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The proposed first "Red River Valley Cup World Architects Design Awards" also have the effect of whitewashing peace, and Li Fushou plans to invite Duke Victor to be the honorary chairman of the Grand Prix to improve the competition's qualifications.

This kind of thing is something that is not costly, and Lord Victor must be very happy to do it.

Li Fushou's face showed a calmness that was not commensurate with his age, and his deep eyes stared at the Red River Valley for a long time, and let out a moan-like sigh; "Ah...... The city is so beautiful. ”

Satisfied, he walked back and carefully examined the proposal for the "Red River Valley Cup World Architect Design Competition", considering that the competition will be held in a year and a half, and there is plenty of time to publicize, he believes that it will definitely attract world-famous architects to flock to participate in the grand event.

Li Fushou picked up the pen, signed the opinion on the motion, and handed it over to the specific undertaker to arrange a matter.

After signing this important proposal, the following is a report on the situation from South Africa, which is a detailed situation report sent by the Black Guard's secret envoy to South Africa.

By the end of November 1880

In several important towns such as Pretoria, Rustenburg, Leidenburg, and Stedton, the Boers who were dissatisfied with British rule were active and secretly joined forces to openly rebel against the rule of the colonial government, attacking the royal police and civil servants, and a series of bad incidents occurred.

It's a powder keg today, and the slightest spark can cause a devastating explosion that will destroy the foundations of the British Empire.

After the Zulu War in 1879, the British eliminated the Zulu kingdom and removed the greatest threat to the Boers.

During the three years of British rule in the Transvaal, instead of improving the living conditions of the middle and lower classes of the Boers, there was no increase in investment, and no improvement in financial, economic and political treatment, but instead British merchants were allowed to engage in land speculation, collect taxes from the Boers that they previously owed to the Transvaal, and impose a repressive rule, all of which caused widespread discontent among the Boers.

September 1880

In order to confiscate a large number of guns in the hands of blacks, the "gun riots" broke out in the British protectorate of Basutoland (present-day Lesotho), which suddenly made the situation in South Africa tense.

The main British forces in the Transvaal moved south to suppress the riots, and the total number of British troops remaining in the Transvaal did not exceed 3,000 men, and the defense was empty.

This provided an excellent opportunity for the Boers who were about to move, and the Boers from all over the country flocked to Pardeklar, numbering in the thousands, and it was clear that they were not here for sightseeing.

According to reliable information obtained by secret agents from various sources;

The Boers were preparing to hold a national convention, electing Paul Kruger, Piert Joubert and Junior Pretorius the Younger, among the most respected Boers, as their leaders, and proclaiming the restoration of the Republic of South Africa with all preparations for armed resistance, which meant that a great war was imminent.

Li Fushou gently covered the file, although he was in the Australian continent, thousands of miles away from South Africa, he could still feel the imminent trend of the mountain rain and the black clouds pressing down on the city.

Since setting foot on the Australian continent in 1876, Li Fushou has changed the status quo of this vast continent, leaving the established trajectory and sailing into an unknowable future.

However, this isolated continent has little sense of existence in the international turmoil, and the world situation is still running according to the established historical trajectory, including South Africa, which is about to break out into a major war.

Don't think that the situation in South Africa has nothing to do with Australia, as a Dominion under the British Empire, if South Africa suffers a major setback in the war, the British Empire will deploy troops around the world, including Ireland, Canada, India and Australia, which is almost a certainty.

With the meagre size of the British Imperial Army, cannon fodder troops from the Dominions and colonies were indispensable if they were to maintain global colonial rule.

If the original history has not changed

The imminent outbreak of the First Anglo-Boer War would end with the establishment of a fully Boer autonomous Transvaal Republic under Her Majesty the Queen of the British Empire, and thus laid the fuse for the Second Anglo-Boer War.

The fundamental reason for this is that wealth is moving.

The Transvaal, rich in diamonds and gold, was a treasure trove of land, and its geographical location was so important that the British Empire simply couldn't let it go.

Li Fushou's slender fingers tapped lightly on the table, he was not thinking about this, but whether there was a chance for Australia under the governance of the Downing Street Prime Minister, who implemented the policy of appeasement?

Thinking about it, he sighed with great regret;

The time is still not ripe!

Among Australia's more than 3.7 million people, immigrants from the mainland account for about 46%, about 1.7 million, of which young men account for the vast majority.

People of white descent from European countries still make up the majority of Australia's population, living mainly in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, mainly engaged in animal husbandry and gold mining.

