Chapter 798: The Artillery Commander's New Idea
Possessing the Heavenly Lord's reconnaissance hot air balloons, Bai Yuan's march was naturally unhindered. He advanced effortlessly along the Luo River, pressing southwest towards Lushi County Town.
The marauders who ambushed him along the way were all thoroughly routed, forced to retreat in disarray back into the city.
Scorpion's Claw had commanded over 10,500 men. Between those killed, wounded, escaped, and captured, fewer than 8,000 men remained.
He sensed that these government troops from Henan were not to be trifled with. Daring not hold their ground in the county town, he abandoned Lushi County and retreated southwest towards Yunyang.
Thus, Bai Yuan, assisting Fan Shangzheng and Zhang Yingchang, took control of Lushi County. They had finally fulfilled the orders of Governor-General Chen Qiyu of the Five Provinces—
Gao Family Village, the Ordnance Bureau.
The commander of the artillery battalion stood before Xu Dafu, the head of the Ordnance Bureau.
Xu Dafu, with a wary expression, said, "What do you want? Let me be clear: I won't agree to anything dangerous."
The artillery commander quickly replied, "Oh, no, it's not dangerous. I'm here about something quite simple."
The commander explained, "After the range of our Gao Family Village firearms significantly increased, the Armored Grenadier Battalion was disbanded. Seeing that, I felt a little panicked, always worried that the artillery battalion might one day simply cease to exist."
Xu Dafu scoffed, "Nonsense! The Armored Grenadier Battalion was disbanded because the firearms' range improved, making hand grenades too short-ranged. What is there for your artillery battalion to worry about? You'll naturally be called upon during sieges."
"But the artillery battalion is rarely deployed these days," the commander countered. "It's like the Armored Grenadier Battalion was before it became redundant. It feels terrifying. I certainly don't want my battalion disbanded."
Xu Dafu looked utterly bemused. "There's nothing I can do about that."
The commander leaned in. "I've thought of a brilliant solution—a way to revitalize our artillery battalion, perhaps."
Xu Dafu raised an eyebrow, silently urging him to continue.
"I was thinking," the commander began, "the reason our artillery battalion is underutilized right now is that our cannons are too unwieldy. Unless we're laying siege, no one bothers to lug such heavy contraptions around. But what if we had smaller cannons, like the ones that appear on the Heavenly Lord's arms? We could carry those everywhere with ease!"
Xu Dafu looked exasperated. "Small cannons also mean small power. Those tiny iron spheres shot from the Heavenly Lord's arms are only good for amusement or perhaps startling an enemy."
The commander quickly interjected, "I know that, of course. I was just thinking: if we used small cannon barrels, roughly the size of the Heavenly Lord's arms, to fire smaller hand grenades, exploding amidst enemy formations—wouldn't the destructive power be immense? This way, the issue of hand grenades' limited range would also be solved, and our artillery battalion could be regularly deployed for action."
Xu Dafu paused. "Explosive shells?"
He shook his head. "The imperial court has long had designs for explosive shells, but the concept has always remained theoretical, too impractical to implement. It won't work! The force generated the moment a cannon fires is immense; a mere hand grenade cannot possibly withstand it. It would be crushed flat or prematurely detonated by that tremendous power. A barrel explosion is incredibly dangerous, you know; it would kill your artillerymen."
The commander's eyes lit up. "I've considered that, too. We could place a small charge of gunpowder in the barrel, then a wooden plate, cushioned by a layer of cotton. Then, we ignite the hand grenade, place it on the cotton, and then fire the cannon. The force in the barrel first pushes the wooden plate, which then pushes the hand grenade nestled in the cotton, launching it forward. Wouldn't that work?"
"A sudden flicker of interest crossed Xu Dafu's face."
Xu Dafu stammered, "A wooden sabot?"
To be fair, while the idea had a few rough edges, upon closer inspection, it actually made a strange kind of sense...
Xu Dafu rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Come with me. We'll go to the Thirty-Two Middle School and consult Song Yingxing, Young Master Bai, and Wang Zheng. Let's hear their thoughts."
A few days later...
On the open ground behind the Ordnance Bureau, a large assembly of scientists and senior technical engineers gathered, observing the artillery battalion commander as he fiddled with an iron pipe, roughly the thickness of an arm.
A miniature cannon!
Given its small size, the projectile it could fire wouldn't be large, of course, only the size of a small hand grenade. The interesting thing was
that this hand grenade's base was fitted with a small wooden sabot, and through the center of the sabot, a fuse of special material had been inserted.
This fuse could be easily lit, yet it burned very slowly, unlike the rapid burn of a match cord. It was a device meticulously copied from the technical scrolls provided by the Heavenly Lord, known as a "Wooden Tube Delayed Fuze."
The reason for this design, of course, was born from failure.
The scientists had already conducted several rounds of experiments. Initially, they would prepare the small cannon, light the hand grenade's fuse, then place the hand grenade into the cannon barrel, and finally light the cannon's charge...
One time, however, the hand grenade's fuse burned too quickly while the cannon's fuse burned too slowly, leading to the hand grenade detonating before the cannon had even fired.
The consequences were dire: the small cannon barrel burst, nearly injuring several onlookers.
Thus, the scientists frantically researched, seeking a fuse with a more stable burn rate. However, their technological development was specialized and not comprehensive; this particular device truly wasn't something they could develop quickly.
So the Heavenly Lord again intervened, providing them with the technical specifications for the "Wooden Tube Delayed Fuze." Xu Dafu finally succeeded in developing this "stable fuse," whose unique characteristic was that it burned for a precise duration, never too quickly nor too slowly.
This made it much easier to control.
Furthermore, this device didn't need to be lit beforehand and then placed into the barrel. Instead, it could be ignited simultaneously the moment the gunpowder inside the cannon fired.
This was far more convenient; it could be directly inserted into the barrel without needing a pre-ignition step, and its safety factor increased several-fold.
Everyone removed the original fuses from the hand grenades, replacing them with the "Wooden Tube Delayed Fuze," and fitted them with a wooden sabot. This new type of projectile was thus successfully created.
It was no longer thrown by hand, so it could no longer be called a hand grenade.
Naturally, everyone dropped the "hand" prefix, officially naming it the "Small Grenade."
The artillery commander took the arm-thick pipe, propped it diagonally on the ground, aimed skyward at a forty-five-degree angle, then inserted a measured charge of gunpowder into the barrel.
Next, he carefully took a Small Grenade, aligned the wooden sabot and fuse end with the bottom of the cannon barrel, and slowly lowered it in.
A soft "thump" sounded as the Wooden Tube Delayed Fuze settled into the gunpowder.
The wooden sabot at the base of the grenade slightly separated the gunpowder from the grenade's main body, creating a crucial buffer.
"Light it!" Young Master Bai, the boldest among them, was the first to speak. "We've done everything we can. There's no reason this shouldn't succeed."
"Alright! Fire!" Xu Dafu declared.
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