Chapter 105: Test Firing

The first dispute between the army and the navy came to an end. More people were eager to see the power of the first self-made firearm of the transmigrators in this time and space. Those who had nothing to do for the time being all came to watch the excitement.

Lin Shenhe temporarily acted as an artillery instructor and demonstrated the entire firing process of a smoothbore cannon. In 17th-century Europe, smoothbore cannons had already formed a relatively standardized firing procedure and had many different special equipments. In addition to ammunition, the most important thing on the gun carriage was the loading tool. It could be said that the cannon could not be fired without the loading tool. In battle, after the infantry and cavalry launched an attack on the artillery position and occupied it, if there was not enough time to drag away or destroy the cannons, they would try to destroy the loading tools. Similarly, if the artillerymen had to abandon their guns and flee for their lives, the first thing they would do was to take the loading tools with them. This was to prevent the enemy from immediately using these cannons to attack our side, and secondly, if they could retake the position, they could open fire immediately with the loading tools.

“What the hell is this?” Ying Yu said with emotion as he looked at the long and short wooden poles. He was a veteran of the 130mm cannon artillery, but now he had to be taught how to fire a cannon by a young man who had never been a soldier.

This set of loading tools was drawn by Lin Shenhe one by one with dimensions and shapes, and then jointly manufactured by the timber factory and the machinery factory: the first was a cannon brush, the top of the wooden pole was wrapped in wool, and after being dipped in water, it was used to extinguish the remaining sparks in the barrel. The artillery team searched the database for a long time but found no record of wool inventory, so they used kapok instead. The second was a dry cannon brush, similar to the previous one, used to dry the water left in the previous step; a wooden pole with a spiral iron hook at the top was used to remove any remaining paper or fiber in the barrel—at that time, the propellant charges for European artillery had already adopted fixed-charge bags, and the gunpowder was wrapped in paper or flannel according to the weight; the one with a swollen head was the loading rod, used to ram the gunpowder and projectile tightly. Finally, there was a linstock. The original version was more complicated. Lin Shenhe simplified it and replaced it with a captured short spear wrapped with a slow match.

“Let’s start the test firing now.” After several simulated dry fires, Lin Shenhe saw that everyone had basically mastered the entire firing process and decided to start the official firing.

For the test firing, the simplest way was to fire directly at the sea, but there were no reefs or small islands as reference objects on the sea outside Bopu, so the actual distance of the projectile could not be measured. In the end, the chosen firing range was a piece of wasteland in the port area, near Lingao Cape.

Targets were set up on the firing range. Twelve small mounds like graves were piled up with earth, divided into three groups, with distances ranging from 400 meters, 800 meters, to 1200 meters. In addition, a marker pole was erected 1500 meters away.

“Report, how to aim?” Ying Yu had already entered the role of an artilleryman. He suddenly found that all his artillery knowledge was useless in front of this cannon. He had no idea how to use the sights on the barrel or how to calculate the angle.

“Use this.” Lin Shenhe took a small suitcase from the limber. This suitcase was completely different from the plain wooden boxes produced by the Bopu timber factory. It was obviously a product of a long time ago and of fine workmanship.

“I brought this from the United States. It’s a real 18th-century artillery measurement toolbox.”

“So awesome?” The heads of the artillerymen all crowded over, wanting to see this 19th-century antique.

Inside was something like a protractor, a measuring tool made of two copper rulers, one long and one short, nailed into a right angle. There was a 1/4 arc ruler connecting the two rulers, with scales engraved on it. Lin Shenhe introduced that this was called a gunner’s quadrant, and its purpose was to measure the elevation angle of the cannon.

He demonstrated how to use it, inserting the long handle into the muzzle and reading the elevation angle of the barrel on the arc ruler through the plumb line.

“What’s the use of this angle?” Lin Shenhe said, “Actually, it needs to be used in conjunction with a firing table.” He showed everyone a table engraved on the inside of the box lid, all in English, with many numbers.

“This is a firing table. The so-called firing table is the specific firing data obtained by the factory through test firing before the cannon leaves the factory. For example, when using solid shot with a charge of 1 pound and an elevation of 5 degrees, how far the projectile can be fired. This table not only has data for solid shot, but also for high-explosive shells, shrapnel, and incendiary shells.”

“Modern artillery also has them.” Ying Yu recalled the firing table on the 130mm cannon he had operated.

“That’s right, the concept of the firing table on modern artillery comes from this. But the American guy who fired cannons with me back then said that this thing originated very early, in the 16th century.”

The word “fired cannons” brought a lewd smile to the faces of a few people.

“With the firing table, as long as the gunners can estimate the distance, they can know what angle to adjust the cannon to.” Lin Shenhe picked up another square copper plate with a thread.

“This is a gunner’s level, the rangefinder of the artillery at that time.” He introduced the principle of rangefinding and how to use it. This was a simple mathematical tool that used the principle of similar triangles to calculate the distance. Of course, it was not worth mentioning for the transmigrators who had received a complete modern education.

