Compared with the previous light short-barreled artillery, the new nine-pound light howitzer in the Chu army has a curved trajectory and can hit enemy troops behind bunkers such as city walls and trenches.
And the accuracy is higher and the rate of fire is faster!
Because it uses a new type of grenade, its rate of fire is much stronger than the original short-barreled shotgun and mortar. It can basically achieve the same rate of fire as a field gun.
Coupled with the advantages of light weight and convenient maneuverability, this nine-pound field gun was successfully developed in the summer and was determined by the Chu army to replace the previous two-pound and three-pound light short-barreled shotguns as a battalion weapon. Regimental infantry support fire employment.
Well, the reason why this thing was developed so quickly is that it is actually a scaled-down version of the 18-pound light howitzer. The developers directly scaled it down!
To put it more seriously, the howitzers in the Chu army actually have little technical content!
The manufacturing process of the Chu army's various new so-called howitzers is actually not difficult. In terms of technology, they are actually still in the era of Hongyi cannons. At most, the processing accuracy is higher.
But, it doesn’t mean it can’t be used if the accuracy is lower.
Therefore, any workshop that can make field artillery like the Chu Army can basically produce the Chu Army's howitzers.
Whether it's Ximing or Dongluo, if they want to do it, they can actually do it.
What is truly technological is the new howitzer shell using a new fuse. To be precise, it is the new wooden tubular fuse and the shell prefabricated fragmentation process. These two are the truly technological things.
Everything else, including the wooden bullet holder, does not have any technical difficulties. It is just a wooden holder. How difficult can you say it is? It’s fine if you don’t know. If you know, any carpenter can make it for you. Make a lot of it.
But prefabricated bullet fragments are not easy to make. Skilled craftsmen can make a few by hand, but if you want to mass-produce them, you need a lot of mechanical equipment as a basis.
The wooden fuse sounds like a wooden pipe, but it is actually more difficult to work with.
Its internal structure is relatively complex and has relatively high requirements for processing accuracy and standardization. For example, the exhaust hole inside cannot be large or small. If it is large, it will not be waterproof and cannot be used in rainy days. The cannonball will not explode after entering the water.
But if it's too small, you can block it directly and it won't explode.
There are also threads for precision use. Even though they are just threads, it is not that easy to process them in batches by hand. Then you have to give the cartridge case a matching thread inside the projectile body. That thing is made of iron... …It’s not that easy to process.
At the same time, it must be highly standardized. It cannot be said that after getting a bunch of fuses, it would be funny to find that the fuses cannot be installed when the battle is about to begin.
Finally, even the selection and processing of wood are very particular. Hardwood must be used. The density of the wood should not be too low, and it must be treated with fire resistance to increase its flame resistance.
So even though it is just a wooden fuse, this thing is actually quite technically difficult.
In order to develop this thing, the Munitions Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry of the Dachu Empire conducted dozens of selections. Hundreds of people were thinking about how to make wooden fuses practical all day long, and conducted a lot of messy experiments. Heap, this is because Luo Zhixue is still watching them hand in hand and explaining various fuse concepts to them.
If Dongli or Ximing captured the Chu army's wooden fuse and then wanted to imitate it, unless they also had a research team with dozens or more people who understood science and technology.
It will take several more years to analyze and study step by step and gradually solve the technical difficulties, otherwise don't expect to be able to do it.
To put it bluntly, they couldn't even process the wood used for the fuse in a short period of time...
What, you can just use the wood without professional processing, and it will explode in minutes for you to see.
If ordinary wood could be used directly, the people at the Dachu Empire Ammunition Research Institute would have to be very smart to carry out various fire-resistant and flame-resistant treatments on the wood.
But when it comes to Dongdu, they probably don’t even know what fire resistance and flame resistance are.
There are many seemingly simple things, but if I don't tell you, you will spend your whole life figuring out the details inside.
Only with technological breakthroughs in these details can the new type of grenades of the Chu Empire be produced, and only then can the Chu army's howitzers perform outstandingly on the battlefield and make the enemy scream.
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With the addition of four nine-pound light howitzers, the regiment-level artillery firepower of the Chu Army Infantry Regiment under the new organization has also been greatly enhanced.
In addition to the regimental artillery, the infantry regiment also has a baggage sentry with a large establishment of more than 200 people.
A cavalry of more than fifty people is responsible for reconnaissance and also serves as a reconnaissance sentry for the messenger.
There are also medical teams and other regiment-affiliated personnel.
The entire infantry regiment has complete infantry, artillery, reconnaissance, rescue and other personnel, with a total strength of about 3,200 people, a considerable number of mules and horses, and eight infantry artillery pieces.
This infantry regiment can undertake conventional independent combat missions.
If some cavalry and more than five kilograms of field artillery are strengthened, a mixed regiment can be formed to undertake the combat mission of a single front.
It is equivalent to the fact that in the past, the Chu Army often used brigade-level troops to strengthen cavalry and artillery to form mixed brigades of five to six thousand people to undertake combat tasks on one front. Today, the Chu Army uses mixed regiments of one thousand people to undertake combat tasks in one direction.
