The development of cannons was actually a rather slow process.
Cannons that could be considered to be the closest to modern artillery could only be considered to be able to open up a flower shell at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Before that, there wasn't enough technology to solve the problem of firing a flower shell inside a long-barreled cannon.
First of all, there was the problem of chamber pressure. Long-barreled cannons meant high chamber pressure.
The explosive shell needed enough gunpowder to ensure its power, but more gunpowder meant a thin outer shell, and a thin outer shell would cause an explosion in the chamber. If the cannon exploded, it would be useless.
The outer shell was thick, so it wouldn't explode. However, there was too little gunpowder, so it didn't have much power.
In other words, before the invention of the French bombardment cannons, before the invention of reliable fuses, the world's mainstream cannons fired solid shells.
For example, during the Napoleonic Wars, more than 90% of the artillery ammunition in Europe was solid shells and loose shells, not explosive shells.
In addition to the fact that long-barreled cannons couldn't be fired, it was very difficult to determine how to ignite the explosive shell and how to time it to explode.
In the early days, the explosive shell had to be fired using short-barreled cannons such as mortars and howitzers. Moreover, it was a two-step ignition. First, the explosive shell's fuse was put into the muzzle, and then the cannon's propellant was ignited.
However, there was a very serious problem with this.
If the propellant was not ignited in time, then the explosive shell could explode in the chamber, causing the chamber to explode and directly eliminate the entire cannon crew.
Therefore, the early cannon crew members who used mortars and howitzers were jokingly called the people closest to God in the West.
Until the invention of wooden fuses and wooden soft supports, the explosive shell was an extremely unstable battlefield killer. Not only would it hurt the enemy, but it would also hurt the user.
Therefore, not only did the Qing Army dislike it, but the Europeans also disliked it.
Wooden fuses and wooden soft supports shone brilliantly during the American Civil War, and before that, they had already appeared. Their purpose was to increase the airtightness of large-caliber howitzers, increase the range of the explosive shell, and increase the explosive's power.
The so-called wooden soft supports were installed at the bottom of the explosive shell with a wooden stopper of the same shape that matched the inner diameter of the cannon. The wooden soft supports and the shell were connected by a piece of iron to form a whole.
Adding a soft wooden support to the tail of the shell could not only effectively seal the gas from leaking out, but also act as a buffer for the shell when it was fired.
Furthermore, due to the wooden stock, the projectile that was fired would create the "shuttlecock principle" of having a heavy head and a light tail. This formed a self-stabilizing structure, allowing the trajectory to be more accurate and the range to be a little longer. To a certain extent, it could achieve the effect of rifling.
Similarly, this kind of soft wooden support could also be used on solid bullets, allowing the solid bullets to have a longer and more accurate range and increase their power. Before the explosive bullets had enough power, it was also very good to increase the power of the solid bullets.
In order to increase the power of the explosive bomb, a complete industrial system and chemical foundation were needed. At present, the conditions were not met.
Although Xiao Ruxun saw that Xu Guangqi seemed to be doing well, the progress was not obvious.
Most of the time, Xiao Ruxun only knew how, but not why. He could only provide them with research directions and final results. As for the process, it was up to these professionals themselves.
The firearms department of the Ministry of Military Affairs had gathered more than six hundred firearms experts. It was currently the strongest firearm research lineup in the Daqin.
Xiao Ruxun had reason to believe that they could do something that he could not imagine. Even if they could not achieve mass production, they could at least make a prototype and come up with a standard.
It was precisely because of this that when Xiao Ruxun was observing the test firing of the cannon, he suddenly thought of the soft wooden support. Therefore, he found someone to draw the wooden support from his memory and handed the blueprint to Xu Guangqi, telling Xu Guangqi to first make a few soft wooden supports that could be fired with the Red Barbarian Cannon.
When Xu Guangqi saw the blueprint, he immediately remembered that the principle of the bullets used in his Enlightened Flintlock Flintlock was the same as the soft wooden support. He slapped his head and scolded himself for not connecting the dots and immediately did as he was told.
However, although the blueprint looked simple, it was not easy to actually make it. How to make the soft wooden support fit the shell and also fit the barrel of the Red Barbarian Cannon perfectly?
This required precise measurement and calculation. Thanks to the vernier calipers that Xiao Ruxun gave him in Myanmar, the measurement and calculation didn't seem to be difficult.
After spending seven or eight days, Xu Guangqi and his men made five solid shells connected to the soft wooden support and began the first round of experiments.
In order to ensure safety, the person in charge of safety arranged for them to be further away and then arranged for a few gunners to be responsible for trying to fire.
As a result, the cannon exploded.
None of the four gunners survived, all of them were blown into a bloody mess. Obviously, this was not the first time such an accident had occurred.
In Myanmar, there were countless such accidents. Fifty-six Burmese researchers died because of experimental accidents. Later, Xiao Ruxun changed to prisoners of war or death row criminals to conduct experiments on their behalf.
However, it was also quite dangerous to let these fellows conduct experiments. Because of the fear that they would suddenly rise in revolt and use the firearms in their hands to do something, he later arranged for soldiers with Enlightened Flintlocks to strictly monitor the whole process. If anything went wrong, they would immediately shoot and kill.
Because of this risk, this time, Xu Guangqi arranged for professional gunners to help with the experiment. As a result, the experiment ended in a completely different direction.
After the accident, Xu Guangqi immediately submitted an apology form and organized people to improve the size of the soft wooden support and to polish the edges to a certain extent.
He knew very well that the soft wooden support must have failed to fire, causing the cannon to explode. The problem lay with the soft wooden support.
When Xiao Ruxun learned of this, he issued an edict reprimanding Xu Guangqi, saying that he did not treat the lives of the soldiers as his own. He could clearly have used death row criminals or prisoners of war to replace them, but he chose the gunners. Now, four gunners had died. How was he going to explain this to their parents?
A sum of compensation was paid, and some preferential policies were given to the parents and family of the four soldiers. He also gave some compensation to the army, which could be considered to have stabilized the relationship between the army and the Ministry of Military Works. Otherwise, the artillery team would have brought people to the Ministry of Military Works to cause trouble.
Xiao Ruxun ordered that Xu Guangqi would only use death row criminals or prisoners of war in future experiments. He would be strictly monitored by soldiers with Enlightened Flintlocks. If anything went wrong, he would be shot immediately. However, no matter what, he could not let the soldiers die in vain again.
Seeing that he was contributing to the country, Xu Guangqi was not going to pursue the matter further. However, he was still fined a year's salary and demoted by three ranks. Several of his attendants were also fined half a year's salary. Xu Guangqi admitted his guilt and accepted the punishment.
However, his research did not stop, and Xiao Ruxun did not allow him to stop.
After a few rounds of polishing, he took out a wooden support solid bullet made with new data. He used death row criminals to operate it and successfully fired three rounds. Compared to the other Hongyi Cannon that did not use a wooden support, not only did it have a longer range of nearly one fifth, but its trajectory was also much straighter.
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