Chapter 488: Mortar Firing Test

How to solve the problem of transporting and storing picric acid explosives—this might stump others, but it certainly couldn't stump Zhu Youxiao.

Because this matter had already been a disclosed secret in later generations. Of course, in this era of the Great Ming, no one could possibly know it.

This secret, when spoken aloud, was actually very simple. In fact, many technologies that people couldn't figure out were sometimes just that simple.

And many examples told everyone that such a simple secret could sometimes trigger a war—even a war that dragged on for years.

This secret was to paint the inside of the shell and coat it with a thick layer of paraffin wax, isolating the picric acid from direct contact with the shell casing—using such a simple, ingenious, and cheap method to solve a major problem.

Although over time the paraffin wax would still peel off, preventing picric acid explosives from being stored long-term, at least it could guarantee usage.

Moreover, as a mass-consumed expendable item, would shells really be stored until the day the wax peeled off?

For Japan at that time, their national strength was weak and their output very low, so they had to rack their brains in many areas like this.

This gene for ingenuity also carried over to the later design of the Type 38 rifle—a dust cover solved the problem of keeping sand and dust out of the rifle.

Now Zhu Youxiao happened to be able to borrow this idea, and it also happened to suit the current level of productivity.

Picric acid was simple to manufacture, low in cost, and powerful in effect. With the transport and storage problems solved, there naturally were no other issues. It was a very good gunpowder, just right for making metal-cased fixed ammunition shells.

This gunpowder, invented by the French, ultimately shone on a grand stage in Japan. In fact, the French had originally known how important this thing was, so they only wanted to sell finished products to the Japanese—they didn't want Japan to research it themselves, and even less did they want to give Japan a production line.

But the Japanese weren't about to take it lying down. While touring the French factory, there was a man named Tomioka Sadatsugu.

Tomioka Sadatsugu put on a humble and studious appearance, carefully pinching up a pinch of picric acid crystals and rubbing them, looking at them closely with his eyes, smelling them with his nose, carefully feeling the texture with his hands—he was just short of putting them in his mouth to taste—and then casually put them back.

Returning to the Japanese delegation's lodgings, Tomioka Sadatsugu carefully picked a small bit of picric acid powder out from under his fingernail. These precious bits of powder changed hands several times before finally, in September 1888, being delivered into the hands of the technical master of the Naval Arsenal—Shimose Masachika.

From just this tiny bit of powder, the Japanese ultimately researched it out, and Japan utilized and conquered it, making it into the later-famous Shimose gunpowder.

And in Europe, its place of origin, because they couldn't solve the transport problem, they instead turned to conquering the more powerful nitroglycerin explosives and produced high-precision TNT. TNT was far more stable, and picric acid explosives were thus eliminated from history.

Given the Great Ming's current strength, making nitroglycerin explosives would be far too difficult; picric acid explosives, on the other hand, could be mass-produced.

Zhu Youxiao had long known about this matter and had also received the report. He just hadn't expected Bi Maokang's progress to be so fast—not only had he made metal-cased fixed ammunition shells, he'd also built a mortar.

Judging by the setup off to the side, there should also be heavy artillery over there.

Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but step up, looking at Bi Maokang and saying: "Since everything is ready, then fire a few rounds and see how the results are."

Upon hearing this, Bi Maokang naturally dared not be negligent, and quickly said: "Your servant will go make arrangements at once."

"Go on, go on." Zhu Youxiao nodded and said.

In fact, Bi Maokang went down to prepare and make proper arrangements. He had to arrange things—this test was originally an internal test, and everyone's attitude had been relaxed and harmonious. They held the attitude that even failure wouldn't matter. After so many years, it wasn't as if they'd never failed before.

But the situation now was different—His Majesty the current Emperor had come. Who could have imagined that His Majesty would come here at this time?

After arriving, His Majesty even wanted to watch their test. If something messy went wrong, that would be terrible.

If they could make the test succeed and let His Majesty see the results, then naturally that would be a good thing.

Bi Maokang hurried off to make arrangements, while also delegating the tasks he needed done, telling his subordinates to put more care into it and absolutely not make any mistakes. Strive for success on the first try, so His Majesty would watch happily.

