The Navy's 645 modified artillery ammunition is common to the army's ammunition, so the army is also equipped with steel-core armor-piercing shells, but the ironclad ships used to penetrate the city wall and use them to hit the armpit people should be more than enough, and it is also a 95 millicaliber (about 855 mm), ordinary cannon steel-core armor-piercing shells. [Note 1]

The use of double-base gunpowder, the length of the tube, the muzzle velocity is high, the penetration depth of ordinary homogeneous steel is at least two hundred millimeters, dozens of consecutive hits, and it is okay to penetrate it, which inevitably makes Bai Liyan suspect that the four canned ironclad ships are tired.

"Wild, a ship is okay with dozens of armor-piercing shells, is there something wrong with it."

"It's not very clear, the appearance is a flat-bottomed can, without in-depth investigation to obtain design parameters, there is no way to know what is going on inside, and this type of ship is not suitable for the processing and production of overly thick hot-rolled steel plates, and it is impossible for rivets to be fixedly connected with two pieces of carbon steel stacked together, with a thickness of more than 700 millimeters."

"yes, it's technically impossible at the moment, and it's also penetrated, but it didn't cause a martyrdom, isn't it hell?"

At this time, the wild wave said again

"In addition, Xue Sheng's 95 millimeter cannon should have only hit the hull of the ship, and did not shell the howitzers and howitzer shields on the upper deck, and the cannons had a straight trajectory and did not have the high ballistic indirect strike capabilities of howitzers and cannon howitzers."

"I know this, Xue Sheng used a seventy-two-pound heavy gun that had not been upgraded to attack the deck of the canned ship, spherical howitzer shotgun and fragmentation shells had no effect on the surface shield of the naval gun, and the trajectory of the Type 645 cannon could not be fired indirectly at a high elevation angle, so it couldn't hit. I wondered, is there something unique about the inside of the hull? ”

"What do you mean?"

"You say, if there is another can in the can, it is a double-shell hollow structure, and if you fill it with sand or something, will it avoid being broken down?"

"This ...... It's hard to say. If it is a double-layer cavity, no matter what is loaded in the middle, it will be difficult to resist the steel-core armor-piercing projectiles currently used, and the more it is loaded, the greater the weight, and the payload of the hull will be much smaller. ”

"No, what if they can load it if they want to, and unload it if they want to?"

Unable to understand Bailiyan's intentions, Ranlan immediately asked

"What do you mean?"

"If he could fill the double hull with some kind of medium from the top deck of the cabin and at the same time discharge it through the outlet at the bottom of the hull. Keeping the cavity in peacetime and filling the medium in wartime will allow you to flexibly mobilize the payload and act as a secondary armor. ”

"This ...... It seems possible, if so, then there is only one possibility, and the most convenient way should be to make a spherical projectile of a breech gun from carbon steel, which is more productive and has reasonable performance, and heat treated, increasing the hardness, so that the thickness can be offset.

Then it was put into a double case, so the steel-core armor-piercing projectile could not penetrate. When they are not in use, they are discharged through the transport pipe and used by the breech guns! ”

"That's right! There is only this possibility, the solid projectiles seized from them were all painted with anti-rust paint, and it is not clear whether it is heat treated, but now it seems that it should be heat treated, and the paint is to prevent rust and salt spray. They loaded the double hull with a quenched steel-core spherical projectile, which could both act as ammunition transport and increase protection, a genius design. ”

The penetration depth of the armor-piercing projectile is based on the homogeneous steel plate, such as the penetration depth of 1,000 mm, the penetration is ordinary steel, the actual thickness of the tank's armor is not 1,000 mm, but the protective force of this kind of armor steel, which is equivalent to a homogeneous steel plate with a thickness of 1,000 mm.

The ironclad ships of the axillary people can only use hot-rolled plates with thinner thickness to weld the production of hulls because they cannot weld the hull with thicker hot-rolled steel, and the thickness should never exceed 100 mm, if it is too thick, the hull is too heavy, and at the same time the force on the rivets will increase sharply, which is not conducive to the hull structure.

However, if the inner and outer shells are made, and the quenched steel balls are poured in the middle, the hardness of the quenched steel balls increases significantly, so that a certain thickness is offset.

