The meeting ended, and the conclusion was that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom should not be ignored for the time being, but it was necessary to make strategic defense preparations, and not to let the Taiping army sneak attack, let alone let Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang pick up the cheap.

In order to cope with the imminent invasion of foreign enemies, the focus of the work of the Shanghai military group is still on army expansion and training, and all funds, manpower, and material resources are inclined to the army and arsenals.

Gaocang Temple, Shanghai Army Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau recently ushered in a great event.

Early in the morning, Li Weiguo, accompanied by Fu Xuexian, came to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau.

"Where's the thing? Where's the thing? Li Weiguo asked anxiously.

"Just in front, according to your requirements and design, the two-thousand-ton hydraulic press has been tested, and the effect is very good, the most difficult barrel can be tested at once, and there is no need to worry about the sudden explosion of the barrel on the battlefield in the future. In addition, the speed of forging parts with a press is fast and accurate, and the workers can get qualified parts with a little more processing, and now our manufacturing bureau has opened three new Patriotic rifle production lines, which are produced in accordance with your requirements, and can produce one hundred and twenty rifles per day, which is more than 20 times faster than the original. ”

Fu Xuexian said with a smile, and it could be seen that he was quite excited.

In the past, the manufacture of rifles relied entirely on the manual work of workers, and it took several days for a master to make a rifle, which was far less efficient and time-consuming than the large-scale forging of all firearm parts in later generations.

Li Weiguo knows very well that in this backward era, once the large-scale forging technology of firearms is realized, it will set off an earth-shaking industrial revolution.

Just imagine that in this era, even in a powerful industrial country like Britain, the British army's production of P1853 muskets was only 50,000 or 60,000 per year, which is why during the Crimean War, the British army could not all replace the most advanced P1853, and could only use the outdated P1842 to fill the number.

If large-scale forging technology and advanced assembly line operations suddenly appear at this time, it will definitely shock the world.

Li Weiguo did it, although it took him nearly five years to finally build the first hydraulic press. Although this hydraulic press is only 1,000 tons, and the 10,000-ton hydraulic press of later generations cannot be compared, it is the world's first hydraulic press used for forging, and it is also the world's first hydraulic press that can perform a chamber pressure test on the barrel.

With a thousand-ton hydraulic press, all kinds of gun parts and components can be used for large-scale forging and production in the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau Arsenal.

A craftsman was supposed to finish a Patriotic rifle from start to finish, but now there is a hydraulic press and a lathe with high precision. It is possible to standardize the production of parts.

All the best craftsmen were assigned to the final assembly line of the guns, they did not need to build every part of the guns themselves, this work was left to their apprentices, who were only responsible for assembling all the parts of the guns, eliminating the unqualified parts, and completing the final part of the Patriotic rifle.

As a result, it used to take several days for a craftsman to make a Patriotic rifle, but now a craftsman can assemble dozens of Patriotic rifles in a day, and the efficiency has been greatly improved.

"Now the arsenal is capable of producing 10,000 Patriotic rifles a month. 100,000 rounds of bullets, which was completely unimaginable before! Fu Xuexian said with an intoxicated face.

After Li Weiguo's initial joy, he quickly changed his heavy expression. said: "It's still not enough! ”

"Not enough?" Fu Xuexian was extremely surprised, and asked rhetorically: "In a year, 120,000 patriotic rifles and 1.2 million rounds of ammunition can be manufactured, isn't it enough to deal with foreign devils?" ”

"Not enough! Far from enough! Li Weiguo shook his head seriously and said, "It seems that you still haven't experienced war firsthand. I don't know that once a war breaks out, it will be fought with money and attrition. Do you know how many bullets a soldier needs on average to kill an enemy when they go on the battlefield? ”

Li Weiguo's question made Fu Xuexian stunned for a while. He suddenly realized that he had never paid attention to this problem, and couldn't help but be embarrassed: "About two or three bullets!" ”

"Two or three shots? I'm glad I can kill an enemy with twenty or thirty bullets!"

Li Weiguo smiled helplessly, if two or three bullets can destroy an enemy, then the War of Resistance against Japan will not have to be fought for eight years.

This is an indisputable fact, you must know that during World War II, the riflemen of the national army needed an average of 500~800 rounds of ammunition to kill a Japanese soldier, and the US army needed an average of 1000~1500 rounds of ammunition to kill a Japanese soldier. The Eighth Route Army is a little bit more bullish, "one bullet destroys an enemy", but think about the old broken rifles used by the Eighth Route Army that are almost rifled, and it is self-evident how much moisture there is.

