The explosive projectile fired from the large-caliber mortar follows a parabola, and its speed is much slower than that of the direct-fire projectile, so its trajectory is easily observed by people.

However, Yang Zhen is not worried that when it is used on the battlefield in the future, Tatars or other enemies will be able to observe the trajectory of the explosive bullets with the naked eye and then effectively avoid it.

Compared with the projectiles fired by long-barreled direct-firing artillery such as Hongyi cannon, the speed of the shells fired by the mortar is not that fast, and it can even be said to be much slower, but in any case, it is faster than human legs.

Much more.

When you notice it flying towards you with your naked eyes, it is already too late to avoid it.

Moreover, the accuracy of mortars in this era was very low, as low as almost zero. It was not the kind of artillery that pointed where to hit. It hit one face, one face.

area.

In other words, even the person who fired the gun may not be able to guess exactly where it can hit.

But Yang Zhen looked at the smoking black projectile, drew an almost standard parabola in the low altitude, flew over the Xiaosha River, flew over the reed field on the other side of the Xiaosha River, and then landed on the far side of the river.

In the bushes.

The smoke streaking from low altitude showed that during the process of exiting the barrel, the high-temperature gas in the barrel had penetrated the gap between the bullet holder and the inner wall of the barrel, igniting the gunpowder column in the fuse tube.

In other words, the cannonball was ignited during the exit process.

However, when the smoking bomb fell into the bushes on the other side of the river, the expected explosion did not come.

The people who had just climbed out of the bunker cheering were already ready to celebrate the successful test launch, but this scene made the laughter that was about to bloom freeze on everyone's faces.

The atmosphere at the artillery team's testing ground suddenly dropped from the cheers of the successful launch to a dead silence.

"Old Pan, what's going on?"

"What went wrong?"

"Is it a dud?"

"Did you fall into the water?"

Upon seeing this, Zhang Degui, Fang Guangchen, Li Lu, Zhang Chen and others gathered around Yang Zhen and Pan Wenmao, guessing various unknown possibilities one by one.

Yang Zhen's face became solemn, and he had mixed feelings in his heart. Could it be that good things really take a long time, and do they have to go through it a few more times before it can be achieved?

Pan Wenmao stood next to Yang Zhen and saw Yang Zhen's expression change. He was so anxious for a moment that he wanted to fly over immediately to see what was going on.

At the same time, facing everyone's inquiries, he was extremely embarrassed. He didn't know how to answer, but he couldn't say nothing. At the moment, he had to bite the bullet and said to everyone:

"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!"

As a result, as soon as he finished speaking, he heard a loud "bang" from the direction of the missile landing on the other side of the river. In an instant, a cloud of smoke exploded, and broken branches and leaves flew in all directions.

Soon, the artillery soldiers hidden in the bunker on the other side of the river rushed out of the bunker with cheers, waving flags, and ran in the direction of the explosion point.

Then, the soldiers following behind took big steps, measuring the distance from the river bank to the explosive bomb.

Even though there had been successful examples of explosions before, Yang Zhen was still worried about the failure of the first round of test firing. When he heard the explosion and saw the soldiers on duty on the other side rushing out of the bunker, he was immediately

Overjoyed, he turned around and waved his fists at the people behind him and shouted:

"Did you hear it? Did you see it? We succeeded! Our test firing of the explosive ammunition was successful!"

Others may not know the significance of the firing of bombs, but for Yang Zhen, he knew that the scene happening in front of him was the way to win against Manta in the future.

No matter how far the first shell traveled, as long as it was successfully launched and exploded smoothly after landing, it was considered a success.

As for the explosion not immediately after landing, but delayed for a while, this is a result of the fact that the standards of information management are not completely unified.

Moreover, the delay seemed a bit long to the impatient Yang Zhen and the others, but in fact it was only a few breaths longer than the exploding bomb they had exploded before.

The people following Yang Zhen, seeing how happy and excited Yang Zhen was, also cheered and celebrated, and surrounded Yang Zhen towards the river bank.

"That's right, that's right. Up to here, we're already within a stone's throw of the Manchu Tatars. And I think the distance across the river is probably a stone's throw away."

Zhang Chen, who was following Yang Zhen, paid careful attention to the range of the Sky Cannon. As soon as he came to the river bank, he said to Yang Zhen: "If you calculate it this way, the range of this Sky Cannon is not as good as that of the Hongyi Cannon."

, but it is enough. If it is mounted on the city in the future, the range will be even further!"

Yang Zhen was also thinking about the issue of shooting range. Starting from the bunker where they were staying and walking to the south bank of Xiaosha River, he calculated that it was about a hundred and twenty steps away.

