I want to be emperor

Chapter 958 The sound of gunfire on the Dnieper River

The meaning of the treaty signed between the Chu Empire and the Ottoman Empire is... well, that's actually it, because it is a treaty based on the strong military strength of the Chu Empire. Even if there is no such treaty, as long as the Chu people want to, they can do it at any time. Can be repeated again.

Even the Chu people did not invest much military power in this effort. The main force of the battle was the Mediterranean Fleet under the European Command, a total of more than ten warships, and a ground force of ten thousand people. This was compared to the huge military power of the Chu Empire. Words mean nothing.

For the Chu Empire, this military operation was not even a war, at most it was a regional armed conflict.

After all, the Chu Empire has never officially declared war on the Ottoman Empire from beginning to end... However, in fact, the Chu Empire has not officially declared war on the Ottoman Empire for many years.

The official declaration of war has to go back to the time when the Jungle people were attacked.

The Chu people's declaration of war is also different from the declaration of war that later generations conventionally believed was the submission of credentials. The Chu people's declaration of war refers to the internal issuance of a corresponding edict to declare war!
To put it simply, the declaration of war by the people of Chu was to issue imperial edicts through court newspapers and other channels, telling the people who had committed the most evil crimes and offended us, and who we wanted to fight for various reasons such as the safety of the people and morality.

It doesn't mean handing over a declaration of war to the enemy... and then starting a fight.

Although people from the Chu State often submit various ultimatums and other documents to the indigenous countries, this kind of thing is usually done by the governor or military general of a certain overseas region when dealing with regional vassal affairs. Most of the time, Jinling Don't know at all...

If this kind of ultimatum, and the situation of sending troops to fight after the ultimatum, can also be regarded as a declaration of war... Then the Chu Empire has to do it more than ten times a year in all parts of the world when it is small, and it may be necessary in many years. Dozens of times…

too exaggerated.

Therefore, according to the internal definition of the Dachu Empire, this kind of conflict could only be regarded as a regional military conflict. A formal declaration of war between countries would require Emperor Luo Zhixue to formally issue an imperial edict and publicize it widely.

In the regional armed conflict between the Chu Empire and the Ottoman Empire, the Chu people got what they wanted, the right to pass through the Black Sea and the land in the northern and northeastern parts of the Black Sea.

In addition, the fight went relatively smoothly, reaching Constantinople and blowing up many of the Ottoman palaces. Therefore, they took advantage of the negotiations and gained many unplanned benefits.

For example, limited opening of markets and the cession of the Suez Corridor in Egypt, the cession of parts of the West Asian Peninsula and the Basra area.

What needs to be explained here is that in fact, many of these so-called ceded parts of the West Asian Peninsula are not actually controlled by the Ottomans... At present, in the West Asian Peninsula, the Ottomans actually only control the Mediterranean coast, the Red Sea coast, and Persia north of Qatar. The Gulf coast, the Basra area, and the extensive inland areas on the peninsula are actually desert no-man's land, and the Ottomans did not regard these places as their own territory.

Further north, it is no longer the West Asian Peninsula, but the Mesopotamia.

The part of the West Asian Peninsula ceded by the Ottomans did not include the Mediterranean coast. It was limited to the Red Sea coast and the Persian Gulf coast south of the Sinai Peninsula, plus the Basra area that was not included in the West Asian Peninsula.

As for the large areas along the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf coast south of Qatar, part of it is controlled by local indigenous tribes, and part of it is controlled by the Chu people. However, overall the local indigenous strength is very weak. For the Chu people, There is no difference between it and not.

In addition to the coastal areas, this peninsula also has a large inland desert area. However, in the contemporary inland desert area of ​​the peninsula, there is no human survival. There are only a handful of desert nomads.

In fact, not only this inland desert, but even the entire peninsula combined, except for the Mediterranean coast, which has a relatively large population, the other coastal areas have very few people. According to the treaty between the two parties, the peninsula belongs to the Chu Empire. , the local indigenous population is estimated to be only a few hundred thousand... Most of the people who originally belonged to the Ottoman area will be evacuated by the Ottomans on their own.

Therefore, most of the area that the Chu people will get in the future is actually desert, with few people at all.But the reason why the Chu Empire still wants to get this area is mainly to ensure the security of the coastal areas of West Asia, especially the security of the Red Sea coast and the future Suez Railway and even the canal.

That’s why these conditions are added to negotiations, and it’s also very interesting to determine boundaries during negotiations.

