Daqin Engineering Corps

I thought of a way to do this:

He first made an iron sheet, then rolled the iron sheet into a small hollow tube, filled it with graphite powder and closed both ends.

After the molten iron is poured, quickly insert this iron rod into the clay mold... The iron pipe has a certain thickness, and it is not so easy to melt in the molten iron, so it can maintain the approximate position and fuse with the iron cannon .

The graphite powder in the iron pipe has a melting point as high as 3600 degrees, which is much higher than the 1500 degrees of molten iron, so it will never melt and stretch the iron sheet.

After the mold is cooled, just cut off the two ends of the iron pipe and pour out the graphite powder, and a slender hole will be formed.

After listening to the introduction, Shen Bing couldn't help but admire the wisdom of the ancients. They can always use the simplest method to complete seemingly complicated things.

However, looking at the iron-cored copper cannon on the wooden frame, I was a little confused, and asked the same question as Wang Ben:

"General, what is the use of us making this copper and iron pipe?"

"This thing weighs more than seven hundred catties, I'm afraid it will be difficult to use on the battlefield..."

The more than 300 catties in Qin Dynasty are actually only more than [-] catties in modern times.

The reason why Shen Bing didn't make it bigger was not because he didn't have copper and iron, but because he thought he would take it to march in the desert in the future... More than 300 kilograms is the upper limit of the long-distance transportation of camels, and it is really impossible to use a horse-drawn cart Dressing is no problem.

Shen Bing didn't explain much, just took a cylindrical medicine bag from Wang Ben's hand and stuffed it in.

Of course, a wooden stick should be used to poke the medicine bag into the medicine chamber and plug it tightly.

Then put a solid iron ball in, and use a wooden stick to push it to the bottom to prevent it from getting stuck in the middle.

Then, take a long needle from the fire door to pierce the medicine bag, pull out the long needle and insert it into the fuse that has been made a long time ago... This fuse can actually be replaced by gunpowder directly, that is, use a long needle to pierce the medicine bag. After breaking the powder bag, pour the gunpowder from the fire door.

Since the fire door is just a small hole, it will be filled with gunpowder soon, so an ignition channel connecting the inside and the outside is formed.

But it is clear that fuses are much safer than gunpowder.

Because once the operation is not done properly, the gunpowder will be scattered everywhere, and it is easy to ignite the explosive package placed outside and cause an accident.

On the other hand, firing with gunpowder basically fires at one point, and the fuse will have a little time delay so that the gunner who ignites has time to avoid it.

Of course, ancient soldiers who had never operated artillery would not have experience in this area, so Shen Bing would rather spend more time on someone making fuses.

After everything was ready, Shen Bing took out the fire folder under the suspicious eyes of everyone.

Just as he was about to light the fire, he was stopped by Wang Ben:

"General, let your subordinates do these trivial things for you."

"The general should stay away!"

Wang Ben knew that the medicine bag contained gunpowder, and it was not a joke, so he asked Shen Bing to avoid it.

Shen Bing didn't refuse either. After all, he wasn't sure if the cannon could be made. What if the first shot exploded because the manufacturing process was outdated?

However, if you think about it this way, you should let a personal guard order it.

But it was too late, just when Shen Bing thought so, Wang Ben had already ignited the fire pocket and then moved a little to the fuse... The fuse immediately jumped sparks and drilled into the cannon body.

After a while, there was only a loud "boom", and everyone saw that the cannon body vibrated violently and turned over to one side...but the cannon mount was unstable.

What Shen Bing thought in his mind was that the gun mount should be improved, or a pair of wheels should be installed so that it can better consume the recoil instead of sticking to the ground.

Moreover, after the wheels are installed, it is also convenient for maneuvering on the battlefield. For example, it can be directly dragged by a horse when transferring.

Looking at the crowd again, they all stared at the cannon in a daze, and it took them a while to react, and asked Shen Bing suspiciously:

"General, is that so?"

"This thing... is scaring away the enemy with a loud noise?"

Shen Bing let out an "uh", and then realized that they didn't know that the shell had been fired in the process.

It's not their fault either.

The shells flew out very fast, and at the same time there was a thick smoke from the muzzle, and the loud noise scared them out of their wits... Who would pay attention to whether something flew out of the muzzle.

Shen Bing smiled, and said to the guards on both sides:

"Go two hundred steps forward and look for the bullet!"

The guard was stunned:

"Project?"

"The general is talking about the iron ball?"

Shen Bing nodded angrily:

"It's the iron ball, if you find it, point it out!"

Chapter 4 Range

The personal guard walked forward suspiciously.

When he thought about it, the solid iron ball weighed at least tens of kilograms, so how could he hit it two hundred steps away.

But the more he walked forward, the more frightened he became, because there was indeed a crater smashed by a heavy object at about [-] steps...

The direction of the iron ball is mainly forward when it is shot with a relatively straight trajectory, and because it is spherical instead of the cone shape of modern shells, it will jump forward in the way of "floating in the water" on the ground.

The personal guard had a look of disbelief, could it be that this iron ball can hit three hundred steps?

In fact, this is the ignorance of the guards. The effective range of iron core copper cannons similar to this series is 500 meters, and the maximum range can reach 1500 meters.

Although the quality of the iron-core copper cannon made by Shen Bing is slightly inferior due to the production process, raw materials and other reasons, it is still no problem to shoot 45 steps away. Six hundred steps.

In the end, the guards found the iron ball four hundred steps away, and they waved the command flag excitedly and somewhat suspiciously.

