Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 153 The Trouble with New Artillery

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  The first "Red River Valley Cup World Architect Design Award" proposed to be held will also have a whitewashing effect. Li Fushou plans to invite Lord Victor as the honorary chairman of the Grand Prix to enhance the competition's compelling performance.

  This kind of blessing and cost-free thing, presumably Lord Victor is very happy to do it.

  Li Fushou’s face showed a calmness not commensurate with his age, his deep eyes stared at the Red River Valley for a long time, and he let out a groan-like sigh; “Ah...this city is so beautiful.”

He walked back proudly and carefully reviewed the proposal of the "Red River Valley Cup World Architect Design Competition". Considering that the competition will be held in a year and a half, there will be plenty of time for publicity. He believes that it will certainly attract world-renowned buildings. Teachers flocked to join in the grand event.

  Li Fushou filed a pen, signed his opinions on the proposal, and handed over to the specific undertaker to arrange the related matters.

After signing this important proposal, the following is a report of the situation from South Africa. This is a detailed report of the situation sent by the envoy sent by the black guard to South Africa. From the words of the top secret report, it can be seen that the situation in South Africa is now tense. It's about to happen.

  As of the end of November 1880

In several important towns such as Pretoria, Rustenburg, Leidenberg, and Standerton, the Boers, who were dissatisfied with the British rule, had frequent activities. They joined together in private and began to openly rebelled against the colonial government and attacked the royal family. A series of bad incidents occurred in the police and public servants.

  Now this is a big gunpowder keg. Any tiny bit of spark will cause a devastating explosion and destroy the foundation of the British Empire.

  Since the Zulu War in 1879, Britain has eliminated the Zulu Kingdom and relieved the Boers from the biggest threat.

During the three years when the British ruled the Transvaal Republic, they did not improve the living conditions of the middle and lower-class Boers, nor did they increase investment or improve financial, economic and political treatment. Instead, they allowed British businessmen to speculate on land and expropriate the Boers. In the past, the taxes owed to the Transvaal Republic and the repressive rule have caused widespread dissatisfaction among the Boers.

  September 1880

  In order to confiscate a large number of guns from blacks, the "gun riots" took place in Basutoland (now Lesotho), the British protectorate, and the situation in South Africa suddenly became tense.

  The main British troops stationed in Transvaal went south to suppress the riots. The total number of British troops remaining in Transvaal did not exceed 3,000, and the defense was empty.

  This provides an excellent opportunity for the Boers who are ready to move. Boers from all over the world have gathered to Paldkraal. There are already thousands of people. Obviously, they are not here for tourism and shopping.

  According to reliable intelligence obtained by secret agents from various channels;

The Boers are preparing to hold a National Assembly. They nominate the highly respected Paul Krueger, Piet Joubert and Pretorias Jr. among the Boers as their leaders, announce the restoration of the Republic of South Africa and make all preparations for armed resistance. This means that the war is on the verge.

  Li Fushou gently concealed the dossier. Although he was in the Australian mainland thousands of miles away in South Africa, he could still feel the force of the rain and the rain, and the black clouds pressed the city.

  Since he set foot on the land of the Australian mainland in 1876, Li Fushou has changed the status quo of this vast continent and deviated from the established trajectory towards the unknown future.

  However, this lonely overseas continent has no sense of existence in the international turmoil. The world situation is still moving according to the established historical trajectory. This includes South Africa, which is about to break out of war.

Do not think that the situation in South Africa has nothing to do with Australia. As a dominion under the rule of the British Empire, once South Africa encounters a major setback in the war, the British Empire will deploy its troops all over the world, including Ireland, Canada, India and Australia. This is almost a certainty. thing.

  With the poor numbers of the British Empire Army, to maintain global colonial rule, cannon fodder troops from the dominions and colonies are indispensable.

  If the original history has not changed

The first Anglo-Berg war that is about to break out will end with the Boers' complete self-government status and the establishment of a self-governing government of the Transvaal Republic under the control of Her Majesty the Queen of the British Empire, which is entirely owned by the Boers. The fuse of the cloth war.

  The root cause is that wealth is moving.

  Transvaal, rich in diamonds and gold, is a treasured land, and its geographical location is extremely important, which makes the British Empire unable to let go.

  Li Fushou’s slender fingers tapped gently on the table. He was not thinking about this, but whether there was an opportunity for Australia under the administration of the Prime Minister of Downing Street, who implemented the proper Jing policy?

  Thinking about it, he sighed with regret;

  The timing is still immature!

  Among Australia’s current population of more than 3.7 million, immigrants from the mainland account for 46%, or about 1.7 million, of which young men account for the vast majority.

