afterglow

Chapter 583: Shoot the arrow to the moon; the first landing expeditionary force is launched!

"Awesome!"

"It's very courageous. It looks like it was written by someone with great ambitions."

"It makes sense. Ordinary men of letters don't have this magnanimity."

Among the echoes, Cao Shengjun took the lead and asked curiously: "Is this the only sentence? Does Zhou Qianshi still remember the context?"

Context? The whole article is a poem, "Man Jiang Hong", but the context does not fit the current situation.

Zhou Changfeng coughed dryly and said, "I can't remember clearly. It was too long ago. It was still when I was a child. This sentence is the only one that left a deep impression on me."

Everyone present was quite sorry.

"By the way! Did Mrs. Zhou teach?!" Someone suddenly slapped his thigh and said regretfully: "It would be great if I could teach Zhou Taizhao to write poems before. I can write at least a dozen poems in this year." Great work, what a shame.”

This speaks to everyone's aspirations and is a pity.

"I'm stupid and my wife can't teach me." Zhou Changfeng said seriously.

It is not difficult to get started with writing poems and lyrics. Once you are familiar with the rules, you just need to practice for a while. However, it is up to you to be guided by a master and practice. What kind of poems you can write in the end depends on your personal talent.

It's actually embarrassing to say that Xia Xiaoshi did propose it, but was rejected by a lazy Zhou. Afterwards, due to the continuous wars in the north and south, he naturally had no time to think about it.

People, after all, are resistant to learning new things, especially if they are not interested.

In the afternoon, the weather changed suddenly, and small pieces of ice fell one after another, making a crackling sound on the glass windows.

Since some officials from the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of War and the Naval Administration were also here to supervise the work before completion, Zhou Changfeng ordered a short meeting to be held.

In addition to them, there were also relevant technical staff from Jinzhou Shipyard. There were only a dozen people in total. Zhou Changfeng had always believed that conciseness and conciseness were the most important thing in meetings. The more people in a meeting, the less efficient it would be.

"After I returned to China, I have been worrying about land warfare weapons and paid less attention to the air force and navy. Today, I am convening all of you who have a busy schedule to have a comprehensive understanding of the navy's fleet air defense development path in the future."

He held the long table in the middle with both hands and explained the purpose of the meeting straight to the point to a dozen people in the two rows on the left and right.

After speaking, he looked at Cao Shengjun.

The latter waved his hand and muttered: "I am engaged in ship assembly, and I am afraid that the route of individual weapons is not comprehensive."

A technical officer of the Navy Department was elected by the participants. He stood up and bowed and said: "Nie Wei, the Navy Department's military uniforms are in good order."

Nie Wei had obviously explained the same issue to his superiors more than once and showed he was very comfortable with it. For officials, how to make their superiors understand clearly and simply is a basic skill. He said:
"Air defense is divided into 'early warning' and 'strike'. First of all, we must detect the invading enemy as early as possible and prepare in advance. In the past, we relied on sight and eyes. Now we have 'radar' electrical detectors to provide early warning." The ability is greatly improved.”

"The established Type 40 sentry electric detector can detect a single large aircraft or a formation of small aircraft flying at high altitudes 120 kilometers away. This was something that was unimaginable in the past, especially on cloudy days. It is much more efficient than visual warning. ”

"As for attacking the invading enemy, firstly, we must rely on our own aircraft to intercept, hinder, and disperse the enemy aircraft formation as much as possible to keep the enemy out of the fleet. I will not go into details here."

"As for the fleet itself, according to the Navy's conception, anti-aircraft cruisers should serve as the backbone, and the remaining ships should also play their own roles. Battleships have large tonnage and many weapons, and are also key firepower platforms."

Zhou Changfeng nodded and asked, "Based on the above, how did air defense weapons and equipment develop?"

Nie Wei slowed down his speech and replied: "Better shooting calculations and control equipment, this is the first; second, anti-aircraft guns with longer range and greater power."

"That means fire control equipment is the most important, right?"

"Exactly."

“What is the current status and development of fire control equipment?”

"It's not satisfactory, but we are still trying to improve it. Because the inspection team discussed some technologies with the Germans, we plan to use them as reference objects."

The Ming Dynasty's navy is currently mainly equipped with Type III-B air defense systems, including commanders and computers.

The mechanical computer of this type of fire control system uses hydraulic auxiliary drive, is made of tin-containing stainless steel, has a three-axis stabilization function, and is also equipped with an early gyroscope to stabilize the viewing equipment.

The previous fire control system even required manual correction of the roll and pitch of the warship. It is conceivable that the efficiency was low and the error was large.

The mechanical computer of the Type 3 Type B air defense system is large in size and complex in structure. It calculates the shooting elements based on three manually input data.

