Since the Nanyang Guard obtained a large amount of copper mines imported from Luzon, the artillery used in the North and South Oceans were all cast by iron-core copper shell technology, and the yield rate was further improved, and the durability of the artillery was also greatly improved.

It's hard to break a cannon.

However, the artillery was relatively optimistic about the durability of the Netherlands artillery. Most of them believed that the two artillery picked would be destroyed after being fired ten times in a row, but after ten times, the artillery was still intact. The experienced craftsman tapped the mouth of the gun with a stick and ran to the distance with a calm face.

"Shishuai, that cannon is steel."

He had never seen any steel artillery in Spain. It would be amazing to have a few cast iron cannons, where can we get the steel cannon?

Could it be that the war in the Netherlands province was suddenly invented with steel cannons?

Chen Mu also thought about using steel cannons directly when he was in Nanyang Guard. It was not feasible, but because the steel made of pig iron cannot be evenly average, nor can it be guaranteed to be all steel. Some places are brittle and some places are tough, but the quality is not as durable as iron-core copper shell cannons.

Now he even doubted whether his military craftsmen had entered the military weapon bureau through the back door, and there was no way to distinguish between steel and iron?

"Soon the fight, until the blow up, and see what it is!"

I ordered it, and it would be a pity for the nervous artillery soldiers in front of me. It would be fine if the ten cannons in front were fired. Anyway, I knew it would explode sooner or later, but after firing ten cannons in a row, the pressure I was under was a little different.

Whenever the gun was fired, I felt that the gun would explode. I was so scared that I hid behind the wall, but I didn't explode every gun.

Later, I couldn't bear it and even put a few pairs of breastplate on the other side of the wall. The more I beat it, the more I became more and more scared.

After using normal amounts of gunpowder to fire thirty guns in succession, Chen Mu already believed that the cannon with edges and edges on the cannon was a steel cannon, and he had no choice but to order the use of strong charge, which is the normal amount of medicine from the Ming army in the past, to fire.

In the past, the normal amount of gunpowder used by the Ming military cannon was equivalent to the weight of ammunition. Later, the gunpowder used by the Nanyang Military Office was improved and the ballistics was studied, so the amount of gunpowder was reduced to half of the weight of the shell.

At the end of the fight, Chen Mu was too lazy to watch it. He went home to have a cup of tea. Then the flag army quickly reported that one of the two cannons was finally broken and was blown up from the middle of the cannon.

It is indeed a steel cannon, but it is different from the cast steel cannon that Chen Mu imagined. It is a forged steel cannon.

The bomb body that was suffocated was like a large spring broken into two pieces. From the cross-section, the inside of the barrel was spliced ​​using a splicing technique similar to the Portuguese Franc machine, which was like a wooden barrel.

Outside the barrel, steel bars are used to wrap the gun from the tail to the muzzle like a wrapping thread, and then wrap them back to the gun tail from the muzzle. Just look at it and you can tell how much effort it took to build this gun. After wrapping three layers, wrap a layer of iron paddles and polish them, and finally add some decorative parts.

Very interesting, time-consuming and labor-intensive workmanship is breathtaking, but this also brings the rewards it deserves. The increase in strength of the materials makes this cannon stand out in its durability and shook off everything Chen Mu saw in his life.

"Can we do this kind of gunmaking process?"

Facing Chen Mu's inquiry, the old craftsman shook his head and said, "No problem, this is too simple, but it is twice as durable as it is, and it costs more than it is."

This method of making is very labor-intensive at first glance, but it achieves a less practical result. Chen Mu smiled and said, "We need to try this method to make artillery of different specifications and calibers to calculate its cost."

The reason why it is not very practical is that in a battle, there is very few guns that have the chance to occur more than ten guns in a row.

Whether it is naval and land, it will fight for a while and rest for a while. For example, Li Dan's Jiazi ship fired seven rounds in the previous round, which is already a lot of fire.

In the early years, Chen Mu personally led his troops to defend the Mongolian cavalry, and his artillery was released without stopping, and more than half of the shells were wasted.

What's more, an artillery that has passed the inspection can clean the barrel during the firing process. Proper maintenance can make the gun extremely durable. Before the barrel is severely worn and difficult to aim, there is almost no explosion in the barrel.

But this does not mean that this method of production is of no benefit.

Chen Mu believes that this method of making artillery cannons saves some money than iron-core copper-shell cannons. After all, copper is three times more expensive than steel, but the labor cost will increase a large part of it, so he thinks this is a math problem.

When making light artillery with a total weight does not exceed a certain weight, less copper is used, but the steel bar rolling will increase the cost, which is inappropriate to reduce the output by increasing strength.

However, when making heavy artillery with more than this weight, the copper consumption is increased. In order to increase the strength of the iron core, the weight of the gun body must be increased. Although the coiled steel cannon will increase the working hours and labor costs, the lighter gun body and more durable are completely a manufacturing process that can be considered.

After understanding the production process of the Netherlands artillery, Chen Mu was not very interested in the other parameters. The principle of the front-mounted smoothbore gun is like this. As long as the shape and fixing performance is not much different, Zhao Shizhen likes to think about these things, and the subsequent various parameter experiments on the "Nedland artillery" were handed over to Zhao Shizhen for supervision.

He rode a tall horse and took Xu Wei along the way to see his little donkey.

Donkeys are very good, hard-working and obedient. They can lead four or five donkeys to the road alone. The mountain roads in Panama need them.

In the transportation of bulk goods, due to tariff barriers, Chen Mu was unwilling to allow Ming Dynasty goods to be transported to the Gulf of Mexico through the Mexican official road, nor was he willing to allow purchased goods to flow in there. The mountain road that was not suitable for people was obviously more suitable.

What's more, that's half the distance.

Anyway, the goods have to be paid taxes, so it is better to give them all to yourself than to New Spain.

At present, Deng Zilong set up a station along the way on Panama Mountain Road. It is not difficult to transport goods from west to east. It just takes time to walk on the mountain road. If there are enough donkeys, the cargo transportation volume there can be increased.

This mode of transportation was not thought of by Chen Mu. In the past, the Spaniards transported bulk goods like this. The battle of fame by the English pirate Drake attacked the Spaniards' Yunbao team by land in the Panama Isthmus.

"We have to get more donkeys from Spain, and there are wool. Anyway, the Spanish have been raising sheep, so letting them continue to raise them in the future. It's great."

Xu Wei rode the donkey and rolled it upside down, holding the wine pot in his mouth but couldn't pour it out. After shaking it, he found that he had drunk no drops. He put the wine pot back in the donkey saddle bag with dissatisfaction, and nodded and said, "It's pretty good."

"But the Grand Marshal, what the military mansion lacks most is not wool or donkeys. What we lack most is iron. If we do not solve the source of iron ore, no matter how many craftsmen there are, we cannot create things."

iron.

Chen Mu nodded slowly.
Chapter completed!