The thirty-fourth year of Chengshun can be said to be the year when breech-loaded rifled weapons broke out in the Chu Empire.
Although in the 1920s, the Dachu Empire had already developed a breech-loading rifle, and at that time there was already a Type 17 breech-loading rifle.
However, the Type 17 breech-loading rifled rifle of that year was far from mature. The air leakage was very serious. At the same time, the barrel processing technology was not up to standard, and there were no mature paper-wrapped bullets at that time.
Therefore, the Type 17 breech-loading rifle at that time was a very purely experimental product. Only hundreds of them were produced for testing and then the equipment was shelved.
Well, during the test that year, the air leakage was so serious that many soldiers' eyes were burned by the high-temperature gas ignited by the propellant during the test.
This is also an important reason why the Type 17 breech-loading rifle was abandoned.
Because no one wants a rifle that burns the eyes of their soldiers at every turn, and it is also a very expensive rifle.
A few years later, an early model of the Type 18 rifle was successfully developed, which was a huge improvement over the Type 17 rifle, especially in terms of air leakage.
A rubber gasket was used, and the paper-packed bullet was improved, changing the primer from the middle part of the paper-packed bullet to the bottom.
This is the original model of the Type 18 rifle that Luo Zhixue saw in Tianjin when he was on patrol in the north.
However, this original model that fired paper-packed bullets has not been officially put into service, and it is also only produced in small quantities for experimental equipment... The reason is that on the one hand it is too expensive, and on the other hand the military is waiting for metal bullets.
Thirty years after Chengshun, the Da Chu Empire made a decisive breakthrough in the research and development of copper-cased fixed bullets. The Type 18 rifle became the first rifle to adapt to new bullets, and was improved to adapt to metal bullets.
The rubber gasket was cancelled, and the bolt structure was improved. After a series of rigorous tests, the Type 18 rifle was finally officially finalized in the 32nd year of Chengshun. Then it began to enter the Guards service in batches, and the Army also Start purchasing on a small scale.
Therefore, this rifle is full of benefits. In fact, it has only been in service for more than a year. The quantity of equipment in the early stage is not large, and the output is not large. After all, the construction of the production line also takes time.
Now, in the 34th year of Chengshun, the production of this rifle has gradually increased. Now, the production of Hebei Arms Company has climbed to an annual output of approximately 100,000 pieces.
It is expected that by next year, the annual output of Hebei Arms Company's Type 18 rifles will reach 200,000 units, and the year after that it will reach 300,000 units, and will remain at the annual output of 300,000 units for many years until it meets the requirements. Until the comprehensive re-equipment of the Army and Guards.
Of course, during this process, the Type 18 rifle will continue to improve, improving performance as much as possible while reducing production costs... Hebei Arms Company will not always produce for you at a loss.
Losing money in the early stage and making money by reducing costs in the later stage is the overall strategy of Hebei Arms Company.
The final production of this rifle, including subsequent improved models, is likely to reach more than two million units, becoming the second standard rifle in the Dachu Empire with a production volume exceeding two million units.
As for the first one?
That was a 13-year-old flintlock gun from many years ago!
Although this thing has long been withdrawn from active service in the Army, the output at that time was quite huge... There are as many as a dozen types of basic models and subsequent improved models, and they are equipped with the four major armed forces as well as the domestic ordinary patrol law enforcement forces. It is also the standard weapon of the militia and is also sold among the private sector.
There is no clear data on the specific production volume, but it is conservatively estimated that more than three million units were produced...
This does not include the improved export model of this flintlock gun... There are several types of export models of the Dachu Empire's flintlock gun. Some are improved from the antique two-year-old flintlock gun. The firing rate is About 70% of the low-end models, in recent years, there have also been mid-to-high-end models improved from the 13-year-old flintlock muskets, and these export versions of the 13-year-old series flintlock muskets are still in use In small batch production, only the second firearms factory of the Guangdong and Guangxi Arms Company produces thousands of rifles of this type for export every year.
If improved export models are included, the Thirteen-year-old series of rifles has produced at least four million units, and this number is still increasing.
After all, the Da Chu Empire's flintlock exports are quite large. In the past ten years, the Ottoman Empire alone has purchased approximately 200,000 various types of flintlock muskets from the Da Chu Empire.
The Spanish and the English were also big fans of the imperial flintlock muskets. In the 31st year of Chengshun, the Spanish purchased 150,000 13-year-old flintlock muskets at once.
The English have also purchased nearly 100,000 guns in the past four to five years.
Not to mention these countries, even the Dutch and Portuguese, who had been at war with the Chu people before, actually purchased a large number of flintlock guns from the Chu country...
When the Chu State expanded overseas, they often encountered natives armed with Chu State weapons... But neither the military nor the domestic high-level officials had any objections to this.
