“…… So, those people in Beiyang don't plan to fight us at all? ”

Looking down at the news that had just come back from Suzhou, Yan Shao's voice seemed a little intriguing.

"That's right." Wu Qianqiu looked a little helpless. "It seems that the people of Beiyang are not stupid..."

"Normal, if those guys in Beiyang really rushed up at the muzzle of the gun like this, it would not be possible to get into the current position." That was said, but Yan Shao still shook his head. "I'm still a little naïve..."

Originally, according to Yan Shao's prediction, as the 'Central Army' of the southward crusade, Beiyang would definitely take the lead in launching a frontal offensive—————— with the arrogance of Beiyang's current China's strongest army, this possibility is not impossible.

At present, the number of machine gun equipment of the National Socialist Army is probably comparable to that of the German army during the Battle of the Somme, and it may even exceed it. Thinking of the fact that the Allies paid the price of 50,000 or 60,000 casualties in front of the German defense line on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, Yan Shao really looked forward to what the battle would be like at the junction of Anhui and the three provinces of Henan and Shandong.

Even if Beiyang reacts quickly and adjusts his tactics, he is afraid that he will lose thirty or forty thousand people. At that time, the balance of forces between the two sides will change, and then the Nationalist Army deployed at the junction can take advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack and directly defeat the Beiyang Army on the opposite side.

At present, there are only 12 divisions and 16 mixed brigades on the Beiyang side, although the number of troops is 70,000 or 80,000 more than that of the National Social Army, but the territory that Beiyang needs to take care of is also much larger than Yan Shao. Considering that garrisons are needed in Outer Mongolia, Zhili, Northeast and other places, the strength of the 8 divisions today cannot be said to be the limit of Beiyang. But it is impossible for Yuan Shikai to take eight more divisions out.

In other words, as long as Yan Shao can defeat the Beiyang army at the junction of the three provinces, Yuan Shikai will no longer be able to use any strength to stop him. And he can take Shandong and Henan after defeating Beiyang. After the last, he arrived at Yuan Shikai's hometown in Hebei.

The rest is very simple, dismantle the current Beiyang government and build a new Guoshe government.

After that, it was time to start preparations for the First World War, and to talk to the Germans to see if Qingdao could be recovered in a more peaceful way.

After using money to buy so many ordnance and equipment from Germany, Yan Shao's relationship with the Germans was still good, and in some ways it was not even inferior to the relationship with the French.

And in his opinion. If we really waited for the outbreak of World War I, the German army in Qingdao could only be locked up. And considering the safety of the German troops in the Qingdao fortress, the Germans should consider Yan Shao's proposal.

(Historically, Germany did consider returning the Qingdao Fortress.) After all, if there was a real war on the European side, the German army in Qingdao had little chance of surviving, so the German chargé d'affaires in China, Marsen, on behalf of his government, suggested to Yuan Shikai that the leased land in Jiaozhou Bay should be returned to China immediately and unconditionally. However, Yuan Shikai did not dare to agree, and instead suggested that the US government take over Jiaozhou Bay from Germany. for subsequent return to China. However. Yuan Shikai's hopes of exploiting the contradictions between Japan and the United States were dashed. The U.S. government is reluctant to intervene for fear of risking unproductive results, and we all know the end result. ）

Of course, if everything can really go as smoothly as Yan Shao thought...

Facts have proved that things cannot go as smoothly as Yan Shao thought, at least Beiyang is not as arrogant as rumored.

As the Beiyang Army, which had participated in the defense of Yangxia and was also equipped with a large number of machine guns, it was impossible for them to break into the firepower network composed of the military machine guns of the National Society when they understood the power of the machine guns. This also made Yan Shao's somewhat naïve attempt completely shattered.

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"Now it seems that Beiyang is not going to fight with us, and similar tactics should be adopted in the future..."Seeing Yan Shao shaking his head and sighing there. Wu Qianqiu said softly on the side.

"If this is the case, I'm afraid this battle will last for a long time..."Even so, Yan Shaozhi was not very worried. After all, such a large-scale battle could not have ended in a short period of time, unless one of the parties was too weak, and because it was only April, more than a year before the outbreak of World War I, and I don't know if the 'Sarajevo incident' would happen after so many changes, so there is no need to rush for the time being.

Of course, there is also the possibility that the First World War will happen earlier, after all, no one can guarantee that there will be no Sarajevo incident, and there will be no other incident or something.

And with the level of tension on the European side, it doesn't really make a difference if it's a year earlier or a year later.

But in that case, Yan Shao doesn't have to worry about it, after all, it's going to rain, and his mother is going to get married, if this is the case, he can't stop it, so it's better to do what he should do in a down-to-earth manner.

Thinking of this, Yan Shao looked at Ji Yushan, who had been standing aside and listening to them quietly.

"Director Ji, please keep talking..."

