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The defeat of France, which had hundreds of thousands of troops, in just a few months surprised some senior military generals of the High Command, who had been following the progress of the Franco-Prussian War.

Although most of the army generals of the empire thought that their army was the best in the world, and that some small European countries were only able to fight wars at the level of their own, to be honest, this kind of psychology is just a kind of arrogance, and aside from this so-called self-confidence, the Franco-Prussian and Franco-Prussian armies are the first-class armies of the modern era.

The French army since the beginning of the Napoleonic era, that is the strongest army in Europe, that year is a strong existence in Europe, even after the Napoleonic Wars, the French army has declined, but under the rule of Napoleon III, France has gradually completed industrialization, its national strength is still the first in the European continent, and the comprehensive strength in all aspects is second only to Britain, which can be seen from the French Navy.

For most of the nineteenth century, there was only one navy capable of challenging the British Royal Navy, and that was the French Navy.

In 1870, the British Royal Navy had ships with a total tonnage of more than 600,000 tons, while the French Navy had ships of 450,000 tons.

In addition to being able to challenge the British Royal Navy in the navy, its army has always defended the reputation of being the most powerful army in Europe, but such a France was defeated.

What's even more surprising is that. After only a few months of fighting, France was defeated. Hundreds of thousands of troops were killed, wounded or captured, even Napoleon III was taken prisoner.

It's unbelievable to say such a thing.

According to the senior generals of the Imperial High Command. If the Imperial Royal Army and the French army were at war, regardless of the naval and distance factors, that is, if the Imperial Army was transferred to the side of the Prussian Army, and the Imperial Army only dispatched about 600,000 troops, it would be inevitable that the Imperial Army would win the war, but the senior generals of the Imperial Army did not expect that they would be able to defeat France in just a few months, and the entire war process would probably last for more than a year.

Is this the Prussian army too strong or the French army too scummy?

At the same time, to the amazement of the senior generals of the military, the Prussian army used steel breech-loading rifled guns on a large scale and maturely in this war.

According to the analysis of the information transmitted by some military attachés and diplomats in France and Prussia. In this war, Prussia's steel breech-loading rifled guns gained a great tactical advantage.

This tactical advantage even tactfully reversed the Prussian army's disadvantage in rifles to a certain extent.

During the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian Army was armed with an improved version of the Dreisai rifle, while the French Army was armed with the Chasebo rifle, which was naturally the original of the French in the original time and space.

However, in this era, this rifle is a great reference to the 1858 rifle and 1858 rifle that the Imperial Army itself equipped and exported in large quantities, and the biggest design feature is that it adopts a similar design to the Prussian Dresser rifle. However, improvements have been made, such as a shortened firing pin length, and the primer of the paper shell bullet has been installed to the point of the bullet instead of the previous middle. In order to solve the problem of air leakage, a rubber mat is added.

Due to the large-scale influence of this rifle in the American Civil War, it has more or less influenced the design of breech-loading rifles in countries around the world.

The French Chasebo rifle was greatly influenced by the 1858 rifle.

At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian army was greatly suppressed in rifles. But they soon took advantage of their artillery superiority and thoroughly established strategic superiority on the battlefield.

After this situation was transmitted back to the country, there was another wave of accelerating the equipment of steel breech-loading rifled guns!

The Imperial Army began developing breech-loading rifled guns many years ago. However, the development of these years has not been smooth, in the past few years. The rear-loading guns of various designs proposed can be described as quite a lot, but for the military they are more or less flawed.

For example, the problem of air leakage, the problem of weight and the very important cost problem.

In order to solve the problem of the excessively high cost of rear-loading field guns, the army even thought of simply using cast-iron breech-loading rifled guns.

As for the steel breech-loading rifled gun, it is also developing, but due to the fact that the domestic raw steel production has not been high, the price of steel artillery is relatively expensive.

Therefore, the army has been hesitating between various designs of rear-loading artillery, so that it has not been procured and put into service on a large scale for a long time, but has successively purchased various types of rear-loading artillery experimental equipment.

However, at present, the artillery of the Imperial Army is still mainly rifled guns.

The reason for the slow deployment of rifled guns in the Imperial Army is not only a technical problem, but also related to the large number of new breakthroughs in frontloading within the Imperial Army.

The Imperial Army had not dozens or hundreds of front-loading rifled guns, but as many as thousands, and most of these guns were in service after 1860, and they only served for ten years when they were fully charged, and a considerable number of them had only four or five years of service or even less.

In this case, these artillery pieces are decommissioned and sealed, and then replaced with new artillery, which is a huge waste for the army, and at the same time, the army's military spending is also limited.

