Chapter 235 New cannons Old cannons

When Guo Dong, who had never entered the yard, was also interested when he heard Sun Hedou's words. He wandered around the four cannons for a long time, but he couldn't see too many tricks. He was a blacksmith who made firearms and swords and guns. He became the leader of Li Meng's manufacturing by chance. He was loyal but not so high. He was really ignorant of the cannon and could not see why.

According to Li Meng's principle of "What does Sun Hedou require? He will spend less than a thousand taels, and more than a thousand taels will come to inform Master Huining with a shout", Sun Hedou's house has extremely affordable expenses.

The same is true today. I am still watching in the yard. Although the yard is a little quieter, the outside of the yard is noisy. Although dozens of personal soldiers who followed Li Meng came, after entering the marshal's area, the troops guarding the marshal immediately drew soldiers to assist.

Although it was noisy outside, Li Meng was not worried. Sure enough, a man shouted at the door:

"Mr. Sun, all the horses you always want have arrived. Let's wait outside!"

Sun Hedou agreed with a smile on his face and spoke to Li Meng:

"Sir, the students have passed, so people need to be assigned to move guns."

Li Meng nodded, and Sun Hedou began to direct people to carry cannons and bring horses in. The yard where Sun Hedou is located is not so much a yard as a small manor. The yard covers a wide area and has a large gate. This is all for the convenience of transporting coal and iron in and out. After all, the yard is also a place for blacksmith workshops and casting cannons.

Someone came in with a carriage, and the number of people was really large. The soldiers who were temporarily drawn became transport workers. Li Meng and a dozen personal soldiers stood aside. Seeing everyone busy, he noticed the difference between the four cannons. The old style of these four cannons, two of which were the styles of the artillery sent by the Zheng family, including the batch sent by him after he set the specific caliber and pound count.

The other two are different, and the gun body is almost no different. The details are on the gun mount. Such guns are already very close to those styles in his memory. They are large wooden wheels with iron and cannon seats, but there is a two-wheeled rack on the edge of the gun, but I don’t know what it is used for.

I started to finish each cannon with eight horses and twenty people in front of each cannon, and Sun Hedou's assistant was commanding.

With a command, the two ordinary-style cannons did not need much tidy up. The cannon seats were actually wooden wheels under the wooden box, but it was quite troublesome to move. Moreover, the horses were traction, according to the traditional style of driving and pulling the cart, at most, two horses were hung. There was less horses, so there was more manpower. However, twenty people would not have to be too troublesome to push these two cannons, and they started to move as they shouted.

The two new-style cannons were much troublesome. They lifted the tail of the cannon seat, and someone pushed the wheel frame that was sloping to the side and stuffed it under the cannon seat. After fixing it with wedges and iron rods, the cannon became a four-wheeled cart, and several people shouted and put the cannon shells on the cannon seat.

Eight horses in front of the cannon chariot were led over, two horses were lined up in four rows, and the reins connected by soft leather ropes. They were busy here, and the two old-style cannons were pushed out for more than a few hundred steps. Li Meng's personal soldiers looked at each other. This scene was not a war, but also in Jiaozhou camp's own territory. They were relatively relaxed. A personal soldier muttered in a low voice:

"It will take so much effort to delay this on the battlefield. I really don't know what to do."

The leader of the personal soldier turned around and glared at him. The personal soldier immediately did not dare to speak anymore, but Li Meng had a smile on his face. He probably guessed what Sun Hedou was going to do.

The two cannons there were just the preparations. Sun Hedou took out a hand towel and wiped it on his face. This was probably the only thing that was different from the people around him. At the other time, this talented man looked like a blacksmith, and he was also an apprentice who worked hard.

Sun Hedou turned his head and said to Li Meng who was standing on the side:

"Mr. Li, Master Guo, let's go to the school ground together!"

Guo Dongming showed a little confused, while Li Meng nodded with a smile, and his personal soldiers brought him a horse. Some of the soldiers standing in front of the two cannons were sitting behind the cannon carts, while others were sitting in front.

A man who looked like a coachman shouted, and the carriage began to move slowly and ran out of the official road along the gate. In the large area of ​​the blacksmith shop, Jiaozhou Camp spent a lot of manpower to repair the road, which was flat and wide.

Li Meng and his personal soldiers were riding horses, watching the carriage run faster and faster under the guidance of eight horses, and soon surpassing the old-fashioned artillery in front of them who shouted trumpets and pushed horses.

