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Text Chapter 17

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    The original function of the Arms Department was to build all standard equipment for the Tang army, including Mo Dao, Mingguang Armor, Ma Cha, etc. However, after Du Rui's restructuring, the functions of the Arms Department also changed. Here  It basically became the research and development center of hot weapons in the Tang Dynasty.

    As a member of the cabinet and Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Zhang Yanshuo was against the rules to go into battle shirtless and take matters into his own hands like this. Du Rui also reminded him several times, hoping that he could take care of the affairs of the Ministry of Industry, but Zhang Yanshuo was not interested in anything.  Regarding firearms, Du Rui was helpless because he didn't care about them at all. On the contrary, Du Chengxue, who was more "naughty" before and only had steam engines in his mind, was more like a leader.

    After seeing off Liu Rengui and Wang Xuance, Du Rui followed Zhang Yanshuo into the Arms Department. Looking at the busy workers and the flintlock guns being assembled, he couldn't help but feel excited.

    Although until the Industrial Revolution, muskets did not have much advantage over carefully crafted compound bows in terms of lethality and rate of fire. The only advantage was that firearms and musketeers were cheap, and it took at least a year to train a qualified archer.  It only takes three or four months to train a qualified musketeer, which includes military discipline, formation, combat and other subjects.

    On the European battlefields of later generations, before the Industrial Revolution, when two armies were fighting, as long as a musketeer could hit one of the opponent's heavy cavalry on the battlefield, that would be a profit, and the rest would not matter, even if  It doesn't matter if the musketeer dies in an instant, their prices are cheap anyway.

    It can be said that for a long period of time, the musketeers could only serve as auxiliary troops on the entire battlefield, and their main responsibility was to be responsible for frontal defense.

    " Du Rui knows the status and role of muskets in future wars. He doesn't want to use these treasures to kill the enemy and then serve as cannon fodder for human beings to get in trouble. Therefore, he is particularly concerned about the training of musketeers and the quality of muskets.

    "Each of these muskets must undergo ten rounds of test firing before it can be delivered to the army. The power must be ensured. Any unqualified ones will be destroyed and recast!"

    Zhang Yanshuo hurriedly responded: "Teacher, don't worry, for every musket here, the disciple will personally supervise the test firing. It has been tested many times before. The power of this musket is indeed extraordinary. It can penetrate the armor and hit the target."  , the bow and arrow are out of reach. However, the manufacturing process of this flintlock gun is complicated and requires high skills from the gunsmiths. Therefore, we need to find some good craftsmen to make a good musket."

    Hearing this, Du Rui thought for a while and said: "The skills of craftsmen are cultivated. You are responsible for this. Also, the treatment of craftsmen must be good. The musket is a secret weapon of our government. It must not be leaked. It is best to keep it secret."  Open up a place here, build houses, and bring all the craftsmen's families to live together, so that they have no worries, and it can also be managed easily and prevent secrets from being leaked!"

    If you want the horse to run faster, you have to let the horse run away. The quality of the weapons in the future depends on these craftsmen. It is better to place them together with their families and solve their worries in one step. Moreover, the flintlock gun is there  In this era, it is definitely high-precision and cutting-edge technology.

    The banging of ping-ping-pong-pong all day long outside Chang'an City will definitely be noticed by careful people, especially to prevent the secrets from being stolen by those Hu businessmen. Historically, it was the Westerners who were the first to invent the musket. If the secret of the flintlock gun was revealed  They stole it and developed it, and Datang's advantage was gone.

    Therefore, confidentiality work must be done well, and there is no room for sloppiness. After all, Datang's interests are at stake here.  This cannot be ignored.

    The Chinese invented gunpowder and were the first to use gunpowder in warfare. China's thermal weapons were not originally lagging behind the West. The reason why they fell behind so far was because when the West made rapid progress in the development of weapons, China  For some reason, people not only failed to follow up, but also took big steps backwards.

    During the Ming Dynasty, China¡¯s production and application of firearms exceeded those of previous dynasties.  The Ming Dynasty independently created dozens of types of firearms such as mines, water mines, spray cannons, handguns, and cannons, and independently invented flowering artillery shells during the Hongzhi period.

