I want to be emperor

Chapter 1124 The huge demand behind the industrial system

The Army's armored vehicle mixed regiment uses tricycles as light trucks. After accumulating a lot of experience in use, it began to purchase and equip them on a large scale.

These tricycles ordered early were mainly used as towing vehicles for light artillery, or as light cargo vehicles in conjunction with one or five trucks for use in artillery units.

The officially finalized and equipped tricycle model was determined to be the Type 05 tricycle... The "05" means that the ultimate load-bearing capacity of this tricycle reaches 500 kilograms.

The 05 tricycle and the 15 truck have also officially become the main transport vehicles of the Da Chu Empire Army. These two models are important vehicles that promote the field artillery troops and baggage troops of the Da Chu Empire to abandon mules and horses and turn to motorization. .

Its importance is even more important than various armored vehicles.

Although armor is powerful in combat... the Chu army can defeat the indigenous armies of various countries without armored vehicles. Armored vehicles are just the icing on the cake at best.

However, the large-scale service of transport vehicles meant that the artillery and baggage troops of the Chu army were finally able to get rid of the huge number of mules and horses... These mules and horses are usually useless, but they provide a lot of food and drink, and they usually raise a large number of animals. Military mules and horses for transportation were also a very heavy pressure on the Chu army, which had a large family and business.

However, the 05 tricycles and 15 trucks can help the Chu army get out of this predicament and save a lot of military expenses...

That's right, the reason why the Chu Empire, especially the army, promoted the motorization of the army on a large scale, especially the motorization of the artillery and baggage troops, was to save military expenses.

Sometimes it doesn't cost more to equip advanced weapons and equipment... sometimes it also saves money.

Of course, various contemporary motor vehicles, whether transport vehicles or armored vehicles, cannot fully replace mules and horses. For example, troops deployed in mountains still need to rely heavily on mules and horses for maneuvers, replenishing supplies, and transporting light artillery.

There are also horses in the cavalry, and it is difficult to replace them all in a short time... Although cars are good, they can only run on roads, and when the Chu army is deployed in overseas areas, how can there be so many roads? Ah, in the actual combat process, no one will specifically choose a place with roads to fight you. It is normal to fight in various wild mountains.

The field cavalry can still be used, but armored vehicles or cars are more difficult to use.

Therefore, although there has been some voice among the top brass of the Chu Army to change the large number of existing cavalry units into motorized mobile units equipped with cars, armored vehicles, tricycles, and two-wheelers, this is only a partial adaptation. Most of the cavalry units Although motorized vehicles will be added, traditional cavalry will still be retained.

Therefore, the cavalry mechanization reform in the Chu army was actually a fast mobile force that mixed machinery and mules and horses.

For this reason, the Army calls this reformed mixed cavalry unit a motorized cavalry unit, and is currently selecting suitable cavalry units to prepare for reform.

Luo Zhixue still attaches great importance to the motorization reform in the army. He referred to some military systems from World War I and World War II in the original time and space, and provided some strategic opinions to the military.

But it was only limited to providing some strategic advice. As for the specific details, he didn't care... and couldn't control it.

In fact, these motorized reforms carried out by the contemporary Da Chu Empire are still very high in specialization... Luo Zhixue can't figure it out by looking at military forums and looking at a few military establishments in the original time and space... What is involved in it There are so many things, from strategy to tactical thinking.

Simply put, how should an armored vehicle company be organized? How many armored vehicles will be equipped? What type of armored vehicles are equipped? In addition to armored vehicles, how to arrange logistics auxiliary vehicles, what vehicles to use, and how to solve personnel training? How do these motorized armored vehicles fight? How to cooperate with traditional infantry and cavalry units?

Just think about it, it's a lot of complicated problems.

During the past two years of training and testing of the Army's Armored Test Force, the First Armored Mixed Regiment, the various research materials accumulated alone filled an entire room... not so many words or so many books, but It's a whole room of information.

The various research materials in it are very detailed and cover all aspects... For example, how should the individual equipment of armored vehicle soldiers be equipped?

Should they be equipped with pistols or short-barreled rifles? Or a shotgun, what are the advantages or disadvantages of it, and how to deal with it when you need or are forced to get out of the car to fight.

These require a lot of exploration and testing, and then form written materials, and finally serve as training manuals for promotion and training.

After intensive testing, they found that traditional revolvers are difficult to use, have low power, insufficient accuracy, and insufficient range. Even new semi-automatic pistols have similar problems; as for rifles, even short-barreled carbine models are too powerful. After a long time, it is very troublesome for armored vehicle soldiers to carry; and shotguns also have similar problems to carbines, and their firepower sustainability is not very good.

