Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 139: The Powerful Flintlock
On December 12, Lu Jin officially returned from Dingyuan. He was on the road for eight days and did not arrive in Luzhou until the 20th.

He went to Wuwei County on the southern route on November 18th and returned on the 20th. The round trip took just over a month.

A month has passed, and with the efforts of many craftsmen, the task of making musket samples assigned by Lu Jin has been completed. Now they are just waiting for Lu Jin to inspect them.

"Marshal, how is the war on the northern front?" As soon as Lu Jin entered the city, Li Shanchang, Feng Guoyong, the Bao brothers, and Zhu Shou came up to greet him. Feng Guoyong, the secretary of the Martial Academy, asked first.

"Chuzhou and Quanjiao have been taken, and the war on the eastern front is over. Before I came back from Dingyuan, I had ordered them to take Lai'an County as soon as possible. Lai'an County is a small town, and there are no Yuan troops within hundreds of miles around it. If nothing unexpected happens, we should be able to receive victory news before the end of this month.

"After we take Lai'an, we will attack Haozhou in the north. After we take Haozhou, we will not continue to expand in Jiangbei. Before the beginning of spring at the latest, the Yuan court may send troops to wipe out the Xuzhou rebels. We need to prepare early. Now we attack Haozhou and Lai'an to protect Dingyuan and Chuzhou."

Li Shanchang, Feng Guoyong and others nodded when they heard this. According to Lu Jin's idea, Haozhou and Lai'an would be the buffer zones in the tug-of-war with the imperial court.

Li Shanchang also asked, "General, have you found the salt mine in Dingyuan? In order to lure Kang Maocai to send troops, you exempted the people from a lot of summer grain this year, and also built a lot of buildings to repair the city walls, which also consumed a lot of money and grain. If the salt and iron industry cannot make a profit, I am afraid our finances will be very difficult next year."

The purpose of war is to fight for money and grain. Even if grain tax is not collected, it is still in the hands of the people. After all, it is still on their own territory. As long as salt and iron can be produced, the grain can be brought back. In fact, there is no big problem in collecting less grain temporarily.

If grain is compared to currency, then salt and iron are commodities necessary for life. As long as enough commodities are put on the market, currency can be recovered. The problem is that there must be commodity output.

Lu Jin also nodded, "I have found the location of the salt mine, it is in Luqiao Town, Dingyuan County. As long as we dig a well, there will be output. However, I have other uses for the chief clerk of Dingyuan County, so I need to transfer another chief clerk there. In addition, it would be best to set up a special Salt Administration Office with a supervisor to be in charge of salt affairs."

Several people immediately agreed, "This is as it should be. Finance is a big deal, and we should appoint a dedicated person to do this."

Lu Jin then asked, "Is there a suitable candidate?"

When everyone heard this, while the others were still thinking, Bao Heng, who was in charge of the Finance Department, immediately stood up and said, "General, Gao Xun, the head of the Finance Department, is diligent and conscientious in his work. He can be promoted to the position of salt administration."

Lu Jin suddenly recalled that he had some impression of Gao Xun, who was an examinee from Wuwei. There were four brothers named Gao, Gao Wen, Gao De, Gao Xun and Gao Dao. All of them migrated from the north. They were the first generation born locally.

Among them, the eldest brother, Gao Wen, did not take the exam and is guarding the house in Wuwei; the second brother, Gao De, is currently serving as the chief clerk in Lu'an; the third brother, Gao Xun, is the head of the Finance and Household Department of the Academy of Literature in the Marshal's Mansion; and the fourth brother, Gao Dao, did not pass the exam and finally joined the army as a training officer.

Three brothers from the same family came to take the exam at the same time, which was the only case among this group of candidates. Moreover, Gao Xun also hung around the Marshal's Mansion every day, so Lu Jin had a deep impression of them.

Since he is a candidate from Wuwei, he should have nothing to do with the Bao family in Luzhou, nor with the people in Dingyuan, and he was admitted by themselves, so he can be used.

