1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 341
According to the account of the pirate's third master, all kinds of goods they bought from Guangzhou were regularly transported to a place called Sanmen Island in the east to trade with the men of "Eighteen Zhi".In addition to acting as second-hand traffickers, this group of people also often appeared for "Eighteen Zhi" and transported some stolen goods to Guangzhou to sell.

From here, Wang Tom has made at least two things clear. First, it is not without reason that this group of small-scale pirates can survive on the edge of the "Eighteen Zhi" sphere of influence. Only by bringing some benefits to the "Eighteen Zhis" can the powerful "Eighteen Zhis" acquiesce in their settlement here.Second, the "Eighteen Zhi", which seems to have no direct relationship with the Time Travel Group, most likely has already started purchasing various industrial products produced by Shengli Port.As for whether the "Eighteen Zhi" sold these products to Japan or Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the north, it is temporarily unknown.

There is no doubt that Haihan products, which have been highly sought after in the Guangdong market in the past year, have been noticed by "Shibazhi" and have become one of the goods they trafficked from Guangdong.If the Executive Committee knows this news, I am afraid that they will not be happy to see their own products become a source of income for future competitors.

From the very beginning of the crossing, the executive committee regarded "Eighteen Zhi" as the strongest opponent in the East Asian waters in the next few years. In order to win the battle for sea power in the future, the "Fu Ruifeng" Make layout in the direction of Fujian.With the growth of his own strength, the military support for Xu Xinsu, a local snake in Fujian, has gradually shifted from underground to open.Recently, the second batch of trainees sent by Xu Xinsu to Shengli Port to study military affairs has arrived. Unlike the previous batch of craftsmen, this time the trainees are all actual military officers, and the time-traveling group has thus created It is a precedent for Ming Dynasty officials to train talents.

In the original history, before that, the Ming military also sought help from other outsiders, and that was the Portuguese.In the third year of the Apocalypse, the Ming army purchased 22 Hongyi cannons from the Portuguese, and hired 23 Portuguese gunners to Beijing to help build artillery and train troops. This is probably the first batch of Western military personnel officially hired by the Chinese government.In July of the first year of Chongzhen, Li Fengjie and Wang Zunde from Guangdong and Guangxi were sent to Macau to recruit artillery divisions and purchased Hongyi cannons.In the second year of Chongzhen, there were dozens of mercenaries from Portugal among the team that escorted these artillery pieces to the north.

During the service of these mercenaries in Ming Dynasty, the team leader can get a salary of 150 taels of silver per year, and 15 taels of food subsidies per month.Ordinary soldiers receive 100 taels per year, and [-] taels of food subsidies per month.This treatment is basically equivalent to the salary of the six-rank and one hundred households of the Guards Army, which is very good. If it is converted into Haihan circulation coupons, it is basically on the same level as the Haihan militia soldiers.

The professionalism of the Portuguese mercenaries in the past cooperation has made the Ming officials very satisfied. The executive committee has already proposed that they can consider hiring a group of Portuguese soldiers in Macau to train gunners for the Haihan militia.However, this idea is still on paper for the time being. Apart from the interview between Tao Donglai and the Portuguese special envoy Thomas in Guangzhou last time, the two sides have not yet conducted further in-depth contact. aspects of cooperation.Coupled with the fact that the two sides had an air-to-air confrontation in Annan a few months ago, it is difficult to judge what kind of attitude the Portuguese side currently has towards Haihan.

Of course, Tom Wang will not worry too much about this kind of thing. As a standard soldier, he is very clear about his identity and mission in the group. It is good to leave things like foreign policy to those civil servants. It is necessary to go to Yuezu to take care of it.And he is also very clear that his identity as a "North American gang" has no positive effect in the group, but will become an object of vigilance for some people-after all, the people who joined them from overseas have the same culture and values ​​as other gangsters. There are certain differences among members from China.Of course, Wang Tom, who has realized this, has been working hard to downplay his identity as a "North American gang" recently, devoting more time and energy to the formation and training of the navy.

After taking down Dangan Island, Wang Tom's biggest personal experience is that the military's previous emphasis on this group of pirates was a bit too much.If these pirates really took the initiative to harass Wanshan Port and even attack Dawanshan Island, as the military feared, they would be asking for trouble.Based on the fighting power they showed, Tom Wang thought it was not much better than those rogue bandits who besieged Lijiazhuang.

The militia spent most of the day counting the results of the battle, and then moved all the things that could be moved onto the boat.Since too many ships were captured this time, the militia's own sailors were not enough, so some sailors had to be selected from among the captives to drive the ships.It wasn't until it was dark that the fleet slowly left the wharf of Dangan Island.Most of the captives captured this time will be temporarily stayed on Dawanshan Island to participate in the construction work, while a small number of leaders will be escorted to the base camp, and what awaits them will be hard labor ranging from one to several years Life, if you are unlucky, you might be sent to a colony point overseas.