Seeing this, the personal soldier said immediately, and Sun Hedou also got on the horse, caught up with Li Meng, half a horse's head behind, and spoke:

"Sir, the school ground for the artillery test firing is five miles away here. The adults are fast, so why not go there first and wait."

Li Meng nodded with a smile, and drove forward. The group galloped towards the other side. Li Meng lashed the horse, but noticed that the two cannons dragged by the eight horses were not slow. As for the two old cannons, they had long been left behind.

The school ground is a relatively flat area. It turns out that there are dozens of families living here, but they all moved out. When there is no firearm drill, it is a training ground for cavalry. When there is firearm drill, the cavalry searches out to avoid anyone entering this place and encountering danger or peeking at the secrets of Jiaozhou Camp.

Five miles away, for Li Meng, who was riding a horse, he soon arrived at his destination. Sun Hedou had already arranged an assistant to wait here, and called on a group of people to enter the schoolyard and enter the location.

Not long after, the two cannons that Bama dragged by him had already arrived at the school ground. Under the command of Sun Hedou, he removed the two-wheeled cannon stand and placed it in the designated area. Sun Hedou was quite complete. Seeing that it was already lunch time, someone brought some noodles, mutton and pickled vegetables. Li Meng was not a person who paid attention to food, but just sat with his personal soldiers and blacksmiths and ate happily.

It is said that Sun Hedou is a person from Songjiang Prefecture and an official family of generations. He should be very particular about food. However, Sun Hedou is full of mutton and eats very happily. This has deepened Li Meng's favor for him a lot. Sun Hedou is a practical character.

Almost half an hour later, the two old-fashioned cannons arrived late because there were several uphills on the road, but the old-fashioned method of driving the shaft could only accommodate two horses. The horsepower and manpower were not enough to be used, and it was very difficult. Everyone was sweating profusely.

The advantages and disadvantages of old-style and new-style artillery are already clearly distinguished. On the battlefield, what does the heavy firepower such as artillery represent? Li Meng certainly understands.

After the two old-fashioned artillery arrived, they were also in a row with the two guns in front. After asking Li Meng, Sun Hedou gave orders to the other side. The craftsmen and apprentices there skillfully cleaned the gunbore, took the gunpowder barrel and poured gunpowder into the gunbore, compacted it, and loaded the shells.

"It's so that the adults know that all artillery of the same caliber, no matter the style, the charges here are the same, and there is no difference in the number. Only in this way can the result be valuable."

Li Meng frowned and looked at the craftsmen who were still loading medicine there. He thought that these craftsmen and apprentices would be replenished into his artillery team soon. This is also a tradition, but he always felt that something was wrong in front of him, but he could figure it out quickly and said:

"Mr. Sun, the size of the cannon is different, and the amount of the medicine is different. These craftsmen know it."

Hearing Li Meng’s question, Sun Hedou couldn’t help laughing. This was clearly common sense and answered:

"The craftsmen are all skilled in the artifacts. The gunpowder poured into the barrel will not be more than three taels. Students have tried it many times."

"Why don't you measure how much weight each gun should be used, and wrap the gunpowder with something and stuff it into the barrel at that time."

After saying this, Sun Hedou, who was smiling, suddenly froze. He was stunned for a long time before reaching out to pat his forehead and said with a wry smile:

"If you don't say it, the students really wouldn't have thought of this. It's really a piece of paper that can't be broken without being stabbed!"

Listening to Sun Hedou's sigh, Li Meng was quite ashamed. If he hadn't been here today, he would have been afraid that he would not have remembered the improvement of this quantitative charge. If the quantitative charge is used in the firearms army, at least the speed of the charge will be greatly improved. After laughing a few times, he turned around and ordered Guo Dong:

"The fired gunpowder of the musket must also start charging regularly and start immediately."

Seeing Li Meng's solemn order, Guo Dong quickly agreed that the new and old cannons were not so attractive to Li Meng when they were tested. The new cannon with a gun mount was 20% longer than the old cannon, but the previous demonstration of the mobile power had a very deep impression on Li Meng.

With these cannon stands, artillery can also keep up with the maneuver of Jiaozhou Camp, which will naturally be of great help to combat power. In any case, Sun Hedou has made great contributions to Jiaozhou Camp because of his pragmatic style and extraordinary knowledge.
Chapter completed!