I want to be emperor

Chapter 870 Entering Europe
With the arrival of the 37th year of Chengshun, the European free trade plan formulated by the Great Chu Empire last fall has also completed the preliminary preparations.

A large number of military supplies and commodities organized by merchants have been loaded on a large number of ocean-going ships to South Africa in Africa.

At the same time, the African governor of the Great Chu Empire also received relevant orders early on, and gathered a large amount of materials locally, mainly food, etc. as military supplies, and built a large number of warehouses, barracks, etc. .

In the European free trade plan, Cape Town will play an important role and become a strategic transit point for the military and civilians of the Great Chu Empire to enter Europe.

A large number of materials from Africa, West Asia, India, Southeast Asia and local areas will be gathered and transferred here.

It also includes troops!

For the European free trade plan this time, although the troops mobilized by the Great Chu Empire's military are not too large, they are definitely quite a lot.

Some of the main troops involved in the war were drawn from Africa, and some were drawn from West Asia and India. After the troops in the above-mentioned areas were drawn, the gap was filled by troops from Southeast Asia and the mainland.

The above-mentioned army troops mainly consisted of the Third Infantry Division and a mixed regiment under the No. 20 Ninth Infantry Division.

Because they have been stationed overseas for long-term operations, although these two units only have the name of second-class divisions, they are actually fully staffed like first-class divisions.

The Three Infantry Division has a strength of more than 6000 people, and is equipped with three complete infantry regiments, one division artillery regiment, one division light cavalry regiment, and one division logistics regiment.

Moreover, the division also completed a series of reforms before the expedition, including the replacement of new rifles and artillery, and carried out organizational reforms and tactical changes.

Since the Chu army was equipped with breech-loading rifles and breech-loading guns on a large scale, it gave priority to equipping the guards and the first-class divisions in the army, as well as the marines and armed tax police.

Then there are the standing second-class divisions stationed in hot spots and ready for combat missions at any time.

In terms of rifles, the Army and Guards are mainly equipped with Type [-] rifles produced by Hebei Weapons Company, while the cavalry units use the short-barreled Type [-] cavalry guns.

The Marine Corps is mainly equipped with the Type [-] rifle produced by Huguang Arms Company, and their sailors are also equipped with the short-barreled version of the Type [-] rifle.

Although both of these are single-shot rear-loading rifles, the structure of the gun mechanism is completely different, but they both use standard 11*60mm copper shell bullets.

In addition, there is a more special rifle in the Great Chu Empire, that is, the Qiming rifle that uses an in-tube magazine and can be loaded with five bullets at a time for continuous firing... This kind of rifle is expensive and has many early problems. Armed tax police are in use.

However, it is worth noting that with the large-scale use of this rifle by the armed tax police, the patrol offices of many provinces in the country have also paid attention to and valued this rifle, and the patrol offices of many provinces have purchased this special company. issued rifles to equip the armed patrolmen under him.

After all, armed tax police and armed patrol police, when they perform their tasks, they face similar enemies, mainly irregular army enemies. For example, armed tax police mainly attack local businessmen who evade taxes and overseas indigenous businessmen .The armed patrols are more straightforward, targeting profiteering criminals.

What they need is not simple, reliable and cheap, but more powerful rapid-fire firepower, which can form absolute light weapon firepower suppression against small-scale enemies, and it is cheaper to fight in areas with complex terrain such as cities.

Of course, the two of them need to use Qiming rifles, which has a lot to do with the excellent performance of Qiming shotguns under Jiangnan Arms Company.

Eighteen rifles used by the Army and Guards, nineteen rifles used by the Navy, and enlightened rifles used by the armed tax police and armed patrolmen.

In the Great Chu Empire, there are as many as three main rifles in active service... That is to say, the military has formulated standard ammunition early on, and the bullets used by these three rifles are common, otherwise the logistics and supply would be more troublesome.

The Third Infantry Division, as an army unit, naturally uses the [-]th rifle, which is known to be simple, reliable, and extremely cost-effective...

The three infantry divisions that use the new rifles are also different from the old-style troops in terms of organization. They mainly use skirmish lines as their main tactics, so the grassroots organization is also different.

It was basically useless in the era of online ranks, and it was only used as a class organization for management, which assumed an extremely important tactical role in the era of skirmishers.

Even the battalion-level organization has undergone considerable changes. In the past, a line infantry battalion would have at least five companies, and some even had six companies.

However, in the newly formed troops, there are only four companies in a battalion, but each infantry company has more troops, plus logistics support personnel, in fact, the strength of each battalion can still reach 800 people.

As for the regiment-level troops, in addition to three infantry battalions, there will also be an artillery company equipped with six 34-style [-]mm infantry guns produced by Jiangnan Arms Company.

This is an infantry support artillery developed and produced according to the strong requirements of the frontline troops in the Burma campaign... It only took four months from the proposal of the project requirements to the finalization of the design and mass production.

