After advanced breech-loading rifled rifles and breech-loading rifled artillery were equipped in large quantities with ground troops stationed in Myanmar, the Chu army exploded with more powerful combat effectiveness locally.
This further reduced the casualties suffered by the Chu army during the local clearing operations, and also accelerated the progress of the Chu army's local armed clearing operations.
These eventually came together to form a very good result, that is, the Great Chu Empire's immigration development operation in Myanmar progressed more smoothly.
The large number of new immigrants who went to the area did not encounter too many threats from the local indigenous people, and were able to settle there smoothly and safely, then cultivate the land and exploit various resources.
After the large-scale application of breech-loading rifled weapons in Myanmar and achieved good results, the army in the Siam area next door also began to equip breech-loading rifled weapons on a large scale.
In fact, in the Siam region itself, some Chu army equipment used breech-loading rifled weapons, such as the temporary third mixed brigade of the Guards and a mixed battalion of the 14th Army Division, but there were no other units.
However, there was no large-scale armed resistance in the Siam area, and there was no organized large-scale resistance in the future. Therefore, the intensity of the fighting was very low, and there was basically no need for regular troops to take action.
At the same time, breech-loaded rifled weapons are still relatively scarce these days, and the local resistance in the Siam area is not strong. The Army is naturally close to the Myanmar area.
It was not until the main forces in the Myanmar region were gradually equipped with breech-loading rifled weapons and there was less pressure that the army began to issue upgraded breech-loading rifled weapons to the armies in the Siam region in order to make the local garrison more capable. Carry out subsequent clearing and expulsion operations well.
After more breech-loaded rifled guns were distributed in the Siam area, the progress of the clearing and expulsion mission also accelerated a lot.
The military is very optimistic that the eradication and expulsion tasks in Myanmar and Siam that originally took four to five years to complete are expected to be completed within two years.
And this is the huge power embodied by breech-loaded rifled guns.
After this series of results were fed back to the local city of Jinling, Luo Zhixue specially held a military meeting in front of the imperial army and listened to the actual use of breech-loaded rifled weapons by many generals as well as the subsequent equipment and research and development status.
During the meeting, the Army stated that in view of the good performance of breech-loading rifled weapons and new tactics in the Southeast Asian Peninsula, the Army will take the lead in replacing breech-loading rifled guns in some key areas and key units.
At the same time, comprehensive tactics for the use of breech-loaded rifled guns were launched, especially infantry skirmishing tactics and infantry-artillery coordination tactics.
Strive to complete the comprehensive replacement of key areas and key units within three years.
Key areas naturally refer to areas where war broke out and encountered certain difficulties, such as Myanmar and Siam in the Nanyang Peninsula.
The key unit is naturally the first-class division.
After these key areas and key units have completed the reloading, it will be the turn of the B-class standing divisions, and finally the C-class garrison divisions.
The Army expects to complete the basic replacement within five years and the comprehensive replacement within seven years.
Don't think that seven years is very slow. In fact, it is quite fast. After all, the army has more than 1.5 million troops... It is not just the first-class divisions that are the army... there are a huge number of second-class divisions. And the C Division is also a regular army...
For a complete equipment change, the rifles alone would cost more than one million. Then you have to add a certain amount of inventory, training and combat losses, and the actual purchase quantity will exceed the amount of active equipment.
Anyway, the Army plans to purchase 250,000 rifles every year. For such a large number of rifles, the purchase cost alone will be more than 3 million, and the annual purchase quantity will reach more than 200,000.
The annual cost of purchasing rifled breech-loading rifles and bullets alone is four million.
Moreover, the army is not only replacing rifles, but also artillery. Artillery is more expensive...
After installing new guns and artillery, it is necessary to carry out tactical training and conduct exercises. This is also money...
After all, the Army wants to complete the replacement within seven years, which will cost tens of millions every year. Although part of the funds will have to be spent even if it is not to replace breech-loaded rifled weapons, apart from these additional expenses, the annual The new expenditure will also be upwards of five million!
However, the army's money was tight and it was not enough... The cabinet was unwilling to provide additional military expenditures during peacetime. In the end, there was no other way. In addition to adding three million to the steadily increasing regular military expenditures, Luo Zhixue could only make the decision personally. Two million dollars are allocated from the annual additional budget.