It is worth mentioning that it has a special integral update calculation module to deal with dive attack targets, but the effect is worrying.

After the calculation is completed, the results will be manually sent to each gun position.

Overall, this is a synthetic fire control system that is quite good when a war breaks out.

It was about as good as the British HACS system - slightly less automated, but with some capability against dive bombers.

对1500m高度、200㎞/h目标的命中率为9.5%；对3000m高度、200㎞/h目标的命中率为2.7%，其至多能捕获速度为360㎞/h的目标，但在这种条件下命中率趋近于无。

It is better than the Type 94 anti-aircraft device used by the Japanese in history, but it still cannot meet actual combat needs.

【Picture】

The Americans' Mk37 fire control system has a very high degree of automation in data transmission and calculation. It can automatically feedback and correct, which is far ahead. The other powers are noobs. For example, the British could only use HACS during the entire war. This kind of The fire control system was unable to respond to any dive attack.

The Ming Navy naturally hopes to develop a better fire control system. The introduction of the German Kommandogert40 shooting director is mainly to refer to its electrical equipment, thereby improving the automation of the country's fire control system.

While working on this aspect, iterative upgrades of anti-aircraft guns are also being carried out.

Anti-aircraft guns with longer range and greater power are the development trend, so as to expand the radius of the air defense circle.

The Navy has a complete iteration plan, which are:
For small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, use 25.6㎜ instead of 20.8㎜.

For medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns, 48mm replaces 38.4mm.

Large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, 131.2㎜ instead of 128㎜.

[The above article considers the diameter to be large, but 136mm is still too exaggerated and exceeds the human limit. 】

No matter whether mass production is finally decided or not, the research and development work cannot stop anyway.

Whether it is used or not is another matter. The design can also be used as a technical reserve.

Approved for trial production in this plan is the trial-produced Type 131.2 mm high-level and flat dual-purpose gun, which will be used first as the main gun of the anti-aircraft cruiser and later replaced as appropriate for other battleships.

The gun has a diameter of 44 times, a maximum rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute, and a dedicated anti-aircraft fragmentation projectile weighing 32kg, with a charge of up to 4.2kg, a muzzle velocity of 805m/s, and an effective anti-aircraft range of 14km. Thanks to the use of a vertical wedge-type semi-automatic breech block and an electric ramrod, although the gun's shells are heavier, its rate of fire does not decrease significantly.

Compared with the Type 128 mm high-level dual-purpose cannon used extensively by the Ming army, the damage range has been significantly improved, basically reaching the limit of manual loading of shells and propellant packs.

"There seems to be no qualitative improvement. To reintroduce new calibers requires opening a separate production line. Is this worth it?" Zhou Changfeng expressed concern.

Everyone present was baffled by this - isn't a quarter performance improvement enough? What's worth fussing over a mere production line?
Everyone murmured in their hearts - obviously the establishment of five to seven forecasting methodists proposed by Zhou Kexing is really expensive!

An Ordnance Bureau official mused: "Our country has been frugal enough in the past, and we don't waste it unless necessary. Many of the Army's weapons are made do."

Nie Wei explained: "Airplanes are the greatest threat. Air defense is a big deal and should be pursued to the extreme."

看看人家德国人，列装的高射炮就有20㎜、37㎜、40㎜、88㎜、105㎜、128㎜六种口径；美国人也有五种口径。

In fact, the 131.2mm high-level and flat dual-purpose cannon is a piece of cake. Seven years ago, the Ming Navy originally planned to develop a high-level and high-level dual-purpose cannon of this caliber. However, the problem was that it was already equipped with a large number of Type 128-128 mm naval guns at that time. In order to use universal artillery shells, the Navy chose to take the middle road and chose to develop a mm high-level and flat dual-purpose cannon. At that time, no one expected that the threat of aviation would develop to the extent it is today.

It can be said that countries around the world rarely have the opportunity to exercise freely when developing weapons, and often have to make choices due to restrictions. For example, the Zis-3 field gun is required to use old-fashioned shells, and the width of US battleships is limited to 33m, etc.

At the end of the meeting, Zhou Changfeng asked everyone about the proximity fuse.

When he was reviewing documents, he discovered a plan for a proximity fuse. The initiator was an Air Force major. The report he submitted mentioned three development routes: electromagnetic wave control, electrostatic control, and magnetic control.

"This plan is difficult to implement. It's a bottomless pit of resources." Cao Shengjun didn't care and said casually: "For now, we only have an electrostatically controlled proximity fuze. This is the only one that has some hope."

"What about electromagnetic waves?" Zhou Changfeng asked.

"(Radio proximity fuze) is absolutely impossible, at least not now. Maybe it can be done in twenty years." An engineer said very dogmatically.