In the end, they chose a brand new weapon, the large magazine version of the Type 49 semi-automatic pistol developed and produced by the Guangdong and Guangxi Arms Company with a shoulder stock!

The Type 49 semi-automatic pistol developed and produced by the Guangdong and Guangxi Arms Company was also the first semi-automatic pistol with a detachable magazine in the Dachu Empire. It was developed in the black powder era and was later used after the emergence of smokeless powder. smokeless powder bullets, and adopted a new generation of military standard 7.5 mm smokeless powder pistol bullets.

In the era of smoke-free drugs, the military forcibly stipulated standard bullets in order to unify logistics. For example, rifle bullets only had eight-millimeter bullets. Not only did they specify the caliber, they also specified specific sizes. All military rifles and even machine guns needed to follow standard rifle bullets. Designed with dimensions.

In addition, there are 11mm smokeless bullets provided for large-caliber heavy machine guns... This stuff is currently only equipped with armored vehicles and a very small number of heavy machine gun units, and is used as serious heavy firepower.

The same is true for pistol bullets. The military has formulated two standard pistol bullets, namely small-caliber 7.5mm pistol bullets and 9mm pistol bullets.

The Type 49 semi-automatic pistol produced and developed by the Guangdong and Guangxi Arms Company uses 7.5mm pistol bullets... The reason for choosing small-caliber pistol bullets is very simple... it is to stuff more ammunition into the detachable magazine. Lots of bullets.

At the same time, although the terminal kinetic energy of the 7.5mm pistol bullet is slightly worse, the muzzle velocity is relatively high. When paired with their Type 49 semi-automatic pistol, the trajectory after launch is straight and the accuracy is relatively high, which means the effective range is relatively long.

This kind of semi-automatic pistol, the first in the Chu Kingdom, received relatively little attention at the beginning of its development. However, problems continued to occur in the early years, and it has only gradually matured in the past two years. The military also purchased a batch of them as Officer's pistol use.

However, the Type 49 semi-automatic pistol used by armored soldiers is different. This pistol is quite special. It is a carbine model with a lengthened barrel and a shoulder stock.

The length of the barrel alone reaches 30 millimeters. There is a handguard on the barrel, and a wooden shoulder stock is installed on the tail. The magazine capacity is ten rounds or twenty rounds.

This carbine pistol was originally developed by the Guangdong and Guangxi Arms Company as a combat pistol for hand-to-hand combat purposes in order to increase the sales of semi-automatic pistols. However, the infantry troops did not take a fancy to it... They felt that this thing was only superficial, although the rate of fire was good. , but the effective range is too poor and the accuracy is not good... After all, this thing is an improvement from a pistol.

As for street fighting, trench use, etc... Army soldiers said that Qiming's big spray is more effective... When encountering enemies on these terrains, there is no need to aim, just hit them with a spray and that's it.

Therefore, the so-called carbine pistol did not receive much attention from the military at first... It was just a symbolic purchase of a batch of experimental equipment... But there are many new weapons purchased in small quantities for experimental equipment, but it can really There are very few weapons that have become official weapons of the military.

However, after the emergence of armored vehicles, the military tested various individual weapons one by one, and unexpectedly found that this carbine pistol was surprisingly easy to use... Because it is very short and small, it is more convenient for armored soldiers to carry it in a vehicle. There are also shoulder rests and grips, which can ensure a certain range and shooting accuracy. It also inherits the intensive firepower of a semi-automatic pistol. It can install ten or twenty rounds of detachable magazines. The density is very dense, and the firepower sustainability is also quite high. Yes...this can effectively provide self-defense firepower when the armored troops dismount to fight or evacuate.

In the end, this Type 49 carbine pistol became the individual self-defense weapon selected by the Army for armored vehicle soldiers... and by the way, the automobile soldiers also chose it.

In addition, because of the selection of armored vehicles, the Type 49 semi-automatic carbine pistol has also received further attention from the military, and a batch of them have also been purchased for infantry, mainly used in combat in complex terrain such as cities, as a kind of supplementary firepower.

In addition to the carbine model, the pistol model of the Type 49 semi-automatic pistol has also been gradually popularized and has become one of the army's new generation standard pistols... This thing has relatively strong firepower, a ten-round bullet capacity, and it is detachable Magazines, in this era, can be used as a short-range, intensive firepower for individual soldiers.

However, due to the success of this carbine pistol and its great tactical role, the Army has launched a formal research and development plan for semi-automatic carbines...requiring the five major weapons companies to provide a suitable semi-automatic carbine.

