I want to be emperor

Chapter 741 Naval Steam Engine Factory

As Luo Zhixue ordered the test to begin, many artillery pieces on the proving ground also began preparations.

The first to appear is a small-caliber front-loading rifled gun that is more convenient and quick to prepare.

"This is a 75mm front-loading rifled field gun developed by Hebei Arms Company. This gun is relatively light, with a weight of only 870 kilograms and a multiple diameter of 24 times. When firing grenades, the effective range can reach 500 meters. The explosive power of its grenade is much greater than the ball grenade of the latest 23-year-old 115mm bronze smoothbore gun in service."

"Whether it is range or lethality, it is far more than the 23-year-style 115mm bronze field gun that we have a lot of equipment in active service today. The 850 kg of the 23mm bronze field gun is much lower and more maneuverable."

"Our army intends to let this level of front-loading rifled artillery replace the tactical mission of the 115mm field artillery, and act as a long-range suppression artillery of the division."

While listening to the introduction, Luo Zhixue looked at the cannon in front of him. This cannon didn't look that big from the outside, but just by looking at the barrel, he could tell it was a little guy... It seemed that he was used to the cannon in the Chu army. Large-caliber artillery, looking at this 75mm caliber artillery, to be honest, Luo Zhixue thinks this thing is a bit small...

After all, the caliber of this thing is only slightly larger than the 65mm field gun used as an infantry gun. In the army of the Great Chu Empire, it is the second-to-last gun caliber.

Even Luo Zhixue knew that many of the modern division artillery in the original time and space used 75mm caliber, but when did they, it was the late [-]th century or even the early [-]th century... that was the era of electrification No, the level of technology is not comparable to that of the current Great Chu Empire.

More advanced technology can naturally use small-caliber artillery and exert greater power... With the same gun barrel, others can hit 6000 meters or even farther, while our own can only hit more than 3000 meters.

As for the sister ship Yingtian of the Hantian, which had just laid the keel, it simply stopped construction first. The Navy’s Military and Political Department planned to change the firepower layout to better adapt to the firepower of the front-loaded rifled guns. The hull design was changed. Naturally, follow-up construction should also be changed accordingly.

It's just that when the caliber is large, in order to control the weight and ensure the maneuverability, the multiple diameter is often lower.

Luo Zhixue was a little worried, whether such a small cannon could be up to the important task of the division's subordinates to suppress the cannon from a long distance...

The next test was a series of front-loading rifled guns used by the Navy. The front-loaded rifled guns used by the Navy also have large and small calibers.

However, to build such a large-tonnage all-steel warship, the cost will be high, and the technical difficulty will be very high. I don't know when I will be able to see it.

The army said that the higher procurement cost is acceptable, but there are only [-] rounds of artillery with a barrel life, and they are still used as the main artillery of the division, which is absolutely unacceptable...

As soon as the test was over, the navy formally placed an order with the two naval artillery factories to purchase front-loading rifled guns of different calibers and equip them on some new warships under construction.

That's a fart, so the navy simply changed the way, turning the cooperation between them into cooperation between the navy and them.

Facing the continuous pressure from the navy, Tianjin Machinery Company, one of the three major steam engine manufacturers, has changed a bit. They said: don’t count on letting go of patents. This is related to the life and death of the company. When the boss comes over, none of them will agree to release their own series of patents on multi-expansion steam engines.

The navy's need for rifled artillery is very urgent, because it is directly related to the navy's tactical warfare.

The army was actually afraid that Luo Zhixue would force the army to make large-scale purchases as soon as he saw the huge advantages of rifled artillery, which was not in line with the pace of the army's development.

Its latest improvement, that is, the 24-year-old 65mm bronze smoothbore field gun, has a total weight of only 350 kg, which is very light.

However, although the multiple diameter is low, because it is a bronze artillery and the barrel is relatively thick, the amount of propellant can be used more, and the chamber pressure is not low when fired. Therefore, when firing solid bullets, its effective range can reach one 500 meters, and 800 meters in actual combat.

