Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1426 The Spanish Arms Race

"The inflatable belt doesn't have to be made of copper," Lin Shenhe said, with tiredness in his voice and bloodshot eyes.It is not easy to survey and identify the weapon parts and ammunition fragments that Hai Qi brought back from Manila one by one. It is more convenient to process.”

"Cannonballs and belts are trivial matters." Wang Ruixiang lit a gold limited-edition Nanhai cigar, took a puff, and continued, "The key is what kind of cannon he can make? Take an old Spanish cannon with a rifling Don’t mention the crap about showing your face on the military parade after you come out. How easy is it to make a large-caliber rifled gun? Then the Japanese devils have the ability to copy the Krupp company or the Rock Island Armory with bare hands? Does he have a drilling machine and a boring machine? Is there a steam hammer? At least there are two steam engines in TG’s Huangya Cave. If he alone can bring those white-skinned Filipino natives who can only play with the Bible and matchlock guns and don’t know farts, he will use the whole artillery Climb out the technology tree, let’s hang up the streetlights collectively at the industrial entrance of Lingao.”

"I have a long telegram from the Manila station here, and the confidential department did not translate it until before the meeting." Jiang Shan took over the conversation: "Reporting the latest situation, I found that the Spanish authorities are west of Manila, Pasig River and A metal smelting workshop is being built at the confluence of the San Juan River. The scale is not small. The authorities have gathered Chinese plasterers, carpenters, blacksmiths and coppersmiths to work in Manila and Cavite. They have dispatched 500 people. About 1.5 kilometers from the mouth of the river, they are A dam is being built on the San Juan River to store water, and Chinese artisans are making some kind of waterwheel device out of the hardwood felled upstream..."

"This stuff is useless," Wang Ruixiang spat out a puff of smoke ring dismissively, "Hydraulic machine tool, hehe, the efficiency is frighteningly low. Do you still expect the hydraulic hammer to forge the cannon embryo? Then he can't make it bigger than the 12-pound Napoleon Bigger guy."

"This is not the key, the key is that he thinks he can make it, and the Spaniards also believe that he can do it." Lin Shenhe said. "Besides, he can use the simplest method of pulling the rifling of a smoothbore gun to make large artillery. The Spaniards are not very good at making cast iron cannons—it doesn't matter, you can use those bronze cannons. Anyway, the Spaniards have very mature experience in casting bronze cannons Let's not underestimate his idea of ​​maximizing energy in a simple environment. Let's take a look at his works." He took out a thing from the sample box, the rocket wreck that Xue Ziliang had seen.

"Bad enough, isn't it? It's nowhere near even our Hale rockets, let alone any of the modern rockets we're familiar with. Since this Japanese is smuggling modern weapons, aviation rockets, Stalin He has never seen the organ, the 63-type 107 fire? Why did he choose the Congreve rocket? Because this thing is simple enough: just add a balance bar to the projectile body. None."

Lin Shenhe gasped for breath by drinking water, and continued to talk: "Some wreckage shows that this Paul has further simplified the process, using concrete paper to directly press the shell of the warhead on the mold. That's right, even if this guy improves Despite the design, the hit rate of these rockets is still very poor, and many of them will do Brownian motion when fired. But it is enough to blow up cities, burn ships at the docks, and demolish indigenous villages. Most importantly, it is not difficult to build. "

"You mean," Wang Ding tried to sum up: "He is proficient in arms technology, but he is not a simple admirer of technology, but focuses on making weapons with the best performance possible under the conditions of this space-time environment."

"The price should be cheap and the quantity should be sufficient," Lin Shenhe replied: "This is the principle of those who engage in underground arms for irregular armed forces, if that Paul has done this kind of work in the past."

"This man is very dangerous. He used a fake name and identity on Lando's boat. What secrets does he have to hide from his accomplices who are doing illegal activities together?" Jiang Shan put forward his own opinion.

"Perhaps he was a weapon expert before crossing, or at least a technician in related industries. Maybe he was a terrorist. After crossing, he wisely used his knowledge and skills as a step forward. Currently We do not know whether he chose passively or actively to join the Spanish colonial authorities, but the Spaniards certainly welcomed inventors who brought them new weapons."

"Why? Just because we attacked the galleon and scared the Spanish devils in Manila to pee? They spent so much money crediting a yellow man of unknown origin just to calm their vain fears?"