    At that time, due to the influence of the Confucian tradition of emphasizing literature over martial arts, Han soldiers generally did not have outstanding riding and archery skills. Therefore, the ability to fight with cold weapons has never been the strong point of the Ming army. To deal with the northern herders and hunters, the Ming army had to resort to firearms.  After the mid-Ming Dynasty, due to the military collapse, the Ming army's combat effectiveness had to rely more on firearms, and the Ming government paid more attention to the research, development and introduction of firearms.

    After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, although China's firearms research and development capabilities had lagged behind Europe, due to the Ming Dynasty's national policy of actively applying firearms, the hot weaponization of military equipment was still accelerating. The Ming Dynasty learned the matchlock gun from Portugal and the matchlock gun from Japan.  Zhao Shizhen, a firearms developer, invented the bird-beak blunderbuss from the 26th to the 39th year of Wanli Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty.??In addition to imitating the Turkish-style Rumi gun, we also developed a variety of single-barreled and multi-barreled matchlock guns such as the Zhidian gun, the three-long gun, the double-stack gun, and the Thunder gun. Zhao Shizhen's achievements were widely used by the Ming government.  The application of muskets in the Ming Dynasty army has reached a new stage.

    From the Jiajing to Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming government not only manufactured large quantities of matchlock guns, but also comprehensively developed various traditional firearms, including the transformation of various fire blunderbuss from the early Ming Dynasty, the creation of fast guns, multi-barreled blunderbuss, and tiger squat guns, and the development of  In order to use the recoil of gunpowder and gas to propel rocket-type firearms and various incendiary firearms such as fireballs, spray cannons, fire birds, fire beasts, and train attack types, various explosive bombs, landmines, and water mines were created.  These firearms, together with matchlock guns, basically include various categories of ancient Chinese firearms, and integrate the advanced achievements of foreign firearms.

    During the Tianqi Period of the Ming Dynasty, in order to resist the fierce offensive of the Qing Dynasty in Liaodong, the Ming government purchased the most advanced cannon in the world at the time from Portugal, the Hongyi Cannon, and successfully copied it and equipped it in large quantities to the Guanning Army of the Ming Dynasty.  In the Ningyuan defense battle, which severely damaged the Manchu and Qing armies, the eleven Hongyi cannons in Ningyuan City played an important role.  The advanced artillery of the Ming army was also the reason why the Manchu and Qing Dynasties were unable to capture the Ming Dynasty's military fortresses in western Liaoning for a long time.

    It can be seen that the great achievements made by North Korea in actively developing and applying firearms and learning from the outside world have created preliminary conditions for the transition of weapons to thermal weaponization.

    During the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, during the Longqing period of Emperor Mu Zong of the Ming Dynasty, Qi Jiguang trained new types of military units such as chariot camp, infantry camp, cavalry camp, and transport camp in Jizhen.  The soldiers in these battalions who use firearms such as shotguns, Folang machines, tiger cannons, and rockets account for about half of the total number of personnel.

    In terms of military organization, with the gradual and widespread use of firearms, the Ming army was also adjusting to adapt to firearms operations. In the Yongle period of the early Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty established the Shenji Battalion, the earliest independent artillery battalion in Chinese history.  At the end of the Ming Dynasty, with the great increase in the use of firearms, vehicle artillery battalions, shotgun battalions, mounted artillery battalions and firearms supply battalions were developed. In addition to the Shenji battalion, generally more than 10% of the infantry of the Ming Dynasty troops were equipped with firearms.  The proportion was even higher in the late Ming Dynasty. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing and Shandong had established firearms production workshop bases, hired European technical personnel to guide production, and had a certain large-scale firearms production capacity.  At the same time, combat methods, military education and training, and national defense facilities that combined matchlock guns and cold weapons also emerged.

    Due to the positive attitude of the Ming Dynasty towards firearms, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the gap between the equipment of the Ming army and the most advanced Western European countries in the world was small. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army had several military conflicts with Portugal and the Netherlands. The Ming army defeated its opponents with firearms.  .  If the rule of the Ming Dynasty could continue, by the 19th century, the weapons of the Chinese Army would never be as far behind the European powers as the Qing army during the Opium War.

    When Du Rui looked at this period of history in his previous life, he couldn't help but applaud it. In the late Ming Dynasty, the germination of the Chinese Army's transition to modernization was already vaguely discernible.  Unfortunately, the seeds of this transition fell into pieces with the Qing Dynasty's takeover of China.

    The Qing Dynasty was the dynasty with the least achievements in military technology in Chinese history, and the least independent innovation in military technology. Before foreign powers used force to open the country, the Qing Dynasty's military technology not only stagnated, but also regressed significantly compared with the Ming Dynasty.

