Chapter 759: Sharp Weapons

"Reporting to Your Highness, during the time you were on the campaign in Gaoli, this subject ordered the craftsmen to grind a broach specifically for cutting the rifling of artillery, and ten days ago, we already began improving the artillery in the army." While gesturing for Zhao Xu to head toward the artillery Workshop, Wang Ying introduced, "Currently, thirty-six pieces of artillery have been improved, ready for Your Highness's inspection."

Zhao Xu nodded; a rifled cannon was simply an enlarged version of a rifled musket.

In this era, muskets and cannons were not separated.

Since the Weaponry Bureau could cut rifling for rifled muskets, with a slight improvement in technology, it could naturally also cut rifling for rifled cannons.

Therefore, it was only natural that Wang Ying had successfully improved the smoothbore cannons into rifled cannons; it was not worth being surprised about.

As the two spoke, they arrived at the warehouse of the artillery Workshop.

Here, thirty-six field artillery pieces were lined up in sequence.

Zhao Xu walked over, focusing specifically on the bore to inspect it.

Inside, they were all engraved with regular rifling.

Feeling satisfied with this, Zhao Xu looked toward Wang Ying and asked, "This rifled cannon is fine, but to make this rifled cannon exert its power on the battlefield, there is still one thing that needs to be solved. Are you aware of it?"

He did not explain directly, but instead asked Wang Ying in return.

This was not to show off.

It was to test whether Wang Ying had independent thinking regarding firearms.

Returning from Gaoli this time, he believed it was necessary to build a Firearm Research Institute within the Weaponry Bureau, just like the Research Institute.

Then, he would draw some students from the Technology Academy and hand them to Wang Ying, ordering him to independently research and build firearms according to the tasks he provided.

After all, the structure of firearms would only become more complex in the future; relying on Wang Ying alone would not work.

Otherwise, this would drag down the speed of the Great Song's weapon upgrades.

"Your Highness, this cannot stump this subject." Hearing this, Wang Ying smiled lightly.

He walked toward a crate on the left side of the field artillery and took out a conical cannonball from inside.

Coming before Zhao Xu, Wang Ying said, "Just like with the rifled musket, round bullets are inconvenient to load. Inspired by the rifled musket, this subject also improved the cannonballs, and thus we have this conical cannonball."

Zhao Xu revealed a satisfied expression, then asked, "However, round cannonballs can roll on the ground and bounce to kill the enemy, but the conical cannonball seems unable to do that, right?"

"Hehe..." Wang Ying laughed proudly; he knew the Yan Wang was testing him.

Thus, he said, "Therefore, this conical cannonball is an explosive shell; it can explode. Your Highness, please look."

As he spoke, Wang Ying twisted the structure on the front of the cannonball that looked like a bottle cap, and before long, he twisted off a long screw.

Wang Ying then showed the screw and the opening at the top of the cannonball to Zhao Xu.

"This subject replaced the wooden fuse of the round explosive shell with a bolt. The bolt has a small hole in the middle that can be stuffed with a fuse, and the cannonball opening is threaded, so one can control the time of the cannonball's explosion by rotating the screw," Wang Ying explained.

"Mm, very good. You have found the right development path for the rifled cannon." Zhao Xu patted Wang Ying on the shoulder.

In fact, the conical cannonball Wang Ying had created was essentially just changing the shape of the previous round explosive shell,

changing the wooden fuse into a metal bolt to ensure that the yellow gunpowder would blow the shell body apart, rather than spraying out from the top opening like a firework and becoming a dud.

But this improvement was quite remarkable; just like the change in the shape of the rifled musket bullet, it was enough to trigger a military revolution.

Just like the current Western Lands, they possessed the ability to manufacture rifled muskets, but habits from hundreds of years made them unable to conceive that bullets could also be conical.

But once they understood, they would apply it rapidly.

In the contemporary era, the change in rifled musket bullets had also gone through this process.

One side first used rifled muskets with conical bullets on the battlefield, and the other side immediately followed suit.

Therefore, Zhao Xu had always been worried that the two battles in the south and in Gaoli might have exposed the secret of the conical bullet.

The enemy would certainly study the secret of Yanzhou's rifled muskets.

However, he was not worried about this.

From research to full-scale adoption, the enemy would need at least two or three years.

This time was enough for the Prince's Personal Army to equip the next generation of rifled muskets.

It was precisely this consideration that made him decide to reform the Weaponry Bureau, to regularize it, and to build a modern military-industrial research system.

"Your Highness is too kind; speaking of which, it was merely inspired by the conical bullet," Wang Ying said politely.

Zhao Xu took the conical cannonball and looked at it again, becoming even more satisfied.

With the conical cannonball, the rifled field gun would possess the same accuracy as a rifled musket, hitting whatever it was aimed at, and would exert terrifying power on the battlefield.

It could not only kill the enemy through direct impact but also through explosion.

But the greatest change from combining the rifled cannon with the conical cannonball was actually not for the Army, but for the Navy.

First, with the Navy using rifled cannons, the range and accuracy of naval cannons would be greatly improved once again.

Secondly, conical cannonballs were easier to pierce ship hulls than round cannonballs.

Imagine what a terrifying scene it would be for a conical cannonball to explode inside a wooden Warship.

In modern history, it was precisely because of the appearance of the conical explosive shell that wooden Sailing Warships rapidly declined and Ironclad Warships covered in thick iron armor appeared.

At the same time, warships would no longer need so many gun ports.

Because after hitting with just a few cannonballs, the opponent would basically be finished.

Thinking of this, he said to Wang Ying, "You send a team to Jinghai County, transport the Steam Engine and the artillery broach there, improve the naval cannons for the Navy, and manufacture a batch of conical cannonballs needed for the naval cannons."

"Yes, Your Highness." Wang Ying answered very crisply.

Next, Zhao Xu spoke with Wang Ying about the Firearm Research Institute.

Regarding this, Wang Ying was naturally exceptionally happy.

His own son was in charge of a Research Institute, while he, the father, was inferior to his son.

Now when eating at home, he didn't even have the confidence to lecture Wang Chong.

Receiving this heavy responsibility, he suddenly felt his back straighten.

After staying at the Weaponry Bureau for a while longer, Zhao Xu returned to the Prince's residence.

These past few days, all the arrangements had been made.

Next, he only needed to wait for the fruit to ripen.

Besides these, Chen Shou had originally promised him that the steamship would be launched in November.

It was already mid-September, so in just over a month, good news should arrive.

Thinking of the Shipbuilding Department, Zhao Xu believed he should continue to build a batch of shipyards and churn them out like dumplings.

After all, in the future, the British Fleet in Dongtu would only be the tip of the iceberg of the Great Britain fleet.

At present, Great Britain had over five hundred warships scattered across the globe.

This did not even include the warships of other Xitu Guo.

Moreover, Xitu Guo now possessed the capability to build steamships.

This was not apparent during peacetime, but once a large-scale war broke out, they would explode with production capacity.

By then, there would be even more steamships entering service.

Therefore, in terms of shipbuilding capacity, he absolutely could not fall behind.

Of course, there was one more point.

Steamships could be used not only for military purposes but also for civilian use.

He hoped that a portion of the steamships would participate in waterway transportation.

In this way, relying on the developed water network of Great Song, the coal from Jinzhou, the soda ash from Yuzhou, the graphite from Qizhou, and the iron ore from Yanzhou could be circulated in Jiangbei, promoting the development of industry.

……

At the same time, Lincheng.

A steamship slowly docked at the pier.

The British envoy, led by Crown Prince Liang Feng, entered the Imperial Palace.