However, the short development time does not mean that this kind of artillery is poor. On the contrary, once this kind of artillery was launched, it was highly valued by the military and widely praised by the front-line troops.

Why?

Light!

This thing is so far the first and only rear-loading rifled gun in the Great Chu Empire that can truly accompany the infantry in mobile operations and provide fire support for the infantry at any time.

The gun has a caliber of 200 mm and a very short barrel, only eight times the size, but correspondingly it also brings an ultra-light weight. Infantry combat, and taking into account the mobility of complex terrain.

Therefore, this artillery can naturally be disassembled and assembled. After disassembly and assembly, it can be carried on the back of a horse.

But light does not mean less powerful!
The shells fired by this thing are actually quite big, and the shells are not even lighter than the shells of the 75mm mountain cannon, which means that the power of the two is actually similar.

At the same time, the gun has a wide range of left and right high and low shots, and the maximum angle of the curved shot can reach 75 degrees... This means that this kind of artillery can shoot a large curve and attack the enemy behind the bunker.This is mainly to replace the role of the front-mounted smoothbore 115mm ultra-light howitzer.

In the Chu army, the 115mm light howitzer with a smoothbore front is actually a small mortar, and its tactical positioning is a bit similar to the mortars of later generations in the original time and space. It is far inferior to the mortars of later generations, and the accuracy is not good.

For the Chu army, the 34mm infantry gun of the 70 model was used to replace the 65mm field gun and the 115mm light howitzer in the era of front-mounted smoothbore guns, and became the main support artillery at the battalion level.

Because it is light in weight and easy to maneuver, it is quite powerful, and because of the rifling, the accuracy is not comparable to that of a front-mounted smoothbore gun. In terms of range, because the barrel is relatively short, it is not as good as the 500 meters originally required by the Army. Less, only 2000 two hundred meters.

But 2000 meters is enough... After all, the Chu army has to deal with the indigenous army in actual combat. They don't even have many serious field artillery, and even if they have, the effective range is only a few hundred meters.

In the past, the Chu army could gain huge advantages with the front-loading smoothbore guns with an effective range of more than 1000 meters, let alone the breech-loaded rifled guns with an effective range of 2000 meters.

Once this artillery was launched, it was widely praised by the frontline troops. It participated in a series of wars in Myanmar that year and performed very well.

In addition, the technical content of this thing is average, and the production process is not complicated... After all, the short-barreled artillery, its core component is the production difficulty of the barrel, compared with those barrels that are more than ten times or even twenty times It can be said that the difficulty of production is much lower, and the corresponding cost is also much lower.

Under many favorable conditions, the army began to purchase this infantry artillery on a large scale... At the same time, because the production of this artillery is quite simple, Jiangnan Arms Company has a very large output after it officially went into production.

At the same time, under the intervention of the Army, Jiangnan Arms Company also licensed this artillery technology to four other arms companies, so that the other four arms companies can also produce according to the authorization... Of course, the patent fee cannot be less.

Not only this kind of artillery is as good as it is, in fact, the Type 75 rifle, the Hebei 75mm field gun, and the Huguang [-]mm mountain gun are all authorized. The five major domestic weapon companies can produce according to the patent, but being able to produce does not mean that they can make money. ...After all, the patent licensing fee is not low, and can basically account for more than half of the profits.

This model of the Great Chu Empire is mainly to integrate the output of the five major weapon companies, and it is also to avoid the dilemma of shutting down and going bankrupt after the main equipment is won by one of the weapon companies.

For example, the 70mm mountain gun, which is to fully replace the previous 65mm field gun and 115mm light howitzer, will have a very large scale of equipment.

This also means that the factories that produced 65mm field guns and 115mm light howitzers in the past will lose their previous orders... How to arrange these factories to change production, keep these arsenals from going bankrupt, and ensure the healthy competition of the imperial defense industry is also the military Things to consider.

Therefore, at present, the five major weapons companies can actually produce 70mm infantry guns, but the money is basically earned by Jiangnan Weapons Company.

The corresponding factories of other weapons companies have received production orders, maintained production, and can barely hold their breath and wait for the opportunity to turn things around in the future.

The military, on the other hand, obtained a huge output of 70mm infantry guns.

In the 34th year of Chengshun alone, in the year of mass production, the five major weapon companies of the Great Chu Empire produced a full 35 of these infantry cannons, and another [-] in [-] years.

The reason why the output is so high is because the demand is too high, and the army wants to complete the refitting of all regular troops within five years.

But for a full refit, at least two thousand doors would be needed.

The artillery equipped by the Chu Army is not only a 70mm infantry gun, but also a 75mm field gun, a 75mm mountain gun, a larger caliber 120mm field gun, and a 120mm light howitzer.

