I want to be emperor

Chapter 926 Evacuate Paris
On the outskirts of Paris, the French cavalry counterattack suffered an unprecedented failure. More than half of the tens of thousands of cavalry were killed or injured, and the rest were beaten with fear and fear. This also meant that the French army had actually lost its ability to counterattack. ability, the follow-up can only rely on defensive fortifications for passive defense.

And this kind of defense has been useless in countless battles of the Chu army... The only difference is how long it can last, and how long it can last depends on the number and caliber of the artillery of the Chu army participating in the battle. and logistical supply support capabilities.

Obviously, the Chu army's artillery participating in the battle in Paris was large enough and powerful enough.

So the French army couldn't last long!
On November [-], after many days of continuous shelling operations, the French troops in Paris and the suburbs were bombed to despair... They avoided the shelling every day, but they couldn't, resulting in extremely heavy casualties.

Moreover, multiple ammunition depots and even grain warehouses of the French army were discovered by the Chu army's hot-air balloon observers, and they were eventually destroyed by artillery bombardment.

The losses caused by this series of shelling made the French army completely lose the courage to resist.

Beginning on the [-]th, the French army began to plan a retreat... If they did not retreat, all the [-] French troops would be killed by the Chu army. Not only the French army, but also Paris would be completely destroyed.

The Chu army shelled for several days. When shelling some military targets in the city, the deflected shells also destroyed a large number of ordinary buildings in Paris.

If we continue like this, Paris City will be the next Le Havre.

And Le Havre has become a real ruin!

Under many circumstances, the French army began to gradually retreat on the [-]th. Although the first few retreated at night, it was relatively smooth to retreat secretly in the moonlight. However, after daytime, the French army's withdrawal was quickly overtaken by the Chu army. Discovered by hot air balloon observers.

As a result, the Chu army quickly led the artillery attack, and at the same time, the Chu army's infantry, which had been inactive behind, also began to attack.

The Chu army couldn't just watch them escape and then regroup elsewhere to cause trouble for themselves.

So the Chu army launched a formal attack.

When the Chu army launched a formal attack, the French army on the front line faced extremely huge pressure. Facing the Chu army's skirmishing line, if they dared to go forward and form a formation, they would be bombarded.

But if you hide and don't move forward, you will be ordered by the Chu army to break through and surround you.

In short, no matter how you look at it, you will lose!
At this time, news of the early retreat of some friendly forces also spread among the French army... In order to retreat smoothly, the senior French army officials naturally could not give an order and all the remaining 7 people fled at once. Instead, they formulated a plan There are plans to retreat one after another.

But the French army that retreated first is naturally good. However, the French army that retreated later, especially the French army at the forefront, was in bad luck. They were destined to become a rear-end unit that delayed the Chu army's offensive.

Moreover, there are also factions in the French army, including direct and collateral factions. After all, these French armies are not all directly under the French King. In addition to the king's direct armies, there are also quite a few aristocratic armies.

This is fine on weekdays, but problems arise when they retreat. The senior commanders of the French army naturally want to let their direct troops go first, and let other people's troops stand up and die.

Even on the day of the retreat on the [-]th, some of the direct troops retreated secretly, and some of the French troops who were kept in the dark received orders to deploy forward... At first glance, they were abandoned cannon fodder troops.

Under such circumstances, when the news spread that friendly troops were secretly retreating, and the Chu army had launched a large-scale attack, the infantry of the regular army advanced to a range of several hundred meters... and did not continue to advance. Shoot freely at various distances and eliminate the enemy with the huge range advantage of the breech-loading rifle.

The old-fashioned line troops of the Indian Fourth Division, under the cover of cavalry, began to maneuver on a large scale to conduct flank attacks and intercept the retreating French troops.

The Chu army's all-out attack immediately defeated the French army on the front line. Some French troops that dealt with the Chu army's intensive attack direction often had an infantry regiment (line infantry regiment) with a size of several hundred people in just ten years of fighting. All casualties were lost within minutes.

