Chapter 42 The First Self-made Artillery

So, with the addition of these craftsmen, and the improvement of various tools, the function of Nanri Island was quickly restored.

In addition to two docks, the current Nanri Island Boat House has also built three platforms by the beach. When the dock is not available, it can also tow the ship ashore and clean up and repair the platform.

In more than a month, more than half of the ships of the sea wolf's ships have been thoroughly cleaned and renovated, and the attachments at the bottom of the ship have been shoveled away, making their ships much lighter.

After the beginning of winter, the sea wolf's ship basically got an overall repair, which made the sea wolf's fleet much more refined, including the horse ark stationed in the south pole pond, which was also replaced by Wang Hong and carried out a repair on the ship, allowing the personnel of the third team to rest for a period of time.

In this way, a rotation system has been formed on the other side of Nangantang. The stationed personnel are rotated every three months, saving some people who stay there for a long time and suffer, and some people do not have to go anywhere, causing injustice.

At this time, there was also good news from the cannon. With the joint efforts of Lei Blacksmith, Zhang Blacksmith and others, the first cannon cast by Sea Wolf himself was finally declared successful.

On the day when the cannon officially began to cast, Yu Xiaotian did not leave the cannon for a day. He stayed in the cannon and watched the casting of the first cannon in person.

The mouth of the iron water was knocked open, and the melted iron water immediately flowed out and was picked up by two people with a crucible. After the pot was full, it was immediately carried away. Another crucible was placed in the place where the iron water came out and continued to hold the iron water.

Two people carried a crucible full of iron water to a platform. The iron model of the cast gun had been erected and buried in the mound, leaving only a mouth injected with iron water.

Under the command of Lei's blacksmith, the craftsman poured iron water from the filling mouth into the cavity of the mold. A pot of iron water was about 50 catties. After pouring six pots of iron water all the time, the iron cavity was completely filled.

The next step is to cool down and wait for the iron water to gradually solidify. The advantage of the iron model is that when injecting iron water, no water will be stimulated out, and the casting process is relatively safe.

Although it was the end of November and the outdoor temperature was already very low, there was still a heat wave in the iron shed. Yu Xiaotian's heart was high and he stared at all the steps of the scene in a sweat, for fear of abnormal situations and making them lose all their previous achievements.

However, after the iron water was fully cast, there was no abnormality at the scene, which reassured Yu Xiaotian.

After the iron water solidified, the Lei blacksmith immediately asked his craftsmen to open the mound, revealing the iron model. At this time, the temperature of the iron model was still very high, and it was hot to walk nearby. In order to prevent burns, the craftsmen wore thick clothes and wet their cotton clothes with water.

With the roar of the Lei blacksmith, the erected cast iron model was carefully put down by the craftsmen. While the temperature of the gun body was still very high, the Lei blacksmith personally went into battle to operate the knife and began to peel off the iron model outside the gun model section by section, quickly causing people to lift the gun mold, gradually black and smooth surface of the gun. It appeared in front of everyone, and a cursory look at the outside of the gun barrel, no air hole was found.

There were immediately cheers in the shed. Some people had begun to prepare to celebrate their success in casting cannons, but Yu Xiaotian raised his hand to stop the cheers of these people, because he knew that there was still a very important process that had not been completed. The cannon was just the iron outside. The mold has been peeled off, but the molded mud core of the internal gun has not been removed, so it is unknown whether the gun will succeed or not.

So the shed was quiet again, leaving only the sound of the thunder blacksmith and a blacksmith who took out the mud core in the gun with tools.

With the efforts of the thunder blacksmith, it is not difficult to take out the gun core before the gun body is cooled. Soon the core was taken out of the gun by the thunder blacksmith.

A cannon was basically formed, and Yu Xiaotian breathed a long sigh of relief. It seemed that there was nothing wrong with his memory. According to the method he gave, Lei blacksmiths still successfully cast an artillery with the iron casting method. Although it has not been thoroughly checked, he can also see that this gun should It's not a big problem.

But the work is not finished at this time, and the iron cannon must go through the process of annealing. If it is directly placed at room temperature, the cooling speed will be too fast, causing the gun wall to become brittle and increase the risk of explosion. The craftsmen of this era have understood the importance of annealing.

For this reason, Lei blacksmith also built a large stove for annealing the cannon. Everyone worked together to move the still hot gun body into the annealed stove and put it aside for a day before taking it out to start the next process.

Yu Xiaotian encouraged the craftsmen, left the shed and returned to his residence. A few days later, Lei blacksmith found Yu Xiaotian accompanied by Zhang blacksmith with a flattering expression. As soon as he saw Yu Xiaotian, he quickly knelt down and said:

"Age of the great head! Congratulations to the big head, Hexi big head, our first cannon is ready! Please go and have a look!"

After hearing this, Yu Xiaotian jumped up like a spring under his buttocks, rushed out of his residence in three steps and two steps, and his hat ran all the way to the cannon.

The Lei blacksmith, who had been waiting to be praised, ran all the way behind with Zhang Blacksmith and chased Yu Xiaotian back to the cannon.

