1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 62 Artillery ([-])

On the evening of May [-], after the regular meeting of the day, the executive committee convened some relevant personnel to hold a separate meeting.The content of this small meeting is to discuss the cannon casting plan proposed by the Military and Police Department. From the perspective of military needs and production technology, we will brainstorm and determine the future development plan of artillery weapons.

The discussion on self-made artillery has not been interrupted since the establishment of the Military Police Department.Benefiting from the influence of the Great Bombing Doctrine pursued by the People's Liberation Army of later generations, keyboard military strategists will express their views on the development route of artillery that should be adopted by Transcendence on forums, dinner tables, and offices regardless of time and place.In this heated discussion atmosphere, there is one thing that everyone has reached a consensus - artillery is definitely one of the most important weapons for Transcendence to conquer cities on land, conquer the seven seas on water, and ensure that the Transcendence regime can successfully expand its territory. .

After the crossing, due to objective conditions, the matter of making artillery had to be temporarily put on hold by the Executive Committee.Until recently, Tiandu Iron Mine was put into production and the iron-making workshop has been put into operation, and this matter has been put on the agenda again by the anxious military and police department.

The anxiety of the Military and Police Department is also understandable. At present, the only heavy weapons in the hands of Chuanzhong are two PP89 60mm mortars, and the ammunition reserve of only 20 shells makes the existence of these two small cannons even more. It's like a kind of psychological comfort.When the pirates attacked last time, the military and police had to use iron-hulled fishing boats to fight their opponents at sea. In the end, they won the battle only by relying on the sturdy hull. The great navalists who wanted to build up a heavy artillery fleet were a disaster.

Cannon!Build more cannons!Build more large-caliber heavy artillery!This has become a hot topic of discussion in recent forums, and even pacifists like Gu Kai had to get involved, and were invited to translate the English military documents in the large database for some half-assed military residences, so that they could now In the next stage, I will come up with some dry goods in the debate on the merits of the front-mounted gun and the rear-mounted gun.

Since there are a lot of materials and manpower needed to manufacture artillery, the executive committee also attaches great importance to this and decided to hold a special meeting to discuss this plan.In addition to all the members of the executive committee, the main members of the military and police department, relevant personnel of the maritime department, metallurgical technicians, machining technicians, and several military enthusiasts of different levels were also invited to attend the meeting. More than 30 people packed the small Executive Committee conference room to the brim. In addition, quite a few of these all men were smoking guns. The conference room smelled of sweat mixed with smoke, and the environment was even worse than it is now called. The cement kiln, the number one source of pollution, is even worse.

Tao Donglai was in charge of presiding over the meeting. He first wrote a few lines of large characters on the whiteboard in front of the conference room with a whiteboard pen.

1. The actual needs of the military

2. The difficulty of technical realization

3. Artillery tactics and organization
After Tao Donglai finished writing, he put down his pen, sat back in his seat, raised his finger and pointed at the whiteboard: "This is the agenda for today's discussion, let's come one by one. Comrades who smoke are a little more relaxed, and now this room is like a mess. It's like a fire, be careful when someone rushes in and splashes water."

After a low burst of laughter from below, a few old smoking guns embarrassedly put out the cigarette butts in their hands.

"Let me talk about the first question on behalf of the military and police department." Tao Donglai, as a veteran, also holds a post in the military and police department.

"I know that there are many people who think that we should directly manufacture rear-loading rifled guns, and should pursue the suppression effect of large-caliber, long-range, and heavy firepower. Aside from the problems of artillery manufacturing technology, I think first of all we have to deal with this era. There is a clear understanding of the armed forces that could be our adversaries."

"What is the level of artillery in the 17th century? I think the people present at the meeting have already learned enough from various film and television works and related texts. Black powder, front-loading cannons, solid shells, whether it is artillery in this era The design, manufacture, and practical application of artillery techniques and tactics in the army are still in a state of exploration based on existing experience and no standardization has been formed. Our advantage lies in the development trend of various weapon technologies and army tactics. Knowing it like the back of the hand can avoid mistakes and avoid many detours in the process of exploration."

"The advanced artillery technology in this period is indeed very easy to form suppression on the battlefield, but is that level of technology really what we need now? I don't think so. Our current military needs mainly come from land and sea. On the one hand, there are ship-mounted naval guns at sea, and coastal defense guns and infantry guns needed by future troops on land. What is the artillery tactics in naval warfare in this era? It is to conduct bombardment at a distance of 200 meters or even 100 meters, relying on pure We have not yet been able to build a large battleship, and it is difficult to gain an advantage in the number of naval guns, so our naval guns must pursue better accuracy and stronger destructive power."