Lu Jin nodded immediately, "Then let Gao Xun go. Let him get ready and leave for Dingyuan in a few days."

"Yes." Bao Heng agreed immediately. Although Gao Xun had nothing to do with him, he was a subordinate of his in the Department of Finance and Households after all. They had a relationship of kinship. If he could get a position in the most important Salt Administration, it would be easier for him to work in the Department of Finance and Households in the future.

Lu Jin then looked at Zhu Shou and asked, "Is the defense of the city okay?"

"Don't worry, Marshal. Everything has been peaceful recently. I have been training soldiers to defend the city these days, and I have also trained a group of internal guards."

Lu Jin nodded and instructed, "Among the two company commanders of the battalion guard I brought with me this time, I promoted them to battalion commanders of a thousand households. You have to fill the vacancies in the regiment again."

"Yes." Zhu Shou agreed without asking any more questions.

After briefly learning about the latest news, Lu Jin returned to the backyard of the Marshal's Mansion. Zhang Yunxiu's morning sickness had become more severe. Although she had not yet seen a doctor, her menstrual period had not come this month, so her pregnancy was a foregone conclusion.

Lu Jin was a little excited. This was the first time he was going to have a child in his two lifetimes. In modern times, he was busy with work and study and had no time to find a wife. Now after traveling to ancient times, he was going to be a father.

Moreover, this is also a good thing for the Shengwu Group. Now that the lord has a son, the morale of the entire force will be more stable. Lu Jin immediately couldn't wait to spread the news, and he immediately called Bao Heng, a native of Luzhou, over.

"Is there any doctor with good medical skills in Luzhou? It would be best if he is good at Qianjin medicine. Please ask him to come and check Madam's pulse tomorrow."

Bao Heng was stunned when he heard this. He thought Lu Jin was looking for him about the Salt Administration, but he didn't expect that he was looking for a doctor.

"This time, Marshal, there is a doctor in Luzhou named Chi Renping, who is a disciple of the famous Suzhou doctor Ge Yinglei. He has been practicing medicine in Luzhou for more than ten years after returning from his studies. His medical skills are well-known, but I don't know if he is good at Qianjinke. May I ask my wife."

Hearing this, Lu Jin immediately smiled and said, "Madam is probably pregnant. Please ask a doctor to check her pulse."

"This is good news!" Bao Heng was also surprised, and then he asked with some doubt, "Such a big thing, why didn't I hear Madam mention it before?"

Lu Jin naturally knew what they suspected. After all, he had only been away for a month, and when he came back he said his wife was pregnant. Someone would definitely be suspicious, so he explained immediately.

"My wife and I got married in early October, so the child should have been born at the end of October. However, my wife was young and inexperienced, so she didn't know about it before. When I went out for inspection in late November, she had already noticed the signs.

"But I wasn't at home, and she didn't dare to make it public, so she waited until today. Counting the days, the child should be more than a month old."

Bao Heng no longer had any doubts after hearing this, and immediately said happily, "She is pregnant in the same month of marriage, which is a good sign. Don't worry, Marshal, I will definitely invite the doctor tomorrow."

"Well, let's go."

Telling Bao Heng about this is basically equivalent to telling the Civil and Military Academy, and they will spread the rest on their own.

After finding a doctor, Lu Jin asked Zhang Yunxiu about her brother Zhang Wen's marriage. Zhang Wen had previously proposed marriage to Qin from Chao County. When Lu Jin left Heyang, the letter had just been sent to Lu'an. Now there has been a reply. Qin Li naturally agreed, and the two families are now discussing the marriage.

Of the two brothers who first supported Lu Jin in joining the army, Zhang Wen already had a marriage arranged, but Zhu Shou was still single. Now that he had returned to Luzhou, Lu Jin began to think about introducing a wife to Zhu Shou to see which family's girl was more suitable for Zhu Shou. However, he did not know much about the situation of the women in his subordinates' families, so he was afraid that he would have to ask Zhang Yunxiu for help in this matter.

