Steel Dynasty - Chapter 953

[Chapter 948 Artillery Evolution]

The sound of rapid footsteps came from outside the imperial study room.

After a while, Chen Qi’s figure appeared. He walked up to Xiao Ming, bowed, and called “Your Majesty.”

“First it’s Song Changping, and now it’s you Chen Qi. You two always go to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing. Let me guess, you must have made some progress in artillery.”

Chen Qi had a tired look on his face. But his eyes were shining with excitement, and he said: “Your Majesty, it is indeed true. After these years of accumulation and research, the artillery factory has finally succeeded in manufacturing the first rifled breech-loaded gun in one battle.” “

Yes. Today is really a good day. First there are metal bullets, and now there are breech-loading cannons. It’s really a double blessing.”

The smile on Xiao Ming’s face became stronger.

In fact, Chen Qi had been conducting research on rifled guns for a long time. However, the development of firearms was too fast, which made Chen Qi constantly change the original design. After the Han-style rifle was finalized, he suddenly felt that all the problems he had faced before were solved. The rifled breech-loading gun also came into being.

Of course, Xiao Ming knew about Chen Qi’s research, but he didn’t care about him except throwing some information to him. He didn’t want to care about him before because he knew that the industrial base at that time could not produce qualified breech-loading cannons, but now all the conditions Obviously it is already there, and naturally all the results will come naturally.

But when it comes to breech-loading cannons, this kind of artillery actually appeared very early. The Flang machine used by soldiers in the contemporary Ming Dynasty is a typical breech-loading cannon.

The structure of this artillery is divided into two parts, one is the barrel, and the other is the breech-loading blunderbuss. It is like cutting a complete artillery into two parts. Every time it is fired, soldiers will load the shells and ammunition into the breech-loading blunderbuss. In the center, align the musket and the barrel, ignite it and fire.

In this way, you only need to replace the subgun after each launch.

According to historical records, this kind of artillery was popular in Europe from the late 15th century to the early 16th century. The inspired cannon was derived from the eagle cannon. It could fire continuously and pop out like a fiery snake. It was also called a rapid-fire cannon.

Nowadays, metal bullets are actually just a natural extension of the flange-type breech-loading musket.

In this era, this type of artillery was also available in the West. The Dutch once described this type of artillery to him in detail and even promoted it to him, but he rejected it.

The reason is simple. Coming from modern times, he doesn’t like this breech-loading structure at all. Facts have proved that his decision was right, because within a few years, Qingzhou produced breech-loading artillery at the level of the 19th century.

“Hey, Your Majesty, this time the lower official did not lag behind. Instead, he made use of all the previous technology accumulation. The three technologies of rifling, breech block, and pull are all available. This kind of artillery is better than the previous field artillery in terms of range and accuracy. The speed has been greatly improved,” Chen Qi said excitedly.

Xiao Ming nodded with satisfaction. The rifling technology came from the rifling technology of the musket, and the firing tube came from the firing technology of the grenade. Only the design and manufacturing of the breech block was a completely new process.

It can be said that the evolution of artillery is a by-product of industrial development.

“In this case, I will take the generals of the Military Aircraft Department to see your masterpiece.” As the saying goes, seeing with the ears is worse than seeing with the eyes, and now he is also a little itchy.

Moreover, the development of weapons in the 19th century basically set the tone for later generations, and subsequent developments were only partial improvements. Therefore, if the Han-style rifle and this kind of artillery are officially put into use, it will mean that the Chongqing army has truly modernized. .

After that, the three of them left the imperial study together. When passing by the outer palace, he asked Qian Dafu to call Niu Ben and Luo Quan.

The group of people arrived at the military workshop under the protection of the imperial guards.

“Your Majesty, this is our metal bullet production line.” Song Changping sounded proud.

Xiao Ming looked along the factory pointed by Song Changping. At this time, the machinery in the factory made a roar of metal clashing as the workers were operating it. The workers were sending boxes of separated shell casings and bullets to the factory next door.

Some workers are assembling primers, propellants, warheads, and cartridge cases in this factory.

“Your Majesty, the production speed of this metal bullet is really much slower. It’s like sheep pooping.” Niu Ben frowned. In the past, the conical bullets used in muzzleloader guns used a casting method, with lead and water. Pour it on a dense mold and make it in large quantities at once.

Now comparing the two, he immediately felt the gap, “According to our previous battle statistics, after the emergence of trenches, it took an average of 2,600 rounds to kill an enemy. This was because they were not familiar with our firearms. “Your Majesty, if the production speed is this, I would rather use the previous paper-cased bullets.

” Luo Quan nodded when he heard this, “Yes, the paper-cased bullets are enough, but this kind of metal bullets are so troublesome to produce.” , it is estimated to be expensive, and it is more than enough to deal with Goryeo or Japan. “

Xiao Ming smiled when he heard this. The two of them said that he is a qualified general. He will not be a qualified general if he blindly praises weapons and ignores the cost-effectiveness.

Based on the current situation, there is indeed no urgent need to use such high-cost bullets in the country of Chongqing. Paper-cased bullets are sufficient for Han-style rifles.

Just like Western countries have actually had rifled guns for a long time, but they did not mass-produce equipment and still used smoothbore guns for a long time. It was not until they were beaten up by rifled guns in the war that they suddenly woke up.

For Xiao Ming, he naturally understands this truth, but the country of Chongqing has its own national conditions. Its huge territory and long border force him to deploy a large number of troops for defense.

Goryeo and Japan will not be able to completely settle down for a while, and they will have to station troops. In this way, the number of soldiers they can use for overseas colonization will be reduced, and they cannot have unlimited troops because they need population migration. Go to Kanto and even Siberia to consolidate the occupied lands.

In the future, after the Golden Horde is driven away from the grasslands, controlling the grasslands will also be a headache.

For all these reasons, he could only rely on the difference in weapons to make up for the lack of army numbers. It was by virtue of this advantage that Europe was able to control large areas of colonies with a small number of troops.

After explaining his thoughts to the two of them, Xiao Ming continued: “Europe is now full of soldiers due to the rise of the Great Chongqing Kingdom, and they are definitely trying their best to catch up with us in terms of weapons. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain generational differences. But as you said, metal bullets and cannonballs are expensive to produce and slow, but we can completely stockpile them and use them when necessary.”

Niu Ben and Luo Quan looked at each other and nodded, they still couldn’t keep up sometimes .

The thoughts of this emperor.

(End of chapter)