    The reason why the Qing Dynasty had the least achievements in military technology was first of all due to the inferior quality of the Manchu aristocrats themselves and some historical reasons. Before modern times, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty never paid attention to the significant impact of military technology on the outcome of wars, and always held the belief that "  The cold weapon concept of "taking the world with bows and horses" persists.

    An important historical reason for the formation of this concept is that the powerful Qing cavalry repeatedly defeated the Ming army, which was superior to itself in military technology and equipment, and finally conquered China.  The Manchu and Qing rulers were dazzled by this huge military victory and failed to realize the real reason why the Qing army was able to defeat the Ming army and conquer China. Instead, they believed that this was mainly due to the powerful bow and horse superiority of the Eight Banners Army, thus greatly  It encouraged the superstition of cold weapons.  Under the influence of this concept, it was impossible for the rulers of the Qing Dynasty to pay much attention to the development, production, and application of firearms, the advanced military technology at that time.

    Another major reason why the Qing Dynasty had the least achievements in military technology was that the Manchu rulers were on guard against the Han people.  Due to the implementation of cruel ethnic oppression policies, the Qing rulers were naturally sensitive and strong in their fear of Han resistance. Therefore, they had to prevent advanced military technology and equipment from falling into the hands of the Han.  Although the rulers of the Qing Dynasty did not believe that firearms could determine the overall situation, they also knew how powerful firearms were.

    Their great ancestor Nurhaci was wounded and died by Western cannons, and thousands of Eight Banners soldiers were killed by the Ming army with firearms during the offensive.  Advanced military technology and equipment falling into the hands of the Han people may pose a threat to their own rule, so they must take precautions before it happens.  Unlike the Mongolian monarchs, the Qing emperor's way of thinking has always been very sophisticated.

    After the Manchus entered the customs, out of precaution against the Han people, the Manchus??The rulers imposed severe restrictions on the development of science and technology, especially the development of science and technology that might be used in military affairs.  This restriction began as early as the entry into the customs. At that time, Dorgon established a rule that advanced weapons such as cannons and firearms could only be used by the Eight Banners Army, and the Han Army in the Qing Army was prohibited from equipping them.

    Dorgon took this measure because the number of Han troops who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty far exceeded that of the Eight Banners Army. If these troops possessed advanced weapons, they would be difficult to deal with once they surrendered and rebelled. He only allowed the Eight Banners Army to possess cannons and firearms.  , which can greatly increase the combat effectiveness advantage of the Eight Banners Army over the Han Army, and can more effectively deter and control the Han Army in the Qing Army.

    After Dorgon, the Manchu and Qing rulers of all dynasties strictly implemented this regulation out of precaution against the Han army. It was not until after the Opium War that they were forced to loosen it because the Eight Banners Army lost its combat effectiveness and in order to use the Han army to suppress the peasant uprising.

    According to the regulations of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the advanced weapons such as firearms and cannons monopolized by the Eight Banners Army were mainly used by the Manchurian Army in the Eight Banners Army, because the Manchu Qing rulers also took precautions against the Mongolian and Han armies in the Eight Banners Army.  The total number of the Manchu Eight Banners Army was less than 240,000, and the total number of the Manchu Army was less than 80,000. Therefore, according to this regulation, only part of the millions of Qing Dynasty troops could be equipped with firearms.  This resulted in the firearms equipment level of the Manchu and Qing armies always being at an extremely low level. While the armies of many countries around the world were making great strides towards hot weapons, the Qing army could never escape the cold weapon era. The level of firearms application of the Qing army was not only  It is not as good as the third-rate European armies such as Portugal and Russia, and it is far inferior to the Japanese army in the shogunate era and the Ming army in the Chongzhen era.

    Since the Qing army¡¯s demand for firearms was always at an extremely low level, it was unable to stimulate the development of the arms manufacturing industry and the improvement of military technology.  History has shown that the advancement of military science and technology can drive the progress of civilian science and technology, thereby promoting the development of productivity. The restrictions on military firearms and equipment in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties not only blocked the road to modernization of the army, but also blocked a way to enhance comprehensive national strength.  shortcut.

    The Manchu Qing Dynasty not only strictly restricted the application of military scientific and technological achievements, but also suppressed outstanding Han scientific and technological talents. The inventor Dai Zi was a typical victim.