Just when he was thinking about the marriages of his two younger brothers, Xu Jichuan from the Construction Department of the Academy of Literature came to meet him.

"Marshal, the Feixi Iron Works has started to heat up the furnace and will start trial production soon. The sample of the fire gun that you ordered to be made has also been made. I wonder when you will test the gun?"

Lu Jin was immediately delighted when he heard this. "Has the ironworks started to heat the furnace? Are the hydraulic machinery also ready?"

"No, the army is in urgent need of iron now. There is no time to lose. I will let them smelt iron by manpower first, but the water conservancy machinery is also not idle. The water diversion channel has been dug and bricks are being laid now. We can continue the construction later." Xu Jichuan reported hurriedly.

"Well, you did a good job. Are the craftsmen who made the muskets here?"

"They are all here. We are just waiting for the Marshal to finish testing the guns, and then we can arrange for mass production."

Lu Jin nodded, "Okay, take them to the parade ground in the city right away, bring your muskets and tools, and wait for me to come over."

"Yes."

Finalizing the musket was a big deal, so Lu Jin immediately started mobilizing people, including his newly accepted apprentice Meng Zhifang and Yang Huan from the training camp. In addition, Qin Xuesi, the director of the Gunpowder Bureau, was also called over. Zhu Shou went to arrange the shooting range in advance.

Not long after, the group went to the parade ground in the northwest of the city. The two blacksmiths responsible for making the musket samples had been waiting for a long time. Xue Gang and Sui Gu, the two guys who had made swords for Lu Jin before, made a musket each according to the wooden sample provided by Lu Jin. The sizes were the same, with only slight differences.

The object that Lu Jin chose to imitate was the French Charleville M1777 flintlock rifle, which is known as the AK47 among flintlock rifles. The cumulative production of various models has exceeded 700 million. It was once the main weapon used by France to support the American War of Independence, and is known as the European weapon together with the British Brown Bess flintlock rifle.

The biggest external feature of this gun is that there are three iron hoops on the gun body, which firmly fix the barrel and the buttstock together. This design, which is commonly used in bolt-action rifles in later generations, was an innovation at the time.

According to the sample data provided by Lu Jin, the total length of the gun excluding the bayonet is 16 meters, the barrel is 17.5 meters long, and the caliber is 9 mm, which is slightly smaller than the historical Charleville. The caliber of this gun in history was 10 mm, and the range could reach about meters. The total weight of the gun was to kilograms.

The reason why it was made so long was that in order to ensure a sufficient range of the smoothbore musket, the only way was to use the crude method of lengthening the barrel. In addition, the musketeers of this era also served as part-time spearmen, and a longer musket was more conducive to stabbing, and a bayonet alone could not be made too long.

Xue Gang and Sui Gu each held a flintlock rifle. They had tried it before and were a little worried about the firing rate of the rifle. They looked at each other nervously, and Xue Gang asked first, "What is the firing rate of your rifle?"

"Seventy percent. How about yours?"

"Hey, that's strange, why is yours 70% and mine is only 60%?" Xue Gang said distressedly.

The range of the flintlock rifle is not important. Anyway, it is used for close-range linear firing. What is compared is the density of firepower per unit time. Whether it can be fired successfully is the more important indicator. But obviously the samples made by the two did not meet Lu Jin's requirements. Lu Jin said that it would be best if it could be improved to more than 80%.

Historically, European flintlock rifles of better quality generally had a firing rate of 85%.

"This is the first time for us to make a musket, so perhaps we haven't grasped the essence of it yet. Let's wait for the Marshal to come and take a look." Sui Gu was open-minded and didn't worry too much about Lu Jin getting angry. In fact, it was because the gun he made looked better.

On the other side, Feng Guoyong had just returned from doing some business outside when he met Lu Jin and a group of people heading to the parade ground. He immediately asked.