Especially in the two most populous states of New South Wales and Victoria, white people still dominate the mainstream of society, and this is easy to change.

Once a movement is launched to fight for the establishment of an autonomous government and break the current good situation, it is easy to lead to internal division in Australia, and the war will continue for a long time.

Queensland, due to its home location, may temporarily gain the upper hand, but in the event of being cut off from foreign trade and the most populous southern states, the future is uncertain.

When the clouds of war loom over Queensland and the current prosperity is broken, how many people will still be on the side of the Earl of Queensland, willing to fight for more autonomy with their lives and blood?

This has to be marked with a big question mark, Li Fushou does not dare to take risks, and he does not have the capital to squander, so he can only dispel this unrealistic assumption in his heart.

It is easy to light the fuse of the war, but if you want to extinguish it, it is not subject to Li Fushou's will, you still have to see the truth on the battlefield.

Roughly calculated

The current war of rash initiation for the purpose of establishing an autonomous government has a winning rate of less than 47 per cent, and with the intervention of the British Empire, the chance of subtracting another 10 per cent is required.

If it is postponed for a few years

With today's ever-increasing migration and greater strength, the odds of victory in the Red River Valley will increase dramatically, to more than 6 percent in three years at the latest, more than 7 percent in five years, and more than 9 percent in eight years.

Eight years later, in 1888, I was 28 years old, and it was not too late from this point of view, because my own strength was greatly increased, and the damage caused by the war would be much less.

Li Fushou thought about it attentively, picked up the teacup and took a sip, only to find that the cup was empty, so he raised his voice and said; "Come on, add tea."

The maid walked in when she heard the sound, refilled the tea cup with fragrant tea, looked up cautiously at the old man Li Fushou, and saw that he didn't care at all, so she couldn't help but sigh in her heart and quit quietly.

Ponder for a moment

Li Fushou repeatedly weighed that things could not be done, so he let go of this matter, picked up the documents on the desk and continued to review.

This is a proposal for the development of the military industry, Li Fushou looked at it a few times and was not interested, signed a "no" at the back of the proposal, thought for a while and wrote a line; Not considered for 10 years.

Are you kidding?

Australia, with a population of less than 4 million, still wants to develop a military industry, why don't you go to heaven?

For a long time in the future, Australia will only be a small and medium-sized country with a sparse population (defined by population), and it will not have the conditions to develop advanced industrial categories such as military industry, heavy chemical industry and high-precision optics.

From the scientific research base of colleges and universities, the market size, the population base to the international environment, it is determined that Australia is congenitally deficient and cannot develop a whole industrial category.

There is no military industry to buy it, from guns and artillery to warships, there are many arms suppliers in the international market, and a small place like Australia can completely buy a military modernization, which is much more time-saving and labor-saving than its own research and development and production.

In fact, the Red River Valley has been doing this in secret.

Every year, a certain amount of munitions is purchased in phases and batches, mainly guns and ammunition, plus some heavy machine guns and army medium-caliber rapid guns, and secretly stored in case of emergency.

In addition, almost everyone in Australia has a gun, and there is no shortage of guns and ammunition, and the medium-caliber fast artillery has imported 60 French Mle 1875 95mm field cannons this year in order to cope with the expansion of the four cavalry, each gun is towed by two horses, which is the most advanced breech-loading artillery today.

In the Franco-Prussian War

The French army was beaten by the new German Krupp cannons, and the French quickly abandoned the old breech guns and made every effort to develop new and more powerful guns.

In 1875, the French engineer Raitolle improved the British Armstrong screw bolt and used it on the French Mle 1875 95mm field cannon.

The reliability and airtightness of this bolt are very good, and its excellent design makes it leapfrog the German artillery and become the most advanced army rapid gun in the world today, ahead of the British Armstrong artillery.

Compared with the cheap and high-quality German-made Krupp gun, the only disadvantage of the French Mle 1875 95mm field cannon is that it is expensive, and a 95mm gun is almost three times the price of the German fast gun.

The wealthy Lord Earl of Queensland didn't care about money, so he ordered 60 guns at one time, and except for 24 guns for the four cavalry guards, all the excess artillery went into the reserve.

Australia is a British colony, why doesn't the Red River Valley buy British-made artillery?

The reason is simple, because the British artillery today is very backward.

Beginning in 1865, the British, unaware of what they were thinking, turned back the clock on history, abandoning the breech-loading Armstrong guns and forcing the company to produce breech-loading guns with a long history, which were all used by the Home Army and the Royal Navy.

