: Machines are inferior to humans

A few days later, two large bird guns with unique shapes began a secret test in Li Ping's military camp.

These two matchlock guns, which look like but not like large blunderbuss, both came from the Xie Yinglong tribe of the peasant army in Hanchuan.

But in fact, without testing, Li Ping and Song Baolai already knew that these two matchlock guns, which should be called Lumi guns, were superior to their bird guns just by their appearance.

The longer barrel, exquisite workmanship and high-quality gunpowder are enough to give the Rumi gun higher muzzle velocity and range.

Although some improvements have been made to the blunderbuss equipped by Li Ping's troops, they are mainly focused on quality stability and ergonomics. The basic structure and size are not much different from the blunderbuss commonly equipped by the Ming army.

That is, the gun tube is three feet long, the charge is three qian and the lead bullet is 3 qian.

Moreover, the gunpowder used has not undergone any major changes in the ratio or manufacturing process, but only to ensure that there are fewer impurities.

This gives their bird gun advantages mainly in the extremely low explosion rate and the ability to stabilize the muzzle kinetic energy at the upper limit of 1750-2046 joules for ordinary bird guns.

The barrel of the Lumi gun is 4 feet 5 inches long, and the charge is four cents. Of course, the weight of the whole gun is also greater, but the power of the whole gun is also substantially improved.

Test results quickly confirmed this.

The armor-piercing distance of these two Rumi guns (vertical penetration of 3mm armor leaves) is close to 50 meters, and the effective killing (killable) distance against unarmored targets easily exceeds 120 meters. The estimated muzzle kinetic energy exceeds 2400

Joule, the power is obviously better than ordinary bird guns.

The meter is now a unit of length commonly used within the support camp. Its promotion and forced use came entirely from Song Baolai's insistence, because it was easier for him to compare various data with the modern knowledge in his head, and it was also more convenient.

Just like now.

It is also amazing that the length of a meter can be roughly determined.

It was actually the height from Song Baolai's navel to the ground when he stood up straight in the morning. Song Baolai had accidentally discovered this coincidence in the previous world. In this world, he felt that his height and appearance were similar to the original, so he just took it.

Come and use it.

As for the possible errors, they should not be too large and can be tolerated.

Seeing the unsurprising test results, both Li Ping and Song Baolai were filled with mixed emotions.

They always thought that the biggest advantage of their side was the technology tree obtained by cheating, and they could completely abuse others with the superiority of the equipment, but they did not expect that they would be abused by others in turn.

When the training level and combat will of both sides are not much different, the quality of weapons and equipment will of course have an immeasurable effect.

"This thing not only shoots far, it is powerful, and its quality is also rare. It is hard to imagine that the Ming Dynasty actually had this thing. It is probably no worse than Europe at that time." After the test was completed, Song Baolai played with and studied the trigger of Lumi gun.

explain.

Another very important improvement of the Lumi gun compared to the bird gun is the trigger.

Its trigger and rail are made of copper and steel respectively, which are as thick as a copper coin. A small 3.33 cm long steel piece is placed close to the engine to increase the elasticity so that the trigger can fall when pinched and the shot is completed.

Bounces up and has good resilience.

"The Turks' musketry skills are still not weak at this time!" Li Ping sighed as he played with the trigger of another Lumi gun.

They already know that this thing was improved by Zhao Shizhen, an outstanding firearms master of the Ming Dynasty, decades ago (1598) based on the matchlock gun paid tribute by Rumi Kingdom (Turkey) and directly consulted its envoy Dosima, and it got its name.

The Rumi gun was quickly recorded in the "Military Bei Zhi" as "Niao Mi: Only the Rumi gun is the farthest and most poisonous".

Compared with Europe at the same time, the Rumi Gun at this time was indeed not lagging behind at all.

However, because the Rumi gun was made less than fifty years ago and the process is relatively complicated, the number of copies made is not large and its circulation is not widespread.

"I found a record that Xu Guangqi said in a memorial in the first year of Tianqi (February 17, 1621) that when he organized the training of the Ming army, he received 2,000 Rumi guns. After several months of training,

After use, only a few were damaged, and the rest were intact. Judging from the craftsmanship of these two Lumi guns, they should be genuine." Song Baolai admired them again.

As a technology person, he understands how difficult it is to achieve this in this era.

"The prisoners captured by the reconnaissance company have also confirmed this. Although their Rumi guns have been used many times, they are rarely damaged. It's just that the number of equipment is not large, only about two to three hundred guns in total, and the rest are mostly bird guns." Li

At this time, Ping began to stroke the steel blade at the tail of Rumi Gun.

The steel knife at the end of the bed is another feature of Rumi Gun. It can be used for close combat and as a horse-killing sword.

Although judging from Li Ping's experience and understanding of the history of military technology, this device is actually somewhat redundant, and its role should be very limited, otherwise it would not have become popular later.

But in the battles of the past few days, Xie Yinglong's soldiers also used this device to successfully resist or interfere with some of our soldiers who rushed to their side.

It's definitely wrong to say it's completely useless. It still has a role in deterrence and simple self-defense.

"That's okay! Otherwise, if they were all like this, it would be difficult for you to fight." Song Baolai breathed a sigh of relief.