The Type [-] rifles of the Chu army's regular army were like the scythe of death. In the hands of the Chu army soldiers, they accurately harvested the lives of the French soldiers!
Especially the few lucky French troops who dared to come out to resist in formation and were not shelled by the Chu army... Although they were not shelled and suffered heavy losses, they were subsequently harvested by the intensive rifle fire of the Chu army soldiers. …

Soldiers fell in droves!

They didn't even have a chance to get within a hundred meters of the Chu army... let alone risk casualties and advance to only 30 meters away from the Chu army and shoot in the face!

The French army's frontal defense line was hit by the powerful firepower of the Chu army, and there was turmoil within the French army itself. Many troops began to retreat privately in order to escape for their lives.

As a result, the senior French generals made a plan to conduct an orderly retreat in two days. After one night and one morning, it turned into a huge rout!
Even strictly speaking, in the formal attack of the Chu army on the morning of the 7th, they only killed and injured a few thousand French troops. This was nothing to the French army, which still had more than [-] troops.

But the French army still collapsed!

Even before the Chu army launched a formal attack, many French troops had already fled on their own...

A typical retreat turned into a rout.

For the Chu army, the next thing was simply to chase the remnant enemy, which was simple and easy.

After the pursuit came to an end at night on the [-]th, the Chu army continued to pursue and capture the surrounding areas the next day, and the pursuit was completely ended on the third day.

In this way, the Battle of Paris, which lasted for some time, also came to an end.

In this battle, the Chu army killed 12 regular troops and wounded 27 people, while the Indian servant troops killed 130 people and wounded 370 people. At the cost of this battle, the Chu army killed more than 5 French troops, injured countless others, and captured more than 1 French troops. Army, only more than [-] French troops were left who fled in confusion or disappeared.

Among them, more than 200 war horses and military draft horses were captured, more than 6 smoothbore cannons (with intact barrels), and more than [-] flintlock muskets.

There are a lot of various military supplies, and there are several super large warehouses for food.

Such a huge victory is rare even in the rich history of the Chu army defeating the indigenous people... After all, many indigenous countries seem to be powerful, but under the rapid attack of the Chu army, it is actually difficult to assemble such a force. Huge troops and engaged in a head-on battle with the Chu army.

As for the French, their strength is actually quite good. Their overall national strength is considered to be first-rate among European countries. At least it is much stronger than Spain, which the Chu army fought before. This is how they were able to get 8 people in the Battle of Paris.

And then failed miserably...

Behind the huge military victory is naturally a comprehensive political and economic victory.

After the Chu army captured Paris, they directly emptied Paris of gold and silver in accordance with fine tradition... The Louvre in Paris, the Palace of Versailles under construction, and the Palace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the western suburbs of Paris were all without exception. They were all confiscated by the Chu army!
Not to mention all the gold and silver jewelry and various cultural artifacts inside, including the Mona Lisa and even the furniture...

Many officers and soldiers of the Chu army were also very interested in the exotic architectural carvings on these buildings, and they violently demolished them and directly removed many of the reliefs in these palaces!
After the demolition was completed, the Chu army continued to requisition these three palaces for use as military headquarters... Judging from the Chu army's behavior, they probably had no intention of returning these three symbolic palaces to the French.

It also means that after the Chu army came to Paris, they were not ready to leave, even if the subsequent negotiations between the two parties were successful and an armistice agreement was signed.

After fighting with the Chu army in Madrid and signing an armistice agreement with the Spanish royal family, the Chu army still retains a certain number of garrison troops in Madrid and will continue to garrison them in the future!
Because according to the agreement between the two parties, the Chu army has the freedom to deploy its troops anywhere in Spain and has the right of military passage.

France will not be an exception in the future!

As for the Battle of France, it can actually be said that it is basically over. The next step is to continue to carry out military strikes to put pressure on the French royal family. In the end, if the negotiations fail, they will have to change the king.

By the way, get some loot to subsidize the national treasury.

Under such circumstances, the battle reports from France were also sent back to the native Jinling City via steam communication ships.

