What advantages do flintlock pistols offer?

What are the advantages of flintlock muskets?

The Opium War, which brought our country from a feudal society to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, was the beginning of China's modern history, and it also opened a new chapter in the history of the modern Chinese people's resistance to foreign aggression. According to the relevant information, the Qing Dynasty had an army of almost 800,000 people, put into the war is about 100,000, while the British army is only about 1.90 million people, and still laborers to conquer. In the form of combat, the Qing Dynasty belongs to the defensive combat, to wait for labor, then why the Qing Dynasty will be a defeat?

The most important reason is that the gap between the Qing army and the British army's weapons is huge. According to records, the Qing army was equipped with weapons mainly bows and arrows, of course, there is also the application of firearms, such as the eight banners of the troops of the birdshot, carry guns and other firearms equipment equipment rate is about 50%. But the British army was mainly equipped with rifled flintlock muskets.

The nineteenth century belongs to a very important period in the history of rifle development, in a hundred years, the rifle will be from the front to the breech, from smoothbore to the line, from black powder to the use of smokeless gunpowder, etc., has undergone a drastic change, and the whole bullet as well as the cone-head type of bullets were invented one after another.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the rifle's range, shape, and power had changed drastically, and the most representative was the smoothbore flintlock rifle.

The earliest rifles were flintlock rifles, which used burning twine to ignite the gunpowder. There was a slow-burning twine on top of the gun, which was connected to the trigger, so that the gunner could ignite the twine before pulling the trigger, and then aim to pull the trigger to ignite the powder in the gunpowder pool by means of the twine and ultimately to realize the shooting purpose.

The disadvantages of the gun can also be seen from its name. In rainy and snowy weather, the twine would be damp and could not be ignited. During the Opium War, the Qing army was equipped with birdshot, which was a fire-rope gun.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the French mechanic Mahan had already combined the new technology to improve the traditional flintlock musket, and got the flintlock musket. Compared with the flintlock musket, flintlock musket fire exists in light weight, fast shooting speed, short body,

Small caliber and small recoil and so on, but also reduce the situation due to rain and snow weather moisture can't shoot, so flintlock musket fire slowly replaced the flintlock musket, become the main weapon of the army at that time. Like Napoleon's rifle is the main force is smoothbore flintlock.

The total length of flintlock musket without bayonet is almost 1.5 meters, the iron barrel is about 1.1 meters long, the ignition device is at the right rear of the barrel, the rear of the barrel is a wooden buttstock, the caliber of the muzzle is 16-20mm, the length of the bayonet is generally about 40cm, there is a conical shaped pusher rod under the barrel, and there is a hole drilled at the bottom of the barrel leading to a gunpowder pool.

After the gunner pulls the trigger, the spring will cause the flint to strike the fire sickle and ignite the gunpowder in the gunpowder pool below the fire sickle, which will then ignite the main charge in the chamber, and then the bullet will be fired.

Rifles from this period generally lasted fifty years or more. The Austrian army was still equipped with modified 1754 rifles in 1805. And France is equipped with the 1777 type rifle is said to be strong and durable, with a reputation for lightweight and high quality. A British officer once lamented that compared to their bulky firearms, the French had better results with their lightweight guns.

Smoothbore flintlock rifles were equipped in many countries at that time, 1740, Britain launched the standard rifle, the barrel is 117cm, caliber is 19mm, wait until after the Seven Years' War, the British in accordance with their combat experience, the gun was improved, the barrel reduced to 107cm, the caliber of the words did not change.

After the outbreak of the war with France, Britain chose the Indian flintlock musket made by the East India Company because of the lack of a stable supply of raw materials. In 1779, the Indian flintlock musket became the standard equipment of the British army, and later it was also equipped to the countries of the anti-French alliance.

But because the technology was not yet very advanced, the flintlock had many shortcomings. First of all, the flintlock is not enough in loading, in loading, the gunner has to put the flintlock up first, and then from the muzzle of the gun into the gun into the gunpowder shims and pellets.

Then use the push rod pounded into the flintlock barrel end of the gunpowder pool poured into a small amount of gunpowder for ignition (the amount of gunpowder can not be too little, otherwise it can not be ignited, but can not be too much, otherwise it is easy to lead to the disfigurement of the operation error), and then the hammer backward, and then finally pulled the trigger will be able to realize the shooting. In short, the operation process of firing bullets is extremely tedious, but also can not make any mistakes, or there will be a step wrong step wrong.

So, the firing speed of the flintlock pistol is relatively slow, ordinary people in a minute of time at most two or three times to fire, good soldiers can fire five times a minute, and can not guarantee the accuracy. And the situation on the battlefield is ever-changing, and anything can happen every minute. Then again, soldiers also face problems with wind and rain, damp gunpowder, and soldiers being too nervous.

However, the biggest problem with the flintlock was the clogged fire door. Basically, one in every ten rounds would have a clogged valve and there would be a great delay in firing, which greatly affected the hit rate of the flintlock pistol.

There was a 183cm high, 100cm wide static target shooting test, shooting a hundred times inside only hit 44 times, and the hit point is not dense, and the shooter will be due to excitement or fear and other psychological activities and fumbling, no way to aim accurately and other issues.

In order to alleviate those problems, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the European army appeared the most test of morale of the army line tactics (i.e., line of fire tactics), to a large extent, the power of the flintlock musket.

In combat, soldiers would form a horizontal line, using a uniform speed to the other side of the gun, until very close to the distance after the order to open fire. The soldiers were tested by the front row of soldiers, who fired the first round, followed by the second row at the front.

The first platoon was at the rear to replenish their ammunition and prepare for the next round of firing. In the Opium War, 100,000 Qing troops are the British army with this need for a high degree of organization as well as discipline of the fighting method to the blind, not to mention the poor weapons and equipment is not a point or two.