Four-zero-three tanks? Tank!

In the last war, the expenses plus the pensions of the soldiers who died in the war, etc., were already millions of dollars, and the treasury of the Ming Dynasty had been consumed a lot, so it was still two to say whether it could support another big battle. 1――

And if it is to conquer Hamiwei, it will be all desert after leaving the customs, and desert combat is a point that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are especially good at, and there are too many things to pay attention to. If you are not careful, you will be swallowed by the desert before you are defeated by your opponent, which is not difficult to see.

Of all these factors, none of them are favorable to the Ming Dynasty.

"Tingbi, let's talk about it, will the imperial court send troops?" Lian Zining handed the piece of paper to Xiong Tingbi, who was standing on the side, and said.

After reading it, Xiong Tingbi showed an undisguised look of shock on his face, obviously he didn't expect the situation to be like this.

He pondered for a moment, his face was shocked and retracted, and he groaned: "According to the standard, the imperial court will definitely send troops." ”

"Oh? Will the imperial court send troops? Lian Zining was surprised: "Reason." ”

"The emperor's character!" Xiong Tingbi said: "Today is by no means a person who can suffer, and now the public opinion of the government and the opposition is in an uproar, if you don't send troops to fight a dozen, it will definitely not be justified." Thirty years ago, Duoyan Sanwei became independent, and the imperial court still went out to fight under such difficult circumstances, let alone now. It seems that the imperial court should first enrich the Suzhou Guard, and then use it as a base to attack westward. But it will definitely be played, but it won't be now, it should be after the beginning of spring, before the beginning of summer. ”

Lian Zining Wuzi was a little unconvinced, and said with a smile: "It doesn't matter if he can't send troops or not, it has nothing to do with us, let's go, go to the Ordnance Bureau." ”

Xiong Tingbi smiled and said: "What my lord said is that even if it is a fight, it has nothing to do with us, my lord, you just need to sit on the Diaoyu Tai." ”

What he said was a bit blatant, but Xiong Tingbi can be regarded as a person who knows Lian Zining very well, if he is a subordinate who guards himself, would he dare to take in the general of the rebel army?

Lian Zining glanced at him deeply, and before he could do it, he got up and walked out of the room.

Ye Nai's body had already recovered, and when he saw Lian Zining coming out, he hurriedly followed, and the group left the house and went straight to the Ordnance Bureau surrounded by a group of guards.

There are more and more things that the Ordnance Bureau needs to test, and the range is getting larger and larger, and the small territory in the city can no longer accommodate it, so it has to be relocated outside the city.

To the west of the Acropolis, there was originally a large area of low hills and dense forests, but later because of the abundant iron ore found there, the Mining Supervision Bureau was built there, and then the Ordnance Bureau was also moved there.

The dense forest was gone, and large buildings had been built in their place.

The Ordnance Bureau and the Mining Supervision Bureau are only a mile apart, because they are located outside the city, for safety reasons, the architectural features are almost the same, they are all high walls enclosing a large piece of land, the wall is more than two zhang high, one zhang thick, the area is vast, and there are soldiers patrolling the wall. It's like two small castles, each of which has a thousand houses, and in wartime, it can also be used as horns with Xishenwei to attract enemy troops, and the strategic location is very good.

Everyone rode out of the city, because of the close exchanges, from the west gate there is a special road to the Ordnance Bureau and the Mining Supervision Bureau, all of which are paved with bluestone slabs, and the road condition is very good.

In the Tohoku region in March, although the temperature is still below zero, there is already a hint of warmth in the air, the wind is no longer so cold and biting, the sun is shining brightly, and even the snow on the roadside is beginning to melt.

It's just that there is land around Xishenwei, and as soon as the ice and snow melt, the ground becomes muddy, like a big quagmire.

Lian Zining looked at the mud on the ground and frowned.

Because not far from his right, there were tens of thousands of Wuyi soldiers lined up in a large phalanx for drills, and the soldiers' feet were all soaked in muddy water, although they didn't experience it personally, but it can be imagined that this taste is definitely not very comfortable. …,

Lian Zining summoned a guard and said, "Go, tell Hong Chaojiao, let him wait here for me to come back!" ”

"Yes, sir!" The guard rode away.

Lian Zining and the others continued to move forward, and it didn't take long for them to come to the Ordnance Bureau.

At the castle-like gate of the Ordnance Bureau, Gonzalez was already waiting with someone.

With the improvement of the level and scale of the entire Wu Yi Army, he, the director of the Ordnance Bureau, now has the title of deputy Qianhu, and all kinds of benefits will of course rise with it. And the Sicilians under him, and even the skilled craftsmen recruited from Shandong, also had different titles.

Seeing Lian Zining coming, everyone saluted.

