In fact, the Dachu Empire Army is not unfamiliar with mortars, or similar smooth-bore short-barreled infantry support artillery, that is, small-caliber mortars. On the contrary, they are very familiar with them.
During the era of smoothbore guns, the Da Chu Empire Army was equipped with 115mm light howitzers. This thing is a very typical small-caliber mortar with a very short barrel. It fires spherical explosive grenades with curved trajectories. The most important thing is that it is very light in weight. , the whole gun has a marching weight of only about two hundred kilograms, and it can be disassembled and maneuvered by manpower.
In the Chu army, this kind of artillery is directly assigned to the regiment-level troops and is used as regiment-affiliated firepower. It will also be transferred to the infantry battalion when necessary.
Together with the 65mm field artillery, it constitutes the main field artillery firepower at the battalion and regiment level of the Dachu Empire Army. It is mainly assigned to the regiment level and selectively transferred to the infantry battalion during combat to directly support the infantry battalion operations.
After entering the breech-loading rifled era, the Dachu Empire developed a 70mm infantry cannon and directly replaced the above two with the 70mm infantry cannon.
Therefore, the Chu army in the contemporary breech-loading rifled era has battalion support firepower of the 34-year-old 70mm infantry cannon. As a breech-loading rifled gun, this artillery can shoot flatly or at large angles, which is effective The maximum range can reach two thousand meters, making it an excellent infantry support artillery.
However, its weight still reaches the level of more than 200 kilograms. Even if it can be split and transported by manpower, it is still not considered a light artillery. At most, it can be assigned to the infantry battalion level, but it is difficult to directly assign it to lower-level infantry. A company, let alone an infantry platoon.
However, in the overseas combat environment, the battles faced by the Chu army were small, fragmented and intensive... The natives could not defeat the Chu army on the frontal battlefield, and they all ran to engage in sporadic attacks and other operations. A kind of asymmetrical fighting went on.
As a result, the Chu army had to disperse its troops and carry out tasks with small forces. This resulted in a sharp increase in battles involving hundreds of people, that is, company-level battles, and even dozens of people, that is, There were a lot of skirmishes at platoon level.
The Type 34 70mm infantry cannon, which has excellent performance, is difficult to use in such small-scale battles... After all, this thing is a breech-loaded rifled artillery, weighing only two hundred guns. Even if it is decentralized, it can only be assigned to the infantry battalion level.
You can't use this with an infantry company or even an infantry platoon.
In such a general environment, the Army proposed to develop a lightweight small artillery for company and platoon-level troops based on the needs of overseas garrison troops.
And naturally the target was placed on the small-caliber mortar that had been used for many years in the smoothbore era.
Of course, it is not feasible to directly use the old mortar from the smoothbore era, because the cylindrical projectile cannot be used, and the explosive power cannot keep up. To ensure the power, the caliber must be increased, which will increase the weight.
Therefore, if you want to reduce the weight, the caliber must be reduced, and to reduce the caliber to ensure the explosive power, you must use cylindrical shells to ensure the charge capacity.
When using cylindrical shells in smoothbore barrels, how to ensure the flight attitude of the shells is a problem.
At the same time, in order to reduce costs and make the operation easier, the front-mounted smoothbore barrel model continues to be used. As for the firing problem, the reference rifle directly uses the firing pin to fire. These problems are not big.
As for the problem of the flight attitude of the cannonball, a group of researchers still didn't have enough imagination, so they couldn't find a good solution to the problem for a while. Luo Zhixue personally reminded them: the flight of the cannonball can be controlled by adding a tail fin to the cannonball. attitude.
Although Luo Zhixue is not a professional science and engineering expert, nor is he a fan of military weapons, he has watched some movies and TV dramas, and has some understanding of the mortars that often appear in anti-Japanese dramas... at least he knows what their appearance is like. of.
So Luo Zhixue simply drew the appearance of mortars and shells that were common in later generations...
Of course, Luo Zhixue can only give a rough appearance design and ideas. As for how to implement it, it is the business of these technicians.
However, judging from the current basic technical capabilities of the Da Chu Empire, mortars can definitely be produced, but the performance cannot be expected to be on par with the mortars of the 20th century in the original time and space. After all, this involves propellant, barrel quality and a series of issues.
