Chapter 273: Breech Gun (Second Update, Asking for Support)
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Wen Han is coming!
Receiving the information from SH, Zhu Yifeng looked at the content of the letter and frowned, this letter not only brought the information that Wen Han was coming to Wuchang, but also the intelligence from the British Consulate, in this era, countries have little defense against spies, and the same is true for consulates abroad, and as early as a few months ago, Zhang Sen had already planted eyeliner in the British Consulate. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć ļ½ļ½ļ½ļ½
"London's determination to maintain British interests in China and the interests of the concessions remain unchanged!"
Looking at the content of the letter, Zhu Yifeng's fingers lightly slammed on the desktop. From the information we have so far, it seems that although Britain has been involved in the Crimean War, it does not mean that they will sacrifice their interests in China. This means that they will most likely not make concessions on the opium issue.
This means that you have to be prepared for something else, which is to show your attitude in the strongest way.
"The public law of all nations is not as good as a few cannons, and a few treaties are not as good as a basket of bombs.
After this exclamation, Zhu Yifeng smiled helplessly, sometimes he still thinks about some problems too simply, maybe now Britain is powerless to look east, limited by their own strength, they may accept the current anti-smoking move of the GD, but if this problem is fundamentally solved, it is necessary to solve the opium ships of various countries in the Dingyang, which will inevitably lead to conflict, which is obviously not in the interests of Britain.
"If you can't do it, just fight!"
Despite the indignation in his words, he only complained that fighting with the British now would be the last choice he would not make until the last moment.
But on the other hand, a future conflict between China and Britain will be inevitable, because of the future policy of the United Kingdom.
Zhu Yifeng, who is familiar with history, knows that although Britain, as the world's number one hegemon, won the Crimean War and successfully blocked the passage of the Russians to the near southeast, as a new balance of power was established in Europe, the British began to no longer enthusiastically participate in European affairs, but devoted themselves more to the expansion of their colonies.
In the Crimean War, the traditional alliance between Russia and Austria collapsed, and the conservative forces restraining Europe collapsed, which promoted the unification of Germany and Italy. In the midst of Russia's increasingly active eastward expansion, Germany, which had just been reunified, also actively encouraged Tsarist Russia to expand eastward in order to avoid being caught in a two-front war with France and Russia. For Britain, the world's only superpower at the time, the focus was on the East to continue to effectively contain Russia: supporting China as an anti-Russian strategic ally was a top priority.
But it also gives me another option in the future - with the help and support of Britain, to gain more benefits before Britain breaks up in the future. Whether it is to unify China in the future, or to dye the Navy, it will need the help of Britain, and in this regard, it would be unwise to go to war with Britain.
But on the other hand, Chu Yifeng not only made concessions on the tablet issue, but also could not stand the British-occupied Hong Kong. In any case, Hong Kong must be recovered, and opium and Hong Kong are both fundamental issues of principle.
"It seems that you must first prepare for war no matter what! The army can almost start expanding today, and after a few months of training, this batch of cadets should graduate. ā
The fundamental reason for the limited existence of the Righteous Army is the lack of officers, although the Wuchang Martial Arts Academy has been established for a year, but so far it has only trained a total of less than 1,000 officers, and these officers are still unqualified from the eyes of the West, because they have only received about eight months of junior officer education, and only the best officer students among them can go to the senior class for another six months.
The reason why this short-term education mechanism is destined is because the righteous army needs officers, to be precise, the modernization needs of the righteous army, and the officers who receive the new military education, of course, this is also to further control the army and ensure the army's loyalty to itself. Fortunately, the knowledge of military theory in this era is far less abundant than that of later generations. Even in Huangpu 70 years later, don't those famous Huangpu students just receive half a year's military education?
"If you can't do it, you will shorten the duration of the second batch of students to six months!"
Thinking of the short-term education of the Whampoa Military Academy, Zhu Yifeng muttered secretly in his heart.
"It seems that the arsenal will prepare these 600 "military souls" in advance......
The "soul of a soldier" in his mouth is a short sword awarded by Zhu Yifeng to the graduates of the Martial Arts Academy, because the sword is engraved with the words "Success Chengren", also known as the "Chengren Sword", and its metaphor is very simple - when necessary, they should use this sword to commit suicide and martyrdom, "the soul of a successful soldier", if you don't succeed, you will become benevolent, for soldiers, there is no third choice.
"Let's go to the Arsenal!"
Thinking that there was not much news from the arsenal recently, Zhu Yifeng's heart was moved, regardless of the rain in the sky, he walked out of the gate directly, the rain gradually increased, and the raindrops kept falling on his broad shoulders, he straightened his shoulders, straightened his neck, and ignored the upcoming fierce thunderstorm.