The expansion of the fortress alone has made the governor stretched in the history of old time and space, and he has to repeatedly appeal to the king to increase the subsidy.And the scale of colonial rearmament in Manila now far exceeds that of old time and space.

"First of all, in history, the current governor of Manila has been immersed in the fear of the imminent invasion of the Dutch for many years. If you are interested in reading the compilation of historical materials provided by the Great Library, you will know how much the Spaniards are afraid of this threat. The letters written by the Governor of Spain to the East India Council, the Privy Council and the king are full of delusions of being besieged. And historically, he has indeed invested a large amount of money in the defense of the Philippines and Manila.” Wang Ding said eloquently And talk, "After we snatched two Manila galleons and signed a business contract with the Dutch, the fear of the Spaniards in Manila was further magnified. In addition to the Dutch and the British, their imaginary enemies included us. "Wang Ding said, "Talking about the big picture, it is now the Thirty Years' War. France under Richelieu is about to form an alliance with Sweden against the Catholic camp, and Spain's situation in Europe will become difficult. War is military technology. The biggest propeller, now there is another weapon genius who is good at using existing technical resources, and he also happens to be a devout Catholic. In the eyes of the Spaniards, it is simply God's blessing. Not to mention that the military pressure facing the Spaniards is global sexual."

"Global?"

"The Spaniards - or the Habsburgs - were the world's first global empire, unfortunately born in a time without radio, without motorized ships. In the Mediterranean they faced the Turks; in the Continent , the Protestant German princes and the scheming French. Then came the Dutch and the British. In Asia and America, the Dutch and the British spared no effort to attack the Spanish ships and colonies. Seems to add more to the empire Burden, now that the king of Spain has become the king of Portugal, the already stretched Spanish naval squadron has to take on the task of defending the Portuguese territories—so, the decline of the Spaniards is not accidental, but inevitable.”

Every governor of a Spanish or Portuguese colony knows very well that once they encounter an enemy attack, they will not receive any support unless a local squadron happens to be stationed in the port.The defense of the colony is only on its own, and it is ready to fight on weekdays.

Wang Ruixiang snorted: "It's a ball, let the Spaniards burn Paris with rockets, and the French learn how to make rockets and burn Madrid. Isn't it good? As for the colonies, they can burn each other. The white-skinned devils kill each other The more you kill, the better, and we can save it when we attack Europe in the future."

"It's too far away. Let's see what real threat this traveler's work will bring to us," Xu Xu, who came over from Kaohsiung to attend the meeting, spoke, "Let's not care about what guns will be installed on the Manila Fortress, Lando The mysterious ship under construction under the bamboo shed in the shipyard that Mr. discovered should attract our attention even more."

Following his speech, a tightly covered shipyard appeared on the projector.

"Judging from the outer dimensions of the dock and the area of ​​the temporary bamboo shed, the tonnage of this ship is not large - it can even be said to be very small. If it is a ship, the displacement will not exceed [-] tons."

Here comes the problem, a ship of less than [-] tons is not worth covering with bamboo sheds anyway.

"...Obviously, there must be some secret weapon under this bamboo shed."

"According to the consistent character of this book, it must be something like the final decisive weapon."

"Very likely. Could it be Gundam."

Xu Xu coughed: "The naval intelligence department believes that the possibility of the submarine and minecraft being built under the bamboo shed is half. Considering that Hale has no sign of mastering steam engine technology, the possibility of a human-powered submarine is very high. If we don’t pay enough attention, one day the fleet will enter Manila Bay, and the tragedy of the Housatonic will happen more than 200 years in advance.”

"You're joking. If you say this, we still have to build the Consul class. Besides, even if it's true, the fishing sonar on our 8154 cruiser is already hungry and thirsty."

"Submarines have a long history, so it's not surprising that they can be built. It's just worthless. As long as there is a qualified lookout on board for this so-called submarine, it is impossible not to be discovered, and it cannot attack targets in flight."

"Submarines don't matter. If this traverser creates a simple mine and lets the Spaniards take it to Keelung to deploy it, it will pose a threat to our fleet sailing in Taiwan waters."

"Mine? This guy designed it, can the Spaniards build it?"

"Simple anchor mines are fine, but floating mines are easier to build and are much more convenient than cannons." Lin Shenhe said, "The trigger mechanism can use chemical fuzes. Since he can make thunder mercury, this thing is not difficult. If the Spaniards intend to give up the stronghold of Keelung and want to block us, mines are a good choice."

(End of this chapter)