Traveling through the late Ming Dynasty to promote Chinese civilization

Chapter 26 Patriot Type 1 Rifle

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Thanks to the implementation of the go/no-go gauge and the improvement of the process, the standardized mass production of muskets has entered the countdown. The three major processes of barrel, bolt and assembly have been completed. The craftsmen and their apprentices are in place, and wrought iron, brass and wood for making the stock are ready.

One day in November of this year, in a few temporary prefabricated houses on the banks of the Wenlan River in Lingao County, Qiongzhou Prefecture, Ming Dynasty, Liang Xiaoming, who held the positions of chief engineer of iron smelting and chief engineer of gun and cannon manufacturing, issued an instruction: "Standardized production of the musket workshop of Bairentan Gun and Cannon Factory is officially launched!" The craftsmen, who were already prepared, began their work. Wang Yichui struck the first blow, and modern standardized assembly line operations appeared for the first time in the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century.

Just six days later, the first batch of guns was placed in front of Liu Ye. Compared with the guns produced last time, they were all the same size and thickness. To the naked eye, Liu Ye could not see any difference between these twenty guns. The next step was to test their performance with live ammunition.

The guards finally paused their tedious assassination training, as Master Liu had brought the legendary muskets, said to be even more formidable than the government troops' matchlock guns. Amidst everyone's eager anticipation, Master Liu and Master Liang arrived with the weapons. These muskets looked exquisite, with brass fittings in several places on the shafts, clearly indicating their considerable value.

The first batch of over one hundred team members selected for the shooting test were all veteran members, including Shi Ying. They had always trained diligently and assiduously, and the shooting test was a form of recognition for them. The others looked at them with envy.

These hundred-plus people, plus Liu Ye and Liang Xiaoming, each had a gun. Liang Xiaoming participated in the gun testing to gain a deeper understanding of the gun's performance and parameters under simulated combat conditions.

Liu Ye adopted the demeanor of a military instructor, teaching the more than one hundred people how to hold a gun and how to aim in a straight line. Since these people had never handled a gun before, this alone took them half an hour to practice. After they could hold the gun steadily and aim properly, they then practiced the entire process of loading and firing.

Liang Xiaoming divided the action into several steps: First, pull the bolt to open the powder chamber cover; second, take out the paper cartridge, bite open the cartridge, pour a small amount of gunpowder into the powder chamber, and then stuff the paper cartridge along with the remaining gunpowder into the barrel; third, take out the cleaning rod from the sleeve under the barrel, insert it into the barrel, and compress the bullet and gunpowder; fourth, pull the trigger to fire.

Compared to matchlock guns, this firing procedure was much simpler, and the guards quickly mastered it. Next came live-fire exercises. Several human-shaped wooden targets were temporarily erected at a distance of fifty meters on the training ground.

Liu Ye gave the command: "Prepare for launch!"

With a clattering sound of the bolt being pulled back and the lock being released, everyone opened the medicine tank lid;

"Begin loading!"

The team members clumsily bit open the cardboard, poured some gunpowder into the gun barrel, then inserted it into the barrel and pulled out the ramrod to tighten it.

"Aim and fire!"

Everyone raised their guns, rested the butts against their cheeks, aimed at the target in front of them according to Liu Ye's instructions on "three points in a line," and pulled the triggers.

"Boom boom boom," gunshots rang out, and the distinctive smoke from the black powder obscured everyone's vision.

All the guards felt a chill run down their spines. The gunshot was so loud that it made the guards, who had never fired a gun before and rarely even set off firecrackers during the Lunar New Year, nervous.

Liu Ye personally went forward to check the shooting results. Sixty out of more than one hundred targets were hit, and all of them were penetrated, exploding with fist-sized holes. The hit rate was sixty percent, which was quite satisfactory considering that this was the team's first live-fire shooting session.

He had the target brought out to the guards for demonstration. Those who hadn't fired and those who hadn't all marveled at the power of the musket; one shot and even the strongest man would be dead.

Liu Ye asked Shi Ying, "You're a sharpshooter, tell me about your experience using a gun."

Quartz gave a simple and clear answer: "It is powerful, but the preparation time is enough to fire two or three arrows. As long as the archer has the stamina, he will probably be suppressed by the arrows for a short time. And when the archer runs out of stamina, the firearms will have the upper hand."

Shi Ying thought for a moment before replying, "But a qualified archer needs at least two or three years of training, a good archer needs five or six years, and as for a master archer, they are one in ten thousand, and can only be encountered by chance. We learned to fire a gun today in just a few hours, and at most ten days or half a month will be enough for us to become very proficient. Moreover, as long as you can hold a gun, even women and children can fire it. This is probably the biggest advantage of firearms over bows and arrows."

Liu Ye nodded: "You're absolutely right. Within fifty paces, bows and arrows have an initial advantage, but at a distance of seventy paces, firearms have an even greater advantage. Archery requires stamina; an average person would be exhausted after shooting a dozen or so arrows in a row. However, loading and firing firearms doesn't require much stamina. Moreover, training a musketeer is much easier than training an archer. Losing an archer is difficult to replace in a short time, while losing a musketeer is easy to replenish. Firearms replacing bows and arrows is an unstoppable trend."

"As for you..." Liu Ye pondered for a moment, "You must master the technique of shooting with a musket, but you should not neglect the bow and arrow. Your archery skills are more useful than a musket in critical moments!" Shi Ying agreed.

Liang Xiaoming raised the gun in his hand and said to Liu Ye, "Boss, let's give this gun a name. Maybe it will become a famous gun of the century, just like the AK."

Liu Ye chuckled, "You already said it's a copy of the British Brownbees, so why give a knock-off a name?"

"British Brownbeth wasn't even born yet. This gun was born on Chinese soil, so it's a Chinese copyright. British craftsmen at that time might not have had the skill to make such an exquisite firearm." The tech guy was also a Machiavellian, plagiarizing copyrights without batting an eye.

Okay, this rifle will be the standard issue weapon for our team from now on, so it's only right that we name it. Liu Ye thought for a moment: "Let's call it the Patriot Type 1 Rifle!"

Liang Xiaoming repeated: "Patriot Type 1 rifle, not bad, not bad, simple, easy to remember and easy to pronounce. This is the official name, let's just call it Patriot Rifle for short."

Thus, the knock-off Brown Bess acquired an official name. Neither of them could have predicted that this gun would later accompany them from the South China Sea to Liaodong, playing a crucial role in their service.

Liu Ye was very satisfied with the gun—except for the lack of a bayonet. Liang Xiaoming promised to come up with a solution as soon as possible.

He already has a development direction in mind: to use existing wrought iron—low-carbon steel—for carburizing treatment, making the surface a high-carbon steel with high hardness and wear resistance, while the core retains the toughness and plasticity of low-carbon steel. Bayonets made using this process will have a hard outer layer, facilitating stabbing, and a very tough core, making them less prone to breakage.

The technical aspects were handled by Liang Xiaoming. Liu Ye only made requests and provided assurances, so Liang Xiaoming didn't elaborate further. His current task was to train the guards to use Patriot rifles proficiently to handle potential dangers. Once these three hundred musketeers were trained, they could roam freely across Qiongzhou Island.

The guards, who had been training assassinations to the point of exhaustion, finally saw a glimmer of hope – the addition of shooting exercises.