But this is already the closest to success, so the Navy has been working on this matter for the past six months, but there are many troubles... The three major steam engine manufacturers have conflicts from time to time.

The most powerful and most powerful is the [-]mm caliber shipboard cannon. When this big guy weighing more than ten tons was tested, the momentum was very huge.

So even if the series of front-mounted artillery tests used by the army have not yet ended, the generals of the army have already approached Luo Zhixue on their own initiative, expressing the relevant opinions of the army, that is, only a small amount of purchases will be made in the short term...

The navy thinks that this plan sounds unreliable... Well, if you think about it with your toes, Dangtu Machinery Company and Guangzhou Machinery Company will definitely not agree to hand over their core patented products to Tianjin Machinery Company for assembly.

However, it is precisely because of its great power that if this thing wants to go on a ship, it needs a large enough battleship to carry it, and the Hantian-class battleship under construction with a full load of [-] tons is equipped with such a powerful ship. In fact, the cannon can't carry many doors.

After the thickness of the hull and armor is greatly reduced, the weight will naturally be lighter, so that more displacement can be vacated for steam engines, coal, naval guns, etc.

At that time, there will be long-range suppression and power.

Moreover, the army has a large number of smoothbore guns, all of which are not cheap bronze guns. If you ask the army to throw away these bronze guns and replace them with rifled guns in a short time, the army says it can't bear it...

However, the smooth test firing does not mean that the Army will want this thing now... because although the performance data of this thing looks good in all aspects, it still has two fatal flaws. The most important thing is that the service life of the rifling is not high, and the service life of the barrel is only about [-] rounds.

Due to changes in the projected artillery load, the scheduled completion of the ship will have to be delayed by several months...

So as to avoid the complicated contradictions between the three major steam engines that are unclear and chaotic!

Anyway, a series of bronze smoothbore guns in active service in the army still have an overwhelming advantage when facing the indigenous artillery of various countries.

At the same time, the Navy has also decided to officially stop purchasing front-loading smoothbore guns. Subsequent new construction, including warships currently under construction but not yet completed, will all use front-loading rifled guns as shipboard artillery.

Compared with the navy's generosity in armament procurement, the army has always been very stingy in armament procurement, and even invented a brand new concept called "full-life use cost". They put the procurement cost, later maintenance cost, All the cost of use is included, and then the cost is calculated... just to save money.

In this way, the trivial and messy things between the three major steam engine manufacturers will be thrown away, and the cooperation between the three major steam engine manufacturers will become a normal equipment procurement between the three major steam engine manufacturers and the navy.

This reason is actually similar to the fact that the armor used by the soldiers of the Chu army is made of steel instead of wood.

In terms of artillery, the Chu army has an overwhelming advantage over the natives of various countries, and does not have the urgent need to change equipment like the navy.

In short, the Army just wants the Navy to take advantage of it and pay for various research and development of rifled guns.

From the perspective of smoothbore guns, this kind of artillery is quite excellent, and it can be said that it has reached the limit of the bronze artillery manufactured by the Great Chu Empire.

And it's funny to say that the reason why the navy designed large-scale warships made of pure steel is not to strengthen the defense capabilities of warships... although the defense capabilities of steel warships will indeed be better.

Then the army-level artillery unit will get a little more howitzers with larger calibers and short-barreled howitzers, such as 120mm or even 150mm calibers, and the power will definitely be leveraged by then.

But... since your navy has such a need, we are not unreasonable. You can first go to Dangtu Machinery Company to buy an ultra-high pressure master cylinder and the pipes for the connection, such as the street, and then Go to Guangzhou Machinery Company to buy a water tube boiler... Then we Tianjin Machinery Company will get the second cylinder and transmission structure and other parts, and then assemble the above parts, so that we will have a high-performance steam engine Well.

And this kind of future giant warship is expected to use this [-]mm front-loading rifled gun as the main gun.

Among them, the 170mm naval gun and the 150mm naval gun were both developed by Dangtu Heavy Artillery Factory, a subsidiary of Jiangnan Arms Company, and their technical routes are highly unified.

