afterglow

Chapter 400: Bug camouflage?Dilemma
As early as the 31st year of Chang's reign, the Ming army conducted an unremarkable exercise between the plains and hills near Chengdu Prefecture, aiming to test the combat capabilities of national defense forces in complex terrain.

During that exercise called "Ziyang Exercise", some army officers noticed that although the dark green clothes of the soldiers were similar in color to the surrounding environment, they were still more obvious from a distance. It was not difficult for experienced observers to detect the abnormality. .

This is because things in the conventional environment are almost impossible to appear in large areas of solid color, and are often in scattered shapes and different shades of color.

Although people have reported this point for more than ten years, it was only this time that it was officially recognized - the upper echelons of the military approved spending money to develop clothing that can enhance the camouflage effect in the field.

In addition to the official research and development work led by the Military Academy, several universities have also received similar tasks, and even some folk artists have participated.

The more representative one is Chengdu Furong University. The team is led by Huang Shuqiong, Bachelor of Fine Arts (PhD). This team tends to draw inspiration from nature and conduct research and development around the concept of bionics.

Their results include clouded leopard camouflage based on clouded leopards, snow leopard camouflage based on snow leopards, and large insect camouflage based on South China tigers.

The two cats, the clouded leopard and the South China tiger, are undoubtedly natural hunters. They are both distributed in the subtropical and tropical forests and mountains of southern China.

In terms of the area of ​​activity, the objects selected by the Furong University team are definitely appropriate, and the imaginary combat areas of the Southern Ming Army are also in these places.

Snow leopards are special. They are distributed in plateau areas such as Wusizang and Tianshan Mountains. Their gray-white fur and black spots are excellent camouflage.

Wusizang is also a key area, so the snow leopard camouflage is exclusively used by local border defense units.

During the same period, the Ming National Military Gezhiyuan took another path.

Based on the fact that "the naked eye is more likely to notice regular outlines; conversely, irregular and messy shapes are easier to ignore", they developed many kinds of camouflage.

The first is the fragmented camouflage, which uses verdant grass green as the background color and is decorated with irregular fragments of different sizes. These fragments come in two colors, namely yellow-green parrot green and dark green dark green.

The second is forest camouflage. This camouflage is designed to simulate the way sunlight shines through the trees on the ground with mottled light and shadow. The dark green background is dotted with khaki and emerald green spots. These spots are round and oval. .

In fact, the Military Gezhiyuan also produced the "Smurf", which was originally intended for use by the Marine Corps.

This kind of camouflage is a relatively simple striped camouflage, with gray-green as the base color, supplemented by blue-gray and gray-white stripes - because the environment during the beach landing is at the seaside, the developers believe that this kind of camouflage will be more effective when fighting against water. very effective.

But because it is too limited and can only be used when logging in, it is relatively useless.

In Zhou Changfeng's opinion, these camouflages are quite good - rich in variety, good camouflage effect, and of high practical value.

However, what is ironic is that the upper echelons of the Ming Dynasty's military headquarters are somewhat stubborn. Some army bosses arbitrarily refuse to apply these camouflage patterns to clothing, and are only allowed to be applied to items such as tent cloth.

Their reason is that these colorful and strange patterns are detrimental to the appearance of the military, and the image of the military should be strict and majestic.

But this has nothing to do with the navy. Although Zhou Changfeng found that several navy generals were also somewhat dissatisfied, perhaps they also had the same persistence as those in the army.

However, after all, the Marine Corps is small in scale and is only part of the Ming Dynasty Navy, so the upper echelons of the Navy did not strongly oppose it and were relatively open-minded.

The Army ordered a total of [-] sets of camouflage cloaks and camouflage dual-purpose poncho tents, with clouded leopard, insect, fragment, and shade camouflage accounting for a quarter each.

The Ming Army obviously still wanted to give it a try, but the Navy ignored 21-[-] and directly ordered [-] sets of fragmented camouflage and shade camouflage field uniforms, steel helmet covers, and dual-purpose ponchos and tents.

Perhaps in the eyes of people today, solid-colored clothes are more pleasing to the eye, but Zhou has been looking forward to the entire army being equipped with camouflage. He thinks that it will look advanced and cool.

After he returned to his office in the imperial city, Luo Fu welcomed him with a smile, because now he no longer had to do the work of two people.

"You probably don't know yet. The news just came in this morning. According to reliable intelligence, it can be basically confirmed that Germany has sent intervention troops to Russia. Tsk tsk, there will be good drama if this continues."

"Interference?" Zhou Changfeng's eyes narrowed, "In the name of volunteers? How many people are there?"

