I want to be emperor

Chapter 962 Shaanxi Type [-] Machine Gun Test Firing

In October of the 42nd year of Chengshun, it was early winter and the weather was slightly cold.

In the Chang'an Arsenal test field on the outskirts of Chang'an City, many people wearing professional attire or traditional Hanfu gathered together, and in front of them were three machine guns, which were called Shaanxi-type machine guns within the Chang'an Arsenal.

The structural design of the entire Shaanxi-type machine gun is basically similar to the prototype gun established by Mark Qin before. The core structure has not changed at all, but there have been many changes in details.

The reason why there are detailed changes is because the engineers at Chang'an Arsenal need to consider actual combat performance.

For example, the water supply sleeve has been modified in details, and the water filling port and steam discharge port have been improved to facilitate the addition of cooling water at any time during combat. When the steam is discharged, it will not affect the shooter's sight, and it is also necessary to avoid being burned by the steam.

The loading buffer structure has been changed to allow shooters to more conveniently adjust the combat rate of fire, and a variety of shooting modes are set up, including five-round burst fire, ten-round long burst fire, and finally a continuous shooting mode, which is a button-down shooting mode. After pulling the trigger, all the bullets will be fired without letting go.

At the same time, engineers at the Chang'an Arsenal also need to consider production process issues. They need to manufacture this machine gun under existing technical conditions and be able to achieve mass production, and then they need to control production costs... This needs to be done, There are still many technical problems that need to be solved.

Just how to get that barrel out has troubled Changan engineers for a long time... The requirements for this kind of barrel are very high, because it needs to reach a rate of fire of hundreds of rounds per minute, and the moment the high-speed bullet comes out of the chamber, The friction brought by it is very strong, which will inevitably lead to the wear of the rifling in the barrel. At the same time, the high temperature and high pressure in the bore pressure also poses high challenges to the materials.

And as a machine gun, you can’t just say that the barrel will be scrapped after firing a few hundred rounds. It must be able to last for several years and accumulate tens of thousands of rounds, right?

And when the battle continues, you can't just fire a few hundred rounds of ammunition and then stop shooting, right?At least it needs to be able to fire thousands of bullets continuously!
This kind of high-frequency shooting has very high requirements for the barrel... As a designer, Mark Qin did not consider these issues at the beginning. He considered more about mechanical shooting, achieving automatic shooting and a more reliable structure. Reasonable. As for how to make things and meet the requirements for long-term use...that is a matter in the field of materials and processing.

In order to solve the problem of the barrel, Chang'an Arsenal found the Shaanxi-Gansu Special Metallurgical Company and used one of their new alloy steel materials to solve the problem of the barrel material.

Then in order to improve the wear resistance of the rifling in the barrel and ensure a higher barrel life, they found Hantian Machinery Company and obtained a special processing technology from their company through cooperation, which can be used for better It is used for the processing of high-precision gun barrel rifling. The processed rifling is more accurate and has less damage to the material properties of the barrel... However, the patent authorization of this special process can only be used in the production of weapons. It shall not be used in the civilian market, nor shall it provide corresponding parts and components to external parties.

Because this special high-precision processing technology is one of the secret technologies of Hantian Machinery Company, it is mainly used in the production of high-precision machine tools. That is to say, Changan Arsenal is a national defense enterprise, otherwise there is no hope of obtaining their technology. Authorization.

In order to produce the Shaanxi-type machine gun, Chang'an Arsenal paid a considerable price. It not only purchased Mark Qin's patents, but also obtained many patent authorizations from some government-run enterprises affiliated to the Ministry of Industry, and purchased a batch of new ones. equipment, and in order to achieve this, we also requested the full assistance of the parent company, the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company.

Finally, they came up with this machine gun!
Looking at the three heavy machine guns in front of him, Chen Youzhong felt a lot of emotion... For this kind of machine gun, they had already spent almost 20 yuan in research and development funds in the first two months.

This is not the 21 US dollars in the 20st century of the original time and space, but the 20 Chu Yuan in the [-]th century of this time and space.

Chu Yuan is very valuable these days. One Chu Yuan can be exchanged for 1 grams of gold. In the original time and space in the mid-to-late 2.09th century, one pound was about [-] grams of gold. Converted according to the gold content, that is [-] pound = [-] Chu Yuan, rounding can be simply regarded as one pound equal to two Chu Yuan.

The Jinling-class battleship with a standard displacement of 230 tons and a full load displacement of [-] tons cost only [-] million Chu yuan. .

The Taiyuan-class battleship is smaller in tonnage and uses more mature technologies. It has a standard displacement of more than 6000 tons, a full load of more than 7000 tons, and a cost of 140 million Chu Yuan.

The latest South Africa-class battleship, with a standard displacement of more than 7000 tons and a full load of about 150 tons, only costs [-] million Chu Yuan.

