"Suffer less?" The young old man and the major general touched his white beard and commented: "If you think so, it seems to be evading the important and taking the light."
"This is actually looking at the beginning and not the end." A colonel next to him said half-mockingly. He was Ding Hong, the supervisor of the Yingtian Army Arsenal.
"Senior may have exaggerated," Zhou Changfeng said calmly with a normal expression: "Based on my actual combat experience in the Battle of Uzang and the Spanish Civil War, rifles and light machine guns are used in 80% of cases. Shooting enemies within 200 meters, uh...if the distance is extended to 300 meters, the ratio will be more than 90."
"What about the other 10%?"
"Beyond three hundred meters, the accuracy of gun shooting will be greatly reduced. At this time, we should not rely on ordinary guns. It is the turn of mortars and heavy machine guns to exert their power."
At this time, an old man pushed open the door and came in. Everyone followed the sound and saw that it was Nan'an Hou Pang Lingqi.
Everyone present stood up in unison, "I know the commander after seeing him."
Although the honorific title is more formal, it is well known that Pang Lingqi is not talented in military affairs but hardworking, and in politics he is not hardworking but talented. The more something is lacking, the more one likes it, and everyone naturally follows suit. Military titles are more flattering than titles.
Pang Lingqi, who was still energetic, glanced at the people in the room, and then set his sights on Zhou Changfeng, "The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly. Naturally, the more complete the preparations before the war, the better. The more comprehensive and comprehensive the considerations, the better the chances of winning the war." The bigger.”
Isn’t this nonsense? It’s really like children making choices when co-authoring, and adults want everything?
"But...Senior, this is not the same thing. It would be best if we could get the best of both worlds. The problem is that the current technical conditions are not up to standard, so there must be a trade-off." Zhou Changfeng continued: "You can't have your cake and eat it too. Since we want to increase the firepower of medium and close infantry units, we must give up something accordingly.”
"But there are too many things to give up. The changes in military production involved in using brand-new bullets and guns are not small." Ding Hong said.
He pondered for two seconds and continued:
"Take our factory as an example. Without shifts, the annual output of 23cm machine ammunition is 20 million rounds, the monthly output is 24,000 Type 21 rifles, and 700 Type 33 light machine guns."
"Once the production line is changed, it takes one month to adjust, half a month of trial production, and one month of testing. The fastest it will take is two and a half months. After that, the production capacity will be only half of the current level, and it will take a year to return to what it is now."
"What's more, your so-called new rifle is semi-automatic. Its labor hours and costs are much greater than that of ordinary bolt-action rifles. It only takes fourteen man-hours and ninety yuan to make a Type 21 rifle. This new semi-automatic rifle will probably cost a lot of money. three times."
"Today's world situation... you can't tell when the war will break out. Our country is going to expand its military and prepare ordnance, and the main production capacity must not be changed."
Last year, the Consultative Council passed a basic combat readiness bill. The Ming Army expanded by four first-class infantry divisions and a field heavy artillery brigade. The Navy received an additional 120 million yuan, and the Air Force expanded by one fighter and one light bombing detachment.
And this year is bound to increase further. The military has been lobbying everywhere since the beginning of the year. It is said that members of the Consultative Yuan have been wrangling since June, and it has been three months now.
Obviously, the Army prefers to use the same resources to produce more common equipment, so as to arm as many troops as possible, rather than large-scale equipment that is too advanced.
Priority is given to filling up the front line, and secondly hoarding backups. After that, if there is still enough energy to make further attempts, this is the view of the conservative Ming Army.
Although the United States on the other side of the Pacific is equally conservative, the difference is that they are not limited by limited production capacity, but are simply stubborn and rigid, and even have some magical operations that return to nature.
So Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but think of the historical situation——
After the end of the war, when upgrading their main rifles, the Americans firmly chose the M14 automatic rifle, which fires full-power ammunition. Its actual combat performance in complex environments is poor and it is difficult to control when firing fully automatically. It has been criticized by people. The more reasonable AK47, which fires intermediate-power ammunition, is much inferior.
Zhou Changfeng quickly considered the wording of his reply to the question raised by the head of the Yingtian Arsenal.
He said sternly: "I understand your concerns, but I don't think it should be killed with one shot. Semi-automatic rifles that fire low-power rifle bullets are indeed expensive, but they should be within an acceptable range. Moreover, this rifle bullet is completely acceptable. The same caliber as the current bullets, modifying the production line can save a lot of time and resources.”
