Chapter 246: Trading Muskets for Cannons

The idea was beautiful, but reality would not allow it.

Before even rifling had been added to cannons, hoping to add rifling to muskets was basically nothing more than a fool's pipe dream.

As for Bi Maokang's talk of the time being ripe, Zhu Youxiao very much wanted to wait as well.

But Zhu Youxiao knew that he could not wait, and could not afford to wait. The Great Ming in the days ahead would certainly be in chaos — one could say flames of war would rise on every side.

How long Xiong Tingbi could hold out in Liaodong was simply an unknown. Though no problems had arisen so far, which did bring him some comfort.

But reports of battles large and small from Liaodong kept coming in without cease. One could only say the situation was barely being held steady; to truly gain a firm foothold, or to speak of counterattacking, was basically unrealistic.

Under such circumstances, weapons research and military construction absolutely ranked first.

He could not wait — he needed rapid production and rapid equipping. Though he knew what was best, he could hardly wait for the best to come out before manufacturing anything, could he?

By the time that arrived, the yellow flowers would have long gone cold. So Zhu Youxiao understood very clearly that Bi Maokang's suggestion could only remain a suggestion.

He not only needed production — he needed large-scale production and large-scale equipping. At the very least, he had to guarantee that Qi Jin's troops would all be re-equipped with flintlock muskets.

So Zhu Youxiao said, "Then produce according to this prototype. Continue your research as well — whenever you succeed in developing it, produce the new model then, and phase out the old one."

Seeing that Bi Maokang still wanted to say something, Zhu Youxiao said slowly, "Let it be settled thus."

So Bi Maokang said no more. He knew he could offer suggestions, but he must always understand one thing — who it was that made the decisions.

Xu Guangqi glanced at Bi Maokang, somewhat helpless.

He felt that this disciple of his lacked political sensitivity — not that there was anything wrong with the suggestion the disciple had given His Majesty.

The suggestion was a good one, but Bi Maokang had utterly failed to consider the Great Ming's current situation; he had not weighed matters from the overall picture.

If Bi Maokang spent his whole life in the Hundred Crafts Institute, perhaps this would not be much of a problem.

Originally he had rather high hopes for Bi Maokang, wanting him to one day leave the Hundred Crafts Institute and accomplish great things — but as things stood now, better to forget it.

Lacking a sense of the big picture was a fatal flaw for a high official at court.

Given the Great Ming's current situation, new equipment absolutely had to be fitted as soon as possible. Whether it was Liaodong or the court, all of them needed it — otherwise Xu Guangqi would not have insisted on drilling new armies either.

The court currently had no usable troops; a proper army needed to be formed as quickly as possible. Bi Maokang had failed to see this point, and that was a major shortcoming.

Zhu Youxiao did not dwell on it further, nor did he plan to assign Bi Maokang other tasks. So long as Bi Maokang could manage the Hundred Crafts Institute well, his merit would already be more than enough.

"Fire a few shots and let's see." Zhu Youxiao said with a smile, "Let Us witness the power."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Bi Maokang acknowledged, then waved to someone not far away.

Several men quickly came up. They began swiftly loading bullets, then fired at the targets not far off.

The flintlock's greatest advantage was that it struck the flint hard against the edge of the flash pan, producing sparks that ignited the powder and fired the weapon.

It greatly simplified the firing process, improved the ignition rate and firing accuracy, was convenient to use, and had lower costs, making it easy to mass-produce.

During the firing process, Zhu Youxiao could already see the advantages.

The flintlock's rate of fire was much faster than the old fire lances — a skilled shooter could fire three to five rounds per minute. Most crucially, it was unaffected by weather and could be used normally even in the rain.

Of course, the Great Ming's fire lances were not that terrible either — what was most terrible was the manufacturing.

Fire lances had a low yield rate, high expenditure, and a high malfunction rate — all of these were human problems. Many border troops suffered barrel explosions when using fire lances; fire lances produced by the Ministry of War would blow up their own men before ever seeing battle.

But such situations would not occur at the Hundred Crafts Institute. Standard manufacturing processes, a relentless pursuit of refinement, and strict oversight systems all guaranteed that whatever the Hundred Crafts Workshop produced was sure to be of the finest quality.

This was evident from the reports sent back from Liaodong — the results of use over there were very good.