After all, a war is a war, and business is a business...
Of course, the most important thing is that only flintlock guns are exported, and there are currently no exports of continuous-fire guns. The domestic army and even the militia's weapons and equipment are several generations ahead of the exported weapons in terms of performance.
To put it bluntly, exporting weapons does not pose any practical threat to the Chu State itself. In this case, the money must be earned.
Moreover, during wars, some flintlock guns or matchlock guns sold by the Chu State were often seized. Once these trophies changed hands, the military would sell them to the indigenous people through the channels of arms trading companies...to the customers who purchased these trophies. Perhaps they were still the natives who had just been defeated by the Chu army.
After all, selling locally saves transportation costs!
As the Chu State officially equipped breech-loading rifles on a large scale, it was also because the indigenous people had gradually popularized matchlocks, and flintlock guns had begun to be popularized in Europe.
In the next thirteen years, the type flintlock gun will also replace the low-end flintlock gun and matchlock gun and become the main export weapon of Chu State.
Of course, low-end flintlock guns and even matchlock guns will continue to be sold.
It’s hard to say about other places, but in America and Africa. Matchlock guns are very popular in India.
After all, not all indigenous areas will reluctantly enter the civilized period like European areas and begin to use flintlock guns on a large scale.
The indigenous people in many places were still in the cold weapon age. The matchlock guns of the Chu people were already an epoch-making product for them.
The arms trading company of the Dachu Empire has always been able to cut as many leeks as it can. It can sell cold weapons but never matchlock guns. It can sell matchlock guns but never flintlock guns... Generally speaking, Only local weapons and equipment can be upgraded to a certain level.
Well, this level of weapons and equipment refers specifically to the ability of local indigenous people to make their own weapons!
Europeans were able to make their own flintlock muskets. Although their self-made flintlock muskets were not very good, the Chu people still exported and dumped flintlock muskets to Europeans on a large scale.
Indians, some Southeast Asian natives, and the like were able to make their own matchlocks, so the Chu State exported and dumped matchlocks to them.
Some other more backward indigenous people couldn't even make matchlock guns... The Chu people sold them swords and spears, so that each of these indigenous people had a sword and a sword...
Therefore, the weapons exports of the Dachu Empire are relatively complicated, and the types of weapons that weapons trading companies in various regions mainly sell are also different.
But one thing they have in common is that they are all very profitable.
The money you earn from buying swords and spears is not much less than buying a flintlock gun.
This also led to the five major weapons companies in the Da Chu Empire, which basically produced all kinds of weapons, from low-end primitive broadswords, spears, bows and arrows, armor, to matchlock guns, flintlock guns, and old antique smoothbore cannons with high performance, and There are better-performing bronze smoothbore cannons, iron smoothbore cannons, etc., and even all kinds of messy cold weapons to meet the needs of users in certain areas.
For example, the machetes that West Asians like to use, the cross swords that Europeans like to use, etc. Basically, as long as you can name them and have cold weapons that users need, you can basically find them in the product catalogs of the five major weapons companies.
However, these exported weapons and equipment are several generations behind the times. The Chu Army still does not export weapons and equipment that are currently in service or even retired but can pose a threat to the Chu Army.
This is true for flash cap percussion guns, and even more so for breech-loading rifled guns.
If you want to export breech-loaded rifled guns, you may have to wait for decades or even longer. The specific time depends on how the strength of those indigenous countries improves.
If those indigenous countries had always been like this, the Chu Empire would never have exported breech-loading rifled weapons.
No matter what the future holds, at least for now, the Chu Empire's breech-loaded rifled guns will only have its own market, especially the military and police market.
And these markets are also limited. Even for an epoch-making weapon like the Type 18 rifle, the final production is expected to be only two million units, and it is unlikely to be more.
As for several other breech-loading rifled rifles, production is expected to be even less.
For example, Songjiang Firearms Factory's Qiming rifle currently has only one user, the armed tax police, and its final output is estimated to be only a few tens of thousands.
But no matter what, the Dachu Empire has three breech-loading rifled rifles in service at the same time, and there are also multiple models of breech-loading rifled artillery. This has made the Dachu Empire's weapons and equipment level rise in the thirty-four years of Chengshun. huge change.
And these changes have a greater impact on the battlefield.
In the winter of November of the 34th year of Chengshun, in Jinshan Prefecture, North America, hundreds of army soldiers carrying Type 18 lances and pulling a 75mm mountain gun of the 34th year crossed a large amount of horse power. The Witwatersrand Mountains enter the interior of central North America.
They were not here to enjoy the mountains and rivers, but to encircle and suppress a local indigenous tribe.
Half a month ago, a nearby Chu country immigration settlement was attacked by nearly a thousand natives, causing a lot of casualties and looting a large amount of food and livestock. After this incident was reported, the North American governor's office criticized the military. Inaction expresses strong protest!
