Chapter 247 Portuguese Artillery [Subscription Request]

[Today's third update, total word count is 12,000. Please subscribe, please subscribe, and continue to update three more tomorrow. ]

It was a very thick book, which recorded all the Portuguese army's experiences and illustrations of artillery positions and artillery teams, all about cannons and gunpowder-the infantry drill only touched on it a little, and the dark camp spent a lot of money on it.

The Portuguese gunpowder was of course granulated, purified, crushed, mixed, pressed, dried..., and the process was almost the same as the production process of the Fu Han Army. But compared with the gun and cannon firing and powder formula that the Fu Han Army was still exploring, Portugal had a very complete set. Because this thing is well known in Europe. Europeans have discovered this a long time ago, and even China has records in this regard, but the things that the Fu Han Army made based on the records are obviously not good.

Chen Ming's brain is not a computer. He can remember how to granulate gunpowder and the optimal formula for black gunpowder, but he has only heard of gun and cannon firing gunpowder, and has seen the proportion formula, but he has not remembered it. Just like he knew that there was a genius named Pang Zhenkun in Henan during this period, "wise as Afanti in the northern border, elegant as Xu Wenchang in the south", he had watched the TV series "Genius Pang Zhenkun" when he was a child, and he had a deep memory of it. But he didn't know where Pang Zhenkun was from. It was not until the power of the Fu Han Army developed to Dengzhou [Nanyang Prefecture] that he knew that Pang Zhenkun was from Dengzhou, but Pang Zhenkun was now a county magistrate in Guangxi. He was selected as a tribute in the 18th year of Qianlong (1753), and passed the imperial examination in the 27th year of Qianlong (1762). Then he unexpectedly became a county magistrate, although it was in the poor place of Guangxi. Moreover, the family had no extra money, and the Pang family had a good reputation in the hometown. Chen Ming only specifically told them not to bring disaster to the Pang family. This shows that his "prophet" is not omnipotent. He only knows that the formulas of the launch, medicine and explosive are similar. But it was this "similar" that the Fu Han Army did not thoroughly understand in two years.

After getting the Portuguese formula, Chen Ming couldn't understand why the nitrate content of the propellant powder used for cannons was a little higher than that of the propellant powder used for guns, and the specific gravity of carbon and sulfur was a little lower... This requires a very deep chemical foundation.

In addition to gunpowder, the Portuguese, or the European army of this era, are more different from China in terms of cannons. From the material of the cannon, the finish of the barrel, the gun body guide door to the aiming device, the gun carriage and the shells, the things recorded in the thick book almost cover all aspects of the cannon, and it is not surprising that China is completely backward in this regard.

There is no comparison of the material of the cannon. The iron used by the Portuguese army to cast cannons is all high-quality cast iron with low carbon content, or directly bronze and brass. The Fu Han army is not bad in this regard. The quality of the cast iron cannon iron is not worse than that of the Europeans, but the Qing army is not good. Their cannons are mostly made of pig iron. After the latter is cast into a cannon, the barrel is mostly honeycomb, which is also related to the casting technique. The Fu Han Army's is much better. The iron mold is very fast and the quality is guaranteed. However, the performance and quality of the iron cannon are still somewhat different from those of bronze and brass cannons.

The finish of the barrel: The Qing army cannons are of poor quality due to poor iron quality and problems with the casting method (mud mold), many pores, and easy to burst. In addition, the craftsmen cut corners and officials pocketed the money, making the quality very poor. After casting, the barrel is not smooth and smooth, and it is difficult to grind the inside. It is often rusty and uneven. Originally, it could hold five pounds of gunpowder by weight, but in fact, it was a good cannon if it could hold one or two pounds. The iron mold casting method of the Fu Han Army has solved many similar problems for themselves, but the bad aspects are also obvious. Moreover, some of the Portuguese cannons have entered another era. They use the integral cannon casting method, that is, first cast a round metal part, and then use a boring machine to bore it into a barrel, which not only saves time, but also ensures the smoothness and roundness of the barrel, and the quality is absolutely guaranteed. There were not many such cannons in the Portuguese army, but Chen Ming knew very well what it represented.

In the 18th century, Westerners had just taken a small step in mechanical civilization, but they were still better than China.

