In the past two years, Lin Ziran has also tried to order medium and large-caliber howitzers and even heavy artillery.

But it's not easy to buy.

But it's hard to buy, and it's hard to get it even at a high price.

Previously, Lin Ziran could only purchase four eighteen-pound howitzers through the Nanzhou Commercial Bank, and later exchanged ammunition for guns and two from Li Kun's hands, and then he seized one in Feng Haozhong's department in Fengyan Town, Lingchang, which was almost to the end of its lifespan, but this one could no longer be used for actual combat, at most it was used for training.

In this way, there are only six eighteen catties of grenades that can be used for practical purposes, and they are all old goods, so it can only be said that they are barely used.

And the most important thing is that there is no way to purchase now, and it was difficult to get it through Nanzhou Bank before, but now it is even more expected.

Because of the huge Nanhai Prefecture, there are only two arsenals that can produce this kind of large-caliber heavy artillery, Luo'an Arsenal and Nanzhou Machinery Bureau.

Among them, the production capacity of the Luo'an Arsenal is extremely low, and it can't produce many doors a year, and Jianminggang is not enough for its own use, so it is impossible to supply it to the outside world.

Even if there is surplus capacity to supply to the outside world, it is impossible to sell it to Lin Ziran, a competitor.

The production capacity of the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau is not low, but with the current situation, Shao Bing would rather let the heavy artillery factory of the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau stop work than sell it to other feudal towns in Nanhai Prefecture.

It is unlikely that we will continue to buy from outside unless we can find a way to source from out of state, but there is more or less such a problem in other states.

Heavy artillery is a weapon of mass destruction, and there are not many feudal towns that will provide it to the outside world.

After all, these feudal towns are all competitors, and they all wish that only they have heavy artillery in their hands, and everyone else only uses light howitzers!

It is not feasible to purchase from outside, and if you make it yourself, you won't be able to make it yourself for a while, so Lin Ziran can only use these six eighteen-pound howitzers first.

Fortunately, these old howitzers can also be replaced with maroon gunpowder and new grenades for greater range and power.

Compared with the lack of medium-caliber field artillery, the heavy artillery troops under Lin Ziran are much more abundant.

This is entirely due to the Sixth Heavy Artillery Regiment that came over from Conde last year, and at that time this Sixth Heavy Artillery Regiment had nine 18-pound cannons, six 24-pound heavy howitzers, three 34-pound heavy howitzers, and a 150-pound giant mortar.

These heavy artillery units were previously incorporated into the 1st Artillery Regiment under the name of the 3rd Artillery Battalion.

However, the reason why the First Artillery Regiment was established at the beginning was not to integrate the artillery forces, but only to restrict Kong Deyi, and as time passed, Kong Deyi gradually and completely surrendered to him.

Therefore, in July, Lin Ziran listed the Third Artillery Battalion separately and renamed it the Third Heavy Artillery Regiment.

It's just that under the current situation, it is difficult to purchase artillery from the outside world on a large scale, and the Qingshan Machinery Factory is unable to produce heavy artillery on its own, and even ordinary five-pound and nine-pound bronze field guns need to wait until the purchased equipment is complete before it can be gradually produced.

Therefore, in a short period of time, it is unlikely that Lin Ziran will be able to get all kinds of field artillery, medium and large-caliber howitzers, and all kinds of heavy artillery.

In this case, after Ding Quankun introduced the situation of Tsingshan Petroleum Company, especially the situation of Tsingshan Machinery Factory, Lin Ziran said: "There are difficulties in the machinery factory, but we can't stop because of the difficulties. ”

"Since the nine-pound field artillery has been able to be made, then it is possible to organize manpower for small-scale production, even if the output is less, the cost is higher, and the performance is worse, but it is better than nothing!"

Hearing Lin Ziran say this, Kong Deyi on the side also spoke: "Yes, it's also a new type of artillery, even if the performance is not as good as that produced by the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau, but no matter how strong it is than those old-fashioned artillery, now our artillery unit has a great demand for new artillery!" ”

"Now all the new artillery has been distributed and equipped, and the number of spare artillery is seriously insufficient, once the war starts, if there is a cannon in front of the barrel life after the life is exhausted, there will be no replacement!"

Artillery is a thing that has a limited lifespan, even for smoothbore guns.

The barrel life of those iron-cast smoothbore guns is often only a few hundred rounds, while the bronze cannons are better, but they are only about a thousand rounds.

In today's war, the feudal towns attach great importance to artillery warfare, and when it comes to fighting, artillery is the main force, and there is often a fierce battle, and there are many cases where artillery directly runs out the life of the barrel.

If you have to use it, you can only continue to use it in the way of reducing the charge, but if you reduce the charge, the range will be greatly reduced.

Therefore, in order to ensure the continuous combat capability of the artillery units, it is very important to have spare artillery.

Ding Quankun also said at this time: "Since the military needs are urgent, then I will ask Lao Wang to organize technicians to carry out manual production." ”

Since Lin Ziran and Kong Deyi both said that high cost, poor performance, and low output are acceptable, then Ding Quankun naturally will not object to anything, as long as the military is willing to pay, their machinery factory just practices first.

At this time, Lin Ziran said: "It's not just five catties and nine catties of field artillery, but now the army is still relatively short of eighteen catties of howitzers, and this can't be left behind!" ”

Ding Quankun said: "No problem, this grenade is actually simpler than the field artillery, but the caliber is slightly larger, and it is more troublesome to process." ”

The body diameter of the field howitzer is generally between seven and ten times, and the eighteen-pound howitzer they are using has a body barrel length of ten times the diameter, and the shorter barrel is easier to manufacture, and the requirements for processing technology are actually not very high.

Therefore, the manufacture of this eighteen-pound howitzer is actually easier than the new nine-pound field artillery.

Among the various small and medium-caliber artillery pieces of the present era, in fact, the new nine-catty field gun in Nanzhou has the highest manufacturing technology.

This artillery from the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau, in fact, was not just an artillery gun for takeaway, but a complete set of artillery systems for sale.

In addition to the high-quality bronze barrel machined with high precision, it maintains a high-strength but lighter weight gun carriage and even wheels and other structures, ensuring that the gun can use strong charges to obtain higher range and accuracy, while also controlling the weight to a certain extent.

Just this barrel and gun carriage are not something that ordinary arsenals can make, it seems to be just ordinary bronze barrels and steel gun carriages, but in fact, for the contemporary technical level, its technical content is very high.

In addition, they integrated maroon gunpowder, grenades with high-strength shells, and metal disc fuses.

Together, these three are the new nine-pound field guns of the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau, and without one of the three, they cannot reach an ultra-high effective range of 1,500 meters.

Aoyama Machinery Factory has already solved the problem of mass production of maroon gunpowder and new grenades, and the next thing that needs to be overcome is how to mass-produce this high-performance bronze barrel and the corresponding gun mount.

It's just that no matter how smooth it is, I guess I'll have to wait until next year.

Lin Ziran obviously can't wait until next year.

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