A large number of front-loading rifled guns in stock, the price of rear-loading guns and some performance defects, plus the Imperial Army did not have obvious external enemies, especially strong enemies, so the Imperial Army was not too enthusiastic about replacing rear-loading guns, and was mostly equipped with some large-caliber heavy artillery, while ordinary field guns were only a small amount of experimental equipment.

However, in the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian army gained a great strategic advantage with rear-loading artillery, which quickly attracted the attention of the Imperial Army.

The Franco-Prussian War had not yet ended, and the Ordnance Department under the Imperial High Command had already sent official tenders to the three major weapons companies in China. They had to tender for a number of rear-loading rifled guns, and the number of scheduled purchases was very large. Among them, the first order for the 'divisional field artillery' was 200 units.

Others include 'light infantry support artillery', 'long-range cannon', 'large-caliber howitzer heavy artillery', etc.

The bidding for the above three guns is based on the use. The so-called divisional field artillery is used to replace the previous 12-pounder front-loading rifled guns, and this kind of artillery is also the largest number required, but at the same time, it is also the highest technical requirements, to achieve a good trade-off in terms of range, explosive power, weight, accuracy, and cost, it is not an easy task.

First of all, the weight must not exceed 900 kilograms, and the effective firing range must reach 5,500 meters, which is 1,000 meters more than the 4,500-meter range of the main rear-loading field artillery now used by the Prussian army on a large scale. A range of 900 kilograms and 5,500 meters is almost the most demanding requirement for contemporary technical conditions.

And it was not without reason for the military to make such a request, first of all, the weight, since most of the intended areas of the Imperial Army, the terrain conditions were not good, and a considerable part of the area could even be called bad, without good land transport support, if the artillery had to be maneuverable. It can only be pushed by the Marats.

In this case, if the weight of the division's field artillery exceeds 900 kilograms, it will be very difficult to maneuver quickly, and if you can only walk slowly. Then it cannot be said that it is a divisional field artillery, but a heavy artillery.

In terms of firing range, the main field artillery used by the Prussian army in Europe has a range of more than 4,000 meters. And most of these artillery pieces were at the level of technology in the sixties, and the Imperial Army wanted to protect the leading artillery level. Then it must surpass the current level of technology of the Prussian army, and it must remain obsolete for the next ten years.

This 5,500 meters is already the minimum limit.

Light infantry support artillery. It is used to prepare to replace the support artillery belonging to the four pounds and six pounds, and it is also intended to be used to replace the cavalry artillery, and the military requires that the weight of this kind of artillery cannot exceed 250 kilograms, and the firing range must reach more than 3,000 meters.

This kind of light infantry support artillery already has another name within the military, that is, mountain artillery, in short, mountain combat artillery.

With a range of 250 kilograms and 3,000 meters, this is also the top of the art level of the modern era

The performance of the division's field artillery and mountain artillery may still be very backward and primitive in the eyes of people who are accustomed to seeing the firing range of more than 10 kilometers in later generations, but for the present day in 1870, the performance requirements of these two artillery pieces are no less stringent than those of the most advanced high-tech weapons in later generations.

Compared with the requirements of these two infantry support artillery, the military's requirements for long-range heavy artillery are more relaxed.

First of all, the requirements for large-caliber cannons are relatively simple, requiring a firing range of more than 7,000 meters, and in order to maintain the power of artillery bombardment, the caliber must be more than 110 millimeters, and at the same time it is required to be able to maneuver effectively, but no detailed weight restrictions are given.

Then there is a large-caliber howitzer, the range requirement is six thousand meters, and then the explosion power must be large, so the caliber is better to reach more than 150 millimeters, and there is also no detailed weight limit, as long as the maneuver scheme can be given.

Because large-caliber cannons and howitzers, they do not have to keep up with the maneuvering speed of the field troops, and are often used to shell fixed fortresses, although the maneuverability is also weight, but anyway, they are casually several tons of big guys, and they can't maneuver quickly at all, so it is better to demand weight and maneuverability, and it is better to ask for range and power.

For the military's rear-loading artillery bidding, and the number of hundreds of guns purchased, at the same time, the military top level is also the news that in the future the Imperial Army will be fully equipped with rear-loading rifled guns, in the first step of the rearmament plan, in the first five years, the empire will need not dozens of artillery artillery, but at least more than 2,000, and these are only the number of front-line field troops.

The follow-up garrisons also need to be replaced with rear-loading artillery one after another, and there will be a large order of thousands of guns at that time.

Such a huge order volume is enough to provide a huge profit for any arsenal, and it is a profit that has been maintained for five or even ten years in a row.

As soon as the military's tender was issued, the three major domestic arms companies sprang into action.

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