Nanming: I can build wonders

After Pan Aqiang fired the machine gun, he froze on the spot.

I have never seen a weapon like a machine gun. If it is on the battlefield, it is impossible to imagine the speed at which the machine gun can harvest the enemy.

Especially for enemies with dense formations of cold weapons, such as cavalry charging on a large scale, when they encounter machine guns, they are moving targets.

Seeing the performance of the machine gun, Zhu Kezang applauded excitedly: "The cannon is the god of war, and the machine gun is the king of war. With the machine gun, Ming will be invincible."

Su Laocheng said: "Your Majesty is so talented that he can invent such a miraculous weapon!"

And then, Su Laocheng said in a rather mysterious way.

"Your Majesty, don't get excited, the most important secret weapon hasn't been revealed yet!"

"Oh?"

Zhu Kezang raised his eyebrows. The effect of the hand-cranked machine gun is already very explosive. Is it true that there is a weapon more shocking than it?
On the other hand, Krupp Su Laocheng wiped the fine sweat from his forehead and asked the technical worker on the side.

"What's the matter? Has our chariot started?"

"Uncle, when the chariot was just started, there seemed to be a small problem with the boiler, and it is being re-checked..."

The technical workers on the side quietly reminded.

"Damn it, tell them to speed up, Your Majesty can wait and see..."

Hearing this, Su Laocheng gritted his teeth and urged.

It was supposed to be a good opportunity for him to fill the glass, but it was screwed up!

Just like that, I waited for more than an hour, and finally, when Zhu Kezang, who was waiting a little bit bored, yawned, there was a rumbling sound resounding from one side, but I only saw, at an unknown time, an empty field in the distance.

A huge and ferocious steel behemoth appeared.

"I go!"

Zhu Kezang was so shocked for the first time since he traveled through Ming Dynasty.

Because he saw a chariot coming slowly!

Underneath is a densely packed crawler structure made of steel.

The strong soldiers inside waved the shovel, added the coal in the compartment at the rear of the car body to the coal-fired boiler, and let the steam engine drive the track to move forward slowly!

That's a steam tank!

The outside is a thick steel shell full of rivets, but it looks extremely strong, and two nine-pound breech-loading rifled guns are installed on it.

At the same time, there are holes respectively in the front, back, left, and right sides.

If Zhu Kezang is not mistaken, it is equipped with a hand-cranked machine gun!
The entire chariot is about 20 meters long and an astonishing seven or eight meters wide!

It looks rather shocking.

If we talk about the principle, it relies on the power of the steam engine, installs a steering device that does not have hydraulic power, and requires several people to use all their strength to turn it at the same time, and then makes a frame with hardwood as lightly as possible!
Why use wood, because the steam power is insufficient, and the all-steel structure cannot be opened!
What Su Laocheng used was a sandwich wooden shell, that is, cotton was sandwiched between the wood, and then, rivets were used to cover the wooden shell with a thin layer of armor.

The thickness of the armor is not thick, but it is more than enough to defend against the three-pound gun and the six-pound gun.

The wooden sail battleship, the ship's plank can also withstand the shells of these small guns, let alone it is covered with iron armor.

However, such a giant steel beast was stuffed with more than a dozen people, including gunners, machine gunners, coal diggers, and helmsmen.

Many of the soldiers inside didn't even have room to move and turn.

And it's quite stuffy, there are two high-frequency steam engines and a burning blast furnace inside, can it not be hot?

The speed of the first steam tank of Ming Dynasty is also very slow, maybe not even ten kilometers per hour.

Slow, but scary in one hand.

Anyone who sees such a thing on the battlefield will not be shocked.

In addition, if you fight the risk of boiler scrapping, you may be able to run a short section of extreme speed.

But this extreme speed will not last long, and it will stop running because the boiler overheats.

Thanks to Krupp's rear-mounted guns, if the front-mounted guns were installed, the chariot would really be helpless.

Because every time a cannon is fired, the gunner has to reload outside. Isn't this taking off your pants and farting!

The rear-loading gun is different. The gunner can safely hide inside and reload, which is not only high-end, but also safe.

Based on the cognition of later generations, Zhu Kezang did not think that steam chariots had any future. Mechanical vehicles powered by steam had already appeared in previous lives.

But steam-powered tanks have never been seen on the battlefield, and for good reason.

It's not that people haven't tried, it's that they've never succeeded!
Because the thermal efficiency of the steam engine is too small, its power is limited under a certain weight and volume. It is already very difficult to drive the steam engine mechanism and the basic structure of the car body, and it is impossible to install thick armor and heavy artillery.

At the same time, the battery life of the steam tank is too poor because the steam engine has a relatively large demand for coal and water. If you want to ensure the battery life, you must bring a lot of coal and fresh water to increase the load.

It's really uncomfortable to pack so many things, which is already underpowered.

Therefore, even if the power of the steam engine can be made very large during World War I, even if it can be miniaturized, no one still makes steam tanks.

During World War I, the Americans also thought about designing tanks powered by steam engines, but they still failed.

If it is really designed and manufactured, but the steam tank has a huge body, slow movement, almost zero armor, and weak firepower, its survivability and attack ability on the battlefield are also very poor.

It's just a moving target!
Not to mention World War I, even in the Franco-Prussian War before World War I, the firepower was very fierce. Various rifled guns and high-explosive bombs appeared one after another, and there was no room for steam tanks at all.

Of course, there may have been a market for steam tanks in the seventeenth century.

But Zhu Kezang didn't want to waste Ming's industrial capacity on steam tanks.

"Your Majesty, this chariot is simply a man's romance!"

Pan Aqiang, the general of the army, just took a look at it, and he has completely fallen in love with the steam tank.

At this moment, looking at this ferocious steel behemoth, it is obvious that as long as it is a soldier, it will be conquered by its majesty.

"Your Majesty, with such an invincible chariot, no matter what kind of enemy, our Ming army can directly crush it!"

Pan Aqiang said confidently.

"Qiangzi, we can crush other enemies without chariots."

Looking at the fanatical Pan Aqiang, Zhu Kezang couldn't help reminding him.

The steam tank designer next to him, Su Laocheng also reminded: "Uh, General Pan, this tank needs to be a little later than the actual battle."

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, this thing really can't be used in actual combat now, or something will happen.

Su Laocheng quickly changed the subject, and introduced: "Look, Your Majesty, our Manufacturing Bureau calls it a self-propelled artillery tank!"

(End of this chapter)