Lian Zining jumped off the horse, waved his hand and said, "Excuse me." Lao Gang, you told me a few days ago that you have developed a new weapon, what is it? ”

Gonzalez was wearing a military attache uniform with a thousand households, looking a little funny, and said with a smile: "Uncle, let the officials sell a pass, and when the adults arrive, they will know." ”

Lian Zining smiled and shook his head: "You guy." ”

After entering the Ordnance Bureau, it is still the same as the Ordnance Bureau in Leling County, with a forging and smelting place in front, a residence for everyone in the middle, and a large test site in the back.

Compared with Leling County, the current Ordnance Bureau is magnanimous, under Lian Zining's instructions, the silver is spent like water, and the test site alone is enough to have a radius of five miles, which is not much smaller than Zhixi Shenwei.

When Lian Zining entered the test site, he saw a behemoth placed not far away, and almost everyone's eyes were attracted.

It's a car, a big car, a very big car that doesn't seem to be in this era.

The car is more than two feet high, three feet long, and about two feet wide, and looks like a huge rectangular box, with sixteen or seventeen huge wheels at the bottom, each wheel is as high as a human neck, the wheels and spokes are very heavy, and the axle has a metallic light, which is very strong at a glance.

The whole cart looks black and swarthy from the outside, with a unique texture of metal, and at first glance, it looks like the whole body is made of metal, of course, this is unlikely. If it were really all-metal wheels, these wheels made of wood would never be able to hold up the weight.

Although the appearance is unified, it can still be seen that the cart is roughly divided into three layers, and on the lower floor, there are many small windows the size of bowls, and there are dozens of them. On the upper two floors, there are also open windows, but each window is a foot and a half square, which is much more marked than the lower one, and correspondingly, the number of windows is also less.

The whole cart looks like a small fortress standing here.

The people who followed Lian Zining were dumbfounded, what is this?

After all, Lian Zining was more knowledgeable, and vaguely guessed some uses, his breathing immediately became heavy, and he hurriedly asked Gonzalez next to him, "What kind of doorway is this?" ”

Gonzalez smiled, owed, and said a little proudly: "Uncle Meng, you appreciate it, give us a bowl of rice to eat, and trust us, but we can't live up to your trust with all the money we spend, and we have worked hard these days to develop these two things." Let's talk about this one first, this big car, let's call it the gun carriage. ”

"This gun carriage has two wheels, three feet and two feet long, one and a half feet wide, and one foot and three inches thick, all of which are made of extremely hard iron birch."

"There is a front lute, one foot three inches long, six inches wide, and half a foot thick, which is made of red pine wood."

"There is one front and one wall each side, two feet and one inch high, two feet and three inches wide, and two inches thick; There is one side of the left and right walls, three feet long, two feet high, and two inches and one point thick. ”…,

"There are two pillars, two feet and one inch high, and six inches of square ears; There are two carriage banners, two feet three inches long and four inches thick; There are two ears, five feet long, two feet wide, and one foot and three inches thick. ”

"Sixteen wheels, over five feet in diameter; Twenty-eight pieces of car nets, four inches thick and one foot four inches wide. ”

"Twenty-eight spokes, six feet eight inches long, and half a foot thick; There are two fronts, four feet in diameter and four feet long; There are two rungs, one foot and five feet long. ”

"All of the above are made of fine red pine wood, and the four walls of the gun carriage are covered with a layer of iron sheets, and in some parts, iron plates are reinforced. The whole cart is divided into three layers, separated by plates, and there are stairs to go up and down, with a total weight of 4,300 catties. ”

Lian Zining walked to the front of the cart, looked up, and was a little surprised, and said, "These holes, but where firearms are placed?" ”

"Uncle is aware of everything." Gonzalez smiled: "Uncle, please see, these holes opened on the lower floor are used to stab spears, and there are six openings in the front and back walls, and ten openings in the left and right walls. The first floor can accommodate thirty-two soldiers. And these holes above are for artillery. According to the meaning of the mark, the upper layer is placed with the Franc machine gun, and the lower layer is placed with the tiger squat gun, so that the combination of the two is suitable for both distance and near. ”

"There are two openings on the two floors, two in the front and back, and three on the left and right. An artillery carriage has a total of 10 small sample Franco machine guns, 10 tiger squat cannons, and 32 iron spears. Each Franc cannon has six gametes, each Tiger squat cannon has ten ammunition packs, and each iron spear is one zhang and two feet long, which is made of iron, which is extremely sharp and not easy to break. On the inner walls of the first layer there were iron chains, to which each spear was tethered so that it would not be snatched away by the enemies outside. ”

Lian Zining was shocked when he heard this, he had thought that this artillery carriage was used for this purpose before, but after confirming it, he couldn't help but be very excited in his heart.

This Nima is a gun carriage? It's clearly the tank of the Ming Dynasty!