Luo Zhixue was too lazy to care about this. Anyway, these things were the icing on the cake for the Chu army. It would not have much impact to equip the equipment one day earlier or one day later.
To be honest, the Chu army could actually defeat the natives with only 70mm infantry cannons and single-shot breech-loading rifles. Adding an additional mortar would not actually have a big impact.
The same is true for repeating rifles!
Regardless of how urgent the military said the need was, in reality it was just that...Luo Zhixue wouldn't even increase military spending by an extra dime for this.
Therefore, the improved model of the Type 18 infantry, that is, the replacement of the 25 rifle did not receive any additional funds. The Guards and the Army all used their own military expenditures. In fact, many orders for the 25 rifle were These are also previous orders for Type 18 rifles.
To put it simply, the military has actually changed the previous follow-up orders for Type 18 rifles into 25 orders. Although military expenditures have increased somewhat, savings will be transferred to other aspects, and no additional military expenditures are needed... Even if It is impossible for the military to start additional military expenditures. The cabinet was the first to disagree.
It has been nearly forty years since the founding of the Da Chu Empire. Unless there is a war, don't expect the cabinet to agree to increase additional military expenditures. The most recent example of additional military expenditures was when Zhun Ge was targeted.
After the war against Zhungeer, no additional military spending of even one copper was approved for more than 20 years.
Therefore, the military's internal management of whether the navy is developing new battleships or the army is developing new rifles and artillery must be resolved internally, and the cabinet will not increase military expenditures by a single coin.
Anyway, the annual rated military expenditure is only that much, don’t even think about a cent more!
Of course, the military also has its own methods. If they can't get money at home, they go overseas to get money... Various trophies, confiscations, war reparations and the like are one of the military's sources of income... Otherwise, why do you think the military is so keen on fighting overseas? To a large extent, it is also to make money.
The military and the cabinet usually split the income from overseas wars between 37% and 28%. Although the military can only get a small share, it is still better than nothing.
For example, the ongoing European trade free plan has successively hit Spain, Portugal, and France. The military's total revenue from this is 20 to 30 million... This does not include previous military sponsorship from various domestic industries.
Of course, not all wars are profitable. Overseas wars in many places are money-losing. For example, the wars fought against the indigenous people in Africa and the Americas are all money-losing... because it is impossible to win from those primitive indigenous peoples. Obtain economic returns other than land, and it is obviously impossible for the cabinet to sell the land and share the money with the military...
Generally speaking, the military's military expenditures have actually been relatively tight for a long time, so that the military has been tight in many aspects...
In order to save military expenses, the local garrison troops have always grown their own vegetables and raised pigs. They also use blank bombs during various exercises... Blank bombs are used by the military to save money on live-fire exercises and daily routines. Funds for live ammunition training are specially created...because blank ammunition is much cheaper than live ammunition.
In recent years, with the continuous increase of steam ships in the Navy, when using coal, it is no longer necessary to use the best anthracite. Ordinary coal can also be used, and except for a few large battleships and river battleships, most ships The sail system is still retained.
Just to save some money on coal.
In addition, in order to save labor costs, the Navy also followed the example of commercial ships and installed a power auxiliary system for the sail mounting system to save a large amount of sailor labor costs.
On the new generation of main battleships, especially on the three main types of ocean-going battleships: battleships, cruisers and frigates, the trend is reversed... After only one 10,000-ton battleship was built, it was not built, but seven or eight thousand ton battleships were built. tons of battleships, and their numbers have been cut repeatedly.
The tonnage of cruisers and frigates has not been cut, but the power system and firepower have also been cut a lot... There are obviously more advanced combined steam engines, but the Navy is stunned and insists on using the previous generation of combined steam engines!
The previous generation of combined steam engines were products from the early 1930s.
And some non-main warships, such as offshore patrol ships, inland river gunboats, and transport ships, do not even use combined steam engines. Instead, they purchase civilian steam engines from the three major steam manufacturers... Some are even old and backward dual-purpose ships. Expansion steam engine.
Save money in many aspects including ship building, use, and subsequent maintenance.
For this reason, the Navy even came up with a new term for weapons and equipment, called full-life cost... When considering the cost of a warship, not only the construction cost is considered, but also the subsequent maintenance cost. The planned service period is Use cost, finally calculate a full life cost, and then spread it evenly over each year to see the annual use cost...
