A great man once said: "Artillery is the king of war!" This sentence is quite reasonable even if it is put into World War II, the Soviet army's earth-shattering artillery preparations, and the accurate and effective VT air bombing fuse shelling of the US army, both left a deep impression on the Germans. And this sentence is put in the Jiawu period, and it is a wise saying! No matter how fierce the machine gun is, it is also afraid of artillery, whether it is the French platoon gun in the Franco-Prussian War or the Russian machine gun position on the 203 heights during the Russo-Japanese War, they were all wiped out under the blow of the Krupp artillery and the 280 heavy guns of the book. Therefore, it is impossible to win the First Sino-Japanese War with machine guns alone. And as for the artillery selection. After racking his brains for a few days, Xu Jie finally figured out a general idea.

Beiyang's signature artillery Krupp 75MM camp gun still needs to be retained. Good performance, and Beiyang is also equipped with a lot, in line with the criteria of being able to use it well, Xu Jie decided to have the opportunity to continue to purchase. BUT IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT ENOUGH TO SIMPLY PURCHASE A 75MM GUN, BUT TO OBTAIN THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE COMBAT POWER WITH AS LITTLE MONEY AS POSSIBLE. Xu Jie decided to get something like mortars out first. To be honest, the prototype of the mortar has been around for a long time, and the mortar is a modified version of the mortar. IT WAS A MORTAR MADE BY A MAN NAMED NIKOLAYEVICH WHO FIRED LONG-TAIL SHELLS WITH A NAVAL 47MM GUN DURING THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR, WHICH WAS DESIGNED TO DEAL WITH THE APPROACHING JAPANESE ARMY. Don't say it, this thing was later carried forward in the 1st World War trench battle.

To say that there are a lot of mortars, the rate of fire is fast, the structure is simple, there are almost no dead angles in shooting, the most important thing is that the difficulty of artillery processing is small, the barrel is relatively short, the chamber pressure is relatively small, and the requirements for barrel processing are not high. And there is no need for all kinds of complex artillery servo equipment. It is light and easy to maneuver, and there are many benefits. As for the shells? The economic advantage is even more obvious, and the shell casings of field artillery are generally made of copper. And mortar shells can be made of cast iron, which is really cheap. This is quite real for the industrially backward Qing State. As for the specific types of mortars, Xu Jie decided to refer to the following mortars as the main direction of mortar equipment in the future. Considering the weak industrial strength of Beiyang, artillery began to be made in Italy, and Beiyang began to produce shells at most. As for the mother models of various mortars, Xu Jie also thought about it and decided to use some mortars in the Republic of China period as prototypes. (Don't say it, other artillery in the Republic of China can't work, mortars are still of some level.) ）

60MM MORTAR, BASED ON THE REPUBLICAN 31 MORTAR. Mass production in 1942. During the Anti-Japanese War, 2,770 doors were built. (8515 doors were built after the end of the Anti-Japanese War) with a muzzle velocity of 148, a rate of fire of 18 rounds per minute, and a weight of 18KG. Launched at 4 pack-hour hours, the effective range is 1440 meters. It's a very good number, and the cost and technical difficulty are definitely not high, and even the Kuomintang can mass produce it.

82MM MORTAR, BASED ON THE REPUBLICAN 20 Type 82MM MORTAR. (The Republic of China Type 20 mortar is based on the 1930 French Bronde mortar) from 31 to 45 years of production produced 7000+ doors. Muzzle velocity 196 m/s. The rate of fire is more than 8 rounds, and the firing distance is about 2860 meters. WEIGHT 69KG. A real infantry killer.

THE 120MM MORTAR IS BASED ON THE 33-1 MORTAR OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA. (THE GUN IS ALSO BASED ON THE BRONDE 120MM MORTAR) THE GUN IS 1080MM LONG, WEIGHS 217KG, AND HAS A FIRING RANGE OF 4900+ METERS. IF THIS THING CAN BE MADE, IT IS ESTIMATED THAT IT WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE 75MM FIELD ARTILLERY. Of course, these are all predictions, and Xu Jie has no bottom on what performance he can achieve on the ground. However, even if the range is shorter, as long as it can reach more than 3KM, it will be fine.

