Tessie's winters are not frozen, and there is no shortage of lakes and internal water, and many reservoirs have been built in many places due to the need for hydraulic machinery, so that the test work of the ship has not encountered too many problems after all. As spring approached, a secret test site on the Loire was cleared within a radius of dozens of miles, and tests were carried out effectively for the first vessels.

On average, at least two kilograms of artillery were installed on the newly built 50-man wheeled boat, and the maximum carrying capacity of the ship reached about 20,000 kilograms, which allowed it to carry 50 fully armed officers and men while also having enough transportation capacity to install the necessary artillery. In the days leading up to spring, many officers and soldiers also completed the transition from infantry to gunners.

Using the military resources captured in the entire Taixi, in about three months, at least more than 1,000 pieces of 18-pound or 13-pound projectiles were trial-produced, and it is easy to determine that when preparing for the landing operation, the number of new guns that can be put into operation will increase to as many as 2,000, and if you count the spare land artillery, the team of about 50,000 people will carry more than 3,500 guns of various kinds into battle. The 50,000 or so troops that were ready to land on the offensive would be a whole contingent of artillerymen and demomen.

After seizing a lot of decent artillery and even hydraulic boring machines from Europe, especially including a lot of excellent iron ore and metal resources, the efficiency of the newly made artillery has also been greatly improved. A gun with a barrel of about 600 kilograms seems to be able to fire a projectile of 13 kilograms at an estimated muzzle velocity of about one and a half times when it fires, surpassing the efficiency of many first-generation smoothbore guns. Of course, there is a great cost to this, especially in a world where even Europe cannot match the military industry of the Civil War era. The cost, of course, is to overdraft the artillery's maximum safety life to a level of only about 100 rounds.

Of course, the benefits of this overdraft are also obvious. After firing a cannonball that is obviously slightly more powerful than the Hongyi cannon with a body of about 1,000 catties, it seems that even if you fire at the keel of some of the main naval warships of this era at close range, it seems that it can play a huge destructive role, without worrying that the artillery will not be able to pose a real threat to the opponent's sea ship when encountering a truly decent enemy sea ship. When using iron shotguns for land attack tests, almost a single round of fire can shoot an average of 300 shotguns that still have considerable lethality for full-body armored targets at a distance of about half a mile, and it can be said that when such a heavy artillery unit is fighting on land, although it will also have great limitations in mobility, it can build a team that surpasses the times in terms of firepower to a large extent by overdrawing the life of the body tube and the extensive use of iron-core copper cannon composite technology.

While the craftsmen and even shipwrights who had gathered together were making serious preparations for war, the sea training of the main force of the more than 100,000 expeditionary troops that had gradually gathered in France began gradually.

It was also at this time that the powerful features and line-up of the maritime forces of Western Europe began to be revealed. For this reason, Xiao Xuan had to build several fortified areas equipped with a large number of new artillery in the waters east of Normandy in order to truly deal with the danger of enemy naval interference that the troops were likely to encounter during sea training.

Of course, Tian Xiuying also followed Xiao Xuan through a fierce artillery bombardment by the British and Dutch temporary combined fleets from miles away. At that time, the attack had built a relatively complete tunnel on the front line, but the enemy's naval guns unexpectedly launched a fierce bombardment with thousands of main naval guns firing more than 100,000 live ammunition, still causing thousands of casualties. Many officers and soldiers were buried in the tunnels along with the earth and wood by heavy bullets from the sky.

The strength of the British and even the Dutch at sea also began to make people who were very confident in the sea crossing operation, including Tian Xiuying and Zhou Dayong, hesitate at this time.

"The whole continent has been taken by the great army, except for the Ottomans and the Swedes who finally compromised with us, there is only one English left, is the threat of the English really that great?" At this time, Zhou Dayong also asked with some doubts.

If it was before, Xiao Xuan might feel that in the case that he has changed this era and changed the East, there is no need to "chase the poor with the remaining bravery" to leave a decent Western civilization, and maybe it can effectively maintain the vitality of the regime. However, after experiencing the conquest in Spain, Xiao Xuan began to gradually change his opinion.

"The British Isles, with a population of at least four or five million people at this time, was not a small country in the sense of military organization. Britain's agriculture is much more developed than other places, and in the case of sea power, it can also be supported by the resources of the Americas anytime and anywhere, even if it is only within the strength range of millions of people, in the case of full mobilization of war and the re-militarization of the aristocracy, it is possible to maintain a decent army and navy of about 400,000 troops at most, but the British did not have this need before. If Britain becomes the second Spain or France, and can invest 100,000 to 200,000 troops to attack and harass anytime and anywhere, how much will our army have to station in Europe, and how much additional cost will it cost? And there is no need to be taboo: during the attack on Spain, the combat effectiveness or combat performance of the troops seemed to decline slightly, and not long ago, it was rare that desertions began to appear among the volunteer troops. I used to be young and confident in many things, but now it seems that I am not sure that the enthusiasm and enterprising spirit of the army will be maintained for a long time. Maybe in just a few years to ten years, our team will be like the enemy, and although they still have some combat effectiveness, they will have no special advantages other than firepower and equipment. As the song sings: Strike while the iron is hot to succeed, if you compete peacefully, I have no undue confidence in the so-called revolutionary dividend, and I don't want to leave an uncontrollable hidden danger... At the military conference near the summer, Xiao Xuan said bluntly. And told all the officers and soldiers: In addition to the vanguard troops, Xiao Xuan, the main force of the fleet, also intends to participate in person, if the road is successful. This battle is very likely to be the last real battle in history, and it is also the last battle of the expeditionary force, and those who are unwilling to participate in the operation, lack the spirit of sacrifice and have other ideas, should withdraw as soon as possible, so as not to affect the quality of the entire army in the operation.

(End of chapter)