Comparing the two generations of rifles, there is no discernible difference between the Wanli rifle and the previous generation Longqing rifle, except that the barrel is much smoother.
It's right that you don't see the difference, because the specifications of the two generations of rifles are exactly the same. Moreover, all Longqing rifles can become rifled guns that fire Minié bullets with very simple modifications.
Later in Prussia, when the Crimean War required that all infantry be immediately equipped with rifled rifles, 300,000 old smoothbore rifles were rifled in less than a year.
Jiangnan Group's arsenal has been implementing standardized production for more than a decade, and has long achieved universal parts, greatly reducing the production and maintenance costs of weapons. In line with the principle of thrift and diligence, the two generations of rifles use exactly the same specifications. In this way, if necessary, all the Longqing-style rifles of the group can be upgraded to rifled rifles in a short period of time.
However, this modified rifle cannot be called a Wanli rifle, because the standard of the Wanli rifle is - an effective range of 1,000 meters and guaranteed accurate hits within 500 meters.
To achieve such astonishing power, it is necessary to ensure that there is no leakage during shooting. After repeated measurements, the expansion capacity of the Minié bullet is 1 mm, which requires that the clearance between the inner diameter of the barrel and the bullet does not exceed 0.5 mm.
0.5 mm is nothing in the later industrial era, but for the craftsmen of this era, it can only be described in two words, that is - weird... Oh no, godly craftsman!
Only the Jiangnan Arsenal, which uses cast iron machines to process gun barrels and hydraulic presses to punch lead bullets, can meet such stringent requirements, and at an extremely low cost.
The barrel of the Longqing rifle was semi-handmade, with varying inner diameters and most of them having excessive play, so the initial velocity of the Minié bullet was only half of that of the Wanli rifle, and the effective range was only 500 meters, with an accurate shooting distance of only 200 meters.
Although the Longqing rifle is not on the same level as the Wanli rifle, its range is twice that of the smoothbore version, which is definitely a huge leap.
In addition, the Wanli rifle also underwent a "blueing" treatment on all metal parts to address the high humidity and high salt environment of the coast guard force, which was not available on the previous Longqing rifle.
Blueing is a rust prevention process that has been passed down in my country for thousands of years. It involves placing metal parts on a coal stove and heating, smoking, and oxidizing them with coal smoke, and then repeatedly wiping them with oil extracted from the wax of Chinese tallow tree seeds, so that a layer of shiny black film forms on the surface of the metal parts. This has a very good rust prevention effect. Not only the Jiangnan Arsenal, but also the Jiangnan Shipyard has been using it for more than a decade.
However, the Wanli-style rifle was not prepared for the South Seas and the West, and artillery was the protagonist of the battle at sea and on islands. Even if forced to fight on land, the Longqing-style line shooting was enough to deal with the enemy who was seriously lacking in cavalry.
Zhao Hao produced this new rifle to restrain the cavalry...
Because the effective range of the original Longqing rifle was only 100 meters. If facing a large group of cavalry charging, even a well-trained marine would only have enough time to fire two shots before being rushed in front and forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, or even being directly rushed through the line, causing huge losses.
But after switching to the Wanli rifle, they could start shooting at a distance of 1,000 meters and could accurately strike at a distance of 500 meters. Before the cavalry approached the infantry's position, most of the horses and riders had already been hit.
Moreover, since the Minié bullet has a soft warhead, it will deform immediately after hitting the target, so it has a good stopping effect.
In another time and space, it was after the Minié rifle was put into large-scale service that cavalry attacking infantry became a suicidal act. The cavalry, the king of the cold weapon era, gradually disappeared from the battlefield.
So which cavalry was he trying to deal with? He didn't say, and no one dared to ask...
~~
The visit to the production process of the Wanli rifle was certainly shocking, but the following visit opened Zhao Hao's eyes——
He saw a mature flintlock revolver, which was the pistol version of the "Thunderbolt Gun" developed by Zhao Shizhen, and was very similar to the appearance and principle of later revolvers. He once again pioneered the reduction of the number of barrels, leaving only one barrel, and shortened the rest to become a cartridge case for the barrels.
He also got inspiration from the ratchet positioning characteristics of the capstan on the Coast Guard warships, and applied a simple mechanical linkage principle to this revolver. In this way, after one shot, the hammer is reset and the cylinder automatically moves to the next position.
"Wow, add a percussion cap and it becomes a revolver." Zhao Hao couldn't let go of the revolver flintlock rifle, which was really an excellent self-defense weapon.
"In fact, the percussion cap has already been developed." Zhao Shizhen said proudly. This was the main purpose of his inviting Zhao Hao to visit.
"What? You figured it out?" Zhao Hao was stunned. In order to prevent the 00 Institute's research from going astray, he did describe the direction of future guns and artillery to his nephew.
At that time, Zhao Hao told Zhao Shizhen very confidently that if it came to the muzzle-loading flintlock rifle, the Wanli rifle would have come to an end, and the rifles of the future would be more like the breech-loading, sub-bolt-type electric rifle that he had developed back then.
The sub-gun of the electric gun is a reloadable metal fixed bullet, but in order to adapt to the flintlock, it cannot be sealed and leaks very seriously. Zhao Hao told him that the direction of improvement should be to develop a kind of pyrotechnic powder that will ignite when it is subjected to friction and impact, and make it into a percussion cap and add it to the tail of the bullet...