He is responsible for manufacturing weapons, but their current conditions in Hanyang do not allow for complex manufacturing activities, which means that it is temporarily impossible to provide the troops with weapons better than Rumi Guns.

This is a lot of pressure and very unpleasant.

But Li Ping said depressedly: "It's not much better. Xie Yinglong has always attached great importance to the collection of firearms, otherwise you think he would have so many Lumi guns. And in addition to Lumi guns, he is also equipped with many large birds.

The power and range of the gun are not much worse than the Rumi gun."

"What should we do?" Song Baolai was surprised.

The reasons for the defeat in the battle in the past few days have been clarified. The enemy can easily kill them from a distance of one hundred and twenty meters, but their weapons cannot do it. Moreover, a large number of enemies wear cotton armor that has better defense against firearms.

Wearing iron helmets but having no armor is also an important reason why they suffer heavy losses when shooting with firearms.

The fact that the supporting company could catch up with the enemy was also related to the fact that the enemy wore more clothes.

But the losses also come from this.

If they want to kill the enemy, they can only fire within forty meters to be effective, but the enemy can shoot them at will from more than twice this distance.

The enemy with rich combat experience took advantage of this advantage precisely and wisely, adopting a strategy of retreating and fighting at the same time. In addition, he was relatively familiar with the terrain, and although it was more inconvenient to move, the enemy still successfully maintained this advantage to the full.

To get rid of our army's pursuit, our numerical advantage failed to play its due role.

The enemy's weapon superiority and high armor rate have greatly tilted the balance of victory in the battle.

In this way, it is conceivable that Li Ping's troops will undoubtedly suffer heavy losses in future battles! Especially Xie Yinglong is a peasant army general who is good at firearms and attaches great importance to firearms. The naval camp's enemy artillery attack on the Han River also foreshadowed

If they attack Hanchuan County, the casualties will be difficult to control.

And through these days of contact, Xie Yinglong's troops, including the entire Li Zicheng's troops, were obviously very good at learning. Not only did they also begin to use leggings comprehensively, but they also found fried noodles in the seized food, and it is said that Li Zicheng personally ordered the promotion.

Those soldiers and civilians who did not go with Li Ping in Xiangyang played an important role in this.

Li Ping realized that their arrival and disruption not only failed to help the Ming Dynasty, but also gave the peasant army a greater advantage, and the outcome of the battle in the north would be irreversible.

"It doesn't matter! Anyway, we don't insist on capturing Hanchuan County, and we have no intention of risking our lives with Li Zicheng. Zuo Liangyu was defeated in a close relationship, and we have no pressure anymore. Besides, just because the battle is hard to fight doesn't mean it can't be fought, Lu Mi

The advantage of gunfire is not that obvious, tactics and organization are still decisive, and I believe we must be better in this regard. As for the defeat in the past few days, the main problem is underestimating the enemy and being careless." Li Ping said pretending to be relaxed.

They were accustomed to fighting against Zhang Xianzhong, who had a low armor rate and poor fighting will. They were indeed a little paralyzed. Not only did they pay attention to the enemy, but they also lacked attention to their own protection. Although the armor in the army was limited, the troops performing forward missions also did not wear any armor.

It is indeed a low-level mistake.

"That's true." Song Baolai replied tastefully and then concentrated on playing with Lumi Gun again. He didn't know what to say.

Li Ping, who was a little distressed, once again fiddled with the steel knife at the end of Lumi Gun's bed when he saw this. He felt that he needed to step up his efforts to climb the technology tree. He turned out to be a little too optimistic about becoming rich.

"Bo Lai, we need to start developing real muskets immediately. The range must completely crush bows and arrows and exceed the Lumi gun. It must also be able to mount a bayonet. Yes, it is very important to mount a bayonet. Everything must wait until conditions are met.

It will be too late to start, and I can't afford to wait." Li Ping became serious.

Installing bayonets on muskets and integrating musketeers and spearmen into one was not something Li Ping didn't want to do, nor was it something the ancients thought of.

It's a matter of actual conditions.

The Chinese have also tried this very early.

However, the barrels of early matchlocks were expensive and the parts were loose and could not withstand blocks and bumps. In particular, the slender matchlock clips were easily damaged by bumps in close combat, which ultimately led to the failure of all attempts.

This is also the reason why Lumi Gun installed the steel knife at the end of the bed.

It was also around this time in Europe that a bayonet with the handle directly inserted into the muzzle appeared in France. However, problems such as instability and impact on musket shooting prevented this bayonet technology from becoming popular.

The real sleeve bayonet did not appear until 1688, when the musket technology itself had become more mature.

"Yeah! What you said makes sense. We can do research and development first, improve and mature bit by bit, and then go directly to large-scale production when conditions are met. This can save a lot of time." Song Baolai touched the trigger of Lumi Gun and agreed.

Nodding his head.

It’s so exciting that machines are inferior to humans!

Just as the two were preparing to continue their deep conversation privately, someone suddenly reported that the naval battalion had intercepted a large peasant army ship brazenly going down the river on the Han River.

According to the peasant army on the ship, they were rushing to Wuchang to visit Zuo Liangyu on behalf of Li Zicheng and hold Li Zicheng's personal letter.
Chapter completed!