Therefore, the protective power of the canned ship is at least more than 400 millimeters (about 360 millimeters), but due to the quenching of the steel ball battle, the actual thickness is only between 28 and 300 millimeters, so the steel armor-piercing shells of the Xian army cannot penetrate at all.

Technically speaking, the armor-piercing warhead used by the Xianjun Army is just ordinary carbon steel, which is only quenched and tempered, quenched, processed and then carburized, and has a slightly higher hardness than carbon steel, and the hardness is equivalent to quenched steel balls at best.

Second, the processing of high-speed steel tools for quenched carbon steel and even special steel and quenched manganese steel is extremely difficult, and the productivity is extremely low, so most of the quenched parts need to be ground after rough machining, and the warhead can only be turned.

In the absence of tungsten alloy tools, the cost of a quenched special steel warhead is the production time of 20 ordinary blasting projectiles, which does not include the forced loss of the knife and the consumption of electricity and manpower, so it can only be processed with industrial diamonds.

Third, the armor-piercing bullets developed by the Xianjun Army are mainly used to hit city walls, and their performance can meet certain steel armor-piercing requirements, but they are not professional armor-piercing bullets after all.

Based on the above situation, Bailiyan concluded that for the sake of safety and the technical indicators of the ship, the axillary people should use a double shell above the waterline, a single-layer shell below the waterline, and a quenched carbon steel ball inside the shell.

Once the double shell seeps water, it will be extremely troublesome to drain the water, and the double shell will become a huge water tank instead.

The ship is shot below the waterline, more terrible than the waterline above, because the water pressure will increase the power of the water pressure after the underwater explosion, and at the same time tear and expand the wound, if the projectile is also stored with a double shell below the waterline, once it is shot, a large amount of water will seep, and the water pressure will tear the outer shell, and through the connecting member with the inner shell, tear the inner shell, and quickly expand the damage.

However, if it is a single-layer shell, it can immediately plug the leakage and strengthen the defense, and even isolate it with a watertight cabin, so as to prevent tearing and expand and spread to other cabins.

The double-shell design above the waterline does not have this problem, at most the hole is too large to leak some projectiles.

With the current technical conditions, no weapon can accurately attack the ironclad hull below the waterline, so as long as Ye Xin's 645 cannon does not hit below the waterline, it will not be able to cause substantial damage to the armpit ironclad ship.

Bailiyan had to think about preparing Plan B, and if the frogman underwater blasting failed, he could only use Plan B.

Thinking about it, Bai Liyan and Jiang Qian went to the underground network and fortress fort in the city of Chenling through the tunnel, learned about the battle situation and losses from Jiang Jie and Sikong Nan, inspected the people and soldiers who had taken refuge, visited the wounded, and counted the recent losses and the population in the city.

Since the artillery battle, the town army, auxiliary troops, Guangxin army killed more than 1,277 people, wounded more than 2,640 people, more than 4,000 casualties among the people, most of them are casualties caused by the shelling of the city, the defenders of the hidden fortress, the fort and the city wall counterattack casualties only account for 20% of the total casualties, stunned how the armpit people shelled, Guangxin is still standing firm as a rock, so the early defense construction can be seen to be very effective.

That night, Bai Liyan obtained the population data of Guangxin City and various fortresses, and immediately called the Xuanyun City Army Staff Headquarters (i.e., the Army Senate) and called 3,000 rounds of 95 millichlorine bombs, 300,000 gas masks and supporting activated carbon filters. [Note 2]

Activated carbon gas masks actually have been available for a long time, originally used for smelting and extracting toxic metals and chemical plants, the earliest model is very simple, only a pig-nosed gas mask made of two layers of fine canvas, and now chemical and metallurgical are still in use, and the army uses 650 type gas masks.

In view of the general lethal effect of poison gas on living beings, in 648 Bailiyan set out to develop another rubber gas mask and chlorine gas cannonball, which were refined twice and finalized in 650.

There are three kinds of filter cartridges matched with gas masks, one is still a pig nose filter, with a diameter of 60 millimeters, and the second has an increased diameter, the thickness remains the same, and the effective action time is increased by 60%. The third requires a snorkel and uses a knapsack filter barrel.

