Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 615 New Weapon
Jiang Muzhi and Li Chiqi improved the new gun mount, solved the locking device, and replaced it with better quality ball bearings.Finally passed the range and 50km march tests.The achievements of this major improvement made the General Staff decide to use metal gun mounts for all newly built artillery during the First Five-Year Plan period, and the original old wooden gun mounts will also be gradually transformed.The mechanical department urgently manufactured new gun mounts for three field artillery batteries.Then, even the frame of the artillery front car was improved.

Although there are not enough horses and the use of "replacement of animals and pawns", the front carriage of the artillery is still indispensable-not only for loading ammunition, but also because the center of gravity of the artillery is high, and it is not easy to drag Master the balance, and if you are not careful, you will be thrown upside down.The front cart can support the rear of the gun carriage during traction, balance the center of gravity, and disperse the pressure of the heavy gun body. The horses or people pulling the gun carriage only need to provide forward pulling force.

"After the improvement, the artillery moves much more flexibly." Ying Yu inspected the new artillery lined up on the shooting range.The artillerymen were running back and forth amidst the officer's command, simulating the firing procedure of the artillery.According to the requirements of the artillery training syllabus, the 8 gunners of each gun must undergo guard-changing training with each other in order to prepare for continuous fire in the event of casualties.According to the outline requirements: a group of well-trained gunners should be able to continue shooting when there are only two people left.According to Lin Shenhe, during the Civil War, there was an example in which only one gunner could keep the artillery functioning-of course, this was enough to get a medal.

"It would be great if there were horses." Lin Shenhe looked at the gunners who had been trained according to the artillery program he had written before and after running with regret. A company of 110 horses!It was literally a dream.

"You said you were going to get new shells, did you get any results? Gunners have to be familiar with loading and firing new shells." Zhang Bolin hurried over wearing a sweat vest.

"Come on, new shells are only better than old ones." Lin Shenhe yawned as he said that - he was going to hang red lanterns in the laboratory again in the afternoon.

Originally, in order to simplify the process, the Army's artillery was only equipped with the two simplest shells in batches-solid shells and shotgun shells.Grenades are also produced in small quantities, but they are only used for training and not for storage.

The grenade fired by the smoothbore gun has the same principle, and the gas fired from the cannon is used to ignite the time-delay fuze on the shell to detonate the shell.Therefore, special care must be taken when loading, and the fuze hole must be directed at the muzzle, otherwise once the gas directly rushes into the fuze hole, the shell will explode directly.In order to withstand higher chamber pressure, the cartridge case must be made very thick.A 12-pound spherical shell can only be filled with 900 grams of black powder.The fragments produced by its explosion are even less effective in killing personnel than solid bullets.The main purpose of artillery equipped with grenades is to deal with buildings and ships, and the other is to scare people—explosive bombs in this time and space are rare after all.

What he was going to develop was shrapnel.The structure of the shrapnel is more complicated than that of other spherical shells: a number of iron or lead projectiles and primers are loaded into the body together, and a time-delay fuze controls its detonation at a suitable height and distance.After the projectile is detonated by the priming charge, the projectile in the projectile will maintain the previous speed and fly towards the enemy in front, and its power is equivalent to a close shot of a shot.

The killing effect of shrapnel in the middle and long distance is very good compared with that of solid grenades, especially when attacking dense formations of enemy troops. If the timing of the fuze detonation is well grasped, a large number of enemies can be knocked down in an instant.However, early shrapnel shells were not very safe to shoot accurately-the projectiles inside the shell rubbed against each other during firing, which could easily detonate the gunpowder in the shell prematurely.