Lian Zining couldn't help but be surprised, and said in his heart Could it be that Gonzalez is also a traverser, this thing and the tanks of later generations are simply the same idea, and it is not an ordinary tank, it is the kind of multi-turret tank that is obsessed with multi-riveting and steaming steel technology.

Lian Zining asked, "Gonzalez, how did you come up with the idea of making such a thing?" ”

Gonzalez was a little embarrassed at this time, and said: "Actually, this is not the credit of the standard, since the mark has been submitted to the adult, he wants to share the worries of the adult and create a more powerful and stronger firearm, and the mark also knows that our Ming firearms technology is actually very advanced before, so I read a lot of classics, and I saw in an ancient book that in the fourth year of Yingzong Tianshun of this dynasty, there were generals who made light cars in Datong Town, and set up a number of firearms on it, which was quite powerful. I thought about it, why can't our Wu Yijun's firearms be so powerful now? The gun carriage was built in turn, but this thing is really difficult to master, if the cannon is released too much, its recoil will shatter the plank, and if it is put less, it will not show its power. It took two months of research to make such a finished product. ”

Lian Zining was extremely interested in this, and said, "Come, let me take a look!" ”

"Yes, my lord, just look at it!" As soon as Gonzalez waved his hand, dozens of people emerged from the Sicilian mob, Gonzalez took the lead, and climbed the ladder into the cart. At the back of the cart, there was a hanging ladder seven or eight feet long, and they all climbed up along the suspension ladder one by one, and then at a height of seven or eight feet. There was a small five-foot-high door, through which he entered, and when the last man had entered, he drew the ladder in, and when he closed the door, there was obviously a latch or something inside, and when it was closed, it was seamless. …,

In this way, the entrance is directly on the second floor.

Lian Zining nodded, this setting is very ingenious, if the entrance is opened low, it may be smashed open when the enemy is besieged, so that the wheels are five feet high, it is not easy to climb up, and the door is at a height of seven or eight feet, it is even more impossible to enter, and the opening of this later tank is also similar.

I only heard the jingle of bells inside, and I saw dozens of spears sticking out of those small holes on the first floor, this spear was pitch black in color, and the tip of the spear was extremely sharp, flashing with a penetrating cold light.

Then I saw that in the hole of the second layer, there were ten stubby cannon muzzles, two in the front and back, and three on the left and right, which were the tiger squat cannons. Then on the top layer, the barrels of ten slender Franco cannons protruded.

In an instant, the entire gun carriage turned into a huge monster with a cannon barrel stuck in it.

Full of evil and powerful deterrents.

At this time, the sound of metal crashing continued to come from the top layer, and with a sharp whistle, a faint smell of gunpowder came, except for the three Franc cannons on the side of Lian Zining and others, the muzzles of the other stuffy Franc cannons were all white smoke, and then I saw a puff of dust coming out of five or six hundred meters away from the front, right, and rear directions, and several large craters were smashed out of the ground.

Then, there was a neat explosion in the second layer, as if the ground trembled, and countless small lead seeds were sprayed from the second layer of the cart in all directions, and a fierce and dense storm of scorching steel enveloped the cart as the center, with a radius of twenty meters.

The muzzle angle of the tiger squat cannon was slightly downward, and when the smoke cleared, I saw that on the ground twenty meters away, a small piece of lead, iron, and gravel was neatly and densely nailed in. It forms a ring with a radius of 20 meters in the inner ring and about 25 meters in the outer circle.

It was so powerful that everyone watching it gasped.

Naturally, only a dull roar was heard, and then the thirty-two spears stretched out from the first layer stabbed forward in unison, neatly aligned, obviously commanded by someone inside.

The holes in these spears were about six feet above the ground, and the spears stabbed diagonally downward, hitting the chest of the enemy standing on the ground, and their design could be described as vicious. It can be seen that the enemy has nothing to do in the face of this monster covered in iron sheets and heavy pine wood, and the soldiers in the car can continue to stab outward and harvest lives.

Lian Zining's breathing was heavy.

This demonstration process represents the three offensive methods of this artillery vehicle, which can be far and near, whether it is used as battlefield support or slaughtering machines, it is very easy to use.

Ye Nai pulled Lian Zining's clothes behind him, stuck out his tongue at him playfully, and said, "Master, this artillery truck is so powerful!" ”

"yes!" Lian Zining nodded: "It's really powerful!" ”

Gonzalez came out of it with a group of people, he should have gone to operate the cannon, his face was black and white, but his expression was full of pride: "Uncle, are you still satisfied?" ”

"I'm satisfied!" Lian Zining raised his eyebrows: "But, Gonzalez, I'm afraid that the cost of this thing is not cheap?" Also, the empty car is so heavy, how heavy is it to carry dozens of you people? How to move? ”

Gonzalez's face immediately became a little embarrassed.