As soon as Yu Xiaotian made a cannon, he saw a bright iron cannon in front of him. The iron cannon was placed on a stand, which had a special display.

Yu Xiaotian quickly walked closer and carefully tested the temperature of the gun body. At this time, the gun had already cooled down.

Because the whole gun body is originally made of iron casting, the surface is quite smooth. Now, after careful polishing by Lei blacksmiths and others, a small amount of burrs on the surface have been removed, and the gun body looks much smoother. The whole is checked from top to bottom from front to back, and Yu Xiaotian did not find a pore, so He is very satisfied with the situation.

Only from the appearance of this gun, looking at all the cannons owned by the sea wolf at present, it is not possible to find the appearance of a gun comparable to this gun, which further illustrates the superiority of the iron model casting gun, and basically completely avoids the defects of air and air holes on the cannon caused by moisture.

However, Yu Xiaotian is not satisfied with the workmanship of this gun from the appearance. The most important thing to really see the quality of this gun is the inner condition of the gun.

So he immediately asked someone to light up a few whale oil waxes, and used a copper mirror to reflect the light to the inner wall of the gun. With the help of the light, he approached the muzzle and carefully observed the situation of the inner wall of the gun.

After the gun core was taken out and annealed, the gun's gun was carefully polished by a special tool by Lei blacksmith, making the inner wall of the gun very smooth. From the visual point of view, Yu Xiaotian also did not see any airhole defects in the inner wall of the gun hole.

Then Yu Xiaotian was still worried and made people take a special tool to detect the inner circle of the gunbore. He explored the inner circle of the gunbore inch by inch and measured the inner circle of the gunbore. Finally, no problem was found.

Yu Xiaotian was afraid that the gun body was not straight enough and that there was a deformation that could not be observed with the naked eye, so he asked them to cast an iron rod with the same diameter as the gun barrel in advance.

After inserting this iron into the gun barrel, the iron rod, which is almost the same as the inner diameter of the gun barrel, is easily sent to the bottom of the gun barrel.

If there is a situation that cannot be entered in the middle, it means that the gun is not straight enough. In this way, even if it can be used, it will seriously affect the accuracy of the cannon.

However, after inspection, Yu Xiaotian also did not find anything wrong with the gun, so he nodded with satisfaction and continued to observe the appearance of the gun.

The appearance of this gun completely abandons the shape of the Chinese ancient gun. In terms of shape, it is completely a Western-style artillery. It is a standard Hongyi cannon. From the muzzle to the tail, it gradually becomes thicker. Under the condition that the inner wall of the turret remains unchanged, the gun wall from the tail to the muzzle gradually becomes thinner, which meets the requirements of the gun ward pressure, and the part of the muzzle is thickened. , which is equivalent to strengthening the muzzle to avoid the collapse when the muzzle is fired.

There are two gun ears cast on both sides of the center of gravity of the gun body, which can be easily mounted on the gun rack or gun vehicle, which is also one of the important elements to distinguish between Chinese and Western artillery. In the past, Chinese artillery did not have such cannon ears, which also provided convenience for adjusting the height angle of the muzzle, making the artillery easier to install.

At the same time, the gun's body also casts the gate and sight, so that the gunner no longer needs to use estimation and experience to aim when aiming. After looking at the gate sight and finding the target to form a three-point line, he can aim at the target more easily, and it will be more refined when firing. Some indeed.

Lei blacksmith came behind Yu Xiaotian with a smile and said, "The big master, this gun barrel is two and a half inches thick, five feet long and weighs 300 catties. It can be loaded with two and a half pounds at a time, and can be filled with a door weighing six catties. The small ones have cast dozens of iron bullets and polished them. As long as the big head is happy and loaded on the gun truck, you can test the gun at any time!"

Yu Xiaotian doesn't need to say, and he already knows these data, because these data are basically formulated by him. In fact, he designed the first cast iron cannon according to the data of the six-pound gun in the West. Although this kind of gun is not large in diameter, it is more suitable for practice.

And although this kind of gun is a light gun, it is definitely not good to use it as the main gun to fight against Western warships, but it is quite powerful to deal with its peers.

More importantly, this kind of gun is moderate in weight and power. It can not only be used on ships, replaced by land artillery vehicles, but also as land guns. When necessary, a horse or mule can lead it to march. No matter how heavy it is, it is not easy to use on land.

This is also one of his plans for the future. He can't stay at sea forever. As long as he seeks development, he will land sooner or later. At that time, he will not be able to hold the Buddha's feet temporarily. What's more, there is a big plan in his heart to be implemented as soon as possible. This six-pound gun is his most needed weapon at present.

So he straightened up and rubbed the cannon with his hand. He couldn't help feeling excited and happy, but he didn't dare to show too much emotion. He said as lightly as possible: "At present, it seems that this cannon is still well cast! You have worked hard these days! But after all, whether this cannon can be used or not, whether it is good or not, and whether it is accurate or not, you can't just say that it is a mule or a horse that needs to pull out and slip away!

Come on, put this gun on the gun truck and pull it out tomorrow morning to test the gun! If this cannon is available, then I won't treat you badly, and there will be a lot of rewards!"