The reason for saying "suspicious" is because they were not sure if the iron ball itself was found by them by chance at that moment!

Wang Ben, Li Yan and others couldn't help but change their colors one after another.

With excitement in his eyes, Wang Ben said:

"General, this thing can throw a solid iron ball more than four hundred steps?"

Li Yan looked at the iron core copper cannon and said:

"This...is this a trebuchet? A trebuchet that can throw iron bullets!"

"And the range is much farther than the trebuchet!"

After all, I am a blacksmith. I knew that the iron ball would roll when it hit the ground, so I said:

"The range of this thing may not be more than four hundred steps!"

Shen Bing did not explain, and replied:

"How about I wait and try again?"

As he spoke, he ordered his guards to lift the cannon up, and at the same time put stones under the cannon mount to make the cannon elevation angle roughly 45 degrees... The reason why the 45-degree angle was not used in the design is because the cannon is used for siege, especially for destroying city walls A 45-degree angle is not required.

Although the 45-degree angle can hit the farthest, but at the same time the trajectory is too high and parabolic, so that the hit rate will decrease in series.

On the other hand, there is basically no equipment with a range of more than [-] steps in this era, which means that the artillery can safely attack within [-] steps, so increasing the range is not very important at present.

This time it will be a little more troublesome, because the residue in the barrel must be removed.

Everything else was operated as before, and then there was a "boom", and another iron ball was shot... This time, because everyone was mentally prepared, they all saw clearly that something flew from the muzzle of the gun. It went out, then landed far away and disappeared.

The distance was too far, and everyone could only vaguely see sand splashing in the distance.

After a while, Wang Ben sighed:

"This thing only has a range of [-] steps, at least it has a range of [-] steps!"

In ancient times, there was no such thing as "effective range", and trebuchets did not have "effective range".

"Effective range" should be the concept of modern rifles... When the speed of bullets and shells exceeds the speed of sound, the flight is relatively stable, and the spread area is small, so the distance traveled at the speed of sound is probably the "effective range".

The reason why I say "probably" is that some firearms are relatively rough and vibrate, and the spread area at the speed of sound is beyond the acceptable range, so the "effective range" is closer, such as AK47.

On the contrary, some rifles are less affected by air resistance after exceeding the speed of sound due to their precision manufacturing, small vibration and small bullet size, and their spread area is still within an acceptable range, so the "effective range" is longer, such as the M16.

Qin Shi didn't have supersonic equipment at all, so the distance he could hit was called the range.

Shen Bing ignored these.

In fact, at least at this time, Shen Bing didn't need to pay attention to these things.

How to bomb the random artillery from [-] paces away, what range and effective range should be considered...

However, it is necessary to improve in terms of convenient handling and maneuverability.

After thinking about it, Shen Bing designed several handles for the cannon.

These carrying handles are integrated with the gun hoop and are distributed on both sides of the gun body. They can be hoisted with ropes through them, and can also be used as handles for manual handling.

In addition...

Let's add cannon ears!

The so-called gun lugs are two cylindrical protrusions added to the middle and rear of the gun body, one on the left and one on the right. The gun body can be rotated around its axis, so the pitch angle can be adjusted.

If the pitch angle is fixed, it will be embarrassing to find that the city wall cannot be hit when transported to the battlefield.

In addition, as mentioned before, it also needs to be equipped with wheels.

And because it is to maneuver on the desert, wider wheels are needed to increase the contact surface with the ground, so as to avoid being stuck in the sand and unable to move.

While thinking and drawing, a gun carriage appeared soon, which looked a bit like the old-fashioned artillery used in western movies.

Then Shen Bing handed the sketch to Qiao and said:

"Let's make it according to this style, twenty doors!"

"Each door is equipped with at least one hundred projectiles!"

In response, he carefully took the sketch.

Only then did Wang Ben dare to ask:

"General, does this thing have a name?"

Shen Bing replied:

"artillery!"

Wang Ben nodded and said:

"The name also has an image."

"A cannon that shoots projectiles with gunpowder, hence the name cannon!"

After being told by Wang Ben, Shen Bing found out that it was really...

The ancients called the trebuchet a "cannon", so isn't this cannon fired with fire a cannon?

It's just because it is fired with fire, so the "cannon" next to the stone character has to be changed to the "cannon" next to the fire character.

This artillery is not invented and finished.

Then came artillery training.

Shen Bing directly transferred several batches of the three-bow bed crossbowmen in Li Yan's army.

The reason is that the firing of this artillery is actually the same principle as the firing of the three-bow bed crossbow, such as adjusting the pitch angle.

On the other hand, these three-bow-bed crossbowmen were originally tasked with launching the "thunderbolt fireball", and finally they have been exposed to gunpowder and know its power, so they are more vigilant and know that this is not a joke.

In fact, it is the soldiers who need to be more cautious when transporting the ammunition packages...they push a cart of ammunition packages and follow the artillery to supply them at any time.

If this cart of medicine packs is accidentally ignited or an accident occurs, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Therefore, Shen Bing formulated a series of systems.

The first is that the ammunition package must be far enough away from the artillery, and then send one ammunition package at a time... I would rather trouble and ensure safety.

Secondly, except for the artillery who is responsible for lighting the fire, the rest of the soldiers must be isolated from combustibles, especially fire pockets.

Not only can you not use it yourself, but you must also set up a cordon around it to prevent idlers from entering.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be wrong for a spy to detonate it by throwing a torch over?

So this is not only equipped with artillery, but also guards for vigilance.