The R&D team of Bi Maokang has developed a large number of new equipment over the years, and the most significant breakthrough is the 60mm caliber mortar. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

A mortar is a kind of curved smoothbore artillery with a short gun body, a large firing angle, a high ballistic arc, a recoil bearing on a seat plate, a muzzle loading, and a tail projectile.

And its firing principle is also very simple: there is a thimble-like part at the bottom of the mortar barrel, when the mortar shell slides from the mouth of the mortar barrel to the bottom of the barrel, this thimble-like part will automatically push up to the detonator of the shell, and then the fired gunpowder on the shell will explode, and the shell will fly out under the action of the recoil force of the fired gunpowder.

The firing principle of the mortar is similar to that of the needle-fired rifle, but one is active force (the needle-fired rifle relies on the active hitting ignition device to complete the firing), and the other is passive force (the mortar relies on inertia to generate impact force, passively ignite the propellant, and complete the firing).

The range of this mortar equipped by the special forces is not far, the effective range is 50~400m, which is not much different from the Tiger Squat Artillery, but its accuracy is beyond the reach of the Tiger Squat Artillery.

The assembled mortar, with a total weight of only 17 kilograms, can be carried by ordinary adults and run fast, and the battlefield maneuverability ranks first among all the current artillery.

The 45 °~65° large elevation angle allows the mortar to easily hit the target behind the bunker, and can play an effective role in killing the enemy troops hiding behind the battlements.

If Qi Zhifeng stormed Xuzhou at any cost, even if there was no mortar, he could take it, but in this way, the casualties would be unbearable for the Second Army.

For the sake of Xuzhou, the Ming army couldn't go to the death, so after a night of rest, in the early morning of the third day when Qi Zhifeng made a military order, the special forces led by Yang Xiu officially joined the Xuzhou battlefield.

At the beginning of the battle, Yang Xiu mastered the rhythm, and the special forces who moved to the moat at night, thundered as soon as it was dawn, pulled out the crossbow fortifications on the front city wall in one fell swoop, and the engineer company covering Qi Zhifeng began to erect a pontoon bridge.

"I'm good! This mortar is really an artifact, not only can it be fired quickly and continuously, but it is also so accurate! Guo Sheng, who was observing the front-line battle, couldn't help but sigh.

Mortar is a gun that specializes in trenches and machine gun fire points, and its accuracy can be imagined, in the era when there were no bunkers, mortars were definitely the enemy's fire point nemesis.

"I don't know who it was, but yesterday I yelled that it was a child's toy." Zhang Chao couldn't see Guo Sheng playing treasure, so he couldn't help but strike.

"Hey, hey! I'm encouraging them, where is the motivation if there is no pressure? Besides, even if it's a child's toy, it's also a toy of my First Army, and your Second Army can't envy it. Guo Sheng said cheekily.

The special forces are nominally subordinate to the First Army, so Guo Sheng has this capital to brag.

"Alright, what a noise! Take a closer look at how these new weapons are used, and after the province is equipped with troops in the future, they will not be able to exert their power! Stilwell spoke to end the bickering between the two.

The power of mortars is in everyone's eyes, and it is inevitable that such an "artifact" will be installed in the troops, and now it is the first actual combat of mortars, and there are many places to learn and think about..........

It didn't take long for the engineer company to erect the pontoon.

One hundred and fifty special forces quickly crossed the river and stopped again at a distance of about two hundred meters from the city wall, a position in which the only effective means of attack for the defenders on the wall was the crossbow.

However, the crossbow had already been knocked out by mortars...........

One hundred and ten "Da Ming II type" rifles and twenty 60 mm mortars lined up to quickly slaughter the enemy troops on the city wall!

That's right, the Ming army is now unilaterally "slaughtering", whether the Qing army is hiding behind the battlements or running around on the city wall, they will be sniped by mortars and Ming II rifles.

Soon, this situation of being able to only be beaten and unable to fight back made the defenders of Xuzhou City panic.

"It's time to launch a general attack, order the Twelfth Division of the Fourth Army, send two regiments up, and you must take this section of the city wall for me!" Qi Zhifeng said viciously.

This time he made a bloody investment, the first attack, he sent more than 3,000 people, if it were not for the consideration of increasing the number of troops, it would not be possible to use it on the city wall, Qi Zhifeng estimated that he would dare to go directly to a division, after all, his military order has not been revoked, if he can't take Xuzhou City today, his life will not be guaranteed.