This battle report was still taken seriously by the military leaders because it was a rare large-scale battle, and it was a large-scale battle after the Chu army officially put many new guns into service.

This is a good platform for testing various new weapons.

After reading the detailed battle report, military leaders were very satisfied with the performance of the Type 36 150mm light howitzer and made additional orders for this model of artillery.

During the Battle of Paris, the 20-year-old 36 light howitzer battalion of the No. 150 Seventh Army was actually an experimental weapon. There was no large-scale equipment in the army. This time it was specially sent to Europe for actual combat testing.

And this kind of artillery did not live up to the expectations of the military. It performed very well and was extremely powerful while its maneuverability was barely acceptable.

In the Battle of Paris, there seemed to be only eighteen such artillery pieces, but the power of the 150mm shells was amazing, and its ability to destroy enemy fortifications was excellent.

In fact, this kind of artillery was not even used to fight the French army in the seventeenth century. Even during the First World War in the original time and space, it was classified as the main artillery.

This also allows military leaders to safely equip this new type of artillery, setting off a trend of large-caliber light artillery.

The equipment and use of the Chu Army's breech-loaded rifled artillery began with the 32-year-old 75mm field gun. In the subsequent series of uses, due to factors such as overseas transportation difficulties and artillery maneuverability, the Chu Army's field artillery began to In order to take the road of lightweighting, we have developed and equipped three types of specialized lightweight artillery: 75mm mountain cannon, 70mm infantry gun, and 120mm light howitzer.

In the early days, for field troops, the main long-range support artillery was the 75mm field gun. In large-scale battles, the 120mm howitzer was used. However, the 120mm howitzer has not been used until now because of its excessive weight. When serving in overseas areas, they are basically equipped with local military-level artillery units.

At medium and short range, the artillery accompanying the mobile operations of the troops is mainly light artillery, such as 70mm infantry cannon, 75mm mountain cannon, and 120mm light howitzer.

Among them, the 120mm light howitzer is also a military-level artillery and has been deployed overseas, but not many.

In actual combat in the past few years, the Army has found that although the 120mm light howitzer is very good, its marching performance of more than two tons is considered light for this caliber, and its power is powerful enough... But after several actual battles, especially After the joint operation with the Navy, the Army was somewhat dissatisfied with the small tube of its own 120mm artillery...

When the navy is engaged in artillery bombardment, it often brings up 150mm naval guns, which are so powerful that any defenses built by the indigenous people will be destroyed with one shot.

As for the Army's 120mm artillery, its power is still somewhat lacking. Sometimes one shot is not enough, and another shot is needed.

Many people in the Army are worried about this and want to get larger-caliber rifled artillery!
Therefore, the Army soon began to solicit bids for the development of larger-caliber artillery, that is, 150 mm, and proposed the development of a 150 mm field gun and a 150 mm light howitzer.

For simple large-caliber field artillery, there is actually no problem for the contemporary Dachu Empire military industry system. After all, the military does not require more performance, but only requires large caliber and weight control.So soon Jiangnan Weapon Company’s 150mm field gun and Huguang Weapon Company’s 150mm light howitzer won the bids respectively.

The 15mm field gun designed and developed by Jiangnan Weapons Company is actually the land version of the naval gun. Even the barrel has not been changed...it is 25 times the caliber, it is just mounted on a field gun mount.

The maximum range can reach 8000 meters, the combat weight is five tons, and the marching weight is more than seven tons. It is a veritable heavy artillery.

The weight of this kind of artillery means that it cannot be widely used in overseas areas. It cannot be widely deployed even in local areas. It can only be deployed in a few key areas and deployed in key units. So far, it has only been equipped with five battalions, a total of dozens. Just a door.

The lightweight designed 37-year-old 150mm light howitzer is much better. This thing from Huguang Weapons Company was developed based on some technical characteristics of the 75mm mountain gun. It pays great attention to lightweight, and the barrel caliber is only eight times.

The short barrel also makes the gun very light in weight. The combat weight is only 34 tons, and the marching weight is only 120 tons. What is the concept of this weight?The combat weight of the Type [-] [-]mm light howitzer owned by Jiangnan Weapons Company is [-] tons, and the marching weight is [-] tons.

