Chapter 208: Kulu Cannon (First update, please subscribe)
Building bigger warships requires bigger guns.
In fact, Nanhua's arsenal had already begun manufacturing large artillery, and even half a year ago, it had already cast an 11-inch Dahlgren gun, but this front-line smoothbore gun with a barrel weight of 15,700 pounds was only a special foreign trade product - except for 10 inland "mosquito gunboats". The Taiping Army ordered as many as 30 guns at a time for use in artillery forts in Nanjing and other places.
At the end of 1863, under the scorching sun of midsummer, at the Nanhua Bay Fort, a huge cannon with a shiny black body on a steel sliding gun mount pointed directly at the sea.
Staring at this 10-inch cannon with multiple layers of casing, Zhu Xianhai seemed somewhat proud.
"Okay, from now on, the Nanhua Arsenal will be called... the Klu Arsenal!"
The reason why it is called Krupp instead of Krupp is that the barrel of this gun adopts the Krupp-style multi-layer tube-sleeved barrel, but unlike the famous Krupp cannon, it does not use a horizontal slider breech block, but instead uses a spacer screw bolt.
This mushroom-headed interrupted threaded breechblock invented by French officer Du Pingueux has excellent airtightness. It has an interrupted screw locking mechanism at the rear, an annular oil-soaked asbestos pad that seals the breech, and a circular movable "nose cone" at the front. When firing, under the action of gunpowder pressure, the steel machine head is driven backward, compressing the asbestos pad, squeezing it, and expanding it outward to seal the breech. This solves the problem of air leakage in the breech.
“Let’s get started!”
With an order, the gunners of the 110-pound Armstrong gun and the ten-inch gun started working at the same time. The Armstrong gunner hit the breech bolt with a hammer, and then tried his best to turn the screw bolt of the Armstrong gun.
The 10-inch gunner simply lifted a handle mounted vertically on the right side of the breech. When the handle was lifted, it operated a cam that forced the breech block to rotate counterclockwise, unlocking the interrupted threads. The gunner then used the same handle to pull the entire breech block back, and the breakaway screw bolt was pulled to the left, revealing the dark breech block.
"My lord, this cannon is amazing. The Armstrong cannon needs to be screwed on more than ten times before the bolt can be removed, but this one only needs to be screwed on half a turn and the bolt will open. Then it can be rotated to a position that does not interfere with loading... You see, the Armstrong cannon has not started loading yet."
Ding Wentao pointed at the 10-inch cannon and said excitedly.
"Last time, if we had used a cannon like this, the Argentines would have had no chance of escaping. We can fire at least two shells a minute! It's a pity that we only have such a good cannon now."
Neither the Arab-style guns nor the new artillery had recoil-assisting structures. They were all sliding gun mounts. Although a bit primitive, until the 1890s, naval guns and shore guns did not have recoil-assisting mechanisms.
"It's not a pity. You know, countries all over the world are still using muzzle-loading cannons. I heard that the British ordered the re-development of muzzle-loading cannons because the Armstrong cannon was prone to bursting. In fact, we are the only country in the world that uses breech-loading cannons."
Faced with the problem of the Armstrong cannon being prone to explosion, the British were very smart and believed that it was caused by the breech-loading gun, so they simply reversed the process and produced a large number of muzzle-loading Armstrong cannons. More than a decade later, they even produced the 450mm caliber 100-ton Armstrong heavy cannon.
The British!
It was not until 1880 that the Armstrong gun was improved by the introduction of the French-developed interrupted threaded breech block technology, making rapid loading possible, and the British Army once again equipped its army with breech-loading guns.
This is a historical reversal... Great!
With a loud "bang", accompanied by the deafening roar of the ten-inch cannon, a 500-pound shell whizzed out from the muzzle. Ten seconds later, a huge column of water exploded in the sea eight or nine kilometers away.
Looking at the water column rising from the sea, Zhu Xianhai couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. From now on, he no longer had to worry about threats from the sea!
With such a huge cannon, all the warships today, even the ironclad ships, are useless in front of it.
"Well, notify the arsenal and finalize the 10-inch coastal artillery..."
After thinking about it, Zhu Xianhai said.
"Let's call it the 1864 10-inch breech-loading rifle. From now on, the arsenal will also be renamed the "Kru Arsenal."
Although the Kluks have no uncle!
As soon as Zhu Xianhai finished speaking, someone immediately stood up and started to flatter him.
"Oh, Marshal, this name sounds auspicious. 'Lu' means barbarians. Not only this cannon is specially used to subdue the barbarians, but all the guns and cannons we use in the future will be specially used to subdue the barbarians. With this magical weapon, our great South China will surely become the hegemon of South America..."
It wasn't Fang Zhanbo who was flattering. Right now, that guy is leading the "new home construction" of Nanhua and has no time to follow his lord and flatter him at any time.
Liu Baoyuan, who flatters, also came from Zuo Zongtang's shogunate. Although he was a donation, he was quite talented. It must be said that Zuo Zongtang's unexpected capture not only gave Zhu Xianhai a capable minister, but also many of the captured staff were quite talented, otherwise they would not have joined his shogunate. In his shogunate, there was actually Lin Congyi, the son of Lin Zexu. It was a pity that the boy was preparing food and grass for him in other places at that time.
What a pity.
"Come here, give the master a name and take a photo!"
In the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty, flattery was a basic rule. Although he failed to become an official, Liu Baoyuan was an expert at it and even learned to flatter in a more modern way.
Taking photos is one of them.
The wooden-shelled glass dry plate camera carried by the photographer was even a "domestic product" - it was copied from the dry plate camera that Zhu Xianhai bought from the system mall. In 1871, British doctor Maddux successfully developed the glass dry plate. A few years later, through the improvement of others, the photosensitivity of silver bromide was increased by heating gelatin bromide, which greatly shortened the exposure time of the glass dry plate, and it only took a few tenths of a second to complete the exposure. Moreover, the method of manufacturing glass dry plates with this technology is also very suitable for industrial production.
Although this type of dry plate camera and glass dry plate is only beginning to be imitated, Nanhua has already established the "Phoenix Camera Company" to invest in the research and development and manufacturing of glass dry plates and dry plate cameras.
Although it is still under development, Liu Baoyuan is keenly aware of the benefits of the "Phoenix Camera". Every time he follows his lord, he asks for a few photos to be taken. According to him, this is to let future generations remember his lord's heroic demeanor.
Of course, Zhu Xianhai enjoyed this quite a lot. After taking a photo with the cannon to show his "I've been here" to future generations when traveling, he pointed at the gunners and said.
"Everyone come, let's take a group photo!"
Hundreds of officers and soldiers on the artillery platform were all delighted when they heard this. They crowded around the gun carriage and took a group photo with the Krupp 10-inch cannon as the background.
Of course, in the end Zhu Xianhai did not forget to instruct the photographer to take a photo of each officer and soldier in the group photo - even if the extremely cumbersome wet plate photography was used, an unlimited number of permanent photos could be printed out using albumen paper.
In response, the officers and soldiers immediately shouted "Long live the emperor".
After all, taking a photo is an extremely luxurious thing, and taking a photo with the emperor is not only a matter of honor for the family, but also something that you can tell your descendants about when you are old...
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