The raindrops crackled against the glass of the porthole of the petty air wheel, leaving an oval mark of water. Before the water mark could disperse, another ellipse came on top of each other. Gradually, water marks slid down the glass...... o
After coming to the arsenal, Zhu Yifeng did not delay and went directly to see Xu Shushan. Xu Shushan was a little surprised by Han Du's sudden visit, but after a moment of surprise, he spoke.
"Han Du, you came just in time, the minister is about to wait for the rain to stop, send someone to the mansion to report, breech cannon, we have already made it! The test shot worked great! ā
"What? Already manufactured? There, let's go and have a look! ā
Without any lingering, Zhu Yifeng braved the rain and came to the warehouse next to the iron casting workshop where the cannons were stored. As soon as he entered the warehouse, among the hundreds of old-style front-loading guns, he could see at a glance the rear-loading guns, two breech-loading guns of different sizes, side by side.
"That's it?"
Zhu Yifeng squatted next to the cannon, touched the bolt at the end of the cannon with his hand, and dipped his hand in slimy butter.
The surface of the barrel made of wrought iron is blue-black, and because it is a wrought iron barrel, it has a texture that is not at all the same as that of a bronze and cast iron barrel, and at first glance it looks more like a sharp blade than a cannon.
"Handu, wrought iron axles are the best raw materials for making guns, and their material is close to steel, which means that its barrel can be thinner and lighter, because we have two kinds of axles, that is, steam locomotives and passenger wagon axles, so we make two kinds of guns of different calibers. This is a heavy artillery, with a caliber of 105 mm, which can fire 12.5 kg shells to a distance of 5.3 km, although its shells weigh nearly 28 pounds, but its weight is only 1213 kg, compared to the 12-pound Napoleon gun, the total weight is 1109 kg, but its shells are more than twice as heavy, and the range accuracy is not beatable, and it can be used as a heavy artillery for attack. Although as for the door next to it, it is made with a thinner small axle, so the caliber is smaller, with a caliber of 88 mm, Its shell weighs 7.25 kilograms, the range can reach 6 kilometers, and its weight is only 448 kilograms, compared to the former, it is easier to pull, the gun light is naturally more suitable for the use of troops, the minister is also prepared to use a shortened body tube, in order to further reduce the weight, according to the minister's estimate, if the use of a shorter 18 times the caliber body tube, although its range may drop to 5.5 kilometers, but its weight should be controlled at about 380 kilograms...... The structure of the two is similar, the locking mechanism is a vertical gun bolt invented by Han Du, which opens and closes quickly, and the sighting device is borrowed from the Napoleonic cannon, which is composed of a ruler and a crosshair, the gun carriage is a Napoleonic type, divided into front and rear frames, the rear frame is equipped with a rod, which can be pulled by mules and horses, the wheels are inlaid with 6 sections of wood, and the copper wheel clamps are inlayed, and the shells are made of cast iron, and the metal shells are used to fire bullets, and the tail of the bullet is embedded with a lead ring......"
Xu Shushan concealed the smug look on his face, in the past half month, he studied metal shells while developing these two guns. At the beginning, I thought that the most difficult bullet shell was relatively simpler, with a few sketches made by Zhu Yifeng, he himself was a mechanical engineer, and he modified the manufacturing copper yuan press, made a new mold, and could produce it step by step, although some of the technical problems needed to be solved, but at least the metal bullet case had been manufactured, and then only the problems in production needed to be solved step by step.
At first, Xu Shushan thought that since there was already a simple pattern, it should be easily manufactured, but in fact, the sketch only gave the locking gun chamber. As for how to fire the primer and how to draw out the cartridge, no answer was given. And this is exactly what Xu Shushan needs to solve.
"This is the breech-loading gun we made?"
Looking at these two rear-loading guns of different sizes and calibers, Zhu Yifeng said while looking at the inside of the swarthy gun chamber from the muzzle.
"Can you open the bolt door at the end of the gun and show me?"
Zhu Yifeng raised his head and asked.
Xu Shushan personally walked to the tail of the cannon, grabbed the lever on the bolt, and pulled the bolt open with a "click". In an instant, the light passed through the gun chamber, and the inside of the gun chamber was neatly aligned, clearly spaced, and the rifling curved like an artistic creation was presented to Zhu Yifeng.
"Whether it is a 105mm gun or an 88mm gun, there are 48 riflings, and each rifling is drawn by a special rifling machine made in the United States!"
"Alright, I got it!"
Waving his hand to stop Xu Shushan's words, Zhu Yifeng said excitedly.
"Now let's go and try a few shots."
"But it's raining right now......"
Without waiting for Xu Shushan to finish speaking, Zhu Yifeng immediately said.
"Rain? Could it be that if it rains, we won't fight? It's raining, isn't it just the right time to test? (To be continued.) )