"Where are you going, Marshal?"

"Oh, we are going to the parade ground to test the muskets. Would you like to come with us, sir?" Lu Jin immediately invited.

"I've heard that the Marshal is having someone make a musket, so let's go take a look."

So the team had one more person, and when Lu Jin arrived at the parade ground, Zhu Shou immediately came to pay his respects with several craftsmen.

"I've met the handsome man."

"No need to be so polite. Where's the musket? Let me take a look at it first."

The two immediately presented their works, and a group of people gathered around to watch.

"Is this a musket? Why is it so long?" Meng Zhifang couldn't help but wonder. He had also seen muskets in Dingyuan, but they were just the kind of matchlock guns from the Yuan Dynasty, at most one foot long, and they were cast.

Lu Jin did not answer, but took the two guns to inspect them. The barrel of Xue Gang's musket was thicker, about three millimeters, and the barrel was polished rather roughly, but the inner wall was still smooth. However, the flintlock was more delicately made, the bullet-compressing rod was also better made, and the spring was very powerful.

Sui Gu is just the opposite. It may be that he is better at making armor plates, so the rolled barrel is thinner, only about two millimeters thick, and the outside is polished very smoothly. Just looking at the barrel, the appearance is much better, and the weight of the whole gun is also lighter.

Lu Jin held one in each hand and weighed them. "It seems that Sui Gu's is lighter. Have you weighed it?" "Replying to the Marshal, mine weighs 9 kilograms according to the weight given by the Marshal." Sui Gu answered immediately.

"Mine weighs 25 pounds and 1.7 ounces," Xue Gang also said.

“What about the irritation rate?”

"Sixty to seventy percent."

Lu Jin frowned and was about to speak when Xue Gang hurriedly explained, "Marshal, my gun worked fine at first and fired every time, but after firing five or six times, it started to misfire. After that, it took several shots before it fired once. I don't know why."

Lu Jin finally understood what was going on and analyzed, "That might be a problem with the gunpowder."

So Lu Jin checked the medicine pot and flintlock again, and then waved to Yang Huan. In the future, he would have to rely on this boy as an instructor to train the firearms troops. "Yang Huan, prepare paper and pen, and write down everything I say."

"Yes."

Only then did Lu Jin explain to the two craftsmen while holding the gun.

"There are many factors that affect the firing rate of a flintlock musket. The first is the coordination between the powder pot and the fire hole. If the cross section of the barrel is regarded as a circle, the height of the powder pot should be slightly below the horizontal center line of the circle. If it is too high or too low, it will affect the firing rate.

"Also, the fire hole cannot be drilled too high. The size of the fire hole also has an impact. If the hole is too small, the fire cannot be transmitted into it. If the hole is too large, it is easy to leak or explode. These details are the key to affecting the firing rate.

"In addition, there is gunpowder. You said that it fired every time at the beginning, but it started to misfire after five or six times. That might be because there were too many impurities in the gunpowder, and the remaining dirt from burning blocked the ignition hole. The ignition rate can be increased by enlarging the ignition hole or improving the gunpowder."

"So that's how it is." The two craftsmen suddenly realized.

Seeing that Yang Huan had almost remembered everything, Lu Jin emphasized to him again.

"You also need to be careful when using this flintlock musket. When you handed it to me just now, the flint trigger was open. This is not okay.

“When not in use, the barrel must first be kept clean and free of debris, and then the spring of the flintlock must be kept relaxed to prevent the spring from being stretched for a long time, causing metal fatigue and a decrease in elasticity.

"If this continues for a long time, the flint will lose its power to strike, and the firing rate will drop. Soldiers need to pay special attention when using it, formulate regulations, and check the guns regularly. Anyone who does not loosen the spring will be severely punished."

Yang Huan quickly wrote it down and asked, "Marshal, what is metal fatigue?"