In this way, a division can form three regiment-level battle groups. Normally, two regiments fight on the front line and one regiment serves as a reserve. When necessary, three regiments can go to the front line at the same time and launch attacks from three directions at the same time. .
This is more flexible than in the past, when a division could only have two brigade-level combat groups, and most of the time it could only send out one mixed brigade-level combat unit to perform side missions.
Three large regiments, plus the division artillery regiment with thirty-six field guns, the division cavalry regiment with more than 600 cavalry, the division baggage regiment with more than 2,000 people, and the division with more than 800 people It belongs to the light infantry regiment and other various division-affiliated units. The size of the entire division is about 15,000 people.
When the 20th Infantry Division was reorganized, because there were some shortages before, and some soldiers were transferred to the second-class division or retired, the 20th Infantry Division also accepted a group of new recruits.
However, this batch of recruits had completed three months of complete training before, and during their recruit training period, they were trained using flintlock guns and received various new line tactics training.
Therefore, they are actually more adaptable to the tactics of the new army than the original soldiers in the 20th Division.
As the 20th Division began to reorganize and change equipment, several other old-style first-class divisions also began to change equipment one after another. In addition, some of the old-style first-class divisions on the front line had no time to reorganize as a whole, but the front line was in urgent need of new-style fusilier weapons. Fire the gun.
Therefore, Gao Ce of the Chu army could also transfer a batch of flintlock rifles to the front line and directly give them to the musketeers in the old first-class division.
After all, there are also a large number of musketeers in the old first-class divisions. Although they used matchlocks before, it would be okay if they were replaced by flintlock guns, and the effect would even be better.
At least you don’t have to worry about not being able to fire in wet and light rainy weather.
At the same time, when necessary, these musketeers can also be drawn out individually, and then formed into fusilier line infantry to fight alone.
This is what the fifth division on the Yunnan-Guizhou frontline does now.
As the first main force of the Chu army to enter Yunnan from Guangxi, the Fifth Division has always been at the forefront of the Yunnan-Guizhou battle. Because the terrain of the Yunnan-Guizhou line is complex, there are many local chieftains, and the situation is extremely complicated. Although there is not much high-intensity combat, Low-intensity, small-scale battles are very frequent. Many chieftain troops saw the Chu army from outside and fired a few arrows at you without saying a word...
This also requires a relatively high number of troops invested by the Chu army. When tens of thousands of troops were thrown in, they seemed to disappear without even a splash.
In the end, the Chu army simply stopped engaging in the traditional battle mode of large-scale opening and closing, and instead used a drag-net approach to gradually clean up.
Rather than rush in and fight in directly, I chose to take my time and clear the way along the various traffic arteries, one city after another, one village after another.
The remnant soldiers of the Western Ming Dynasty were enemies, as were the local chieftains, various recalcitrant gentry, and bandits.
The Chu army was like a comb, and the army pulled a net to clear out the past. Although the progress was slow, the effect was very good.
But wherever the Chu army newly occupied, it was basically peaceful. The gentry, bandits, chieftains and other stubborn enemies all disappeared in the long river of history.
After fighting like this, the follow-up operations to eliminate the bandits will be saved!
It's just that although this style of fighting is safe, it also means that the fifth division of the vanguard has never been able to get the opportunity to withdraw to Guangxi and other rear areas for rest and recuperation. Tomorrow I will kill a group of bandits and capture a gentry behind them.
Many generals of the Fifth Division complained that they were a first-class main division capable of fighting tough battles and large-scale battles, but now, they have all turned into small-scale security and bandit suppression divisions...
Because of their self-deprecation, the low-intensity, but extremely slow-progress wars like Yunnan-Guizhou are also called public security operations within the Army.
Although the Fifth Division, which was deeply involved in the security war, could rest and recuperate from time to time, it did not have the opportunity to move to the rear as a whole to rest and recuperate.
Now the senior leaders of the Chu army feel that the troops in the Yunnan-Guizhou direction are insufficient, and they are thinking of increasing troops in the Yunnan-Guizhou direction. How can they transfer the main fifth division away.
Based on this situation, the Chu army's top brass did not rotate the southwest front line. Instead, they chose to consolidate the logistics line and gradually reorganize the front line troops.
It will not be a division that will be reorganized and refitted in one go, but a battalion that will be reorganized slowly.
Change clothes while fighting.
The 18th Infantry Regiment under the Fifth Division was one of the earliest units in the Fifth Division to be equipped with flintlock muskets.
At the same time, under the infantry regiment, there is also a new infantry battalion, the third battalion, which is experimental in nature and can be regarded as a model for the entire division.
Now, this infantry battalion, after completing a three-month reorganization and re-equipment, has entered actual combat for the first time, capturing a small pass city guarded by the Western Ming Army, providing a strategic channel for the army's next clearing operation, and protecting the logistics. Wire.
Major Gan Xinrong, commander of the third battalion, is quite satisfied with this mission. After all, it is a Guancheng with hundreds of regular Ximing officers and soldiers.
He had to fight hard this time. He didn't want to go back to what he had been like before, being assigned to engage in purge operations every day, fighting a group of random bandits and thieves, stubbornly resisting the gentry, and fighting with the chieftains.
He had had enough of that kind of life.