In other words, the two artillery pieces are relatively similar in weight, with a difference of only a few hundred kilograms. From a classification point of view, both can be classified as two-ton artillery (marching weight).

But the power of 150mm artillery shells is much more powerful than the 120mm artillery shells.

Therefore, after the successful development of the 36-year-old 150mm light howitzer owned by Huguang Weapon Company, it won the favor of the Army, Marine Corps and Guards, and placed a lot of orders. This time, the actual performance in Europe was very good.

The top military officials probably have the intention of using this thing to replace the 34mm follow-up order of the 120 model... Mainly because the two have about the same weight, but there is a huge difference in power.

However, the armed tax police have no use for this, because they themselves are not equipped with these military-level or even strategic-level large-caliber weapons. As for artillery, they have always only used infantry cannons and divisional artillery.

That is, 70mm infantry guns, 75mm mountain guns and field guns...

After all, although armed tax police also participate in overseas operations, they are not numerous after all. Most of the time, the enemies they face are actually irregular enemies. At the same time, the combat scale of armed tax police is generally small, with a few hundred people most of the time. The scale of combat is very small, with more than a thousand soldiers.

Therefore, attaching large-caliber artillery is of little use to them, and it is a waste of manpower and material resources.

The weapons and equipment used by the armed tax police must pay more attention to lightweight and firepower density, especially firepower density, compared with the army, Guards and Marine Corps.

It was also this factor that led the armed tax police to adopt the Qiming repeating rifle from the Songjiang Firearms Factory, a subsidiary of Jiangnan Arms Company...for the powerful continuous firepower provided by the Qiming rifle.

It's just that the early Qiming rifles were far from mature. There were many problems, which troubled the armed tax police in the past few years... It wasn't until last year that the Songjiang Firearms Factory solved most of the problems, and then the armed tax police were issued The Qiming Rifle is on the right track and has gained infantry firepower that far exceeds that of the Army, Marine Corps, and Guards.

This has even attracted great attention from the Army and the Guards. This year, new research and development requirements were formally proposed to Hebei Arms Company, requiring the development of an in-tube magazine rifle based on the Type [-] rifle to obtain continuous firepower.

Coincidentally, the Navy also put forward research and development requirements to Huguang Arms Company, asking them to improve the Type [-] rifle and obtain continuous fire capabilities.

Because the in-tube magazine technology has initially matured, it is difficult to use this technology on these two rifles, but it is within the solvable range. Hebei Arms Company came up with the Type [-] in only three months. The preliminary design version of the rifle’s in-tube magazine!
The real difficulty is actually how to coordinate other weapons companies to obtain the patent authorization for Jiangnan Weapons Company’s in-tube magazine... This thing is patented, and it is the exclusive patent of Songjiang Firearms Factory, a subsidiary of Jiangnan Weapons Company, and it is one of their core patents , the Qiming rifle is supported by this patent.

It is not easy for other weapons companies to use this core patent.

Therefore, for the Chu Army, if they want to equip repeating rifles with in-tube magazines on a large scale, the patent issue is greater than the technical issue. If they want the five major weapons companies to reach an agreement on this issue, it will not be easier than directly developing a new gun. How many.

This is also the reason why the top military officials want to restart the military weapons design research institutes from earlier years... It’s just that too much time has passed, and the military research institutes have long been transferred to the five major weapons companies and annexed. It is impossible to get it out again.

Therefore, the military's idea is that the military directly launches a project, and then allocates part of the research and development funds to cooperate with enterprises for research and development. After successful research and development, the technical results and patents are shared.

The military has the power to directly authorize the use of things created in this way to other companies.

Despite this kind of authorization, the authorized company still needs to pay a portion of the patent licensing fee to the R&D company (patent sharing, the military holds part of the patent rights, and the R&D company also holds part of the patent rights. The military can waive its own patent rights, but cannot Instead of the company deciding to give up these rights and interests), the act of patent authorization itself does not require the consent of the R&D company... This is also the biggest purpose of the military's direct R&D funding.