"People and animals have lifespans, and they get tired after working for a long time. The same is true for tools and materials, especially springs. Just like people and animals, they need to rest after working for a while. They cannot be kept stretched all the time, otherwise, the springs will not die from fatigue, but they will lose their elasticity."

Yang Huan then nodded, "Marshal, I've remembered everything."

"Let's start testing the guns, Qin Tiju, is the gunpowder ready?" Lu Jin looked at Qin Xuesi and asked.

Qin Xuesi immediately had several bamboo jars with paper labels on them brought up, and then he said, "Marshal, everything is ready. They are all made according to the method you taught. They are divided into several finenesses. There are six kinds here, three finenesses, and two adhesives."

Qin Xuesi's words were ambiguous. The people around him only knew that the gunpowder was different, but they didn't know the specific meaning.

Lu Jin knows a lot about this. The fineness refers to the diameter of the gunpowder particles. Don't underestimate this. Many people only know that gunpowder should be granulated, but they don't know that the size of the particles also has a lot of influence on the range.

Simply put, for the same weight of gunpowder, the smaller the particles, the greater the number of particles, the larger the surface area, the faster the burning speed, the higher the initial velocity of the projectile, and the longer the range. The opposite is true for larger particles.

The standard black powder sold in the West is sold according to different fineness and grades.

Of course, this does not mean that the finer the particle size of black powder, the better. If the particle size is too fine, the surface area will increase, which may be more susceptible to moisture and may leak out from the fire holes. The specific size of the particle size to be used requires experimentation.

In addition, the adhesive that Qin Xuesi mentioned is actually an adhesive. Lu Jin proposed to use two kinds of them to make each batch. One batch uses ordinary water, and the other batch uses paper medicine, which is the kind of paper medicine added to the pulp in the traditional papermaking process to prevent paper from sticking to each other. It is usually the juice of kiwi vines.

This thing has a certain degree of viscosity and is relatively hydrophilic. It is everywhere in the mountains and is cheap. Lu Jin wants to try out how big the difference is between this thing and the granular medicine made of water.

He picked up the two types of gunpowder, twisted them with his fingers, and found that the one with paper gunpowder as adhesive was harder and not easy to crush.

Then they each poured a long strip into a plate, lit it with incense, and tested the burning speed. They found that there was no obvious difference in the burning speed. If you look at this alone, it is certain that the effect of adding paper medicine is better, harder, and not easy to fall apart. I just don't know what the moisture regain rate is. It seems that I have to do another experiment when I get back.

Lu Jin looked at the basin of bullets placed next to him. Since lead was not available at the moment, he used iron bullets cast and polished from pig iron. He picked up a caliper and randomly checked a few of them. He found that the diameters were between 15 mm and 16 mm, with an error of less than one millimeter. The accuracy was very high, so he immediately asked several craftsmen.

"You got the ball grinder out?"

Su Qing, who was in charge of the wooden machinery group, stepped out and said, "Reporting to the commander, we don't have the iron mill yet. We have to wait for the iron factory to make it. We used a temporary stone mill to grind it."

"Very good. This batch has good accuracy. However, we still need to replace it with an iron mill as soon as possible. Bullets are consumables and will be used in large quantities in the future. A stone mill alone cannot grind them all, and the stone mill wears out too much."

"Yes." Su Qing quickly agreed.

Lu Jin took out an iron bullet and weighed it. "How heavy is this?"

"Replying to the Marshal, each pill weighs two cents and three fen. If we follow the measurement set by the Marshal, it would be about seven grams."

"Very good, let's make ammunition together. The weight of the gunpowder will be calculated as 10 grams, which is 3.1 cents."

"Yes."

"How do you do this? Can't you just pour it in and load it?"

Some people in the field agreed, while others raised questions. Feng Guoyong didn't quite understand. He had seen people using muskets, but the ones from the Yuan Dynasty were directly loaded and did not use fixed charge.