Most of the full-power rifle bullets used in countries around the world are second-generation rifle bullets that were finalized after the smokeless gunpowder era. The bullets have changed from round to pointed, and some details have been improved.
The muzzle kinetic energy index of full-power rifle bullets is generally very high. The German 7.92mm rifle bullet is about 3700J, the American 7.62mm rifle bullet is about 3800J, and even the weaker Japanese 6.5mm rifle bullet exceeds 2600J.
The size of these ammunition is large, and it will become bulky when the quantity is large. One Mauser 7.92mm heavy-pointed bullet is about 27g, and one hundred rounds is 2.7kg. With the bridge clip, it can basically reach 3kg.
Correspondingly, in order to fire these powerful ammunition, the guns were also large and heavy. Early automatic weapons such as automatic rifles and light machine guns were suitable for continuous fire only after relying on bunkers and arranging bipods.
During the interwar period, some people have realized that the combat distance between enemy and friendly infantry generally does not exceed 400m. In most cases, the power of traditional full-power ammunition is obviously excessive. The range and power can be appropriately reduced, as long as Just meet the combat requirements of 400m.
However, there is no doubt that stubborn conservative forces have the upper hand in many cases, and this advanced concept is difficult to convince the army veterans of various countries.
Therefore, until the end of the war, all countries in history were still equipped with traditional full-power rifle ammunition. Only the Germans led the trend and equipped the Stg44 assault rifle and 7.92×33㎜Kurz rifle ammunition, winning "the world's first large-scale actual combat use of intermediate power." Ammunition and Assault Rifle” double crown.
Moreover, the Germans had different opinions at first. The Stg44 almost died and was forced to be disguised as a submachine gun and mass-produced with the weapon number MP43. It was not until frontline officers and soldiers sent in favorable comments one after another that people's attitudes were reversed.
After the war, the Russians followed the trend and installed 7.62×39mm M43 rifle ammunition, as well as SKS and AK47; while the Americans continued to be stubborn and installed the 7.62×51mm NATO bullet, which is still considered a full-power rifle ammunition. It even forced Western countries to unify their equipment.
"In my opinion, this idea should be put on hold for the time being. The prospects are fickle and there is no room for major changes at the moment. If you have time, you can consider it again in the future." Pang Lingqi said in final decision.
However, considering that such denial can easily dampen the enthusiasm of young people, he added, "It is great to have such extraordinary ideas and deserves recognition, but whether it is applicable or not depends on many factors."
Although generals were overwhelmingly opposed to intermediate-power munitions, they were very interested in directional mines and jumping mines.
The directional mines that are still being improved will take at least half a year to produce results. Although the research on jumping mines has just begun, it will be much easier to dismantle and imitate them because Zhou Changfeng has a real object that he brought back from Spain.
Within a moment, everyone was already discussing whether to hand it over to an existing factory for mass production, or to choose a separate location to set up a separate factory.
Since Zhou Changfeng's report basically focused on weapons and equipment, and tactics were just embellishments, the meeting ended quickly.
It can be said that the attitude of the army bosses did not affect Zhou Changfeng. He originally just wanted to give it a try. If the Ming Army really dared to make drastic changes, it would be strange.
But if the mountains and rivers do not change, and the Army is not happy, then isn’t there a Navy and an Air Force?
The Army would rather not take advantage than suffer a loss, but maybe the bosses of the other two services like to trade small losses for big benefits.
So after returning to Qixia Prison that afternoon, he wrote two similar letters and sent them to the Navy Department and the Air Force Department respectively.
The advantages of intermediate-power ammunition are undeniable. Not only can the amount of ammunition carried be increased, but the design of the gun will also be lighter.
Today's mainstream light machine guns that fire full-power ammunition generally weigh 10 kilograms. The ZB-26 is about 10.6 kilograms and the DP-28 is about 10.7 kilograms. However, if it is switched to firing intermediate-power ammunition, a reasonably designed light machine gun can weigh 7 kilograms. The empty gun weight in kilograms.
The 3 kilograms saved will undoubtedly make the soldiers much more relaxed. On the contrary, they can also carry about 200 more rounds of ammunition with the same load.
In Zhou Changfeng's opinion, this advantage was inevitable. His own actual combat experience alone is not enough to change the views of the stubborn army generals. Now he can only hope for feedback from the front lines in the future.
On the last day of early September, the follow-up relief work for the Caozhou earthquake was still in full swing.