As for the ships seized this time, all of them were left in Wanshan Port to increase the mobility of the troops stationed on the island.The three warships participating in the war will still return to Victory Port to station after that, and the people on Dawanshan Island can only use these spoils of war as a means of transportation for the time being.

On May [-]th, Wang Tom led the two companies sent from Victory Port to return to the base camp by boat.As for the preliminary infrastructure projects on the island, according to the person in charge Liu Shanxia, ​​it can basically be guaranteed to be completed before the end of June.At that time, a company of troops will be stationed in the Dawanshan Island stronghold for a long time, and it will play more roles as a commercial and immigration transfer station.

Wang Tom returned to the base camp and first went to the Military Commission to hand in a job. As soon as he came out, he was arrested by Bai Kesi: "I heard that you came back today, and I was going to look for you, but I didn't expect you to jump out by yourself, hurry up and follow me! "

Tom Wang said in a daze, "Boss Bai, can you explain the situation first?"

"A new gun has been made. I want you to see the goods and try the gun." Bex said without any explanation, and pulled Tom Wang towards the Fort Victory Railway Station.

After the establishment of "Haihan Ordnance Industry" in early April, Beks, who was originally in charge of industrial production, took over the leadership position of this new organization as a matter of course.After initially straightening out the relationship between design, production, use and other units, Beks personally grasped the first key weapon project was the firearms used by the infantry.

In the year after the crossing, the military industry department actually mass-produced two different types of muskets, one is the Type [-] matchlock gun mainly for export, and the other is the Type [-] flintlock gun that is used by the militia.These two front-loading muskets are only transitional weapons in the eyes of the military and military industry departments.With the scientific and technological advantages accumulated over hundreds of years, the military industry department is very clear about the development direction of rifles. All they need to do is to continuously copy the famous rifles in history according to the development level of their own productivity.

With the existing military technology and steel output of the Crossing Group, it is no longer a delusion to start making breech-loading rifles.The emergence of breech-loading muskets will mean that Haihan's armament level has completely widened the gap with this era.Of course, there was still some debate about which firearm should be copied as the individual weapon of the militia for a period of time in the future when representatives of several parties discussed together.

Among the breech-loading rifles officially installed in the army in 1850, there are many famous rifle models, such as the famous Dresser M1841 firing needle gun, which was equipped with the Prussian Army from 1840 until it was eliminated by Mauser M1872 in 1871.There is also the American Hall M1819 rifle, which entered service in the US army as early as 1819.The common advantage of these two breech-loading rifles is that they have a fast rate of fire, which can reach a shooting frequency of eight or nine rounds per minute. The common disadvantage is that the barrel has serious air leakage. This defect greatly affects the performance of the rifle in terms of range and accuracy.In view of the fact that the Haihan militia has always taken the less and more refined route, the military hopes that the weapons in hand can be more balanced in terms of performance, so after some discussions, these two rifles were eventually rejected.

Finally, after repeated weighings, the gun model chosen by "Haihan Ordnance Industry" was the Carmel Ryder M1841 rifle, which appeared a year later than the Dresser M1842.This rifle was the main individual weapon of the Norwegian Army until 1867, when production ceased.

The biggest feature of the Carmel Ryder rifle can be briefly summarized, that is, it uses the cap to fire, the chamber that can stand up, and the cardboard fixed-loaded Mini bomb.This movable chamber is basically a metal cartridge case mounted on the gun body. There is a constriction in front of the chamber that can be inserted into the rear of the chamber, which greatly enhances the airtightness of the chamber. Compared with the use of a rifled barrel, this rifle has greatly improved the range and accuracy of the flintlock.

Of course, the addition of various black technologies to performance is not without cost. The production process of this rifle is much more complicated than the existing 30-type flintlock gun, and its cost has also risen sharply. According to the estimates of the military industry department, mass production The subsequent production cost is expected to be five to seven times that of the Type [-] flintlock gun, roughly equivalent to about [-] yuan in circulation, and almost fifteen to six times that of the export-type matchlock gun.Therefore, whether this gun will be recognized by the military in the end has not yet been finalized.

Wang Tom is one of the few individual weapon experts in the time-traveling group, so this gun test event was postponed for a week, just to wait for him to come back from Guangzhou.Bai Kesi took Wang Tom to Tiandu Industrial Zone by train, and then led by two militiamen to a secluded ravine.There is a small shooting range here, but this shooting range is not affiliated with the military, but a place where military production units conduct weapon test firing.

After Wang Tom arrived here, he found that almost all the top figures in the Military Commission were present. It seemed that the military had great expectations for the performance of this new rifle.

"Let me briefly introduce this rifle to you." Beks didn't even have time to take a sip of water when he arrived at the scene, so he picked up a sample gun and started to explain: "This is a new rifle made by imitating the Carmelite M1842 , with a total length of 125 cm, a barrel length of 78 cm, and a total weight of about 5 kg. It uses a cardboard fixed-loaded Mini bomb and is loaded in the breech. The rate of fire is about six to eight rounds per minute, and the initial velocity of the bullet is 300 m/s. About 500 meters effective range."