"Hurry up, as long as the enemy comes up, their artillery will not fire again! Give me to go up to defend against the enemy, as long as I can hold Xuzhou today, each person will be rewarded with ten taels of silver! The generals in Xuzhou City shouted loudly.

Now the only thing that can drive the defenders of Xuzhou to fight desperately may be silver.

In order to save his life, Geng Jingzhong not only "scattered his wealth", but also confiscated all the property of all the squires and wealthy people in Xuzhou City and distributed it to his soldiers.

If it weren't for tying these soldiers to his chariot with a lot of silver, Qi Hongying estimated that more than half of the Qing army would have surrendered when he was in the city.

The general who shouted was Geng Jingzhong's cronies, and his military acumen was not bad, at least he knew that white-knuckle combat could reduce the lethality of the Ming army's artillery.

However, this time, the Qing army was not facing the same kind of artillery as before..........

When some of the Qing troops who were attracted by money stepped on the auxiliary road and were torn to pieces by the mortars that flew straight in, the Qing army finally came to their senses: even if they give more money, it will be in vain if they don't spend their lives!

The mortars of the Ming army, after cleaning up the Qing army on the city wall, began to bombard the auxiliary road of the Qing army to the city at fixed points...........

In a few days, this was the first time that the Ming army had climbed the city wall of Xuzhou so easily, because there were no living Qing troops on the city wall.

When more than 3,000 Ming troops climbed the city wall, blew up the sandbags near the city gate with explosives packs, and let the main force enter the city, the end of the Qing army was already doomed.

The battle lasted from morning to noon, and in only half a day, the 80,000 Qing troops stationed in Xuzhou, in addition to the 8,000 killed in the battle, the remaining 72,000 were surrendered or captured, including Geng Jingzhong, the king of Jingnan.

Geng Jingzhong wanted to escape, but unfortunately he was cocooned, and the other city gates were blocked by his order, and he couldn't get out at all...........

"Hehe, I didn't expect the mortar to be able to make such a great achievement in the first actual battle, it seems that it won't be long before the imperial court should place an order, and it's time for the tiger squat artillery to withdraw from the equipment sequence of the Ming army." Li Hongfei couldn't help but sigh after reading the battle report from the front line.

The biggest feature of the Tiger Squat Cannon is that it is lightweight, but now that there are weapons that crush it in all directions, the retirement of the Tiger Squat Cannon is naturally imperative.

"What do you mean......... Full force to start making mortars? Wu Hao, the prefect of Suzhou, asked.

"Of course, weapons are researched out to sell for money, such a good thing, as long as the imperial court is willing to purchase it, sell as much as you want, are you still not willing to make this money?" Li Hongfei said to Wu Hao with a smile.

Wu Hao has been sitting in Suzhou, how can the two of them be together?

It turned out that Li Hongfei, as a minister of the Imperial Mission, finally returned to the place where he started: Suzhou after making a windfall around Nanjing.

The so-called windfall is the "filial piety money" collected according to the past practice, although Li Hongfei is nominally "collecting money", in fact he can only get 30%, and the rest has to be handed over to Zhu Youzhen's small treasury.

However, these three percent also made Li Hongfei rich, only around Nanjing, plus Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Wuxi and other places, he harvested nearly 500,000 taels of silver, except for Zhu Youzhen, Li Hongfei can get 150,000 taels alone, and the minister of Qincha is really a fat poor.

If it weren't for the fact that something was really going on in Suzhou, he wouldn't have stopped this money-making job.

"I mean, can you slow down, the production line of this tiger squat cannon has only been used for less than three years, and it's a pity to abandon it like this." Wu Hao explained.

As a company-platoon-level artillery, the tiger squat cannon hopes that the amount is very large, for this reason, Suzhou Heavy Industry has opened three production lines, and now it is said that it will be abandoned, and Wu Hao is not good at explaining to Zhou Furen.

Arms dealers are often virtuous, hoping that their weapons can be sold well, but they are not willing to be eliminated from the market prematurely, and it is best that a weapon can be popular for more than ten or twenty years.

After all, every weapon, including the cost of research and development, and the laying of the production line, generally takes four or five years before it starts to really make money.