Xiong Tingbi had submitted routine memorials more than once, hoping that he could be allocated more fire lances from the Hundred Crafts Institute. But the Tianqi Model One Fire God Muskets manufactured last time had all been test pieces, and Zhu Youxiao had simply ignored him.

At this present moment, mass-producing that kind of fire lance would be like joining the Nationalist army in 1949.

After the smoke of the gunpowder dispersed, Zhu Youxiao nodded in satisfaction, then turned and said, "Let Us try it."

The moment these words came out, Bi Maokang was startled out of his wits.

He did not have the nerve to let His Majesty attempt it, so he cast a pleading look toward Xu Guangqi.

Xu Guangqi, standing to one side, stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, firearms are dangerous after all — would it not be better not to try?"

"Load it quickly." Zhu Youxiao said with a smile, "We trust you."

Once those words were spoken, there was naturally no refusing. So Bi Maokang took a flintlock, personally loaded the powder and the ball, then handed it to Zhu Youxiao.

Zhu Youxiao took the flintlock, assumed a three-point aiming stance, then pulled the trigger.

With a bang, Zhu Youxiao's body swayed.

He had not expected the recoil to be so strong — even having braced himself in advance, he was still jolted.

As for the bullet, it certainly would not strike where Zhu Youxiao had aimed. A gun without rifling could never achieve point-and-shoot accuracy; aiming was merely a joke.

Smoothbore muskets did not even have the question of aiming, because aiming was useless anyway — what was needed was firepower coverage, large-scale equipping, and then square formations, rank upon rank of volley fire.

Zhu Youxiao smiled and handed the flintlock back to Bi Maokang, saying, "Put it away. The piece is very good, and you have done excellent work. We will have someone reward you according to merit."

"Your servant thanks Your Majesty." Bi Maokang said hastily.

"Bring up the rifled cannon you have engraved and let Us see it." Zhu Youxiao said with another smile.

This was a matter of great concern to Zhu Youxiao, because once rifled cannons existed, it meant shells could be fired out very rapidly and could strike targets with great accuracy.

Shells that could be aimed naturally had far greater power.

Of course, smoothbore cannons could be aimed too. The mortars of later generations were still smoothbore, but they required fin-stabilized shells to hit targets accurately and to calculate the shells' point of impact.

Zhu Youxiao had naturally told Bi Maokang this as well, and they were researching it too. But this one was considerably more difficult, because the shell had to contain gunpowder and explode after landing.

Though the Great Ming did have shells that could explode after landing, they absolutely could not meet the requirements of a mortar, so research had to start from scratch, and for the time being there was no progress.

What had made greater progress was actually the rifling of the cannons. Of course, the Great Ming's scientific workers were not without ideas of their own — for instance, they had developed a new Fire Dragon Emerging from Water.

They had adopted the idea Zhu Youxiao had proposed, creating a two-stage launch.

The front section was packed with a large amount of gunpowder, mixed with plenty of porcelain and steel fragments to increase lethality, and even iron balls; the rear used fins to stabilize flight, and it was launched from a launch rack.

No matter how Zhu Youxiao looked at it, this thing resembled the prototype of a missile.

When Bi Maokang submitted this idea to Zhu Youxiao, it truly gave Zhu Youxiao a start.

Since they wanted to do it, Zhu Youxiao let them go ahead. It was only that there had been no major progress for the time being — there were still many problems to solve.

According to Bi Maokang's design, the new Fire Dragon Out of Water uses two-stage launching—the gunpowder in front is responsible for propulsion, while the gunpowder in the rear is responsible for the explosion, and once it explodes, it will produce tremendous power.

What needs to be solved now are the problems of propulsion, sealing, and detonation upon landing. As for the problem of fixed tail fins, Bi Maokang and his team have already mostly solved it, and they should be able to resolve all these issues completely.

If the thing Bi Maokang designed could truly be built, Zhu Youxiao was still quite looking forward to seeing its power.

For now, let's look at the rifled cannon first—this is the thing that can actually be shown off.

Soon, the cannon was hauled up.

Steel-framed wheels were all fitted and ready, and it could be pulled along by horses.

A not-too-large cannon sat on top of it. Clearly, this cannon's caliber and power wouldn't be too great. Of course, it would be impossible to haul a big one up here for testing.

Zhu Youxiao could tell from the color of this cannon that it should be a bronze cannon—apparently, they still hadn't managed to solve the rifling problem on steel cannons. Still, Zhu Youxiao believed it wouldn't be long before they did.