Judging from the paper performance parameters announced by Beks, this new gun has completely surpassed the [-]th type flintlock gun currently installed by the militia.If it can be mass-produced, it basically means that the militia will not have to make major changes to individual weapons in the next few years-the next big change in firearms may be the application of bolt-action rifles and metal shell bullets .However, judging from the existing resources and production capacity of the Transit Group, copper shell bullets alone cannot be mass-produced in recent years. Even if there is so much copper, the Executive Committee will not use it to produce expensive bullets. .The relatively cheap Mini bombs are enough to beat infantry around the world in this era, and the military will not rush to upgrade individual weapons to the level of World War I.

Of course, the people in the military also knew very well that some of the data released by Beks were just theoretical data.For example, the rate of fire can theoretically reach six to eight rounds per minute. This data is probably measured in a standing posture without interference, but on the battlefield, it will vary due to factors such as personal tactical skills, shooting posture, and shooting environment. Affected, the performance of soldiers in actual combat will generally be lower than this level.In addition, although the range can reach 500 meters, according to the experience of later generations, the range that can effectively hit individual targets in a combat environment is only about half of the maximum range, so if you really plan to attack targets at a distance of 500 meters, most of them can only It's by luck.

In addition to Carmel Ryder, the military industry department actually trial-produced another Whitworth rifle that was historically known as the "magic gun". This rifle produced in Britain in 1857 has a very strange appearance. It uses a hexagonal barrel and must be loaded with a special bullet. The craftsmanship and cost of this special-shaped bullet chamber are far beyond ordinary rifles. Even the bullets it uses are several times more expensive than the Minie bullets of the same period.And this rifle must be cleaned between shots, resulting in a much slower rate of fire than rifles of the same period.Inconvenient loading, expensive, slow rate of fire, all kinds of defects made the British army give up installing it in the army, and after it was produced, it was only exported to the United States in large quantities.

Then why does "Haihan Military Industry" imitate such a rifle with many disadvantages?The Whitworth rifle is called a "sharp gun" not just because of its weird appearance. The biggest feature of this gun is its accuracy, and its range is much higher than that of its competitors at the same time.When the maximum amount of propellant is used, the initial velocity of the bullet can reach 420 m/s, the kinetic energy of the muzzle exceeds 3000 joules, the distribution of impact points at a distance of one kilometer can be controlled within one meter, and its effective range can exceed 1500 meters at most. It is comparable to the bolt-action rifles that appeared later in terms of accuracy and precision.

What do these data mean?This means that the Whitworth rifle is a sniper rifle that can be produced under existing technical conditions!Of course, to achieve this function, the military industry department has to make a special scope for it.However, now that the glass workshop has started trial production of optical glass, it will not be too difficult to manufacture a scope that is about 4 times larger. It is nothing more than handmade and the cost is relatively high.

If you want to say that the cost of Kamer Ryder is high, in fact, it is still very cheap compared with Whitworth. The military industry department estimates that the cost of a single gun has exceeded 21 yuan, and this does not include the special-shaped ammunition it uses. .Of course, this kind of special-purpose weapon is destined not to be mass-produced, but "Haihan Military Industry" believes that the military will definitely place a batch of orders after actually testing the performance of the gun. After all, the cost of this sniper rifle is very high. Much cheaper than the treasures brought by the military from the [-]st century, the military has sufficient conditions to train the world's first batch of musket snipers.

Yan Chujie, Gu Wei and others tested new guns with Tom Wang, and among them, Tom Wang was the only one who had really come into contact with the original Carmel Ryder rifle. This rifle has been tested, so everyone uses his operation steps as a demonstration to follow.

Wang Tom first opened the hammer under the chamber, turned the crank on the right side of the gun body to make the movable chamber stand upright, inserted the cap into the bottom of the chamber, poured the propellant, and then stuffed the paper shell Minie bullet into it. Tighten it, then turn the crank to return the chamber and insert it into the barrel to complete the lock.

After everyone finished loading, they raised their guns to aim at the target [-] meters away and started shooting.After firing ten rounds, some militiamen took back the target for inspection.Wang Tom may be familiar with the relationship, the hit rate is really the highest, [-] out of [-] rounds, while the others mostly hit the target, usually only two or three rounds hit the target.However, this result did not make everyone feel discouraged. In order to verify the importance of the sight gauge, we only aimed with the naked eye in the shooting just now. It is not easy to achieve this result.

In the next shooting, everyone used the sight gauge installed on the gun to assist in aiming, which really played a very obvious role.For the results of target shooting at the same distance, Tom Wang hits nine out of ten shots, and the others have also increased the hit rate to around 50%. If you are more familiar with it, I believe there is still a lot of room for improvement in this hit rate.

Of course, the inspection of new guns is not just about test shooting and shooting, there are also a lot of other inspection items that need to be carried out one by one.

(End of this chapter)