Chapter 695 Beat Him Up (Please vote and subscribe)
There was not much in the letter from Beast Fang. He had been in the embassy and could not get that much information. He just talked about the recent progress of the embassy in all aspects, and then talked about what Niu Wei had said to him a while ago.
Finally, a few days ago, Commander Xin sent someone to say that the Han tribe was not allowed to promote currency, and his attitude was very tough. He also sent people to watch every day. Every day, those people would go over to take a look at the transactions between the embassy and the local natives.
At present, the attitude of the Xin tribe is relatively stable. It just does not allow the embassy to promote currency, but does not prevent them from trading with the locals, nor does it restrict their scope of activities too much. They seem to have not made plans to intensify the conflict, and may not want to go to war with the Han tribe.
Another piece of intelligence from You Zhi is much more detailed. The intelligence network in his hands can even contact Niu Wei, who is currently secretly imprisoned, and he has obtained a lot of useful information from Niu Wei.
When Niu Wei first came to the Han tribe, he had planned to recruit technical talents from the Han tribe. They did succeed in recruiting some, but they were all secretly given to them by Luo Chong. The people recruited by Niu Wei were actually the first batch of Jinwu Guards.
Luo Chong asked Jin Yi to select some trustworthy Han tribe elders and asked them to disguise themselves as wild people outside the tribe and work with Niu Wei's men at the construction site in Liuyang County. On the surface, these people's identities and backgrounds had nothing to do with the Han tribe, but because they had worked in the Han tribe and had some skills, they were soon valued by Niu Wei and tried to recruit them.
The order these people received was to sneak into the Xin tribe. Since the other party took the initiative to recruit them, they agreed directly.
Later, when the Han tribe sent an envoy to Zhudao, these "wild people with skills" were sent to the Xin tribe together. Because their skills were more popular, they were soon reused by the elders. Now nearly two years have passed, and these people have long become the backbone of the Xin tribe elders.
Therefore, these people knew a lot about the dynamics of the elders of the Xin tribe, as well as the small movements of the Xin tribe's top leaders, including the arrest of Niu Wei this time. They even followed several elders to participate in the arrest plan.
Even though the Xin tribe's top leaders have now made it clear that they are in opposition to the Han tribe, these people have not been suspected at all, because Luo Chong originally set their identities as "savages who do not belong to the Han tribe."
Since they are not from the Han tribe, but just savages who went to work, what is there to doubt.
After You Zhi took over the intelligence network of the Jinwu Guard this year, he vigorously developed the channels for intelligence transmission. Through frequent transactions between the delegation and the local natives of Zhudao, You Zhi developed some postmen among the natives of Zhudao. These native "postmen" are only responsible for transmission, but do not touch the content of the intelligence, so they are very safe. It
was with the help of these postmen that he was able to reconnect with the Jinwu Guard spies who had been lurking for almost two years.
The spy sent a lot of information. One of them was doing well under Elder Jin. He said that Elder Jin had recently received an order from the commander-in-chief to develop the Xin tribe's own currency with Elder Qi as soon as possible. This spy was even fortunate enough to become one of the leaders of this project.
In addition, this spy successfully contacted the imprisoned Niu Wei and learned about the process of Niu Wei's arrest. Niu Wei himself said that it was Commander Xin who summoned him late at night and said that he had made several currency samples and asked him to go over and take a look and give some advice. Niu Wei didn't think much about it, but he was held down by the hiding people as soon as he entered the house.
In the middle of the night, no one saw this unlucky guy. He was secretly imprisoned in a cave room in Qingquan Valley, which was the cave used for tool development where Elder Qi stayed before. Unexpectedly, there was a secret room that was artificially excavated by the Xin tribe a long time ago, and many elders knew about it.
However, Niu Wei was just an elder who was promoted halfway. He went to the Han tribe as an envoy as soon as he was promoted. He didn't know the secrets that only the old guys knew.
In addition, the spy under Elder Jin also said that the Xin tribe was torturing Niu Wei and forcing him to tell him all kinds of information about the Han tribe. According to his observation of Elder Jin, Niu Wei may have said something. The spy also asked whether to find a way to rescue Niu Wei or kill him directly to prevent this guy from revealing all the information about the Han tribe.
