Chapter 059 I want a k47

The Ming army's firearms had poor quality and often had a close relationship with the poor raw materials. Iron was divided into pig iron and cooked iron, which was more suitable for making firearms, which was better tough. However, the cost of cooked iron was relatively high. In order to save costs, military weapons and military battles used a large amount of brittle pig iron to make firearms, and the result was naturally conceivable. If steel was used to make firearms, the probability of blowing the firearms would definitely be greatly reduced. However, in that case, the cost would have to be doubled several times. This was something that the court could not bear.

Xu Xingxia pondered for a moment and said, "Since that's the case, I'll build fifty pieces first!"

With the original thirty, Xu Xingxia now has eighty black feather arrows, which is basically enough. After all, the power of the human body has its limit. Eighty arrows can basically take away all Xu Xingxia's strength. From the perspective of the Tatars, after 80 people died, no one should continue to attack Niujiao Dun. It is not worth the loss to sacrifice eighty lives for a small beacon fire Dun.

The total price of fifty black feather arrows was sixty taels of silver. Xu Xingxia immediately took out twelve silver ingots and handed them to Guo Fuquan. Each silver ingot was five taels, which happened to be sixty taels. Guo Fuquan immediately stated that he could deliver the goods in just ten days. It took ten days to create fifty black feather arrows, which made Xu Xingxia deeply feel that the production efficiency was really low. But there was no way, the production conditions at that time were like this.

After solving his black feather arrow, Xu Xingxia continued: "Now, let's talk about the musket."

When they heard that Xu Xingxia was going to build a musket, the four craftsmen were immediately excited again. Muskets were a long-term transaction. Even the most skilled craftsmen would take three months to build a complete musket. As long as Niujiao Dun pays to build ten muskets, their dozen craftsmen would have several months to worry about making a living.

Of course, Xu Xingxia wanted to build a musket, but it was not a whim. As a time traveler from later generations, it was impossible not to pay attention to the development of muskets. It was completely a reversal of history. Why can muskets gradually replace bows and arrows and become the main equipment of the army? The most critical reason is not the power of muskets, but the low cost of muskets, large-scale popularization, and rapid training speed. These are the prerequisites for the human sea tactics.

In fact, in the 44th year of Wanli, the power of the Ming army's muskets was not as powerful as traditional bows and arrows. The most powerful flying bird gun in the Ming army had an effective range of sixty or seventy meters, which was not as good as the Mongols' compound bows. However, the biggest feature of the musket is that it is simple to operate and easy to train. After three months of training, a military household who knows nothing can basically operate the muskets and shoot. Accurate shooting is impossible, and it is still possible to queule and shoot. The training of bows and arrows will basically not have obvious results without three or five years.

In terms of cost alone, the cost of bows and arrows is also higher than that of muskets. Making muskets is only iron and wood. Bows and arrows are different. The materials required for bows and arrows are very complex. In addition to wood, bones and tendons of animals and plants, glue, sticky paint, etc. To make a bow, the entire process will take about a year. A musket can usually be made in just a few months. If the assembly line of later generations is used and the division of labor and cooperation is used, the manufacturing speed will be faster.

However, Xu Xingxia was very dissatisfied with the muskets currently used by the Ming army. Such muskets are a bit difficult to even line up, let alone anything else. At present, the muskets used by Ningxia Town and Guards, whether they are the most common bird-beak guns, or the slightly more advanced flying bird guns, Thunder guns, or the three-eyed Thunder guns, are all flint guns. This kind of musket is too bad. Not to mention it on rainy days, its power and range are not satisfactory. What Xu Xingxia needs is a flintlock gun, a flintlock gun that can be fired on rainy days.

Of course, when it comes to flintlock rifles, Xu Xingxia estimated that these craftsmen would find it difficult to understand. Therefore, he decided to start slowly from the most basic common sense, put forward his own demands step by step to see if they can be realized. It is one thing to have needs, and it is another thing to do with existing technology. He wanted an ak47 and made all the Tatars rattle, but unfortunately he couldn't do it. He poured a cup of rough tea for each craftsman and said with interest: "You tell me about the production of the flying bird gun first."

A craftsman named Zhao Mengji seemed to be specializing in the production of muskets, and he held a teacup to explain in detail. According to his introduction, Xu Xingxia found that the production process of the Ming army's muskets was really complicated. It was not easy to improve the technology. He wanted to quickly form a powerful musket team, and rely on the castle and favorable terrain to block the Tatar cavalry, and his hope of blocking the Tatar cavalry was soon lost.

