"Let me guess, what did General Nie bring me this time, if I'm not mistaken, it should be the result of the barrier exercise?" Xu Jie said with interest. "The result? Let's talk about it. ”

"THE RESULT IS VERY BAD, WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF HEAVY ARTILLERY, EVEN IF ONE SIDE HAS 5% MORE ARTILLERY THAN THE OTHER, IN THE CASE THAT BOTH SIDES HAVE TRENCHES AND ARTILLERY BUNKERS, THE SIDE WITH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER CAN NOT EFFECTIVELY SUPPRESS THE OPPONENT'S ARTILLERY, THE 75MM CANNON HITS LOW BUNKERS AND TRENCHES TOO LOW, AND THE WEIGHT OF 1.5 TONS IS ALSO SOMEWHAT LARGE AND INCONVENIENT TO MOVE. Even if the opponent's artillery is suppressed, it can still deal a fatal blow to the charging infantry. Our firepower superiority does not quickly translate into tactical superiority. Nie Shicheng said a little depressed.

Because in the upcoming Sino-Russian war in the future, the front of both sides will be a defensive system composed of trenches and fortresses. Therefore, in order to overcome the defense system built by the Russians, the Chinese Army specially conducted an exercise with the main goal of conquering the fortress and trench system, and this is the origin of the fortress exercise, in the setting, the attacking side has the advantage of strength and firepower, the most noteworthy of which is that the attacking side can mobilize more than 1.5 times the number of artillery that the defender side, and according to the previous experience of the Chinese troops, many rapid-fire guns and mortars that are easy to mobile have also been incorporated into the attack sequence. These mobile artillery pieces will form the sharpest fist with the elite assault battalions of the Chinese Army, smashing a gap in the Russian line.

But the outcome of the situation was a big surprise! The cunning Blues have built their entire defense system basically below the horizon! There are no conspicuous fortresses, tortuous trench systems and bunkers and support points to minimize the grenade power of the anti-aircraft guns! Normally, more than a dozen shells could not destroy a semi-buried reinforced machine gun bunker! And that's not even the most tragic of all. A RAPID-FIRE CANNON HIDDEN IN COVER CAN EASILY DESTROY THE ATTACKING TEAM'S FOLLOW-UP GUNS WHEN THEY ARE EXPOSED, AND WHILE MORTARS CAN DESTROY SOME EXPOSED BUNKERS, THE 120MM MORTARS ARE TOO HEAVY. And it was not possible to shoot flat, as a result of which the rapid-fire cannon had already been destroyed when it was necessary to fire horizontally. Mortars and rapid-fire guns cannot form a complete firepower system to protect the attacking troops, and in this case, the defending rapid-fire guns and grenades with a rate of fire of more than a dozen per minute will become a nightmare for the infantry once they charge!

And Nie Shicheng, Ma Yukun and others discussed for a long time, and the result was that bigger artillery and more shells were piled up to kill each other! Needless to say, heavy artillery. 150MM LONG-RANGE CANNONS AND 203MM HEAVY ARTILLERY WERE CONCENTRATED. If you focus on an exercise, such a pile of weapons can indeed smash a bloody path in the direction of the opponent, and the flesh and blood and trenches will eventually be wiped out by the overwhelmingly superior heavy artillery! But what if it's a real fight? How could the Chinese Army concentrate its overwhelmingly superior heavy artillery units? The Russians are poor though. But after all, people are also called imperialism! It may be very difficult to win against the Russians by brute force alone, so the War Department must come up with a way to save as quickly as possible!

As a result, I thought about it for a long time, but I didn't come up with a reasonable way to strengthen the firepower of the assault troops? THE 75MM RAPID-FIRE GUN, WHICH WEIGHS MORE THAN 1250KG, IS ALREADY THE LIMIT OF FOLLOWING THE ATTACK OF THE FORWARD TROOPS. No matter how heavy the weapon is, let alone hit the opponent. Even shipping is a problem. AS A RESULT, IT HAPPENED TO BE DURING THE EXERCISE, AND IT RAINED HEAVILY, AND THE DIRECT RESULT OF THIS WAS THAT EVEN THE 75MM CANNON COULD NOT MANEUVER SMOOTHLY ON THE BATTLEFIELD! The result of a cannon falling into the pit is that a platoon of people can't pull it out!

Mortars look good, but the problem is that heavy mortars are carried entirely by manpower and have no wheels! In fact, it is not very labor-saving, and the problem of range does not allow it to inflict a fatal blow on the depth of the trench system, although the mortar can still be practical in this case. But the effect is much worse!

"Cannons don't work well, and mortars don't work. Ever thought about changing to a short-barreled large-caliber howitzer? Xu Jie raised his eyebrows and asked tentatively. Although Xu Jie is not engaged in the army, he also understands very well that the real glory of rapid-fire artillery is before World War 1, when artillery and artillery skills are limited, the artillery of both sides advocates concentrating fire and high rate of fire to destroy the opponent's artillery, and then cover the infantry to win the victory.

But when it comes to World War 1, it's different. Both sides wish to cover the fire point as short as possible! In the scope of the rapid-fire gun, you can only see slightly exposed heads! This hit rate has plummeted! The large number of 75 rapid-fire guns deployed by the French could indeed effectively stop the German army's charge, but there was a premise, that is, if they were not destroyed by the various howitzers of the Germans. So what are the advantages of howitzers over rapid-fire guns?

In 1916, the Americans discovered that a 3.8-inch howitzer (96 mm) could be mounted on the shelling of a 3-inch cannon, and similarly, a 6-inch howitzer could be replaced on the carriage of a 4.7-inch cannon. That is, at almost the same weight, the caliber of the howitzer will be somewhat larger than that of the cannon.