  White descendants from European countries are still the mainstream of the Australian population. They mainly live in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, mainly engaged in animal husbandry and gold mining.

  Especially in the two populous states of New South Wales and Victoria, whites still firmly occupy the mainstream position of society, which is easy to change.

  Once a campaign for the establishment of an autonomous government is launched and the current better situation is broken, it will easily lead to internal divisions in Australia, and the war will continue for a long time.

  According to the advantages of the main venue in Queensland, it may temporarily gain the upper hand. If it is cut off from foreign trade and ties with the southern populous state, it will be caught in a long-term tug of war, and the future prospects are unpredictable.

  When the war cloud covers Queensland and the current prosperous situation is broken, how many people will still stand on the side of the Lord Earl of Queensland, willing to use their lives and blood to fight for more autonomy?

  This will be a big question mark. Li Fushou dare not take risks and has no squandering capital. He can only dispel this unrealistic assumption in his mind.

  It’s easy to ignite the fuse of war. If you want to extinguish it, you don’t have to rely on Li Fushou’s will. You still have to see the truth on the battlefield.

  Roughly calculate

  The current war rushed to establish a self-governing government has a winning rate of less than 47%. Coupled with the intervention of the British Empire, there is a 10% chance to be subtracted.

  If postponed for a few years

With today’s increasing immigration and greater strength, the Red River Valley’s chances of winning will increase dramatically, and it will increase to more than 60% in three years at the latest, more than 70% in 5 years, and more than in 8 years. 90%.

  Eight years later, it will be 1888. I was 28 years old. It was when I was very young. From this point of view, the time is not too late. Due to the greatly enhanced strength of my side, the damage caused by the war will be much smaller.

  Li Fushou was thinking about it and took a sip, only to find that the cup was empty, so he raised his voice and said, "Come on, add tea."

  The maid walked in and filled the tea cup with fragrant tea. She carefully raised her head and looked at the master Li Fushou. Seeing that he didn't care at all, she couldn't help but sighed in her heart and quietly exited.

  Contemplation for a moment

  Li Fushou repeatedly weighed things over, so he let go of this worry and picked up the documents on the desk to continue reviewing.

  This is a proposal for the development of the military industry. Li Fushou took a few glances and became disinterested. He signed the word "No" at the end of the proposal and wrote a line after thinking about it; it will not be considered within ten years.

  What's the joke?

  Australia, with a population of less than 4 million, still wants to develop a military industry. Why don’t you go to heaven?

  For a long time in the future, Australia is only a sparsely populated small and medium-sized country (defined by population), and it does not have the conditions to develop advanced industries such as military industry, heavy chemical industry and high-precision optics.

  Determined from the scientific research foundation of colleges and universities, market size, population base and international environment, Australia is inherently inadequate and it is impossible to develop all industries.

  If you don’t have a military industry, you can buy it. From guns and cannons to warships, there are many arms suppliers in the international market. A small place like Australia can buy a military modernization, which saves much time and effort than its own R&D and production.

  In fact, Red River Valley has been doing this secretly all the time.

  Purchase a certain amount of munitions in installments and batches each year, mainly firearms and ammunition, plus some heavy machine guns and army medium-caliber rapid artillery, secretly stored for emergency needs.

In addition, almost everyone in Australia has a gun and there is no shortage of guns and ammunition. In order to cope with the expansion of the Four Cavalry Guards this year, the medium-caliber fast gun imported 60 French Mle187595mm field cannons. Each gun uses two horses to pull, which is the most current Advanced breech loading artillery.

  During the Franco-Prussian War

  The French army was beaten by the new German Krupp cannon and couldn't find the North. The French knew their shame and courageously, and quickly abandoned the old-fashioned front-muzzle gun and made every effort to develop a more powerful new type of artillery.

  In 1875, French engineer Raitolle improved on the British Armstrong screw bolt and used it on the French Mle187595mm field cannon.

  This type of screw bolt has excellent reliability and airtightness. Its excellent design makes it surpass the German artillery and become the most advanced army rapid artillery in the world today, ahead of the British Armstrong artillery.

  Compared with the cheaper and better German Krupp quick guns, the only drawback of the French Mle187595mm field cannon is that it is expensive. A 95mm gun is almost three times the price of the German quick guns.

  The wealthy Queensland Earl did not care about the money, so he ordered 60 at one time. Except for the 24 equipment for the four guards, all the extra artillery went to the reserve.

  Australia is a British colony. Why doesn’t the Red River Valley buy British artillery?

  The reason is simple, because today’s British artillery is very backward.