However, Zhao Hao didn't want this weapon to appear too early, so he didn't tell him how this percussion cap was made.
I didn't expect my nephew to figure it out by himself...
"It's not us, it's the work of our brother unit." The eldest nephew said modestly: "Last winter, Qu Suo from the 04th Institute told me that they accidentally synthesized a dangerous substance during their experiment and asked me if I was interested."
"..." Zhao Hao was speechless. 04 Institute is a chemical research institute. Among all the institutes, the number of casualties in recent years is second only to 00 Institute. There is a reason for this.
"In their experiments, they found that when nitric acid and pure alcohol are mixed, they are very likely to explode violently once shaken." Then the eldest nephew said solemnly.
Zhao Hao's face also looked very unhappy. Because behind this, there was at least one bloody accident...
"Institute 04 named this substance Explosive Acid." Zhao Shizhen said, "When I heard it, I thought, isn't this exactly the property that a percussion cap needs? But explosive acid is a toxic substance and can't be used directly. So I asked Director Qu if there was any way to turn that thing into powder, or soak something in it, and then take it out and dry it. Will it still be effective?"
"At that time, Qu Rukui looked at me like an idiot." Zhao Shizhen said embarrassedly, "He only said one sentence, which was very sour. Do you understand?"
"I said, isn't there solid sulfuric acid? Then he dragged me to a chemistry class. I learned that explosive acid is highly corrosive, and even if it forms crystals, it can't be used directly." Zhao Shizhen said, "But Director Qu suggested that I could try to react with various metals, maybe I could find what I want."
"Then I came back and started to try." Zhao Shizhen said excitedly, "The explosive acid is indeed very corrosive. After adding tin, copper, lead and mercury, it immediately melted into nothing. After adding silver, although it also melted, there was a layer of white foam at the bottom. After collecting it and drying it, it exploded immediately when hit on the anvil with a hammer. It completely meets the requirements of the percussion cap!"
He chuckled and said, "In fact, gold is the best, but the cost will go up..."
Zhao Hao couldn't close his mouth for a long time after listening to this. It turned out that the smartest minds are not divided by era. He only taught them basic chemical knowledge, and they figured out gold fulminate and silver fulminate by themselves...
With mixed feelings, Zhao Hao visited the percussion cap rifle handmade by Zhao Shizhen - the next generation rifle mentioned by his nephew, which was basically the same as the Wanli rifle, except that the percussion cap installed on the hammer replaced the powder pot containing propellant.
This small improvement can further simplify the shooting process and increase the shooting speed. In addition, the misfire rate of the flintlock rifle is one in seven, while the misfire rate of the percussion cap rifle is as low as one in two hundred, and the reliability is greatly improved.
"Because the medicine pot has been eliminated, not only will the cost of making the gun be further reduced, but the airtightness of the gun body will also be better, greatly increasing the power of the rifle." Zhao Shizhen spared no effort to encourage his beloved "little daughter" and said:
"Another very important point is that there is a delay in firing when a flintlock rifle is fired. This is because the gunpowder in the powder pot can only ignite the barrel after it is completely burned, while the percussion cap rifle can fire the moment the hammer hits the percussion cap. When shooting at fast-moving targets, the advantage is very obvious!"
"Uncle, since you want to deal with cavalry, why don't you consider upgrading the Wanli style? It will be foolproof!" Zhao Shizhen looked at Zhao Hao eagerly, hoping to marry off his little daughter like her two sisters. "At worst, we can just keep it a secret from the breech-loading rifle..."
Zhao Hao understood Zhao Shizhen's feelings very well. The Wanli style was just a big improvement over the Longqing style, and the percussion cap rifle was revolutionary. It would be unpleasant for anyone to have such an awesome weapon but have to put it aside.
"No!" But he still shook his head firmly.
Because this incident taught Zhao Hao once again the importance of the finite generation theory, which should not be taken lightly in the slightest!
He called Zhao Shizhen aside and whispered to his nephew that in fact, Western medieval alchemists had already prepared gold fulminate during the alchemy process and found that this substance was prone to explosion.
In fact, explosive acid is fulminic acid, just with a different name.
But because it explodes too easily, it cannot be used as gunpowder, nor can it be mixed with black powder, so it has been regarded as useless for hundreds of years. It was not until hundreds of years later that someone thought that this useless property could be used in the firing system.
"We must never help them break this window paper!" He grabbed Zhao Shizhen's ear and spoke word by word.
After listening to Zhao Hao's story, Zhao Shizhen was also stunned. He had previously been somewhat dismissive of his uncle's finite generation theory, thinking that his uncle was too cautious and would make the research team feel constrained and hesitant to move forward.
Now he finally understood what his uncle was worried about. The Europeans were really strong, but they just didn't know where to go. Once they were given the right direction, they would probably catch up in a short time...
"So we must follow the theory of limited generation gap to keep our opponents in the dark for as long as possible!" Zhao Hao said to Zhao Shizhen without question: "I have told you this truth countless times. Remember, whoever leaks the secret of the percussion cap out of this research institute will be the eternal sinner of the Chinese nation and will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history like Shi Jingtang and Qin Hui!"
"Yes, uncle!" Zhao Shizhen hurriedly responded solemnly, and this time he finally engraved it firmly in his heart.