He explained: "That's equivalent to shooting a bow and arrow into the moon! When the cannon fires the cannon, it has an acceleration of 20,000 times gravity and spins hundreds of times per second. The centrifugal force is amazing."

It’s just that the working conditions are bad, the main thing is to limit the size. After all, the cannonball is only that big.

But in this era, let alone integrated circuits, there are not even transistors!

Someone covered their forehead and recalled: "It is said that Germany and France were also thinking about this thing before the war, but they have given up now. It is too advanced. The time of one generation may be an exaggeration, but it should be possible in another ten years."

The few people said something to each other, and Zhou Zhangfeng fell into silence.

After a while, he finally spoke, "How much funding is currently allocated for the route that 'sees some hope'?"

An official from the Ministry of War tried to recall, "The electrostatic proximity fuse project? It seems like 200,000 yuan a year? No, 300,000 yuan."

Well... there is no essential difference between twenty and thirty.

Zhou Changfeng knocked on the table lightly, "Then the priority of the electrostatic proximity fuze must be increased. I will submit a separate letter later on the funding."

Seeing everyone's doubts, he explained in a serious manner: "There is news that the United States is vigorously developing electromagnetic wave controlled proximity fuses."

"Don't worry Zhou Daizhao, don't be scared." Nie Wei held out his thumb and index finger with a look of disdain on his face, "Eighty percent of the work is in vain, the money is wasted, those Americans don't even have tanks and artillery. If you don’t understand the design, do you really want to shoot an arrow to the moon?”

"..." His relief made Zhou Changfeng's head full of black lines.

【Picture】

The only thing considered feasible by the Ming Dynasty's military industry department is the electrostatic proximity fuze. It is essentially a sensitive spark arrester that will discharge as long as the nearby static electricity intensity reaches a threshold.

This kind of proximity fuze is small in size and simple in structure. The disadvantage is that the range of action is small, only a few meters away at most - but it is still a proximity fuze, and it is more reliable than the early radio proximity fuzes that frequently failed.

At the end of the meeting, it was also time for dinner. Zhou Changfeng simply waved his hand to indicate that he would be the host today and invited everyone to finish their meal.

The group then set off despite the dense crackling ice and went straight to the largest hotel in Jinzhou.

For the time being, we can worry less about security issues - after the Zhang Xucheng case came to light, everyone in the foreign police factory has been criticized to death, and they are currently vigorously investigating all suspicious persons.

From boiled mutton to charcoal grilled beef, from wine to white wine, it’s easy to change glasses!

However, Zhou Changfeng never expected that this would be the last time he would enjoy spicy food this year.

The next day.

At dawn, just after dawn, two cars slowly parked downstairs of the Yin Hotel.

Zhou Changfeng was woken up from his sleep and later told that "the emperor ordered him to be thrown into prison."

"It's like this. His Majesty said that you did not explain the reason for the failure to the members of the parliament. Instead, you threatened in public and even threatened a private fight. It is unbecoming and unbecoming of a high official in the imperial court."

What the hell? It’s simply baffling!
Among the visitors was an attendant from the palace, who handed over a letter handwritten by Zhu Lingjing.

After browsing, Zhou Changfeng tore it into pieces, took out a lighter, lit the shredded paper, waited for it to burn for a few seconds and then threw it into the toilet.

"Let's go."

Why! We are going to the old place at the foot of Qixia Mountain again.

An hour later, the plane took off lightly and flew toward the southwest...

In order to observe the reactions of all parties and to deal with the Consultative Yuan side, Zhu Lingjing decided to give Zhou a few days off after careful consideration.

Ever since, Yingtian Military Prison-Qixia Prison welcomed old acquaintances again.

However, Zhou was imprisoned along with a written document issued by the Bureau of Military Affairs of the Ministry of War. After a simple reshuffle, Zhu Lingjing finally intervened in the shelved landing cluster plan.

It was ridiculed and unanimously opposed since it was proposed at the time. After so many ups and downs, it was finally approved.

The Bureau of Military Affairs gave this cluster a formal designation - the First Landing Army!
The army has jurisdiction over the 1st Marine Brigade of the Ming Dynasty Navy, as well as two ocean-going mixed regiments of the Army, a field heavy artillery brigade, a critical tank battalion, and a vehicle transport regiment. It is a semi-motorized and semi-mechanized combat unit.

The Ming Army's ocean-going mixed regiment was based on an ordinary infantry regiment, with an additional light mountain artillery battalion (80㎜) and a medium-sized chariot fleet.

The first landing of the Army actually copied the plan submitted by Zhou Changfeng at that time. Obviously the officials of the Military Regulation Bureau did not want to cause trouble - but whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, it is up to you, Zhou Kexing, to design it yourself.

The Ming Dynasty's First Landing Expeditionary Force is launched!

(End of this chapter)