Li Weiguo naturally also has in his hands a relevant statistical data on the consumption of ammunition and the killing of the enemy by the soldiers of the Shanghai Army in battle, which shows that the front-line combat units of the Shanghai Army currently need an average of 50 rounds of ammunition to kill an enemy.

"At least fifty rounds of ammunition to destroy an enemy, according to this base, in a year the arsenal must prepare twenty million rounds of ammunition, of which ten million bullets are used for daily training, and another ten million bullets for combat readiness!"

Li Weiguo gave the task, Fu Xuexian thought about it, and said: "According to the current bullet production capacity, we need to open ten more rifle bullet production lines and recruit 20,000 workers!" ”

"Yes, you write the report, and I'll sign it for you! The matter of guns and ammunition cannot be delayed! ”

"In addition to rifles and bullets, is it also necessary to expand the production of artillery?"

"Of course, the real masters of modern warfare are always artillery, and after a battle, 80 percent of the enemies killed are directly or indirectly killed by artillery!"

Fu Xuexian thought for a while and asked, "Is that the focus on the production of front-loading guns or rear-loading guns?" ”

Li Weiguo asked: "What, has the rear loading gun been successfully developed?" ”

Fu Xuexian nodded and shook his head, and replied: "According to your instructions, we have been studying the rear loading gun in the past few years, and there has been progress some time ago, and the air tightness problem has been greatly improved, but the maximum caliber is only 75 mm, once the caliber exceeds 75 mm, the air tightness cannot be guaranteed." ”

"Seventy mm caliber is not bad, how heavy are the shells? What is the range? ”

"Seventy millimeter caliber, eight-diameter cannon body, about eight pounds of heavy flowering shells. Up to three miles! ”

Li Weiguo calculated and said: "The eight-fold diameter is shorter, and the power of the cannonball is not as good as that of the twelve-pounder infantry gun, and the range is so-so!" ”

Fu Xuexian agreed: "It's just that the air tightness problem is a little worse, otherwise it will definitely be much better than the current twelve-pounder infantry gun of our army." However, the rear gun has an advantage, that is, the reloading speed is fast, the one-piece shell is loaded directly from the back, and the fastest three minutes can fire five rounds, while the front gun can only be fired once in three minutes. ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said, "You're right. Three minutes is enough time to change the outcome of the battlefield, if you suddenly use this kind of rear-loading infantry artillery against the British and French forces, you will definitely be able to catch them off guard, if you use it at a critical moment, you may be able to rewrite the outcome of the war. ”

Fu Xuexian asked tentatively, "Then what do you mean?" Intensify the production of new rear-loading guns or go all out for front-loading guns? ”

Li Weiguo thought for a while and asked, "How many new rear-loading guns can you produce in a year?" ”

Fu Xuexian thought for a while and replied: "If you add a few production lines to produce at full capacity, a hundred doors should be fine." ”

Li Weiguo frowned and said, "Sixteen towns of the Shanghai Army." There are only five or six guns per town, which is a bit small! ”

Fu Xuexian said: "Of the sixteen towns of the Shanghai Army, only eight towns are the main force, and the other eight towns are still recruits. Aren't you going to let them go directly to the war and let them defend the city? It is enough to give them the front-loading guns, and give all the rear-loading guns to the eight main towns, so that each town can be divided into eleven or twelve guns, although it is less than half the artillery regiment of the existing artillery regiment. But the firepower is at least five times higher. ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said, "Yes!" But then you have to think of a way to have the workers work in three shifts. Each shift worked eight hours a day, working overtime day and night, striving to produce 200 artillery pieces and 50,000 rounds of artillery to be fired. ”

Fu Xuexian's mouth suddenly opened wide, this is a difficult task that is not easy to complete even if you are tired of vomiting blood, 200 rear-loading guns and 50,000 shells, this is the rhythm of vomiting blood!

Li Weiguo patted Fu Xuexian's shoulder and said with a smile: "Try your best to complete it, if you finish it, I will give you a first-class credit!" ”

The Shanghai Military Group has its own independent rules for rewards and punishments, and merit is divided into five grades, one, two, three, four, five, and the fifth class is the easiest; generally a small-scale battle can be divided into a collective fifth-class merit, or an individual can also be given a fifth-class merit for killing an enemy. However, the higher you go, the more difficult it becomes, and the second-class merit must win at least one battle to have a share, and the first-class merit has always been a legendary existence, and no one has been able to qualify for it so far.