In addition to the cannon itself, the mortar is also very particular about the propellant, and the current black powder cannot be used at all. But fortunately, Xu Jie read some information back then, and he still knows the approximate ingredients. The propellant of the mortar consisted of an additional charge (double-ring), a double-belt charge in the basic tube, a diffuser charge (black charge), a primer. The whole process is that the firing needle triggers the primer man, followed by the black medicine, the double belt medicine and the double ring medicine. The primer consisted of thundermercury (mainly) potassium chlorate, barium nitrate and antimony chloride. Black medicine is composed of charcoal and **. The double-belt drug and the double-ring drug are composed of nitrocellulose and **. Of course, Xu Jie can't remember the specific ratio, and this can only be gradually explored by professionals.

In general, from an industrial point of view, there is no problem with the production of these things in Italy, of course, considering that there are no samples to use as a reference, it is another matter to say what level can be made on the ground. But in line with the principle that something is better than nothing, Xu Jie still decided to equip mortars if possible.

IN ADDITION TO THE KRUPP 75MM CAMP GUN AND THE MORTAR TO BE DEVELOPED, XU JIE ALSO PLANNED TO PREPARE A LONG-RANGE ARTILLERY, BECAUSE IN HISTORY, XU JIE KNEW THAT THE JAPANESE ARMY HAD USED LARGE-CALIBER SIEGE GUNS TO FACE THIS KIND OF POWERFUL AND LONG-RANGE ARTILLERY DURING THE SIEGE OF LUSHUN. Neither Krupp artillery nor mortars could cope with it, so Xu Jie decided to learn from the British in the Boer War and the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War, and pressed some of the naval guns on the army gun carriage to use as long-range land artillery. Taking into account the maneuverability and the weight of the artillery, guns of more than 6 inches were clearly unsuitable. (Historically, the 6-inch rapid-fire gun only has a barrel of about 6.7 tons, not counting artillery servo equipment such as the retractor) and the power of the 12-pounder gun level is too small and the range is only, in this case, Xu Jie still prefers to use the 4.7-inch rapid-fire gun, the barrel of the 4.7-inch rapid-fire gun weighs 2.2 tons, and the firing range is 9.9 kilometers (elevation angle 20 degrees). Compared with the 5 km range of the 75 field guns, the 4.7-inch naval gun is undoubtedly quite advantageous, and the 4.7-inch naval gun shell weighs 20.4KG. THE CHARGE IS 3.1KG, AND WHEN THE SMOKELESS PROPELLANT IS USED, THE WEIGHT OF THE MEDICINE PACKAGE IS 2.5KG TO 2.9KG. (France's Ghana gun seems to have a full load) although it is also impossible to put the retractor on the naval gun on the army gun mount, but considering that all army guns at that time were retracted guns (the earliest tube retreat rapid-fire land gun is the French Schneider M1897 75MM field gun, with a total weight of only 1300+ KG, its appearance is no less significant than the Maxine machine gun. The rapid-fire land artillery and the Maxine machine gun together turned the land combat mode of World War 1 into a trench confrontation), so the receding 4.7-inch gun was still quite deterrent. As a military-grade artillery there are no problems at all.

After several days of hard work, Xu Jie finally formulated the plan for the army's weapons, and the prospects are good, but the road is tortuous, and the research and development, purchase, and training of relevant personnel are all big problems. Of course, the most important thing is money, and there is no need to talk about it. As for the way to make money? Xu Jie has it, but I don't know if Li Zhongtang dares to do it!!

(Comrades, do you dare to break out with recommendations and collections?) It's not easy for the author to code words to find information~~)