    Dai Zi, a native of Hangzhou, was born in a firearms manufacturing family in the late Ming Dynasty. He was obsessed with firearms development since he was a child. Later he joined the Qing army and created and equipped the "Weiyuan General Cannon" and the Zimu Cannon for the Qing army. He helped the Manchus defeat the "Three  "Fan" and Junggar forces have made extraordinary contributions. Dai Zi also presented to the Qing Dynasty a serial gun he invented. It can fire twenty-eight projectiles at a time. Its principle is exactly the same as that of a machine gun. It has now been used by the military.  It is recognized by weapon historians as the world's earliest machine gun.

    "However, Dai Zi not only failed to gain glory and wealth, but also ended up with a tragic fate.  Dai Zi's talent was very outstanding. He once imitated a new type of cannon invented in Europe in only eight days, while Nan Huairen, a foreign colleague in China, took a year to make it.

    Because of Dai Zi's outstanding talent in developing firearms, he aroused the jealousy of Nan Huairen, a Belgian missionary who also developed firearms for the Manchu Qing Dynasty. After quelling Galdan's power, Nan Huairen falsely accused Dai Zi of having an affair with Japan, and the Kangxi Emperor  Therefore, he "believed the slander" and sent Dai Zi to Liaodong, ending his weapons development career. Dai Zi was forced to make a living by selling calligraphy and painting in Liaodong, and he died in poverty and depression.

    Kangxi¡¯s little pockmark was by no means a monarch who lacked judgment. He could not have known that Dai Zi¡¯s talent was far superior to that of Nan Huairen. With Emperor Kangxi¡¯s wisdom, why did he convict Dai Zi based only on Nan Huairen¡¯s words?  Doesn't he understand the value of talent?  Why could Emperor Kangxi not tolerate Dai Zi, but could tolerate and reuse Nan Huairen, who was mediocre than Dai Zi?

    As long as you understand the Manchu rulers' defensive psychology against the Han people's perversion, the reason will be clear: after defeating the Three Feudatories, conquering Junggar, and seizing Taiwan, the country was stable, and the Manchu rulers no longer needed Dai Zi's inventive talents.  On the contrary, the creative ability is a threat. The more outstanding the ability, the greater the threat.

    According to the thinking of the Manchurian dignitaries: What should Dai Zi or Dai Zi¡¯s inventions do if they fall into the hands of the rebel Han forces?  Therefore, Emperor Kangxi must suppress Dai Zi and send him to the wild Liaodong to bury all his talents. This was one of the ways.  In fact, Dai Zi was lucky. He fell into the hands of the relatively kind-hearted Xiao Mazi and was able to save his life. If he had fallen into the hands of Hong Li, who had a more perverted anti-Han mentality, he would at least be dead.

    In the final analysis, Dai Zi was suppressed because he was a Han and he was too outstanding, while Nan Huairen was not only mediocre, but also a Belgian who came from afar and was a "non-Chinese". This was the same as the self-characterization of the Manchu rulers  , but have the same feeling.  The mentality of the Manchu rulers who would rather believe in "semu people" than "Han people" is similar to that of the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty.

    By the Qianlong period, the Eight Banners Army in Manchuria had greatly lost its combat effectiveness due to serious corruption. In order to save Manchuria,The fundamentals of "bow and horse" prevented it from being lost. At that time, Europe and the United States were undergoing the Industrial Revolution and firearms were advancing by leaps and bounds. Emperor Qianlong actually ordered the Eight Banners Army to abandon hot weapons such as cannons in order to strengthen cold weapons such as broadswords, spears, bows and arrows.  ability to use.  Emperor Qianlong's absurdity and stupidity are truly astonishing.

    The Manchu rulers attempted to eliminate the ability of the Han and other ethnic minorities to rebel through the policy of letting their own soldiers monopolize advanced weapons, so as to extend the evil life of this oppressive regime.  The Manchu rulers achieved this goal to a certain extent. Their monopoly on advanced weapons gave the Eight Banners soldiers a great advantage in suppressing peasant riots and local rebel forces.

    However, the Manchu and Qing Dynasty's policy of allowing their own soldiers to monopolize advanced weapons blocked the large-scale application of advanced weapons, thereby eliminating the motivation for the research and development of advanced weapons. The quality of firearm manufacturing in the Qing Dynasty became increasingly poor, and eventually the Portuguese cannon,  Advanced weapons obtained from the Ming army such as beak guns and firearms carts will inevitably regress and be lost. With the loss and degradation of military technology, the Manchu Eight Banners' monopoly on firearms has lost its meaning.