The Chu people looked at the map and drew a straight line between the southernmost tip of the Sinai Peninsula and Basra. They said that from now on, the north of this line will still belong to you, the Ottomans, and the south will belong to our Great Chu Empire. Do you have any objections?
Osman naturally did not dare to have any objections. Even after carefully considering this straight line, he secretly rejoiced and felt that he had taken advantage because there were several towns near the straight line. According to the previous general negotiation conditions, they all belonged to Chu. As a result, the Chu people themselves drew a straight line and assigned these towns to the Ottomans.

Naturally, the good guy who took advantage of this readily agreed.

The Chu people actually don't care much about these things... There are more and less places, deserts or oases. These things are of little significance to the Chu people. The Chu people only need to control the coastal areas of the West Asian Peninsula. , Just ensure the safety of the route, I don’t care much about other things, and I have no interest in primitive small towns in the desert.

If you really want it, you can just have another war next time. Even after such a war, if you are afraid of the Ottomans and ask for some place from the Ottomans next time, they will probably give it to you without starting a war.

Therefore, when it comes to territory, the Chu people are very calm and even generous during the negotiation process. They will not argue with these indigenous people. For example, the Ottomans said that the Mediterranean coast is very important to them, especially since there are Their holy city or something like that says they are unwilling to cede this place...

The Chu people did not make things difficult for them, and had no interest in any holy city. They directly moved the dividing line southward by a large area, but backhandedly allowed them to open up the market to a limited extent... and took away several Mediterranean Seas. islands with better conditions and expanded the Suez Corridor area.

In short, it does not harm the core interests that the Chu people want, such as the right of passage to the Black Sea, the Suez Corridor, the northern coast of the Black Sea, and the northeastern coast of the Black Sea. Limited market opening. Other conditions are held by the Chu people with a very casual attitude. It doesn't matter.

After the agreement was officially signed, several large warships in the Chu people's fleet outside Constantinople finally evacuated, but the two offshore patrol ships and three shallow water gunboats continued to stay as a deterrent force. To urge the Ottomans to withdraw troops from both sides of the strait and destroy the forts on both sides of the strait.

A cruiser, two frigates and several other river gunboats began to return to Canakkale for supplies.

Although the combat time of each warship in the Mediterranean Fleet is not long as a whole, they perform relatively frequent combat missions and fire a large number of naval guns.

This has resulted in the ammunition reserves of some warships that perform a lot of bombardment missions reaching a critical point, especially the three ocean-going warships with more than [-] tons.

The 150mm and 120mm naval guns they are equipped with are the main medium-caliber naval guns used in shelling. Whether they are shelling forts or conducting long-distance bombardments, they rely on them, so their ammunition consumption is relatively large.

With the battle over, they needed to return to Canakkale for supplies of coal, fresh water, food and, more importantly, ammunition.

In the future, they will also serve as the main deterrent force, urging the Ottomans to implement various conditions in the treaty, especially the release of the strait.

Without powerful warships to act as a deterrent, who knows if there will be any changes within the Ottomans that will cause them to regret it.

After many Mediterranean Fleet warships returned to Canakkale, they found that this place had undergone some changes. The original primitive and backward small port had several temporary docks, and many transport ships were moored at these docks. , using the lifting equipment provided by the transport ship to unload the cargo.

On the pier, there was a group of naval engineers and naval engineers who were installing steam lifting equipment on the shore.

The geographical location of Canakkale is very critical, and the hydrological conditions are also suitable for use as a military port. Therefore, the Chu people plan to build a military base here to control the Black Sea Strait.

It is also used as a logistics support base for marching into the Black Sea.

As the No. 18 Army Division in Eastern Europe has reached the Black Sea coast, the Mediterranean Fleet also needs to enter the Black Sea as soon as possible to provide maritime power support and logistical supply support for the continued expansion in Eastern Europe.

Therefore, after the fleet was replenished and reinforced by some warships from the European fleet, the Mediterranean fleet once again headed north.

This time the Mediterranean Fleet gathered even more warships, including one cruiser and three frigates, as well as six offshore patrol ships and more than a dozen shallow-water gunboats.

Many of the offshore patrol ships and shallow-water gunboats are expected to be directly stationed there for a long time after entering the Black Sea to support the battle of the Army's No. 18 Division.

On June 42, Chengshun 20, a total of more than [-] warships from the Mediterranean Fleet of the Da Chu Empire officially entered the Black Sea through the Black Sea Strait. They also entered the Black Sea with more than ten transport ships.

Many of these transport ships are large transport ships with their own hoisting equipment, which are designed to provide part of the logistics supplies to the Army's No. 18 Division.

Now that the Army's No. 18 Division has reached the northern shore of the Black Sea, it has become very difficult to obtain various supplies from Central Asia.

