Luo Zhixue was very satisfied with the series of drills with the five-pound bronze cannon.
This kind of artillery is much more powerful than the two-and-a-half-pound field artillery that was the main force of the previous Baoxiang Army.
In a precise artillery strike within 500 meters, the hit rate of this five-pound bronze cannon is quite amazing, and more importantly, it is powerful.
Especially at the distance of 500 meters to 7800 meters, the power is much greater and the hit rate is higher. This means that the field artillery unit of the Baoxiang Army can completely attack at a distance of 700 meters or even further. , conduct covering artillery bombardment on cluster targets.
The previous two-and-a-half kilogram field artillery, after the distance was slightly longer, not to mention the hit rate issue, even the power was far from enough.
As a result, the Baoxiang Army rarely launched artillery attacks on enemies more than six or seven hundred meters away, and most of the time the artillery fire range was within five hundred meters.
Even at a distance of 500 meters, the lethality of a two-and-a-half kilogram field gun is not very good. It often takes about 350 meters to obtain a more objective lethality.
But now, this five-pound bronze field gun still maintains considerable lethality at a distance of six to seven hundred meters.
Even if the bombardment hits a target one thousand meters away, the lethality is still some.
The installation of this new type of field artillery will directly increase the long-range attack range of the Baoxiang Army from about five to six hundred meters to a distance of 800 to one thousand meters.
Of course, the hit rate of artillery fire at this distance is relatively average, and it can only carry out covering artillery fire on large-scale cluster targets.
But the problem is that when fighting these days, no matter whether it is the Baoxiang Army or the Ming Army, they use dense formations. When fighting in the wild, they are all huge infantry phalanxes gathered together.
Under such circumstances, even if the hit rate of long-distance coverage of artillery bombardment is not good, a certain bombardment effect can still be obtained.
In addition to being more powerful, what Luo Zhixue values very much is that the weight of this five-pound field gun is controlled in a relatively good range and its maneuverability is good.
As for field artillery, those that can run in the wild are called field artillery. Artillery that cannot accompany infantry marches and cannot maneuver on the field battlefield cannot be regarded as field artillery.
After watching several rounds of live firing of the five-pound bronze field cannon, Luo Zhixue was satisfied and watched another round of live firing of the two-and-a-half-pound bronze field cannon, and then watched the live firing of the mortar.
There is nothing new about these. The reason why I still watch them is simply that since I have come here, I can’t just leave after watching the test firing of the five-pound field gun.
The other artillery units in the First Artillery Regiment also wanted to show off in front of Luo Zhixue.
As a good boss, you still have to give your subordinates a chance to show off occasionally.
After watching the live ammunition tests of other artillery pieces, Luo Zhixue took advantage of the time he still had to inspect the military camps, infantry training and other conditions.
That night, Luo Zhixue hosted a banquet for military generals, mainly artillery officers, to talk and boost morale.
Zhang Malin, the artillery director, was very happy about this.
Although the First Artillery Brigade was downsized into the First Artillery Regiment, Zhang Malin, who had been serving as the brigade commander, also resigned. After the downsizing of the First Artillery Regiment, its commander was Colonel Huang Xiangbin, commander of the First Artillery Battalion. .
Today, although Zhang Malin no longer serves in the field force, he is still the most important artillery general in the Baoxiang Army, responsible for the construction of the army's artillery force and the command of large-scale artillery operations.
As a leading figure in the artillery, Zhang Malin was naturally happy to see Luo Zhixue attaching importance to artillery.
After the banquet, Zhang Malin came over to see Luo Zhixue when the party was about to end, saying that he wanted to report back on the recent artillery development.
Luo Zhixue could also see that Zhang Malin was simply looking for opportunities to get close to each other to avoid being marginalized.
But he didn't object. His subordinates took the initiative to find direct reporting jobs. This was a good thing and his enthusiasm should not be suppressed.
Zhang Malin saw that Luo Zhixue seemed to be in a good mood, and immediately added a few more words of complaint: "Your Majesty, the overall development of the artillery departments is relatively good now. The First Artillery Regiment has begun to install five-pound field guns. I guess I can get another sentry next month.”
"However, the current artillery production is still relatively limited. Now, except for the first artillery regiment, the other four artillery regiments are still far from full strength!"
"Among the other current artillery units, in addition to the First Artillery Regiment, which is fully equipped and is preparing to gradually replace the five-pound field guns, the Second Artillery Regiment, the Third Artillery Regiment, the Fourth Artillery Regiment and the Guards Artillery Regiment, The current number of artillery is still far behind!”
"The Second Artillery Regiment currently has only eighteen two-and-a-half-pound iron cannons, the Third Artillery Regiment only has twelve, and the Fourth Artillery Regiment currently only has six second-hand iron cannons transferred from the First Artillery Regiment!"
"The Guards Artillery Regiment only has twelve iron cannons!"
"It's still difficult for our artillery now!"
Listening to Zhang Malin's complaints, Luo Zhixue didn't say much. It was useless for him, Zhang Malin, to complain. The artillery output was only so small, and it was impossible to meet the needs of several artillery regiments in the short term.
The Xiangyang Arsenal has now gradually entered the peak production capacity originally designed. However, according to Ding Gangyi's report, the artillery production capacity of the Xiangyang Arsenal has now shifted to five kilograms of bronze field cannons, and the number of two and a half kilograms of bronze field cannons is Start to decrease.