This is the internal handling of Niu Wei by the Xin tribe. Another important intelligence from the spy is that the Xin tribe has sent an envoy to the grassland to contact Maodun. As for the purpose, it is not clear yet. You Zhi has already ordered Maodun's intelligence network to investigate. It is estimated that it will take some time to get accurate information.
However, looking at this, it is not difficult to find the real purpose of the Xin tribe's top leaders.
They should have discovered the Han tribe's intention to occupy Zhudao, so they strongly prevented the Han tribe from promoting currency on Zhudao.
Niu Wei's intention to deceive all the Xin tribe's top leaders to the Han tribe should have been noticed by them, otherwise they would not have arrested Niu Wei.
However, they did not make it clear what to do with the Han tribe's envoys, and even allowed the envoys to continue trading with the local natives, which shows that they are not ready to go to war directly with the Han tribe.
In addition, they took the initiative to contact Maodun on the grassland, who was the enemy of the Han tribe. It is almost impossible to guess what they want to do.
They can't defend the sea, so they can only use Maodun to contain the Han tribe. As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Although the high-level officials of the Xin tribe have never heard of this sentence, it does not affect their decision.
The Xin tribe alone is not scary. Without ships, they can't even get on land. They can only pass through the secret bridge a little at a time; Maodun alone is not scary either. Although that guy has a large number of people, is brave and cunning, he is short of supplies and does not pose any threat to the Han tribe for the time being.
But now the two tribes are going to unite again. One has people and the other has resources. After complementing each other's shortcomings, the two tribes have become a threat to the Han tribe.
But after such a long period of development, Luo Chong is not so worried about these two guys. There are already cities of the Han tribe on the grassland. It is definitely no problem to rely on the cities for basic defense, but the war will only reduce the sales of Kaiyuan County's materials, and other things will not be affected.
As for the Xin tribe on Zhudao, they can't do anything without ships. Although the dark bridge was previously planned to build a new cross-sea bridge, it has not been started until now. Looking at the current situation, it is almost impossible for the Xin tribe to build a bridge on their own.
The most important thing is that Luo Chong looked at the cannon next to him who was grinding the inner bore with a wind boring machine, and couldn't help but reveal a sly smile at the corner of his mouth. Now that I have this thing, I am still afraid of you two joining forces? He
quickly wrote a few letters in reply and sent them out, telling Shouya to stay put and be vigilant about the movements of the Xin tribe at all times. The primary goal is to preserve the resident of the mission. Even if a war breaks out in the future, a front-line base for landing must be left for the Han tribe.
He also told You Zhi to mobilize the Jinwu Guard's intelligence network to quickly determine the specific details of the alliance between the Xin tribe and Maodun, as well as Maodun's action plan and the latest decision-making trends of the Xin tribe's top leaders. Important intelligence must be transmitted back as quickly as possible.
Finally, Luo Chong sent another letter to the governor of Kaiyuan County, Ying Rui, asking him to pay attention to the military defense of Kaiyuan Army and guard against the sudden attack of Maodun's army. The Han tribe has received accurate intelligence that Maodun may take action in the near future.
In addition, he specifically instructed the Qianniu Guards and Huben Guards, as well as the cavalry reorganized by the herdsmen who surrendered to the Han Dynasty, to hurry up and practice, and not to slack off, because the war will soon come.
After arranging all this, Luo Chong began to work on his artillery. Now he has the artillery, but he has not started to work on the shells and gunpowder. It is time to make these things.
He told the casters in Xingang County the size and model of the shells, and asked them to cast them directly with pig iron molten iron, and cast a few tons of shells first.
Luo Chong did not plan to use lead bullets. After all, the reserves of lead ore are not as much as iron ore, and a large part of the lead mined is used to cast coins. It is more appropriate to use iron bullets for consumables such as shells, and iron bullets are harder. Under the same surface environment, iron bullets are more likely to ricochet and cause multiple injuries. In terms of penetration, they are also better than lead bullets.
The rest is black powder. Almost everyone knows the formula of black powder, but there are actually many different ratios.
For example, the most common firecracker gunpowder formula is 3 nitrate, 2 sulfur, 4 charcoal, 5 sugar, and 1 magnesium powder. Sugar is used to increase the loudness of the explosion, and magnesium powder is used to increase the brightness of the explosion. If various metal salts are added, different colors of fireworks can be made through flame color reactions. For example, if sodium chloride (salt) is added, yellow flames will appear when the gunpowder is ignited.
