It was precisely because of the new invention of the Guns and Cannon Bureau that Liu Mingyu did not have a warm bed in the cold weather on the 20th day of the 12th lunar month. Early the next morning, Liu Mingyu got up and first made a winter melon and pig's feet soup for Yang Xianxian, put the ingredients into the pot, and let Yan'er stare at the heat. He took a carriage and RV to the Guns and Cannon Bureau.

Originally, the Liu family's Gun and Cannon Bureau was in Kuanhe City, but because Kuanhe City was too small, it had restricted the development of the Gun and Cannon Bureau. When Liu Mingyu moved the Daning Metropolitan Office, the Daning Marquis' Office and the Champion Hou Mansion to Tianmen County, the Gun and Cannon Bureau, the Ordnance Bureau, the Gunpowder Bureau and other departments to Tianmen County.

Like the Champion Hou Mansion, the Guns and Cannon Bureau directly occupies a complete valley, covering an area of ​​more than 2,000 acres, and is divided into six areas: living area, musket R&D area, artillery research and development area, gunshot test site, gunpowder production area, gunpowder storage area, and other six areas. Any of them covers a larger area than the original Kuanhe Guns and Cannon Bureau.

Of course, many facilities are not perfect now. When Liu Mingyu came to the Guns and Cannon Bureau, no craftsmen or person in charge came out to greet him. Liu Mingyu did not like to talk about pomp, but liked craftsmen to do practical things. He visited the musket research and development zone one after another. The current musket manufacturing process is very strict with the barrel. But in fact, in order to ensure that the barrel does not explode, the barrel wall of the musket can only be added, so that in this way, he will fall into a very contradictory place.

That is, the barrel of the musket produced is usually more than 12 to 15 mm thick. The entire musket will be very bulky. One musket exceeds sixteen or seventeen kilograms, and a soldier will struggle to march with a long distance. The problem is that when shooting vertically, there is no way to stabilize the center of gravity of the muzzle.

Just like a Thunderbolt Cannon Car, with a caliber of 32 mm. According to a caliber of more than 20 mm, it is considered a cannon. However, in fact, the weight of the Thunderbolt Cannon is more than 400 kilograms, so it needs to be equipped with two wheels, and like the cannon, marching in the form of mules and horses. If there are no wheels and the soldiers are carried away, it will be a death-making process.

Although the use of wheels can solve the transportation and movement of Thunderbolt cannons, this kind of Thunderbolt cannon has strict restrictions on the terrain. Just like the ambush terrain of Taigou, it will definitely be very difficult to get the Thunderbolt cannon car to the top. Liu Mingyu's requirement for the development of the musket is to be as light as possible. It is best not to weigh more than ten kilograms, which means no more than five eighty-four kilograms.

When the Guns and Cannon Bureau made muskets, it adopted the iron casting process, which was to use a small crucible filled with bright red molten iron to be carefully tilted, and the molten iron was poured into the mold and cast and molded.

After the barrel was cast and molded, it was further processed. With the sound of harsh metal cutting, more than a dozen craftsmen were seen surrounding a drill press pulled by two mules. When Liu Mingyu visited the newly cast musket, he was surprised to find that the barrel wall of this new musket was very thin. After measurement, the barrel wall of this barrel was six millimeters thick. Because the thickness of the tube wall was reduced, the weight of the gun could naturally be reduced.

"Aren't you afraid of explosions with such a thin barrel?"

Liu Mingyu asked a craftsman who was specializing in processing a gun barrel.

The old craftsman with silver hair looked at Liu Mingyu with a look of surprise. Since Liu Mingyu rarely came here during this period, the new craftsman really didn't know Liu Mingyu.

The barrel of this thickness is similar to that of the imperial military staff bureau in making muskets. When the military staff bureau in making muskets, the military staff bureau always deducts raw materials. Short pounds are short and inferior. The muskets produced are more dangerous than the other ones. The worst ones explode when they are fired, and the better ones explode when they are fired two or three times, which makes the Ming army frightened and would rather use bows and arrows than use this thing.