Starting in 1865, the British did not know what their heads were thinking. They turned on the historical reversal, abandoned the Armstrong artillery loaded with breech, and forced the company to produce a long history of breech-loaded artillery, both the local army and the Royal Navy. It is equipped with this kind of front gun.

  The reason turned out to be the lofty lords of London, who felt that the rear-loaded artillery had high requirements for artillery, the training time was long, and the manufacturing cost was high, which was not conducive to large-scale deployment.

  From 1865 to 1880, Armstrong all produced breech-loaded artillery, and the matching shells were designed to match the rifling shape to facilitate loading.

This kind of artillery loading method is really painful for the artillery, especially the high-pound naval guns. After every shot of the artillery, they must be adjusted back to the lowest depression angle. Push forward from the muzzle of the muzzle.

  Due to the rifling, the speed of the projectile cannot be too fast, otherwise it will get stuck, which makes the rate of fire of the artillery touching.

  An accidental major accident in February 1879 completely frustrated the lords in London and became an opportunity for the British Army’s artillery reform.

A 12.5-inch RML Armstrong gun on the battleship   Thunder was reloaded once the artillery was loaded with one shell due to a mistake by the crew.

  As a result, at the moment of launch, two projectiles exploded in the barrel, causing 9 sailors to die on the spot and as many as 35 injured.

  This kind of artillery was strenuous to reload, and it was difficult to check whether it was reloaded, which caused the military's anger to erupt completely.

  Even if we recognize the mistakes of the previous decision, the British army and Royal Navy are equipped with a large-scale front-loaded Armstrong artillery, and the replacement of the equipment is expensive, so the army still has to pinch the nose to use.

  So Red River Valley cannot buy advanced artillery in the UK. Both the British Empire Army and the Royal Navy are using Armstrong guns loaded with breech. Where can there be breech guns for sale?

  The ship is small and turns around. You can buy which country’s equipment is advanced. In the event of a conflict, you will at least not suffer from weapons.

  Li Fushou thought of the Deep Blue Alchemy Workshop, and could not help but sigh secretly.

  Currently, I provide my own ideas. The German expert team led by the German engineer Baron Gretzka has developed a new type of artillery prototype with a hydraulic recoil machine.

  But the problem also arises from this, and it is a technical problem that is almost impossible to solve.

  That is, the hydraulic recoil machine is unreliable, and the leakage of water and oil is serious. After a few shots, the sealing rubber ring is damaged and becomes a pile of scrap iron. This is one of them.

  According to the current poor technological level of Australia's Red River Valley, it is impossible to solve the problem of high-performance sealing rubber materials.

  Secondly, because the rear breech bolt still uses the French patented screw structure, the rate of fire has only increased from two rounds per minute to 4 rounds per minute, which makes the significance of this artillery greatly inferior.

  The cost of the new artillery is much higher than that of the old artillery. You can purchase more retractable artillery at the same price. Then why should the user buy this new type of hydraulic double-entry artillery that is both unreliable and expensive?

  Li Fushou did not expect that the golden ideas he provided would give birth to such a nondescript strange doll, which made him dumbfounded.

  The development of a new type of artillery has never been successful by a few experts hiding in a laboratory. It involves the cooperation of multidisciplinary experts to solve technical difficulties together, reflecting the scientific and technological strength and heritage of a country.

  These conditions are completely unavailable in the Red River Valley. Li Fushou’s idea is good, but in reality he has encountered difficult problems that are difficult to solve, so he can only call for nothing.

  Retractable artillery in the early nineteenth century, the barrel and the carriage are rigidly connected, and there is no cushioning recoil device.

  When the gun is fired, the huge recoil will push the whole cannon away from the gun position, or even jump up high, not only injuring the gun, but also easily injuring the gunner.

  Each time the gun is fired, the gun must be pushed back to its original position and recalibrated.

  Each aiming is an isolated event, which cannot be corrected by the previous impact point, so the best artillery is a mathematician, who can quickly solve complex shooting elements, which is equivalent to doing one math problem after another.

  Small-caliber artillery can improve stability by increasing weight, but large-caliber artillery can't help it.

  Take the 95mm caliber field artillery as an example. To prevent the carriage from moving backward, the weight must be at least 38 tons.

  This is a disaster for the Army. Who can pull such a heavy gun? How can you quickly enter the gun position as the troops move?

  So invented the retreat gun with upper and lower gun mounts and **** slide rails. Its barrel is rigidly connected to the upper gun mount, but the upper and lower gun mounts are separated.

  Now in the world

  The embryonic form of the re-entry machine has appeared, which is mostly used in factory equipment, using spring or air as the re-entry power, while the hydraulic re-entry machine is the latest attempt. Nowadays, the research and development has fallen into a technical bottleneck.

  (End of this chapter)