This is the so-called 'military project research and development bidding model'.

The military is fed up with the various battles between companies and the use of patents to choke each other's necks... In the early years, in order to solve this problem, it even forced a military to spend money to build a joint steam engine, but the joint The performance of the steam engine is good, but due to patent restrictions, it can only be used for military purposes. Therefore, civilian products cannot be used to reduce R&D and production costs. The combined steam engines for the navy are relatively expensive.

The military has acquired this situation, and plans to personally invest in cooperation with companies for research and development. If it succeeds, it will place orders, but it must also have patent rights, and then authorize other companies to use it when necessary.

The reason why the company accepted it was, on the one hand, for part of the military's research and development funds, and on the other hand, and more importantly, for the orders after the project was successful...

Of course, not all projects will accept this cooperative research and development model. Sometimes companies will develop their own exclusive advantage projects and then participate in military bidding, without any cooperative research and development with the military...

It’s not that I don’t really lack the military’s R&D funds. In fact, I also lack money. But because it is an exclusive advantage project, only I have the stuff. If you, the military, want to use it, you have to buy it. There is no other choice... Such things Naturally, they are all very expensive, and the research and development costs are paid off in the later weapon prices.

The first time this cooperative research and development project model was used was on the next generation rifle!
The Qiming rifle, a lever-type repeating rifle with an internal tube magazine, allowed the military to see the superior performance of the repeating rifle, but it also allowed the military to find some flaws. For example, the Qiming rifle had an internal tube magazine. During the continuous shooting process, the consumption of bullets in the magazine in the tube will cause the center of gravity to change, and then the shooter will need to constantly readjust to the new change in the center of gravity.

Therefore, the military also wants to find a repeating rifle that avoids this defect.

At the same time, senior officials of the Military Academy are also somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that the four major military services currently use three standard rifles... These are not three rifles, but three major series of rifles... The Type [-] rifle alone has four active sub-models. , respectively standard models, short-barreled models and cavalry models with shorter barrels, and then some models are subdivided into some tropical models and winter models to adapt to use in tropical rainforest coastal areas and high-latitude cold areas.

There is no way, the Da Chu Empire Army is deployed in various areas from the equator to the North Pole, from tropical rain forests to Arctic ice sheets, deserts and other areas.

Different specific arms and regions have different climate requirements for firearms.

As for the basic technical capabilities of the Chu Empire's goals, it is difficult to make the standard version of the rifle meet all the requirements...not to mention the technical capabilities, the barrel length alone cannot be unified, and the infantry needs the standard version. Long barrels and bayonets were used for close combat, while cavalry needed shorter barrels to carry and shoot on horseback.

These are all technical requirements that are unrelated to horses and cows. Unless there are major innovations in tactics and technology, such as the creation of the later AK47, it will be impossible to unify the rifles used by infantry and cavalry.

Even the bolt-action rifles during World War II were divided into infantry and cavalry versions, and the lengths of the two were different.

This also determines that it is difficult for the contemporary Chu army's individual firearms to be unified, and there are many different subdivided models.

In such a complicated situation, each major military service still plays its own game. Except for the Guards and the Army, which use the same rifle, the other two companies actually come up with their own rifle system. This is simply difficult for logistical support. Bear.

For this reason, senior military officials, mainly the military ministers in the Military Academy, have actually been debating the issue of unifying firearms standards in recent years. However, it is impossible to change the weapons that are already in service, even if they are in service with the smallest number. The number of Qiming rifles has exceeded 100, the number of Type 30 rifles has reached more than [-] million, and the number of Type [-] rifles has reached more than [-] (in addition to the Marine Corps, some ordinary sailors, and shore guard forces also Will be equipped).

Basically, it’s to the point where no one can give up!
Therefore, the Military Academy can only place its hope on the next generation of unified rifles.

To this end, after compromises and struggles among the top brass of each service, a next-generation rifle design committee was established to determine some technical standards for the next-generation rifle and conduct R&D tenders to the five major arms companies.