Qin Xuesi immediately explained, "Secretary Feng, you don't know that on the battlefield, soldiers face arrows and stones, and they will often get nervous and make mistakes. If too much gunpowder is added, it will easily explode, and if too little is added, the power will be halved. So the Marshal came up with the idea of ​​using paper bags to wrap a certain amount of gunpowder in advance. This way, there is no need to worry about the soldiers being flustered, and it can also increase the loading speed. The Marshal calls it paper-wrapped fixed-load ammunition."

"I see. This is a brilliant move."

Everyone went down to make projectiles. Lu Jin and Qin Xuesi demonstrated to the others. They first rolled up a paper tube, filled it with iron bullets, tied it with string, and finally poured in gunpowder. Soon they had one ready.

Seeing this, Zhu Shou asked, "Marshal, do we need to apply some tung oil to prevent moisture?"

"It is best to use animal fat, which is not only moisture-proof but also lubricating, making it more convenient to fill. The large outer packaging can be made of tung oil paper." Lu Jin explained.

"What is large packaging?" Feng Guoyong asked.

"For example, we first packaged the ammunition and applied lard cream, then wrapped every ten rounds with tung oil paper. This way, when we distributed ammunition to the soldiers, there were ten rounds in one package, which was convenient for replenishment and transportation, and could also prevent moisture."

Upon hearing this, Feng Guoyong couldn't help but admire in his heart, this Marshal is really meticulous. He didn't expect that there are so many details to pay attention to for an ammunition. But when you think about it carefully, these measures can indeed improve combat effectiveness.

Everyone worked together and soon packed hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Lu Jin roughly calculated that a bullet, the warhead plus gunpowder weighed 17 grams, and the paper and rope weighed nearly 20 grams. In this case, fifty rounds of ammunition weighed two kilograms.
It seems that we cannot give soldiers more than they should. The maximum they can carry at one time is thirty rounds of ammunition, so the packaging of ten rounds in a bag is very suitable.

Lu Jin then picked up Xue Gang's musket, looked at everyone and asked, "How far do you think this musket can shoot?"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked towards the shooting range. Zhu Shou had placed several life-size human-shaped targets, starting from twenty meters to one hundred meters, one every five meters, in a fan shape.

Seeing that the target was placed so far away, almost the same range as a bow and arrow, Feng Guoyong couldn't help but doubt the range of the musket.

"This gun barrel is more than twice as long as the muskets used by the Yuan army. It should be able to fire farther, right? How about fifty meters?"

"You can try, Zhu Shou, go put armor on the fifty-meter target."

"Yes."

"Do you need to wear armor for such a long distance?" Everyone was surprised.

Lu Jin didn't say anything. He checked whether the firing port was clean, then bit off a round of ammunition and began to load. After the bullet was compacted and the flint hammer was moved away, he immediately held the gun horizontally and began to aim.

It was not until then that everyone discovered the advantages of the musket stock. At first they were curious about why it was made into such a wooden handle that was bent to one side. Now they realized that it was actually used for shoulder aiming.

Lu Jin's body had been strengthened when he crossed over, and his eyesight was good. The target fifty meters away was very clear in his eyes. After aiming for a few seconds, he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

There was a loud bang, a puff of white smoke rose in front, and in the distance there was a clang sound of metal colliding. There was no doubt that it was a hit.

Sure enough, after checking, the soldier immediately reported, "It's a hit, the commander's shot is amazing, the armor is pierced!"

hiss--

Everyone gasped, not because they doubted Lu Jin's accuracy, but because they were amazed at the power of this musket that could penetrate iron armor from fifty meters away.

Moreover, some people in the crowd have already realized the greater advantage of this thing, which is that it is easy to learn. Meng Zhifang feels that if he can learn it after reading it once, then it shouldn't be too difficult for others to learn it.

In addition, practicing this skill does not require much strength. You don't need to be born with strong arms like a crossbowman. You just need to be able to lift the musket.

However, he was not clear about the tactics of using muskets, so it can be said that he underestimated the role of muskets on the battlefield.

(End of this chapter)