On that day, a 10,000-ton cargo ship named "Aurora" docked at the dock in the south of Yangzhou.
After half a month of sailing, the freighter hired by Wright Company to carry materials and parts arrived safely at its destination. The efficiency with which Wright Company fulfilled the contract surprised Akito.
Dozens of staff and employees from Zhongsheng Company were already waiting at the dock, and cranes and trucks were also ready.
One hundred thousand pages of technical drawings packed in dozens of boxes, one hundred engine parts in bulk, and seventeen engineers and mechanics were all negotiated in the production license and technology transfer contract.
The leader was a man in his early thirties, and he gave people a sense of elegance in his movements. He smiled and said in English: "Welcome, I am Yao Chaowen sent by the company to receive you. I will be responsible for all future life matters."
This London accent made Haydn Wilson, the chief engineer of the production guidance team, stunned for a moment, "Then let's go to the residence first."
As a part of the big deception plan, reception of these Americans should not be taken lightly. Wu Zhengren, also known as Zhan Shi of the Crown Prince's East Palace, after careful consideration, he handed over this job to a man who graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science and worked in British and American law. Yao Chaowen, who has traveled to the Three Kingdoms for several years.
Naturally, this matter must be handled by experts. It would be embarrassing if the secret was exposed.
Different from engineering, people like Yao Chaowen who go to Europe to study political economy and other liberal arts are always just to better deal with Westerners. Getting familiar with the local customs is the top priority.
After settling in, Haydn proposed to check out the factory buildings and machinery and equipment. So the next day, the core technical staff of the team, led by the employees of Zhongsheng Company, went to a building covering an area of several square meters in the southwestern suburbs of Yangzhou. A kilometer-long workshop.
The temperature in the autumn morning was quite pleasant, neither too cold nor too hot, and the sun was shining brightly.
"This industrial park was completed just a month ago. We plan to install two production lines." After getting off the car, Yao Chaowen pointed out the window and said: "That's the assembly workshop over there, and here is the No. 2 boring workshop."
Although at first they only planned to set up a shell company to deceive Americans, as they continued to do it, people suddenly felt that it was a waste to abandon it after they had worked so hard to get the engine production license.
Therefore, some people suggested that we simply go one step further and upgrade this empty private aircraft company into a genuine aircraft parts manufacturing company.
In view of the fact that the Ming Dynasty made an unexpected fortune during the Spanish Civil War, it was completely reasonable to use part of it for investment in war preparations. The Crown Prince approved the proposal after discussing with people from all parties.
Ever since, the fake show came true.
The steel-framed factory building is spacious and bright, and once you walk in, you will feel a strange sense of enlightenment.
Haydn looked around with admiration, put his hands on his hips and said, "It looks really good. Have your machines been set up?"
"There are still some precision machine tools that have not arrived, but the layout of the basic production line has begun." Yao Chaowen chose to answer truthfully.
The group of people shuttled among the dazzling array of machines, and many workers were moving, installing, and shouting coming and going.
From time to time, everyone asked the machines next to them and asked about some key technical indicators to make a preliminary judgment on whether qualified parts could be processed.
"These are hexagonal turret lathes produced by Yanjing No. 1 Heavy Machinery Group, with a spindle hole of 120 mm, twelve-level speed regulation, a speed range of 10 to 1,000 revolutions per minute, and a main motor power of 4,300 watts..."
"That's a semi-automatic gantry milling machine from Tianhua Machinery Company. The beam stroke is 600 mm, the milling head power is 5000 watts, the speed range is 45 to 600 revolutions per minute, and the standard cutter head diameter is 200 mm..."
"That's the forging workshop over there. The planned 1,000-ton hydraulic press has not arrived. Now these are 100-ton hydraulic presses and 300-ton hydraulic presses. This 300-ton die forging hydraulic press is a product of Hannover Mechanical Engineering Company and is used by many factories. , the performance is very good, the nominal force is 300 tons, the fixed output is 6 tons, and the pressing speed is 20 mm per second..."
Seeing this, an engineer said quietly: "I remember that our company's E3 workshop still has several British products from 30 years ago..."
When it comes to how advanced the machine is, Americans naturally disdain it, but it’s not like they can’t build it. But these machines in front of us are almost all brand-new things that have not been out of the factory for a long time, which is very enviable.
The old factory has the heritage of the old factory, and the new factory has the advantages of the new factory.
The card has been reviewed and it’s outrageous. After much thought, there are no harmonious words.
(End of chapter)
