Looking at the smoke of gunpowder fluttering in the wind, Shi Quanbin said to Du Zhongxiao: "I tried for two days, and it seems that the power of the cannon is just like this. The wall built yesterday cannot be knocked down. Tomorrow, on the Lantern Festival, the lights will be set off in Kaifeng City for three days. I will rush back today to report to the official family. Otherwise, everything will be busy on the three days of the Lantern Festival, and I don't know when I will go."

Du Zhongxiao said: "Taiwei, how thick the city wall can be collapsed depends on how big the cannons are. The power of the cannons is so powerful that they are even bigger, but they are different. However, there is no need to collapse the city walls when siege. As long as the soldiers can climb to the city, it is enough."

Shi Quanbin said: "Then I ask you, how big can the maximum cannon can be?"

Du Zhongxiao thought for a while, shook his head and said, "I haven't tried it, who knows? As long as it can be cast, it can be made bigger."

Shi Quanbin smiled and said, "Can you still cast a cannon worth tens of thousands of pounds? How can such a cannon be used?"

"What's so strange about tens of thousands of jin? You can only afford to invest in the capital, and hundreds of thousands of jin may be able to be cast out."

Du Zhongxiao said that he was also a little suspicious about how big the artillery could be cast. If he remembered correctly, the famous huge bronze cannon should be the cannon used by Ottoman when attacking Constantinople. I don’t know if there were hundreds of thousands of pounds. But I vaguely remember that Ottoman’s final attack on Constantinople did not use cannons to collapse the city walls, but destroyed the defense system and seriously affected the morale of the defenders. Not to mention that giant cannon, there were many tens of thousands of pounds in the Ming and Qing dynasties in history.

Shi Quanbin doesn’t believe that the power of a cannon of a few hundred kilograms is so amazing. If it is tens of thousands of kilograms, would that be great?

After thinking for a while, Shi Quanbin asked again: "The power of the cannon is so amazing. Will the city be useless in the future? What are the ways to prevent the use of cannons to attack the city? If you wait for someone to bombard it there, the city will be broken sooner or later."

Du Zhongxiao smiled and said, "Taiwei, this is a bad word. With cannons, the city will be more useful. Now we have cannons, and we attack the city. If we reverse, we have cannons and we defend the city, then it will look like another way. The best way to prevent cannons from attacking the city is to use cannons to defend the city. If there are such cannons on the top of the city, no matter what kind of siege equipment is used, it will be destroyed in one shot, and the city will not be easier to pass the city."

Shi Quanbin thought about it and said with a smile: "This is true. There are dozens of cannons on the top of the city, and no one cannon cannon cannon be captured. However, if the enemy forces create larger cannons, they still cannot defend them."

Du Zhongxiao said: "When you defend the city, you will cast larger cannons! The cannons on the top of the city are always farther than the cannons on siege, and they always have the upper hand."

This is the importance of the commanding heights in artillery battles. Whoever has a higher artillery position will have a longer range and a wider range. With this convenience, the defenders always have the upper hand. Even if the soil outside the city is piled up into mountains, the city can be suppressed by artillery fire. Beizhou is just bullying the city without artillery.

Of course, this is when both sides are evenly matched, and most siege battles have far less strength than the attacking side.

This involved many problems. Shi Quanbin thought about it for a while but couldn't figure it out, so he stopped thinking. He asked again: "Bachelor, the test guns were all here these days. I wonder if he had cast a larger gun, would it be further shot?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Actually, it's not. For the two types of cannons in the army now, copper cannons are ten times that of small iron cannons, but when they launch cannons, they will hit the same distance. This principle is actually simple. Only when the cannon barrel is thick can more gunpowder be installed and far away. But the shells must be large enough to seal the muzzle, otherwise the medicine will leak out, and the medicine will not work. In this way, the shells will be heavier and the amount of medicine will increase, but they will actually hit the farther."

When making bronze cannons, Du Zhongxiao also thought that the range would be longer when the cannon was large. When the cannon was cast, no matter how it was tried, the optimal range would be similar to that of the iron cannon. Because the barrel was thicker and the charge amount increased, in order to seal the barrel, the projectile was also large and the weight increased. As for using hollow bullets to reduce the weight of the projectile, Du Zhongxiao had never tried it.

Now, whether it is a copper cannon or a small iron cannon, the range is about one mile, which is almost the same. As for the books I have read, there are records that such cannons can hit more than ten miles or even dozens of miles. It can only be said that they are too exaggerated and it is not easy to hit several miles.

