GBP Chapter 587 Rifled Guns and Minié Bullets
Chapter 587 Rifled Guns and Minié Bullets
"As for the advantages of rifled guns, they are just as obvious as their disadvantages," Liang Xiaoming continued to explain. "The helical rifling allows the bullet to spin stably in the air, improving shooting accuracy and range. The effective range can be increased from 100 meters to 500 meters, and it can basically hit the target exactly where it's pointed—provided the target is visible to the naked eye. With smoothbore guns, anything beyond 100 meters is a matter of luck; who knows where the bullet will end up? But rifling also has its side effects. The bullet needs to be embedded in the rifling, making loading time-consuming and laborious. Early rifled guns even required carrying a wooden mallet to knock the bullet into the rifling rod. While smoothbore guns are far less accurate and have a much shorter range than rifled guns, this can be compensated for by their quantity and density. They are also cheaper to manufacture and easier to load."
"Five hundred meters? A single rifling stroke has that much power? My goodness!" Liu Ye exclaimed in astonishment. "But the bullet still has to be driven in, so the loading speed must be incredibly slow. It seems like line infantry can't use rifled guns anymore?"
Liang Xiaoming nodded: "Before the level of industrial development reaches a certain point, muzzle-loading rifled guns are only used by a small number of special units and cannot be used by line infantry, otherwise they would die a terrible death by being shot in a line. The simplest is the most practical. In our lifetime, smoothbore guns and even smoothbore cannons will be the mainstream."
"Why not make a few rifled cannons? Just like handcrafting rifled guns," Liu Ye asked. "By adding rifling, the range can be multiplied several times. Just thinking about it is exciting."
Liang Xiaoming spread his hands speechlessly and explained, "Cannons and guns are two different things. As you know, our gun barrels are made of wrought iron—that is, low-carbon steel—which is relatively soft and can be rifling. But cannons are made of cast iron, which is much harder than low-carbon steel. If you're doing it by hand, what tools do you have to rifle it? Besides, because of the rifling, it's very difficult to load a shell. Even if you force it in, the rifling will wear down quickly due to the intense friction between the shell and the inner wall of the barrel. Another possibility is that shells are not like bullets; they contain propellant. What if you hammer it in and it explodes?"
"So, loading a rifled gun is very troublesome. If you can only load one bullet every few minutes, unless you attach an optical sight and use it as a sniper rifle, it's not as good as a smoothbore gun that can fire three rounds per minute!"
"It's not that exaggerated. Besides, we can use Minié bullets, which can overcome this problem to some extent."
Liu Ye asked in confusion, "The Minié bullet sounds familiar, but what is it?"
"It's a long story. To put it simply, the bullet's bottom is made hollow, and then a piece of cork is inserted. By using the principle of tail expansion, bullets with a diameter smaller than the barrel can be loaded smoothly like in a smoothbore gun. During firing, the bullet body can expand to fit the rifling, thereby improving accuracy and range."
Liu Ye suppressed the urge to complain and said, "It sounds simple, it's just a matter of changing our thinking. Don't tell me we didn't make rifled guns and Minié bullets before because there was no demand..."
"On the contrary, grenades and shrapnel rounds are only used in specific environments because there is no strong demand for them and they are not cost-effective. But Minié bullets are indeed difficult to make: putting aside the rifling issue, Minié bullets are different from lead bullets for ordinary smoothbore guns. They require special molds for casting, and the first issue is the lead-tin ratio. It must be maintained at a 2:1 ratio because only an alloy with moderate hardness will allow the Minié bullet to expand in the barrel and rotate under the action of the rifling, while improving airtightness. To solve the problem of lead sticking to the rifling during expansion, the bullet surface also needs to be waxed. Secondly, there is the issue of versatility. Rifled guns and Minié bullets made by different craftsmen will not be exactly the same. Even guns and bullets made by the same craftsman will not be the same. A Minié bullet made by Zhang San may not be usable by Li Si. To solve this problem, it is necessary to group them according to tolerances to ensure that the Minié bullets distributed to the soldiers are roughly in line with the requirements."
"That sounds complicated... It seems we can only equip a small number of elite troops with that." Upon hearing that even manufacturing bullets was so complicated, and that the bullets couldn't be guaranteed to be universal, Liu Ye immediately abandoned the idea of large-scale deployment of the Minié rifle. "But what's the connection between this rifled gun and the Marine Corps?"
“Hehe…” Liang Xiaoming chuckled slyly, “We’re connected. If you promise me you’ll establish a Marine Corps, I’ll put in a lot of effort to develop the Minié rifle.”
Holy crap, that's a blatant threat!
Liu Ye nodded helplessly: "I will seriously consider your suggestion." Although it cannot be equipped on a large scale for the troops, the temptation of possessing such a weapon is still irresistible.
By this time, the fleet had reached the vicinity of the Dagu Forts. Although it flew the flags of imperial troops, the sheer size of the fleet still terrified the fort's garrison. They immediately dispatched men in small sampans to inquire about the people. Upon hearing that they were soldiers from Qionghai Town in Guangdong, the messenger instinctively said, "Without orders from the Ministry of War, soldiers are not allowed to leave their garrison, nor can they disembark at Dagu Forts..."
Lin San, who was in charge of the negotiations, impatiently shoved him aside, pointed to the deliberately opened gun ports on the side of the warship, and said, "We're here to fight the Tartars. The Ministry of War's transfer order can be reissued. You lowly soldiers shouldn't be so ungrateful."
The newcomer shuddered when he saw the dark muzzle of the cannon inside the gun port. Although Dagu Fort didn't have many decent cannons, he had seen them before, and such a large muzzle could probably reduce the Dagu Fort to ashes in just a few shots.
"Yes, yes, I misspoke. Please come ashore."
In later times, Tianjin Port became the world's highest-level, China's largest artificial deep-water port, and the world's fourth-largest comprehensive port in terms of throughput. Although the port is not fully developed now, it can easily accommodate a large fleet of ships. In this era, due to various factors, maritime transport was not the mainstream; the most important water transport was the Grand Canal. Apart from some merchant ships, the prosperity of Tianjin Port was far less than that of the nearby canal wharves. The seaport seemed to be monopolized by the Qionghai Navy fleet.
After anchoring and docking, the Qionghai Army began to disembark and land in an orderly manner, with Liu Ye and other leaders standing on the shore watching their troops land.
After observing for a while, Liu Ye realized that disembarking a large number of troops from the ships was indeed a huge undertaking, especially loading and unloading the 10-pound field guns. Without lifting equipment, it would be extremely difficult. It was only because the Qionghai Navy was disciplined that it could maintain order. If it were any other army, chaos would ensue, and it wouldn't even take a day. If hostile forces suddenly attacked during the crossing, the landing force would be in serious trouble.