Speaking of this 100-millimeter cannon, we have to start from last year!

When Zhao Dongyun led his troops to attack the Beijing Division last year, although all aspects of the fight were smooth, but they also suffered a lot of losses, such as artillery, although Zhao Dongyun's troops were equipped with a lot of artillery, and there were also a large number of mortars, it can be said that they occupied the advantage of artillery, but the artillery under Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen was not dry, and a large number of artillery bombardment gave great pressure to the attacking Feng army.

At that time, Zhao Dongyun did not have long-range heavy artillery under his command to directly knock out the artillery units of Feng Wang and the others, so Zhao Dongyun at that time was just thinking about seeing if he could buy some long-range heavy artillery, if not for anything else, in order to defeat the enemy's artillery units in the future.

After having this idea, Zhao Dongyun sent Zhao Dongping to negotiate with foreign foreign firms, successively excluded all kinds of large-caliber artillery recommended by foreign firms, and finally selected the 100-mm cannon of the German Krupp factory.

The barrel of the gun is thirty times long, using the hydraulic spring type brake device that German artillery has always used, although the combat rate of fire is not too fast, but there are more than five rounds per minute, and the German 1906 88 mm rapid-fire cannon 16 rounds per minute of rapid fire is naturally not compared, but Zhao Dongyun chose this 100 mm cannon is not without reason!

His reason is very simple, that is, among all the cannons offered by arms dealers of various countries that can reach a range of more than 10,000 meters, this gun has the smallest caliber, the lightest weight, well, the cheapest price!

To put it bluntly, Zhao Dongyun did not have too many requirements for caliber and rapid fire, he only required a firing range of at least 10,000 meters, so as to suppress the 75-mm field guns widely equipped in the domestic army, especially in the Beiyang armies, in artillery battles, and did not have much requirements for other aspects.

The 1904 100-mm cannon had a maximum range of more than 12,000 meters and weighed only 2,800 kilograms, barely acceptable for contemporary Chinese traffic.

As for the other artillery, such as the 120mm field howitzer or even the 150mm howitzer strongly recommended by the German Krupp factory, there are other 120mm cannons, and the 150mm cannon was rejected by Zhao Dongyun for the simple reason that they either did not have enough range, or they were too heavy to maneuver in China's backward traffic environment.

Of course, it also has to do with the high price of these large-caliber guns! Zhao Dongyun, who doesn't have much money in his pocket, only asks for range, and what other rapid-fire ah, the caliber power is all floating clouds for him!

For example, the German 88-mm rapid-fire field gun, which fires 16 rapid-fire rounds per minute, is very powerful, but the firing range is only 7,500 meters, which is not as good as the 75-mm field gun that Zhao Dongyun is currently equipped with, and it cannot play the role of suppressing the enemy's 75-mm artillery at all, and it is expensive to death.

Another example is the 120 mm field howitzer, this thing is not expensive, the Japanese themselves purchased a lot from the Germans, and imitated a lot of production, but the range of this artillery is shorter, only about five or six thousand meters, this range is not much stronger than the 120 mm heavy mortars equipped with a large number of Mukden Army, and the rate of fire is not as fast as the mortar, if the shells of the two use the same charge, then the explosive power is also comparable, that is, the accuracy of the howitzer will be better than the mortar.

In this case, Zhao Dongyun would rather be armed with two more 120 mortars than spend precious money to import 120-mm field howitzers.

As for the 120-mm cannon or even the 150-mm cannon, these ranges are enough, but they are also heavy to death, and they are fine in the plains, but the western and southern parts of China are mountainous areas, and these five- or six-ton or even ten-ton guns cannot be maneuvered without the railway.

And there is one of the most critical factors, that is, the price of cannons above 120 caliber is very expensive, and ordinary powers and countries cannot equip dozens of them, not to mention that Zhao Dongyun, a small warlord, simply cannot afford or even use these extremely expensive large-caliber artillery.

Combined with range, rapid-fire and weight and price factors, Zhao Dongyun chose this 1904 model 100 mm cannon, coincidentally, the Far East region Li Ri himself also imported a 100 mm cannon from the Germans and imitated the 38-year 10CM cannon, which is roughly similar in performance to the 1904 model that Zhao Dongyun bought from the Germans.

Zhao Dongyun actually also found a Japanese 'I tried to buy the artillery, but the Japanese 'my own production is also low, after the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese army is in the era of the old and the new, many of the classic weapons that later generations are familiar with Zhao Dongyun can not buy, such as the Japanese 'I have a series of 38-year weapons, such as the 38-year rifle, the 38-year 75-mm field gun, the 38-year 75-mm mountain gun, the 38-year heavy machine gun, etc., this new generation of weapons finalized in the Russo-Japanese WarThe production of Ben itself is limited, and it is difficult to obtain these new weapons from the Japanese in a short period of time at least for a year or two, and the people themselves are now buying second-hand goods from the Thirty Years series.