"That's right." Luo Fu nodded in affirmation and replied: "But the specific scale is not yet clear, probably between 4 and [-] people."

"What is the name? Where is the deployment place? What is the direction of march?"

"It's the same as in Folangji. It's still called the Red Eagle Legion. The northern route they took has just arrived in Lithuania. Judging from their posture, they probably want to go straight to St. Petersburg."

In mid-May, the German Society reorganized the Red Eagle Legion according to the original plan. However, compared with the time in Spain, the Red Eagle Legion this time was larger in scale, with two infantry divisions, one armored division, Two engineer battalions and other support units, plus two wings of air units.

Its total strength reached 4, which was much more than Ming Dynasty estimated.

This nominally volunteer force can actually be said to be armed to the teeth, and its weapons and equipment are well-deserved to be No. 1 in terms of advanced weapons and equipment.

One of the infantry divisions was even equipped with Mauser G39 semi-automatic rifles, becoming the first division-level combat unit in the world to popularize semi-automatic rifles; and that armored division was the first to be equipped with the Type III E tank using a 50mm tank gun.

The German Society's Panzer III tanks are slightly different from those in history. Type C is already an official mass-produced model, Type D is a command type equipped with a remote radio, and the latest Type E is equipped with a KwK38 50mm tank gun. The front armor of the car body is also thickened to 40mm.

"The changes in the Russian civil war were not big. The Nationalist Republican Army (Blue) lost two infantry divisions, but it stabilized the front line and forced the ▇▇▇ Army (Red) to retreat forty times in the direction of Smolensk. inside."

"Having said that, the British are really unkind. It is said that the Russian Emperor and his gang in St. Petersburg begged their grandfather to sue their grandmother, but the British still ignored them and handed over their weapons to the Nationalist Republic Army."

Luo Fu pointed to the map hanging on the wall next to him and briefly described the changes in the past two days to Zhou Changfeng.

"What's the point of being humane? The interests of countries come first." The latter didn't take it seriously. He just stared at the map and muttered: "It's not easy to stop the tens of thousands of Germans."

The civil strife in Tsarist Russia has been going on for some time. The Ming Dynasty court has been paying attention to the leaders of the Tsarist Russian army in Central Asia and Siberia who do not listen to orders and segregate themselves. These warlords, large and small, have different strengths, and naturally different personalities and characters.

The imperial court is evaluating which people to support, and it is best to choose the right people from the beginning to avoid causing trouble later.

The Ming Army has also followed the instructions and begun to form a dispatch army, preparing to cross the border at the right time to support selected local warlords to establish puppet regimes and help defend against possible external threats.

The troops planned to be sent to Abakan and Kazakhstan have a very retro name, called Anxi Army. The general military office has been established in Lanzhou, including four infantry divisions and two field heavy artillery brigades.The force responsible for the Siberian region is much more straightforward. It is called the Lingbei Army. Its headquarters is located in Kulun and includes two infantry divisions, a cavalry brigade, and a field heavy artillery brigade.

What's interesting is that someone in the DPRK proposed to send an expeditionary force to Tsarist Russia, cross the Ural Mountains, and loot the essence of Tsarist Russia in Europe. Whether it is collecting gold and silver jewelry or relocating machinery and equipment, there will definitely be some money.

"Hey, on the surface, things are going strong. However, I looked at the reports from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and there is still a shortage of some cutting-edge gadgets. The output of two aerospace production lines in Uplink Group has dropped by [-]% this month, and we are still thinking about substitutes. Luo Fu took a sip of tea and sighed.

"I have no choice but to take my time." Zhou Changfeng also reached out and picked up the exquisite white-glazed teapot. "God will not deliberately favor anyone. The Europeans have taken the lead in the industrial revolution and will definitely have an advantage."

"I don't know how many years this battle will take. If it goes well, we will be able to turn around and counterattack after the war. If we need resources and manpower, we will go to the corner..." Luo Fushen said with a look of longing on his face. He slouched and said relaxedly: "So God bless China."

Zhou Changfeng glanced at him, "Thank you for taking advantage of the European war. If the previous 20 years were delayed, it would be difficult..."

The three words "industrialization" should be said to be a summary made by people of later generations from the commanding heights of history. People at that time actually did not have a clear and complete concept, and many times they made up for whatever was lacking.

Fortunately, the composition of Ming Dynasty's first cabinet after the constitutional government was quite good. Prime Minister Yin Xunbei was very clear about the importance of technocrats, which greatly reduced the situation of incompetent bureaucrats giving blind orders and holding back.