Lin Shenhe chose the shrapnel improved by British Army Captain Boxer in 1840.It has been greatly improved in structure, and of course it is more complicated.The projectile is mounted on the front of the projectile body, separated by an iron partition and the primer at the rear.The tail is equipped with a cup-shaped tail pad that can not only prevent the projectile from rolling in the barrel, but also expand under the action of the gas pressure during firing to hold the air.This structure makes the entire projectile lighter at the rear and heavier at the front, combined with the unique shape behind the tail pad, the shell is quite stable in flight, and its accuracy is much higher than that of contemporary shrapnel.When the delay fuze detonates the priming charge, the iron partition will push the projectiles forward when the projectile body is exploded, so that they are shot forward at a cone angle, instead of being scattered randomly like other shrapnel shells. It further increases its lethality.

When a 12-pound cannon fires a shrapnel, it can play a role at a distance of 1100 meters, and its power is far better than a grenade that can only explode twenty large fragments.

With this gadget, the Fubo army can effectively kill fast-moving cavalry groups at medium and long distances, without having to wait until 200 meters away to shoot with shotguns.

There was no need to mass-produce shrapnel to deal with the Guangdong Ming Army, which was mainly based on foot troops.However, it will be a matter of time before the hegemony of the mainland, so it is better to take advantage of the opportunity of the Ming army's suppression to test it in advance.

Finally, he wants to modify the delay fuze used by artillery.With shrapnel, it is very important to use a safe and reliable fuze.

In the past, Chamberlin's smoothbore artillery used the simplest time fuze when training to launch grenades.It's so easy that everyone thinks it's too easy.A hollow wooden tube with openings at both ends - the traverser simply forgot the effort of processing the hollow wooden tube, and directly used a thin bamboo tube - the tube contained slow-burning gunpowder with a very stable burning speed.The letter tube is marked with graduations.When using it, the gunner first estimates the firing distance, finds out the distance and the flight time corresponding to the type of shell from the artillery manual, then cuts off the corresponding length according to the scale on the fuze, inserts it into the fuze hole of the shell, one end is exposed outside the shell, and the other One end is in contact with the explosive in the shell.Finally, insert the shell into the barrel and ensure that the position of the fuze is facing forward-then simply install a wooden bullet holder directly on the spherical shell that uses the time fuze.Ensure the accuracy of the direction when loading.

This kind of fuze is intuitive and convenient to operate, but because the fuse is inserted manually, the depth of insertion will affect the result of detonation.Moreover, the fuze hole where the fuze is inserted cannot be completely sealed with the fuse, and it is sometimes unsafe to use.Lin Shenhe decided to imitate the Bormann fuze directly.This is the best and most reliable time fuze that can be found on a smoothbore gun.It is a flat metal cylinder with threads on the outside, which can be screwed into the fuze hole, and the time is engraved on the upper surface. When using it, just punch a hole on the required time scale, and then screw it into the fuze port of the shell. The maximum time for the Bormann fuze is only 5.5 seconds.Not suitable for shells with slow muzzle velocity like mortars.

After drawing the three-dimensional view of the fuze, he handed over the drawing to the mechanical department.

"This thing needs to be manufactured with a certain degree of precision. I have to find a veteran to do it." Zhan Wuya looked at it and said, "Brass?"

"Correct."

"It's quite small, and the brass ones won't consume much." Zhan Wuya looked at the size, "How about making a thousand first?"

"No problem, I think Zhang Bolin's gunners have no chance to fire a thousand rounds of grenades and shrapnel."

"One more thing, since now we want to mass-produce grenades and shrapnel shells, we can manufacture complete shells of these two types of ammunition." Lin Shenhe said, "After all, the firing speed of integral shells is much faster."

The so-called whole shell is to fix a cloth charge bag under the wooden shell support of grenade and shrapnel.In this way, the original steps of loading gunpowder and loading bombs are combined into one.

The guns were rumbling on the shooting range. While the army was stepping up preparations for battle, the navy was also busy with the trial production of new equipment.The combat mission of the navy is to blockade, and it is also responsible for defending the Lingao coastline.Especially the two key ports of Bopu and Mayao.