And a larger caliber means a bigger shell weight and power! The shell weight of the 3-inch cannon is 14 pounds, and the shell weight of the 3.8-inch howitzer is 30 pounds! More than 2 times. The shell weight of the 4.7-inch cannon is 60 pounds. And the weight of the 6-inch howitzer is 120 pounds! In other words, the weight of the shells can be more than doubled because of the different types of guns with the same weight! Larger explosives can contain more explosives and produce more fragments, which makes the power of the gun rise quickly, and because it is at close range, the low muzzle velocity and short range of the howitzer actually have little effect.

Another benefit of howitzers is ballistics. In the face of semi-buried bunkers, rapid-fire guns can only attack areas with small frontal areas, while howitzers can attack the top of bunkers through relatively curved ballistics, which increases the hit rate, and some people have calculated that when attacking in the face of the same trench, howitzers have a hit rate 2.5 times higher than rapid-fire guns! Coupled with the powerful shells, howitzers are more suitable than rapid-fire guns in such fortification operations.

"SHORT-BARRELED HOWITZERS, NOW THE TROOPS MUST REDUCE THE PROPORTION OF 75MM RAPID-FIRE GUNS, WHAT WE NEED IS TO ATTACK FORTIFICATIONS, IF THE ARMY STILL LACKS HEAVY ARTILLERY, YOU CAN COMMUNICATE WITH THE NAVY TO MOVE PART OF THE COASTAL DEFENSE HEAVY ARTILLERY OF DALIAN, LUSHUN AND OTHER FORTRESSES, AND MAKE IT INTO TRAIN GUNS TO SUPPORT THE BATTLE." Xu Jie said.

"IN ADDITION TO THE EQUIPMENT, THE COMMAND SYSTEM MUST ALSO BE CHANGED, THE ARTILLERY NEEDS SOME OF THE LOWER ARTILLERY, IN ADDITION TO THE DIRECT SUBORDINATE MORE THAN 6 INCH HEAVY GUNS, 105MM LIGHT HOWITZERS, 120 LEVEL MORTARS AND 75MM RAPID-FIRE GUNS FOR FRONT-LINE ACCOMPANYING ASSAULT ARE HANDED OVER TO THE FRONT-LINE INFANTRY COMMANDER. Put them in charge of command. ”

"I'm afraid this won't work, the infantry commander has a limited understanding of artillery, at most he can tell the direction of the artillery target, how to fight, what conditions are needed, and there are very few people who know the road, and you should know that the current artillery orders of the road are more complicated, such as the duration of the barrage, the speed of the barrage, etc., these orders are not something that ordinary infantry commanders can give." Nie Shicheng thought for a while and said.

"Then assign the infantry battle group to the artillery staff officer responsible for fire support, in short, we can't see infantry and artillery as two separate arms. We've got to make it compositive. Xu Jie added.

"Synthesis is a good way, but now there is a problem with the lack of experienced commanders, the prime minister should be very clear, veterans and low-level officers who have participated in the Sino-Japanese War and the Sino-Russian War have either left the army for various reasons, or have been promoted, and the remaining rookie commanders have very poor ability, they rely more on the dogma in the books to command the war, rather than command with their own wisdom in combination with the battlefield situation, they have a lot of courage but limited ability, It is difficult to delegate a large number of machine guns and support fire to the platoon. Moreover, we are now fighting a fortified battle, not a defensive operation, and the concentration of firepower and the emphasis on the combat capability of the sharp knife troops are the most important, so I think firearms should be concentrated rather than decentralized. Nie Shicheng hesitated again and again but still said his thoughts.

"You mean to use small formations and concentrate mortars and heavy machine guns at the company and platoon level at the same time? And not to fight with a squad platoon forming a separate point of fire, as it turned out to be? Xu Jie asked tentatively. Although the result of this is to directly weaken the combat effectiveness of the squad and platoon, if we look at a larger scope, it is not impossible to do so.

First of all, it is an indisputable fact that the quality of officers and men has declined, and when the number of officers in charge of the platoon in the middle of the battle is reduced, it is very difficult for the replacements of the commanders to have sufficient ability to command such a large establishment and all kinds of support firepower in the establishment. After all, various bunkers and trenches directly limit the play of firepower, and more importantly, with the service of a batch of new copycat MG machine guns, the boundary between light machine guns and heavy machine guns has been broken, and the ensuing ammunition consumption is definitely not what the Chinese Army can afford.

There is absolutely a reason why the MG machine gun is called a sprinkler, Hitler's chainsaw, and the rate of fire of up to 1200 rounds per minute is not a joke? 20 bullets can be fired in one second! You can quickly run out of a 250-round chain without even noticing! This weapon is a big killer in the hands of veterans, but what about falling into the hands of novices? Although the copycat MG machine gun does not reach a speed of 1200 rounds, the rate of fire of about 1000 rounds per minute still makes it an out-and-out gold eater. So to some extent, the sharpest weapons are concentrated in the hands of the most experienced people, which is the most important.

"Then readjust the establishment, concentrate part of the support firepower from the company platoon to the battalion level, and increase the number of engineers and logistics troops, and the battalion level will be used as the basis for the composite battle group." Xu Jie thought for a while and said. "But the most important thing is to get the artillery good for me, the number of anti-aircraft guns of all calibers must be reduced, what we need is short howitzers and a large number of heavy artillery for process support. Let's coordinate with the military industry. ”

Thank you for the light reward of Shuyou Mountain and the monthly pass support of Shuyou Zhiqiu Yiye~~~ (to be continued......)