The reason turned out to be that the old men in London felt that the rear-loading cannon had high requirements for artillery, a long training time, and a high manufacturing cost, which was not conducive to large-scale installation.

From 1865 to 1880, Armstrong produced breech-loading guns, with matching shells designed to match rifling for easy loading.

This way of loading the artillery was really painful for the artillerymen, especially the high-pound naval guns, who had to return to the lowest depression angle after each shot, and with great effort, pushed the heavy shells through the breech muzzle.

Due to rifling, the speed of the projectile could not be pushed too fast, otherwise it would jam, which made the rate of fire of the gun simply impressive.

In February 1879, a chance accident made the old men in London completely embarrassed, and it became an opportunity for the reform of British artillery.

A 12.5-inch RML Armstrong gun on the battleship Thunder was reloaded again due to a mistake by the crew, when the gun was already loaded with 1 shell.

As a result, at the moment of firing, two projectiles exploded in the chamber of the gun, killing 9 sailors on the spot and wounding up to 35 people.

The military's anger erupted in the military's fury with the difficulty of reloading and the difficulty of checking for reloading.

Even if the previous decision was recognized, the British Army and Royal Navy were heavily equipped with breech-loading Armstrong guns, and the replacement equipment was expensive, so the army still had to pinch its nose and use it.

So the Red River Valley could not buy advanced artillery in the UK, both the British Imperial Army and the Royal Navy used breech-loading Armstrong guns, where are the breech-loading guns for sale?

It is good to turn around when the ship is small, and whichever country has advanced equipment will buy whichever country, and in the event of a conflict, at least it will not suffer a loss in weapons.

Li Fushou thought of the Deep Blue Alchemy Workshop from this, and couldn't help but sigh secretly.

At present, a group of German experts led by the German engineer Baron Gryzka, who has provided their own ideas, has developed a prototype of a new gun with a hydraulic reentry machine.

But this is where the problem comes from, and it is an almost unsolvable technical problem.

That is, the hydraulic reentry machine works unreliable, the water leakage and oil leakage are serious, and the sealing rubber ring is damaged after a few shots, becoming a pile of scrap iron, which is one of them.

According to the current pitiful level of science and technology in the Australian Red River Valley, it is simply impossible to solve the problem of high-performance sealing rubber materials.

Second, because the tail bolt still uses the French patented spiral structure, the rate of fire has only increased from two rounds per minute to four rounds per minute, which makes this gun much less significant.

The cost of the new artillery is much higher than that of the old artillery, and more decommissioned guns can be purchased at the same price, so why should users buy this new hydraulic re-advancing artillery that is both unreliable and expensive?

Li Fushou didn't expect that the golden idea he provided would give birth to such a nondescript strange doll, which made him cry and laugh.

The development of a new type of artillery has never been a success of a few experts hiding in a laboratory, and it involves the cooperation of experts from multiple disciplines to jointly solve and overcome technical difficulties, which reflects a country's scientific and technological strength and heritage.

These conditions are completely not available in the Red River Valley, Li Fushou's ideas are good, but in reality he has encountered difficulties that are difficult to solve, so he can only call in vain?

Early nineteenth-century mounted guns had a rigid connection between the barrel and the gun carriage and no cushioned recoil device.

When the cannon is fired, the huge recoil force will push the entire cannon away from the gun position, and even jump high, which will not only damage the gun, but also easily smash the gunner.

After each shot, the gun was pushed back into place and recalibrated.

Each aiming is an isolated event that cannot be corrected with the help of the previous impact point, so the best artilleryman is a mathematician, who can quickly solve complex shooting elements, which is equivalent to doing one math problem after another.

Small-caliber guns can improve stability by increasing weight, but large-caliber guns can't do it.

Taking 95 mm caliber field artillery as an example, in order to prevent the gun carriage from moving back, it must weigh at least 38 tons.

This is a disaster for the army, who can pull such a heavy artillery? And how can you quickly enter the gun position as the troops move?

Therefore, a rack with upper and lower gun carriages and slope slide rails was invented. Its barrel is rigidly connected to the upper gun mount, but the upper and lower gun mounts are separated.

In the world today

There has been a prototype of the re-entry machine, which is mostly used in factory equipment, using spring or air as the re-entry power, while the hydraulic re-entry machine is the latest attempt, and now the research and development has fallen into a technical bottleneck.

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