Currently, only twelve five-pound field guns and nine two-and-a-half-pound field guns can be produced each month.
This output is already the output after working overtime, and the large-scale equipment used for large-scale cannon-making is also used to the limit. Even if it increases in the future, it will not increase much.
If you want to expand production capacity, you can only build a new artillery factory.
Luo Zhixue knows this clearly, and Zhang Malin also knows directly. After all, the artillery coming out of the arsenal is basically taken over by the artillery director and then distributed to various artillery units.
The Director of Artillery also has someone who stays at the Xiangyang Arsenal all day long to supervise the production of artillery.
Marin knows exactly how many pieces this output contains.
And the reason why he complained today was just because Luo Zhixue was in a good mood and complained out of habit.
After all, children who cry have more milk to drink.
Zhang Malin wants to build up the artillery unit of the Baoxiang Army and make it the most important force in the Baoxiang Army. Naturally, it requires the efforts of Mr. Ge, especially who blows off Luo Zhixue from time to time.
It’s just that Zhang Malin doesn’t know yet. In fact, Luo Zhixue understands the importance of artillery better than Zhang Malin himself, and he also pays more attention to the application of artillery than he does.
Artillery is the god of war, Luo Zhixue has never forgotten this.
But the food must be eaten one bite at a time, and the road must be walked step by step. This army must also be expanded step by step.
——
The next morning, after Luo Zhixue finished his morning meeting, he went out for inspection again. This time he went to inspect the new construction and modification of warships in the Navy. He also went to see the construction status of a large number of ordinary boats expected to be used to cross the river. .
In this battle to cross the river, the Baoxiang Army needed to gather more ships at once in order to send more troops across the river as soon as possible and avoid forming a refueling tactic.
Only in this way can the beachhead be held in the event of enemy counterattack, and then the engineering troops can be covered to build the pontoon bridge.
Therefore, the Baoxiang Army is now searching for ships everywhere, and is also urgently building some small ships and even rafts.
After arriving at the naval camp outside the city, the Minister of the Navy Lu Xingye pointed to the houses along the river in front and said: "Your Majesty, this is the shipyard dedicated to our navy. This shipyard was previously opened by the local gentry and can build two hundred materials." ship."
"After we marched into Hanyang, the gentry's house was confiscated because of his resistance, and the shipyard fell into the hands of the Ministry of Industry. After the Ministry of Industry sent people to renovate it, it became our main shipyard!"
"We also had a shipyard in Xiangyang City before, but the scale was too small and the technical capabilities were limited. We could only build some ordinary small inland river ships. Now that we have this Xiangyang shipyard, our warships with 200 materials can only be built. I can make my own.”
"But it takes time to build new ships now, so in order to catch up with the subsequent river crossing operations, our navy decided to modify the existing warships and some transport ships, mainly to install artillery, so as to temporarily improve the combat effectiveness of our navy! "
Luo Zhixue listened and watched. The ships in front of him, whether they were modified or newly built, were nothing new. They were still the traditional river warships commonly used by the Ming army. There were a large number of ships on both sides of these ships. Where's the oar?
But with the current technical level, it would be nice to have a slightly more reliable warship, and there is no way to pursue better ships.
Anyway, the ships of the Ming River Navy on the opposite side are not very good either.
When the time comes to fight, the competition will be the firepower of both sides and the hand-to-hand combat capabilities of the Marines.
On these two points, the Baoxiang Army and Navy can still have a greater advantage.
In terms of artillery, the Baoxiang Army is short of artillery, but what it lacks is new field artillery. As for traditional short-barreled artillery, there is actually no shortage.
The two-hundred-jin and three-hundred-jin short-barreled shotguns produced by ourselves were produced in large quantities because the technology was simple and the time was short. At the same time, a large number of various traditional artillery pieces of the Ming army were captured.
Nowadays, the field artillery in the various land units of the Baoxiang Army is tight, but the short robes directly assigned to the infantry battalions are inexhaustible.
Most of these endless artillery pieces were brought to the Navy.
Especially the traditional short robes that weigh more than 200 kilograms cannot be used by the army's field troops and can only be used in the city. Therefore, most of the general cannons and francjis that weigh more than 200 kilograms have been transferred. Navy, installed on various battleships.
At the same time, the Xiangyang Arsenal also built a batch of 300-pound short-barreled iron cannons specifically for the navy's warships.
Therefore, the battleships in the Baoxiang Army Navy did not have any long-barreled artillery, but there were many short-barreled artillery.
In terms of firepower, the Baoxiang Army and Navy are still very confident.
Coupled with the powerful Marines, Lu Xingye was full of confidence in the subsequent cross-river battle.
"Even if we cannot directly inflict heavy damage on our opponents, we are absolutely sure to block them in the Wuchang Port to cover the army's crossing of the river and the subsequent construction of the pontoon bridge!"
The Navy had such confidence, and Luo Zhixue was naturally very satisfied. With a wave of his hand, he approved another hundred thousand taels of funding for the Navy.
Let them design and build larger and stronger warships for subsequent use in the lower Yangtze River, Yangtze River and coastal operations.
Although their Chu Empire is still nestled in Chubei in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Luo Zhixue and the others have the confidence to march into the south of the Yangtze River and fight all the way to the sea!
In this way, the navy needs to prepare in advance large-tonnage warships that can be used in wide rivers and even offshore operations, so that it can better cover the army's operations after the army marches eastward to the south of the Yangtze River.