It is naturally impossible to make a true semi-automatic rifle...but the five major arms companies are not without options. They directly modified it from semi-automatic pistols...

Utilize the principle mechanism of a semi-automatic pistol, and then create a semi-automatic carbine that can be fired semi-automatically, equipped with a magazine, and has a shoulder stock and grip.

The transformation of combat pistols into carbines was also a major feature of the development of firearms around 1900 in the original time and space!

The heavy machine gun is too heavy, the repeating bolt-action rifle does not have enough fire rate, the light machine gun has no shadow and still cannot be used as an individual weapon, and a true submachine gun cannot be produced... At this time, in order to solve the problem of individual soldiers' shortcomings To solve the problem of intensive firepower, the carbine pistol appeared...

Of course, this thing was just a flash in the pan... because submachine guns had already appeared in World War I, and soon there was no room for pistols to survive. All semi-automatic pistols have a very long lifespan, and they have been the main combat pistols until the 21st century... Not to mention semi-automatic pistols, even revolvers are the weapons of the police in many countries or regions in the 21st century.

For the armored vehicles and automobile soldiers of the Da Chu Empire, just the issue of choosing individual weapons took a long time to deal with. Various trials and errors... This is just one of the less important weapons and equipment.

There are many other test items.

With so many complicated details, it was impossible for Luo Zhixue to provide any guidance, and he didn't even have enough time and energy to pay attention to these things.

What he provides is strategic guidance, and what he focuses on is the final result. As for the process, he doesn't care and has no control over it.

But no matter what, the motorization process of the three armies of the Dachu Empire has already begun... Even if it is only at a very primitive stage, the scale is not small at all...

This is also due to the rapidly developing automobile industry in the Dachu Empire... Without the increasingly large-scale and rapidly developing civilian automobile industry, the military would not be able to develop anything motorized.

Because the various armored vehicles, cars, tricycles, motorcycles used by the military to engage in motorization are technically heavily dependent on various technologies developed from civilian vehicles.

The One-Fifth Truck... was ostensibly developed by Hebei Special Automobile Company, a subsidiary of Hebei Weapons Company, but in fact, everything from the core components, engine, gearbox, to the integrated research and development of the site, was all done by Tangshan Automobile Company... Hebei Weapons companies are just doing some integration work if they are struggling.

In addition to the military version, this car also has a civilian version... Its civilian version is also the main truck series of Tangshan Automobile Company. The price ranges from a few hundred yuan to more than a thousand yuan, occupying a considerable number of civilians in the country. truck market.

A similar situation exists with armored vehicles... Although these armored vehicles may look like serious weapons and equipment, in fact, the armored vehicles of major weapons companies have an automobile company behind them to provide technical support and provide core components such as engines and gearboxes. and site research and development work.

Many of these light armored vehicles are actually improved from the chassis of civilian cars. They are also the A-3 series armored vehicles developed by the Special Automobile Company, a subsidiary of Hebei Weapons Company. This thing is actually derived from the chassis of Tangshan brand cars. Improvements come.

In addition, the Guangzhou-type 3 light armored vehicle developed by the Guangdong and Guangxi Weapons Company uses the chassis of the North American Automobile Company's American pickup truck... Of course, the North American Automobile Company itself does not have commercially available engines and gearboxes, so the engine and The gearbox uses products from Lee Power Company.

The research and development of the above-mentioned various military armored vehicles and transport vehicles are inseparable from the technical support of the five major private automobile companies... Otherwise, if the weapons companies just rely on their own research and development, they will not be able to come up with them even if it takes ten or eight years... They can't even develop them... There are not many automotive engineers, and there are no core components such as engines and gearboxes... Moreover, a patent issue can kill them.

Don’t say in the Dachu Empire that military equipment does not consider patent issues...

Even military equipment requires legal patents, but the patents required for military equipment are also quite special. Domestic companies generally provide them, and will not deliberately block their necks...but the money that should be paid must still be paid.

At the same time, it is also necessary to limit the patents to be used only for military purposes and not for civilian products.

Therefore, many times, the five major domestic weapons companies also have very close cooperative relationships with other domestic industrial enterprises... When developing weapons and equipment, the five major weapons companies actually do some integration work themselves, but the specific sub-components R&D work is actually entrusted to other companies.

For example, battleships, the backbone of the country...not to mention a mere shipyard, even the five major defense companies combined cannot build them alone.

Because there are too many things involved behind the battleship, and it requires the industrial power of the entire empire to be manufactured.

