In the final analysis, war is actually a game of human control of "firepower". In the primitive era, the ancestors of mankind held wooden sticks and stone spears to chase prey and fight with other tribes. Strong muscles burned carbohydrates and chemical energy surged out. .
Every nation in the world has worshiped Hercules in the classical era. Whether it is the Mediterranean civilization or the Chinese civilization, human beings' fascination with power in ancient legends is unreserved.
This release of chemical energy is actually a form of controlled combustion. It seems that it is not impossible to call the combat power output of primitive people firepower.
Later, humans became more and more clever and began to use the elasticity of animal tendons and plants to store energy and create various long-range strike weapons such as bows and crossbows, which also fall into the category of firepower output.
It was not until the birth of gunpowder weapons that humans could finally find controllable firepower output materials from nature. From that moment on, humans finally got rid of the limits of muscles, and it was finally normal for the weak to defeat the strong.
Human beings are becoming smarter and smarter, and new technologies are emerging one after another. The first industrial revolution was just a settling period for human rational thinking. It will not be until the second industrial revolution, when electrification and the petroleum industry become popular, that science and technology will show an explosive blowout.
Xiao Letian understands this general trend. He knows that the word "firepower" will become the only core in human wars in the future. Any strategy is ridiculous in the face of the firepower of one force to defeat ten societies.
Steel battleships replaced wooden-hulled sail battleships, steam engines replaced sail power, and the caliber of artillery became larger and larger, so that in the end the ancient two-side division could no longer be used, and only the central axis arrangement could be used.
In fact, in the eyes of engineers, the emergence of the Dreadnought-class battleship and the design process of this central axis-arranged gun are not just about the 180-degree free-rotating shooting angle. Another very important reason is that the main gun firepower is too high. Because of the arms race, the caliber of the main gun is getting larger and larger, and the recoil is getting stronger and stronger.
At this time, the main gun can only be placed on the central axis so that the main keel of the ship can directly bear the recoil force and this force can be safely transmitted into the sea.
This is actually an inevitable transformation of the ship in order to adapt to the new firepower.
In the pre-dreadnought era, you could find all kinds of fresh warship designs. The representative warships at that time were the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the main guns were still distributed on both sides of the warship.
In the post-dreadnought era, navies around the world collectively adopted the design style of central axis arrangement. At this time, the performance of main guns began to increase rapidly.
The caliber continues to become thicker and the magnification continues to increase. Some countries' warships are still half-built in shipyards, while other countries' more powerful warships have begun to be put into production.
The battleship that countless designers kept claiming would not be outdated for fifty years turned out to be a second-tier battleship within three years of its launch. The shipbuilding frenzy in the post-Dreadnought era can be called a miracle in the history of human naval development.
But this same wave of shipbuilding has also drained the money bags of countless countries, and many second-rate powers are almost on the verge of bankruptcy.
It is worth mentioning that the 1922 Washington Naval Limitation Treaty was born based on such a background. At that time, the naval arms race was so cruel that the sun never set on the empire. The major maritime powers in the meeting were about to go bankrupt. It was unanimously decided to limit the size of each country's main warships.
The epiphany cannot exceed 35,000 tons, and the caliber of the main gun cannot exceed 16 inches, which is 406 mm. Well, how wide is the diameter of 40 centimeters? You can use a ruler to measure it yourself, and then imagine how powerful such a thick barrel is, and how wide and thick the cannonball is.
Not only the navy, but also the army is constantly exploring the issue of increasing firepower output. The caliber of field artillery is getting larger and larger, and the power of the shells is becoming more and more powerful. Finally, there are even rail guns, abnormal weapons with a caliber approaching 300 mm.
What's even more perverted is yet to come. During World War II, Germany once produced a Gustav rail gun, commonly known as the Dora cannon. Its caliber actually reached an astonishing 800 mm. The howitzer shell it fired weighed 48 tons, and a specially designed destroyer The weight of the bunker's shells actually reached 7 tons.
Such artillery can reach an incredible range of more than 40 kilometers, making it the undisputed king of artillery in the world.
The story of the Navy and the Army is not the whole story. In the future, the Air Force will not play the role. Since the aircraft can hang the bomb, it does not need to rely on the kinetic energy of the gunpowder explosion to propel the bomb. The power of the aircraft itself has provided enough power for the bomb, so that The aerial bomb can only be loaded with warhead gunpowder without considering the launch part.
In this way, the power of aerial bombs can be reflected. The killing efficiency is much higher than that of artillery. The scream of the Stuka dive bomber in World War II was a nightmare for the entire Allied Forces. The gasoline bomb of the B52 strategic bomber of the United States in the late World War II Can burn down the whole of Tokyo.
Firepower! Human beings endlessly pursue the power of fire. Even if the God of War is reborn, he will still tremble in the face of absolute power.
Xiao Letian will never take detours. He is even developing forward in leaps and bounds. The Chinese nation missed the first industrial revolution, so it must not miss the second industrial revolution. In this fire chase game, he must To be ahead of the world.
This is not Xiao Letian’s arrogant fantasy, this is really possible!
Because Xiao Letian understands that it is not always smooth sailing for the world's great powers when developing armaments! Now many Western military strategists and theorists are also thinking about the future development situation and limits of firepower.
But they can only explore bit by bit in the laboratory, mathematical formulas, and weapons testing grounds, and then move forward step by step.
For example, the caliber of artillery must be 88 mm technology mature before he will study 120 mm. They will never develop by leaps and bounds like Xiao Letian, doubling from 100 mm to 210 mm at once. This is actually against the West. The process of scientific research.
Taking the example of martial arts as an example, Western engineers believe that Xiao Letian's moves are called evil moves and belong to the behavior of gamblers. If he succeeds, he is good at telling fortunes. If he fails, countless resources will be wasted.
Not only that, those military strategists in the West who put firepower first have to face resistance from many aspects. For example, engineers, you can't say you want to build a 500-caliber artillery, and they will build it for you. Scientists and engineers will also object to your objection. Realistic fantasy.
There is also the issue of national finance. No matter how much money the British Empire has, it cannot waste it excessively. The Chancellor of the Exchequer also has his own strategic considerations.
Even the military has its own calculations. The military is more willing to purchase mature and reliable weapons than to use the lives of soldiers as testers of new weapons.