Cannon guide gate: The guide gates of the Portuguese cannons were all at the bottom of the barrel, of moderate size, and the Portuguese were discussing installing flintlocks on some of the cannons. The guide gates of the Qing army's cannons were some that were biased forward, and some that were large. A guide gate biased forward would increase the recoil when the cannon was fired, or the cannon would jump up, or it would be biased to the left or right, and it would not hit the target. A large guide gate would cause the gunpowder fuel gas to leak out, affecting the range of the cannonball. The Fu Han Army was better than the Qing Army in this regard, but Chen Ming never mentioned installing a flintlock on the cannon. He felt that it had not reached that stage yet! So the sad thing was revealed, so many people in the Fu Han Army's gun and artillery bureau had never thought of installing a flintlock on the cannon. Obviously, the Fu Han Army had manufactured so many flintlock guns.

Aiming device: The Portuguese cannons were not only equipped with aiming stars, but also with gun gauges (sextants, similar to the quadrants and astronomical rulers in ancient Chinese astronomy, are tools for precise aiming and distance measurement, requiring a certain mathematical foundation and a certain period of training). The Qing cannons only had stars and very few gun gauges and gun gauges. The Fu Han Army artillery team also did not have quadrants and astronomical rulers, but the Fu Han Army's artillery paid more attention to training, and would not be like the Qing Army gunners who were at a loss for the distance of the aim and the height of the stars, and they also had a gun table.

Gun carriage: In the 18th century, European armies generally used metal gun carriages, which were very strong and could ensure that the artillery could be flexibly rotated up and down and left and right. The gun carriages of the Qing army's cannons were clumsy and difficult to rotate. They were made of ordinary miscellaneous wood, which was brittle. Once the cannon was fired, the vibration caused the mortise and tenon joints to crack, making it difficult to align and unable to fire again.

Another item was the position of the gun ears. The Qing army's cannons all inherited the mantle of the Ming Dynasty. Not only did they not make any progress for more than a hundred years, but they also regressed a lot. The position of the gun ears was all based on the red cannon, and they were arranged in the middle of the cannon body. Once the cannon was fired, it often shook. Because of its unstable center of gravity, it was often overturned by the recoil.

The Portuguese army's cannons, like all European armies, had a very good grasp of the center of gravity because of the development of modern European science. The gun ears were moved forward and the gun carriage was improved, which completely prevented the cannon carriage from overturning after a shot. Moreover, each cannon of the Portuguese army was equipped with an ammunition cart to provide supplies. The cannon carriage and the ammunition cart can be connected front and back. After being connected together, it is a simple four-wheeled cart. It is very convenient and fast to move with a few horses.

The level of the Fu Han Army in this regard is between the Qing Army and the Portuguese. The cannons of the Fu Han Army also have ammunition carts, and the cannon carriage is also a rigid metal cannon carriage. It is more flexible than the Qing Army, but the overall design is not as good as the Portuguese.

Finally, the shells: the shells used by the Portuguese army are smooth and round, while the shells of the Qing Army have holes inside and seams outside. The shell body is not smooth and the diameter is small, which makes it easy for the medicine to leak out. Moreover, the shells collide with the belly of the gun, which is astringent and not slippery, greatly affecting the range and accuracy of the hit. In this regard, the Fu Han Army can compete with the Portuguese. With the iron mold casting method, the mold can be used again and again, and the caliber of the cannon is consistent. The shells cast with the iron mold are not only smooth in appearance, but also uniform in diameter.

Eliminating the Fu Han Army, only the Qing Army's cannons are compared with the Portuguese. This weak country, which can only be regarded as a third-rate small country in Europe, can completely destroy the Qing Army's cannons. This is just the current period. If the time is postponed for another sixty or seventy years, by the time of the first crow, the weapon manufacturing of the European army will only be more perfect and more powerful. No wonder the Qing Army was beaten so badly in history.

As for the many articles on the Internet in the 21st century that whitewash the manufacturing of the Qing Dynasty's cannons, I won't talk about nonsense. Chen Ming is very suspicious of what these people are arranging such articles. What is the intention? Is it to whitewash the Manchus? This is the direct view. But you wrote that the performance of the Qing Dynasty's cannons in that era was so strong, didn't this make the Qing Dynasty look worse? The weapons were not inferior to the British, but they were beaten by the British army with so few troops. How can the Qing Dynasty be worse? Chen Ming still doesn't understand the real intention of those people.

If it is to find "confidence" for the Chinese people, it would be even more haha. If the confidence of the Chinese people needs to rely on this kind of arrangement, then China will be finished.

Cannon, howitzer, mortar...

The weight of the gunpowder is 1/3 of the weight of the shell, the weight of the gun is 150 times or close to 150 times the weight of the shell, and the length of the gun is 16-18 times the caliber...

Spherical solid bullets are divided into ordinary wrought iron bullets and hot solid bullets; shotgun shells include chain shotgun shells, grapeshot and ordinary shotgun shells; flowering shells include flowering shells filled with black powder, shrapnel shells with timed fuses and incendiary shells filled with arson...

