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

The first one to appear is a small-caliber front-loading rifled gun that is easier and faster to prepare.

"This is a 75mm caliber front-mounted rifled field gun developed by Hebei Weapons Company. This artillery is relatively light, with a weight of only 870 kilograms, a diameter of 24 times, and an effective range when launching grenades.

It can reach 3,500 meters, and its grenade explosion power is much greater than the spherical grenade of our latest 23-year-old 115mm bronze smoothbore gun currently in service."

"Whether it is range or lethality, it far exceeds the 23-year-old 115mm bronze field gun that we currently have in large quantities. However, its total weight (barrel plus gun mount plus wheels) is 850

Kilogram, which is much lower than the 1,100 kilograms of the Type 23 115mm bronze field gun, and it is more maneuverable."

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

While Luo Zhixue was listening to the introduction, he looked at the artillery in front of him. This artillery didn't look big from the outside. Just by looking at the barrel, he knew it was a little guy... This look was used to the middlemen in the Chu army.

Large-caliber artillery, and 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 cannon. If it is placed in the Dachu Empire Army, it is the penultimate artillery caliber.

Even Luo Zhixue knew that many of the modern divisional artillery in the original time and space were of 75mm caliber, but when did they come from, they were all from the late 19th century or even the early 20th century... That's all

In the age of electrification, the technical level is not comparable to that of the current Chu Empire.

More advanced technology can naturally use small-caliber artillery and exert greater power... With the same barrel, other people can shoot five or six kilometers or even further, but our own can only shoot more than three thousand meters.

Luo Zhixue was a little worried whether such a small artillery could be qualified for the important task of suppressing the division's long-range artillery...

But... this idea only popped up for a second before he threw it away. He just fell into a misunderstanding.

I always felt that the range of small-caliber artillery was not enough... but I forgot for a moment that the artillery of the enemies of the Chu Empire was even worse.

When it comes to attacking the indigenous people, there is actually not much difference between the effective range of army artillery of three to four thousand meters or the effective range of five to six thousand meters, because once it exceeds two thousand meters, the indigenous artillery basically loses its threat, and

Our own artillery can still hit the enemy accurately.

Forget it, as long as the range is sufficient, there is no need to build artillery with an effective range of five to six thousand meters or even longer.

As for the power, because of the cylindrical shell, although the caliber is smaller, the power is still quite good!

Cylindrical shells bring more charge and greater explosive power. This is an important advantage in rifled artillery, and it is also one of the decisive reasons for the military to change its equipment.

What's more, the Chu Army has always had a tradition of equipping its divisional artillery regiments with both field guns and larger-caliber howitzers.

Just like the current 115mm field guns and 150mm light howitzers, if we go back to equip the division artillery force with new rifled artillery on a large scale, we will give this 75mm rifled field gun with a larger caliber.

Howitzer.

By then, remote suppression will be available and its power will be available.

Then the military-level artillery force will get more howitzers and short-barreled howitzers with larger calibers, such as 120 mm caliber or even 150 mm caliber, which will definitely be very powerful.

Because the Chu army likes to use grenades, the development direction of artillery is towards large caliber. Artillery with larger caliber can fire larger caliber grenades, so the amount of charge in the shell will be more, and the lethality will be stronger.<

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

For example, the latest 23-year-old 115mm bronze field gun has a magnification of only 14.5 times. The reason why the magnification is relatively low is to control the weight of the artillery, so the gun only weighs 1,100 kilograms.

, can barely be used as a divisional field gun.

However, although the magnification is low, because it is a bronze artillery gun and the barrel is relatively thick, more propellant can be used, and the chamber pressure is not low when firing. Therefore, when firing solid bullets, its effective range can reach one

1,500 meters, and 1,800 meters in actual combat.

From the perspective of a smoothbore cannon, this kind of artillery is quite excellent. It can be said that it has reached the current limit of bronze artillery produced by the Chu Empire.

The Chu army's hierarchical use of artillery is mainly based on weight. Basically, the weight of divisional artillery is limited to about one thousand kilograms. If it exceeds one hundred kilograms, it is barely acceptable, but if it is more, it will not be possible.

.

If the weight limit for infantry artillery is greater, those over 400 kilograms are basically unnecessary. It is too difficult to maneuver and cannot be afforded... The series of 65mm smoothbore field artillery in the Chu Army are very typical infantry artillery.

Although it is called a field gun, it is actually a medium-barreled artillery. The full range of 65mm field guns currently in service range in weight from 320 kilograms to 380 kilograms.

Its latest improved model, the 24-year-old 65mm bronze smoothbore field gun, has a total weight of only 350 kilograms, making it very light.

The test firing of Hebei Weapons Company's 75mm rifled field gun went smoothly. The gun crew fired four shells in succession, which traveled more than 2,000 meters and raised four clouds of smoke on the hillside that served as the target area in the distance.

However, the successful 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. First, the rifling processing is difficult and the cost is not low, and then

The most important thing is that the service life of the rifling is not long, and the service life of the barrel is only about 300 rounds.