The navy has to send most of its ships to take on the task of maritime blockade, and at the same time continue to take on the task of transporting supplies to Sanya. The number of ships that can directly defend the port will be greatly reduced.Bopu's defense system is mainly heavy artillery, with strong long-range firepower, but the force to directly defend the port is a bit weak.Ma Niao has only one gun tower and one sea platoon, and the defense force is even weaker.

"Our garrison in Maliu is too weak." Chen Haiyang said at the combat meeting, "Maiu is our raw material supply base for salinization, as well as a modern salt factory. The garrison force only has one platoon and one gun tower—— It is equipped with a 12-pound mountain pomegranate. If the enemy breaks through the sea blockade and lands in Maniao - there are steam salt factories, windmills, and boilers in the local area. As long as they are set on fire, they will suffer heavy losses .”

There is a shallow water port in Ma Niao, which is very suitable for the small-tonnage ships used by the Ming army to carry out penetrating landing operations.

"It's a bit late to talk about building forts now."

"No, one month is enough." Mei Wan, who came to the meeting, said, "Give me enough resources. In one month, I can build a large infantry company equipped with heavy artillery for wartime garrison." Bastion."

"Can you?" The participants whispered for a while.He Ming nodded: "I'll fight for it. But you have to make sure to finish it within a month."

"I promise to finish it." Mei Wan said.

"Instead of building a bastion, it is better to build some mines to seal off the port and defend against the infiltration of enemy ships." Li Di, as the port director and commander of the fortress, never forgot about the mines.

"Sea mines? I'm afraid that our own ship will be blown up." Chen Haiyang is very aware of the effectiveness of sea mines, so he is even more hesitant to use them.

The technique of triggering the anchor mine is very simple, but the navy does not have mine-sweeping equipment available, which is very inconvenient once mine-sweeping is needed.In the event of unanchored and floating mines, with the width of the Qiongzhou Strait, it is simply a sharp weapon for bombing ships indiscriminately.

In the past, navies and weapons designers have considered the creation of electro-optical mines for defense within harbor waterways.However, the anti-corrosion and leakage prevention of electric wires in seawater and the problems of unanchored mines could not be solved well, and finally the scheme of electric mines was also given up.

Another kind of scheme is the pole mine boat proposed by Wen Desi.The original design of the rod mine boat was a rowboat with an armored deck, driven by human oars, and the charge package was fixed on the side of the ship, and a wire was released to connect with the rod mine boat.The rod mine boat then quickly reversed its oars to a safe distance, and then used electric ignition to detonate the charge package.

Although this design fully takes into account the safety of the mineboat, it is found that it is not convenient to use the paddle when the rowboat is actually used for the simulation test. It is difficult for the sailors to maintain a calm paddling rhythm under enemy fire. The maneuverability is not as good as expected.And the electric fire has brought the old problem: the waterproof wire can't solve it.So the minecraft project has been shelved.Now guarding the inner harbor are several traffic boats equipped with typewriter repeating guns. The firepower is very strong, but it is not powerful enough when facing large ships.

"We are now able to mass-produce steam-powered three-engine boats, which can be completely refitted with off-the-shelf equipment." Wen Desi was very enthusiastic about this matter, and began to sell his mineboats again
The so-called three-engine boat is a standardized motor boat manufactured by the shipyard in order to unify the small transport boats used in offshore and inland rivers.According to the size, it is divided into large hair, medium hair and small hair.

Wen Desi's proposal is to use a wooden-hulled mid-engine boat as the base boat. This boat has a full-load displacement of 15.5 tons, a total length of 13 meters, a width of 2.9 meters, a molded depth of 1.5 meters, and an average draft of 0.78 meters.Install a nest-type small steam engine.4.5 knots when fully loaded.Although the speed is slightly slower, it is more than enough to use maneuverability in ports and coastal ports.

With mobility, the electric ignition used in the past for safety is no longer necessary.

