lcionline Chapter 687 Mini Bullet
Chapter 687 Mini Bullet
Liu Ye understood what he meant: "Can I understand it this way: the biggest use of shrapnel shells is to hit cavalry that are approaching at high speed within a kilometer? For infantry, it's better to use more stable and practical solid shot and grapeshot?"
"That's right. You can use solid shot at long range and shotgun shells at close range. Infantry are slow, so you can switch from solid shot to shotgun shells in time, and there's no issue with the detonation rate."
"No wonder I haven't seen you using these kinds of equipment before; it turns out they're not very reliable or versatile."
Liang Xiaoming spread his hands: "So, throughout the era of smoothbore cannons, solid shot and grapeshot, which seem to have lower technical content, have always been the mainstays of land warfare, while grenade and shrapnel shells have only played a supporting role. Of course, under specific conditions, the latter two can play a very outstanding role."
After demonstrating the grenades and shrapnel, it's time for the grand finale weapon to be unveiled.
Liang Xiaoming held up a gun that looked similar to the Patriot rifle and explained, "Due to time constraints, we didn't specially build a rifled gun with a reduced caliber. Instead, we simply rifled a smoothbore gun, which is sufficient to demonstrate the principle of a rifled gun."
He took out a cone-shaped bullet, unlike traditional lead bullets, inserted it into the barrel, and then pushed it in using the accelerator. He raised the gun and aimed at a tree more than 300 meters away, about two people tall. After aiming for a while, he pulled the trigger.
With a crisp "bang," the tree trunk visibly trembled, and leaves fell one after another.
"Wow, that's amazing! He can hit the target from that far away?" Liu Ye exclaimed excitedly.
Liang Xiaoming blew on the smoke coming out of the muzzle and said proudly, "This is just a modified smoothbore gun with a reduced range. A professional, reduced-caliber rifled gun has an effective range of nearly 500 meters, which is even further than this."
Liu Ye recalled: "I remember you said: rifled guns have rifling, the bullets need to be embedded, loading is very difficult, and you even need to use a small hammer to strike the push rod. Why don't you use a hammer for this?"
"That's right. Rifled guns must ensure that the clearance between the barrel and the bullet is very small so that they fit tightly and allow the bullet to spin forward under the action of the rifling, thus flying farther. If the clearance is too large, the bullet will not be able to spin. The hammer was standard equipment for early rifled gun units. However, the advent of the Minié bullet largely solved the problem of the difficulty in loading rifled guns."
Liang Xiaoming held up a cone-shaped bullet. "Do you know the principle behind the blowguns of jungle tribes? The Minié bullet was inspired by blowguns. Look, the cone-shaped bullet has a cone-shaped hole at the tail, and a wooden plug is inserted. When fired, the gas pressure forces the wooden plug into the hole, causing the base of the bullet to expand and press tightly against the rifling, sealing the gap between the bullet and the chamber, preventing the gas from escaping. This allows the bullet to spin at high speed under the pressure of the rifling. Based on this principle, the Minié bullet can be made slightly smaller than the barrel and does not require very precise clearance, which greatly reduces the difficulty of loading and makes it closer to a smoothbore gun. However, its range is four or five times greater than that of a smoothbore gun, and it can hit exactly where you point it."
Liu Ye said somewhat dejectedly, "This is such a good product, but you seemed to have said that it couldn't be mass-produced..."
"Yes. There are several reasons that affect its mass production. First, accuracy. Although the requirements for clearance control are lower than for other rifled guns, that's relative. It's difficult to guarantee that the tolerances of hand-made barrels and bullets are within a certain range. In other words, barrels and bullets made by different craftsmen cannot be interchanged. Theoretically, a gun can only be equipped with bullets made by the same craftsman..."
Liu Ye was speechless. A craftsman who makes both guns and bullets cannot operate on an assembly line, so the production efficiency is predictable.
"The second reason is cost and lifespan. Because the manufacturing process is more complex, the cost of one rifled gun is roughly the same as the total cost of three smoothbore guns. Although we are wealthy and can ignore the cost issue, the lifespan problem cannot be ignored. After firing a certain number of bullets, the rifling will wear down, and the accuracy and range will gradually decrease, eventually making it less effective than a smoothbore gun. A smoothbore gun made of the same material can last several times longer than a rifled gun. In conclusion, rifled guns with Minié bullets are currently only suitable for a small number of elite troops, while the main force of linear infantry must still use smoothbore guns. On the battlefield, cheap NPCs are always easier to form in large numbers!"
"That's all we can do," Liu Ye said dejectedly. "So, which unit is suitable for the Minié rifle?"
"My personal suggestion is to equip the Guards battalion, special operations teams, and the Marine Corps under construction with this weapon, while keeping the equipment of the other units unchanged. These units are all special operations, and their ammunition consumption is far less than that of ordinary line infantry. Even if the guns and ammunition are handcrafted by specialists, the supply can be guaranteed. Of course, special operations teams mainly carry out special missions and raids, so handguns are more suitable than rifles. If we rifling is applied to their handguns, their range can easily exceed that of ordinary smoothbore guns."
“That’s settled,” Liu Ye decided. “The guards and future Marines will be equipped with Minié rifles, while the special forces will use pistols.”
Liang Xiaoming, still eager for more, said, "I need to ask Father George for more help to get a basic version of the gun with a scope, so I can snipe from a distance of several hundred meters. Just thinking about it is exciting!"
Liu Ye's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed, "That's a great idea! Imagine how awesome it would be to shoot the enemy leader dead in a battle between two armies!"
Liang Xiaoming continued to expand his imagination: "Train a few reliable snipers, infiltrate enemy cities, and you can carry out assassinations. For example, people like Huang Taiji, as long as they leave the palace, there's a chance to kill them!"
"Hahaha..." The two were lost in their fantasies and laughed at each other.
The new equipment has passed acceptance testing. The next steps, design finalization, adjustments, and improvements, will be handled by Liang Xiaoming. Then, Sun Yuanhua, who is in charge of military supplies, will follow up and arrange for the arsenal to produce the required quantities, and finally deliver them to the relevant troops. Military production has a complete process, and Liu Ye doesn't need to do everything personally; he has more important things to do.
Everyone was summoned to a meeting at Nanyuan, the most complete gathering in nearly two years.
Liu Ye first defined the nature of the meeting: "In the future, as long as there is no war, such a conference will be held regularly. The territory we control is getting wider and wider, the number of soldiers and civilians is increasing, and things are becoming more and more complicated. The simple model of relying on one person to be in charge can no longer be effectively managed. We need collective wisdom and concerted efforts from all departments and agencies."
Yan Guang, Sun Yuanhua, and others thought that this meeting format was similar to the imperial court's morning assembly, and it seemed that the general was preparing for the future ascension to the throne.