Daqin Engineering Corps

Chapter 415 Cannonball

Each cannon is prepared with 50 men, and ten horses and five carriages are also allocated.

This caused Shen Bing a bit of a headache. Originally, he thought it would be great to only need a dozen or 20 people for a cannon, but he didn't expect to find many problems when he entered the preparation stage.

For example, how many people are needed to maneuver and operate the gun carriage?

At least 20 people are needed, and it is still under the condition of horsepower.

In addition, there are those who transport ammunition packages, those who transport projectiles, those who are responsible for fuses and spare gunpowder, etc., all of which require someone to have a carriage.

After seven calculations and eight calculations, it turned out that there were no 50 people who seemed unable to move.

At this time, Shen Bing was envious of modern self-propelled artillery... everything was installed in one car, and only a few people needed to control it, and he could go wherever he wanted when he stepped on the accelerator.

If 50 people are assigned to one cannon, 1000 men are needed for [-] cannons.

This is not a small loss for Qin Jun.

Some of these tasks seem to be entrusted to laborers or newly recruited soldiers from the Yuezhi, such as delivering projectiles.

But firstly, this will not save many people, secondly, it will cause confusion when joining the Yuezhi soldiers because they do not understand the language, and thirdly, the Yuezhi soldiers are not well educated and clumsy...

Shen Bing was worried that something would happen, so he simply used all Qin soldiers.

Before the artillery is built, the model is used for training.

This model is actually a two-wheeled gun mount, on which a piece of wood with the same length and size as the gun is added, and then soldiers are allowed to practice maneuvering and gun handling.

Only the shells were real.

The production of this spherical cannonball owes a lot of effort.

At this time, most of the iron wares were cast and then forged with molds. It was not easy to make them into a spherical shape that was about the same size as the inner diameter of the gun barrel.

If the shell is small, there will be serious air leakage and too little power, and if the shell is too big, it will not fit in.

The best way is to make shells of suitable size out of wood first.

Then use this shell to press out a half spherical clay mold.

Then fuse the two hemispheres together and adjust slightly.

With this method, the production speed is fast and the error is small, and hundreds of pieces will be produced in a short time and directly used for training.

However, a new problem still emerged during training: it is inconvenient to use a fire pocket to light a fire.

Although the fire folder is carried with you and you can blow it up if you want to use it.

But it is an open fire after all, and the gunner will inevitably be stained with gunpowder powder when operating the cannon, so the clothes on his body are easily ignited and cause accidents.

On the other hand, fire pockets are used to ignite fire after all. It can be used many times if it is not ignited, but it only burns out in about 1 minute after it is ignited.

Therefore, the gunner needs to frequently put out the fire, blow it up, light the fuse, and then put out the fire...

The substitute that Shen Bing thought of was matchlock.

The production of this fire rope is very simple, that is, to dry the slender plants and weave them into thin ropes.

If the string is not flammable, you can add some gunpowder powder to it according to the situation.

When you want to use it, ignite one end and blow it out, so it will always keep sparks and slowly carbonize, just like the incense used for worshiping Buddha.

Then it is much safer to use this matchstick to ignite the fuse. Not only can it be used for a long time, but it can also be ignited at a distance.

It took three weeks before and after, and the twenty cannons were built one after another.

At this time, the artillerymen have been trained to know how to operate with their eyes closed.

Only then did Shen Bing let them use real cannons and replace them with real medicine packs.

Then a few days later the first test launch began...

Although the artillerymen had been mentally prepared for a long time, they were still stunned by the successive "booming" explosions of the artillery, and some of them even sat on the ground for a long time and couldn't get up.

This was expected by Shen Bing, and it was exactly the effect he wanted.

Li Yan, who had tried the artillery for a long time, became imposing at this moment, and shouted at the soldiers:

"The sound of cannons can scare you like this. How can you use cannons to fight the enemy if you are on the battlefield?"

"Get up!"

Li Yan's appearance made Shen Bing feel a little funny, and he was not much better when he tested the cannon for the first time before.

During this period, Qiu came to ask once:

"General, why are there always thunderous noises in the direction of the iron smelting workshop recently?"

"Could it be that the general trains with the 'thunderbolt fireball'?"

Shen Bing let out an "oh" and replied:

"exactly."

"Your Majesty does not know that the 'Thunderbolt Fireball' is a powerful weapon for defending the city."

"And the Huns also have 'thunderbolt fireball' in their hands."

"Shen Bing is thinking hard about countermeasures!"

After saying this, Qiu understood.

He also knew that the Xiongnu had "thunderbolt fireballs". Back then, the Xiongnu gave Yuezhi a few.

So the Qin army and the Xiongnu couldn't afford to provoke them. Both sides had "thunderbolt fireballs" blowing up and down, and the Yuezhi could only tremble in the middle.

But Qiu certainly didn't expect that for Qin Jun, this "Thunderbolt Fireball" had long been behind.

During the training of the soldiers, Shen Bing was thinking about another idea in his head:

Now that the artillery has been assembled, it can't just let it attack a city and be done.

