Yao Shouxin and Zhang Lin took a few subordinates, and saw Tao Shiqi and several officials together. While explaining, they cut the medicine letter and inserted it into the flowering bullet. After doing it, Tao Shiqi clapped his hands and said, "Taxia, when this bullet is combined with the medicine credit, the medicine letter should be facing forward. The flowering bullet we made is slightly conical, not a perfect circle. As long as we recognize the front and back, we will not be wrong."

Zhang Lin said: "Why should the medicine letter be brought forward? When the cannon is fired, the medicine letter is ignited with gunpowder in the chamber. Wouldn't it be burned forward?"

Tao Shiqi smiled and said, "This principle is something we have tried bit by bit. The shells are made of wooden support. The gunpowder in the chamber is ignited and will not be completely sealed behind the shells, but flames burn in front of the shells. This is the principle. The one who ignites the medicine letter is the flame in front. The medicine letter is made with extremely exquisitely, and it must be completely separated from water when stored, and you must not be careless."

After saying that, Tao Shiqi handed the telescope in his hand to Yao Shouxin and said, "A small flag is erected in front of him, which is exactly where the blossoms are about to fall. Tishi can measure it again, about 500 steps. The cannons and shells are different from before. They have been refined and have a longer range."

Yao Shouxin took the telescope and looked at it. His visual distance was similar to what Tao Shiqi said. He called a special gunner and asked him to retest the small flag on the other side with his eyes. The gunner stretched out his thumb, took turns to retest the test, and made a conspiracy, and said with his hands: "Master of the cannon, the small flag is about 527 steps!"

"Okay, it's enough to hit more than 500 steps away from the flowering bullet." As the artillery commander, Yao Shouxin's range measurement is much stronger than this gunner. As long as he takes a closer look, he will have a rough distance in his heart, and the accuracy will not be worse than this gunner.

The gunners in the army have practiced the ability to measure distance using their eyes. Choose some talented people and teach the distance measurement method of stoke. After a long period of training, the accuracy can be controlled within one step. The principle of the distance measurement method is the same, but to be accurate, it requires talent and long-term training. Going further, you can use your eyes to directly measure distance without the fingers, which requires talent and training. Yao Shouxin is the latter type. The accuracy of observing eyes is not much different from the distance measurement accuracy of stoke eyes, and a large amount of calculation time can be omitted, which is something that others cannot learn.

After re-observing the small flag in the distance with a telescope, Yao Shouxin said: "Then fire a shot and see how accurate it is. Shiqilang, although the new artillery shells in the army have reduced the cost of shells and bullets, gunpowder is still not cheap and needs to be saved. Otherwise, I will fire dozens of cannons and practice various shells before I can talk about it!"

Tao Shiqi said: "I heard from officials about this. The sulfur used for gunpowder has been changed to Jinzhou sulfur. Zhang Qian from the Iron Supervision has put a lot of effort into it. Now it is extremely pure and the price has dropped. The most expensive one now is flame salt. There is no mineral to be mined, so it can only be collected from the public. The amount is large and the price has also risen. Since last year, the salt in the Yizhou area has come and the price has dropped a little."

The main components of gunpowder are charcoal, sulfur and flame nitrogen. As the requirements become higher and higher, the cost is basically stable and not cheap. Charcoal is made of special willow wood. In addition to some designated places, charcoal forests are specially grown for field business. In addition, the refining cost is higher than that of ordinary charcoal, and it is still within the range that the Xiangjun can accept. Due to the large amount used in the army, natural sulfur cannot be used, and there are not many sulfur mines in China. The Jinzhou sulfur used now is just a name, referring to natural sulfur.

Iron ore is actually produced by iron supervision. It can be mass-produced with iron ore, and the cost of sulfur has been controlled. The most difficult thing is flame nitrogen. Flame nitrogen is widely distributed and can be produced in large quantities in Ruzhou, but there is no ore. It is collected and refined from saline-alkali land. When it is artificial, the amount of use is large, and the price will inevitably increase. In recent years, some people in Hedong and western prefectures have made money by collecting flame nitrogen. Now the biggest cost of gunpowder is to purchase flame nitrogen and refine it in the army.

He ordered gunpowder to be loaded into the cannon. Tao Shiqi brought people to carefully put the flowering bullet in, and said, "In the past, it was extremely dangerous to use the flowering bullet. It was not allowed to be used during combat, but only for research purposes. With this method, the flowering bullet is much safer and can be used in large quantities in the army in the future."

Yao Shouxin of course knew the significance of using flowering bullets. After being shot, it exploded quickly after it landed. The artillery was much more powerful. Especially for dense formation enemy troops, it was extremely useful and could kill on a large scale. The flowering bullets were produced by the Iron Supervisor and were well-made. The amount of gunpowder inside was stable and the shell could be uniform. In addition to the iron ball inside being injured, the shell after it was exploded also had lethality.

For safety, there were very few equipment in the army in the past. If the newly made flowering bullets of Iron Supervision were tested and the safety was verified and the lethality was guaranteed, the army would be equipped in a large scale in the future. In field battles, flowering bullets were much more useful than solid bullets.

The gunner stood next to the cannon, loading gunpowder and flowering bullets. Yao Shouxin gave the order and lit the medicine. With a loud bang, a burst of flames appeared from the muzzle, and the shells passed by the flames and smoke.

