Chapter 243: Firearm (2)

"Report to the Director! Everything is ready, and we can start the experiment." The assistant came to report.

Director is usually the first supervisor in a certain field, and was used by Li Chengqian as the official title of the person in charge of this base. He

is the highest rank among the officials outside the official ranks, the first class outside the official ranks.

"Yes!" The head of the base turned to Li Chengqian and said, "Your Highness, please move to the laboratory to watch the firearm experiment."

"Yes!" Li Chengqian stood up and followed the head of the base to a spacious room. In addition to a door, there were large windows on all sides of the room.

At this time, the windows were wide open, and through the windows one could clearly see the birds singing and the flowers blooming outside, and mosquitoes and other things were flying in and out of the windows without restraint.

Li Chengqian withdrew his gaze from the window and carefully looked at the furnishings in the room.

As soon as he entered the door, he could see a simple table made of wood. On the table was a regular long wooden box, which contained the musket used for this experiment.

On the opposite wall was a round wooden board with a red dot painted in the middle. This was the target used for the experiment.

"Your Highness! Shall we start now?" the person in charge of the base asked.

"The space here is not bright enough!" Li Chengqian shook his head and said, "Let's go to an open place outside to experiment. From now on, all experiments on new weapons should be conducted outside, not inside." In addition

to being open, it is more convenient and safer to conduct experiments outside than inside. If something unexpected happens, you won't even have time to escape inside. In addition,

the air inside the house is not as smooth as outside.

"Yes!" The person in charge of the base took the order and asked people to move all the experimental items outside.

The air outside is fresh, the sky is clear, there are no clouds, the sun is shining, the mountains and rivers are beautiful, and the scenery here is quite good.

"Your Highness! Everything is ready, shall we start?" After setting up the target and the musket, the person in charge of the base asked Li Chengqian again for instructions.

Originally, such an experiment did not require him, the director, to follow up personally. He only needed to wait for the experimental results from his subordinates.

As for any problems or areas that need improvement, there would naturally be scientific researchers to take charge. He only needed to write the final results into a written report and submit it to his top superior, the prince.

Others had no right to interfere in the affairs of the base, and he did not need to obey anyone except the prince, and was directly responsible to the prince.

Now that the prince wanted to personally test the power of the musket, he naturally had to accompany him.

"Then let's get started!" Li Chengqian said, sitting on a chair prepared for him and watching the musket experiment.

This will be a moment that will mark an era, and the future will be recorded in history forever.

After receiving the instructions from the prince, the director nodded to the experimenter beside him and said, "Let's get started!"

"Yes!" The experimenter took the order, walked to the table, took out the musket from the wooden box, and then clumsily filled the gun with powder and waited for a while.

Finally, he lit the tinder and raised the musket, holding the gun on his shoulder, aiming at the target 100 meters ahead, ready to shoot.

A moment later, with a bang, an iron ball bullet shot out from the barrel and shot at the target 100 meters away.

In terms of speed, it was still too slow, mainly because it took too much time to load the ammunition and light the tinder.

"Cough, cough" Then a burst of thick smoke came out of the musket, making the experimenter burst into tears. Fortunately, this was outside the empty house.

If the experiment was conducted indoors, it would probably lead to poisoning.

A breeze blew and blew away the smoke.

After several experiments, the final result was that the effective distance of the musket was 100 to 200 meters.

The effective killing distance was 50 meters, which was not much more powerful than the killing power of the bow and arrow. This obviously did not achieve the effect Li Chengqian expected.

"This kind of musket is not good. You must speed up your research and make the bird gun recorded in "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature" as soon as possible."

"Like this musket, it must be eliminated. If our army is equipped with a large number of them, once it is fired, the thick smoke coming out of the gun will be able to kill a large number of our soldiers."

"There is no need to wait for the enemy to attack, our army will be defeated directly, so this musket is basically equivalent to waste." Li Chengqian said.

Although the production process of the bird gun is recorded in "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature", the specific operation is not written in detail.

In the case of nothing, it is very good to be able to research a musket!

Now we just need to improve the musket according to the records in "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature". I believe that we will be able to manufacture a qualified bird gun soon.

Then we will first equip a firearms force of 10,000 people, and we will surely be able to sweep the surrounding countries.

By then, let alone Goguryeo and Tubo, even the Arab Empire, which is known as one of the two great empires coexisting with the Tang Dynasty, will have to kneel before the musket force.

"Yes! Please rest assured, Your Highness! I will definitely lead the scientific research personnel to improve the existing muskets according to "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature."

"I dare to guarantee that as long as Your Highness gives me three months, I will be able to transform the musket into a bird gun." The person in charge of the base said loudly.

"You do it, I'm not worried! Three months is too tight, don't put too much pressure on yourself, take your time."

"How does this musket hurt iron armor? Have you tested it?" Li Chengqian said.

"Just now we were testing shooting at wooden targets, not armor, so I don't know the specific results." The base manager said.

"Then get a set of armor and try it out and see what the results are?" Li Chengqian said.

"Yes!" The base manager took the order and turned around to the assistant beside him and said, "Go get a set of armor."

The assistant took the order and stepped back, got a set of armor used by Tang army soldiers, and after arranging the armor, the experimenter shot the musket again.

After a few shots, the armor was brought to Li Chengqian. Judging from the marks on it, the musket can effectively break the iron armor within 50 meters and cause damage to the target.

Beyond 50 meters and within 80 meters, it can only leave a single hole of varying depths on the armor. Beyond 80 meters, it has basically no effect.

The results of the experiment still cannot satisfy Li Chengqian.

"Okay! Let's stop here today! After these experiments, it seems that there are still many areas where the musket needs to be improved."

"For example, it takes external force to ignite the match rope in order to fire the ammunition. If we improve it to not use external force to ignite the match rope, the effect will be better."

"Add a sight to the front of the musket and a rear sight to the back, so that the accuracy of shooting can be improved." Li Chengqian said a lot of things.

The assistant of the base manager wrote them down one by one. The prince's words will be very helpful for improving the musket.