Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 573 Qi Hefengyun 6
Catherine was indeed very patient and increased the price little by little. During the women's four-by-100-meter relay race, she added 22 horses for one cannon. When An Ning won the children's 500-meter long-distance race, she added 25 horses for one cannon.By the time the javelin competition started, it had become 28 horses for one cannon... Liu Ziyan couldn't stand the pitiful look and said to Yang Menglong: "Just promise her, it's just a few cannons. Don’t be too hard on others.”

Yang Menglong said: "Oh, if you don't understand, don't talk nonsense."

Catherine glared at him: "Your fiancée has agreed, how dare you say no?"

Yang Menglong was so entangled by her that he couldn't help it, he stood up and said, "Come with me!" and strode out.Catherine blushed with excitement and followed out.

After leaving the sports center, Yang Menglong took Catherine to the tea house, sat down, ordered a pot of tea, frowned and said to Catherine in distress: "I remember I told you many times, I don't know how to sell this cannon Yes, why do you still think about it?"

Catherine said with a smile: "But you didn't say that you would never sell it. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, I will never let it go."

Yang Menglong rubbed his temples and said, "You really hit the south wall without looking back!"

Catherine looked gloomy, and said, "Yang, I know it will annoy you if you keep pestering me like this, but I really can't help it. You know, Venice is just a small city-state with a population of about [-], but the whole Europe is eyeing us, and the Turks are even more aggressive, robbing our colonies in large chunks. Under their attack from inside and outside, Venice has lost most of its colonies and ports, and it is getting weaker and weaker. If this If this situation does not change, our city-state will disappear from Italy!" She held Yang Menglong's hand, and said almost pleadingly, "Sell us some cannons, okay? We really need them!"

Seeing that she was worried about her own country, Yang Menglong couldn't help feeling a little soft-hearted, and said, "I said you Italians are just out of your mind. You already have a big place, and you have created a lot of city-state republics that are hostile to each other! Even one No matter how powerful the city-state is, what's the use of it? In the face of a country that is determined to swallow you, you have no power to fight back. You can't expect every country that opposes you to be the garbage of Byzantium that is only one breath more than a dead man, right? ? If it were me, I would ignore the colonies outside, and concentrate on unifying the whole of Italy, integrating the power of the entire Italian peninsula, and then going to compete with neighboring countries!"

Catherine smiled wryly: "Unify Italy? Is it that easy! After the great Roman Empire fell, the whole of Italy fell apart and became a hunting ground for European heroes! Justinian tried to reassemble these fragments into a complete territory, Tula Good emperors such as Zhen Zhen and Hadrian did not give up on this dream, but they all failed! Our ancestors tried to unite all the city-states and republics into a whole in the form of a federation to face external threats together, but when the danger passed After that, the alliance immediately fell apart!"

Yang Menglong said: "Federation? A country that has been divided for so long is playing federation, you think it's too long, right? If you want to unify a country, there is no other way, only with steel and blood! Only through this kind of interaction full of blood and wisdom , to reassemble the broken pieces of the map!"

Catherine looked even more bitter: "Where do we have this strength? It's okay to say at sea, but our army is vulnerable on land. Not to mention the unification of Italy, we can't even pass the test of the city-state of Milan. The hoplites in Milan have always been ours. The nightmare of the Marine Corps! And every time there is a slight sign of unification in Italy, it will immediately attract the intervention of the whole of Europe, and it is not easy to unify Italy!"

Yang Menglong squinted his eyes and called: "You don't know how to attack from far away? Pick the weakest first, and stabilize the strong country with humble words and thick coins, and then swallow the weakest city-state with lightning speed, and then digest them. Integrate their strength, and then pick a weaker one, and wait until all the weak city-states are swallowed up. You have enough power to wrestle with those powerful countries whether on land or at sea... We have done this for more than 2000 years I played it to perfection before!"

Catherine said embarrassingly: "After all, we are a merchant republic, businessmen are serious, and fighting wars is not what we are best at..." She immediately noticed that Yang Menglong seemed to want to change the subject, and called: "Don't try to change the subject! Back to the cannon thing!"

Yang Menglong rubbed his nose, was he so obvious?He spread his hands and said: "Cannon, I can sell you, but it's not the kind you saw on the Decepticon. Don't say you can trade the whole of Venice here, let alone a war horse. I won’t agree to it either.”

Catherine was greatly disappointed.What she wants most is that kind of powerful breech-loading rifled gun. This kind of cannon is unparalleled in terms of accuracy and rate of fire. If you can destroy an enemy ship, if you can get it, Venice will be saved.Her eyes dimmed: "It's fine if it's an ordinary cannon, we can make this kind of cannon ourselves."

Yang Menglong drank the tea in the cup in one gulp and said, "Follow me."

