Chapter 697 This is a killer weapon (please vote and subscribe)
The caliber of the 12-pound cannon is 121 mm. This data is calculated based on the diameter of a 12-pound lead ball, but Luo Chong used an iron ball, so the mass of the iron ball is lighter at the same volume, about ten pounds. (12 pounds is approximately equal to 10.8 pounds, here it is calculated as ten pounds)
According to Luo Chong's order, Dali took out a fifteen-pound medicine bag from the box next to him and stuffed it into the barrel, pounded the medicine bag into the bottom with a mallet, and then took another iron ball to put it in.
Aiming at the target, pouring the priming powder, and when everything was ready, Luo Chong waved the command flag in his hand.
With a louder bang than before, a cloud of white smoke and fire spurted out from the muzzle, and the cannon also retreated a section under the action of recoil. This was the thing that Luo Chong couldn't stand the most, because after each shot, just resetting the cannon and re-aiming this series of operations would waste a lot of time.
In Luo Chong's eyes, the two words "backward" seemed to be branded on the shiny barrel, while in the eyes of others, this was no less than a weapon of the gods, because the second shot had a longer range.
After the first shot was fired, someone immediately went to check the landing point and the destructive effect without waiting for Luo Chong's order.
With the five-degree elevation angle unchanged, the charge increased by half. It would be unjust if the shell did not fly farther. Sure enough, the final measured data showed that the first landing point of this shot had reached an astonishing 1,850 meters, which was farther than the last landing point of the previous shot. This time, the farthest landing point was already an abnormal distance of 2,280 meters. After
making a good record of this shooting, Luo Chong gave another order.
"Five-degree elevation angle, double charge, chain bullet."
"What is a chain bullet?" Dali asked curiously.
As a result, before Luo Chong could answer, the head craftsman in charge of casting shells brought a chain bullet over, shocking everyone around him so much that their eyes almost popped out.
Chain bullets are two iron balls weighing ten kilograms, connected by a sixty-centimeter-long iron chain in the middle. They look similar to the flying stone ropes that Luo Chong used in the past.
This thing is specially used by the navy in a serious artillery battle. It is mainly used to destroy the enemy's masts and sails when engaging in fire with enemy ships. When fired, two iron balls will rotate continuously, flying forward like electric fans. No matter how thick the mast is, it can be broken with one shot.
However, it is not appropriate for the Han tribe to use this chain bullet for the navy, because the forces hostile to the Han tribe have no navy, and even no ships, so there are no masts and sails for them to hit. Luo Chong wants to use this chain bullet to deal with the enemy's clustered infantry or clustered cavalry.
If this cannon hits the enemy's cavalry group, it will be too cool, just like a harvester.
"Can this thing be fired?" Dali said with some surprise and suspicion.
"It is definitely possible to fire it, but I don't know how effective it will be. For safety reasons, everyone will stay farther away this time." Luo Chong explained. He really didn't know how far the chain bullet could be fired.
Upon hearing this, everyone retreated a little distance. Dali carefully loaded the double gunpowder and chain bullets. Because there was no double fixed charge, he could only load two single charges at a time. Otherwise, the quality of the wrapping paper could not support 20 kilograms of gunpowder. Because the charge column was too long, it would easily break in the middle when transporting.
In order to avoid the problem of delayed explosion of gunpowder when loading twice, the interface of the two powder bags must be pierced in advance, and then tamped with a mallet before the chain bullet can be loaded.
After the primer was poured at the firing port and Dali was ready to pull the string, Luo Chong waved his flag again and ordered the cannon to fire.
With a loud bang, everyone saw the chain bullet flying in the air this time, because that thing was too conspicuous when flying.
However, it was embarrassing that the chain bullet flew only more than 300 meters and then plunged into the ground. This was with a double charge. The effect was too embarrassing. It didn't even hit the first target group 500 meters away. If the range was so short, it would be better to shoot directly with shotguns.
The people around were speechless and didn't know what to say. Although the fact that two ten-pound iron balls flew more than 300 meters was enough to shock them, seeing the leader's frowning expression, it was obvious that he was very dissatisfied with the result.
"One more time, double charge, chain bullet, shooting angle of 15 degrees." Luo Chong ordered again.
The impact caused by the chain bullet landing just now was very large, indicating that the shell obviously still had some power left, but because the air time was not long enough, the range did not reach the expected distance. This time he wanted to try to adjust the shooting angle to provide more air time for the shell.