It's just that relatively speaking, the demand for large-caliber artillery is not so urgent, and even the demand for 75mm artillery is not so urgent.

After all, the opponent is too scumbag... To deal with those overseas indigenous troops, it is not mainly those large-scale battles. Without these mid-to-high-end artillery, only 70mm infantry artillery is actually sufficient.

This is why the Chu army is urgently equipped with 70mm infantry guns.

The cost is low, the power, range and accuracy can meet the requirements of the army, and the light weight is convenient for overseas deployment.

Just like the current Third Infantry Division, if you bring more than [-] such infantry artillery to fight in Europe, the local traffic conditions will be very bad, and you can get sufficient firepower protection.

Relatively speaking, the 75mm field guns equipped in the artillery regiment of the division have relatively large restrictions on their use.

After all, the marching weight of the 75mm field gun is more than one ton.

The fully-staffed Third Infantry Division was transferred to the Cape Pudu port last month. After resting for more than a month, it finally boarded a ship and headed to Europe in February.

Accompanying them was the 116th Mixed Regiment, which was the 20th Infantry Regiment under the No. 116 Ninth Division, and a mixed unit composed of a supply battalion, an artillery battalion, and a cavalry company.

The above two troops have a total of 2 troops, which is the main force of the regular army prepared by the Chu army for the European free trade plan.

In addition, the military has also prepared a servant army, the Second Division of the Indian Army... In fact, this servant army is the main force in the European free trade plan. Most of the combat tasks, especially casualties, may be The larger tasks will be undertaken by the division.

The servant army was originally used as cannon fodder.

The regular troops sent by the Chu army to Europe are mostly used as the backbone and used to garrison strategically important places.

In addition to the army, there is also a mixed battalion of the Guards, but the style of the Guards has always been to only take credit and not hard work... So the first batch of combat troops sent to Europe did not have this mixed battalion Shadow, they are still staying in the port of Cape Town, and they will go to Europe as the second batch of troops when the follow-up military opens up the situation in Europe.

The above are ground forces, while the navy has sent a newly established European fleet to fight, providing escort, landing fire support, etc.

Although this European fleet has just been established, in fact the combat ships are all drawn from the African Fleet and the Indian Ocean Fleet. There are a total of four battleships, six cruisers and twelve frigates.

These warships are all iron-ribbed wood-hulled ships. Some of the older ships are equipped with front-loaded rifled guns, but there are also several new ships equipped with rear-loaded rifled guns.

The navy has equipped a large number of front-loading rifled guns in the past few years, and these front-loaded rifled guns seem to have settled down, but in fact they are still very effective, at least there is no problem in hanging and beating the indigenous people.

Therefore, although the navy's newly built ships have adopted breech-loading rifled guns, there are still a large number of front-loaded rifled guns in service.

After all, these front-loading rifled guns were quite expensive when they were purchased, and they are not unusable now. The Navy intends to continue to use them and replace them when the battleship needs to be upgraded and refitted.

However, the replacement plan is estimated to be limited to a small number of newer capital ships. As for the older non-capital ships, they will continue to use front-loaded rifled guns until the battleships are retired.

22 warships will cover more than 200 ships of various tonnages, carrying a large number of soldiers, weapons and other supplies, all the way north along the west coast of Africa.

They are not talking about going straight to Europe. Before going to Europe, at least a few important port nodes on the west coast of Africa must be taken down. The sea power is expelled to ensure the safety of the sea transportation line.

And their first goal was the Angola region in central Africa, which currently belongs to the Portuguese sphere of influence... The Portuguese established several coastal colonial strongholds in Angola, such as the city of Luanda.

When the Dutch fought with the Grapes more than [-] years ago, they once occupied several Portuguese strongholds in Angola, but they were quickly beaten back by the Grapes.

So this area is currently controlled by the Portuguese!

It is said to be control, but in fact, like the colonies of the grape people in other places, the sphere of influence of the grape people is limited to the coast, to be precise, several colonial strongholds and surrounding areas.

It does not say that it rules a large area of ​​local territory, and a large number of local places are still controlled by local African indigenous tribes.

What the grape people are engaged in here is not colonial rule, agricultural development, or mining development, but slave trade.

The Chu army's attention here is not because of enmity with the Portuguese... Although the Chu people have bullied the Portuguese many times, they have never had any resentment towards the Portuguese.

As for whether the Putao people resent the people of the Chu country, this... there should be, but the people of the Chu country just don't care.

Being bullied by the Chu people, even destroying the country, there are many natives, not bad for Portugal... Even in many cases, the Chu people don't even bother to tell which country they are exterminating... For example, they fought against India and West Asia before. When there was the east coast of Africa, the Chu army would clean up all the way, who cares which country you belong to!

The same is true for the attack on Angola this time. The reason for the attack here is purely because the grape people blocked the middle of the road, blocking the way for the Chu army to go north.

(End of this chapter)