Of course, the bows and arrows provided by the Military Staff Bureau are not good things. When making bows and strings, inferior products are used as good materials. They will never use good materials for you. The bows made are soft and there is still some lethality within thirty or forty steps. If you shoot farther, it will become floating. It looks like it is very far away, but even more than a dozen arrows can't be killed. Not to mention arrows, how bad is the iron material of the arrowhead, how much use is, each one is lighter than the other, and the arrowhead is slightly steel?

If you think beautifully, it is a benefit only for military generals! With such equipment, coupled with extremely poor treatment and humble status, it would be unreasonable for the Ming army to fail to defeat the war.

At this moment, Qi Hu brought a group of craftsmen over and said, "Greetings to the Marquis!"

"Meet the young security guard!"

"No gift!"

Liu Mingyu pointed to the newly made gun pipe: "What's going on with you? Why did you bring the set of the military staff bureau here?"

Qi Hu hurriedly explained: "Mr. Marquis, you misunderstood. After repeated trials, this thickness of barrel can only explode after firing 1,500 to 2,000 times. As long as the number of uses is recorded, this problem can be guaranteed..."

"I'll go, I really admire your heads!"

Liu Mingyu said with some dissatisfaction: "You can strictly implement this standard during training. You are not unaware of the situation on the battlefield, so how can you record it in detail!"

Qi Hu introduced Liu Mingyu in detail: "Marty, rely on this..."

Qi Hu was holding something that seemed like a firecracker. Liu Mingyu was very familiar with this thing, as if it was like a bullet from later generations. The only difference was that the bullet from later generations was made of copper or steel, but now this kind of black paper is used.

Liu Mingyu reached out to take the small cylinder, and a strong smell of gunpowder came to his nose. He pinched the firecracker with his fingers, and saw that the shell was just a few thin layers of paper, not as thick as the firecracker.

"This is a paper bullet!"

Liu Mingyu will immediately raise another question: "Once this kind of bullet explodes and burns, it will leave ash or residue. Leaving it in the gun chamber will affect the reuse of the gun chamber!"

"Mr. Marquis is wise!"

Qi Hu pointed to a craftsman beside him and said, "Let Lao Ge say it!"

Liu Mingyu looked at an old craftsman beside Qi Hu in confusion. The old craftsman's back was a little hunched, skinny and bone-skinned, his face was covered with gullies, and there were many burning scars on his hands.

This craftsman named Lao Ge was a little afraid.

"Ge Fu, you are so fucking mud that can't be supported by the wall. You are so old that you are still going to bring the little goods in your stomach to the coffin? Besides, you were forced to pay off your debt by Ge Shuhan, the landlord of Gejiazhuang. Who helped you pay off your debt? Otherwise, your wife would give birth to Xiaowu and Xiaoliu for you again? Your conscience was eaten by the dog..."

Qi Hu said angrily: "Forget it, get out, don't say I know you in the future!"

Seeing Qi Hu as if he was about to turn against each other, Ge Fu said submissively: "Xiaohu, don't be angry, I said, can't I say it?"

"Marty, the villain Ge Fu, is the general of the Qi family's army!"

Ge Fu said carefully: "When Qi Shaobao was holding the gunpowder, he was suffering from the impurities of gunpowder and was prone to moisture. He hired many craftsmen to improve the craftsmen and repeatedly explored it, and finally made this granular gunpowder. Before preparing this gunpowder, saltpeter must be purified with egg white or radish to remove impurities. The materials used must be milled to extremely fine, and the slightest slightest must not be added to make it granular. Then, a fine gong is used to screen large, fine and uniform particles. The complicated process is not the same as ordinary black gunpowder. However, it has one advantage, that is, it is powerful and can still explode normally after being damped to a certain extent."

"That is, you hide this little thing as a treasure, and tell you the truth!"

Qi Hu pointed to the small bucket brought by a craftsman: "Look, what is this?"

“Huh…”

"Are you stupid?"

Qi Hu smiled and said, "The Marquis also has a talented person. Do you think that only you can do this granular gunpowder?"