This incident made the top brass of the 26th Army stationed at Jinshan Prefecture very passive!
After all, the headquarters of the 26th Army is in Jinshan City. At the same time, as the only regular army of the Army in America, the 26th Army is responsible for the strategic task of controlling and defending the entire North America.
And more than 10,000 troops were deployed in Jinshanfu, a key development area in North America, including most of the 16th Division, a first-class division.
It can be said that Jinshan Mansion has a large number of regular troops, and coupled with the local militia, its protective capabilities are quite strong.
In the end, the natives came in and attacked an immigrant settlement!
It doesn't matter if this is a small-scale infiltration of indigenous people, but it is still an indigenous force of nearly a thousand people. The failure to detect and intercept this in advance is naturally a dereliction of duty on the part of the army.
The governor's office in North America is not just criticizing the military directly, but is also preparing to write a report back to the country to impeach the military.
The top brass of the 26th Army had lost face and might even be reprimanded at home. Naturally, it was impossible to just let it go.
The senior officials of the 26th Army became so angry that they directly mobilized the elite troops of the 26th Army to attack, hoping to catch the aboriginal tribes in the Chu country's immigrant settlements on a large scale, and then crush them to ashes!
The one who accepted this task was the first battalion of the 63rd regiment of the 16th division.
The battalion is the 16th Division and the first unit in North America to switch to breech-loading rifled rifles, the Type 18 rifles.
The unit not only underwent a change of equipment, but also the company organization was changed based on the new rifles, shrinking from the previous six infantry posts to four infantry companies.
This was also the first time that the Chu State used the terms company, platoon, and squad, abandoning the previous terms such as sentry, team, and squad.
There are three platoons under the company and three squads under the platoon. Each squad has fourteen people. In an infantry squad, in addition to the squad leader, there will also be a deputy squad leader and a senior non-commissioned officer.
When executing some complex battles, the squad leader, deputy squad leader, and senior noncommissioned officer can lead four soldiers respectively to form three relatively independent five-person combat groups.
The reason why there are three combat groups is not to engage in some three-three tactics, but purely to facilitate command. After all, it is difficult for the squad leader to directly command thirteen people, and he must have a deputy to assist him.
At the same time, it was also to implement roundabout offensive tactics. On the battlefield in Myanmar, small-scale troops of the Chu army often fought like this: four or five people formed a combat group in the front, and used bunker shooting to contain and suppress the enemy.
Two combat groups, also composed of four or five people, carried out detours on two wings... and finally formed a three-sided attack on the enemy.
After thinking about it and studying it, the senior military officials felt that this basic roundabout tactic was very reliable... so they decided on the organization of this tactic that the frontline soldiers spontaneously adopted.
Other organizational structures are basically clarified in actual combat, such as reducing the number of infantry posts from six to four infantry companies.
It was discovered in actual combat that due to the use of breech-loading rifled rifles, when the combat distance between soldiers increased, the spread of an infantry battalion became wider, which also made it difficult for the battalion officer to command the six infantry posts that were too far apart.
After actual combat and simulations, senior military officials finally believed that one battalion officer directly commanding four directly affiliated combat units was the best choice, as the distance was moderate and information processing was efficient.
When it comes to the company, because of the same problem, it becomes a more suitable choice for the company commander to directly command three platoons.
The same reason why the platoon directly sets up three classes.
The new generation of skirmisher tactics in the Dachu Empire Army was finally finalized based on the many characteristics of breech-loaded rifled rifles and skirmishers!
In fact, this organization is not to enhance firepower or other things, but purely to make command more convenient.
In addition to four infantry companies, this new battalion also included a logistics platoon.
As for the artillery, of course there is none... After all, this is just an infantry battalion with a few hundred people, and artillery is generally only allocated to regiment-level troops, and is only temporarily assigned to the infantry battalion for cooperative operations during battles.
It’s just that the infantry artillery used at the regiment level has not yet been developed. The current new infantry combat requires artillery support from the division-level 75mm mountain cannon.
Such a battalion, with combat infantry plus logistics personnel, messengers and other auxiliary personnel, can reach a size of more than 600 people, and is equipped with a large number of mules and horses.
The number of personnel is somewhat smaller than in the previous line era, but the combat effectiveness has increased exponentially.
The first battalion of the 63rd Regiment of the 16th Division belonged to such a battalion. In addition to this battalion, the advancing Chu army also had a cavalry post, an artillery platoon, and a baggage company.
The new troops are also all equipped with rear-mounted rifled guns.
These three troops formed a temporary mixed battalion with a total strength of about a thousand people.
In order to deal with the daring local natives, the local Chu army leaders directly sent out their only new mixed battalion.
(End of chapter)