If you want to increase the range of the artillery, it is not very useful to increase the caliber. You should have to lengthen the barrel. However, this involves the nature of black gunpowder, which is not as fast as that. In short, this problem is very complicated. Du Zhongxiao has not tried it, and there is no need to try it.

The artillery technology cannot be blocked forever, and it will take many years for enemy countries such as the Khitan and Dangxiang to find ways to obtain relevant technologies. Du Zhongxiao only wants to use the technology to serve as a substitute before spreading it, so that he can stand up for military merits. As long as he wins a strategic advantage, he will not be afraid of technology being spread.

If artillery is widely used on the battlefield, there will inevitably be fewer and fewer attacks and defenses in cities, and more and more field battles. At that time, field artillery will be more powerful against the army and will no longer pursue thicker artillery barrels and greater power.

Du Zhongxiao could feel that the emperor's attitude this time was different from the last time he returned to Beijing, and he became very particular. Judging from Shi Quanbin's attitude, Du Zhongxiao felt that this bronze cannon had already obtained enough for him.

Nearly noon, Shi Quanbin left Xianping County. He wanted to return to the capital before dark and report the results of the test shot to the emperor.

After saying goodbye to Shi Quanbin, Warrior Ning and Du Zhongxiao returned to their residence together, asked for some wine, and drank relatively. After two days, they almost kept knocking down the wall, and Shi Quanbin ordered people to build a thicker one. Warrior Ning and Du Zhongxiao were both tired.

After three rounds of drinking, the soldier Ning said to Du Zhongxiao: "Bachelor, I have made great contributions to Beizhou City this time. Have you ever thought about how the imperial court will reward you?"

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "We are ministers, just thinking about doing our own things well, why bother with those? Don't be afraid of jokes about inheriting the orders. If you study and become an official, who doesn't want to be successful? But even though you know that it's useless to think about it, why bother to think about it?"

The soldier Ning smiled and said, "How do you know it's useless? Bachelor, I have some news here."

Du Zhongxiao was stunned. It was not surprising that Warrior Ning had news. He was the Privy Council and the news was the most informative. What was strange was why he told himself? The relationship between the two was not that deep, and without the instruction from the superiors, Warrior Ning could not speak out. This position is the most demanding.

After thinking for a while, Du Zhongxiao asked, "I don't know what news is there? If it is convenient, can I disclose it?"

The warrior Ning said: "I heard from the ministers in the Privy Council that I wanted the scholars to exchange for military supplies, Chao moved to Zhuangzhai Envoy, took Yaojun, and went to the three border roads to serve as a commander. But I exchanged civil servants for military affairs. In recent years, many civil servants were unwilling to do so, and I wonder what the scholars meant?"

After hearing this, Du Zhongxiao didn't say anything for a moment. Hearing the meaning of War Shi Ning, this was not a leak. It was the chief of the Privy Council who asked him to ask about his meaning. Even the official position was settled, so he nodded.

For civil servants to exchange for military positions, people at this time were called civil officials to change to right positions, and only civil officials under the age of 40 were required to have military officials. The ranks of the military officers were higher, and the salary of military generals was higher than those of civil officials, but their status was lower, and each had its own advantages and disadvantages. There were not many civil officials who actively asked for military positions, but in the past few years, there were still some fighting in the northwest, such as Zhang Kang. Such people were divided into two categories, one was greedy for higher salary, which was exchanged for money. There were also one who had martial arts strategies and wanted to make achievements. Liu Ping and Zhang Kang were this category.

Du Zhongxiao is now a foreign official from the capital, directed to Jixianyuan. He should be the military rank of the gulf and the governor of Yao County. He was promoted to Zhuangzhai Envoy, which was equivalent to being promoted to the third level and was treated quite generously.

If it was a war era and there were opportunities to make meritorious contributions everywhere, Du Zhongxiao would probably agree. If it was changed to a military position, it would be a way to promote his official position first with military achievements. When the war was over, it would be a way to change his official position. When Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi went to Shaanxi, they also changed their military position. After a few years, they would be promoted to the official position several dozens of levels. The main officials of the two back then were not a few levels higher than Du Zhongxiao now. The difference was that they were holding positions that were waiting for the system. Once they changed their military position, they were observant, and they were replaced by jobs, not officials. When they came back from the northwest, they became deputy envoys of Privy Council.
Chapter completed!