The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 93 Gun Test
Yue Wenxuan asked, "You started out with nothing, right? You first learned how to use spears and swords from your master, and then you were transferred to using muskets?"

Li Tiezhu nodded: "Yes, I started out knowing nothing."

Yue Wenxuan: "How long have you been studying? What do you know now?"

Li Tiezhu scratched his head awkwardly. "I've been learning for over two months now. I can make knives, spear tips, wolf-whip whisks, halberds, etc. But the craftsmen are still not very satisfied with the shapes. They're just barely usable, not great."

Yue Wenxuan: "You're considered a fast learner, right?"

Li Tiezhu was a little proud: "I am the fastest among my group of apprentices."

Yue Wenxuan pondered. It had taken him over two months to learn how to forge some cold weapons, and the resulting shapes weren't standard. That was considered fast for the era. It would take him at least a year to master the art of forging firearms. Others were even slower, meaning it would be at least a year before the rebels had a critical mass of "real" blacksmiths.

Only these real blacksmiths can learn rifling!
Before that, we could only use smoothbore guns.

Forget it, let it be a smoothbore gun. Anyway, as long as there are enough of them, they can be quite powerful.

When their numbers are small, they are interspersed in the cold weapon army to provide auxiliary services.

Yue Wenxuan suddenly felt playful...

Young boys, who doesn't want to get a real gun and shoot a few guns? But ordinary people can't get guns, and even if they want to play with them, they can't. Now there is a chance to play with a musket in the sandbox, and it would be a waste not to play with it.

Yue Wenxuan walked up to Qian Zhuoqun with a bird gun in his hand and asked, "Have you made the gunpowder?"

Qian Zhuoqun was busy allocating food. Upon hearing this, he quickly saluted and said, "General Qi Tian, ​​I don't know the answer to this question either. Send someone to ask the immortal craftsman on the hillside immediately."

On the rocky slope outside Dongmiaozi Village, a new gunpowder workshop has been built. A Ming Dynasty-era plastic gunpowder maker, with several apprentices, works inside. Because gunpowder is dangerous, the workshop is kept far away and easily forgotten by the villagers.

The person sent by Qian Zhuoqun asked and quickly returned with a large bag of gunpowder, handing it to Yue Wenxuan: "General Qi Tian, ​​the immortal craftsman said that they have gunpowder, but not much now. This is it."

"Well, these will be available soon."

Yue Wenxuan went into the firearms blacksmith's room again and grabbed a handful of bullets.

Ming Dynasty blacksmiths already knew how to make lead bullets, but the rebel army currently had no lead mines, so they could only use iron bullets.

The "accuracy" and "power" of iron bullets are not as good as lead bullets, so they can only be used as a makeshift.

As for the lead mines, his father had told him that they were found alongside the gold mines in Zhaoyuan. Also, in Qixia Road, Penglai County, Dengzhou, Qiu Chuji's hometown, there were lead mines, very close to Laiyang County. Yue Wenxuan had secretly facilitated the rebel army's march to Laiyang County to suppress the bandits, in order to expand the rebel army's effective control towards Zhaoyuan and Penglai counties.

We have bird guns, gunpowder, and bullets.

Yue Wenxuan was possessed by Qi Jiguang at this time, and Qi Jiguang knew how to use a bird gun, so he had the skill. He grabbed a handful of gunpowder, measured the amount and found it was about three cents, stuffed it into the barrel, and then put in a small iron bullet. When it was halfway in, he poked it with a stick, and kept poking it to the bottom of the barrel to make it solid.

Open the "fire door" behind the barrel and insert a fuse.

When it was time to light the fire, Yue Wenxuan realized that he didn't have a fire starter.

He had no choice but to wave to Madam Gong Er: "Madam Er, do you have a fire starter?"

The second lady shook her head awkwardly: "I don't have any on me either."

Wu Jialiang raised his hand: "I have it."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small cylinder. He opened the lid and blew hard. Fire instantly burst out of it, emitting bursts of pine scent. This was a high-end fire starter!

The poor people's fire starters were all rolled with straw paper, and when they burned they only had the ordinary smell of burning paper. However, Wu Jialiang's fire starters were also added with sulfur, rosin, camphor... and other random things, which made them fragrant when burned. It was a luxury product.

He came over with a tinderbox like he was presenting a treasure, his face etched with curiosity. "General Qi, what do you want with the tinderbox? To light this strange iron pipe? Could this thing be... a rocket launcher?"

It turned out that the curious baby Wu Jialiang had long been eyeing the bird gun in Yue Wenxuan's hand.

He had been secretly observing the "Heavenly General". He had seen clearly a series of actions, including Yue Wenxuan chatting with the blacksmith, taking the gunpowder, and loading the gunpowder into the bird gun. He had long been very curious about the function of this thing.

But due to his status, he couldn't ask directly.

Now, taking the opportunity to offer fire sticks, come here quickly to satisfy your curiosity.

Yue Wenxuan didn't want to hide it from him, so it was okay for him to see it.

He took the tinderbox and said with a smile, "Mr. Jialiang, you're here at the right time. I'll show you something fun. This isn't a rocket, it's called a fire gun. It's quite interesting."

Wu Jialiang: "I'd like to see it for myself."

Yue Wenxuan turned his eyes and looked at the wall next to him.

He didn't dare to shoot at targets that were too small because the hit rate of the smoothbore gun was very touching. Although some historical materials said that the bird gun could shoot down flying birds very accurately, he only dared to "selectively believe" such historical materials because the smoothbore gun determined from scientific principles that it could not be accurate.

If a smoothbore gun can be accurate, why do we need a rifled gun?

Rifled guns are more difficult to manufacture and have a slower loading speed. They are inferior to smoothbore guns in terms of economy and ease of use. The only advantage they have over smoothbore guns is "accuracy."

If a smoothbore gun can shoot down a flying bird at a distance of 100 steps, then the rifled gun will lose even its advantage in accuracy. Who would still be so foolish as to make a rifled gun?

The only possible explanation for the bird gun hitting a flying bird is that the bird gun was actually a rifled gun. It is possible that when the smoothbore barrel was being made, the blacksmith's hand slipped, and the inside of the barrel was made uneven, forming early rifling, thereby improving its accuracy.

Each of these handmade guns has a different quality, so it makes perfect sense that one of them would be rifled, right? That's the only way it would make sense.

As for the historical records that said the smoothbore cannon "caused devastation for dozens of miles with one shot", it really doesn't make sense.

Yue Wenxuan raised his musket, aimed it at the wall in front of him, and then lit the fuse...

Wu Jialiang widened his eyes, waiting to see if a "rocket" would fly out of the gun barrel.

There was only a loud "bang" and a cloud of green smoke, which scared Wu Jialiang.

The rebel soldiers nearby and the onlookers were all frightened and turned around to look.

Wu Jialiang's eyes widened, but he didn't see anything flying out of the gun barrel, and he couldn't help but look confused.

But Yue Wenxuan walked to the opposite wall and pointed at a small hole in the wall: "Look here."

Wu Jialiang took a closer look and gasped. A small iron bullet was embedded in the solid brick wall, still smoking. Stone chips burst around it, and ash and powder slid down...

Even a hard brick wall can be punched with a hole, and if it hits a human body, the consequences will be unimaginable.

(End of this chapter)