"At present, the Jiangyin Fortress has completed the first phase of the main project, and the two forts in Linjiang and the infantry fortress behind the fort have been basically completed!"

After entering the Jiangyin Fortress, Shi Qingxuan, the commander of the Sixth Army, who was the highest position present and was also fully responsible for the defense of the Jiangyin Fortress, introduced the basic situation of the current Jiangyin Fortress to Lin Zhe.

"According to the design, the two batteries in Linjiang are expected to be equipped with more than 50 heavy guns, but due to the limited artillery production capacity of the Linde Machinery Factory, and the more urgent demand for artillery on the Wusong Battery, there are only three 180 mm breech-loading rifled guns here, and the rest are some old front-loading guns, with six 64-pound front-loading smoothbore guns and 13 32-pound guns."

"However, with the gradual completion of the Wusong Fort and the gradual increase in artillery production, the Jiangyin Fort will gradually increase the attachment of large breech-loading rifled guns, and before that, if the situation is tense and necessary, the navy will remove the guns on the battleship and temporarily attach them to the fort!"

Lin Zhe nodded while listening, in fact, these figures he had learned about the situation through many war reports before coming to Jiangyin, the scale of Jiangyin Fortress is quite huge, the first phase of the project will build two forts and part of the barracks and the trench fortress facing the land, etc., the second phase of the project will also build the third battery, the third phase of the project is the repair of the details, and at the same time build barracks and land-facing fortresses, etc., after the completion of the east, middle and west three main batteries facing the river, There will be more than seventy heavy guns of more than thirty-two pounds.

And the reason why Jiangyin Fortress is called a fortress instead of simply a fort is because it is not just a fort. Rather, it is an integrated fortress that integrates artillery batteries to defend against infantry attacks. Therefore, in addition to the construction of three main batteries, a large number of infantry defensive fortresses will be built around the perimeter of the batteries. There were associated trench forts, small artillery batteries facing the land, and were expected to accommodate more than 20,000 soldiers.

Although the Jiangyin Fortress lagged behind the Wusong Fort in terms of priority, as a barrier to Nanjing and an important fortress to defend Gyeonggi, it also received the attention of the military.

After listening to Shi Qingxuan's words, Lin Zhe showed a trace of doubt and said: "Didn't the Navy and Army already equip front-loading rifled guns in batches some time ago?" Why do these batteries continue to use front-loading smoothbore guns now? ”

Shi Qingxuan immediately replied: "This is due to the production capacity of the Linde Machinery Factory, the production of front-loading rifled guns on their side is still relatively low, and they are currently focusing on the production of twelve-pound field guns. For large-caliber naval guns, the production has been transferred to breech-loading rifled guns. And these large-caliber front-loading smoothbore guns are now equipped with stocks made for the Navy and coastal defense batteries in the past few years! ”

Hearing this, Lin Zhe turned his head to Han Xiangfang, the chief of the Ordnance Department behind him, and said: "If the combat effectiveness of the front-loading rifled artillery is still cost-effective, your Ordnance Department should pay more attention to this aspect!" ”

At present, the artillery in the Chinese army, navy and army is quite complicated.

In the army, copper front-loading smoothbore guns were mainly used on a large scale, with a caliber of 12 pounders, as well as 6-pounder cavalry guns and 4-pounder infantry guns, in addition to a large number of 9-pounder light mortars, 24-pounder, and 32-pounder large-caliber siege mortars. Since the end of last year, the latest products of the Linde Machine Factory have been equipped in batches, that is, front-loading rifled guns, and the caliber is still mainly 12 pounds.

Naval side. In the past, it was all front-loading smoothbore guns, generally with a larger caliber and a longer barrel, and on small gunboats, it was twelve pounder. Gunboats below the 1,000-ton level are mainly 24-pounder and 32-pounder naval guns. However, after the 1,000-ton battleship Shaoxing-class was put into service last year, it began to be equipped with rear-loading rifled guns, that is, 1857 180mm naval guns. The 1857 120 mm naval gun is currently used in the case of front-loading smoothbore guns that continue to be used in stock or retired from other ships except for gunboats under 500 tons due to cost problems. The newly built ocean-going capital warships of the 1,000-ton class and above have fully adopted rear-loading rifled guns, mainly 120 mm (40 pounds) and 180 mm (110 pounds) caliber guns.

And the shore defense forces. That is, on the Wusong Fort and Jiangyin Fort, the same rear-loading rifled guns and front-loading smoothbore guns were mixed, with a small number of 180 mm and 120 mm rear-loading rifled guns as the main force, and 64-pound and 32-pound front-loading smoothbore guns as auxiliary forces.

However, at present, the Chinese army has begun to accept the new large-caliber front-loading smoothbore guns, not because they dislike it, but because the artillery supplier of the Chinese army, that is, the Linde Machinery Factory, has stopped producing front-loading smoothbore guns, and its large-caliber naval gun production line has been fully converted to 120 mm, 180 mm and other caliber rear-loading rifled guns, while small and medium-caliber artillery except for four-pounder guns and mortars, most of the production lines are converted to front-loading rifles.

It is only that the production capacity has also decreased slightly after the change of production, and the manufacture of large-caliber naval guns is not easy, whether it is the previous production of 32-pound, 48-pound, 64-pound and other front-loading smoothbore guns or the current 120 mm and 180 mm rear-loading rifled guns, their production capacity is quite low.