In the financial budget system of the Great Chu Empire, in addition to the regular funds and military expenditures of various departments, an additional budget of anywhere from a few hundred to tens of millions of Chu Yuan is reserved every year. There is no fixed amount of this money. How to spend it is basically Look at Luo Zhixue’s arrangements.
However, in previous years, they were basically used for disaster relief, temporary war expenses, army replacement funds, navy shipbuilding funds, and important industrial projects.
Therefore, it is common practice to use extra budget to give the army money to purchase new equipment. Although the cabinet was very unhappy, they also recognized it with pinched noses.
However, they also requested that the money must be earmarked and could only be used for the purchase of new equipment this time, and it would only be allocated for seven years. After seven years, the project would be stopped.
In this way, the Army's annual funding gap of at least 5 million Chu Yuan can be filled.
The Army is going to replace its breech-loaded rifled weapons on a large scale, and several other armed forces are no exception.
Needless to say, the Guards Army had decided to completely replace breech-loading rifled weapons in the 32nd year of Chengshun, and became the first army in China to completely replace breech-loading rifled weapons on a large scale. Currently, more than half of the army has The troops have completed the re-equipment, and it is expected that a comprehensive re-equipment will be completed this year.
Of course, the Guards has only a small number of people. Except for the bizarre Guards fleet and air force, the traditional ground force is only more than 70,000 people. In total, it only needs tens of thousands of guns and a few hundred artillery pieces, and the required funds are not enough. It won't be too much... Besides, they are not short of money, as the required funds are paid directly from the royal family's funds.
As for the royal family’s funds, they have never been short of them over the years!
Not to mention the royal funds allocated by the central government every year, in addition, the huge royal industry will also turn over a certain amount of profits every year for royal funds. Under special circumstances, the royal family is in urgent need of large sums of funds, and can also temporarily raise large sums of funds.
After all, the most powerful capital group in the Chu Empire these days is a series of government-run capital in the empire.
The second is royal capital...
As for private capital, it is actually nothing in the contemporary Chu Empire... Private capital actually accounts for a small proportion of the empire's industrial and commercial economic system, even less than half... And private capital is highly dispersed. After all, private capital is highly dispersed. There is not one capitalist, but countless.
However, government-run capital and royal capital are highly concentrated capital, and the boss is still the same person: Luo Zhixue!
So, if you want to say who is the largest capitalist in the Chu Empire, there is no doubt that it is the Emperor Luo Zhixue of the Chu Empire. The government capital and royal capital he directly or indirectly controls alone has reached half of the industrial and commercial economic system. Above the size!
This half of the body does not refer to influence or control... but to possession!
The specific meaning can be simply understood as: the total market value of all enterprises in the empire adds up to one hundred Chu Yuan, and Luo Zhixue holds fifty Chu Yuan of it.
Do you think this is an exaggeration?
In fact, this is all a modest statement. If you really want to say it, the entire empire was actually learned by Luo Zhi, including those so-called capitalists!
You and I are all, let alone your money!
It's just that these things don't make much sense...
In short, the Guards are not short of money, and the same is true when it comes to replacing rifled guns. Previously, they purchased more than 40 Chu Yuan's Type 18 rifles, but now the price of Type 18 rifles has plummeted. , simply purchased all the remaining shortages in one go, and placed an additional order of 20,000 units.
The additional order of 20,000 weapons is not for use, but for storage... The Guards has always had a tradition of storing brand-new weapons and equipment.
There are currently 150,000 21/23 type percussion rifles stored in multiple Guards combat readiness warehouses in Yingtian Mansion, 50,000 of which are brand new and unopened.
This is to mobilize and expand the number of Guards at any time. According to the Guards plan, if necessary, the Guards can be expanded to more than 200,000 people at any time.
This means that, on the surface, there are only more than 70,000 Guardsmen, but they actually have active weapons capable of equipping 200,000 people!
Now that we have entered the era of breech-loading rifled guns, the Guards' combat readiness arsenal naturally needs to be updated. It cannot be said that when there is an emergency expansion of troops, it is not right to take out a batch of antique muskets from the warehouse and give them to the soldiers. .
Therefore, we first purchase a batch of equipment for the soldiers, and then continue to purchase it year by year. Some of them will be replaced in active service, and some of them will be directly stored.