Someone carried over a wooden crate and opened the lid, revealing the shells inside. These were a newly designed type of explosive shell.

You should know that because of the limitations of black powder's power, explosive shells were not the mainstream at present.

The current mainstream was still solid iron shot, which relied on the inertia of the launch to kill the enemy and break up dense formations—it wasn't as powerful as later generations' ammunition either.

This newly designed explosive shell was intended specifically to complement the new rifled cannon.

Bi Maokang had put considerable thought into this, because to work with a rifled cannon, a round shell simply wouldn't do. But if they used an elongated shell, then it wouldn't roll on the ground after landing, and a solid shot would lose its purpose.

So a new type of shell was needed to match the rifled cannon. The only option was an explosive shell.

To maximize the power of the explosive shell as much as possible, Bi Maokang and his team had also put great effort into the gunpowder itself.

For example, using granulated powder and increasing the purity of the raw materials, making the powder as powerful as possible so that the explosion produces more fragments, thereby increasing the shell's lethality.

This shell was already the best that Bi Maokang and his team could produce. Its shape was similar to the Minié ball of later generations, and because of the rifling, accuracy could also be guaranteed.

Zhu Youxiao quickly walked to the rear of the cannon and examined it carefully.

This was actually a breech-loading cannon, with its design inspired by the Frankish cannon. It was still quite different from the breech-loading cannons of later generations that used fixed ammunition, and it looked far less refined and convenient.

There was a chamber at the rear of the cannon. Each time, propellant had to be loaded into it, then ignited with a flame to push the cast-iron explosive shell out the front, while simultaneously igniting the fuse at the tail of the shell.

After the shell flew out, it would burn in the air, then explode upon landing.

Zhu Youxiao felt that this thing's reliability wasn't high either, but it was still a direction worth pursuing.

Of course, the difficult problem that needed to be conquered was the metal fixed cartridge. As long as they could solve the problem of metal fixed ammunition, the power would definitely go up another level, and the rate of fire would certainly be higher too.

Even so, this cannon was already advanced enough for this era.

"Let's fire a shot and see." Zhu Youxiao looked at Bi Maokang and said.

Bi Maokang hastily gestured to some people not far away.

Two men quickly walked over and began loading the cannon.

First, they stuffed the shell into the barrel from the rear, then placed paper-wrapped propellant into the chamber.

After obtaining Zhu Youxiao's permission, Bi Maokang personally walked over and used a torch to ignite the propellant.

With a boom, smoke instantly rose into the air, and the shell flew out of the barrel in an instant, then landed with a white trail behind it, letting out a thunderous roar.

In an instant, dirt and stones flew everywhere, and dust filled the air.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao nodded in satisfaction, then turned to Bi Maokang and said, "Go over and see how much power it has."

In fact, this design was quite rigid, because the amount of propellant determined the firing distance.

At the same time, the firing distance determined the length of the fuse inside the shell, which in turn determined the distance at which it would explode.

If they wanted to hit something close by, the shell might not have exploded yet after landing, and they would need to wait a little.

However, these flaws or shortcomings weren't too important compared to the destructive power it could deliver.

Hearing that Zhu Youxiao wanted to go over and take a look, the others didn't dare to be negligent and quickly followed along.

By the time the group reached the shell crater, Zhu Youxiao had already arrived there first.

Looking at the crater from the explosion before him, Zhu Youxiao found that this cannon's power wasn't that great—it had only blasted out a crater less than a meter wide, let alone how deep it was.

But the straw dummies placed around were covered with fragments that had burst out from the explosion. This made Zhu Youxiao quite satisfied—this type of cannon relied on the fragments from the explosion to kill enemy soldiers.

Bi Maokang carefully studied His Majesty's expression, seemingly afraid that His Majesty might be dissatisfied. He hastily said from the side, "Your Majesty, this is the smallest-caliber cannon designed by the Hundred Works Institute. If the caliber were increased, then the power would be even greater."

Zhu Youxiao glanced at Bi Maokang and said with a smile, "Then it would also be heavier."

A bigger cannon, more propellant, bigger shells—naturally, the power would be greater. Of course, it would also be heavier, and transporting it in this era would be all the more troublesome.

If the transportation problem couldn't be solved, then everything else would be pointless. The big ones could only be used for defending cities, though their defensive effect should be much better than other cannons.