material.
"This way you don't have to close your eyes when you wait to shoot." Wang Tom patiently explained to him.
Luo Shengdong suddenly realized that this Haihan gadget was very practical. In order to avoid the flying gunpowder burning the eyes when firing, the musketeers of this era always fired with their eyes closed at the last moment of ignition. And if you want to hit a slightly farther target with this shooting method, you obviously need a lot of luck.
When Luo Shengdong first joined the army, he was assigned as a gunman and received systematic training. Although the fire gun in his hand is different from the bird gun and Lumi gun currently equipped by the Ming army, the general structure of the gun body is the same, and Luo Shengdong will not have any obstacles in operating it.
Luo Shengdong first cleaned the primer hole and primer pot in the middle of the gun body. This place is very easy to be clogged with gunpowder residue. If you are not careful, it will cause the launch failure because it cannot ignite.
Then Luo Shengdong picked up the primer, carefully poured it into the primer pot, then closed the lid and gently blew away the primer scattered outside the pot. Then take the vial marked "Propellant" and pour the propellant from the muzzle into the barrel. Luo Shengdong noticed that the gunpowder used by the Haihan people was not in the usual powder form, but in the form of tiny particles. According to normal operating procedures, the gunpowder should be loaded with as much gunpowder as the weight of lead, and the weight of the gunpowder should be equal to the weight of the bullet. But Luo Shengdong didn't understand the difference in performance between this kind of gunpowder and the gunpowder he used before. Out of caution, he reduced the usual amount a little.
Luo Shengdong picked up a lead bullet from the small dish on the table and loaded it into the muzzle of the gun. Just by the weight he felt in his hand, Luo Shengdong was almost certain that the caliber of the matchlock gun made by Haihan should be the same as the blunderbuss equipped by the Ming army.
Luo Shengdong stretched the rod into the barrel of the gun, tamped the projectiles and propellant, then lit the match with a lighter, fixed the match rope on the match rope clip of the gun body, leveled the match rope gun, and pointed it at the target a hundred steps away. target. The target was newly replaced by Wang Tom's order just now. It was a wooden board painted with several layers of concentric circles with white paint. Even if it was placed a hundred steps away, Luo Shengdong could see it very clearly.
Luo Shengdong held the matchlock gun steadily and pulled the trigger. When the matchlock fell, the lid of the primer pot was opened, and the burning gunpowder emitted a dazzling white light. Then he felt a shock in his hand, which must have been the bullet fired. But when the matchlock was fired, the white smoke caused by the burning gunpowder obscured Luo Shengdong's sight, so he could not see clearly the results of his shooting for a while.
Luo Shengdong was not in a hurry to see if he hit the target. After seeking the consent of Wang Tom and others, he fired five more rounds before reluctantly putting down the matchlock gun.
"How?" Tao Donglai asked with interest. As one of the future customers of Chuanzhong's arms business, Luo Shengdong's experience in using it is obviously very important. This will serve as a reference for relevant departments to improve the matchlock technology in the future.
Luo Shengdong pondered for a moment and said: "This fire gun is slightly heavier than the bird gun equipped by our Ming army, but the body of the gun is very stable when shooting, presumably because of the wooden handle supporting the shoulder."
The biggest difference between the matchlock gun made by Chuanzhong and the blunderbuss used by the Ming army is the butt at the rear of the gun. Although the bird gun also has a structure similar to a gun butt, it is more suitable for holding it under the arm, so the stability when shooting is naturally not much better. This weird gun-holding posture actually didn't seem strange at the time, because you couldn't open your eyes to aim when shooting, so the height of the gun didn't need to be consistent with the head. Chuanzhong's matchlock gun adopts the butt design of a modern rifle. When firing, the butt is placed on the shoulder, and most of the recoil force is relieved by the body, so the stability is naturally superior.
Luo Shengdong continued: "I intentionally reduced the amount of gunpowder when loading, but the power of the explosion seems to be better than that of a blunderbuss. There must be something unique in the production of this gunpowder."
Tao Donglai nodded lightly with a smile. Of course, the future arms trade will not only sell guns and ammunition, but also ammunition. If the sold weapons want to have normal power during use, they must be paired with special gunpowder made by the Travelers. This kind of matching design is not only to make a few more money, but also to prevent problems before they happen. Even if potential enemies purchase Chuanzhong's weapons through certain channels, they will have to be restrained by others when it comes to ammunition. After the introduction of fixed-loading rifles and artillery in a few years, the effect of this restriction will be more obvious. Soon, militiamen from the new barracks retrieved the target that Luo Shengdong had just aimed at. Luo Shengdong was surprised to find that the one-inch-thick wooden board had been punched with several holes by bullets. At such a distance, The bullet can still maintain such power, which is much better than the blunderbuss. It must be the effect of the unique gunpowder. It is difficult for the bird muskets in the Ming army to hit the target at a distance of a hundred paces. Only a few well-made Lumi muskets can do this. And even if it hits, it will be difficult to penetrate the target. The Haihan people's matchlock gun can directly penetrate an inch-thick wooden board at this distance, so at least it maintains the power of breaking cotton armor. If a general bird gun wants to penetrate cotton armor, this distance probably needs to be shortened.
