Obviously, the reason why Marin formed the black-shirted knights was specifically to deal with the Saxons' plate armored knights and artillery positions.
Saxony has strong financial resources and can pull out plate armor knights with thousands of people. On the battlefield, how terrifying is the charge of thousands of plate armor knights? The group of tin cans rushed up, and the earth trembled.
If it were an ordinary infantry team, it would have been overwhelmed by thousands of armored knights. It means that Marin has the Spanish phalanx that restrains the plate armor knights, so he dared to confront the Saxons.
However, thinking of the Saxon artillery, Marin couldn't help frowning...
In this era, iron ball shells were not very popular for artillery. Because the price of iron in Europe is not too cheap. During this period, because there were no blast furnaces in Europe, the output of iron was not high, and the unit price was relatively expensive. Therefore, during this period, artillery used a lot of stone bombs.
According to the information obtained by Marin, there are dozens of Saxon artillery. Moreover, most of them are light rear-mounted cannons that are convenient for transportation, which are what the Ming Dynasty people called the Franco cannon. Its manufacturing material is also bronze.
Due to the backwardness of steel technology, most of the light artillery in Europe today is made of bronze. Because, for artillery of the same caliber, bronze cannons are much lighter than cast iron cannons. Moreover, because the furnace temperature is not high enough (mainly because coke has not been used), Europe lacks wrought iron and pig iron cannons, which are similar to the iron cannons of the Ming Dynasty, and the chambers are frequently bombed. Even King James II of Scotland died because of the explosion of an iron cannon.
Because the early pig iron guns were so dangerous, later, Europeans generally equipped with bronze guns as field guns. However, early copper was too expensive. At the end of the 15th century, the ratio of silver to copper was about 1:15. In other words, casting a 600-pound 3-pound bronze cannon costs 40 pounds of silver, which is simply too expensive.
In short, in this era, artillery is a thing for the rich, and poorer than nobles, they cannot afford artillery. Even the Swiss couldn't afford artillery at the beginning. It was during the Swabian War that they captured dozens of the emperor's artillery before they had artillery. Of course, this is the Swabian War in the original history. Because of the arrival of Marin, the emperor did not fall into the pit between the Swabian League and Switzerland, but did not lose dozens of artillery pieces.
Marin attaches great importance to the dozens of rear-mounted bronze guns in the Principality of Saxony, because the artillery is too destructive to the Spanish phalanx. A musket can only hit one person, but a cannon can hit a line.
Even the less powerful three-pound gun can kill 15 people in a straight line. And the more powerful Napoleon cannon can penetrate a row of the opponent...
Fortunately, the rear-mounted bronze guns used by the Saxons are only 2-pound and 3-pound, and they are not very powerful. The main reason is that no matter how big the cannon is, the cannon body is too heavy, and it is inconvenient for the artillery to lift it up...
Yes, it is inconvenient to lift up...
In this era, artillery was still transported on horse-drawn carriages. When on the battlefield, the artillerymen have to lift the cannon body down, lift it to the front of the formation, fix it, and then launch it.
Most countries play this way, so the gun body should not be too heavy. The barrel of the three-pound gun already weighed five or six hundred pounds, and it was very difficult to lift it up. If it is like a six-pound gun, it weighs 500 kilograms, and it is even more difficult to lift it, and even requires the use of machinery.
However, the situation on the battlefield is critical and ever-changing, where is the time to raise your guns slowly? Moreover, the angle and direction of the artillery also need to be adjusted at any time. Therefore, in order to facilitate the lifting of the gun, the gun body should not be too heavy. Therefore, a 3-pound gun weighing five or six hundred pounds is already the limit that artillery can move. No matter how large-caliber guns are, they are generally naval guns and fortress guns.
Only in France, some craftsmen invented the gun lug and invented the 4-wheel carriage-type gun mount, which is a little more convenient than other countries. However, it is still not as convenient as the two-wheeled fixed gun mounts that became popular later.
Of course, another important reason for using small-caliber artillery is that gunpowder is too expensive. For example, a 3-pound gun consumes nearly 1 pound of gunpowder every time it is fired. And a pound of gunpowder is worth almost 1 shilling. If dozens of cannons are fired at the same time, the money will really flow away...
The popular use of stone bombs in European countries is also due to cost considerations. Before the emergence of the modern blast furnace in 1709, the smelting of steel was done in small furnaces, and the cost was relatively high. Iron ball shells also cost a lot of money. Therefore, generally on the battlefield, when beating people, stone bullets are often used. Facing flesh and blood, even wearing plate armor, stone bullets are enough. Iron ball shells are only used when bombarding solid city walls and fortifications. After all, stone bullets are not as capable of breaking defenses as iron balls when blasting away stone walls and solid city gates. However, there are also wealthy nobles who basically use iron ball shells.
The 3-pound rear-mounted bronze gun used by the Saxons, Marin has learned that even with iron ball shells, the effective range is less than 200 yards. Because they use powdered gunpowder. In addition, due to technical problems, the air-holding performance of rear-mounted artillery in this era is relatively poor. Therefore, the effective range of the rear-mounted bronze gun is generally less than 200 yards.
But even so, the Saxons' rear-mounted bronze cannons were enough to pose a huge threat to Marin's Spanish phalanx. The iron ball flew in, and when it hit ten or eight East Frisian fighters, it was very threatening.
That's why Marin came up with a way to use the black-shirted knights to attack the opponent's artillery positions. However, after thinking about it, Marin felt that it was not safe to do so.
The Duke of Saxony is a scheming old fox. Unlike the stupid Prince George, since the Duke of Saxony wants to confront him, he will definitely make all-round preparations.
And the opponent's artillery position will definitely be surrounded and protected by the opponent's soldiers. It's okay to use 800 black-shirted knights to attack those chasing plate armor knights, but it's unrealistic to completely eliminate the opponent's artillery positions.