Ge Fu was a little ashamed and wanted to find a crack in the ground to drill in. It was not until this moment that he told the secret of his bottom box: "Qi Shaobao once invented a six-tube-type electric gun in the army. Six-tube-shot firepower was dense and powerful. However, the musketeers often complained that it was too troublesome to load, especially the round lead bullets, which were very inconvenient to roll around. Qi Shaobao thought about it for several months and came up with a way to make the craftsmen make the projectiles into a cylindrical shape, with the tip of the front and the back concave. The projectiles were slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the musketeers, and then wrapped with flammable nitrate paper, which was just a little larger than the inner diameter of the gun barrel, but it was easy to stuff them in. In this way, when the musketeers loaded, they only had to stuff the projectiles into the gun barrel, and the lead bullets with the nitrate paper were steadily inserted into the gun barrel, and they would not move anymore, which was very fast and convenient!"

Liu Mingyu also lamented that Qi Jiguang is not only a military master, but also an expert in weapon invention. He combined the advantages of the Tang Heng sword and the Xiaorizi samurai sword, and combined with the Miao sword to create an amazingly powerful Qi family sabre. In addition to the Qi family sabre, there are also wolf sabres (sound xian) and tiger squat cannons. Especially the tiger squat cannons, because they fire shot bullets, they can walk by holding them by a single soldier. They are more lethal than bird guns, lighter than Franc, and are easy to carry.

The most important thing is that if the tiger squats cannon is shot, it will be effective in attacking infantry or cavalry with dense formations.

No one can match Qi Shaobao's generals. If the court can trust him as always, value the Qi family's army, and allow the Qi family's army to continue to grow and grow, why would the incompetent army in the whole country be able to fight and be able to use the generals?

Then Ge Fu introduced to Liu Mingyu that if the service life of the barrel was recorded, it would be a single-player and a special bullet. The Qi family army distributed sixty bullets at that time. After twenty-five records of distribution, the musket was retracted and then recast.

However, Liu Mingyu thought that the major breakthrough was the flintlock rifle, but this was not a mature flintlock rifle, but a lost comb-rope gun with the Ming Dynasty. It was like a double-barrel hunting rifle, which could load a rifled rifle from the breeze into a bullet, but still use a flint to fire.

Qi Hu looked at Liu Mingyu with some disappointment, but said seriously: "Mr. Marquis, in addition to fast loading, this kind of lead bullet has another advantage."

“What are the benefits?”

Qi Hu said: "This lead bullet is much further than an ordinary lead bullet, and it can break iron armor within eighty steps!"

Liu Mingyu was moved by the words: "Try it!"

"Come here, go and get a pair of iron armor!"

"What iron armor? Is it the iron armor or the iron armor of our Liu family army?"

"The iron armor of the Liu family army!"

The defense effect of the single-layer iron armor of the Liu Family Army is not weaker than that of the three-layer iron armor of Jiannu's white armored soldiers, but it weighs only one-third of the white armored soldiers. The Liu Family Army's iron armor is actually plate armor. Six steel plates that are knocked into the right shape are firmly nailed to the cowhide made with screws to protect the vital points of the entire chest and abdomen, and cannot penetrate the arrows. It is also quite light and can run like flying when worn.

Soon, a hundred steps away, a human-shaped puppet was put on the Liu Family Army's standard armor.

"Mr. Marquis, okay, you can try the gun!"

The person who tested the gun was a disciple of Gerry Fook, about 40 years old and tall. He skillfully pulled the gun chamber open, stuffed the bullet, then closed the barrel, lit the fuse, and inserted it. He slowly raised the musket, and put the butt on his shoulder blade, aimed, looked, and stared the target three points, hooked the index finger of the plate machine to exert force evenly.

"Bang!" Only a gunshot was heard, a ball of gunpowder spewed out of the muzzle, and the projectile shot out. The strong recoil made him tilt back slightly!

The puppets shook violently, and fragments of armor and wood chips splashed out.
Chapter completed!