Chapter 16 Section VIII Fusiliers

A flintlock is a gun that is fired using a flintlock action.Founded in Germany in the 1620s. At the beginning of the 17th century, France took the lead in using flintlock guns.Later, other countries also used flintlock guns successively.Bi Maokang, a firearms developer in the late Ming Dynasty, first introduced the flintlock gun in the "Illustration of Military Weapons" published in the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635 AD), which was called self-generating firecrackers at that time.This gun is a device that ignites an arquebus gun with a match, which is improved to a device that ignites with a flint.It is to place a piece of flint on the ignition device. When firing, the shooter pulls the trigger, and the faucet installed on the trigger strikes down, rubbing against the flint to start a fire, and sparks fall into the medicine chamber, causing the gunpowder to burn and generate gas thrust. The projectile shoots out.The flintlock has two advantages. One is that it is not afraid of wind and rain, and the other is that it does not need to be ignited in advance. As long as the trigger is continuously pulled and the flint is rubbed during use, it can be fired continuously.The creation and popularization of the flintlock gun has brought about an update of the individual gun.The development of flintlock guns in our country is not too late, but because it has not received enough attention, it was not used as the emperor's hunting gun until the Kangxi period.

The creation of the Lianzhu firecracker and its shape and structure characteristics have been explained in the brief history of the development of this book, please refer to the content of this section. This is a flintlock gun specially made for Emperor Kangxi's hunting activities.The whole gun is 4.1 feet long, the barrel is 2.7 feet long, and the caliber is three points.There is a sight at the front end of the barrel, and a rear sight, which is placed on a special gun bed and uses a rotary bolt action.When launching, first use the key to fully tighten the wheel string, then pull the trigger, the wheel string is loosened rapidly, the turbine rotates quickly, rubs the flint, splashes sparks, falls into the medicine chamber, ignites the gunpowder, and shoots the projectile out .This is the earliest flintlock gun that has been handed down so far.

The gun got its name because of several straight grooves in the barrel.There is a physical object in the Palace Museum in Beijing. After measurement, the length of the gun is 1500 mm, the length of the tube is 1065 mm, and the caliber is 16 mm.There are front sights and rear sights on the barrel, and the straight grooves engraved in the bore reduce the friction between the projectile and the bore wall, which is conducive to loading projectiles from the muzzle, and also facilitates the removal of gunpowder residue remaining in the chamber after firing.In order to prevent the gunpowder gas from escaping from the gap in the straight groove, the projectile is wrapped with soft fabric to make it play a certain degree of tightness.

There is a physical object in the Palace Museum in Beijing. After measurement, the length of the gun is 1185 mm, the length of the tube is 880 mm, and the caliber is 17 mm.A piece of flint is clamped on the tap of the gun, and there is a fire sickle in front of the flint, which also functions as a fire door cover.When launching, first pull up the tap so that the stage clip is controlled by the brake lock and belongs to the trigger.After the trigger is pulled, the faucet rotates downwards, the flint and the scythe collide violently, sparks are splashed, the gunpowder is ignited, and the projectile is shot out.