Start Being a Vassal King Today - Chapter 474

[Chapter 474 Improvement]

“Your Highness, please show me.” At the

entrance of the Science and Technology School, Wang Ying bowed to Zhao Xu.

“The king asked you to cut the cannon last time, which greatly increased the power and range of the cannon.” Zhao Xu said slowly.

“Indeed.” Wang Ying nodded, and even now he is full of admiration for King Yan because of this matter.

This modification made the artillery of the royal family’s army much better than the artillery sold to the powerful clan.

It is said that the artillery made by Beidi is no different from the artillery they sold to the powerful clan.

In this way, if Beidi starts a war with Yanzhou again, Beidi will definitely suffer a big loss.

“This time the king asked you to modify the flintlock guns and add rifling to them.” Zhao Xu narrowed his eyes.

Since the barrel of the flintlock was drilled out of itself, he never had to cut it again.

The only way to increase the range and power of a flintlock is to rifle the musket.

“Rifling?” It was the first time Wang Ying heard this term, and he fell into confusion just like many times in the past.

Zhao Xu then explained the concept of rifling to him.

At present, the flintlock guns they use are called muzzle-loading muskets.

Because it is a smoothbore, when the bullet is fired, it will inevitably hit the inner wall of the gun chamber and fly out.

During the impact process, it is impossible to judge where the bullet’s trajectory is pointing.

This is why the smoothbore flintlock can only rely on dense formation to increase its lethality.

A single fusilier is less of a threat than a single archer.

But it is different to engrave the rifling on the inner wall of the barrel.

Due to the action of the rifling, the bullet moves in a spiral after being fired.

This stabilizes the trajectory of the bullet, which not only improves accuracy, but also increases shooting distance.

“Etching rifling in the wall can have such a magical effect?” Wang Ying was amazed.

Zhao Xu nodded, “Facts speak louder than words, you just need to make a rifle according to the king’s request.”

After finishing speaking, he squatted down and drew something like a hook on the ground.

“This thing is called a broach. It is the same as the boring tool of the hydraulic boring machine. It is a tool. After you go back, you first polish the broach, and then etch the rifling. As for how to etch the rifling and the spacing, I will let you know later. Someone will send it to you.” Zhao Xu continued.

“Yes, Your Highness.” Wang Ying stared straight at the pattern on the ground, then stretched out his hands to smooth it out so that no one would notice.

After explaining this matter, Zhao Xu turned back to the palace.

In the study, he took out a pen to draw the rifling diagram inside the barrel.

Generally speaking, the larger the caliber of the gun, the more rifling it has.

The caliber of the flintlock was still large, so he drew six rifling grooves.

And contemporary machine guns have no more than eight rifling grooves.

In just one cup of tea, six rifling lines appeared on the blueprint in front of Zhao Xu.

Between the rifling, he also marked the distance, which is the twist of the rifling.

In this way, when Wang Ying pulls the rifling, he only needs to pull it according to this distance.

Then, he wrote down the steps of pulling the rifling.

Since the rifling is spiral, it is natural not to pull it straight when pulling the rifling.

Instead, let the broach be pulled obliquely, and then keep the six rifling lines parallel, so that after completion, the overall spiral distribution is.

After the drawing was finished, Zhao Xu ordered someone to send it to Wang Ying.

Waiting for the birth of Dasong’s first rifled gun.

in contemporary times.

Rifled guns appeared in the fifteenth century, when they were called rifles.

In the seventeenth century, the Danish army was first equipped with rifled guns.

However, during this period, the armies of most countries were still unwilling to equip rifled guns on a large scale, and only allowed a small number of stragglers to use rifles as an array to harass the enemy.

This is not because other countries are stupid, but the existence of the rifle reduces the sealing of the barrel, so the bullet size can only be increased.

The consequence of this is that reloading becomes difficult, sometimes even requiring the use of a hammer.

However, due to the superiority of rifled guns, during the American Revolutionary War in the eighteenth century, the American militia was still equipped with rifled guns in large numbers.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, with the appearance of the Mini rifle, the smoothbore gun was officially eliminated and completely replaced by the rifled gun.

Because the special bullets of the Mini rifle solve the disadvantages of rifled guns.

The bullets were tapered buckshot, easy to fill, and hollow-bottomed.

When the gunpowder explodes, it will enter the bottom first, expanding the bullet and protecting the airtightness.

This time, Wang Ying was asked to improve the flintlock gun, and he was going to use this conical bullet.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the Minie rifle had a range of more than 900 meters and could maintain accuracy within 500 meters.

But at that time, the gunpowder used in the flintlock gun was no longer black powder, so it was more powerful.

At the moment, he has no ability to create gunpowder that is more powerful than black powder.

But even so, the range of the improved flintlock has been increased to 400 meters, and it is no problem to maintain a certain accuracy within 200 meters.

Such a front-loading rifle is enough to make Beidi people suffer a lot.

This is why he agreed to compete with Beidi.

Confidence comes from this.

Although the royal army lacks mobility and cannot expel Beidi on the grassland, relying on the bastion and Yanguan can definitely blow Beidi up.

Thinking of this, he felt a lot more at ease.

“Your Highness, Captain Bai Shang is asking to see you.” When Zhao Xu was thinking, Feng’er arrived at the door of the study.

“Bai Shang?” Zhao Xu frowned.

Generally, apart from Chang Wei, other generals rarely ask to see him alone.

Signaling Feng’er to let him in, Zhao Xu sat in front of the desk and waited.

After a while, Bai Shang strode to the study.

After saluting, he said: “Your Highness, the last general came here not for himself, but because of Yang Zhen’s entrustment.”

“Yang Zhen?” Zhao Xu was stunned.

Bai Shang was a little embarrassed, “It stands to reason that Yang Zhen is only a soldier now, so there is no need to alert His Highness to his private affairs, but…”

He didn’t continue when he said this.

Zhao Xu understands Bai Shang’s meaning, Yang Zhen is indeed a bit special now.

After all, besides being the defeated general of Ning Jin Dusi, he is also the son of Yang Feng.

So he said: “It doesn’t matter, what does he want to say to this king.”

“Yang Zhen begged His Highness to protect General Yang Feng. He said that the Northern Expedition was defeated, and Dou Wei and other powerful ministers would definitely pin the blame on his father.” Bai Shang said.

Hearing this, Zhao Xu suddenly frowned.

He had forgotten about it.

Although the peace talks were achieved this time, the aftermath of Beidi’s failure seems to be still lingering.

He needs to pay attention to what will happen to the capital next, including the matter of Yang Feng.

“It’s a good thing you came, otherwise this king would be careless, and I will make a plan to protect General Yang Feng.” Zhao Xu said.

In his opinion, Yang Feng is really stupid and loyal.

But he couldn’t deny that Yang Feng, like Mo Di, was the only remaining good general of Da Song.

If he was framed and died, it would be really unsatisfactory.

Thinking of this, he immediately drafted a memorial and sent it out.

Then he called Tsui Hark and asked him to continue to keep an eye on Beidi and Jingshi.

And after only eight days, Tsui Hark first sent him a piece of information that surprised him.

(end of this chapter)