Take the most common bird gun as an example, it can be seen that the production of bird guns is the first of all the gun barrels, and the most important thing is the gun barrel. After burning the cooked iron made of the gun barrel, tap it on a steel core, roll it into an iron tube, cool it and wrap it on the second layer outside, tap it finely and after reaching a certain thickness, the steel core is extracted, and a section of the gun barrel is considered to be completed.

After making several sections of gun barrels, they must be welded one by one. This link is very critical. If it is not welded well, it is easy to explode the bore. A large part of the reason why Mingjun Muskets explode the borehole appears in this link. After the preliminary gun barrel is completed, the borehole must be drilled out with a steel cone and the accuracy is correct. This link takes the longest time, sometimes it can be as long as one month. If the technology is not enough, two months are also possible.

Then, the bore is scraped with steel bars, and then there are various assembly. Equip the ignition pool, assemble the ammunition pool, assemble the butt stock... etc. According to the production process of the Ming army, a musket, from beginning to end, is produced by the same craftsman. Therefore, it takes as long as three months to create a bird gun. With such production efficiency, you can imagine what the consequences will be.

Xu Xingxia frowned and said, "How much does a flying bird gun cost?"

Zhao Mengji said cautiously: "A hundred households make bird guns with a weight of six kilograms, but they consume a lot of iron. Forty kilograms of iron, and in the end, only seven or eight kilograms of fine iron is refined, which costs a lot. If pig iron is used, the quality cannot be guaranteed."

According to his estimate, plus the iron price, charcoal price, craftsman's wages and food, and other expenses, the cost of a bird gun is between three and five taels of silver, which is indeed not a small amount. It should be noted that muskets are winning by scale. If there are not a thousand or hundreds of them at the same time, there will be basically no effect. In fact, even if one thousand muskets are fired at the same time, the effect will not be very good. The hit rate of the smoothbore gun is indeed too low.

In response to the low quality problem in the Ming army, Zhao Mengji pointed out incisively: "Sir, the reason why bird guns are prone to explosions is that they are insufficient materials and are filled with too much pig iron. Second, craftsmen take tricks when making, and their thickness is uneven in thickness. Especially in the welding of gun barrels, many craftsmen have insufficient skills, causing bird guns to explode. However, as long as the adults provide sufficient materials, the small ones can create excellent muskets for adults."

Xu Xingxia nodded and expressed her teaching. Then, he slowly tentatively said, "Do you know how to make a flintlock rifle?"

Guo Fuquan and others shook their heads a little confused.

Zhao Mengji asked curiously: "Sir, what is a flintlock rifle?"

Xu Xingxia felt a little bad. It seems that they had never heard of the name of the flintlock rifle, so there was no need to expect them to make it. However, the flintlock rifle is a must for Xu Xingxia. Even if these craftsmen don’t understand, he would encourage these craftsmen to study it as much as possible. There was no way, so Xu Xingxia had to explain it slowly.

For him, a time traveler, he must use a flintlock rifle to replace the flintlock rifle and a rifled rifle to replace the smoothbore rifle. Only in this way can the power of the musket be improved as much as possible, strengthen the lethality to the enemy as much as possible, and reduce his own losses as much as possible. The research conditions for the rifled rifle are not yet mature, so Xu Xingxia can only find a solution to the flintlock rifle now.

In fact, the technology of the flintlock rifle is not profound. Even without him as a time traveler, Bi Maokangming, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, would have invented the flintlock rifle about twenty years later. Unfortunately, by that time, it was already the mid-Chongzhen period. The completely exhausted court finances, the completely collapsed military command system, and the crumbling ruling structure were destined to be unable to play a role. By that time, no matter how advanced the weapon was, it would not be able to save the crisis. However, if the flintlock rifle appeared twenty years earlier, the flintlock rifle would have a place to be used.

In fact, the structure of the flint gun and the flintlock gun is similar, and even the plate machine system is the same. The only difference is in the fire device. One is to make fire by burning, and the other is to make fire by using a flint hammer to make flint. In fact, they are all things of the same idea. The only thing that is technically difficult is that the flintlock gun requires gears.

However, the manufacturing technology of gears is not complicated. China began to use gears about 400 BC. The Ming Dynasty also made gears in large quantities. During the Jiajing period, Zeng Mian, the governor of Shaanxi three sides, at that time, invented a landmine, which used colorful depictions and decorated large jars filled with gunpowder, which were known as colorful spider mines.
Chapter completed!