In the journey of Ming Dynasty's industrial construction, Yin Xunbei played an indispensable role.

"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore." Zhou Changfeng opened the drawer and took out a blank document.

In view of the fact that both the Ordnance Bureau and the Ming Army were in trouble, he decided to use his position to speed up the research and development of anti-tank guns.

Once the research and development is in place, even if it is not used, it can be used as a technical reserve and can be put into production at any time. However, if you wait until the front line encounters a dilemma and is imminent before starting research and development, then I am afraid that the day lily will be cold in the end.

The Ming Dynasty Army currently equips two types of combat anti-tank guns - the Type 25.6 48mm anti-tank gun and the Type [-] [-]mm anti-tank gun.

There is nothing to say about the former. It was just a wishful thinking of a light anti-tank gun during the interwar period. Not many people expected that tank technology would develop so fast.

The latter is much more normal. Its hood-piercing high-explosive projectiles can penetrate 500mm vertically placed rolled nickel-manganese armor plates at a distance of 60m, and can effectively deal with most tanks in the early stages of the war.

And it weighs only more than 500 kilograms, which is relatively light, so the Ming Army is quite satisfied with it.

However, anti-tank guns of this level will soon become outdated. Maybe the Americans will be able to use the M3 Grant next year. The Type 48 [-]mm combat anti-tank gun will be very difficult to face.

If this is the case with the transitional M3 Grant, what about the M4 Sherman that will follow?

However, he is also struggling with how to choose the design route for the next generation anti-tank gun.

Regardless of the manufacturing level of the artillery shells, there are usually two ways to increase the armor penetration depth of the artillery - either increase the caliber and increase the weight of the artillery shells; or lengthen the diameter and increase the initial strength of the artillery shells.

Of course, you can also expand the chamber volume and add propellant, but this method of kneading the propellant will affect the lifespan and accuracy.

Maintaining the same caliber as the existing ammunition system can reduce the difficulty of changing the production line. In the context of total war, this cannot be ignored.

So if you choose the first route, the next generation anti-tank gun will be 80mm in caliber. The disadvantage is that it will be heavier, which will greatly affect the tactical flexibility.

For example, the famous Pak40 75mm anti-tank gun has a barrel diameter of 46 times and a total combat weight of 1430kg. Although it has excellent performance, this weight has exceeded the human limit.

Historically, many intact Pak40s were reluctantly abandoned by German soldiers because they were too late to be moved. Because the tractors could not arrive in time and the manpower could not drag them long distances.

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The second way is to maintain the 48mm caliber but lengthen the barrel diameter. Although the weight can be reduced accordingly, the manufacturing of slender high-pressure artillery barrels is very difficult and the cost is extremely high.

The best example is the famous "57 Magic Needle"-ZIS-2 57mm anti-tank gun.

The armor-piercing ability of ZIS-2 is almost the same as that of Pak40. The barrel diameter is as high as 86 times, the muzzle velocity of the armor-piercing projectile is close to 1000m/s, and the total combat weight is only 1100kg.

Accordingly, its manufacturing cost is extremely high - the cost of manufacturing one ZIS-2 can be used to manufacture ten high-quality and low-priced ZIS-3 76.2mm cannons.

Its lifespan is also very short. In actual tests, accuracy declined after firing dozens of rounds.

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In the future, the Ming Dynasty will fight in complex, rugged and inaccessible island jungles. The lighter the weapons and equipment, the better. Otherwise, how can the troops' movement speed be slowed down by the weapons?

However, although the Ming Dynasty's industrial capabilities could not be called poor, they were far from wasteful.

Cheap will be bulky, light will be expensive.

"Hey, I have a big head, this is a dilemma!" Zhou Changfeng, who was quite depressed, put the pen on the table and couldn't help but sigh.

"What? Why are you upset?"

The sound came from the door, it seemed like...

Hearing the sound, Zhou Changfeng and Luo Fu widened their eyes in unison. They looked up and saw a tough-looking, energetic old man slowly crossing the threshold.

They both stood up immediately, clasped their fists and saluted, "See Duke Wei!"

Wu Weihuan took two steps forward slowly and said with a smile: "Is there anything else that can trouble me, 'General Zhou'? Let me tell you."

Embarrassing, so embarrassing!
"Uh... you are exaggerating..." Zhou Changfeng coughed dryly: "To inform Duke Wei, I have been paying attention to the war in Europe and found that ordinary anti-tank artillery was often unable to penetrate heavy tanks, so I was considering suggesting that our country should promptly Carry out research and development work on the next generation of combat defense artillery."

(End of this chapter)