For this thick little book, the dark camp spent 800 taels of silver, but the money was really well spent.

There is also a four-wheeled carriage equipped with bearings and spring shock absorption systems. This "stealing" has made a big leap in the transportation capacity of the Fu Han Army on land. You must know that the four-wheeled carriages of Europeans are not just light carriages for pulling people. Four-wheeled large carriages pulled by four horses, four-wheeled box carriages for two people, four-wheeled cargo carriages usually pulled by more than two horses, and large covered four-wheeled carriages. In other words, the Fu Han Army did not have so many horses, otherwise the transportation capacity of the Fu Han Army could have completely taken a step forward. The springs, bearings and carriages used in that series of four-wheeled carriages were also made by learning from foreigners.

…

In a word, the activities of the Fu Han Army's secret camp in Guangdong have long been launched, and now it is waiting for Chen Liang to preside over it. Just as Chen Guang was active in Huanghuai Zhili, Chen Liang's range of activities was south of the Yangtze River.

…

Qiongzhou Prefecture in Guangdong, which is Hainan Province in later generations, is the capital of Qiongshan.

Hainan in mid-June is the hottest time of the year. At the north gate of the prefecture, the Li family's bookstore closed its doors as the sun set. Taking advantage of the last ray of sunshine before the night came, the Li family sat around the stone table in the courtyard, and the six people in the family ate a not rich but warm dinner.

Grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, and children, a father, a mother, a son, and a daughter, a family of six, a harmonious and beautiful family.

The youngest daughter has just turned one year old and is still learning to speak. At this moment, she is in the arms of her daughter-in-law, but she already knows the taste. Grandfather dipped chopsticks in the soup and put it into her mouth. The little baby sucked on it with her lips moving. She could taste the taste and seemed very happy. She showed a big smile to her grandfather on her face.

The Li family lived a peaceful and comfortable life. In this place far away from the Central Plains, no one knew them.

If Li Xiaomei, who was thousands of miles away and lived in the Central Plains, saw this family, she would immediately burst into tears, and her tears would flow down without stopping. Because the owner of this bookstore surnamed Li was her father, mother, brother and sister-in-law who had left without any news. She asked Chen Ming to look for them again and again, and Chen Ming did indeed give the dark camp an order to find the Li family, but there was still no news of the Li family.

Since he found that the momentum of the Chen family was a little bit wrong, Li Lao Xiucai had foresight and decisiveness to lead the whole family to "leave their hometown". In order to leave early, he sold the land at a low price, and those that he really didn't have time to sell at a low price were directly abandoned.

Their family went down from Lushan to Runing, and then stayed in Xiangyang for a while. As a result, the father and son of the Li family, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law were shocked by the news from Lushan. The Chen family was really fierce, and their own son-in-law..., they couldn't think of any words to describe it.

The Li family felt that Xiangyang was no longer safe. It was too close to Lushan, and they might run into acquaintances. So they continued to go south. From Xiangyang to Wuchang, from Hubei to Hunan. The Li family stayed in Yueyang, Hunan for half a year, and then the five characters "Restore the Han General's Mansion" scared them to death. The Chen family was a blatant rebellion. If they were caught, the Chen family would definitely be in trouble, and no one could escape the knife. As the in-laws of the Chen family and the wife family of the so-called thief chief, Chen Ming, the Li family would also be stabbed if they were caught.

——Continue to flee south.

The Li family went from Hunan to Lingnan, and from the mainland to Qiongzhou Island. The escape took away a lot of the Li family's honeysuckle and their wallets were much flatter, but the Li family didn't feel bad. After arriving at this place, they finally felt at ease.

Now the family is sitting together in harmony and beauty. They ran to the ends of the earth, not for this scene now.

Chen Ming's elder brother-in-law has long given up the hope of passing the imperial examinations. Li Kun doesn't even plan to let his son show his talent. If he wants to take the imperial examination, he must wait until his grandson's generation. Otherwise, he will be courting death.

The Fu Han Army made so much noise that even in the island of Qiongzhou, there was no news. Chen Ming broke Nanjing, took Yangzhou, went south of the Yangtze River, attacked Suzhou, and entered Zhejiang. He really became the number one worry of the court.

Li Kun didn't have much contact with Chen Ming. In Li Kun's memory, his brother-in-law was a very confident and experienced young man, but that was all. Li Kun didn't see that his brother-in-law had the qualifications to be a famous general. Looking at the governors and admirals who were defeated by him, Li Kun couldn't believe it.