When he saw Zhao Xun, he was discussing the baggage reserves with Lu Gao and other officials of the Great Sima.

Soon after the great award in 642, Zhao Xun's military power was recovered by King Xian, and at the same time he was transferred back to Chenling to preside over military affairs.

In recent years, Zhao Xun has grown older, his temples are already white, his body is not as good as before, and there are no malignant diseases, all of which are joint inflammation, bone degeneration, cardiopulmonary function and other geriatric diseases.

After all, the material conditions in the early years were scarce, and the average life expectancy of people at present was not long, and the one who ran at the age of sixty was long-lived.

The decision of King Xian was conveyed to the generals in detail, and the military attachés would not oppose the development of armaments, and Bai Liyan presided over the general power of the administration, and the tax department was under the direct jurisdiction of the department, and there was no clear opposition from the civil and military factions, and there was no resistance to any major decision with the complete consent of the monarch.

However, only on the construction of coastal defense batteries and the construction of warships, the army attachés tended to be markedly conservative.

At present, however, the Sima Mansion and the Taiwei Mansion are still dominated by army military attachés, and naval military attaches almost never enter the court, resulting in the Continental Army's thinking swaying the construction of armaments and ignoring coastal defense.

"Yongxing Hou, in the past few years, nearly 100,000 stone ships have been launched, dozens of merchant ships, and a 20,000 stone ship is about to be completed.

At present, it is too extravagant and wasteful to continue to build 30 10,000-stone warships and 10 20,000-stone warships, and all of them must be equipped with artillery. Zhao Xun said calmly, still having doubts about building a navy.

"Zhao Shuai, coastal defense is not inferior to the infantry army, and only large ships can cross the ocean to defend the sea trade lanes of the Xian Kingdom. From Beihai to Xihai, if you have to stop at stations along the way, you need to pay tens of thousands of supplies and entry and transit taxes every year, which is very inconvenient.

Second, the control of sea routes can not only escort China's trade, but also block the trade of other countries in the North Sea, the West Sea, and even the East China Sea.

Third, a new type of 10,000-stone ship is at least 4 years old, and it takes 5 years to build a slower ship, which is far stronger and more powerful than the 5,000-stone old ship, but the construction period is long. Far from being able to build it in one or two years, it will take more than seven years for 20,000 stone ships to be built, and the sooner a powerful naval fleet is formed, the sooner it will dominate the North China Sea, and the sea routes will be curbed and the threat of the Changsun Navy to our country in the North Sea will be eliminated. ”

"Alas...... Ben Shuai is old, now the national strength is not what it used to be, and you can see far from the horizon of the next generation, since you want to build, let's build it. But the artillery of the infantry army cannot be delayed, and the commander heard that Wei, Zhi and other countries have made hundreds of artillery pieces themselves, you have to be careful. ”

"The student understands, please rest assured Zhao Shuai. A large number of warships need to prepare hundreds of artillery, and cast at the same time as the infantry cannons, not only the infantry army can give priority to the use of cannons, but the cost is much lower. ”

The investment and construction cycle of the navy is often much longer than that of the infantry army, the construction cycle of 5,000 stone ships is only one and a half years, and the technology of 10,000 stone sailboats has just started, the number of craftsmen is insufficient, and the overall one takes nearly five years, and the merchant ship takes four years.

Since the launch of two ships in 641, seven more have been built, a total of nine. An experimental 20,000-stone ship will be launched in the middle of next year, two are half under construction, two keels have just been put in place this year, and one has a construction period of more than seven years.

Due to the influence of wood strength and construction technology, the development of traditional wooden ships to the first thousand stones is a limit, without considering the cost, efficiency and repeatability, it can also be further expanded, but the cost will be unacceptable, the manufacture of one or two is acceptable, and a large number of large ships with traditional technology to build more than 10,000 stones can not be realized.

Taking Changsun Guo as an example, he imitated the "Heavenly Ship" in 631 and built a 10,000-stone ship on the basis of a 5,000-stone ship, and in 15 years, only four ships have been built so far, with an average construction period of 12 years for each ship, and the cost is six times that of the 10,000-stone ship of Xianguo, which can be described as a pure face-saving project.

Yongxing Shipyard built and renovated the process, the first two ships took nearly six years, and since then, a large number of forged steel has been used to build the core structure connecting the hull, and the mature development of machinery and industrial production has also shortened the construction period and cost.

It only takes four to five years for a large ship with more than 10,000 stones, but the initial accounting time for a 20,000 stone warship takes seven years.

The 30,000-stone ship that ran on again cost a lot of money, and the shaping of the keel and the processing of large oak wood were not solved, even if the first ship was started now, it would take 12 to 13 years to be launched, which was extremely not cost-effective. After several considerations, Bailiyan decided to develop more 20,000 stone warships.

Each of the 10,000 stone warships has two layers of guns, at most 55 guns, and the firepower is weak, encountering a 30,000 stone class of heavenly ships, and more than 100 heavy guns are completely powerless in the face of movement, and the development of 20,000 stone ships is an inevitable trend.

The 20,000 stone ship is equipped with 90 to 95 guns, and the three-deck guns are not inferior to the 30,000 big ships in terms of firepower, and the difference of 10,000 stone is more reflected in its carrying capacity and self-sustaining power.

30,000 stone self-sustaining for six months, carrying 1,000 people, 20,000 stone ships with 700 to 750 people, and the sea self-sustaining force will not exceed April.