"Three out of six shots hit, the marksmanship is quite accurate." Wang Tom expressed his appreciation for the accuracy of Luo Shengdong's marksmanship.
"I neglected to practice, it's ridiculous!" Luo Shengdong gestured with his fists in contented hands.
The "New Book of Jixiao" written by Qi Jiguang has clear requirements for the accuracy of bird gun shooting: "Erect a five-foot-high and two-foot broadwood sign at eighty paces, and hit one out of three shots, and seven out of ten shots are the best." "The target that passed through the trees just now is at most two feet in diameter, and Luo Shengdong can maintain a 50% hit rate at a distance of a hundred steps. In addition, it is the first time for him to use this kind of matchlock gun. The result is indeed It is extremely difficult. In fact, during previous test firings by the Military and Police Department people, many of them hit one out of five shots because they were not used to the shooting method. No one could hit all hits at this distance.
"The accuracy of this fire gun is comparable to that of the Lumi gun, and its power is even better. It must be quite difficult to make, right?" Luo Shengdong probed cautiously.
Since Luo Shengdong was interested in asking questions, Tao Donglai was naturally willing to answer his questions: "I know that the bird guns used by your Ming army are very difficult to make. It often takes skilled craftsmen a month to make a bird gun. Completed. But our matchlock gun is not that troublesome. Different positions produce different parts, and it only takes a skilled worker one day to assemble a gun.”
Luo Shengdong's eyes widened immediately. He didn't know whether what Tao Donglai said was true, but if the Haihan people could really shorten the production time of this kind of firecracker to one day, that would be a great thing. Let’s not talk about the cost. The speed of this equipment alone is beyond the reach of the Ming army. It is rare to change their equipment for decades. You must know that the Yazhou garrison is currently equipped with bird muskets and Lumi muskets, and there are quite a lot of them. Some of them are old things from the Wanli period. They can be used to scare people at ordinary times, but it is difficult to use them in actual combat during wartime, because no one knows whether the rusty bird gun will explode when fired. If not for this, the last time Luo Shengdong led his team to sneak attack Chuanzhong, they would not have suffered a casualty ratio of fifteen to zero.
Of course, Tao Donglai's statement is actually watery, because if Chuanzhong wants to manufacture firearms on a large scale, it will definitely adopt a production method in which parts are processed separately and then assembled on an assembly line. And this so-called "one day" is actually based on the cost. Calculated in working hours, the actual time required is more than this number. But even so, the industrialized manufacturing method will leave its counterparts in the Ming Dynasty far behind in terms of production efficiency, and correspondingly, there is a huge gap in manufacturing costs.
It is recorded in the "Book of Divine Weapons" written by Zhao Shizhen, a firearms expert in the Ming Dynasty, that "the value of a Kuang gun is only the cost of one person's settlement and one month of food." According to the prices at that time, the settlement fee of a soldier varied from region to region, and was about Between five and twelve taels. The higher-precision Lumi Gun has a more sophisticated and complex craftsmanship, so its cost is almost doubled. According to what Luo Shengdong learned from his father, during the Wanli period, the Ministry of War's purchase price for these Rumi guns distributed to the border troops by the imperial court was around twenty taels of silver, while the bird guns were also around ten taels of silver. Although they were expensive, Ming Dynasty gritted its teeth and widely equipped its troops with individual firearms, mainly bird guns.
Luo Shengdong was now quite familiar with the time traveling people, so he told some of what he knew. After listening, Tao Donglai asked Wang Tom: "How about it? How much advantage can our products have in terms of cost?"
Wang Tom shook his head and said: "It's useless for you to ask me this. I'm just a technical person, not a cost management person. I only know that our matchlock gun will definitely be lower than the price Luo Ba said, but as for how much lower, you have to Ask the person in charge of this project.”
Luo Shengdong shook his head and said: "No need to bother, this gun is excellent, but even if the price is low, Yazhou Water Village does not have the right to purchase it on its own. To change ordnance, at least it must be reported to Qiongzhou Fucheng."< br>
Tao Donglai sighed, shook his head and sighed: "Bureaucracy hurts people!"
However, this matchlock gun is still in the trial production stage. Even if small batch production begins, it will definitely be equipped with militia troops first. As for exporting arms, it is unlikely in the short term. At least it will have to wait until the technical department has made a flintlock gun with higher technical content to ensure that there is a technological generation gap between its own armaments and the exported arms. Therefore, Tao Donglai is not too anxious about exporting arms. Since Luo Shengdong has stated that there are still difficulties, it is better to take it step by step.
(End of chapter)