There is no need to worry about wasting those retired and unsealed muzzle-loading smoothbore weapons... they will just be processed directly for export to those arms trading companies.
However, the performance of the flash cap percussion gun is too high, and there are hidden dangers in exporting... On the one hand, the barrel quality of the 23-year-old percussion cap percussion gun is relatively good, and it may be modified by the indigenous people into a front-loading rifled rifle. Well, although after modification The barrel life is not that great either, but it can still be modified.
In addition, if the fire hats are exported in large quantities, they may be cracked or hoarded by indigenous people, which will lead to threats.
Of course, the most important thing is that the main export muskets of the Chu Empire are still matchlock guns. Although flintlock guns are also sold, the overall purchases are not too many... There are still a lot of flintlock guns purchased from the Chu Kingdom. Restrictive.
There is no need to sell out flash capper guns now... You are selling flash cap percussion guns now, how can you stimulate the upgrading of the indigenous troops?
So first sell cold weapons, then sell matchlock guns, and then sell flintlock guns... This is the established strategy of the arms export trade of the Dachu Empire. In the future, a flash cap percussion gun will have to be added to the back.
As for rifled rifles, whether front-loaded or rear-loaded, the Da Chu Empire has no intention of exporting them. Not now, and it is unlikely to be exported for a long time in the future, or even within decades.
Therefore, apart from a few of the large number of flash cap percussion guns in active service and in stock in the Dachu Empire, most of them will be modified and exported.
There is no technical difficulty in replacing the flash cap firing mechanism with the subsequent firing mechanism, and it does not require much modification cost.
After all, the Type 21/Twenty-three-year flash cap percussion gun itself is an improved firing mechanism from the Type 13 series flintlock gun...
This advanced weapon is converted into a backward weapon and sold for sale. It sounds strange, but in fact it is the norm in the international arms trade.
The United States tried to replace the F16 equipped with a third-generation turbofan engine with a second-generation turbojet engine before selling it to us...
When Lao Su exported various weapons and equipment, he also particularly liked to emasculate advanced weapons and equipment and convert them into backward products for export to other countries, such as T72, MiG-29, etc.
So many things that sound strange are actually not strange, but the norm.
The Guards have to deal with a large number of old percussion rifles, as do the Army and Navy.
Relatively speaking, it is much more convenient for the Navy to deal with them. After all, their Marine Corps is smaller, with only more than 30,000 people. It is simple and convenient to deal with old weapons.
The replacement speed will also be very fast. After all, they are equipped with the Type 19 rifles of the Huguang Arms Company, and they do not have to compete with the Army and Guards for the production capacity of the Type 18 rifles.
The final armed tax police are similar. There are only tens of thousands of armed tax police in total, and it is easy to change their uniforms.
The changes in equipment for land artillery are also similar. The bulk of them must be from the Army, and only a small part from other companies.
However, there is no such thing as a replacement for the Navy's breech-mounted rifled naval guns. It can only be said that newly built warships are in service. For small and medium-caliber naval guns, breech-mounted rifled naval guns will be used.
However, the Navy does not plan to replace the large number of front-mounted rifled guns equipped in existing warships... There is no need!
After all, the main task of the current navy is to fight pirates, occasionally fight against the small sampan navy of indigenous countries, and occasionally bombard indigenous port cities!
For these tasks, the Navy stated that front-mounted rifled guns can also fully meet the needs...
Therefore, the Navy's current attitude towards breech-loading rifled naval guns is: use new guns on new ships, and use old guns on old ships. There is no need to waste money on replacing front-loading rifled guns in old ships with breech-loading rifled guns!
This is only talking about medium and small caliber breech-loading rifled guns.
As for the large-caliber breech-mounted naval guns... The Chu Empire has not yet been able to solve the problem of large-caliber naval guns that use separate ammunition. Even if you want to equip them, you can't equip them.
But no matter what, by next year, it is expected that the first cruiser equipped with a breech-loaded rifled gun will be built and put into service, which will officially start the navy's breech-loaded rifled era.
It's just meaning... In fact, it's just that. After all, if it is used to fight the natives, it will not be much better than the previous battleships with front-mounted rifled guns...
No matter which one of these two types of artillery, they can defeat the natives!
