On March 29, the directors of Fanjiazhuang's No. 1 and No. 2 ordinary foundries stood nervously on the school grounds, watching Li Zhi's personal soldiers fiddle with the products produced in their factories. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Both factories produced samples of a new type of artillery, which was light enough for two soldiers to operate.

Different from the high-level foundry factory specializing in cannon casting, or artillery factory, Fanjiazhuang No. 1 Ordinary Foundry and No. 2 Ordinary Foundry have always been producing civilian products such as dragon tail cars and water pipes. Of course, because of the huge demand for civilian products, these two ordinary foundries were much larger than artillery factories, each employing several thousand people.

However, although they are civilian factories, stimulated by Li Zhi's patent system, these two factories also pay great attention to technological development in the production process. Even for the simplest water pipes, the two factories have to compete with small local factories in Tianjin and Shandong.

In order to produce better quality water pipes, both factories have developed a set of simple and efficient heat treatment methods, and have applied for several patents at the town hall.

However, the directors of the two factories did not expect that an ordinary foundry like himself would also receive orders from the military.

Li Zhi wanted to produce new artillery to deal with the trench system, which was increasingly being abused by the enemy. But the current artillery factory was already producing twenty-four-pound naval guns at full capacity, and there was no surplus production capacity, so Li Zhi could only hand over the order to the ordinary foundry.

However, Li Zhi is not joking with the lives of soldiers, but the new artillery that Li Zhi needs to produce is indeed very simple.

Li Zhi wants to produce platoon mortars.

The mortar has a simple structure, light weight and low power, and is a weapon specially designed to kill the enemy in the rear of the bunker. In fact, mortars were born to deal with trench warfare that was as difficult as kraft candy after rifled guns became popular.

The world's first mortar was born in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War and was invented by Russian artillery captain Nikolayevich. At that time, Tsarist Russia and Japan were engaged in a fierce battle for the Port of Arthur in China. The Russian army occupied the fortress of Arthur Pass, and the Japanese dug trenches and approached only a few dozen meters away from the Russian positions, and the Japanese artillery and rifles in the trenches could not hit them. So Nikolayevich tried to convert an old naval mortar gun on a gun carriage with wheels and fire a long-tail shell at a large elevation angle, which turned out to be effective in killing and wounding the Japanese troops in the trenches and repelling many Japanese attacks.

Nikolayevich's gun has a total weight of 11.5kg, a firing range of 50~400m, and a firing angle of 45 °~65 °, which can be described as a sharp weapon against trench warfare. Shells can be fired and smashed into trenches that ordinary artillery can't penetrate, which can massively kill infantry hiding in trenches. This new weapon was called a "lightning cannon".

In the First World War, due to the development of trench warfare, countries began to pay attention to the role of mortars, and on the basis of "lightning artillery", a variety of special mortars were developed. By the Second World War, mortars had become the basic equipment of the infantry of various countries.

Since both the Jiangbei Army and the Japanese had secretly learned Li Zhi's trench warfare, Li Zhi had to take out the mortar as an artifact to let the enemy understand what technology was.

Of course, the mortars of later generations were very advanced, and the shells could be thrown into the barrel to automatically trigger the shooting, which Li Zhi could not do. Li Zhi used the soil method: there was a sharp needle at the bottom of the barrel, and the small flowering bullet and the nitrocellulose propellant were usually wrapped together in a paper tube, and after falling into the barrel by its own weight, the paper barrel would be punctured by spikes, and the propellant would fall into the bottom of the barrel. If you are afraid of not being insured, you can also poke it with a general strip. At the time of firing, the gunner attaches the mercury thunderate primer to the fire door, and the gun rope is pulled to trigger the fire.

This design allows a two-person mortar to complete a shot in 12 seconds. Although it was rudimentary compared to the mortars that fired every two seconds in later generations, such a rate of fire was sufficient to deal with armies such as the Kohoku Army and the Shogunate Army.

The mortar designed by Li Zhi has a caliber of 65 millimeters, a barrel length of 110 centimeters, and a barrel made of bronze. It is designed to have an effective range of 700 meters, and uses a small flowering bomb weighing three catties and five taels. The tail of the mortar has a large iron plate touching the ground as a recoil buffer.

There is a gap between the samples produced by the two foundries, the first foundry produces a total weight of 52 kilograms, and the second foundry produces a total weight of 47 kilograms. Although the weight of the cannon was heavier than that of later mortars, it was still very convenient to run on a carriage.

For the first time, two civilian ordinary foundries produced artillery, but there were still deficiencies in heat treatment technology. If the artillery factory is allowed to produce the barrel, it is estimated that the weight can be reduced to about 40 catties. However, for Li Zhi, it is not a big problem for the barrel to weigh ten catties.

Five hundred meters away from the two mortars, a trench two meters deep has already been dug in the ground. There were some scarecrows in the trenches, simulating the soldiers of the Jiangbei Army.

Two mortars began trial firing.

The soldier loaded the ammunition and pulled the rope, only to hear two muffled sounds, the flames of the muzzles of the two mortars flashed, and two black shadows shot out the muzzles and flew towards the target.

In the first shot, both mortars missed the target and smashed on the ground outside the trench.

However, Li Zhi has improved the accuracy of the fuze over the years. Nowadays, the fuses produced by the Fanjiazhuang Gunpowder Factory burn more uniformly, and the artillerymen can cut the fuses on the outside of the shells according to the firing distance, and control the explosion time more precisely. So the shell landed for just over a second, and the bombardment sounded.

Depending on the landing point of the first shot, the artilleryman adjusted the elevation angle of the mortar and began the second shot.

"Poof!" "Poof!"

Two more muffled sounds, two mortar shells fired into the trench in the distance. This time, shells from the 2nd Foundry went into the trench and sparks exploded in the trench with a bang.

The guns of the 1st Foundry failed to hit the target, and shells exploded outside the trenches.

The director of the second foundry glanced excitedly at the competitor with a proud look on his face.

The artillerymen adjusted the angle of fire again and began the third and fourth shots. On both occasions, both mortars hit the target.

The artillery stopped firing, and everyone went to the trench to see the effect of the shooting, and found that the scarecrow where the shell had landed had been blown into slag. Pieces of broken iron from shells burst out of the cannonballs were stuck everywhere in the trenches two or three meters nearby, and some of the broken iron pieces were still stuck in the scarecrows three or four meters away.

When Li Xing saw this scene, he laughed and said, "Brother Wang, this small cannon is powerful, and now the enemy in the trench has nothing to hide!" ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "The first and second foundries won the bid at the same time, the first foundry ordered 3,000 doors, and the second foundry ordered 5,200 doors. The production period is three months. ”

The directors of the two foundries were overjoyed when they heard that the order had arrived. In particular, the general manager of the second foundry, who received an order for 5,000 doors, was already smiling from ear to ear.

This is more than ten times more profitable for the production of cannons than for the production of water pipes. Now the workers in the factory can pay a lot of bonuses.

Li Zhi looked at the two managers and smiled.

At this time, Tianjin's industrial strength came out. As long as there are design drawings, the factories in Fanjiazhuang and Tianjin Acropolis can immediately turn the drawings into physical objects and start mass production. And the Gangbei Army and the Shogunate Army, which used handiwork, I am afraid that it will not take several years to make so many artillery.

"As soon as 8,200 guns are produced, they will be transported to the front! Let the Jiangbei Army and the Shogunate Army see what firepower is. ”