For example, the surface-hardened armor used by battleships is a product of a few large domestic steel companies... The five major weapons companies do not have this technology or products.

Another example is the 300mm naval gun. Although the gun itself is produced by the naval gun factory in the national defense industry, the raw materials are also provided by those steel companies, not to mention the equipment... and indispensable are those from several large domestic machine tool suppliers. exist.

There are also electrification equipment in the battleship, such as generators, searchlights, internal lighting, internal telephone communication systems, etc... None of the five major weapons companies are involved in these things, and they all need to be commissioned by several domestic electrification companies for research, development and procurement.

There is also an optical sighting system, which has nothing to do with the five major weapons companies... The large-scale high-precision optical systems on the ship are all ordered from Zhenjiang Optics... Although the five major weapons companies also have a factory that produces telescopes, I really can’t get enough of this top-notch optical product!

The processing accuracy of this thing is not something that can be achieved casually in the contemporary Dachu Empire. It is an ultra-high-precision precision optical mechanical product...

This is not only true for shipboard optical systems, but also for conventional optical systems used in artillery units, which are ordered from Zhenjiang Optical or Changan Optical.

By the way, as the range of conventional artillery is getting farther and farther, a specialized optical system is needed for precise aiming. This is the artillery sight... and the accuracy of this thing is very high, the processing is extremely difficult, and the price is also very high. very expensive.

The artillery manual of the Chu army clearly stipulates that if the artillery position is lost or the artillery needs to be abandoned and evacuated during the march, the artillery can be thrown, but the artillery sight must be taken away.

Although this thing is small, it is valuable...

Top optical products are among the top industrial products in any era, and the price is not cheap... Various military optical products during World War I and World War II, such as cameras used on reconnaissance aircraft, conventional artillery sights, shipboard From large rangefinders to cameras used on various satellites after the war, to lenses in photolithography machines in the semiconductor era... they are all top industrial products in their respective eras. You can't do it without some hard power. come out.

These optical products are like this, and many other equipment on the battleships often represent the empire's top contemporary industrial strength... So many things cannot be handled by a shipyard, or even by the five major weapons companies.

This thing requires the top industrial power of the entire empire to be built... How should I put it, the battleship is filled with various design drawings that fill several rooms... This is the finished product design drawing. !

Why so many?

Because the battleship design is not just a three-dimensional view, nor is it just an outline drawing of the appearance, there are also detailed design drawings of various internal cabins, various subsystems, and parts.

Battleships are built from countless building blocks...and each building block requires a complete drawing.

To build such a complex battleship is simply not something that one or two companies can handle.

Of course, the complexity of various military vehicles is far from being comparable to that of battleships, but it is still not something that the fifth largest defense company can handle independently... The major automobile companies have already provided a lot of technical support for the integration work. It can be done under certain circumstances.

Otherwise, they can only catch someone blind...

Of course, the five major automobile companies are actually just downstream companies. They also have a lot of various suppliers above them, and behind them is still the entire industrial system of the Dachu Empire.

The industrial system of the Dachu Empire has developed to the present, and has long been subdivided into hundreds of industries, and a huge and complex system of countless various products... Note that this does not refer to hundreds of industries, but hundreds of industries... This Within each type of industry, there are countless more subdivided industries...

For example, those engaged in textiles have a lot of various textile products, processes, and application products. The textile industry is subdivided into spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing, ready-made garments, etc.

Even spinning is divided into a lot of various types of spinning, including cotton, wool, silk, rayon... and then subdividing cotton spinning, there are various specifications and different uses. Cotton spinning...for example, the denim that is the main product of Song's Textile Company. Although it is also made of cotton, the fabric is very special.

Just one textile industry can be subdivided into a large number of various subdivided industries.

But textile processing is only one part of the industrial system of the Dachu Empire!

The huge industrial system in the Chu Empire supports the empire's huge advanced national defense, supports the rapidly developing automobile industry, and supports the food and clothing life of the Chu Empire's more than 700 million people, which will soon reach 800 million people.

In order to support this huge industrial system and provide food and clothing for 800 million people... the Da Chu Empire also plundered various raw materials around the world.

The start of the second industrial revolution and the overall food and clothing of the empire's 800 million people were behind the massive demand for raw materials for various agricultural and livestock industries!

Therefore, the Great Chu Empire's control over overseas vassal states has increased unabated in recent years, and it is not satisfied with the extensive control by agents in the early days. Instead, it has more in-depth control and guidance through economic means that mainly focus on investment on the surface. The labor production of these indigenous countries...to obtain more raw materials, or labor surplus value!