Battleships were the top battleships in the Chu Empire, extremely expensive super toys...the navy was reluctant to build more of them.

By comparing it with the price of battleships, you can know how much 20 Chu Yuan is worth.

(As to how much the gold standard currency was worth in the mid-to-late [-]th century in Chu Yuan or the original time and space, this is a difficult question to discuss, because there will be huge differences when comparing with different reference objects, such as food prices, salary income, Comparisons of industrial products are all different, and even vary greatly from region to region, so it is difficult to form a unified standard.)
With the support of the Shaanxi-Gansu Weapons Company, the Chang'an Arsenal developed the Shaanxi-[-] machine gun and reached the point where it could be tested with live ammunition.

Chen Youzhong is very confident about this test launch.

Because before today's public test, the machine gun project team has conducted many live-fire tests. Today's three Shaanxi-type machine guns are not the first batch... In fact, before these three machine guns, there were already two or three Ten original machine guns of varying detail were produced for various tests.

After testing and improving, we finally had these three machine guns.

The previous series of test results were very good, especially the final test before finalization a few days ago. All performance data reached the design indicators.

In this way, Chen Youzhong had the confidence and confidence to invite representatives from the head office, army, navy, Guards, and armed tax police to watch the test firing.

Today is more of a live ammunition test than a machine gun testing exhibition... Chen Youzhong hopes to impress representatives of various military services through a perfect live ammunition test, and then obtain a huge machine gun order.

For example, the Army initiated the bidding for new machine guns in advance. They have extremely strong demand for new machine guns, not only in terms of performance, but also in quantity.

According to the Army's plan, the machine gun is used as a battalion and company-level weapon. Its tactical status is direct fire coverage within hundreds of meters to kilometers... and it directly replaces the tactical role of mortars and even [-]mm infantry guns within kilometers. , because no matter how expensive the bullets of a heavy machine gun are, it is not as expensive as artillery shells.

The 11mm bullets in the contemporary Dachu Empire cost about 75 Chu yuan per thousand rounds. The shells used by a [-]mm infantry cannon and the grenades used by [-]mm mountain cannons are about the same price. The military purchases [-]mm high-explosive grenades. The price is about [-] yuan... If it is a grenade with steel balls inside, it is more expensive and costs [-] yuan.

Although the caliber of the [-]mm mortar is small, the shell has a larger charge, the explosive power is also very powerful, and the shell structure is more complex, so the price is similar to the grenade of the [-]mm infantry gun.

To put it simply, one shot of these field artillery is equivalent to losing a month's salary of a skilled worker. Why is it said that one shot of a cannon is worth ten thousand taels of gold? This is what it refers to.

Under such circumstances, the military naturally saves money and tries to save as much artillery expenditure as possible.

As for the machine gun, it saves a lot of money. Don't think that the machine gun fires quickly and consumes a lot of bullets. In fact, the consumption of bullets in an ordinary battle is also limited.

After all, it is impossible for a machine gun to hold the trigger all the time. As long as you are not trying to use bullets to suppress large-scale and long-term suppression or engage in blind shooting, then the consumption of bullets is also limited... Otherwise, how can the machine gun bullets carried by the infantry be used? .

From World War II to modern times, a light machine gun group generally carried four to five hundred rounds of bullets. The German MG42 general machine gun group in World War II had more, but only more than 800 rounds.

If you really follow the theoretical rate of fire of a machine gun, the rate of fire of the World War II light machine gun was 421000 to 1 rounds, and the MG[-] had more than [-] rounds, which was less than [-] minute.

But the theoretical rate of fire is the theoretical rate of fire... Don't really think that on the battlefield, a machine gun can really shoot out hundreds of rounds of bullets every minute... It's impossible.

In actual combat guns, they mainly shoot short bursts of three to five rounds. In special circumstances, such as when dense enemies appear, long bursts of ten to twenty rounds will be fired. Hundreds of rounds of bullets are not very intense in combat situations. Time is enough...

There's nothing we can do if it's not enough. Soldiers have limited physical abilities and can only carry this amount of ammunition, and they can't carry much more.

----

Machine guns are cheap. For the Chu army, it depends on how you look at it... When you position it as individual firepower and directly compare it with a rifle, it is an extremely expensive and useless thing. You have to scream. Can't afford it!

But if you compare it with artillery if it is positioned as infantry support firepower, you will find that this thing is much cheaper than artillery, and the direct-aiming strike effect at a distance of one thousand meters is even better than artillery!
After all, the rate of fire of artillery is limited. Two or three rounds per minute are enough. It is actually quite difficult to suppress quickly and sustainably... Mortars with a fast rate of fire can fire very fast, but they can fire more than ten in one go. What about after firing the shell?