    On the eve of the Opium War, the firearms introduced from the West and Japan in the late Ming Dynasty had been lost for a long time. The entire army of the Qing Empire finally regressed back to the era before the Song Dynasty when broadswords and spears dominated the country. The Manchurian fine tradition of "bow and horse" was finally  The inheritance has been completely inherited. The main weapons are still cold weapons such as swords, spears, bows and arrows, and sailors are still sailing boats. So much so that British guns and cannons were regarded as sorcery at this time, and warships were regarded as monsters. Guangzhou Guards  What the British are dealing with is toilets and filth that "exorcise evil spirits".  The Manchu Qing regime's two-hundred-year policy of seclusion, ignorance and national oppression was indeed very effective.

    Since corruption is inevitable in any dynasty, the factor of weapons has become the factor that determines the combat effectiveness of the Qing army. The continuous regression of the Qing army's weapons and equipment not only makes it unable to resist foreign enemies, but also makes it increasingly difficult to suppress peasant uprisings.  More than two hundred years later, facing the cold weapons of the Taiping Army, the regular army of the Qing Dynasty had almost no advantage in weapons. The Manchu Qing regime was almost collapsed under the fierce offensive of the peasant army.

    The actions of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are in line with the old saying: "Harming others will eventually harm yourself."  It can be said that it was the Manchu Qing Dynasty's fearless spirit that dragged the Chinese nation, which at that time was at a relatively advanced position in the world's civilization, into the abyss of backwardness and sinking for 170 years.

    Now that Du Rui has reached this age, he will naturally not let history repeat itself. Du Rui can still be gentle when dealing with Tubo, but when it comes to the nomads in the north of China, Du Rui's methods are absolutely cruel. The Khitans were exterminated by Du Rui.  The ancestors of the Jurchens have been continuously suppressed by Xue Rengui's Liaodong Corps for more than ten years, and they have almost no place to hide.

    Nowadays, the hot weapons of the Tang Dynasty can be said to be developing by leaps and bounds. In previous lives, Westerners proudly claimed that the Chinese invented gunpowder, but the white people allowed the role of gunpowder in war to be promoted.

    Now it is the turn of the Chinese people to replace those white-skinned pigs.

    Du Rui then asked about the cost of the flintlock gun.

    Zhang Yanshuo replied: "Teacher, when making a flintlock gun, six kilograms is the best, but it consumes a lot of iron. Forty kilograms of rough iron, and in the end only seven or eight kilograms of refined iron are made. It costs a lot of money."

    Du Rui listened and made some calculations in his mind. According to his estimate, adding the price of iron, charcoal, craftsmen's wages, food, and other expenses, the cost of a flintlock gun is three to five taels, and the required  Not a small sum of money.

    Just as he was thinking about it, there was a sudden loud noise outside, followed by a commotion of people, including screams. Du Rui's heart sank and he looked at Zhang Yanshuo. Zhang Yanshuo's complexion also turned pale.

    After a while, a young man with a burned face and a bloody ear on one side was carried in.

    Zhang Yanshuo said anxiously: "What~~~~~~~ is going on!?"

    An assistant officer replied: "My lord, it was Niu Qing who was testing the gun outside, but the flintlock gun exploded for some reason, injuring Niu Qing!"

    Although accidents like this happened from time to time during the development process, and there were many examples of people being injured or even losing their lives, the flintlock gun that had just been assembled exploded during the test firing. In this way, Zhang Yanshuo  How to face Du Rui, who has high hopes for him.

    "Teacher! Disciple~~~~~~~~~~"

    Du Rui could also guess the reason. He stopped Zhang Yanshuo and pointed out pointedly: "The reason why muskets are easy to explode is that the materials are insufficient, or the craftsmen use tricks during manufacturing, resulting in uneven thickness, especially  In the welding of the gun tube, many craftsmen have insufficient skills, causing the gun to explode and become boring. You must keep this in mind! From now on, every flintlock gun that is cast must be marked with the casting time, the name of the caster, and the name of the caster.  A book needs to be made for easy reference at any time.¡±

    Zhang Yanshuo quickly agreed and said: "Disciple, I will order you to go down immediately!"