In the case that he can't buy it from Japan's side, Zhao Dongyun is imported from Germany, and the price is naturally a few points more expensive!

After waiting for half a year, the twelve 100mm cannons are finally back, which makes Zhao Dongyun a little excited, these 75mm field guns and mountain cannons have a lot of fun, but these 100mm cannons are still equipped for the first time.

And for these twelve 100 mm cannons to use shells, Zhao Dongyun paid a price of nearly 400,000 taels of silver for this, which cost a lot of money to buy back, if you don't even look at it, you really can't afford your own money.

So, a few days later, on a sunny morning, Zhao Dongyun arrived at the military camp on the outskirts of Shenyang with a group of generals.

The military camp in the southern suburbs of Shenyang, where a large number of troops of the Feng army were stationed, including two infantry regiments of the 10th Division, an artillery battalion and a cavalry regiment. Together with a patrol regiment stationed in the military camp in the western suburbs, and an army infantry battalion project formed the main control force in Shenyang.

In addition, the heavy artillery battalion of the Fengtian Army, which has just been formed not long ago, will also be stationed here, and today Zhao Dongyun is going to see this heavy artillery battalion that has just been announced.

"A month ago, we began to transfer officers and backbone artillery, and now although some of the artillery and baggage troops are still newly recruited, but with a large number of backbones in the original, this frame can be regarded as erected, and the battalion will have initial combat effectiveness in three months at most!" Fang Biyong walked beside Zhao Dongyun and introduced: "This is Lieutenant Colonel Wei Anpo, the battalion commander!" ”

When Fang Biyong introduced, Wei Anpo also took two steps forward, and then stood up and saluted Zhao Dongyun, Zhao Dongyun, who was wearing a military uniform, looked at this Wei Anpo carefully, and recalled a little about this person's resume in his mind.

If Zhao Dongyun remembers correctly, this person should have followed his old artilleryman since the era of the Third Association, and remembered that he was the first to form a mortar unit, but he was only a deputy military academy at the time, and after a few years, he obviously climbed to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and now he is serving as the commander of the heavy artillery battalion, which is obviously more senior than the commander of the ordinary artillery battalion.

"Well, Anpo, you have also become mature and stable in the past few years, okay!" Five or six years have passed, and many of the subordinates who followed Zhao Dongyun back then were only in their twenties, but now they are all in their thirties, and even Zhao Dongyun himself is close to Bensan. This time has passed, many people have changed greatly, and the original squad officers and battalion officers have all become middle and high-level in the army, and they can't see the youthful vitality of the past.

"How has the training been in the past two days, and do you have the confidence to do a good job in the next exercises?" Zhao Dongyun stepped forward, shook Wei Anpo's hand, and then looked at him with an encouraging expression.

Wei Anpo's face was a little excited: "Although the training days of the subordinate department are short, most of the subordinates are capable people in the army, and they will never live up to the trust of the commander!" ”

This is indeed a heavy trust, there are a lot of artillery units in the Feng Army, the Beiyang Army in this year is not the National Revolutionary Army or the People's Liberation Army in later generations, and the division of tens of thousands of people can't pull out more than a dozen artillery, today's Beiyang Army, whether it is under Zhao Dongyun or Wang Shizhen and Duan Qirui, they still retain a lot of heritage from the Yuan Shikai era, plus their vigorous outsourcing in the past six months, the number of artillery is actually not a lot.

After the three divisions and five brigades under Zhao Dongyun were fully established, not to mention mortars, there were 14 artillery battalions of 75-mm traditional body-barreled artillery alone, and there were more than 200 spare artillery pieces. Although Wang Shizhen and Duan Qirui don't have so many, there are more than 100 or less, and there are definitely dozens, which are much stronger than the artillery units of the Southern Federation.

However, there are so many artillery units in the Feng army, and there are dozens of middle-level artillery officers in them, but he Wei Anpo is the only one who serves as the commander of a heavy artillery battalion.

"Well, that's good!" Zhao Dongyun said casually, then looked left and right, and saw that the people below were also ready, and immediately said: "Since everyone is ready, let's start!" ”

With Zhao Dongyun's order, today's artillery exercise can be regarded as the beginning, but it is called an artillery exercise, but since an exercise has been made, the people in the staff department will naturally not let go of the opportunity, so they temporarily joined a battalion of infantry and a cavalry company, and made a joint exercise with a complete set of infantry and cavalry artillery.

Cavalry and infantry units were the first to appear, but soon artillery balloons were raised on both positions, and 75-millimeter guns on both sides began to fire training shells to provide cover for the infantry in front.

Soon, however, a huge artillery balloon was raised further back of the battlefield.

Fang Biyong also explained to Zhao Dongyun in time: "Over there is the position of the heavy artillery battalion, they have already raised the balloon, and it is expected that it will not be long before they can determine the shooting of Zhu Yuan." ”