There is no more...all the artillery shells carried are used up.

The machine gun is much better. It carries hundreds of rounds of ammunition and can continue fighting for a long time with short bursts. It is also cheap...

This is also the Army's attitude towards machine guns... This thing is not used to replace rifles, but to replace part of the role of artillery and to reduce the overall cost.

To put it bluntly, it is a low-cost alternative for some tasks of frontline artillery.

The main purpose is to save money...the motivation is exactly the same as the Navy's previous hand-cranked machine gun, which was to replace the 35mm artillery and thereby reduce costs.

Of course, this is an ideal low-cost combat plan conceived by a group of generals. In actual combat, will the soldiers strictly follow the generals' ideas and face a group of enemies, putting aside expensive mortars and infantry guns, and only Use cheap heavy machine guns to meet the enemy...or fire machine guns and artillery together, which doubles the cost of combat...

Well, that's something worth considering.According to the idea of ​​a low-cost alternative to artillery conceived by the military...then the number of machine gun equipment will be very large.

The ground combat forces of the Army, Marine Corps, Guards, and armed tax police alone are estimated to require several thousand.

Then there is the protection of important areas, and some of the army's inland river vessels and warships will also be equipped with this thing. This adds up to a very large number.

Finally, there are the Guards, the Navy and the armed tax police, especially the Navy. In the past, they even had things as heavy and difficult to use as hand-cranked machine guns, and equipped many ships. Now they have better-used Shaanxi weapons. Chen Youzhong could imagine a Type [-] machine gun. By then, every warship would be more or less equipped with such a machine gun... and the number of warships in the Navy was huge.

The total number of frigates of various types currently in service has reached more than 300.

There are hundreds of cruisers of various types.

There are more than thirty battleships.

Adding up the above, there are nearly 400 ocean-going combat ships, more than 100 ships with certain ocean-going navigation capabilities, and a dozen offshore patrol ships and offshore battleships ranging from hundreds to more than a thousand tons.

This adds up to the navy's so-called six hundred battleship plan... The Chu Empire's naval plan for the past two or three decades has always been based on maintaining six hundred battleships as a benchmark and continuously updating them.

In addition to these warships on the ocean, the Da Chu Empire Navy also has a very large river fleet...On the Indian side alone, the navy has more than 100 river warships of various types, and there are dozens in Africa.

There are also more than 100 ships in Europe and the Black Sea and Eastern Europe...

On the American side, there are more than 100 ships in North and South America combined.

There are also many river warships in various regions of the mainland.

There are probably more than 500 inland river warships in active service...

Adding up all types of combat ships in oceans, offshore, and inland rivers, the Da Chu Empire Navy has more than 1000 ships!
This is just a combat ship. The navy also has a lot of auxiliary warships, such as coal supply ships, comprehensive supply ships, fast supply ships, landing ships, fast communication ships, hydrographic survey ships, hospital ships, construction ships and other messy auxiliary warships. A whole lot.

The size of the Dachu Empire's navy is actually very large... Of course, it's just in number, but the ships are generally small, with the largest being only about 1000 tons. The bulk of the fleet is more than [-] tons or even hundreds or dozens of tons of frigates and offshore patrols. Ship, river gunboat.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the Army actually has a large number of river gunboat units, which are mainly deployed in overseas theaters, such as India and Europe... However, the gunboats used by the Army are smaller, the larger ones are only a few dozen tons, and the smaller ones are smaller. Even small boats with only about ten tons or even several tons.

And these military ships, regardless of battleships or transport ships, must be equipped with machine guns... When the Navy ordered hand-cranked machine guns before, the main purpose was actually to replace some 35mm artillery as auxiliary firepower for medium and large-sized warships and as the main firepower for small warships , equipped on a large number of naval ships, reducing equipment procurement costs and usage costs.

The navy even wants junk like hand-cranked machine guns. There is no reason not to want the better Shaanxi-[-] machine gun!
This is why this test firing was attended by not only representatives of the Army, but also representatives of the Navy, even the Guards, and armed tax police.

And when the test firing started, several military representatives watched carefully as the operators used the bomb battery and controlled the machine gun to continuously derate and fire at a target 300 meters away.

However, the effect of the short burst shot at first seemed to be just that, not much of a surprise.

But when the operator began to fire in long burst mode, several military representatives had already stood up. This fire suppression capability attracted their attention.

When the operator started to use the automatic shooting mode, he directly pulled the trigger without releasing it. There was no jamming or other malfunctions in the process. He fired out a round of two hundred bullets in one go, destroying the target wooden stake 500 meters in front. When the fight broke off, several military representatives were already excited.

Combined with the performance data of the machine gun that I heard explained before, especially when the weight of the gun body is about [-] kilograms, and the weight of the tripod is only [-] kilograms, the army representatives can’t wait to say: This is what our army wants. machine gun!