Each of the three filtration devices has its own advantages and disadvantages, but the first and second types of pig nose filters are usually used.

Chlorine bombs are stored separately from other munitions, and the warehouse is built by the river, and Xuanyun City does not have storage conditions, nor is it possible to store munitions or even toxic substances, but the army staff headquarters is responsible for ammunition reserves, and the mobilization of chlorine bombs requires special mobilization systems and procedures, and must not be sloppy.

On the twenty-fourth day of October, two trucks loaded with 20 frogmen and equipment arrived in Guangxin City, and Bailiyan convened a meeting of frogmen and generals to discuss how to try underwater blasting.

Compressed air cylinders, eyepieces, diving suits, fins and simple breathing equipment are all available for diving, and the explosives will be tied with ten pieces of five pounds of TNT explosives and large magnets, adsorbed under the waterline of the canned ironclad ship, and detonated with a tin tube liquid detonator.

A liquid detonator uses a mixture of two liquids to generate intense heat and ignite the secondary detonator to explode.

Liquid A is packed into a closed glass tube, Liquid B is packed into a tin tube, and then liquid A is packed into a glass tube, which is plugged into the tin tube and sealed.

At this time, the ordinary detonator is inserted into the TNT block as the secondary detonator, and then the tin tube is inserted, and the glass tube in the tin tube is only crushed with a vise, and the two liquids will blend and react to generate heat to ignite the secondary detonator, and then detonate the TNT.

TNT has a high ignition point, is mechanically retarded, and cannot be ignited with an ordinary ignition source, so a high-explosive detonator is required.

The conventional metal high-explosive detonator has a disadvantage, although the detonator itself is sealed, but the delayed fuse combustion will produce gas, if it is only a simple rain penetration in the field conditions, there is no problem in a short time.

However, if it is underwater, it is necessary to give the frogman enough time to evacuate, so the conventional solid delay fuse will be extinguished by seawater, and the longer it burns, the greater the probability of this, so only liquid fuses under closed conditions can be used.

Of course, if there is a wireless electronic high-voltage detonator, it is the best, and wired can also be used, but wireless is not possible in a short time, and wired is still under development.

Of course, it is also possible to use mines, but after all, mines are passive weapons, and it is not only dangerous to push them by people, it is easy to trigger the fuse, and if they accidentally collide with an enemy ship, frogmen will also be buried in the sea.

[Note 1] The earliest armor-piercing projectiles appeared in the early days of ironclad ships, using steel shells loaded with yellow sand, with a cap on the top of the shells, through the hardness of the steel warheads, to impact the ironclad ships, and at the same time, the weight of yellow sand was used to replace the steel part to generate enough inertial kinetic energy, so as to achieve the purpose of armor-piercing.

However, with the continuous development of industrial technology, this kind of cheek armor-piercing bullet filled with yellow sand was quickly eliminated, and all-steel solid armor-piercing shells appeared one after another, that is, the warhead of the shell is a solid bullet, in short, it is an enlarged version of the bullet, and the steel head is used to hit the steel armor, so as to achieve the purpose of pouring through the armor.

Later, lead cores, steel armor, and steel hood armor-piercing bullets appeared, using the high density of lead, the kinetic energy and potential energy generated, and increasing the armor-piercing rate of steel armor.

With the continuous development of steel armor technology, especially after the emergence of tanks, tungsten steel armor-piercing shells appeared. Of course, it is still a magnified bullet, a solid warhead, which is very different from the appearance of modern short-rod and long-rod deshelling stabilized wing armor-piercing shells.

In addition, armor-piercing bullets, armor-piercing bullets, and the vast majority of armor-piercing bullets or warheads will not explode, and then use the fragments generated by the explosion to kill and injure people, but use the high temperature and kinetic energy generated by the warhead to hit the armor, and after the armor-piercing projectile breaks the armor, it is instantly scattered at high temperature, producing a metal jet, or even a high-temperature metal jet, thereby killing personnel.

[Note 2] With regard to gas masks, gas masks were born earlier at the beginning of the invention of gas warfare, and even in the middle and late stages of World War I, the widespread production of rudimentary gas masks had already been industrialized, and during World War II, one was per person.

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