Power and cost, Lian Zining's words hit the nail on the head.

He sneered: "The cost is indeed higher, the main body of this gun carriage is made of iron birch and pine, iron birch is only a little worse than steel, and pine is also very hard." There are a lot of these timber outside the city, pine trees are everywhere, and it becomes a good timber to choose them, and iron birch is rare, but if you launch the hunters to find it, it is not impossible to find it. In addition, it is iron sheet and iron plate, the material is not difficult to find, but the process required is very high, and it is time-consuming, laborious, and expensive! ”…,

Lian Zining frowned and asked, "How much can the output reach?" ”

"It took half a month to build this artillery car, and it cost a total of 30,000 taels of silver. Of course, in the future, all the processes will be familiar, and the cost can be reduced a lot, and a car can be won for about 10,000 taels of silver. ”

"Ten thousand taels of silver?" Lian Zining's face softened a little: "It's not unacceptable." ”

That is, Wu Yijun, who has deep pockets, dares to say this.

"What about motivation?"

"Motivation, it's a real problem." Gonzalez said: "The current idea of the mark is to use war horses, and the mark has done experiments, and a horse can pull a cart weighing thousands of pounds, and ten horses are enough for this cart." ”

"Ten horses? That's all there is to it. But it takes a lot of time to train, right? Lian Zining was a little helpless, in this era with animal power as the main driving force, there was really nothing to do.

"One month is enough! The pony has a docile personality and is very tame. Gonzalez said.

Lian Zining snorted, and circled the gun carriage twice, although there would be such and such problems, but he was still in a very excited mood, after all, this is a weapon beyond this era.

"Don't call it a gun truck, I gave it a name, just call it a tank!" Lian Zining said.

"Frank...... Tank? Gonzalez repeated the somewhat awkward name, feeling a little strange in his heart, and said, "Uncle, you will call it whatever you say." ”

Then Lian Zining looked at Gonzalez's second new weapon.

Medium Franc cannon.

The Ming Dynasty divided the Franc machine into three types: large, medium and small, with copper casting and iron casting. The large Franc fuselage is one zhang long and weighs six or seven hundred pounds. "Wu Bei Zhi" divides the imitation Franc machine into No. 5. No. 3 and No. 4 are lightweight. No. 3 is four or five feet long, each containing lead weighs 5 taels and 9 yuan, and the medicine is 6 taels. No. 4 is two or three feet long, each containing lead weighs 3 taels, and the medicine is 3 taels and a half. No. 1 and No. 2 are heavy-duty. No. 1 is a long ** ruler, each containing lead weighs 1 catty, and the medicine is 1 catty. No. 2 is six or seven feet long, each containing lead weighs 10 taels, and the medicine is 11 taels.

There are a total of three medium Franc cannons developed by Gonzalez and others, about seven feet long, about the thickness of a bowl, which is the same as the length of the small Franc, but the size is obviously larger than that of the small Franc.

Gonzalez said: "This sample Franc cannon is imitated by the inferior people according to the small sample Franc cannon, and after several test firings, the performance is now very stable." It is seven feet three inches long, three inches and one minute in diameter, and weighs four hundred and twenty pounds. The inside is made of brass, the outside is an iron shell, each cannon has eight gametes, the firing range can reach three miles, and the effective firing range is about two miles. ”

After saying that, it was a test firing, Gonzalez really did not lie, the hit rate of the medium Franc cannon within two miles was quite impressive, and the firing distance was indeed about three miles.

Lian Zining praised them again, and said: "Now our cannon is still too small, you study it carefully, remember, you must develop the cannon bigger, the longer the range, the greater the power, the better!" Don't be afraid to spend money. The number of small sample Franc cannons is basically enough, and from now on, a large number of medium Franc cannons and tanks will be manufactured, and this officer, you will see the scale within two months! Got it? ”

The crowd shouted yes.

Lian Zining and the others inspected here again, and then left, before leaving, Lian Zining suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, Lao Gang, how about the flowering bomb that you studied?" ”

Lian Zining has always been particularly suspicious of the powerful shells of his era, how many people can be killed by those shells that explode after they land? As long as it is cut by shrapnel, it is basically either dead or disabled, a 75mm caliber mountain artillery shell can kill more than a dozen people, and now it is a solid bullet, a caliber is not inferior to the mountain artillery Franc machine gun, how many shells can be killed?

One is face killing, the other is point killing, and the gap is huge.

So Lian Zining had already told Gonzalez to study the flowering bomb.

Gonzalez was a little puzzled: "This is being developed, but it has high requirements for gunpowder power, delayed explosion, etc., so now we just have a clue." ”

Lian Zining didn't embarrass him, he also knew how difficult it was for the emergence of new technologies, so he just said to do a good job and took people away.

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