Tie Dan is simple-minded and simple-minded, but this time he was not wrong, this kind of artillery is a new type of weapon newly developed by Qingdao Arsenal, 'Thunder Cannon'. The name may sound unfamiliar, but he has another more formal name, and that is mortar. Presumably, in later generations, people with a little military common sense will be familiar with this name.

Yes, the new weapon used by the Tiger Benjun this time is a light mortar, which was newly developed by the Qingdao Arsenal in accordance with Ren Chao's prompts, and it is also the world's first mortar.

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. Ammunition from the muzzle, mainly curved artillery, the gun body is short, the firing range is short, light and flexible, can shoot at targets behind shelters.

In the original history, looking at the history of the development of mortars, the earliest can be traced back to 1342 AD. At that time, the Spanish army was besieging the city of Alihquiras, which was occupied by the Arabs, and the Arabs erected short horn cylinders on the battlements, and the mouth of the cylinder was raised high towards the outside of the city. A packet of black powder was placed through the mouth of the barrel, and then an iron ball was put in, which ignited the twist and shot at the Spanish soldiers outside the city. This primitive artillery, known as "Modfa", can be said to be the prototype of the modern mortar.

The world's first real mortar was created during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and was invented by Russian artillery captain Leonid ? Nikolaevich? Gobiato. At that time, Tsarist Russia and Japan were engaged in a fierce battle for the Port of Arthur in China. The Russian army occupied the fortress of Arthur Pass, and the Japanese dug trenches and approached only a few dozen meters away from the Russian position, and it was difficult for the Russian army to kill and injure the Japanese army with ordinary artillery and machine guns. So Nikolayevich tried to convert an old 47mm naval mortar gun on a gun carriage with wheels. A long-tail shell was fired at a high elevation angle, and as a result, it was effective in killing and injuring Japanese troops in the trenches. Repelled several attacks by the Japanese army. This gun uses a long super-caliber mortar shell with a total weight of 11.5 kg. The firing range is 50~400m, and the firing angle is 45°~65°.

Since the advent of mortars, they have been widely used in warfare, especially in mountain warfare and trench warfare, in conjunction with small infantry units (companies, platoons, squads) to fight, and as a standard fire support weapon for infantry. Ideal for targets behind shelter.

As a pseudo-military fan, Ren Chao naturally knew the important position of mortars in modern warfare, so when he learned that mortars had not yet been invented at that time. Ren Chao immediately decided to develop the mortar himself, although this time Ren Chao could not get the information about the first pass in the system. But the principle of the mortar is not too complicated. Otherwise, the Russian Gobiasto would not have used a naval mortar to transform the world's first mortar. Therefore, after about a year of continuous improvement in the Qingdao Arsenal, the light mortar in front of me was finally developed.

THE OFFICIAL NAME OF THIS MORTAR NEWLY DEVELOPED BY THE TIGER ARMY IS THE 22-TYPE 80MM MORTAR, BECAUSE THIS MORTAR WAS FINALIZED AT THE END OF 1896 IN THE LUNAR CALENDAR AND BEGAN TO BE PUT INTO PRODUCTION IN LARGE QUANTITIES, AND 1896 WAS THE TWENTY-SECOND YEAR OF GUANGXU, AND 80MM REFERS TO THE CALIBER.

This mortar, caliber 80 mm. The full gun weighed 40 kg, the grenade weighed about 3 kg, and the theoretical rate of fire was 20 rounds / min. The firing range is from 50 meters to 800 meters. High and low shooting boundary: 45 degrees -85 degrees, directional shooting boundary: 3 degrees on left and right. It has a lot of firepower. It is powerful, small in size, light in weight and simple in structure. Easy to operate, when shooting. The recoil energy of the body tube is absorbed by the ground. When marching, the body tube and seat plate can be disassembled, so it is easy to carry.

It can effectively fill the gap between large artillery and grenades. It has a good killing effect on unprotected targets, and is suitable for shooting at targets behind sheltered objects and targets on anti-slope planes.

When Ren Chao learned the news of the successful development of the mortar. Overjoyed, he immediately ordered the arsenal to be put into production as soon as possible. After the outbreak of the war against Russia, Ren Chao once again urged the arsenal to step up the production of mortars and put them into the battlefield as much as possible. The head of the arsenal did not dare to slack off, and immediately ordered the production of mortars in full force, and after several months of hard work, the latest production of a hundred mortars, together with several hundred mortar artillerymen who had undergone basic training, were urgently transported to the front.

And today is the first time that these mortars have been on the battlefield, and they have shone on the battlefield and become famous in the first battle. Mortar shells, which were as dense as raindrops, fell one after another in the Russian army's offensive ranks, turning the Russian old man on his back. The Russian old Maozi never dreamed that the Tiger Ben Army was equipped with such a new weapon, and without preparation, it was suddenly dizzy and suffered heavy losses.

A hundred mortars, scattered in all corners of the forefront, fired rapidly, and blew up these old men at once. Lao Maozi's offensive queue was completely disrupted, and it was soon completely defeated.

"What's going on? How could the Tiger Army suddenly burst out with so many artillery! Alekseev widened his bull's-eyed eyes and roared in disbelief. At this time, he no longer bothered to reprimand the incompetence of the Russian army, but was completely shocked by the scene in front of him. Because in Alekseev's heart, he thought that just now the Tiger Army suddenly had hundreds of more artillery pieces, bombarded the attacking troops of the Russian army, and directly blew up the Russian army. Although judging by the power of these shells, these should be light guns, but even this is surprising enough, these are hundreds of guns! It's not a few hundred rifles.

The reason why Alekseev made such an erroneous judgment was the rate of fire of the mortars. At that time, even the latest artillery had an actual rate of fire of three or four rounds per minute at most, and it was the most elite artillery units that could fire this rate of fire. But what is the rate of fire of a mortar? The theoretical rate of fire is 20 rounds per minute, and in actual combat, a round of rapid fire can at least produce a dozen rounds per minute, which is three to five times that of ordinary artillery. In this way, a hundred mortars are indeed more than hundreds of guns.

How could Alekseev not be surprised that his enemy suddenly had hundreds of more artillery pieces, so Alekseev was not in the mood to hold accountable for the frustration of the attack at this time, because he had already seen it clearly, even if the Russian army was not defeated, Alekseev wanted to let them retreat, and charging against the bombardment of hundreds of artillery pieces of the other side was tantamount to looking for death. (To be continued......)