"Knock, knock......"

Beiyang Heavy Machine Tool Company forging workshop, accompanied by a deafening roar, 10,000 tons of hydraulic press continue to forge red steel ingots, this 12,600 tons of free forging hydraulic press, is four years ago introduced from the United States Bethlehem Iron and Steel Company, in the past four years, this 10,000 tons of hydraulic press, can be said to be to a certain extent the mother of forging - forgings weighing hundreds of tons are forged, a heavy equipment thanks to this hydraulic press out of the drawings. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In addition to forging heavy equipment forgings, the heavy machinery company also undertakes some other business subcontracting, for example, outsourcing business from the Shenyang Arsenal, although the Shenyang Arsenal built a 4,000-ton hydraulic press three years ago, but because it does not have a 10,000-ton hydraulic press, all certain components still need to be outsourced to the heavy machinery company.

"Knock ......"

With the forging hammer forging, in the spark splash, the red billet was forged more densely, a slender body tube slowly showed its appearance, this is a large-caliber artillery barrel billet, a year ago, with the help of this 10,000-ton hydraulic press, 50 times the body of the 12-inch barrel tube blank, in this forging workshop was born, which quickly replaced the Zhenhai-class battleship's 45 times the main gun, thus giving the Zhenhai class more powerful firepower.

Lighter weight and greater power, this is the advantage of the new artillery, which began last year's technological innovation, to a certain extent, changed the artillery industry in Northeast China, so that the artillery industry in Northeast China surpassed Western countries for the first time and entered the ranks of advanced countries.

"This is the tube blank of the 254-mm naval gun ordered by the Navy for" Zhenbo class ", the Navy must have ordered 68 tube blanks, of course. Spare body tube included. 50x body tube. The new double-base smokeless projectile, which is not even inferior to the 45-inch naval gun of the Armstrong, is not inferior to the 12-inch naval gun of Armstrong, of course, not for combat ships, but for cruisers......"

Zheng Tingxiang, who is the head of the military industry in Northeast China, introduced their technological achievements to Wu Dingyuan, the chief of staff of the army, who was next to him. Now the Shenyang Arsenal can already make 12-inch, or even more powerful guns.

"In our design office, we have even begun to design a 14-inch naval gun, although it has not escaped the influence of the Albanian artillery, but Your Excellency, if successful, we will have the most advanced and powerful naval gun in the world, of course, if the Navy needs it, but ......"

Smiled awkwardly. Zheng Tingxiang said helplessly.

"The Navy seems to be content with the current 12 inches, and there are still 10 inches ......"

Salesmanship!

As the head of the Shenyang Arsenal. Zheng Tingxiang, who is also the actual person in charge of the military industry in Northeast China, seems a little helpless, a few years ago, they were not able to provide large-caliber artillery for the army, especially the navy, when the navy manufactured the "Zhenhai", the first batch of artillery was even imported from Britain, and even the barrel of the first batch of self-produced artillery was also imported from Britain. And now, they were able to give the navy more powerful guns, so much so that the navy found itself that it didn't even have a warship that could carry such a massive naval gun.

However, the investment always needs to be recouped, and although the Navy has purchased a lot of naval guns, it realizes that it may be possible to do something about the Army, such as lobbying the Army to buy heavy artillery, even if it is a 12-inch heavy gun.

However, it was not easy to sell the 12-inch gun to the Army, at least until then, it was necessary to convince the Army to accept the proposal proposed by the arsenal.

"For the Navy, twelve inches is enough, but General, what about the Army?"

With a sincere look on his face, Zheng Tingxiang looked at Wu Dingyuan beside him, and he asked softly.

"What will the army use to conquer the Russian fortresses in the future?"

"Hmm!"

With a slight jump in his brows, Wu Dingyuan turned his head to look at the "arms dealer" next to him, but he didn't feel any surprise about his sales.

In the past two years, the army has purchased a large number of munitions from the Shenyang Arsenal, tens of thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition have been continuously produced, and have been deployed in sensitive areas, once the war breaks out, the army does not even need to transport munitions from the rear, only needs to open the front ammunition depot, which is enough to support a battle that lasts for several months, and the corresponding procurement plan has not stopped, but it is just the procurement of ordinary rifle machine guns and mountain artillery and corresponding ammunition, as for heavy artillery...... It seems that up to now, the heavy artillery equipped by the army is still based on dozens of 120mm rapid-fire guns eliminated by the navy.