    Du Rui continued: "Tell the craftsmen that the monthly grain wages will not be less. In the future, every time a qualified bird gun is made, the court will give a reward. If it is unqualified, the corresponding monthly grain will be deducted to cover the material consumption.  , if any injuries are caused to the sergeants, they will be punished."

    Zhang Yanshuo also knew that this was the only way to prevent craftsmen from cutting corners and being passive and sagging, so he said: "Okay, just follow what my mentor said."

    Du Rui looked at the many craftsmen gathered around him and said, "You all must remember that the things you make are used by the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty to defend the country's territory and the common people. They will use the weapons you made.  Fighting flesh and blood with the enemy on the battlefield, just imagine, if there is no problem with the weapons by then, who will protect their lives? If the battle is defeated on the battlefield, what will Datang do? I hope you will keep it in mind!"

    When the craftsmen heard this, some of them suddenly became solemn, while others lowered their heads in shame. There was no doubt that they were the craftsmen who caused the accident. In fact, they were not lazy or sneaky.  The reason why they are not careful is because they have not seen the huge power of muskets on the battlefield. They always feel that because of their superb skills, they should hit the more powerful Mo Dao. They are somewhat disdainful of muskets, so they naturally  Some were passive and slow at work, but after listening to Du Rui's words, they realized how wrong they were.

    They would not think that Du Rui was bluffing. They admired Du Rui's ability. The miracles Du Rui created made them treat Du Rui like a god.

    After giving the craftsmen training, Du Rui then talked to Zhang Yanshuo about the specific production process. Zhang Yanshuo's answer obviously made Du Rui very dissatisfied, because what Zhang Yanshuo introduced about the production process of a flintlock gun was really  complex.

    According to Zhang Yanshuo's introduction, the first step in making this flintlock gun is the barrel. After the wrought iron for the barrel is red-hot, it is struck on a steel core and rolled into an iron pipe. After cooling, it is wrapped with a second pipe.  Layer, beat finely, and after reaching a certain thickness, pull out the steel core and a section of the barrel is completed.  After making several sections of blunderbuss tubes, weld them one by one. This is the key. If the welding is not good, it will be easy to explode and boring.  After the preliminary barrel is completed, a steel cone is used to drill out the blunderbuss and the center is set. This takes the longest time, sometimes as long as a month. After that, the inside of the barrel is scraped clean with steel bars, and then the  Various assemblies.

    Du Rui took two flintlock guns and compared them with each other. He found that the difference between the two flintlock guns was really big: "The barrel of this kind of gun is thin and long, so the power of the lead bullet fired may be insufficient!  "

    Hearing this, Zhang Yanshuo nodded repeatedly and said: "Teacher! The student thinks that the key to this flintlock gun is to shoot far and accurately, so he lengthened the barrel of the gun. Indeed, as the teacher said, it is not very powerful and can only be fired in three directions."  You can shoot a soldier wearing iron armor within ten steps."

    Du Rui shook his head at this: "This flintlock gun is not powerful enough at close range and is of little use in actual combat, especially when dealing with fast-moving cavalry in the wilderness. It has not killed a few cavalry."  , the enemy has already rushed in front of us, I think it is better to make a flintlock gun with a short and thick barrel, which is very powerful."

    Hearing this, Zhang Yanshuo was surprised and said: "Do you still want to use this flintlock gun in field battles?"

    When Du Rui heard this, he knew that Zhang Yanshuo's positioning of the flintlock gun was completely wrong. In fact, it was not his fault. The artillery that was born before had never been used in field battles. It was only used when attacking and defending cities.  It would be used, and Zhang Yanshuo had a habitual thought, thinking that this flintlock gun was also used when attacking or defending the city.

    Du Rui said: "The flintlock gun is different from the artillery. It is a weapon for individual combat. In the future, the Tang army will face enemies of all kinds. It must be made into a powerful heavy fire gun that can shoot at about seventy steps."  Kill cavalry wearing heavy iron armor. And there is another advantage of doing this. As the barrel becomes thicker, the entire barrel can be punched out directly on the steel core, which saves time and is easier for craftsmen to process. "