The above are all weight ratios, not volume ratios.
The most common ratio of black powder is one nitrate, two sulfur, and three charcoal, but this is a weakened formula and not the most powerful.
The formula of ancient military granular black powder is actually 1 sulfur, 1.5 charcoal, and 7.5 nitrate. Only by following this weight ratio can the most powerful granular black powder be made.
Of course, it does not mean that the gunpowder made with this formula has the greatest explosive power, but it refers to the propellant used to propel projectiles. This ratio is the most suitable.
There is a big difference between simple blasting powder and propellant. Gunpowder is highly subdivided, and there are also solid propellants specifically used to propel rockets. That thing can only be used to make sparks, but it has strong propulsion, such as the one in the tail nozzle of the RPG.
Luo Chong chose the formula of granular black powder. The materials are available in the Han tribe. The mining area here in Xingang County has natural saltpeter, that is, potassium nitrate. Charcoal can be burned by yourself, and it is not a valuable thing. Sulfur is available in the copper mining area of ​​Babaoshan.
However, making gunpowder is a dangerous business, and you should be very careful when operating it, especially the process of making granular black powder. The first goal to be achieved is to fully mix it evenly, and this step must be done in water.
After the three materials are completely wetted with a small amount of water, they are fully stirred and mixed, and then dried to precipitate potassium nitrate again, because potassium nitrate will dissolve in water, but it will not evaporate with water. After the water evaporates, it will condense and precipitate again.
After adding water, stirring, mixing evenly, and drying the gunpowder blocks, they are crushed by physical rolling, and finally sieved into particles of the same size, which can be used.
The most dangerous steps are drying and crushing. High temperatures and hammering too hard will not work, as they will cause explosions.
However, with Luo Chong watching and personally guiding the craftsmen to operate, the danger can be controlled. In addition, different links are carried out in different venues, and the number of operations is carried out on the principle of small quantities and multiple times. Raw materials and finished products are stored separately to avoid major accidents due to operational errors.
With Luo Chong, the leader of the Han tribe, personally supervising and mobilizing resources, the progress in all aspects is extremely fast. The production of black powder and artillery shells has been put on the right track, and seven or eight cast steel artillery have been polished.
Find a few carpenters to build a set of artillery carriages and accessories, and you can start testing the guns.
Due to the structure, the muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons are basically all cannons with low, deep and straight trajectories, that is, the kind of direct-fire cannons that can hit whatever they are pointed at. The elevation angles are very small. The trajectory of this kind of cannon is not a high parabola, so there is a great demand for aiming. For this reason, Luo Chong also specially asked the carpenter to build a set of mechanical sights and firing angle measuring instruments.
The aiming mechanism of the front sight plus the rear sight, the firing angle measuring instrument is a cylindrical wooden plug with the same caliber as the cannon, and there is also a semicircular protractor and plumb bob on the outer end of the wooden plug.
When using it, first use the front sight and rear sight to aim at the target direction, then use the rangefinder to measure the distance to the target, and finally adjust the appropriate firing elevation angle to the rangefinder so that it can achieve the purpose of hitting the target with one shot.
The firing angle measuring instrument is to insert a wooden plug of the same caliber into the muzzle, keep it consistent with the axis of the cannon, and then measure the elevation angle of the current state of the cannon by the angle of the plumb bob swinging on the protractor.
Although this tool is very simple, it is very useful, because no matter where your artillery is moved, whether the ground is flat or not, it doesn't matter, because the angle measuring instrument is measured based on the plumb line, and the plumb line is affected by gravity, so it will always remain absolutely vertical no matter what.
The rangefinder is even simpler. It is a small wooden board with a hole in it, with a distance scale marked on it. When using it, just lift it up and put the target into the hole. For example, if there is a person standing opposite, then put the person into the hole and find the distance to the target on the ruler according to the person's height. It
is very simple and crude, but practical. Of course, errors are inevitable, and the errors are relatively large. There are no optical telescopes and sights now, so this thing can only be used for the time being.
As for the range table, it does not exist yet. When testing the artillery, test it one by one, and then formulate a standard firing charge, firing angle, and range table based on the on-site test results.
(Sorry, I checked the information, it's a bit late)
(End of this chapter)
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