The navy representative on the side compared this Shaanxi-type machine gun with the hand-cranked machine gun they had ordered before, and immediately shook the junk of the hand-cranked machine gun out of his mind.

The Shaanxi-type machine gun is the most suitable auxiliary firepower for naval warships.

The hand-operated machine gun is not only complex in structure and heavy, but also has many faults. There is also a huge trouble that was not noticed before but was discovered after actual use.

That is, when shooting, you need to shake the machine gun at a constant speed, not too fast, not too slow... Soldiers need to have extremely strong psychological quality to be able to calmly shake the machine gun at a constant speed to shoot on a war-torn battlefield.

In actual situations, even if there is no threat, when soldiers see and shoot at the enemy, they will often be unable to control the speed of their hand-cranked machine guns due to excitement and other factors... Among them, the fierce ones Accelerating hand-cranked machine guns is the most common occurrence.

And once it is shaken too fast, it is easy to malfunction!

In the past, the Navy had no choice but to endure it, but now the Navy has a new choice... The hand-cranked machine gun has only appeared for a few years, and the Navy has only just used it for a short time, and has not even experienced it. A few times of actual combat can be directly thrown into the garbage heap of history.

Everyone can see the good stuff and want it!
Therefore, when the representatives of the Army shouted and the representatives of the Navy secretly compared, the representatives of the Guards on the side had already walked directly to Chen Youzhong: "We the Guards want this thing, let's try it with [-] guns first. It works well." Please place more orders!"

After Chen Youzhong heard this, he was ecstatic and secretly swallowed his saliva... He hadn't even made a quotation yet, but depending on the intentions of the Guards, plus the fact that the Guards had a lot of money in various military purchases in the past, these five or six One hundred Chu Yuan, no, seven or eight hundred Chu Yuan should not be a big problem.

Chen Youzhong immediately suppressed the excitement in his heart and said: "Colonel Li, thank you very much for the Guards' trust. We will do our best to deliver the best machine gun products to the Guards."

Ever since, while the machine gun in front was still undergoing test firing, the Army representatives were shouting, and the Navy representatives were still making comparisons, the Guards representatives had already started discussing the details of the order with Chen You.

After the army exclaimed, looking around, the members of the Nima Guards began to sign orders with Chang'an Weapons Company on the spot, and immediately came over with their subordinates.

The navy representative came over quickly when he saw it.

Everyone wants new weapons, and the initial production capacity is definitely limited. This thing is first come, first served.

Only the representative of the armed tax police was calm!

Seeing people from the other three armies competing for output around Chen Youzhong, while bargaining, he walked over with a smile on his face: "We also need a group of armed tax police, not a lot, just two hundred in the early stage, the price... ...No matter how much they pay, I will give you a [-]% bonus, but it must be delivered first!”

Armed tax police have always liked to use a variety of new weapons and are not sensitive to price.

If the Guards have deep pockets when it comes to purchasing military equipment, then the military procurement of armed tax police does not depend on price at all!

There is no other reason. The scale itself is not large, and it is supported by the Department of Taxation, the largest department in the Chu Empire. Although the total expenditure is not high, the per capita expenditure is the highest among the four armies. In addition, the armed tax police are not available. Heavy weapons were used, so money was spent on light artillery, firearms, and even warlords, carriages, and horses!
When the army and navy were still using single-shot rifles, the Guards began to use Qiming repeating rifles, which were very expensive at the time, and other weapons and equipment were also expensive to buy.

Machine guns cost a few hundred yuan each, and two hundred of them only cost about [-] yuan. If you add more money, you can only add [-] to [-] yuan at most. It’s a joke!
On the contrary, the army and navy cannot afford to purchase only a few thousand machine guns, and they have a lot of money to spend. It seems that the total military expenditure is large, but when it comes to how much money can be spent on purchasing machine guns at one time, That's also unlikely.

Faced with the statement of the armed tax police, the other representatives of the three armed forces said nothing... The armed tax police have deep pockets when it comes to purchasing light weapons, and there is nothing they can do about it.

What's more, the scale of the armed tax police is not large. The number of troops using machine guns is only [-] to [-] armed tax police on overseas missions. There are not many machine guns. It is estimated that some of the two hundred are used for tax ships subordinate to the armed tax police. in use.

The output of two hundred armed tax policemen has little impact.

But other companies often make purchases in the thousands, so the impact will be huge.

Therefore, the army and navy spared no effort when competing for production, and at the same time, they also paid more attention to price.

But this didn't matter to Chen Youzhong, because the Shaanxi-type machine gun really became an instant hit... He finally produced a truly independent military weapon for Chang'an Arsenal during his tenure, avoiding it completely becoming a The fate of weapons foundries.

(End of this chapter)