    Zhang Yanshuo was stunned. He only saw the joy of making a flintlock gun according to Du Rui's request. He also saw the power of the flintlock gun, but he didn't expect how to use it on the battlefield. Military affairs was not his strong point after all.  , he couldn¡¯t understand it, but it didn¡¯t matter. He pondered carefully for a while and said: ¡°It is indeed as my teacher said, there is no need to make pipes and weld them, which requires low craftsman skills, and the gun body is one piece, so it is not easy to explode. Gun.  The barrel is large, loaded with a lot of ammunition, and the fire gun is also very powerful. But there is another problem, that is, the inner and outer barrels need to be pressed tightly together, which is extremely difficult for ordinary craftsmen to complete and takes a lot of time.  It¡¯s incredibly expensive to produce.¡±

    " Du Rui has been influenced by large-scale industry accumulated for hundreds of years, so he naturally has a solution. He smiled and said: "What you are talking about is that each craftsman completes the production of the inner and outer barrels by himself. Of courseTime is very slow, why not change the inner and outer layers of the gun tube to be made by different people, and finally have the people behind them assemble them?  In this way, the time to make the barrel is greatly shortened!  "

    Zhang Yanshuo listened for a while, then thought carefully for a while before he said: "My mentor's method is to have one person specifically responsible for making one thing, and the speed will naturally increase a lot. But the barrels made by different people are different, how to ensure that all production  It¡¯s really difficult to use both the internal and external blunderbuss tubes that come out.¡±

    Du Rui blurted out without thinking: "Isn't that easy? Just specify the dimensions of the inner and outer barrels. Only those barrels that meet the requirements are qualified. Finally, wouldn't it be enough to assemble these qualified inner and outer barrels?"  "

    Zhang Yanshuo was very confused after hearing this: "How to specify the size of the inner and outer barrels?"

    When Du Rui heard this, he also knew that there was no so-called standardization and interchangeability in the handcrafted workshops of this era, so he briefly introduced the dimensional tolerances that would ensure interchangeability in later generations, and the system to match this.  , in short, in order to ensure that the inner and outer barrels can fit closely, the outer diameter of the inner barrel must be slightly larger than the inner diameter of the outer barrel, so that after assembly, the fit between the inner and outer barrels is a tight transition fit or interference fit.  , ensuring the barrel is strong and durable.

    Then Du Rui explained to Zhang Yanshuo the classification of tolerance levels in detail. In later generations, tolerances were subdivided into twenty levels, and the most practical ones were nine levels. Naturally, the current simplest size classification does not need to be so detailed, divided into three to  Level 5 wine is enough.

    Zhang Yanshuo was overjoyed when he heard this. He quickly ordered someone to take out a few pieces of paper and respectfully asked Du Rui for advice. While writing down the contents, he discussed in detail how to ensure the dimensional tolerance of the inner and outer barrels.

    Zhang Yanshuo wrote down what Du Rui said, and then asked: "Teacher, a flintlock gun of this caliber has a large charge and heavy lead bullets. The lethality at close range is naturally huge, but the range is short and the accuracy is not good."  , how can we deal with the fast-attacking cavalry in the field?"

    Du Rui shook his head and said: "With the current manufacturing methods, can even a musket more advanced than this flintlock gun be able to cope with a cavalry assault?"

    Zhang Yanshuo was speechless when Du Rui asked back. Hearing Du Rui say this, he even felt that he had done a useless job. Since the flintlock gun cannot withstand the enemy's impact, what's the use of making it!  ?

    Du Rui continued: "It is impossible for these muskets to withstand the charge of the cavalry. It only takes one encounter to break into the infantry square and fight at close range. Firearms have no use. The infantry can only fight with each other if they are arranged in a dense square formation."  To compete with cavalry, muskets are just a substitute for bows and arrows. Whether they can resist cavalry in field battles still depends on the rigorous training of infantry."

    A well-trained formation of musketeers can run rampant across almost the entire empire, especially when a group of musketeers defeats a group of cavalry without being harmed, it is very shocking.  Speaking of musketeers defeating cavalry, this situation was common in the late Qing Dynasty. The most representative one is that 2,000 British and French troops who entered the era of hot weapons approached Beijing. Seng Gelin led the Mongolian elite cavalry carrying bows, arrows and sabers to snipe.  As a result, the entire army was wiped out, and the British and French forces equipped with muskets and artillery suffered only one casualty.

    To give an example, if there are about 2,000 cavalrymen and less than 100 hot weapons are encountered, and it is in a dense jungle, the hot weapons have extremely unfavorable vision.  The cavalry is encircling them and charging at an alarming speed. In the end, they will fail in their success and retreat hastily without gaining any advantage.