Dali quickly reloaded as instructed, adjusted the shooting elevation, and raised the muzzle again. There was another loud bang, and everyone stared at the shells flying in the air. This time the shells flew much higher than before. Under the action of centrifugal force, the two iron balls quickly rotated and rushed forward, and then disappeared from everyone's sight.
After waiting for about one or two seconds, there was another burst of crackling noises. The first target group located 500 meters away was instantly swept down by the rampaging chain bullets. A cloud of dust also splashed on the ground farther away. The shells landed, and this time everyone around couldn't help cheering. Needless to say, the range of the chain bullets must have reached more than 600 meters, otherwise there would not be such an effect.
The target inspector rode to check it out quickly. The facts proved Luo Chong's guess. The first target group at 500 meters was swept down diagonally. The first landing point of the chain bullet was 680 meters away. The second landing point reached 750 meters and then stopped. It turned out that the chain bullet did not bounce as many times as the single iron bullet. Luo Chong thought that the chain bullet would fly a few more times like skipping stones. Now it seems that he was overthinking it. Thinking
about it carefully, the chain bullet is two connected iron balls rotating forward. When they land, the two iron balls will definitely be separated. In this way, the one that is in the air will definitely be affected by the one that landed. Under the interaction of forces, it will soon cancel out.
This result is acceptable. It really achieved the expected huge lethality at medium and short distances. The only thing is that the chain bullet has no trajectory at all. The direction of the thing flying out can only be determined by faith. Moreover, after hitting the cluster target, the continuous impact will cause the chain bullet to deviate from the central axis. The result of this test firing is very obvious. The chain bullet penetrated the first target group diagonally.
However, Luo Chong was almost satisfied with the effect. The target of the chain bullet was clustered targets within 500 to 1,000 meters. Anyway, there was no need for precise shooting. This thing could only hit a large area. If you wanted precision, you could just hit a single iron ball.
Next was a simulated attack on cluster targets within 500 meters. Luo Chong quickly issued another reloading order and had the shooting range re-set.
The targets used this time were all scarecrows, standing densely in several rows, with distances of 200 meters, 350 meters and 500 meters respectively. There were three arrays in total, and each array had two layers of dense formations.
"Zero degree left and right shooting range, ten degrees shooting elevation, double charge, double shotgun loading."
Although Dali didn't understand the shotgun this time, before he could ask, the cannon casting craftsman next to him had already sent the shotgun up. This thing was a tin barrel with the same diameter as the cylindrical shape of the cannonball, and then it was stamped and cut, and finally hammered to shape. It was filled with small iron balls with a diameter of 1.5 cm. The weight of a tin barrel was also ten kilograms. The number of small iron balls in the two shotgun shells was about 600.
After loading, Luo Chong waved his flag, and there was another loud bang. The two iron barrels filled with small iron balls were blown to pieces as soon as they left the muzzle under the huge chamber pressure, and then the shotgun shells inside were sprayed forward in a fan-shaped scattering surface.
A gap was instantly blasted open in the scarecrow array 200 meters away, directly dismembering the two rows of scarecrows on the spot. The shotgun shells were still flying forward, and once again penetrated the scarecrow array 350 meters away, and flew directly to the target 500 meters away. However, at 500 meters, basically no scarecrows fell.
This time Luo Chong personally checked the shotgun scattering effect. It was still somewhat different from the expected effect, but it was barely acceptable. The target at 200 meters was directly blown apart, and the target at 350 meters was also partially blown apart. Some were only shot through with a few holes. At a distance of 500 meters, almost all of them were holes. Some were not hit because at such a long distance, the scattering area of the shotgun was too large to be tracked at all, and the gaps between them were also terrifyingly large. It was normal
for targets to escape the shooting by luck. This was when the target was a scarecrow. If it was a living person or livestock, Luo Chong estimated that it would be at most 300 meters. Because the trunks of people and livestock are very thick, and there are skeletons inside, the blocking power of shotguns is much stronger than that of scarecrows. It is estimated that after flying more than 300 meters and passing through a few people, the rest will be unable to continue flying. If the target is wearing heavy armor, the effect will be greatly reduced.
However, Luo Chong can accept such an effect. Shotgun, chain bullets, and single shells can take into account targets at three distances from near to far.