"Yes..."Hearing Yan Shao say this, Ji Yushan, who had been quiet, nodded, and then spoke again. After analyzing the similar equipment used by the Russians and the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War, it took us more than four months to finally produce a similar product with relatively stable performance..."

After speaking, Ji Yushan pointed to a strange thing behind him, and if he insisted on saying it, it was a thin-skinned iron cylinder and two brackets, plus an iron plate of strange weapons.

Naturally, as long as it is a later generation, people will recognize this weapon, mortar, but few people in this era recognize this equipment.

Throughout 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.

Mortars in the modern sense evolved from mortars, and in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War siege of Lushun, Japanese officers and soldiers were very close to the Russian trenches. Normal artillery and machine guns are not effective. Russian artillery officer Leonid? Nikolaevich? Taking advantage of the high trajectory and short range of the mortar, Gobiato and the commander of the Lushun city defense, General Kondratenko, designed the first mortar, which was a 47-mm mortar for the navy. Mounted on a wheeled gun carriage for easy pushing.

However, the mortar invented by Gobiato was modified from a naval mortar gun, and although it had a short range, it could not be disassembled into portable parts, and it was still inconvenient for small infantry units to use in combat, so it was not widely used. It wasn't until during the First World War that the British inventor Winfred? Sir Stokes invented the Stokes-style trench mortar in 1915. The modern sense of the word decomposable, portable mortar was introduced.

As a person who has traveled from the afterlife, it is certainly impossible for Yan Shao not to know about the weapon of mortar.

But again, as an ordinary person. Yan Shao also did not know much about the principle of mortars.

In fact, his understanding of mortars was limited to 'low cost, ease of use, muzzle loading and trench warfare special weapons', and for Yan Shao, mortars were an indispensable piece of equipment for both the Japanese army that might appear in Qingdao and the brutality of trench warfare in World War I.

And due to the low cost of mortars. But the power is not less. Equipping this weapon can also effectively enhance the firepower of the National Social Army. So a few years ago, Yan Shao had already begun to ask Ji Yushan of the arsenal to study this kind of equipment.

If you just build a curved artillery, this is naturally very simple, not to mention anything else, just refer to the original mortars that appeared during the Russo-Japanese War. The problem was that Yan Shao didn't just need a curved artillery, he needed an ultra-light gun that was inexpensive and easy to carry for infantry, which also made the experts in the arsenal very troubled.

However, if it can be studied, the benefits for these experts are also obvious. After all, Yan Shao has always been very generous in this regard.

So after more than half a year, the experts of these arsenals finally came up with some results that could satisfy Yan Shao.

"Type 13 60mm mortar. As the name suggests, the caliber is 60mm, the total length of the gun body is 725mm, the total weight is 21.3 kg, the maximum firing range is 1300 meters, the average rate of fire is 20 rounds per minute, and the maximum rate of fire can reach 30 rounds..."Speaking of this, Ji Yushan looked back at the works that made him and many people in the arsenal busy for more than half a year, and added again. "This is just the initial finalized product, and we are currently improving it, and nothing else is very good, but there should be some optimization of range and weight..."

"In addition, according to your request, we have also designed mortars of 80mm and 120mm calibers, which are currently in the finalized stage. For the time being, the 80mm caliber mortar weighs 43.9 kg and has a range of about 2400 meters, and the 120mm caliber mortar weighs 216 kg and has a range of 3300 meters, and I believe that it will be officially taken out in the middle or end of the year..."

The weight of a German-made '1902 60mm rapid-fire mountain gun' is about 600 kg, while the French '75mm 1906/09 mountain gun' of the same caliber is 627 kg. A German-made '1913-style 75mm mountain gun' weighs 275 kilograms, while a 60mm caliber mortar weighs only 20 kilograms.

By the way, the 75mm mountain gun currently equipped by the National Social Army is a German-made '1908 Krupp 75mm mountain gun', weighing 529 kg. No way, who called the 1913 mountain cannon to be finalized and produced until this year, and there are not many of them even on the German side?

However, Yan Shao did not plan to buy this latest mountain gun from Germany, although not long ago the German Krupp company sent a representative to sell Yan Shao this latest German small-caliber artillery—————— for the Krupp company, Yan Shao, who bought hundreds of various guns at a time, has become the largest customer of the Krupp company in Asia.

Yan Shao is still very interested in Germany's large-caliber artillery technology, so he even cooperated with Krupp to purchase many large-caliber heavy artillery technologies from Germany, such as 150mm, 210mm, 240mm and 280mm caliber cannons, howitzer drawings, etc., but they are limited to the technical level of the arsenal, so they have not been produced for the time being.

However, not long ago, Ji Yushan and they had trial-produced a 150mm large-caliber howitzer, and it is said that the performance is not bad. The imitation of the 105mm light howitzer was also carried out fairly smoothly.

For the time being, the arsenal has begun to design its own 75mm caliber guns based on the technology purchased from Germany, France and other countries. Not to mention the performance, since you can already produce it, why buy it from the outside?