    Du Rui rarely came to the Arms Department. Zhang Yanshuo naturally couldn't let his teacher leave just now. Naturally, he had to raise any difficult problems. Nowadays, the most difficult thing about making flintlock guns is the final process of drilling the bore.  Much bigger.

    When the musket was first made, it was still a rough prototype, and the inside of the bore was rough and uneven. Naturally, such a musket could not be used in combat, so it was necessary to use a drill to drill out the bore.  Bore drilling technology is relatively sophisticated, but today there are only a limited number of people who can master this technology. Drill bits and knives are made of fine steel. The steel was considered to be the best hard steel at that time, but in fact the steel properties are different from those of later generations.  There is still a huge difference. It is still very difficult to drill the dysprosium bore with the plunger steel, and it basically takes a month to drill it all.

    Moreover, after drilling the barrel, you need to use a four-edged steel bar to scrape the inside of the gun, and make a screw back door, etc. Therefore, making a flintlock gun at that time usually took a long time and required a large number of skilled workers.  The output is not very high, and most of the time in making the musket is spent on drilling and boring the barrel.

    This naturally doesn¡¯t bother Du Rui: ¡°We don¡¯t need to drill by hand, but can we just use mechanical drilling?¡±

    Zhang Yanshuo threw a basin of cold water and said: "The manual shaking of the drilling machine often stops because people are prone to fatigue. The efficiency is just higher than pure manual processing. However, the cost of making a drilling machine is very high."??How cost-effective.  "

    The Ordnance Department now uses a human-powered drilling machine that uses wood as a frame.  A circular stone disk is used as the inertia wheel, which is tied with leather strips and then pulled by manpower, so that the stone disk drives the drill bit to rotate the drill bore. This type of drilling machine is much better than using manpower alone, but it is still very laborious.

    Du Rui knew that the structure of the drilling machine was similar to that of the all-metal drilling machines of later generations, so he thought of using existing mechanical power: "If we want to improve the progress of drilling the gun bore, wouldn't it be possible to use water power or livestock driving?"

    Zhang Yanshuo pointed out that the cost of this kind of drilling machine was too high and still not worth it, but Du Rui choked him back: "What we are doing now is to make the best musket. Are we afraid that the initial investment will be too high? We also want horses.  Run quickly, and the horses don't eat grass. How can it be so cheap in the world? Besides, if you make a hydraulic drilling machine, you can run it for several years. You don't need to pay for food. As long as there is water, there will be a continuous supply of energy.  As long as the quantity of muskets is large and thousands of muskets can be made, the cost will naturally come down."

    The hydraulic drilling machine Du Rui mentioned looks very simple, but its advantages are obvious. You will never be tired when drilling and grinding gun barrels.  Moreover, it can maintain fixed accuracy and quality, unlike manual operation, where deviations occur due to physical strength and energy.

    According to Du Rui's estimate, the work efficiency of this simple hydraulic drilling machine is at least several times higher than that of human labor. One craftsman can also take care of several drilling machines at the same time. If there is an opportunity to improve in the future, perhaps the efficiency of one hydraulic drilling machine can be improved even more  More than ten times.

    Of course, this kind of hydraulic drilling machine also has shortcomings, that is, the cost is relatively high, and the drill bits often need to be replaced during operation. However, the cost of this hydraulic drilling machine is one-to-one with the work efficiency. In Du Rui's opinion, it is still worth it.

    Du Rui continued: "As you probably know, the Tang Dynasty will soon conquer Egypt. At that time, on the battlefield in Egypt, it will be a good time to test the power and effect of this flintlock gun. The requirements of being a teacher will not  Gao, no matter what, after two months, you must make 10,000 flintlock muskets and equip the troops!"

    When Zhang Yanshuo heard this, his face suddenly turned bitter. Even with Du Rui's support and the adoption of new production methods, these half-skilled musket craftsmen in the Arms Department have to make 10,000 muskets within two months.  A flintlock gun is simply a fantasy, but it would be good to have two thousand by then.

    Du Rui naturally knew Zhang Yanshuo's difficulties, so he said: "From today on, you will leave everything else to Du Chengxue. You only need to deal with the flintlock. If you want money, give money, and if you want people, that's it.  Bar!"

    After Du Rui finished speaking, he turned around and left without waiting for Zhang Yanshuo to speak. He went out to mount his horse and returned to Chang'an. Zhang Yanshuo was left with a bitter look on his face and began to figure out how to train the craftsmen of the Arms Department.
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