Today's Army No. 18 Division's logistics supply line needs to be transported by railway from Mesopotamia in Central Asia to Xihai City, then sailed on the Caspian Sea by ship, then enter the Volga River to reach Tsaritsyn, and then be transported by land to Don. River, and then distribute it... Just from Tsaritsyn to the forefront of the Army's No. 18 Division, which is the mouth of the lower reaches of the Dnieper River, there is a straight line distance of thousands of kilometers!
Such a long supply distance is a huge challenge even for the great industrial power of the Chu Empire.

Therefore, in order to meet the combat supply needs of the Army's No. 18 Division, in addition to using various methods to transport supplies from Central Asia, supplies will also be transported from Europe through the Mediterranean, Aegean Sea, Black Sea Straits, and the Black Sea shipping route Make supplies.

Although various supplies in Europe, especially ammunition supplies, are transported thousands of miles from the mainland, the cost of sea transportation is much lower than the cost of rail transportation.

When the Dachu Empire currently transports military supplies to the garrison troops in Europe, because the port in Cadiz in Europe has been completed and can dock large ships, it generally uses large-scale ocean-going transportation of several thousand tons or even tens of thousands of tons. Ships, at least one ship can carry several thousand tons of cargo.

Just organize a fleet to transport tens of thousands of tons of goods.

As for railway transportation, with the current railway system and train technology of the Chu Empire, one freight train cannot transport hundreds of tons... What is more important is the Central Asian railway network or the single-line railway. Overall, the transportation capacity of the Central Asian railway It's still relatively limited.

The most important thing is that the railway currently only reaches Xihai City... After arriving at Xihai City, various transshipments must be carried out, and the Chu Empire currently has no transport ships in the Caspian Sea, not even many steam transport ships of several hundred tons.

Even so, after these supplies were transported by ship to Tsaritsyn, there was no way to continue the large-scale river transportation, because this was already the end of the river transportation.

Next, we can only reach the Don River Basin through land transportation... And in the Don River, the Chu Empire has just arrived, and there are no transport ships available. It can only requisition some small sail transport ships of contemporary indigenous people, and it also costs a huge price. , several inland river steam gunboats with a displacement of no more than ten tons were obtained from Tsaritsyn through land transportation, disassembly and assembly.So the current situation is that Tsaritsyn has a lot of logistics supplies, but they cannot be transported to the front line thousands of kilometers away...

In this way, the logistical supplies provided by the European region are very important to the No. 18 Division. The supplies in the European region, especially ammunition and medical supplies, can be transported by ship all the way to the westernmost area currently controlled by the Chu army. The mouth of the Dnieper River.

Although the local area lacks modern port settings, most of the naval transport ships deployed by the Chu Army overseas have their own lifting equipment. At the same time, a major task of the naval engineers is to set up emergency ports in overseas areas, so they can barely load and unload various items locally. Military supplies and even heavy cargo such as artillery.

These materials can then supply the Chu army stationed on the spot, and can also go north along the Dnieper River to provide logistical supplies for the subsequent Chu army's northward march.

The Dnieper River is also a river with very good shipping conditions. Before the Chu army formulated the Eastern European grain development plan, it had already determined that the future major military and even preliminary development in western Eastern Europe would be carried out along this river.

This is also the reason why the Mediterranean Fleet dispatched six offshore patrol ships and more than a dozen shallow-water gunboats, because if the Chu army continues to move north along the Don River and the Dnieper River, it will need enough inland river gunboats to provide fire support. and maintaining river supply lines.

It can also be seen from this that the Great Chu Empire's Eastern European grain development plan, the overall march and even the subsequent immigration pace will be heavily dependent on the three major rivers, namely the Volga River, the Don River, and the Dnieper River.

This is also the consistent tradition of the Chu Empire's military operations and overseas expansion, which is to operate along the coastline and rivers... This can conveniently provide limited naval gunfire support, and facilitate maritime transportation and inland river transportation.

If operations were separated from the coastline and rivers, even a powerful empire like the Chu Empire would encounter many troubles.

No matter how powerful the breech-loaded rifled gun is, it still needs shells and bullets... You can eat food and other things from the enemy, but ammunition cannot be supplied locally. It can only be transported from the mainland. Sea and river transportation are a problem. Not much, but once there is no convenient shipping, you can only rely on land transportation such as horse-drawn carriages... then the difficulty will suddenly increase countless times.