This new type of thunder boat uses a steam center launch boat as a prototype boat, and a layer of iron plate is laid on it as an armor-the iron plate does not need to be thick, as long as it can withstand the shooting of an arquebus gun.The bow is a long metal pole that retracts into the hull.The front end of the metal rod has a detachable fastener to engage with the rod mine body.The pole mine itself is a flat cylindrical wooden box containing 30KG of black powder.Its front end is flat, and there are many barbed nails on it, trying to be fixed on the ship plank.The tail is an unlocking device, which is connected with the fastener at the front end of the mine rod.Once the fixing is completed, the personnel in the cabin immediately pull the device to separate the mine and the boat.The unlocking device on the mine rod is connected with the fire rope of the igniter. Once the lock is released, the fire rope is pulled apart by the pulling force, and the fire pipe ignites the fuse and starts to burn.Detonate the mine until the delay is over.

The detonating device of the pole mine uses a wooden handle grenade ignition device, which is simple and reliable.It is not difficult to manufacture it for the industries of the Transverse Group.

After the mine and the boat are separated, the mine rod boat can return to a safe zone, and the mine rod is retracted in the boat to reinstall the mine and choose an opportunity to attack again.

Because of the steam engine power, the maneuverability of the mineboat is guaranteed.Although the tonnage is small and the speed is slow, it is not very useful in the open sea, but it still has a great effect in the narrow inner harbor.

Mobility and armor can ensure that it will not be attacked or jumped in close-range melee, and the pole mine can be reloaded multiple times.The cost of this kind of boat is not high, it can be mass-produced quickly, and it is just right for protecting the port.

"Is the combination of the mine body and the ship guaranteed? I'm afraid it will take a lot of impact force to fix the mine body to the hull."

"It may not be possible to paddle, but the steam power is still enough. We can add a little sticky thing—such as gum to increase adhesion."

"How can the operator observe such a fully enclosed armor?"

"Use the armored shutters." Wen Desi said, "See this circular armored tower that protrudes from the hull, and there are six armored observation windows arranged in a circle on the tower's body."

There are two people in the steering tower, one helmsman steers the front, the captain sits in a slightly higher position behind the helmsman, his seat can be rotated, and the outside situation can be observed through the shutters, the helmsman steers according to his password, the captain can also Command the whole boat through the intercom.

"Two engineers are in charge of the steam engine, and two sailors are in charge of operating the mine. Add a backup—he can be used to help add coal, and seven people are enough for the whole boat. In addition to the pre-installed one , and prepare four mines." Wen Desi pointed to his design.

According to Wen Desi's vision, there is no problem for this kind of mine boat to be used to defend the port before the traverser makes a flywheel torpedo. It is at least more capable of damaging than a machine gun boat. Hundred-ton ships.

"Ma Niao deploys four ships, and Bo Pu deploys ten ships. Half of them are ready to go, and half are resting. As long as they can destroy two or three enemy ships, the opponent will have to run away in fright."

Immediately decided to submit an emergency shipbuilding case to the Planning Institute for the urgent construction of [-] mine boats and eight machine gun boats.

Wu De immediately approved the shipbuilding project. As for whether the mine boat is so useful, it is not a big problem in his opinion-if it is useless, the armor will be dismantled and used as a transportation boat, anyway, it will not be wasted.

Zhan Wuya received a clear order from He Ming to organize militias in all factories.Take one hour a day for military training.

"Military training with spears?"

"Use spears to assassinate and queue first. You can use the trainer's gun to hold the gun first. There is also bombing - Hailin has handed over hundreds of coaches. You take a hundred to train the workers He Ming said, "I have already submitted an application to the Planning Institute, requesting an urgent expansion of rifle production, and then everyone will have rifles—you have to select the most reliable and resolute elements from the workers' militia as the basic militia, Ready to call anytime."

"What? We want to lure workers to fight." Zhan Wuya was taken aback. Even if one of the industrial workers he managed to train died, it would be a big loss.

"They are to serve as reserves and garrison troops. They will not be mobilized to fight wars." He Ming explained, "In addition to factories, communes and local villages should also be mobilized. But the workers' self-defense force will be the main force. "

(End of this chapter)