Fifty Years of Appointments and Removals in the Ministry of War

"A firearms-only army? All using artillery? Or have we developed some new gunpowder weapon?" Qu Bing immediately grew interested.

"Not yet, but we'll be able to make one soon. The concept for this weapon has existed for a long time, but because of limitations in technology, manufacturing, and materials, we never started developing it. Once we have the Steam Lathe, though, making it will be much easier," Luo Chong explained.

"What kind of weapon would it be? Would it use the same principle as artillery?" Qu Bing pressed on.

"Heh, more or less. You can think of it as a super-small handheld cannon. Just imagine this: if we could use a thin iron tube to load gunpowder and a projectile the same way we load a cannon shell, then aim at a target and ignite it—wouldn't it produce the same effect as artillery?" Luo Chong prompted, guiding his line of thought.

"Then it definitely could. But it should be a long-range weapon similar to a bow and arrow, right? It couldn't lob shots like a bow, though, because the projectile would be too light. And its rate of fire would certainly be inferior to a bow and arrow. The whole artillery-loading process is too troublesome." Qu Bing considered it in his head and immediately spotted many problems.

"Mm, good. It seems you really do understand," Luo Chong praised him.

"Hehe, our natural sciences class taught us about gunpowder." Qu Bing bashfully scratched his head.

"Since you've found the problems, then improve it. If loading is too slow, preloaded ammunition can solve that. We can make it in the form of a cartridge, sealing the projectile and gunpowder inside a small copper tube to make a bullet. When it's used, we can put it into the iron barrel and fire it,