Chapter 138 137 Test Bomb

"Bang, bang."

Two short-interval cannon shots were heard from afar, and the sound was dull.

"Let's go over and see the effect."

Zhang Shigui, who was standing in the front of the crowd, spoke at this time.

This place is already a certain distance from Jiujiang Wharf, and there is a team of soldiers standing guard far away from the place where they test the gun.

Several soldiers nearby began to clean the barrels after firing the guns, preparing to reload them, but when they saw the crowd coming, several people temporarily stopped their actions.

Zhang Shigui led the crowd and did not stay at the artillery position, but passed through them and continued to move forward. There was a mountain wall about fifty steps ahead. At this moment, the originally intact mountain wall had been riddled with holes by a large number of small lead bullets.

Looking at the crowd that had already moved forward, Wei Guangde did not keep up, but squatted next to a cannon and observed carefully.

The cannon body of this cannon is about 2 feet long from head to tail, and 7 iron hoops have been added to the cannon body. The cannon head has two iron claws to support it, so that the cannon has a slight elevation angle when firing.

However, this cannon was not placed directly on the ground, but a small pit was dug at the tail to fix the tail, and the two iron claws on the cannon were also inserted into the ground, all for fixing the cannon.

Wei Guangde touched the tail of the cannon and it was a little hot.

"Is the belly of this cannon two inches? How much powder is loaded each time it is fired? How many lead bullets?"

Wei Guangde saw that this cannon was relatively thin, and the cannon wall was not thick, but because it was too thin, the caliber of this cannon was also small.

"Yes."

A personal soldier next to him knew Wei Guangde. He was a personal soldier of the Wu family, so he naturally knew who the ten-year-old kid in front of him was. This was Wei Xiucai, Wei Wenqu.

Well, the answer he got made Wei Guangde very satisfied. This was in line with his impression that the larger the barrel ratio, the better.

The cannon was about two feet long and the run diameter was two inches, which was almost ten times the barrel ratio.

Although it couldn't be compared with the 40 or 50 times in later generations, it should not be bad with the current technical level.

You have to know that the cannon was cast by the craftsmen of the guards, not the masters of the military equipment bureau and the military staff bureau in the capital. It was already very good that it could be made and the cannon would not explode when fired.

The man continued: "This cannon needs six coins of medicine each time it is fired. It is wrapped in cloth in advance and can be fired directly."

At this time, the cleaning of the cannon barrel has been completed. Wei Guangde stood there watching the gunners loading and listened carefully to the man's introduction.

This man is the leader of this team of personal soldiers. He is the only one who is a little free. The others are busy working.

A gunpowder bag wrapped in cloth was put into the barrel, and then someone reached into the barrel with a stick to stir it, which should be to compact the gunpowder.

However, at this step, they did not move and did not continue to load ammunition.

Wei Guangde did not ask, because he saw that there were small lead bullets and a few slightly larger ones in the box next to it, which were about the same size as the barrel. In other words, this cannon can fire solid bullets in addition to shotgun shells.

Wei Guangde knew that they were waiting for orders. There were many important people in front of the muzzle at this time, so they did not load ammunition into the cannon for safety reasons.

Wei Guangde felt that this was almost the same. It was similar to the bowl-mouthed gun, but this one looked smaller and lighter than the bowl-mouthed gun.

Then, Wei Guangde smiled and nodded to the captain of the personal guards, and hurried to chase the people in front.

Soon, Wei Guangde arrived at the mountain wall. Zhang Shigui, Wu Zhankui and Wei Laodi had been standing here for a while, measuring the impact area of ​​the shotgun.

Wei Guangde followed from left to right and estimated that the more than 200 lead bullets fired by the two cannons had an approximate killing width of about 20 meters.

The lead bullets sank into the soil. Wei Wencai and Wu Dong measured the depth of the soil, which was about an inch.

But these were not important, because Wei Guangde had heard the discussion of Zhang Shigui and others.

"It's no problem to break armor at fifty steps."

"Well, iron armor can also be penetrated. Two cannons are placed one step apart, and can shoot twelve steps wide, which is very good."

"Has this cannon been tested in Pengze before?"

At this time, Zhang Shigui turned around and asked Wu Dong.

"I tried five or six cannons, and the two were almost the same."

Wu Dong hurriedly answered his uncle's question.

"Then try to see how powerful it is when firing solid bullets."

Zhang Shigui had an idea in mind, nodded and said to others with a smile.

"Okay."

"That's right."

Wu Zhankui and Wei Meng would naturally not refuse.

Not long after, two more cannon shots were heard from the gun position.

As usual, the crowd passed through the gun position and went to the mountain wall to check the shooting power. Wei Guangde went over to touch the temperature of the gun barrel first, which was much higher this time than the previous time.

As the personal soldiers used a wooden stick wrapped in linen to clean the gun barrel, the temperature of the gun barrel also dropped, but it was still very hot.

"If this cannon is fired continuously, how many times can it fire?"

Wei Guangde felt that the heat dissipation of the barrel was a little poor, and he was very worried about the properties of iron materials these days.

Well, when he was still in Bengshanbao, he heard a lot of people talking about firearms exploding.

In fact, Wei Guangde knew that some of these news might be true, but many of them were also made up, so that he would have less contact with bird guns.

Just kidding, everyone knows that firearms explode, will other guards practice firearms for no reason?

How could there be so many firearms exploding accidents.

When I was in Bengshanbao, I didn't see anyone else using this thing except myself.

Even if some gunpowder was transferred from above, I remember that my father took it to the city to exchange for money and firecrackers.

This is the memory of young Wei Guangde, but the current Wei Guangde believes it without a doubt.

"At most five shots, the gun body will be hot to the touch, and it cannot continue to fire. It needs to cool down before it can continue to fire."

The captain of the personal guards said immediately, "We tried it before in Pengze. After five consecutive shots, the craftsmen and gunners touched the gun and said that it could not continue to fire."

Wei Guangde smiled and shook his head, not because he disliked the gun for a small number of times, but because he felt that there were not many opportunities for this thing to fire a second shot.

With the reloading speed of these personal guards, at a distance of fifty steps, they will almost run in front of you when you are still preparing for the second shot.

Even if the opponent is slower and lets you reload and fire, it is absolutely impossible for the third shot to fire.

The two guns behind fired three more times, a total of ten shots, and Zhang Shigui and others stood beside the guns and reached out to touch the hot gun barrels.

They also knew about the test conducted by their cousin in Pengze, and now they are inspecting the gun barrels in a similar way.

"Five times is enough. At such a close distance, it is only for defending the city."

Zhang Shigui was very satisfied with the performance of the iron cannon, and nodded to Wu Zhankui and Wei Meng.

"Yes, the range of this cannon is not far. If it is a field battle, two shots are probably the limit. If it is for defending the city, you can prepare cold water to cool it down."

Wei Meng also agreed.

"What do you think of our proposal, brother?"

Wu Zhankui stood beside Zhang Shigui and asked in a low voice. It was obvious that he wanted to collect the copper cannons such as the bowl-mouthed guns in the guard station.

"It's feasible. Let's think about it when we go back. Let's have a meal in the mansion during the New Year and finalize the matter at that time."

Zhang Shigui nodded slightly and said.