Before he could recover from the artillery firing, he heard a sound of explosion in the distance, and a burst of smoke and dust rose.

Yao Shouxin waved his hand: "Let's go and see! Whether the flower blossoms are successful or not depends on this shot!"

Several people turned over and headed towards the place where smoke and dust were everywhere five hundred steps away. Soon, they arrived in front of them and saw that the small pile of soil with flags had been blown up and the shells that exploded were extremely conspicuous. Within a few steps, the weeds and small trees were beaten into pieces, and they were in a mess.

Yao Shouxin took people to carefully check and asked someone to draw a rough distribution diagram of the shell and the steel ball inside, divided it into circles, indicating the number of shells and steel balls picked up in each circle, and counting the shell blown out, whether it is complete or the size of the fragments. This is Du Zhongxiao's requirement. When his subordinates report, they try to use numbers to speak, and do not use writing skills to talk in general. This is the difference between technical officials, professional bureaucrats and ordinary officials. It took Du Zhongxiao many years to cultivate such a group of people and form this habit.

Seeing Yao Shouxin finishing his work, Tao Shiqi stepped forward and asked, "How? When I brought the cannon to fight the beef in the past, it was not so detailed."

Yao Shouxin smiled and said, "It has been four or five years since Pobeizhou to the present. How can it be the same as then? Nowadays, the fire of artillery in the army must be calculated carefully. The range, how much medicine is loaded, what bullets are used, everything has rules to follow. The flowering bullet is stable, and the speed of the medicine signal is used for firing, and how long the medicine signal is used for firing. It is best to have a scale on the medicine signal, so that it is better to cut it at that time. It is also necessary to calculate the extent of the flowering bullet explosion. Should it be required to cover artillery fire or focus on strike during wartime, and arrange the artillery according to the maximum range and maximum effective range of the flowering bullet."

Tao Shiqi nodded and was a little fascinated. When he returned from Hedong Road, he was also an artillery commander, commanding the attack on Beizhou. After the city was broken, Beizhou was renamed Enzhou, which was also a witness to history. When he arrived at the Iron Supervision, because he was obsessed with technology, he became a technical officer in the Iron Supervision. From then on, he stabilized and had nothing to do with the army. If he had been with Du Zhongxiao, he should have joined the Yingtianxiang Army like Shisanlang. Yao Shouxin's position might be his own.

Everything was measured clearly, Yao Shouxin said: "How many flowering bullets are there in the Iron Supervisor? I will arrange some gunpowder and test them a few more times. Be sure to measure the power of various cannons and various bullets clearly. When it comes to war, these are very critical."

Tao Shiqi said: "There are more than a dozen in the Iron Prison, which we made for testing. The other test shells, because the gunpowder inside and shell shells are different, there is no need to try them for you."

Yao Shouxin said: "That's natural. We all use it on a large scale during wartime. The experiment is useless. You can just use it for your own use."

While people were busy, a shout came from afar: "Is it Shiqilang and Yao Paozhu there? I am Wu Shisan!"

Yao Shouxin answered quickly, turned around and saw a few figures of horseback riding in the distance.

After receiving the news, Shisanlang brought a few people closer, turned over and dismounted, and sang to Yao Shouxin and Tao Shiqi with his hands. He said, "Today, there is nothing wrong with our army. We happened to get a few good guns, so we took people into the mountains to hunt some prey and try how this gun is."

When Tao Shiqi saw that several people carrying new sniper rifles were all carrying, he hurriedly said, "Shisanlang, this is a new sniper rifle, extremely accurate. Moreover, the bullets used are all specially made, and they are expensive and can't be tried easily. Where do you get it? It's too lenient to use this gun to hunt!"

Shisanlang said: "We cavalry also need to use guns, and we need good guns. Since there are new types of guns, of course we have to try it first. I originally called three infantry division leaders to come together, but they said that they were busy in the army and could not get out of their way, so they came to find you."

Yao Shouxin was happy and said, "We just tried the new flowering bullet, which is very useful. When we got the new gun, we went to try it!"

The cost of the army is huge. For several generals at the level of division, what's so great about playing with new guns? Although bullets are expensive, they are all recorded in the military expenditure account. Several people have at least thousands of people, as many as nearly ten thousand people. What's the cost? Shisanlang was in the Iron Prison when he was trial production, he was of course playing with guns and cannons at will. But it has been formed, and using this kind of gun to hunt is still a waste.

Shisanlang pointed to the hillside next to him and said, "This area is a training ground for artillery soldiers. The artillery master, you didn't arrange for your subordinates to test artillery? We just hunted in this area, hunted some roe deer and so on and went back to have some wine!"

Tao Shiqi said: "Slowly, this is the artillery drill ground, why hunt here? The shells don't have eyes. Who knows where to shoot at the head? It's not a joke. Shisanlang, where is your cavalry training? Let's go there!"

Shisanlang laughed: "How many years have you been in the Iron Prison, why have you become less courageous? I tell you that even if the shells fly over your head, as long as you look carefully, you can avoid them. You are still trying the flower bullets, isn't it not used in the army?"

Tao Shiqi was not willing to believe it, so he asked Shisanlang to change the place, otherwise he would go back to the Iron Supervisory Office.

Shisanlang and Tao Shiqi grew up together, and their relationship was extraordinary. How could they let go of the rare opportunity to be together? He had no choice but to take everyone around the two hills and arrive at the cavalry drill ground.
Chapter completed!