The best way, in fact, is to use more powerful artillery to destroy the opponent's artillery positions. Originally, Marin planned to use the matchlock gunner to move forward and use the musket to deal with the artillery on the opposite side. However, considering that the arquebus shooter needs the protection of a thousand-gun trench. Otherwise, the quack doctor would be overwhelmed and slaughtered by the opposing plate knights. Therefore, after much deliberation, it is more practical to use more powerful artillery to bombard.
Therefore, Marin decided to manufacture a batch of 3-pound guns to attack the opponent's artillery and at the same time attack the opponent's battle formation.
The reason why the three-pound gun was chosen is actually very simple: first, it is to save gunpowder; it is also convenient for transportation... Finally, it is to save copper...
However, the three-pound gun that Marin intends to use is not a rear-mounted bronze gun, but a front-loaded gun, similar to the three-pound gun during the American Revolutionary War.
Due to time constraints, it was too late to use clay mold casting cannons. Therefore, Marin intends to cast cannons by using iron molds to cast cannons.
Because the iron mold cast gun is very efficient. To cast a cannon, if you use a clay mold, you have to wait for the clay mold to dry for several months. And the war between Marin and the Saxons will soon break out. So, your casting cannon is really too slow.
However, if iron molds are used to cast cannons, the speed is very fast, and several cannons can be cast in a day instead of a few months. However, using iron mold cast guns, the speed is fast, but there are not small defects. Marin read a lot of analysis articles on the Internet in his previous life, saying that if iron molds are used to cast iron cannons, even if wrought iron is used, the speed is happy, but the performance of the artillery will be problematic. For example, the whitening of the iron on the surface of the artillery is serious, resulting in increased brittleness and easier blasting. Because the heat dissipation of the iron mold is too fast, so that the cementite in the molten iron has no time to precipitate, and the graphite is solidified. Therefore, the cementite in iron mainly exists in the form of iron carbide, which is white iron. In order to be safe, the cannon cast by the iron mold cannon must be much thicker than the clay mold cannon to be safe enough.
However, the field artillery used by the army must be light. Therefore, the heavy artillery made of iron mold casting guns is not suitable for the army, and is mostly used for naval guns and fortress guns. Because naval guns and fortress guns do not need to pay attention to portability.
However, the defect of iron mold cast guns is for cast iron guns. For the bronze cannon, there is no such problem. Therefore, there is no problem at all in using iron mold casting cannons to cast bronze cannons. The speed is fast and the quality is not bad.
Due to time constraints, Marin had no time to wait for the clay mold to dry. Therefore, he decided to use iron mold casting to cast a 3-pound front-mounted bronze cannon to fight against the Saxon army.
In his previous life, Marin watched the translated American TV programs played by BTV. He knew that the caliber of the 1776 three-pound gun was 74mm, the barrel length was 0.65 meters, and it used granular gunpowder. The effective range was as high as 365 meters, far exceeding the Saxon army. 200 yards of the breech-loading bronze gun. Using such a bronze cannon to bombard the Saxon army, it is obvious that this front-mounted cannon won.
The only thing that hurts Marin is the huge cost of making bronze cannons. It takes three to four hundred pounds of bronze to cast a 1776-style three-pound front-loading bronze gun. Now the price of copper is so expensive that it is terrible...
That's why Marin didn't cast more powerful 6-pound guns and 12-pound Napoleon guns-copper is too expensive to cast...
Marin plans to cast 50 front-mounted bronze cannons. Then, the cost of copper materials will weigh as much as 20,000 pounds, and it will cost almost 1333.33 pounds of silver, which is almost 111.11 pounds of gold, which is almost 14,000 gold coins. This is only the cost of materials, and various expenses such as craftsmen's expenses and transportation fees are required, and 20,000 gold coins can't beat it.
However, this is just the beginning. Because, after the artillery is cast, a lot of iron ball shells are needed. Marin didn't want to hit stone bombs. The gap between the stone bullets is large, which is even worse for holding one's breath. Therefore, the effective range of Saxony's artillery can only reach less than 200 yards. If it is replaced with an iron ball, it should be able to hit farther, and it is more powerful.
As for iron ball casting, it is actually relatively simple, that is, simple foundry casting. Get a sandbox with upper and lower halves, first put the iron ball as a standard mold in the sandbox to make a mark, then remove the iron ball, pour molten iron into the space pressed by the iron ball from the funnel and the channel, so that , an iron ball is made.
Sand casting, although the use of wet sand may cause some honeycomb structures in the iron ball due to the evaporation of water vapor, resulting in a structure that is not tight enough. If the artillery is cast in this way, it will definitely not work, because it will easily explode. But it is no problem to cast iron ball shells. What is the honeycomb structure of the iron ball? Could use even worse stone bombs. Anyway, it's just something to hit people, not so demanding.
Therefore, the casting of iron ball shells is very easy. The only troublesome thing is the cost of iron materials. Now, Marin's iron materials are basically iron blocks imported from the UK, and the price is not cheap. Therefore, the cost is relatively high.
However, compared with defeating the Saxons and gaining prestige, this investment is still worthwhile. Therefore, Marin did not hesitate, and decided to use iron ball shells in an all-round way to smash the Saxons into pieces...
In fact, iron balls are nothing, but the cost of gunpowder is the most astonishing thing. It costs 1 pound of gunpowder to fire a shot, and 1 shilling is gone. If dozens of cannons are fired a day, and 50 cannons are fired at the same time, the speed of gold coin consumption will be like a waterfall...
But no matter what, as long as you can win, the investment is worth it. Marin is now fantasizing about how much ransom would be more appropriate after defeating the Saxon army and capturing Duke Albrecht...