“But, is this thing meaningful?” Zhang Bolin asked doubtfully. “We all have telescopes. We can probably measure the distance with a telescope, right? There are also special instruments.”

“If we want to build a native artillery force, this is just right for them. It’s simple to manufacture, not difficult to use, and it’s not a pity to lose it.”

“This is a gunner’s rule, actually a special slide rule, used to calculate the amount of gunpowder.” Lin Shenhe took out another copper ruler.

As the propellant for artillery, Western artillery experts believed that the ideal charge value was when the gunpowder was completely burned and the projectile was just fired out of the muzzle. If it was too early, it would waste gunpowder. If it was too late, the friction between the barrel wall and the projectile would reduce the muzzle velocity of the projectile.

Of course, this ideal value was difficult to achieve, but cannon casters had been testing the optimal powder-to-shot ratio through experiments. Since the 16th century, European cannon casters had included a gunner’s rule with every batch of cannons that left the factory, for gunners to calculate the charge amount when using different ammunition.

With the gunner’s rule, the gunner could roughly calculate the charge amount for projectiles of different weights through simple calculations. This not only saved gunpowder and enhanced the safety of artillery firing, but also had great benefits for the accurate calibration of the range. This technology was introduced to China by Western missionaries in the 17th century. Although China claimed to be the earliest inventor of firearms, there was basically no research in the field of gunnery. The concept of the powder-to-shot ratio was relatively vague, and the filling of gunpowder was very arbitrary. When the battle was fierce, a large amount of gunpowder would be loaded, which often caused the cannon to burst. Therefore, the gunner’s rule was quickly regarded as a “secret method” as soon as it was introduced, so much so that many books on gunpowder weapons published at that time either did not mention this matter at all, or mentioned it in passing.

China invented gunpowder and cannons, but did not invent gunnery. This strange contrast made everyone feel a little uncomfortable.

“Let’s start firing.”

Because there was no firing table available, the transmigrators started firing from 0 degrees of barrel elevation.

The first to be tested was the cannon made with traditional cast iron technology. Several people moved the gun carriage and aimed at a mound 400 meters away with the simple sights on the barrel.

“This accuracy—” Ying Yu felt a bit like an adult playing games with children in a kindergarten.

Smoothbore cannon firing was divided into 11 steps. Since it was a cold shot, the first and second steps were omitted. The gunpowder was fine-grained gunpowder made by the chemical group from captured black powder, wrapped in coarse paper, 250 grams per pack.

“Two packs?”

“Okay, two packs.”

The 6-pound iron round shot rolled in from the muzzle. Hearing the sound, there was no obstruction. The windage was well controlled. Zhang Bolin carefully pressed the ammunition firmly with the loading rod—this was a technical job, it couldn’t be pressed too tightly, otherwise it would form a smoldering phenomenon and not explode.

Lin Shenhe then inserted a long iron cone from the touch-hole to pierce the powder bag, and then filled the touch-hole with gunpowder.

“Ready to fire!” As he shouted, the people next to him quickly raised a red flag to remind them that the cannon was about to fire.

“Fire!”

“Foreign slave!” someone from the navy commented.

With a roar from Lin Shenhe, Ying Yu, who was in charge of ignition, blew on the slow match wrapped around the short iron spear and brought it to the touch-hole—his heart was beating wildly. He wasn’t this nervous even during his first live-fire exercise after leaving the recruit company.

The black powder on the touch-hole ignited with a hiss. The touch-hole spewed out sparks half a foot long like fireworks, hissing and crackling. In an instant, the cannon recoiled violently, spewing out thick white smoke and fire, and with a deafening roar, a black projectile flew out.

“Banzai!” the navy cheered.

“Traitor! Absolute traitor,” Zhang Bolin muttered.

The iron ball, trailing blue smoke, flew more than 400 meters and smashed into the ground with a solid thud. Dirt, mixed with the embers of gunpowder, flew up.

“So fierce.” Zhang Bolin’s face was ashen. This great artillery advocate had obviously never really witnessed the firing of a cannon. The violent explosion, the vibration of the cannon’s recoil, and the pungent smell of gunpowder made people feel the power of this thing, which was completely different from the feeling of setting off large firecrackers like various miscellaneous cannons in the past.

The cannon moved back a few meters, but the barrel and carriage were intact. Lin Shenhe, ignoring the heat of the cannon and the choking smell of gunpowder smoke, carefully inspected the barrel.

“How is it?” Ji Wusheng was a little worried. After all, it was his first time casting a cannon.

“Everything is normal.”

“Don’t be careless, check again for any cracks or anything—” Zhan Wuya reminded. Cast iron cannons were not like the cannons from modern arsenals. “By the way, I still have a flaw detector. Do you want to take it back and have a look?”

“That’s not necessary,” Lin Shenhe thought this was too extravagant. “The flaw detector should be used for casting steel cannons in the future.”

Ying Yu also ran over, his face stained with black smoke from the gunpowder: “Is the cannon okay?”

“It’s fine, it’s very sturdy.”

“Let’s go and see the situation with the cannonball.”