As an invading colonial ship, the 30,000-stone ship was equipped with the largest number of landing troops, and the 20,000-stone ship carried fewer personnel, and when the firepower of the two was equal, regardless of tactical and unexpected factors, theoretically whoever had more people could gain greater initiative on the battlefield.

However, the firepower configuration of the 10,000-stone battleship was weak, the crew was completely cut in half, and the ship's side was low, which was not conducive to broadside combat and firepower output, and was not suitable for participating in the decisive battle of the main fleet.

Of course, due to the excellent properties of platinum-based copper-nickel-iron alloys, the firing range of the guns was quite long, but the naval combat distance in the breech gun era was less than a mile. [Note 1]

The wind and waves at sea and the instability of the center of the wooden battleship will cause the smoothbore breech guns, which have no precision to speak of, to lose most of their accuracy, and the effectiveness of firing projectiles at each other on the rocking sea will be extremely poor.

In order to improve the accuracy of hitting, it is common to start a salvo between 300 and 400 meters, close to 200 meters for the last salvo, and fire freely within 200 meters.

Therefore, no matter how far the ship guns fire, there is no accuracy, and the firepower output is reduced, it is difficult for the Wanshi ships to participate in the decisive battle of the main fleet, at best, with the coastal artillery, taking advantage of the range advantage of platinum-based copper-nickel-iron-based alloys, and the convenient geographical advantage of land supply, using a large number of projectiles to block the sea surface, preventing enemy ships from landing on the shore, so as to ensure the safety of the coastline and inland areas, and keep the industrial area.

Therefore, in terms of military efficiency and tactical use, 20,000 stone ships are suitable for a decisive battle.

Suppressed by the ideology of the traditional continental army, Zhao Xun, Lu Gao and others were not active in naval construction, and after various countries competed to develop individual firearms, they paid more attention to the firearms of the traditional army.

Lu Gao has urged this matter many times before, and this time he was faced with fiscal expansionary investment, so he couldn't help but ask about this matter again:

"Now that the number of firearms of soldiers in various countries is increasing by tens of thousands every year, why has Yongxinghou not made them for many years?"

"If you want to make the same firearms in other countries, Yongxing City will produce more than 100,000 pieces a year. However, at present, the firearms of various countries are extremely inferior, and Benhou disdains to make them. And it is not that Benhou did not make it, last autumn he made ninety-five new soldiers' muskets. ”

Hearing the news, Zhao Xun's eyes lit up:

"If it was made last year, why don't I know?"

"Don't hide it from Zhao Shuai, after this musket is made, it still needs to be tested whether it is usable, and after half a year of testing, there are still many shortcomings that need to be improved. And although this grab is excellent and powerful, it is not easy to make. It is urgent to expand the machinery of Yongxing City in order to produce it in large quantities, once our army uses this gun in large quantities, there is no enemy in the world. ”

"In that case, can you see the effect?" Lu Gao asked.

"Yes, tomorrow Zhao Shuai and Lord Lu can go to Yongxing City to watch, which will definitely be an eye-opener for the two of you."

Last year, 95 breech-loading paper-shell rifles rolled off the assembly line, and after half a year of testing, their power was no different.

The effective firing range has reached 300 paces, and the projectile is still extremely lethal at a distance of more than 800 meters, after all, the 14.5 millimeter caliber round-headed rifle cartridge has no problem to take down an elephant with one shot, and the test of half a year has also exposed four problems.

First, the processing accuracy and structure are unreasonable, and the breech bolt leaks when it is closed and fired, although it has not caused the explosion of the chamber, but with the use of the gun and the loss of life, the explosion of the chamber is sooner or later.

Second, the life of the firing pin is too short, and there is an obvious situation where the impact is not in place and cannot be launched after about 370 impact launches. Although the firing pin is a gadget, heat treatment is difficult. Improper handling will cause over-processing, resulting in a particularly soft or particularly hard and brittle phenomenon.

Third, in the alpine zone, the barrel deformation and freezing crack after continuous firing of carbon steel are obvious, and the mechanical structure, especially the firing pin return spring, is easy to break, which is mainly the result of forging processing and poor material properties.

Fourth, the accuracy at 200 meters is unsatisfactory, because of the use of a smoothbore barrel, the round-headed lead bullet will expand the wall of the tube when heated and expanded to do a sliding linear motion, rather than a spiral linear motion, so the projectile is destined not to have much accuracy after being discharged.

In addition, despite the use of paper shells to load ammunition, it is still inconvenient for individual soldiers to carry, and it needs to be wrapped in a special tarpaulin, which is easy to break under pressure, and it is necessary to equip standard ammunition carrying equipment.

All in all, the technology span is too large, and there are always all kinds of unexpected situations. But in general, the basic technology of the new breech paper shell fixed rifle has been formed, and the follow-up is to solve the problem as soon as possible and finalize production.

So on the second day, Lu Gao and Zhao Xun went to the garrison of the military camp outside Yongxing City to watch the guns, and sixty-five breech guns fired a salvo within one minute, firing 445 projectiles, seven bullets per person, and easily beat the pine splicing target wall 150 steps away, one foot long and wide, into a sieve, and the target on the 450-meter outer wall was not spared, and the power made the two dumbfounded.

[Note 1] The breech guns used by sail warships are affected by the ship's drifting at sea, the unstable center of gravity, and the driving of the battleship, and the accuracy of the naval guns is not one and a half points worse than that of the army artillery.

Therefore, the optimal combat distance of sail guns is within seven or eight hundred meters, and it is best to be within five hundred meters. Of course, in practice, the range of artillery can be four or five miles, and heavy artillery can even be five miles, but the long-range bombardment of ships at sea is of little significance.

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