The visible standards on the surface of these technical standards are repeating rifles, but don't worry about the repeating rifles with internal magazine mode.

But in fact, invisible technical standards are the most difficult.

For example, the Navy must require that new firearms have excellent anti-corrosion properties and can still be used in seawater and muddy environments... If you don't have this thing, the Marine Corps can't use it either.

Then he said that the standard barrel of the new gun cannot be too long, otherwise the navy will not be able to use it. However, the barrel is short. If you still want to maintain the ability to fight with a bayonet, then the bayonet length cannot be too short, at least compared to the current one. The bayonet is lengthened... It seems that lengthening the bayonet is very simple, but in fact it is technically difficult. It requires a very high level of steel smelting and forging and other processes to do it. Otherwise, this long bayonet will be broken and bent!

You said there is no need for a bayonet, but a military bayonet... The navy has no objection, but the army is not willing. In the army, the bayonet is not only used to fight with the bayonet, but also has other auxiliary functions, such as chopping.

The bayonets of army soldiers are often also worn by them as short knives for close hand-to-hand combat in certain situations.

Just on this issue of barrel length and bayonet length, the Army and Navy were at loggerheads. No one was convinced. In the end, they chose a compromise plan, which was that the Navy, cavalry units and armed tax police used the short-barreled version. The Army and the Guards use the standard barrel version. As for the bayonet, don't get a long bayonet... This thing looks simple, but it is actually advanced technology for the contemporary Chu Empire. If you want to get it, you have to do it first. Major innovations in basic steel and processing-related technologies will do.

As for the Army, in addition to conventional technical requirements, it also naturally adds requirements for use in extremely cold conditions. It is not easy to make firearms have reliable performance at temperatures of dozens of degrees below zero...

The armed tax police did not put forward any technical requirements for materials, but required that at least the repeating rifle should be able to fire five bullets continuously...The latest version of their Qiming rifle has eight bullets in the built-in magazine. Five The law is already a compromise standard that they have repeatedly lowered their requirements. If it is lower, they will not play with the military, but will develop eight-shot repeating rifles or even ten-shot repeating rifles on their own.

Anyway, the big boss of the tax department is always good at arming tax police.

The Guards did not make a separate request, but said that as long as the requirements put forward by the army, navy and armed tax police can be realized, the Guards will accept them... In other words, the Guards require all the above conditions. You can achieve it, otherwise don’t!

Unrequired requirements are often the highest requirements!

Therefore, the new gun research and development committee, from the time it put forward the technical requirements for the new gun, destined this project to be a very technically difficult project... Among other things, it just wanted to make the gun anti-corrosion and anti-mud at the same time. , sand, severe cold... The technological requirements for smelting and subsequent processing are extremely difficult. To put it bluntly, this will be a major challenge to the basic industrial technology capabilities of the Dachu Empire!
In addition, it is not easy to load five-way bullets. The 11mm bullets used now are relatively large. It is not a big problem to use the in-tube magazine to load five-way bullets, but if you want to use a magazine design that is common in later generations, then The problem is here, I can’t fit it in...

So this extends to another problem, that is, if you want to develop this new type of rifle, you must first develop a bullet with a smaller caliber.

The smaller the caliber of the bullet, the smaller the propellant. With the current black powder propellant, the kinetic energy provided is insufficient... Why didn't we just build a small-caliber rifle back then, but instead build an 11mm rifle? , because the kinetic energy provided by black powder is limited, and the bullet is not powerful enough if the caliber is too small.

Then this means that in order to develop new guns, we must first develop propellants with better kinetic energy...

So even though the various requirements put forward by the New Rifle Committee of the Military Academy seem very simple, they are nothing more than a bolt-action repeating rifle!

But in fact, there are a lot of pre-technical conditions here, and there are many technical problems that need to be solved.

However, despite many difficulties, the New Rifle Committee was established and began bidding for the development of new guns. However, this is still in the early stage of technology development and bidding, and it is estimated that it will take many years to actually develop it.

(End of this chapter)