The main enemy of the Qin army has always been the Xiongnu, and the biggest threat has always been the cavalry in the grassland area.

Can artillery deal with steppe cavalry?

Shen Bing is skeptical about this.

It should be said that artillery can definitely be used to deal with cavalry, but the artillery that fires solid iron balls in Shen Bing's hands cannot.

Not only can it not deal with cavalry, it does not even have a great advantage against infantry.

There have been examples of this in history.

There is a place called Burgundy in what is now France...it was not part of France at that time, it was called the Duchy of Burgundy.

This Burgundy is equipped with a large number of artillery, and then arrogantly thinks that it can expand its territory.

As a result, they fought against the Swiss phalanx, which was only equipped with backward equipment such as spears and halberds, but they were defeated several times and even died because of it.

The reason, on the one hand, was that the artillery fire rate was too slow at that time and had many limitations, and it could only fire ten volleys in the face of infantry charges.

On the other hand, the artillery fires solid bullets, which are actually not very lethal.

The direct result of this battle was that Swiss mercenaries became famous in Europe, and all countries were proud of being able to hire Swiss soldiers.

It is conceivable that if this kind of artillery that fires solid bullets has no advantage against infantry, how effective will it be against cavalry who come and go like the wind?

And when they went to the battlefield and drove to the grassland, these thousand soldiers could only control twenty cannons... How about giving each of them a crossbow!

Thinking about it, Shen Bing felt that it was necessary to expand the power of the artillery.

For example, changing solid bullets to sporadic bullets.

Or change the solid bullet to a high-explosive bullet...

This is especially the high-explosive shells charged. If such shells come out, they will not be comparable to bows and crossbows.

Because it not only hits far, but also explodes and shoots shrapnel among the enemies...

Chapter 416 Fuze

The development of artillery shells can be described by the word "urgent".

This is mainly determined by the establishment of the artillery unit.

If the artillery unit is as small as Shen Bing thought before, that is, a cannon only needs a dozen people and a few horses, then it doesn't matter whether to develop more powerful artillery shells.

There are more than a dozen people for one cannon, and there are only more than 200 people for twenty cannons.

If there is an emergency, the more than 200 people can be covered by the main force.

But now one cannon requires 50 men, and twenty cannons have become a large establishment of 1000 men... This is a long line in the marching team.

And because these artillery are the main force of transportation, they must be light and simple:

They are either responsible for the maneuvering and control of the artillery, or they are responsible for the transportation of the ammunition packs and shells. They can't hold a long gun in one hand and push it in the other, or carry a few arrow pots on their backs!

The most he can carry is a bronze sword for self-defense.

What if they were raided by the Huns on the way?

Does that mean there is no defense at all?

Although this trip is to attack the city, it is more than a thousand miles away and the Xiongnu still has [-] cavalry troops watching the delay.

I can't tell when I will fight with the Huns cavalry in the desert area.

Thinking of this, Shen Bing no longer hesitated, and immediately drew a sketch and handed it over to Qiao to make it.

Charged high-explosive bombs are actually not complicated.

The difficulty is actually the fuze.

The original high-explosive bombs were directly loaded with fuses, ignited, stuffed into the cannon, and then ignited the charge to launch them.

Needless to say, the shortcomings of this launch method.

The first is too dangerous.

The shell that ignited the fuse is ready to be fired in the barrel. What if something happens and it is not fired?

For example, the propellant package is damp, the fuse is damp, or the fuse burns slowly...then blow yourself up with a "boom".

Another disadvantage is the high misfire rate.

The ignited fuse is likely to be smashed out when the shell falls to the ground... If the side of the fuse happens to be facing the ground, it will become a dud if it hits hard.

Thus, it was almost at the cost of the lives of the artillerymen to fire shells, and at least a third of the shells failed to explode.

No need to think about this plan, it was immediately abandoned by Shen Bing.

Another safer and more scientific solution is to make wooden fuzes.

This wooden fuze is a small long tapered wooden stick as thick as a little finger, with a hollow in the middle filled with hard gunpowder that burns very stably.

When you want to use it, insert it into the fuze hole reserved for the shell, and insert it directly into the barrel without ignition.

When the gun is fired, the burning charge will ignite the fuse, and then the shell will fly to the enemy's position and explode.

If there is any trouble, it is that it must ensure that the end of the fuze is facing away from the charge pack.

Otherwise, the huge impact force when the charge is ignited will "stuff" the entire wooden fuze into the shell, which will ignite the shell and explode the chamber.

The way to solve this problem is to fix the shells on a cylindrical wooden support with grooves.

The shell produced in this way has an overall resemblance to modern pistol bullets.

It actually slides into the barrel so that one end of the fuze is always facing the other side.

When the cannon is ignited, the chamber is instantly filled with flame, igniting the fuze before the shell is pushed out of the chamber.

This shell was still in use during the American Civil War.

What Shen Bing wanted was this shell.

It only takes a few simple steps:

One, a hollow sphere.

Second, a cylindrical wooden support with grooves.