In the case of front-loading rifled guns, although their production capacity is not small, the gap on the army side is even larger, and it is difficult to free up enough production capacity to meet the needs of the navy and coastal defense forces.

You must know that in 1858, there were more than 100 artillery guns needed for the new five infantry divisions, and these more than 100 guns were already expected to be all front-loading rifled guns, and they needed to be newly produced by the Linde Machine Factory, which was a huge test for the production capacity of the Linde Machine Factory.

After Han Xiangfang heard Lin Zhe's words, he immediately came out and said: "The minister obeys the order, the follow-up ordnance department will focus on the production capacity of new artillery, and at present, the ordnance department has guided the newly built Jinling Arsenal to build a production line for front-loading rifled guns, and it is expected that the sample gun will be produced in May, and it is expected to start trial production in June!" ”

Lin Zhe nodded and didn't speak, the Jinling Arsenal in Han Xiangfang's mouth has been preparing for almost a year, the construction of the plant has been completed as early as last year, and the recruitment and training of workers have also been completed one after another. At the beginning of March, it was officially trial-produced the most advanced active rifle in the Chinese army, that is, the Linde 1858 rifle. Although there are still many problems with this rear-loading rifled rifle, it has found great tactical value in the experimental equipment of the Sixth Army in the past three months. Greater tactical value than the Minny rifle.

Therefore, the newly completed Jinling Arsenal did not produce the 1856 Mini rifle that had been discontinued at the Linde Machine Factory, but directly copied the Linde 1858 rear-loading rifled rifle.

At present, the joint engineer team composed of Jinling Arsenal and Linde Machinery Factory is urgently debugging the equipment to solve the problem, and strive to be able to mass produce as soon as possible, if nothing else, it is expected to be able to produce small batches in April, and the monthly output should be 500 pieces, and then the monthly output will continue to rise. Finally, the design output of 2,000 pieces per month was reached.

The same is true for artillery, the plant, workers and equipment are already in place, the main work at present is to debug the equipment, to solve some problems faced by large-scale production, and the Jinling Arsenal due to the initial design positioning, originally did not intend to produce large-caliber naval guns, so its equipment does not support the production of 120 mm, 180 mm such large-caliber breezed naval guns, can only produce 12-pound caliber below the field gun.

Similarly, since the Chinese army has stopped producing front-loading smoothbore guns, the artillery production at the Jinling Arsenal started directly from front-loading rifled guns.

Lin Zhe inspected the Jiangyin fortress more carefully. I saw it in almost every corner, checking whether these projects had cut corners and whether there were any obvious irrationalities.

But unfortunately, Lin Zhe is not an engineer. I don't know much about how to build these fortresses, and I can only look at a rough idea.

He came to inspect the Jiangyin Fortress, not to play a game of finding fault. The main purpose of his visit to Jiangyin was to encourage the morale of the troops and increase his control over them. That is, the political significance is greater than the military significance.

After wandering around the fort for more than two hours, Lin Zhecai smiled and led everyone back. At this time, it was already approaching night, and the sturdy soldiers who followed Lin Zhe were still in good spirits, but many of the civilian officials who came with him just couldn't hold on.

Most of them got up at two or three o'clock in the morning this morning, and then made all kinds of preparations until five o'clock before dawn to board the boat and go down the river.

Then he followed Lin Zhe around the fort for more than two hours.

The bumps along the way have made many people unbearable, but today is a formal occasion, and although these people are not in good spirits, they are also holding on one by one.

Now followed Lin Zhe off the fort, and after Lin Zhe entered the temporary palace, these accompanying officials also relaxed one by one, and then dragged their tired bodies to rest.

That night, Xue Huan, Shi Qingxuan and others originally prepared a welcome feast, but Lin Zhe considered that everyone was tired all day, so there was no need to have a reception banquet or anything like that, you must know that the Eighth Infantry Division and other formations will be reviewed tomorrow, and it will not work if you don't have a good rest, so let them cancel it.

There was nothing to say all night, and the next day Lin Zhe got up later than before, yesterday's trip also made Lin Zhe a little tired, and this one was a little late, but even if he got up late, Lin Zhe still let the courtiers outside continue to wait, and he himself began to run around the small courtyard.

In the past two years, Lin Zhe has developed the habit of running, except for the inconvenience of leading the army to fight, he will maintain the habit of exercising at other times.

To be quite a great man or a sinner of the ages, this is not possible without a good body!

After trotting for half an hour, when he ran out of a slight sweat, he took a shower again and then changed his clothes and came out, Lin Zhe, who finished exercising every day, was generally in a good mood, and it was the same today, when he had breakfast after this exercise, he specially asked Shi Qingxuan and Xue Huan, who came to the palace early to wait, to eat together.

In the face of Lin Zhe's breakfast invitation, well, strictly speaking, it is a meal, even if the two of them have eaten and drunk in advance before coming, they have to sit down with a frightened and festive look, and then they still show a very fragrant expression, but they don't know if they have eaten enough.

Lin Zhe naturally didn't know this, and Lin Zhe didn't delay too much after this simple breakfast, and soon led people to the camp of the Eighth Infantry Division, preparing to preside over the formation ceremony of the Eighth Infantry Division, and then he had to watch the joint exercises of the Sixth Army and the Navy.

It wasn't an easy day! (To be continued......)