Do they want to sell this ten-inch heavy gun to the army? What does the Army use to transport them? How to use them?

"What, do you guys have any ideas?"

A few hours later, looking at the model displayed in front of him, Wu Dingyuan was stunned, he never thought that artillery could be used like this.

"Train Cannon!"

Looking at the dumbfounded Wu Dingyuan, Zheng Tingxiang introduced him in a calm tone.

"Actually, that is, the railroad guns, which were actually used by the Americans as early as the American Civil War, especially during the capture of Petersburg. But at that time, the railway guns were not specially manufactured, they were just ordinary field guns mounted on railway flatbeds, not real railway guns. It was not until a few years ago that the French first came up with the idea of a railway gun, and Denmark used it as a mobile coastal artillery......"

Zheng Tingxiang, who was showing the model, explained to him what anti-recoil device and how to install the twelve-inch naval gun on a special gun mount, although it seemed that the use was quite complicated, but Wu Dingyuan, who was born in artillery, was still keenly aware of what changes this kind of heavy artillery would bring to the battlefield after it was put into land warfare, and of course, more importantly, the fortress system of Vladivostok, which had plagued the General Staff for a long time, was bound to be solved because of it.

"It can be said that under the threat of 12-inch shells, any fortress is not worth mentioning, of course, this is not to say that it does not have shortcomings, such as its high cost and not fast rate of fire, but, Your Excellency. At least. There you have it. When attacking a fortress, the army does not need to turn to the navy, after all, for the navy, every ship is precious, and the navy's turret has a limited angle of fire, which is completely impossible to pose a threat to many targets......"

Without waiting for him to finish, he spoke.

"It's too expensive! And ......"

After a pause, he looked at the twelve-inch model of the railroad gun. Wu Dingyuan said in an extremely regretful tone.

"Its use is limited by the railway, you know, there is only one railway to Vladivostok, we can't let one train occupy the railway for a long time, and there are many fortresses there, just one train gun is not enough, even if there are three or four train guns, it can't change the tide of the war, so ......"

Suddenly, as if he remembered something, Wu Dingyuan walked in front of a model on the side. It was a version of a 305 mm coastal mortar gun, which was copied from a similar product in the United Kingdom. It was placed on the anti-slope of the battery, so that it could not be threatened by the enemy's ordinary naval guns.

"I think what the army needs now should be this kind of artillery!"

To "knock out" the fortress of Vladivostok, the General Staff can be said to have used almost all artillery, which, naturally, also included this primitive twelve-inch coastal mortar.

"This twelve-inch fortress gun, its ballistic curve, our tests have shown that if the armor-piercing projectile is fired at a large inclination, it can penetrate two meters of concrete, but it is too bulky, especially when it is to be used, it is necessary to arrange hardened artillery positions a few days in advance, so the staff prefers it to the train gun......"

Casting his gaze on the primitive fortress cannon, which didn't even have an anti-recoil device, the sound was extremely flat.

"If the arsenal can develop a new type that can be deployed on the highway and whose performance is not as good as the bottom of the twelve inches or a larger caliber...... Well, maybe it's more appropriate to call it a siege artillery, I think the army will purchase no less than forty-eight pieces in the next three years! ”

Forty-eight, this is the army's plan, in fact, as the army's chief of staff, Wu Dingyuan has already listed a plan, if the war starts, the army will borrow their 210 mm, 280 mm and 305 mm coastal mortar guns from the naval fortress, and then concentrate more than 100 artillery pieces to carry out a devastating artillery bombardment of the fortress in Vladivostok, whether the navy is willing to lend it or not, even if it is to grab it, it will also snatch those giant cannons, now, Zheng Tingxiang's suggestion, But let him see a new opportunity, after all, the navy's artillery is navy, and the army should also have its own siege heavy artillery unit. After all, in the future, the army will need to face more than just Vladivostok.

Forty-eight gates!

This time, it was his turn to be taken aback by this huge order, but what he didn't expect was that the railway cannon was not sold, but was exchanged for a larger order.