The navy has always wanted to play kite-flying tactics, so even if the front-loading rifled artillery is immature, the cost is high, and the lifespan is short, the navy still decides to equip it on a large scale.

As far as the army is concerned, there is no plan to put rifled artillery on the battlefield for the time being!

In addition, the Foshan Artillery Factory also has two naval gun products, the 75mm rifled gun and the [-]mm rifled gun, which also participated in the test.

If you fight those natives, in fact, the effective range of the army artillery is 4000 meters or 6000 meters. In fact, the difference is not big, because once it exceeds 2000 meters, the indigenous artillery basically loses its threat, while our own artillery Still able to accurately hit the enemy.

As for the power, because of the cylindrical shell, although the caliber is smaller, the power is still quite good!
The larger charge and greater explosive power brought by cylindrical shells is an important advantage in rifled artillery, and it is also one of the decisive reasons for the military to change equipment.

In this way, things will be settled easily.

So in a short period of time, there is little hope of this kind of giant cannon getting on the ship, and we have to wait for the navy's new generation of warships to come out before we can see it.

When the rifled artillery developed and matured, their army directly picked peaches...

I always feel that the range of small-caliber artillery is not enough... But I forgot for a while that the artillery of the enemies of the Great Chu Empire is even worse.

When the artillerymen of the indigenous countries were still playing field artillery with an effective range of only a few hundred meters, the artillery units of the Great Chu Empire Army had already extended the effective range of the field artillery to more than 1000 meters.

What actually motivated the Navy to build all-steel warships was to reduce the weight of the hulls.

In the follow-up, the overall change of clothes will be carried out gradually, and this process will last at least ten years!

Because the Chu army likes to use grenades, the development direction of artillery is biased towards large caliber. Large caliber artillery can fire larger caliber grenades, so the charge in the shells will be more, and the lethality will be stronger.

Naturally, Luo Zhixue had no opinion on this. Anyway, the army now has a great advantage in foreign operations, and the demand for rifled artillery is not urgent. This is different from the situation in the navy.

Look, how beautiful the army thinks!

Even though Luo Zhixue's viewing platform was more than 2000 meters away from the hillside of the target area in front of him, he could still hear the huge explosion after the shell exploded.

Ever since, in May 27 of Chengshun, after more than half a year of wrangling, a naval steam engine factory directly under the Ministry of Industry but with strict business restrictions was established.

Therefore, the Army intends to continue to use the existing smoothbore guns, and at the same time purchase a small amount of rifled guns, and conduct experiments first to explore the tactics of using rifled guns.

At the same time, you can also wait for the new steam engine!
Recently, the navy has been putting pressure on the three major steam engine manufacturers, wanting them to work together to use their respective unique patented technologies to develop a shipboard steam engine as a power for warships, although the three major steam engine manufacturers have a very hard tone... shout Life and death are unwilling to open patents to the other party.

But being tough on your peers doesn't mean being tough on the Navy!

For example, the latest 23-year-style 115mm bronze field gun has a multiple diameter of only [-] times. The reason why the multiple diameter is relatively low is to control the weight of the gun. Therefore, the gun only has a weight of [-] kg, barely It can be used as a divisional field gun.

The Navy, on the other hand, prefers several calibers of front-loading rifled guns that will be tested next, including 170mm front-loaded rifled guns, 150mm front-loaded rifled guns, and 130mm front-loaded rifled guns.

The shells fired by the [-]mm cannon, that's no joke.

Ever since, the battleship Hantian under construction changed its design again, planning to cancel all the front-loading smoothbore guns on it, and then equip it with front-loading rifled guns.

That is to directly order various parts and obtain some technical authorizations from the three major steam engine manufacturers, and then hand them over to an independent and limited-purpose assembly factory for final assembly.

But... this thought only came up for a second, and then he threw it out by himself. Just now, he fell into a misunderstanding.

Not only this artillery Army dislikes it, but some other rifled artillery Army developed for the Army also dislikes it because of its low barrel life... It only said that it will purchase a small number of experimental equipment, mainly for training and adapting to rifled artillery in advance tactical applications.