Standing on the river bank, he visually inspected the impact point far away on the other side of the river, that is, the explosion point. It was about a considerable distance from the south bank, and it should be similar to Zhang Chen's judgment.

The only thing wrong may be that Zhang Chen did not calculate the width of Xiaosha River. Although Xiaosha River is a small river, the water surface of the main river is still one or two feet wide.

"If it is set up on the top of the city, wouldn't it become a target for the cannons of the Manchu Tatars? In my opinion, it is better to deploy them in the trenches and fire at close range. Anyway, the cannons are aimed at the sky, so there is no delay in placing them in the trenches.

And you can also face the enemy side by side with the musketeers and grenadiers!"

Li Lu, who was also following Yang Zhen, looked excited and had a more optimistic attitude than Zhang Chen. He first refuted Zhang Chen's statement with a smile, and then said to Yang Zhen:

"The Sky Cannon fires explosive bullets. The most important thing is not its range, but the explosive bullets it shoots. The power of these explosive bullets is even more powerful than the solid iron bullets fired by the Hongyi Cannon.

Too much!"

After hearing Li Lu's excited words, everyone including Yang Zhen and Zhang Chen couldn't help but nod in approval.

Everyone has seen the range of the Sky Cannon, and it is indeed not very good. Even if we estimate it too high, it may only be about three hundred steps at most.

This kind of range cannot be compared with the Hongyi cannon. It is much inferior to the Folang machine cannon, and even the small and medium-sized Hongyi cannon, such as the general cannon.

But it fired a blooming bomb, and the test just now has proved that the power of the explosion of this blooming bomb, which weighs seven kilograms and seven taels, is quite astonishing. It is far more powerful than the flying general grenade, and it is no more than a small or medium-sized 10,000-person bomb.

Enemy.

Li Lu, who had many opinions on the throwing of ammunition, did not think range was a fatal issue.

And he clearly realized that the advantage of this sky cannon was not its range compared with other artillery, but its unique method of throwing ammunition.

This unique method of throwing ammunition allows it to be set up or deployed in places completely invisible to the enemy, such as trenches, tunnels, other bunkers or even city walls and behind hills.

It can be deployed in places completely invisible to the enemy, while at the same time not affecting its launch and power at all.

Yang Zhen led everyone on the river bank to estimate the firing range and the future use of the cannon. After a while, the soldiers on duty on the other side of the river came to report with flags.

The explosion point of the first explosive shell fired by the cannon was a total of 140 steps away from the opposite river bank.

"One hundred and forty steps? One hundred and twenty steps?"

After listening to the number of steps reported by the artillery soldiers on duty across the river, Yang Zhen began to count in his own mind.

Different people have different stride lengths, but there are certain rules for the stride length used in the military to calculate distance.

According to Yang Zhen's observation, the stride length used by ordinary soldiers in the army to measure distance is not the kind of small steps that cannot move the legs, but is also much larger than the stride length of ordinary people walking.

The big man's step should be about four feet, which is about one meter and three meters later. The small man's step should be about three feet, which is about one meter later.

Yang Zhen made a total calculation in his mind. Taking into account the river across the two places, the test range of the sky cannon was about three hundred meters.

The range of three hundred meters is really an embarrassing range for an artillery gun. If solid bullets are used, it will not have much practical value.

Fortunately, it uses blooming bombs. It can deliver a heavy blooming bomb to a distance of 300 meters, which is barely enough.

"Very good. After all, this is the first artillery piece we have made that can open shells. I am very satisfied with today's result!"

Yang Zhen thought about it for a while, then turned to Pan Wenmao and Wang Shoutang and said: "The sky cannon made from the iron mold used by the iron factory is very good, and the explosive shells loaded by your ammunition factory are also very good. The cannon is good and the ammunition is good.

Only then can we achieve such good results today. I have recorded the contribution of the two of you, as well as the contribution of everyone in the ironworks and ammunition factory!"

"Eh--, I don't dare to take it, I don't dare to take it! Without the guidance of the Commander-in-Chief, this matter would never have been possible. I don't dare to take advantage of the Commander-in-Chief!"

When Wang Shoutang heard what Yang Zhen said, he laughed so hard when he thought about the great reward for merit in Zhengdong Camp. However, considering that he had already been promoted to Dusi before he even took the position of President Qian, and it was only a few days ago.

I had just been awarded the award before, but now I kept declining.

However, words were words, and there was no sign of refusal in Wang Shoutang's manner. He said that he did not dare to take it seriously, but at the same time he was smiling, and he kept bowing to Yang Zhen, as if he was accepting and thanking him.
Chapter completed!