A series of new battleships, cruisers, frigates and other warships are basically produced according to this new cost calculation method.
Under this cost control principle, many things that are immature in technology and have too high follow-up maintenance costs will not be used... For example, the 250 mm and 30 times caliber naval gun has been developed for many years, but the Navy has been None of them are equipped because the purchase cost of this thing is high, the life of the barrel is very short, and the cost of use is also very high.
The navy really can't afford such an expensive thing... It's better to continue to use the mature and cheap 200mm 25-caliber naval gun. At the same time, the barrel life is already very long, and the subsequent use cost is relatively low.
As for the power...it's actually pretty much the same, and it's all good enough anyway.
When attacking aboriginal port cities, a 200mm naval gun hit the aboriginal fortifications with one shot, and the aboriginal fortifications were blown up. A 250mm shell was fired at the same fortifications, and the difference was not big. The ranges were all much higher. Kilometers so the difference is not big.
As for attacking the indigenous ships...there is no need for these big guys. Any small-caliber naval gun of 55 mm or even 35 mm is enough.
The medium and large-caliber naval guns of the Chu Navy are basically used to attack indigenous port targets.
Well, the exceptions are the Guards fleets stationed in the mainland and the Navy's Second Fleet...the two of them compete for each other's goals.
Therefore, if these two 150mm and 30 times the caliber advanced naval guns are to be truly put into service, they have to rely on the offshore battleships of the Guards Fleet and the Second Fleet or the local coastal defense batteries. As for the ocean-going battleships, It is estimated that there is no hope of putting this new naval gun into service within ten years.
Whether it's the navy or the army, what matters now is how to save money.
Under such circumstances, the replacement of new repeating rifles will have to last for many years. As for the army's desire to support firepower at the company and platoon levels, that is, small-caliber mortars, even if they are developed today, it is still very difficult to replace them on a large scale. The most difficult thing is to first equip some local A-class troops and overseas garrison A-class troops or troops that are nominally B-class but are actually given A-class treatment.
This is also the regular routine of the army's equipment replacement. The new weapons are first equipped with several first-class core units stationed locally, and then equipped with first-class units stationed overseas.
For example, the 53rd Division that landed in Europe was a unit that was nominally classified as Class B but actually assigned as Class A, so they were able to give priority to equipping a series of new weapons, such as the Type 36 150mm light howitzer, the Type 36 14-year-old 70mm infantry gun, etc.
The Army is looking for ways to save money and get new equipment, and the Navy is doing the same thing... In order to save military expenses, and also to strengthen the mid- and short-range firepower of warships, the Navy is preparing to develop a smaller-caliber naval gun, that is, a twenty-meter gun. mm caliber naval gun.
The Navy feels that the current 55mm caliber and 35mm caliber naval gun models... are still a bit expensive.
The 55mm caliber naval gun is very good, and it is very good for attacking warships and ports, but the 35mm caliber naval gun is not very interesting. It is neither high nor low, and it is not cheap...
Therefore, the Navy issued a tender to the five major domestic weapons companies for a lower-cost, especially lower-cost, small-caliber naval gun to replace the 35-mm-caliber naval gun as the lowest level of firepower for warships. .
The requirements are not high, the superstructure of the wooden warship that can hit the enemy has the strength, and besides the sail, it can kill the living targets on the shore... The previous 35mm naval gun actually did this job.
The Navy feels that it is a waste of money to do this with a 35 mm caliber naval gun... This thing has a fast rate of fire, and all it fires is money.
So the Navy wants to use cheaper artillery to perform this low-end mission.
After the Navy issued a tender for small-caliber naval guns, the five major weapons companies submitted a lot of small-caliber naval gun designs, including 20 mm, 25 mm, and 30 mm, as well as barrel lengths.
However, among a bunch of small-caliber naval gun design plans, a very special bidding plan emerged. This is the 'hand-cranked multi-barreled rapid-fire rifle' plan researched by the Shaanxi-Gan Weapons Company's Firearms Design Institute.
Because of its particularity, this bidding plan has attracted great attention from the Guns and Guns Division of the Naval Ordnance Department... Why? Because this thing is cheap!
There are a bunch of other small-caliber naval gun plans, no matter what kind of design or plan, they are all breech-mounted rifled rapid-fire artillery, and in order to ensure the power of small-caliber artillery, the barrel diameter is often relatively large, which means This small-caliber naval gun seems simple, but in fact the production process is not simple and the yield rate is not high. As a result, the cost of the overall artillery is not low.