Zhu Youxiao naturally knew what Bi Maokang had gone off to do, but he didn't stop him.

Having been Emperor for this long, Zhu Youxiao understood one thing very clearly: you had to give your subordinates a chance to perform—you couldn't leave them without opportunities to show what they could do. Then, when they performed, you gave them appropriate rewards and praised them.

Such things were very important to them, and this sense of honor was also very important to them. So Zhu Youxiao not only didn't stop him, but rather encouraged it, sitting there quietly with an expression of "I'm looking forward to this."

Soon, Bi Maokang had everything arranged.

Although Bi Maokang had gone off to arrange things, the current situation didn't allow him to take too long. After all, he couldn't keep His Majesty waiting here for an extended period.

Bi Maokang quickly returned, and said: "Your Majesty, everything is ready."

"Good, then let's begin." Zhu Youxiao nodded, speaking in an excited tone.

Taking the telescope from Wei Chao's hands, Zhu Youxiao sat and waited excitedly.

As for going up close to watch, Zhu Youxiao never even brought it up. The reason was simple—his subordinates would never let him go, and bringing it up would just be endless arguing.

Moreover, that mortar thing had just been made, and it was highly dangerous—an accident could happen at any moment.

He shouldn't go join in the excitement at a time like this. If he got blown up, the consequences would be severe.

Zhu Youxiao valued his own life greatly. He wasn't living for himself—he absolutely could not have anything go wrong.

Bi Maokang naturally didn't know what the Emperor was thinking; right now he just wanted to put on a good showing.

He was excited inside, waving the signal flag to have the men below get ready to fire.

And at this moment, the people in the distance also moved.

In pairs, they carried a wooden box between them, walking directly to the side of the mortar.

Then they opened the box, took out the shells inside, holding them carefully with both hands.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Youxiao's face showed nothing but excitement.

Finally seeing this thing with fins on the back of the shell!

After seeing this thing, Zhu Youxiao was excited beyond control.

A good thing, a good thing!

Zhu Youxiao couldn't wait to see the final results of the test.

After taking out the shells, these men began using their fingers to complete the aiming, and quickly adjusted the firing angle.

Finally, one man held a shell and placed it directly at the muzzle. As he released it, the shell dropped straight into the barrel, followed by a "bang" sound.

Through the telescope, Zhu Youxiao watched the shell spin as it flew out, then slam heavily into the ground not far away.

With a "Boom—" sound, the shell exploded instantly.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but excitedly stand up.

Bi Maokang, standing beside Zhu Youxiao, jumped up in joy directly, shouting loudly: "It worked! It worked!"

Clearly Bi Maokang was also excited—the kind he couldn't hold back.

After a moment, Bi Maokang came back to his senses and hurriedly bowed to Zhu Youxiao, saying: "Your Majesty, your servant was overly excited. I lost composure before Your Majesty—please punish me."

Zhu Youxiao glanced at Bi Maokang, unsure how much of it was an act.

But it didn't matter—as an Emperor, you had to put up with such things.

Zhu Youxiao said with a smile, "My dear minister, you have worked hard and diligently, creating such a fine thing for the Great Ming, persevering for so long. Now that the work is done, you naturally deserve to celebrate. I have noted your contributions, and I will surely reward you well."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Bi Maokang said hurriedly, a brilliant smile on his face and his tone brimming with excitement.

Wasn't Bi Maokang's earlier speech precisely meant to get His Majesty to reward him handsomely? He had his own designs. Now that His Majesty had spoken thus, it was naturally a win-win for all.

"Let them fire again." Zhu Youxiao looked at Bi Maokang and said, "Let's see the power."

This thing naturally couldn't be fired just once; even for testing, it couldn't be just a single piece.

And so the testing began once more—this time, over a dozen cannons fired together.

Watching the dust kicked up by the bombardment on the opposite side, Zhu Youxiao was absolutely delighted.

Now this finally had something of the feel of artillery. What was the previous stuff even called artillery?

But afterward, Zhu Youxiao did not interfere further. Testing of this sort followed a complete procedure. Test intensity, check where problems lay—these were not things Zhu Youxiao could meddle in.