"Come on! Don't think I don't know, this tiger squat cannon appeared a long time ago, and you basically didn't spend any research expenses, even if you lay three production lines, with the orders of the past few years, you have already made a lot of money. And you should understand that once the Northern Expedition is over, there will not be many orders for weapons production, and the Tiger Squat Cannon, a non-technical artillery, can be manufactured by any Ordnance Bureau, which can compare to the unique weapon market of mortars? Producing mortars with all your might, it is definitely much more profitable than a tiger squat gun! Li Hongfei said.

What industry is the most profitable, of course, is a monopoly industry.

Although Suzhou Heavy Industry has made a lot of money by relying on the Tiger Squat Artillery, it only occupies one-tenth of the entire Tiger Squat Gun market, and mortars are different, at present, only Suzhou Heavy Industry has this technology, that is to say, Suzhou Heavy Industry can occupy the entire mortar market, even if the imperial court only purchases a hundred, it is all taken over by Suzhou Heavy Industry, and other military enterprises only have envy.

The other is the Northern Expedition that Li Hongfei said just now, once the Northern Expedition is over, it is estimated that it will be difficult for war to break out in the Ming Dynasty, even if Li Hongfei does not order to stop the production of tiger squat cannons, the imperial court will not place orders for tiger squat cannons anymore.

As for mortars, Li Hongfei can maneuver one or two things from them, take precautions before they happen, and regularly update the army's weapons, which is understandable, and the ministers have no reason to oppose it.

"It's still an adult who is far-sighted, then this matter depends on the adult." After Wu Hao figured out the key point, he agreed very simply.

"Seeking truth from facts, it's not far-sighted, if you want to say that we don't need this tiger squatting cannon, it doesn't mean that others don't need it, people Westerners can sell artillery to us, why can't we sell artillery that we don't need to others?" Li Hongfei put forward a suggestion that had been held in his heart for a long time.

"You want to make money from Westerners?" Hearing about making money, Wu Hao realized it quite quickly this time.

"Westerners' firearms are no worse than ours, and it's a bit difficult to make their money, but this Nanyang is a good market." Li Hongfei said.

What are you kidding, a few years ago, the Ming Dynasty was still buying artillery from the Portuguese, if it weren't for the superb technology of the Chinese copycats, perfect imitation and improvement of European artillery, the artillery technology of the Ming Dynasty would have lagged behind the Europeans for decades.

Take this kind of old antique with a history of more than 50 years (the tiger squat cannon was used on a large scale in the period of Qi Jiguang) to sell it to the Europeans, and it is troublesome to transport it back when the scrap iron people are in trouble!

However, this Nanyang is different, due to geomorphological reasons, most of the Nanyang are jungle mountains, and heavy artillery does not work, but this kind of light tiger squat cannon can shine in those places.

Li Hongfei has long been interested in the North Sea, and the biggest obstacle to entering the South Seas is the Europeans.

At this time, most of Nanyang has become a colony of Europeans, and because of the ocean, it is impossible for Li Hongfei to send a large-scale army there.

Of course, he didn't have the power to mobilize the army.

The only way is to prop up a puppet regime and let the local natives fight with the Europeans.

On the one hand, the low level of civilization is the reason why the indigenous people were colonized, and the main reason is the backwardness of weapons.

If you want to make the natives strong, the best way is to sell weapons, even if the arquebuses, tiger squat cannons, and those miscellaneous firearms that the Ming army has replaced now, for those natives, they are no worse than the weapons of the Europeans.

Coupled with the fact that they were born and raised and familiar with the local topography, if not to drive away the Europeans, they could be left in a quagmire and exhausted.

In this way, Li Hongfei's opportunity came...........

Thinking of this, Li Hongfei began to say to himself: "It seems that I have to hurry up and go to Fujian, I believe that Mr. Zheng Zhilong should be in a hurry!" ”

"What are Zheng Guogong waiting for?" Wu Hao said curiously.

"Waiting for business! During this time, you also have a task, the investment project in hand is slow, hoard more cash, and when the Northern Expedition is over, I will go to the saint to talk about it, and then you Suzhou will take the lead in recycling those obsolete old equipment, and you will have money....... Naturally, everyone earns it together. Li Hongfei said to Wu Hao.

Selling weapons, without Zhu Youzhen's nod, Li Hongfei would not do it, even if he wanted to do it, it could only be operated secretly and in small amounts, rather than worrying about being discovered, it was better to be generous, everyone made money together, as long as the transaction volume was large enough, it was far more profitable than him doing smuggling.