At the same time, because artillery fires shells, even small-caliber shells, the structure of the shells is similar to that of medium-caliber shells. The outer shells of the shells are made of high-quality steel and require prefabricated fragment processing, and a collision fuze needs to be installed inside. Wait, this means that artillery shells, even small-caliber artillery shells, are not cheap.
Artillery shells, large-caliber artillery shells are naturally very expensive, but small-caliber artillery shells are not cheap either... During World War II, firing a heavy torpedo was equivalent to firing a heavy tank, but at the same time, small-caliber anti-aircraft guns , for example, when using 40mm square artillery shells for air defense operations, the dense shells fired are almost equivalent to a vehicle.
When the later time-space small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, such as the Phalanx, are used in interception operations, they can destroy a BMW in a few seconds. If they hit it for just a few seconds, a whole house will be gone.
Artillery shells are quite expensive, whether in the contemporary Chu State or in the modern era of the 21st century... A 75mm grenade here in the Chu Army costs more than 20 Chu Yuan in the army. Much more expensive than a rifle.
For the price of two to three hundred rounds of artillery shells, you can basically buy an artillery piece.
This is why the Navy wants to use smaller caliber naval guns to replace the 35 mm caliber naval guns. There is no special reason, just to save some money on shells.
But now, the Firearms Research Institute of the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company is saying that this hand-operated multi-barreled rifle can be used to replace small-caliber artillery and be used as ship-based firepower at medium and short range to attack enemy targets. .
This has to be taken seriously by the Navy!
Because this thing only fires bullets, and bullets are much cheaper than cannonballs... You have to know that bullets are priced in thousands of rounds, unlike cannonballs that are priced one by one.
Moreover, although the manufacturing cost of this kind of hand-operated machine gun is sky-high compared with rifles... but compared with the small-caliber long-barreled naval guns used by the navy, it is much cheaper!
Therefore, machine guns may be very expensive for the contemporary army... but for the navy, this thing is a standard cheap item.
So as soon as the Navy saw that there was such a thing, it became interested, and soon sent people to watch the live ammunition test of this hand-operated multi-barreled machine gun.
When the navy observers saw the operators of the Shaanxi-Gan Weapons Company operating this hand-operated multi-barreled machine gun, firing dense bullets and smashing multiple thick wooden targets in a row hundreds of meters in front, and it was 'only' After using just a few hundred rounds of bullets, I couldn't help but swallow my saliva...
The navy must have something so cheap and easy to use!
If it had this thing, the Navy would dare to throw all the so-called small-caliber naval guns planned to purchase from 20 to 30 millimeters in the trash can... and even some of the existing 35-mm caliber naval guns could be replaced. .
For example, when attacking an enemy's live target at a distance of several hundred meters, there is no need to use the expensive 35mm artillery shells. Instead, you can directly use the machine gun to shoot the bullets. It is cheap and affordable. What a deal!
This made people from the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company couldn't help but doubt themselves when they saw the navy like this: Are we really so awesome and have produced good things?
But when this thing was demonstrated to the Army before, the Army was full of disgust. Even before the test was completed, an Army colonel who came to watch the live-fire test couldn't help but said on the spot: You guys are thinking of our Army. Bankruptcy, right?
Then I rejected this thing directly...
In fact, the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company researched this thing at the beginning of the year, and even took the initiative to promote it to the Army, but failed. The Army representative said: We are all old acquaintances, can you please stop cheating me like this? Are you trying to sell this thing to us to bankrupt our Army?
The reason is simple. The rapid fire is too fast and consumes too many bullets. The Army says it can’t afford it... and it’s not necessary.
The Army has rifles and artillery, especially the 70mm infantry cannon, which is enough to destroy enemy forces at medium and long distances. The 70mm infantry cannon can even attack the enemy's bunker defenses with flat fire.
As for the direct firepower of small arms, a rifle is enough...
What the Army needs now is a light artillery that is highly maneuverable and capable of direct fire in complex environments. It is not a machine gun with flat firepower at a distance of hundreds of meters to kilometers... This is not a question of whether it is good or not, but whether it is necessary or not. The problem.