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"If you have this 60 mortar, can you already officially produce it?"

Lowering his head and thinking about it, Yan Shao asked in a low voice.

"That's it." Ji Yushan replied very happily. "Although the range of this equipment is very short, the power is not small, plus the structure is simple and the cost is low. It can be produced with the existing equipment of the arsenal, and the output will definitely not be less..."

"And how many people do you need to operate such a mortar?"

"5 people is the best, because the gun itself can be split into three parts. However, in reality, 3 people are fine, and if the situation is more urgent, 1 person is fine, but it will affect the efficiency of use..."These are all already considered in the design process, so Ji Yushan replied without thinking about it.

20 kg guns. It is only slightly more than twice as heavy as the Madsen light machine gun currently equipped by the National Social Security Army (the Madsen machine gun weighs more than 9 kg). Even 1 person can carry it, but the burden will inevitably be greater during a long-distance march, so there is a saying that it will be divided into three parts.

However, in practice, 3 people, including the ammunition man, are enough.

After listening to Ji Yushan's words, Yan Shao nodded and didn't say anything more, just looked at the mortar behind Ji Yushan. Compared with the artillery currently installed by the National Social Army, the simple appearance and gray cannon body look so inconspicuous. However, it is such an inconspicuous weapon, which has been used since it was invented by humans. And eventually used more than 100 years later.

According to Yan Shao's expectations, this 60mm caliber mortar will be assigned to the platoon level, that is to say, each platoon will be assigned to a 60 mortar squad.

It's just that Yan Shao hasn't been able to come up with a decision on the scale of this class.

At present, Yan Shao has a total of two plans in his heart, one is 5 people and 1 door, and the other is 12 people and 3 doors. At present, Yan Shao is more inclined to the latter, although he is not a firepower only winner, but there is no doubt that every point of his own firepower is stronger, then the loss in the war will also be reduced by one point.

As a person from the afterlife, for Yan Shao, the value of people is obviously higher than weapons.

The key is the problem of logistics, and there is the capacity of the arsenal.

At this time, it was not the next generation, but there was no air transportation and other methods, and cars and other things were not very reliable because of technical reasons. It is also because of this relationship that the more firepower you have, the more ammunition you will consume. Even countries like Britain use 'magazine partitions' in order to avoid soldiers consuming too much ammunition in war, let alone a country like China where the industry is not as good as that of the United Kingdom.

And if a platoon is equipped with 3 artillery guns, according to the latest but not yet implemented establishment, this means that when you count the guard platoon, guard company and other departments, a division needs at least 278 mortars, and nine divisions are 2502 ...

This is not counting the two calibers of 80mm and 120mm, because the former will be assigned to the battalion level according to Yan Shao's idea, and the latter will be assigned to the regimental level.

As for the number, the 80mm one should be a platoon, and the 120mm one will be a row.

If you calculate it this way, the number of mortars needed will reach as many as 3 or 4,000, and no matter how simple the structure of the mortars is, it will be a little difficult in terms of the production capacity of Yan Shao's side.

"Anyway, your side is producing first, how much can you produce..."After speaking, Yan Shao scratched his head. If I'm not mistaken, I'm afraid this thing will come in handy in Suzhou..."

Mortars were originally used exclusively for trench warfare, and Feng Guozhang's meaning in Suzhou was also obvious, that is, he did not plan to use his life to fill the trenches of the National Social Army, so there were only two roads left in front of Yan Shao.

One is to grind with Beiyang until one of them can't hold on.

The other is to find a way to crush Beiyang from the front.

In the case of the former, no one knows how much time it will take to drag Beiyang down. In the case of the latter, according to the information obtained by the Secret Service from Beiyang, Beiyang has now purchased hundreds of Maxim heavy machine guns from the British, and if it is not used in a proper way, but to fill the trenches of the Germans with human lives like the British and French forces at the time of the Somme, I am afraid that Yan Shao will not be able to fill them...

In fact, in the current situation, armored vehicles such as tanks are undoubtedly the most suitable. But not to mention how long it will take to assemble this kind of armored vehicle, even if it can be built, Yan Shao will definitely not do it.

For Yan Shao, what is his greatest advantage in this era? It is that he came from a hundred years later, and he knows the Tao of Lu, and many people of this era do not know the things of the Dao. The problem is that there are many people in the country who are paying attention to this war, and there are even many foreigners including them.

The greatest significance of the First World War to Yan Shao is that he can take this opportunity to reap a lot of benefits, and secondly, and very importantly, through this cruel and tragic war, the era of Europeans will also be completely over...

The Somme, Verdun, Dardanelles, the most tragic wars have shed the blood of Europeans, and machine guns such as Maxim have played a vital role in these wars.

If the Europeans found a way to deal with the machine gun now, then how could Yan Shao let them bleed themselves?

Therefore, Yan Shao would rather choose other ways with greater casualties, and he would definitely not divulge this secret. (To be continued......)