The Army said that the higher procurement cost is acceptable, but the artillery only has a barrel life of 300 rounds, and it is still used as the main artillery of the division. This is absolutely unacceptable...

Therefore, it will take a long time for this kind of 75mm caliber divisional field artillery to be recognized by the Army and enter the battlefield. At least the problem of barrel life must be solved, not to mention that it can do a thousand

There are more than 500 shots, but no matter what, you have to have 500 shots.

Otherwise, with the Army's tradition of firing out countless artillery shells at every turn, an artillery piece would be put on the battlefield and the artillery piece would be scrapped before the battle was over...

Not only does the Army dislike this artillery, the Army also dislikes some other rifled artillery developed for the Army because its barrel life is too low... It only said that a small number of them will be purchased and then used as experimental equipment, mainly for training and to adapt to the rifle in advance.

Tactical applications of artillery.

The Army has no plans to put rifled artillery on the battlefield for the time being!

Anyway, the Army's current series of bronze smoothbore cannons still have an overwhelming advantage when facing indigenous artillery from various countries.

While the artillerymen of the indigenous countries were still using field artillery with an effective range of only a few hundred meters, the artillery unit of the Da Chu Empire Army had already extended the effective range of the field artillery to more than a thousand meters.

In terms of artillery, the Chu army has an overwhelming advantage against the indigenous people of various countries, and does not have the same urgent need to change equipment as the navy.

Moreover, the Army has a large number of various smoothbore cannons, and they are all expensive bronze artillery. If you ask the Army to throw away all these bronze artillery pieces and replace them with rifled cannons in a short period of time, the Army will not be able to bear it...

Compared with the Navy's generosity in arms procurement, the Army has always been very stingy in arms procurement. They even invented a brand new concept called "full life use cost". They combine the procurement cost and the later maintenance cost.

All usage costs are taken into account, and then the cost is calculated... just to save money.

Therefore, the Army plans 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.

Subsequently, the overall dress-up will be carried out gradually, and this process will last for at least ten years!

In short, the Army just wants to get the Navy to spend money on various research and development of rifled guns.

Bring down production costs and improve technology at the same time.

When the development of rifled artillery matures, their army will directly pick the peaches...

Look, what the Army has in mind!

So even though a series of tests of front-loading artillery used by the Army have not yet ended, Army generals have already taken the initiative to find Luo Zhixue and expressed the Army's relevant opinions, that is, only a small amount will be purchased in the short term...
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The Army is actually afraid that once Luo Zhixue sees the huge advantages of rifled artillery, he will force the Army to purchase them on a large scale, which is not in line with the Army's development pace.

Naturally, Luo Zhixue had no objection to 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.

The Navy's demand for rifled artillery is very urgent, because it is directly related to the Navy's tactics.

The Navy has always wanted to use kite-flying tactics, so even though the front-loaded rifled artillery is immature, has high cost, and has a short lifespan, the Navy still decided to equip it on a large scale.

The next thing to be tested is a series of front-loading rifled guns used by the Navy. The front-loading rifled guns used by the Navy also have large and small calibers.

The loudest and most powerful one is undoubtedly the 200 mm caliber ship-borne cannon. When this big thing weighing more than ten tons was tested, the momentum was very huge.

Even though the viewing platform where Luo Zhixue and the others were sitting was more than two thousand meters away from the hillside of the target area in front of them, they could still hear the huge explosion after the shell exploded.

The shells fired by the two-hundred-millimeter cannon are no joke.

However, it is precisely because of its huge power that if you want to put this thing on a ship, you need a battleship large enough to carry it. The Hantian-class battleship under construction, with a full load of 5,500 tons, is equipped with such a powerful weapon.

In fact, the giant cannon cannot carry many guns.

Therefore, in the short term, there is little hope that this kind of giant gun will be put on the ship. We will have to wait for the navy's new generation of warships to come out.

The Navy has begun designing a large warship made of pure steel, with a displacement of 9,000 tons.

The main gun expected to be used by this future giant battleship is this two-hundred-millimeter front-loading rifled gun.

What’s funny is that the reason why the Navy designs large warships made of pure steel is not to enhance the protective capabilities of the warships... although the protective capabilities of steel warships will indeed be better.

In fact, the reason that prompted the Navy to build all-steel warships was to reduce the weight of the hull.

Because it has been proven by many previous test ships and theoretical calculations that an iron hull is lighter than a wooden hull of the same size... Isn't it strange that an iron ship is lighter than a wooden ship?

But that's the truth.

Why?

Because steel can use lighter and thinner materials, it can achieve the performance of thick wood.

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

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

In this way, the warship can be equipped with a more powerful steam engine and carry more naval guns and coal to obtain greater speed, longer endurance, and more powerful firepower... Well, by the way, the warship's protective capabilities can also be greatly increased.

Increased amplitude.

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

Therefore, the day when the two-hundred millimeter cannon will be put on the ship is relatively far away, but the Guards expressed that they want to deploy two of them on the Zhenjiang Fortress.
To be continued...