"But at the same time, we must also realize that in this era, there is still a lack of accurate artillery sighting systems and fire control systems. It is basically a waste of ammunition to conduct shelling at a distance of more than 2000 meters at sea. The shipbuilding technology we have at hand is enough to allow The speed of our warships is far ahead in this era, so as long as the effective range of our naval guns is more than double that of contemporary naval guns, it is enough to gain an advantage in naval battles. I personally think that this reasonable effective range is within 1000 meters. Within this range, there is actually no need to equip breech-loading rifled guns that are difficult to produce..."

Tao Donglai was about to continue speaking, and when he saw Yue Zhiyun raised his hand, he nodded to indicate that he could speak.

Yue Zhiyun got up and said: "First of all, I agree with Mr. Tao's view on the effective range of naval guns. The Royal Navy's shooting standards in the 19th century also clearly stipulated that the maximum shooting distance of a 24-pounder gun was 400 yards, which means no To a distance of 400 meters, the excessive range is actually an unnecessary waste of performance in the current era of naval warfare."

"But when we design the artillery, we must also consider the carrying capacity of the ship. For example, a 12-pound front-loading artillery with a caliber of 70mm looks small and the gun body is only four or five hundred kilograms, but it really needs to be equipped on the ship. , the displacement of the ship must meet a certain standard, otherwise the cabin will not be able to provide enough space for artillery combat. As for the tonnage required to use the 12-pounder gun, our shipping department believes that it must reach at least one of the Haicang ship in Victory Harbor. times, that is, a displacement of about 300 tons, and I don’t think a ship of this tonnage can be built within this year.”

"If you use a rear-loading rifled gun, then the situation is different. According to the data I found in the large database, if the 12-pound rear-loading gun uses conical shells, not only will the effective range be much greater than that of the front-loading gun, but also The accuracy and destructive power far exceed the same caliber artillery, and the armor-piercing power in the well-documented effective range can be equivalent to a 24-pound front-loading shell. If we can make a pipe-retracting rear-loading gun, then even Haicang Ships can now be armed with 12-pounder guns."

"Let me interject!" Baix from the Ministry of Industry raised his hand: "The mechanical structure of hydraulic braking will only stay on paper for a long time in the future, you can temporarily ignore it when designing naval guns. Retractable artillery."

"Wouldn't it be okay to use a spring instead of a hydraulic brake?" A half-hearted army fan said in the crowd.

"Theoretically yes, but first we have to create the spring." Baix explained patiently: "Considering the strength of the material, we have to use special spring steel to make this kind of spring for the gun, but this kind of spring steel is the most difficult It will have to wait until we mine the manganese ore in Damao. And the buffer capacity of the spring brake is very small, so it was quickly eliminated in history. Instead of considering the spring brake, it is better to consider making a cannon It is more practical to directly apply the muzzle brake.”

"Muzzle brakes are not suitable for naval guns in this era." Yan Chujie of the Military Police Department shook his head and retorted: "Muzzle brakes will affect the accuracy and aiming of artillery shooting. With our current artillery technology, we can make That thing is not worth the loss, it is better to use the racking technology, we also have a lot of time-tested mature technology available."

Tao Donglai saw that he was about to lose order and turn into chaos, so he quickly knocked on the table and signaled everyone to be quiet first: "Have you ever thought that the rear-mounted rifled gun can be built, but what about the problem of shells and fuzes? Industry? Does the department have a solution now?"

Baix shook his head and said, "A small amount of cannonballs can be made, and the projectile body can be slowly turned out with a lathe, but it is very difficult to manufacture in batches, and the technological process is fundamentally different. You must know that there are special equipment for making cannonballs and bullets, a set of There are dozens of equipment in the production line, and it is difficult for us to replicate the existing conditions. This is still a solid armor-piercing projectile. If it is a grenade, it also involves the manufacture of fuzes, which our industrial sector cannot solve.”

"We can copy the most old-fashioned breech gun." Someone from the shipping department shouted, but it was Xie Chun, who was engaged in shipping management. No one knew how he would come to participate in this discussion.

"The oldest breech artillery shells are cast iron clad with lead, still using black powder as the propellant, no primer, and 19th century breech guns are basically the same construction. It's okay to make cast iron shells and black powder, right? "Xie Chun didn't seem to be aimless, and he was prepared in advance.

But someone immediately refuted his statement: "Aren't you talking about the Armstrong cannon that beat the Qing army in a state of embarrassment in the Second Opium War? If we can't solve the problem of the adhesion of the lead sheet, the lead fragments will be damaged when the cannon is fired. Scattering and splashing at a short distance in front of the muzzle may cause damage to our soldiers, this is a real situation that has occurred in history, and the British also went back to the front-mounted gun for this, and took a detour for a while."

(End of this chapter)