"Of course ......"

Pointing to the model of the train gun, the corners of Wu Dingyuan's lips raised slightly.

"This railway gun, if you can deliver it within a year, the army can also accept it!"

"Sir, will the cost of the train cannon be too high, and the use is still restricted!"

On the way to the railway station, Sun Qilin looked at the commander and asked softly in some puzzlement, as an army staff officer, he did not see the role of train artillery on the army, in his opinion, having a large-caliber siege gun is enough to meet the needs of the army, as for this kind of train artillery deployed along the railway line, there are too many restrictions.

"And the navy, in order to cooperate with the attack on the fortress, has designed a new turret, if the navy knows that we order train guns, will it ......?"

Originally, I wanted to say that it aroused the dissatisfaction of the navy, but when I said this, I paid special attention to the look of the chief of staff, there is no conflict between the army and navy in the northeast, and everyone is under the control of the commander and is advancing towards a goal.

Just like at the operational meeting of the Marshal's Palace, when the army mentioned that it did not have the weapons to attack the fortress, the navy not only opened the door of the arsenal, but also took the initiative to transform the new turret, by increasing the pitch angle, so that the navy's main gun has the ability to attack the Vladivostok fortress, and even the navy also asked the Shenyang Arsenal to develop a heavy armor-piercing projectile weighing 471 kilograms for attacking the fortress, in short, the navy can be said to do its best to cooperate with the army.

"Will it cause misunderstanding on the part of the Navy, after all, the Navy has also made a lot of efforts."

"Yes, the Navy is working hard, their old turret pitch angle is +12.8 degrees, the firing range is only 18 kilometers, and the new turret has an elevation angle of +45 degrees, the range has increased to 29.8 kilometers, the old shell is only 850 pounds, the new shell is 1038 pounds, for the army ......"

He smiled coldly and said rather playfully.

"For our sake, they fought for a new renovation fee, the people of the navy...... I'm going to plan it! ”

Since the army and the navy have been dealing with each other, they have not taken advantage of each other, but on the contrary, they have let the navy "take advantage of everything", which makes the chief of staff really unhappy to the extreme.

"Those guys in the navy, can they talk in our name, can't we talk in the name of sharing worries for the navy?"

In a word, in the final analysis, it is for the sake of showing off in front of the commander, because the army and navy are directly responsible to the commander, and the top level of the army and navy will only collude at military meetings, and as for some "special issues," they are often directly negotiated by the young staff officers, and no matter whether the dispute between the two sides is noisy or noisy, it will not have any impact on the top level.

However, Wu Dingyuan, as chief of staff of the army, knows very well that the army is at a natural disadvantage in the distribution of military expenses -- the cost of one warship is enough to arm 10 mixed brigades, and until now, the army has only allocated 48 reserve mixed brigades, but in fact, even the formation of these 48 reserve mixed brigades is still on paper.

"Okay, let's not talk about this, after returning to Dalian this time, you will personally go to negotiate with the Military Command Department, and you must do a good job in preparing for the deployment of the mixed association, first of all, we must allocate the personnel well, it is really not possible, from this year onwards, you can consider recruiting some more people, 100,000 ...... Hmph, this is the old yellow calendar of that one! ”

The "100,000" in his mouth refers to the agreement reached between the marshal and Li Hongzhang that year, the strength of the Northeast Army does not exceed 100,000, and although there are still three mobile police units, the size of the army is still limited to 100,000 for many years.

"Well, this matter, after returning to Dalian, I personally discussed with the marshal, 48 reserve mixed brigades, at least 50,000 people are needed, it is completely impossible to draw from the active troops, when is it now, our marshal......"

Shaking his head, Wu Dingyuan smiled helplessly.

"It's really too benevolent, over the years, who has stopped training in the Guannai, Beiyang now has a new army in twelve towns, let's ...... Hey,"

With a long sigh, he made another point of emphasizing as the carriage drove into the train station.

"As for the configuration of the weapons of the prepared mixed brigade, you can put up the shelves first, it really can't be done, you can transfer them from the reserves, in short, when the time comes, once the fight starts, no one can help us on land!" (To be continued.) )