Each class of merit corresponds to a generous reward, the fifth class merit, the bonus is worth three months' salary, the fourth class merit is equivalent to half a year's salary, the third class merit is one year's salary, the second-class merit is two years' salary, and the first-class merit is five years' salary.

Fu Xuexian, as Li Weiguo's eldest brother, naturally did not lack that five-year salary, but he wanted that first-class merit, because he didn't want others to say that he relied on his sister's nepotism to sit in a high position, and he wanted to prove his ability and worth.

"Done! I'm going to make a decision on this first-class merit! Fu Xuexian gritted his teeth and accepted the task.

"It is worthy of my Li Weiguo's brother-in-law, and the critical moment is to give power!" Li Weiguo smiled and complimented.

Only Fu Xuexian himself is smiling bitterly, he is purely a swollen face and a fat man, gritting his teeth to cope with the errand, whether it can be completed or not, he himself has no bottom in his heart.

"Let's go, take me to see our new infantry guns!"

Li Weiguo laughed, he just gave orders, and the hardships and burdens naturally had to be shared by his subordinates.

Accompanied by Fu Xuexian, Li Weiguo came to the test site.

In the distance, a deafening sound of artillery was heard from the test site, which was that the test personnel were testing the artillery they had developed.

Up to now, these test artillery personnel under Li Weiguo still have no expert level, first of all, the Qing Empire did not attach importance to the development of artillery, and has been using the general artillery during the Ming Dynasty, until after the Opium War, began to study Western artillery, but the start is obviously too late, especially the rear-loading artillery, which is even in Europe is in a state of enlightenment, naturally it is impossible to have any technology and experience to learn from, all rely on their own exploration.

Don't look at Li Weiguo's ability to design a breech-loading rifle, that is, he often plays with guns, so he understands it thoroughly, but he doesn't have the opportunity to play with guns, so it is impossible to design a complete modern after-loading artillery, he can only tell the principle to the artillery researchers, so that they can find their own way to develop the breech-loading artillery.

As far as these artillery researchers are concerned, they also explored and developed them little by little after studying the principles provided by Li Weiguo. During this period, there were too many setbacks and blows, and even casualties. They studied based on the principle of the Patriotic rifle, enlarged the caliber little by little, the Patriotic rifle was 9 mm caliber, they made 20 mm caliber, 30 mm caliber, 40 mm caliber, and so on, all the way to 75 mm caliber, but the 75 mm caliber failed, and in the end only 70 mm caliber infantry guns were developed.

Don't look at just from 20 mm caliber to 75 mm caliber, each caliber gun must also correspond to a different caliber gun body, such as in the development of 60 mm caliber guns. The cannon body alone developed 3 times the diameter, 4 times the diameter, 5 times the diameter until 15 times the diameter, and finally the 60 mm 15 times the diameter of the gun was not airtight enough, either the bore was blown up, or the shell could only hit a distance of several hundred meters, and finally declared a failure.

In addition, it is necessary to develop and manufacture shells of the corresponding caliber separately for each caliber and caliber gun, and the length and weight of the shell, how much explosive @ charge the warhead is filled with, and how much propellant the firing part is loaded with. It is a huge and cumbersome project that requires constant experimentation and repeated revisions, and it is very dangerous. Because once too much gunpowder is released, there will be a danger to life.

They didn't have much knowledge about artillery, like Edison, and didn't need theoretical arguments. It's just a vigorous non-stop experiment, and then come back after failure, after thousands of experiments. In the end, the test of the infantry gun with a caliber of 70 mm caliber and 8 times the diameter was successfully completed, which met the requirements of actual combat.

Li Weiguo knows very well how much sweat is involved in this process, how hard it is, and how dangerous it is, so he admires and respects these researchers very much, and never laughs at their low culture, let alone arrogantly calls them stupid.

There are dozens of guns at the test range, which are a combination of various calibers and multiple diameters, some have long barrels but small muzzles, like a thin and tall man; Some have short barrels but large muzzles, like a short and fat man; There are many more waste products after the test failure, which have been stored at the test site and have not been thrown away, because each cannon is made by the hard work of the researchers, and there is a lot of effort in it, and they are reluctant to throw it away.

"Reload the shell!"

"Pay attention to the record!"

“3！”

“2！”

“1！”

"Fire!"

With a cannon bang, a test shell whistled towards the distant range, and a few seconds later exploded, sending up a fiery red mushroom cloud.