According to the experience of the Chu people, when relying on horse-drawn carriages for transportation and being more than 150 kilometers away from the material transfer hub, it would be difficult for the Chu army to rely on the field troops' own logistics system to maintain operations, and they would need to rely on specialized transportation and supply troops in the rear. , such as the transportation group organized by the Logistics Department, but this consumes a lot of money... Transporting civilians and mules and horses requires a large amount of food.

When the distance reaches hundreds of kilometers, transportation is not only expensive, but more importantly, it requires a large number of young and strong laborers and mules and horses. The difficulty continues to increase as the distance further increases.

At present, the reason why the Chu Army is able to maintain the operations of the Army's No. 18 Division is not to rely on land transportation, but to rely on local indigenous boats to transport ammunition. The materials are transported from the Don River by boat. After arriving at the Black Sea, they are transported along the Continue to provide supplies to the Chu army along the coastline... However, it is also very difficult to maintain this way. After all, the transportation volume of the indigenous sailing and small wooden boats is so small that the No. 18th Army Division has a large number of powerful breech-loaded rifled weapons, but it is difficult to fight. It's because they were cowardly... When we were fighting in Tsaritsyn and other places before, the artillerymen basically had no scruples about firing and they could fire at will...

But after fighting in the Don River Basin and the further Dnieper River Basin, the artillerymen of the No. 18 Division had to repeatedly confirm and make careful calculations before firing, just to try to complete the strike mission with the least amount of artillery shells...

This also caused the mortars that seemed to be very sharp before to gradually disappear on the battlefield. This thing fired too fast and consumed too much ammunition. After the soldiers of the No. 18 Division finished shooting the mortar shells they carried, they simply could not There is not much mortar replenishment... Nowadays, most of the [-]mm mortars that were so majestic before have become decorations and have no use.

At the same time, because the transportation facilities in Eastern Europe are so poor, the 75mm field guns in the Chu army cannot maneuver quickly. Even the lighter 75mm mountain guns are difficult to maneuver.

Under such circumstances, the Type 34 70mm infantry gun has become the most dazzling star on the battlefield. It can shoot directly with very high accuracy and can effectively save ammunition.

It is also very light and can accompany infantry maneuvers.

The combination of these two characteristics made the [-]mm infantry cannon the protagonist on the battlefield. When the relevant news was reported to the country, the domestic military leaders had to re-examine the [-]mm infantry cannon...

Originally, the military already attached great importance to the [-]mm infantry cannon, otherwise it would not have equipped each infantry regiment with four.

However, in previous actual battles, the 75mm infantry artillery still showed some shortcomings, such as insufficient firepower density and insufficient range, so that the Chu army continued to strengthen the construction of [-]mm artillery in the division artillery regiment.

The planned 24 guns of various types in the division artillery regiment were increased to 36 guns.

At present, the field artillery unit in the Chu Army adopts a small company and small battalion system, with four artillery pieces in one company, three companies forming one battalion, and one battalion consisting of twelve field artillery pieces or mountain artillery pieces.

A division artillery regiment has three battalions. Depending on the mission requirements, they are assigned to field artillery battalions or mountain artillery battalions. For example, mountain troops are generally assigned to one field artillery battalion and two mountain artillery battalions, while plain terrain troops are assigned to two. There are mostly two field artillery battalions and one mountain artillery battalion. There are also troops garrisoned in complex terrain overseas, which are simply assigned three mountain artillery battalions.

But whether it is mountain artillery or field artillery, they all belong to the long-range firepower of the division. Their long-range deterrence is not comparable to that of infantry artillery such as the 2000mm infantry cannon, which has an effective range of only about [-] meters.

Therefore, the top brass of the Chu Army have always attached great importance to the development of divisional artillery, and infantry artillery is still used. However, they cannot say that they attach too much importance to it, otherwise they would not have specially acquired a mortar to strengthen it in the future. Company platoon infantry firepower.

However, in this Eastern European campaign, the military found that as the supply lines were further lengthened and continued to penetrate into the inland areas, the maneuverability of the two divisional artillery firepower, [-]mm field artillery and mountain artillery, continued to be difficult. Performance continues to decrease.

As for the mortar, when it is used to fight the indigenous people, it is an artifact when the supply is smooth, and it is garbage when the supply is not smooth.

Normally I don’t think there is anything wrong with this thing. After all, the rate of fire is very fast. It can fire more than a dozen shells in less than 1 minute. It can be called a magical weapon for attacking the indigenous people.

But when supplies are not flowing smoothly and there are not enough mortar shells, all these problems are exposed... For example, the [-]mm range is too close and can only hit targets within a kilometer, but it can only hit targets a kilometer away. Caught blind.

The bigger problem is that the accuracy is too bad... To put it bluntly, this thing is just a front-loading smoothbore cannon, but the shell structure is special. Compared with the [-]mm infantry gun, its accuracy is just the worst among the worst. .