If he fired a few extra rounds just to please himself as the Emperor, the barrels might well burst later. Naturally, Zhu Youxiao would not do such a thing—after all, every person here was a treasure to him. Losing one to death or injury would be an immense loss, both to him and to the Great Ming.

Bi Maokang arranged for his men to continue the experiments—to what degree the barrel could no longer withstand the pressure, to what degree accuracy would be affected—in short, all the tests were carried out one by one.

But this sort of thing no longer required Zhu Youxiao's company.

Bi Maokang led Zhu Youxiao to another testing ground.

Here, Zhu Youxiao saw the cannon.

Unlike the cannons of before, this was a breech-loading metal cannon that used fixed metallic ammunition. And judging from its appearance, this thing was the famous French Mademoiselle, known by a more familiar name in later generations—the Italian Cannon.

This cannon was the French M1897 75mm field gun, developed in France in 1897. As the world's first cannon equipped with a recoil mechanism, its rate of fire reached 15 rounds per minute, far surpassing other cannons of its era. It shone brilliantly in the First World War, with production and sales exceeding 20,000 units.

During World War I, Italy had acquired large numbers of these cannons. After the war ended, they exported the decommissioned cannons to China of that time. Because the cannons bore much Italian text, they came to be called the Italian Cannon in China.

This thing was actually quite famous on Chinese soil, but in truth it was not the best cannon of its time. After all, there were many places domestically that could manufacture cannons back then.

The production technology of the Jiangnan Arsenal's cannon works in Shanghai was already capable of producing cannons of the same caliber and technical level.

The Krupp-style 14-caliber 75mm mountain gun successfully reverse-engineered in 1905 had basically achieved full domestic production of parts, with nearly 500 units produced in total.

Even some far-sighted regional warlords' arsenals manufactured cannons of larger caliber and more advanced design—such as the Shenyang Arsenal under the Fengtian warlord Zhang Zuolin, which produced 100mm, 105mm, and even 240mm heavy howitzers.

The Taiyuan Arsenal under the Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan also produced 75mm and 88mm mountain guns and field guns.

It was only after the September 18th Incident that domestic arsenals shrank severely and cannon-making capability regressed greatly. What should have been better cannons were instead absent by that time, making this French Mademoiselle—already on the verge of obsolescence—a scarce commodity.

But in the era of the Great Ming, the Italian Cannon was naturally extremely advanced. After all, it was a classic model—many later light cannons were modified based on its design.

Just like AK47 firearms, which have developed into an entire weapon family—yet when people mention that series, they still call it the AK47.

Among breech-loading cannons, the French Mademoiselle was an unavoidable milestone. Just as among bronze cannons, the Napoleon cannon was an unavoidable milestone.

And so, when the Great Ming's first cannon model was finalized, it was this French Mademoiselle.

Zhu Youxiao looked at Bi Maokang with an excited expression on his face, but then turned and asked gravely, "Can it succeed? If not, don't rush it into service."

As for the matter of rifling in the barrel, that had long since been resolved. The Great Ming's progress in this area had been quite rapid. The alloy material for the cannon barrel had been solved satisfactorily—though some copper was still needed, the amount was already small. However, in the ammunition, copper was still required in large quantities.

What Zhu Youxiao worried about was the cannon itself—don't have it fail and explode. Zhu Youxiao was no longer demanding they rush it into service. After all, the Great Ming was still relatively peaceful at present, and producing equipment on a large scale would require a great deal of money.

To be honest, Zhu Youxiao really had no money right now. The funds the inner treasury could produce were barely enough to cover expenses.

Collecting grain for disaster relief every year gave Zhu Youxiao a major headache. The profits from trade in the northwest were also beginning to shrink—after all, those Mongol people hadn't had a good couple of years, with no surplus grain in their homes.

And in other areas, Zhu Youxiao's income was very meager. As for the revenue of the Ministry of Revenue at court—needless to say.

In the past few years, Zhu Youxiao had just finished equipping all his imperial guards with flintlock muskets, rocket launchers, and hand-cranked light machine guns. If he were now asked to re-equip them again, frankly, he lacked the strength to do so.

Not to mention the shipyard in Qingdao, which was burning through his money painfully.

So there was really no hurry for this thing now—no need to rush it into service. Zhu Youxiao could afford to wait.