Fu Xuexian wanted to call these researchers to come over to pay a salute to Li Weiguo, but was stopped by Li Weiguo, he didn't want to disturb them, and only watched from a distance.

Fu Xuexian asked a researcher for a copy of the 70-gun data, pointed to the gun being tested in the distance and said, "That one was the 70-gun just now, what do you think?" ”

Li Weiguo read the materials again, and the latest development and test data of the 70 guns were written on them.

70 guns (basic data and test parameters on December 15)

Caliber: 70.2 mm

Barrel length: 8 times the caliber

Total weight of the gun: 0.25 tons

Overall length of the cannon: 2.8 meters

Overall height of the cannon: 0.62 meters

High angle of fire: 60 degrees

Low firing angle: 10 degrees

Range range: 4-5 degrees left and right

Ammunition: 70 mm flowering or shrapnel

Bullet weight: 4 kg (flowering bomb), 3.8 kg shrapnel

Maximum firing range: 1588 meters

Minimum firing range: 160 meters

Mode of transportation: animal or human towing.

After reading these data, Li Weiguo nodded and said, "Yes, it can be used as infantry support firepower, and it can be equipped for artillery regiments in various towns!" ”

Soon, someone still discovered Li Weiguo's arrival, and a group of researchers immediately ran over excitedly and surrounded Li Weiguo.

"My lord, we have tried our best, at present, because of the air tightness problem, we can only go to 70 mm caliber and 8 times the diameter here, no matter how high it is, please punish it!"

Li Weiguo said with a smile: "Why should I punish you, you are all heroes of my Shanghai army, and I am proud of you for being able to develop it to this extent so quickly!" ”

Hearing Li Weiguo's praise, everyone immediately became happy.

As the captain of the artillery research, Chen Changqing said at this time: "My lord, what instructions do you have this time, give us guidance!" ”

"You're doing a good job, keep up the good work, I don't have any guidance here for the time being!" Li Weiguo smiled bitterly, these people already regarded him as an immortal, and every time they came, they would ask Li Weiguo for guidance.

Chen Changqing did not give up, and continued: "My lord, none of the people present are outsiders, and my lord's understanding of artillery is much higher than ours, please give me advice!" ”

"Please give me advice!" Everyone shouted in unison, looking at Li Weiguo with eager eyes.

"It seems that if you don't say a word, you won't let me go!" Li Weiguo was helpless, so he came to the front of the 70 gun, turned around a few times, and he heard that the crowd had been unable to overcome the problem of air tightness, so he opened the latch of the running door.

Seeing this, Li Weiguo suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and thought of the movie when he seemed to see the artilleryman closing the gun door after loading the shell, as if there was a twisting faucet.

"yes, the faucet principle, why didn't I think of it?"

Li Weiguo patted his head, and suddenly said excitedly: "The inside of the running door latch can be changed to a screw buckle, and the gun door can be closed by rotating the screw, so that the air tightness can be greatly improved!" ”

"My lord, what is a screwbuckle?"

“……”

Li Weiguo was stunned, but soon he smiled, for China, which is closed off from the country, there are very few people who know about the screwbuckle.

"Go, send someone to the waterworks to ask for some faucets and water screw valves!"

Li Weiguo thought for a while, and then said: "Forget it, I'll take you to the waterworks together, and you'll understand it when you get there!" ”

Next, Li Weiguo, Fu Xuexian, and dozens of researchers came to the waterworks together.

There, Li Weiguo explained to everyone the principle of closing the valve of the faucet, the focus of which is the principle of spiral sealing.

"The water valve can be closed by rotating clockwise to prevent a drop of water from coming out, and by rotating counterclockwise it can be opened to let water flow out."

"This water valve can realize the closure and opening of water, and the same reason, it can also realize the closure and opening of air, do you understand?"

Everyone was immediately overjoyed and nodded their heads, they were not highly educated, and they didn't understand what Li Weiguo said, and they felt very profound, but after they saw the real thing, they understood what Li Weiguo meant.

"Great, we can change the water valve and use it on the bolt of the gun, which will definitely solve the problem of air tightness in the gun chamber!"

"Your Excellency is wise!"

"Your Excellency is mighty!"

……

Li Weiguo opened his mouth with a smile, although he had never touched artillery in his previous life, but in the end he still thought of a solution.

"My lord, our 70 cannon hasn't been named yet, you can give it a name!"

Li Weiguo was on the rise, and he was suddenly full of arrogance, and blurted out: "This year is 1859 AD, so let's call it the 59-type infantry cannon!" (To be continued......)