Nima, these three companies can quarrel for a long time about trivial matters. I hope they can negotiate with each other and cooperate to produce a new type of steam engine. I am afraid that the [-]-ton giant ship that is still in the blueprint design has been retired...

Therefore, the date of boarding the [-]mm cannon is relatively far away, but the Guards said that they want to deploy two guns on the Zhenjiang Fortress.

However, the Chu army’s classification of artillery is mainly based on weight. Basically, the weight of division artillery is limited to about [-] kilograms. It is barely acceptable if it exceeds [-] kilograms, but if it is more, it will not work. .

The Zhenjiang Fortress, which is the strategic point guarding Yingtianfu in Gyeonggi Province, has always been garrisoned by the Guards. The Guards have always been very concerned about the Zhenjiang Fortress. When they saw this powerful artillery, they wanted to move it. Go to the fortress and use it as a fortress artillery...to block the Yangtze River and control the capital when necessary.

why?
Because steel can use lighter and thinner materials, it can achieve the performance of large-thickness wood.

Therefore, the high-level navy has completely lost patience with the three major steam engine manufacturers. After discussing with the people from the Ministry of Industry, they are ready to make a second plan.

What's more, the Chu Army has always had the tradition of having both field artillery and larger-caliber howitzers in the divisional artillery regiment.

Forget it, as long as the range is sufficient, there is no need to have an artillery with an effective range of 6000 meters or even farther.

Therefore, if this 75mm caliber divisional field gun wants to be recognized by the army, it will take a long time to go on the battlefield. At least the problem of barrel life must be solved, not to mention that it can achieve more than a thousand rounds , but no matter what, there must be [-] rounds.

If it is an infantry artillery, the weight limit is even greater, and it is basically unnecessary to move more than 65 kilograms. It is a field gun, but it is actually a medium-barrel artillery. The full range of 65mm field guns in active service weighs from 320 kg to 380 kg.

The 130mm front-loading rifled gun was developed by the Foshan Artillery Factory under the Guangdong-Guangzhou Weapons Company. This artillery factory is also the Royal Artillery Factory of the Navy, specializing in the production of various artillery for the Navy.

The test firing of the 75mm rifled field gun of Hebei Weapons Company went smoothly. The gun crew fired four shells in a row, and they shot out more than 2000 meters, setting off four clouds of smoke and dust on the hillside serving as the target area in the distance.

Because after many previous test ships and theoretical calculations, the iron hull is lighter than the wooden hull of the same size... Is it strange that the iron boat is actually lighter than the wooden boat?
But that's the truth.

Pull down the production cost and improve the technology at the same time.

Just like the current 115mm field gun and 150mm light howitzer are used together, if the divisional artillery unit is equipped with new rifled artillery on a large scale, the 75mm rifled field gun should be equipped with a larger caliber howitzer .

The navy has already begun to design a large-scale warship made of pure steel, with a full displacement of [-] tons.

In this way, the battleship can be equipped with a more powerful steam engine, and carry more naval guns and coal to obtain greater speed, longer endurance, and stronger firepower... Well, by the way, the protection ability of the battleship can also be greatly improved. Amplitude increased.

Otherwise, when fighting with the army, there is a tradition of firing countless shells at every turn. When a cannon enters the battlefield, the cannon will be scrapped before the battle is over...

According to the agreement between the three major steam engine manufacturers and the Navy, the factory is purely a design and assembly factory, and does not produce any parts itself. It only purchases parts from the three major steam engine manufacturers and other manufacturers, and the steam engines assembled from these parts, It can only be supplied to the navy and cannot flow into the civilian market.

At the same time, the three major steam engine manufacturers will license the core patents to them, but there are strict restrictions.

In order to protect their core patents, the three major steam engine manufacturers have formulated very strict patent usage terms.

But the navy naturally doesn't care, because the core purpose of this naval steam engine factory is nothing else, but to make naval warships use the latest and best new technologies and products belonging to different steam engine manufacturers or other companies, and Combine them to create the top shipboard steam engine.

(End of this chapter)