Level light fire within a few hundred meters, the Army said it had rifles.
For heavy horizontal firepower within a few hundred meters to two thousand meters, the Army stated that it has 70mm infantry cannons, and sometimes 75 mountain cannons and field cannons can also be used.
Even the level firepower is somewhat excessive for the current army. There is no need for such a large bullet consumption, and at the same time, the machine gun cannot destroy the bunker.
If the machine gun can shoot at a large angle, the Army is still interested...well, just a little interested. After all, this machine gun weighs nearly 100 kilograms, and it cannot be disassembled for human transportation. It can only be put on wheels and dragged by horses. , it seems to be lighter than the 70mm infantry gun, but in fact the mobility is not as flexible as the 70mm infantry gun. It can be split into multiple parts for manual maneuvers...
A machine gun is more difficult to maneuver than an artillery gun, and I have to say that this is also very embarrassing.
The Army dislikes that this device is too expensive to use, has poor maneuverability, and consumes bullets too quickly, making logistical supply difficult. At the same time, this kind of direct firepower within a range of hundreds of meters to kilometers is not what the Army urgently needs.
Therefore, the Army rejected the promotion of Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company without hesitation...
This makes the people of the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company very helpless. They even feel that this thing has many shortcomings and it is impossible for it to enter the army and serve in large quantities.
Because the main purpose of this thing is a fast rate of fire and the ability to form dense bullet firepower, but this feature is not needed by the army. It is even considered a disadvantage: a waste of ammunition!
So people from the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company no longer have much confidence in this hand-operated machine gun project... At one time, they wanted to give up directly. Later, they saw the Navy bidding for small-caliber naval guns, and saw that the main mission of this small-caliber is to kill. After the enemies at medium and close ranges had living targets and simple fortifications and other soft targets, I felt that my hand-cranked machine gun also met the requirements of this task, so I brought it over to participate in the bidding...
Of course, this machine gun bidding is only secondary. Their main bidding item is actually a 25mm small-caliber naval gun.
But I didn't expect that the 25mm caliber naval gun project with high hopes was not taken by the navy. Instead, the hand-cranked machine gun project for accompanying the prince to study was taken by the navy.
The Navy is really interested in this stuff!
Many features that the Army considers to be shortcomings, or have no obvious advantages, are not a problem to the Navy, and some are even advantages.
For example, they are heavy and difficult to maneuver... The navy does not need machine guns for maneuvering. They are deployed directly on warships. There is no need to maneuver at all. It is trivial to be heavier or lighter... Anyway, no matter how heavy you are, you can't get several. A ton...it weighed over a hundred kilograms.
Even if the navy uses this thing, it doesn't need to be maneuvered on land, not even wheels. It can just be put on a stand on a battleship, which can save dozens of kilograms in weight.
The rate of fire is too fast and the bullet consumption is too high, which makes supply difficult. The Navy also feels that the rate of fire of this thing is a bit slow.
At the same time, the problem of supply difficulties for machine guns fixedly deployed on warships does not exist. No matter how tight the tonnage in a warship is, there is still no shortage of space for carrying bullets. If you just make some space to carry bullets, you can make this You won’t be able to use up all the gadgets until they are scrapped...
The Army felt that this thing was too expensive and consumed a lot of bullets. It was compared with rifles... while the Navy compared this thing with naval guns, and then felt that this thing was particularly cheap...
No matter what, this kind of hand-cranked machine gun is much cheaper than a small-caliber long-barreled rapid-fire naval gun, and the bullets are also much cheaper than artillery shells.
The reason for this difference is that the army and navy have different combat positionings of machine guns, and the objects of comparison are also different. This is not a question of who is right or wrong, but a question of demand!
As a result, the hand-cranked machine gun, which was despised by the Army and did not even have experimental equipment, was highly valued by the Navy.
The Navy quickly placed an order for the first batch of fifty missiles, and has the equipment for preliminary testing. If it can be used well, then the subsequent orders will be massive...
There are so many warships in the Dachu Empire Navy, well, they are warships, not just warships... including various warships in the ocean, offshore, inland rivers, various transport auxiliary ships, etc., all of which require this kind of hand-cranked machine gun as auxiliary firepower.
This will be a huge order, and the people of Shaanxi-Gan Weapons Company will be stunned... Happiness comes too suddenly!
(End of chapter)
