Chapter 286: Testing New Weapons

Bai Yuan jumped off the train with a bewildered look, and the two drivers followed him down.

Then, they saw the train engine being lifted as if by an invisible giant hand, flipped over in mid-air to reveal the bottom, where a large cover moved aside, and two strange cylindrical objects flew out from inside.

These cylinders were, of course, size AA batteries!

Li Daoxuan took out two of the AA batteries from the box, replaced them with new ones, and with a click-clack sound loaded them into the train’s belly, covered it, and placed it back down.

The vehicle was set straight again.

“It seems that should work now,” said Bai Yuan, seeing that the engine had been reconnected to the carriages behind, and Deity seemed to have no further actions. So he led the two train drivers back up into the engine cab.

He pressed the switch again, and the train started moving once more.

Bai Yuan suddenly realized, “Those two cylinders that Deity took out and replaced were the key to this ‘immortal realm train’ running. If I can discover how to make that thing myself, I won’t need Deity’s assistance anymore. I’ll take it apart later to study it.”

A large paper appeared in the sky, saying, “Haven’t learned to walk yet, and already eager to learn to fly.”

Bai Yuan hastily bowed in salute, saying, “Apologies, I was too self-important.”

Before long, the train arrived at Gaojia Village.

Bai Yuan got off there, planning to switch to the public sun chariot to head to the county town.

On his way from the train station to the car station, he saw a large group of blacksmiths running out from the artisans’ well, led by Artisan Master Gao Yiyi, with Li Da, Song Yingxing, and others behind. They were holding a strange firearm and heading to Gaojia Village Firearms Bureau.

Bai Yuan, being a curious fellow, asked, “Folks, what are you playing with?”

Gao Yiyi smiled, “Mr. Bai, you’ve come just in time. We’re about to test a new firearm. Do you want to join us?”

Bai Yuan said, “Huh? A new-style firearm? Hehe, I’m quite interested.”

He no longer rushed to the county town and ran alongside the blacksmiths to the firearms bureau.

Soon, they reached the firearms bureau, where Xu Dafu, Cheng Xu, and others had been waiting for a long time in an open field outside, specifically for weapons testing.

Seeing how serious they all looked, Bai Yuan knew it was a big day and guessed that the item being tested was no small matter, so he got excited, thinking, “Looks like I stumbled upon great fun today.”

Gao Yiyi handed over a firearm with both hands, “This is a firearm designed by Mr. Song Yingxing. It’s far superior to the Three-Eyed Divine Firearm. Let’s try this one first.”

A firearm soldier from behind Cheng Xu came forward, who was the captain of the old ten Three-Eyed Divine Firearm soldiers. He took the firearm and weighed it in his hand, “It’s lighter and the barrel is longer than the Three-Eyed Divine Firearm.”

Song Yingxing smiled beside him, “A longer barrel improves accuracy, unlike the random shots of the Three-Eyed Divine Firearm. It can even shoot down birds in flight, hence it’s called a firearm.”

Even Li Da, Gaojia Village’s best blacksmith, couldn’t make it and had only just learned; he shouted excitedly nearby, “Enough talk, hurry up and test fire it!”

The firearm soldier took a pre-measured paper packet of gunpowder from Xu Dafu, poured it into the barrel. Then he took a ramrod and rammed it into the barrel to pack the powder tight. He then loaded a small lead ball weighing three qian inside and rammed it again with the ramrod. He pre-lit the gun’s fuse, opened the touchhole, pulled the trigger, and the burning fuse was pulled by the mechanism into the touchhole.

This complex operation appeared far slower than the loading of a Three-Eyed Divine Firearm.

Cheng Xu, Bai Yuan, and Xu Dafu, who had seen firearms before, weren’t surprised, but the blacksmiths witnessing firearm operation for the first time thought to themselves, “The food would grow cold before you finish all that! How can you fight like this?”

As soon as they thought that, a “bang!” sounded, and the firearm fired.

A wisp of blue smoke rose from a cliff wall a hundred steps away.

The blacksmiths were all stunned, “It shoots that far?”

“Hey, it’s way farther than the Three-Eyed Divine Firearm,” said the test-firing firearm soldier, overjoyed. “That nasty Three-Eyed Divine Firearm only shot six or seven zhang, but this firearm can shoot a hundred steps. Good heavens! With this, we firearm soldiers are finally useful, hahaha, finally useful.”

“But it has clear flaws,” said Song Yingxing. “When the touchhole opens, the wind is so strong it blows out the fuse; fixing the fuse damages the touchhole. After one shot, the enemy cavalry arrives fast as the wind, making it useless for defense. Recently, there are bamboo-beaked variants and self-sealing touchhole ones, but they’re still troublesome. After the Three Great Campaigns of Wanli, the border army ditched firearms for Three-Eyed Divine Firearms due to these faults.”

Everyone stayed silent.

Song Yingxing swiftly pulled out another firearm from behind him, “So we needed to improve it. After a hint from Deity, I redesigned and made this flintlock pistol. It uses a spring-driven clamp to strike a flint against the touchhole, sparking to ignite the powder. This overcomes the issues, and I call it the ‘Flintlock Firearm’.”

He handed the Flintlock Firearm to the firearm soldier, “Try this now.”

The firearm soldier repeated the loading steps: pouring in gunpowder, adding the lead ball. But at the firing step, it was entirely different. No need to light a fuse or open a touchhole—just raise the firearm, aim, and pull the trigger.

“Bang!”

The firearm fired instantly, smoke swirling, and blue smoke rose again on the distant cliff wall.

Song Yingxing said, “Hey, it worked!”

Everyone paused in surprise, then cheered, “It worked!”

“A firearm that fires with a trigger pull.”

“Incredible!”

Song Yingxing was quite pleased, as achieving such inventions is a scientist’s lifelong pursuit.

Now, it just needed refinement to make it lighter and the firing mechanism more reliable.

But…

He sighed helplessly, “Even with this, we can’t stop the Jurchens. Changing the firing method doesn’t fix the slow loading. In the time for one shot, Jurchen cavalry could close in.”

Bai Yuan got excited, suggesting, “Could Master Mu Ying’s Three-Segment Firing tactics solve the problem of enemies rushing in after one shot?”

Song Yingxing shook his head, “Three-Segment Firing can partly offset the slow rate, but it demands more firearms, thicker formations, and massive financial backing. It also requires extremely high coordination and training complexity, which regular soldiers can’t achieve. That tactic mostly remains on paper and rarely sees real combat.”