Catherine was dejected, followed him downstairs, got on the horse, went round and round all the way, and finally came to the heavily guarded artillery testing ground.The artillery testing ground was built on a piece of saline-alkali land, where crops could not be grown, and the place was wide enough for easy observation. The Heluo New Army bought it, moved the common people out, and built this artillery testing ground.When Yang Menglong came with Catherine, the testers were testing a new type of smoothbore gun.Catherine was surprised to see that this new smoothbore gun had a caliber of 130 mm and a diameter of 28 times. Such an aspect ratio is really rare.What surprised her the most was that this cannon was actually bronze wrapped in wrought iron, which was significantly different from ordinary bronze cannons. At least it was much lighter... Copper was more than 01:30 points heavier than iron.In addition, it has a garrison pick, and the whole gun is fixed, so you don't have to worry about it moving far behind after firing.Of course, there is still some displacement, and the receding artillery is just so stupid. If you want to overcome the old problem of displacement, you have to wait until the retreating artillery comes out.The tester stuffed a pack of granulated gunpowder packed in silk into the barrel, and then a soldier put a cylindrical shell with a semicircular warhead into it, inserted the fuse through the fire hole, ignited it, and there was a bang , A ball of flames spewed out from the muzzle, and the shells whizzed out, hitting 600 meters away, exploding a ball of bright red fireball.This cannon was not loaded, so quickly clear the chamber, reload, and fire again!The whole process is very fast, much faster than ordinary cannons.No way, who called it a breech-loading smoothbore gun?Compared with the front-loading smoothbore gun, the rear-loading smoothbore gun has obvious advantages in loading.

The second shell hit a wooden layer built with thick planks and steel bars, blowing up pieces of wood flying.Not only that, after the shell hit, it also ignited a big fire, burning until thick smoke billowed, and the tongue of flame rose seven or eight meters high.From Catherine's point of view, one can tell at a glance that if a sailing warship is hit by such a shot, it will definitely lose its combat effectiveness. If the heat spreads to the warehouse where the ammunition is stored, that unlucky warship will probably be blown to pieces on the spot!She hugged Yang Menglong's arm excitedly, and shouted: "This is exactly what I want! Ten cannons of the same caliber can't produce such an effect! Yang, how did you do it?" She said, He rushed towards the burning wood layer, wanting to see the shooting effect up close.

Yang Menglong quickly grabbed her: "Don't go there, the gas is poisonous!"

Catherine was stunned for a moment: "Poisonous?"

Yang Menglong said angrily: "A large amount of sulfur burns violently, do you think it is poisonous?" He waved his hand and asked someone to show Catherine a shell.Catherine found that the cannonball was nothing more than a lead bullet nailed in half to the front of a cylindrical wooden bracket. It was really hard to believe that this thing would be so powerful.

But when the technician disassembled the shell, she realized that it was not that simple.A hole was drilled in the center of the half lead bullet, and the inside of the cylindrical wooden support was hollowed out, and a short and thick powder column was inserted, weighing at least three or four kilograms. To put it bluntly, This wooden support is a high-explosive bomb!Open the silk covering the powder column again, ouch, the gunpowder inside is yellow, with a strong sulfur smell!
A slender detonator passes through the hole in the center of the lead bullet and is inserted into the center of the powder column. After hitting the target, the detonator explodes immediately after being violently collided, thereby detonating the powder column.The reason why the warhead is solid and not hollowed out to load more gunpowder is because it has to be smashed through the hull to ensure that the shell explodes inside the battleship.Yang Menglong said: "I call this kind of shell a brimstone bomb. After it hits the target, it will explode violently, and accompanied by violent combustion, emits highly toxic gas, and its power is multiplied in a closed space. , No matter how big the battleship is, it will be finished."

Catherine held the detonator, and saw that the surface of the detonator was engraved with fine and dense threads, and there were also such threads in the center hole of the lead ball. The two were tightly combined with one turn, very precise.She asked with some anticipation: "Can I try another shot? Just use this shot!"

Yang Menglong was very happy and shouted: "One more shot!"

Immediately, someone rebounded the semicircular shot nail welded on the thin iron sheet, screwed on the detonator, loaded it into the chamber and ignited it, aiming at a brick and stone structure house and firing.With a bang, a big hole was punched in the wall of that house, and there was a loud bang from inside, and suffocating sulfur gas spewed out along with the flames. If anyone was inside, they would basically be sentenced to death.

Catherine was very excited and shouted: "That's it, I want it! One hundred, no, two hundred! As for how much you want, you can make an offer!"

Yang Menglong glanced at the foreign girl who was so excited: "Are you really asking for the price?"

Catherine said: "As long as you can provide us with two hundred such cannons and corresponding shells within two years, you can ask for whatever price you want!"

Yang Menglong chuckled, he finally caught someone who was taken advantage of, and he felt full of accomplishment!In fact, this kind of breech-loading smoothbore gun is simply the product of the failure of the breech-loading rifle to pull the rifling. It is scrapped, and then the rifling is crisply bored, and the diameter is expanded to become a smoothbore gun. Such defective products are not rare.He doesn't like breech-loading smoothbore guns. If there are rifled guns, it's a ghost, and it's not a tank!However, since Catherine liked it so much, he had no choice but to open his mouth.

"First of all, I want three thousand European war horses!" The lion took the first bite.

Catherine didn't blink: "No problem!" With Venice's maritime strength and the connections accumulated over hundreds of years, although it would be difficult to transport three thousand horses to China, it was not impossible.

"Secondly, I want your nautical maps, those going to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, all of them!"

Catherine asked vigilantly, "Why do you want these?"

Yang Menglong said: "It's convenient for me to go outside for a stroll when I'm bored."

Catherine knew that this guy wanted these materials because he wanted to go shopping, but there was no other way. Even if she didn't give them, he could still get them from other countries. It's better to take advantage of other countries' efforts. First use it to exchange for something you need, not to mention that these things are not secrets in Europe.She nodded: "Yes, I will provide you with navigation maps and information later."

Yang Menglong was very satisfied: "Third, I hope you can send some shipbuilders over to communicate with us... Don't worry, I won't snatch your people, it's just for communication."

Catherine cursed inwardly: "It's only strange if you believe me!"

But she nodded anyway.

(End of this chapter)