This also leads to the fact that when attacking a target, a [-]mm mortar often requires several rounds to destroy the target.

However, if you switch to a [-]mm infantry gun, you can kill the target with one shot... and it can also hit various fortification targets.

The consumption of this shell is several times different. In the process of transporting supplies, the volume and weight of the [-]mm mortar shells and the [-]mm infantry gun shells are actually similar. There is no essential difference. .

At this time, as a battlefield commander, when logistics and transportation are difficult and transportation capacity is extremely tight, should you ask the logistics department to transport you [-]mm mortar shells or transport [-]mm infantry gun shells?
Or maybe it's the shells from the 75mm divisional artillery?

The senior generals of the Chu Army in Eastern Europe realistically chose to transport a large number of [-]mm infantry cannon shells to the front line...

This led to a very special scene on the battlefield in Eastern Europe: the 34-year-old [-]mm infantry gun assumed most of the artillery support tasks on the battlefield.

Division artillery and mortars had to be moved back. As for larger-caliber military artillery, such as 120mm field cannons, 150mm howitzers and even [-]mm light howitzers... the Chu army simply didn't bring them to the front line. , the only military heavy artillery battalion has just arrived in Tsaritsyn, and there are no plans to continue to deploy forward...

Moving forward, there is no way to transport rivers, and there are no roads for land transportation. Moreover, now that we have entered the muddy period in Eastern Europe in the summer, the Chu army will go crazy and pull these heavy artillery to the front...

Even after the Mediterranean Fleet entered the Black Sea and transported a large amount of urgently needed ammunition supplies to the No. 18 Division, it still failed to change the artillery usage on the battlefield in Eastern Europe.

After these situations were reported to the local Jinling side, the top army generals wholeheartedly respected the opinions of the front-line generals and prepared to transport another batch of [-]mm infantry cannons to Eastern Europe.

At the same time, a tender plan for the improved research and development of infantry guns was issued.

The Army proposed that they needed battalion-level infantry support artillery that was lighter, more accurate, farther, more powerful, and cheaper.

At the same time, the Army feels that mortars have great limitations. For this reason, there must be an alternative weapon under certain circumstances, especially when they cannot be relied upon in areas with difficulty in overseas supply.

Although the [-]mm infantry platoon is good, it is not without corresponding shortcomings, so the Army also needs a new infantry weapon.

The Army once again took aim at the machine gun that it had previously despised... It felt that although this thing consumed a lot of ammunition, the bullets were not as expensive as the shells consumed by mortars, and the logistics and transportation could barely support it.

Of course, the Army still dislikes that the hand-cranked machine guns currently used by the Navy are too heavy and do not meet the needs of the Army.

The Army plans to use this thing directly for infantry companies... The total weight of the 200mm infantry gun is only more than 200 kilograms. Once you break out the machine gun, put on a gun frame and shield, and add wheels, it will weigh more than [-] kilograms... ...With this skill, wouldn’t it be better for our army to simply equip a few more infantry cannons?
Moreover, today's hand-cranked machine guns keep malfunctioning and jamming.

For many reasons, army generals dislike the current hand-cranked machine guns... and have never equipped them on a large scale.

However, machine guns still have merit, so the Army conducted a research and development tender for five major weapons companies. It needs a lightweight model that can be carried directly by infantry and provide intensive fire support within a kilometer at any time. It has excellent reliability and cannot be too expensive. , a bullet rapid-fire weapon that is not too expensive, including the cost of production and subsequent use...

That is, a machine gun that is lighter, cheaper, and more reliable... By the way, the Army also requires that the rate of fire of the machine gun be limited to no more than [-] rounds per minute. It also requires that the machine gun cannot be fired continuously without pulling the trigger. It needs to be repeated. Only when you pull the trigger can you shoot continuously at intervals.

The army generals were worried that the bullets would run out all at once after the soldiers pulled the trigger and continued shooting... They were even more worried that the rate of fire would be too fast and the bullets would be consumed too quickly and the army could not afford to supply them.

That’s why there are these two restrictive conditions: the rate of fire must not exceed [-] rounds per minute, and the continuous firing of bullets must not exceed [-] rounds per pull of the trigger...

In this regard, multiple specialized manufacturers of the five major weapon kilometers have conducted targeted research and development in an attempt to obtain this huge future order from the Army.

This is planned to be a company-platoon-level weapon. Once the equipment is determined, the amount of purchased equipment will be very huge. With such a big cake, the five major weapons companies will not give up easily!
(End of this chapter)