However, this is still not the limit of this cast steel cannon. If we only talk about the range of the shells, it can actually be fired farther.
Luo Chong quickly launched a limit test. First, the left and right firing range was zero degrees, and the three types of charge were fired at an elevation of ten degrees, one time, 1.5 times, and two times.
When the artillery was at an elevation of ten degrees, a one-time charge could directly hit 1,850 meters, which is the same as the range of 1.5 times gunpowder loaded at a five-degree firing angle. After the test, it can be clearly known that the next time you want to hit a target more than 1,850 meters away, you can directly use a ten-degree firing angle, and you don’t need to use a 1.5-time charge at a five-degree firing angle. For the same range, you can save half the gunpowder, which is of great significance.
When the 1.5-time charge at a ten-degree firing angle was used, the shell flew directly to 2,200 meters, and the impact was still very strong. It jumped four times before completely losing kinetic energy.
With a 10-degree firing angle and double charge, the range of the artillery directly exceeded the 2,500-meter mark. The distance of the first impact point was 2,620 meters, and the final impact point even ran outside the 3,000-meter line, although it did not exceed it by much.
However, Luo Chong still did not give up. He ordered another 10-degree elevation angle, 2.5 times charge, and single iron bullet. This time the range was even more terrifying. The first impact point reached 2,950 meters, almost breaking through the 3,000-meter mark. The ricochet distance of the artillery shell also increased significantly, and the final impact point was already 3,500 meters away.
Luo Chong gave up the triple charge experiment directly, not because he was afraid that the steel cannon would explode, but because he was still very confident in the process of cooling the cast steel core. The reason for giving up the triple charge was that the barrel was not long enough. The length of the thirty-jin gunpowder column alone accounted for half of the barrel length. If an iron ball was installed, how much acceleration distance would be left for the iron ball? Moreover, Luo Chong estimated that the remaining barrel length was not enough for the gunpowder to completely burn and expand. Such an experiment was meaningless and too wasteful.
In this way, Luo Chong's carefully prepared bunker was no longer useful, because 2.5 times the charge still could not do anything to the cast steel cannon. It was still fine, and the explosion scene that Luo Chong expected did not appear at all.
After repeated tests of various angles, various charges, and various shells, Luo Chong finally collected satisfactory experimental data, which was enough to compile a shooting table.
The people around were also enjoying the show in this cold weather. Luo Chong randomly selected three cannons for quality inspection. All of them were charged with the maximum amount of powder, directly 2.5 times, and fired single iron bullets. After firing five shots in a row, the cannon quality inspection was carried out. The results of the inspection made Luo Chong very satisfied. After firing five times in a row with the maximum amount of powder, the cannon was still in good condition. Even because of the cold weather, the cast steel cannon was not overheated, and it seemed that it could fire several more shots in a row.
After the quality inspection was completed, Luo Chong finally ordered a round of eight salvos, all with a ten-degree shooting angle of one-fold powder. The flag was waved, and boom, boom, boom, boom, the cannons were ignited one after another, and the shells whistled into the distance. The momentum of the people on the sidelines also suddenly rose, and they were infected by this spectacular scene and excited. Everyone was cheering.
Showing the powerful weapons of one's tribe in front of one's own people is like the effect of a military parade. It is an important means to enhance national pride and national honor. This is why Luo Chong did not stop the people from coming to watch the fun.
He planned to use their mouths to tell more people that the Han tribe has powerful weapons and is not afraid of any provocation and challenge from any tribe. If they don't accept it, they will be bombed.
The last eight-gun volley and eight-gun continuous shooting also pushed today's test gun activities to a climax. All the targets in front were swept away by dense shells. The shells and targets on the test gun field, except for chain shells and single iron shells, were found one by one. It was difficult to find other shotgun shells, and the cleaning of the targets was also difficult.
In the end, in order to save trouble, Luo Chong directly ordered the people watching the test guns to clean up by themselves. The broken wooden targets could be picked up and burned at home. The shotgun shells with a large scattered area were also handed over to all the people present. Whoever picked them up could take them back as souvenirs.
Hearing this good news, the people cheered and helped clean up the shooting range, but Luo Chong had already led his men and eight cannons back to the city.
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I still have to revise the beginning of the new book tonight, I am so miserable (╥ω╥`)
(End of this chapter)
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