Chapter 386 Gatling Machine Cannon

"President, please go here..."

In a military base outside běijing City, Liu Huixue, wearing a white coat, was leading Yan Guang into a building made of steel bars and concrete. Uploaded by netizens ==

“Is it just here?”

"That's right."

Liu Huixue nodded and said.

Although Liu Huixue may not be the top weapon expert nationwide, as the former supervisor of the Sichuan Arsenal, Liu Huixue became successful after the establishment of the State Social Affairs and Government.

Therefore, after the establishment of the State Council and Social Affairs, Liu Huixue became the manager of the most important military base in the country. In this most important military base in the country, not only did the test work of the Type 15 and Type 16 tanks, but it was also the test flight base for new single-wing metal aircraft and twin-engine and four-engine bombers.

It can be said that there is no more military base nationwide than here.

Of course, this is because there are indeed no good scientific research experts in China. Otherwise, Yan Guang would not mind being promoted higher than the level like Cai E and Jiang Baili, rather than continuing to reuse Liu Huixue.

"please…"

"Um…"

When Yan Guang and Liu Huixue walked into the building, the researchers and soldiers who had already lined up in the building were looking at him with admiration. In the eyes of these admirers, Yan Guang's lazy posture and unkempt appearance were so profound and unfathomable.

News about Yan Guang's campaign to become the third president was of course also spread to this military base. After all, a fully closed military base does not mean that he has severed relations with the outside world, and news in such military bases will spread faster.

However, in this era when the imperial power idea was still very popular, and even many people, even military and political officials and gentry celebrities hoped that Yan Guang would ascend the throne and become emperor, it did not have much influence on Yan Guang's prestige.

After all, although the KMT Party is nominally a revolutionary party, it is actually somewhat like a combination of Beiyang and the Kuomintang, which is both a product of interest groups and revolutionary groups. Especially after the end of the Northern Expedition, many members of the former Beiyang political party were annexed to the KMT Party, this situation became more obvious, which is another reason why the opposition within the party is not large.

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After walking through a passage, what appeared in front of Yan Guang and others was a huge underground weapon experimental field. In the corner of the experimental field, there were many new weapons sent here by major weapons factories for testing and experiments. Even the latest semi-automatic rifles that have just produced a sample gun.

But the most conspicuous one is a Gatlin-barrel rotary cannon with 6 gun barrels.

After walking to the side of the cannon, Yan Guang stroked the Gatling machine cannon with his hand, which was flashing metallic light under the light, and Xuedao at Liu Hui beside him.

"Is that the only one?"

"That's right."

Liu Huixue nodded.

"According to the President, we have improved the Gatlin-style cannon, and now the model before you is the finalized one..."

A machine gun is an automatic firearm with a gun stand or a gun seat that can achieve continuous strikes. The world's first machine gun was designed by a Belgian engineer named Fa Shang (a captain under Napoleon) in 1851. The gun was used in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and 1871.

It is generally believed that the originator of modern machine guns is the Gatlin multi-barrel machine gun. In 1862, it was invented by American Richard Jedan Gatlin that this gun had several barrels to rotate. In the early days of the Civil War, the Gatlin machine gun developed by Gatlin could fire 250 times per minute.

At the end of the 19th century, it was an important weapon for European countries to control and expand colonies. The improved Gatling machine gun speed reached 1,200 rounds per minute, which was an astonishing number in 1882. But it also had a problem. Its biggest weakness was that the hand could not control itself due to movement and red eyes on the battlefield, and would go crazy and turn the handle faster and faster, causing the machine gun to get stuck or explode.

Since its birth, the working principle of the Gatling machine gun has determined that it has the advantages of being able to fire continuously and have strong firepower, but it also has the disadvantages of large weight and poor maneuverability. Just like many other inventions, in the military field, the Gatling machine gun is a "premature baby"—————————Military ideas have not yet been prepared for its birth.

There was no tactical demand for a rotary machine gun in 1862, because the army did not know how to effectively use a ting machine gun as a cannon, and the rotary machine gun could not be deeply impressed. The idea of ​​using machine guns as close-range support weapons in infantry offensives was not until 1898 that the US Army had demonstrated.

What's even more unfortunate is that while Gatlin and other talented inventors constantly solve technical problems and strive to improve their own inventions, they unconsciously dug a grave for their inventions—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Since 1884, automatic weapons that adopt automatic principles such as tube retreat, gas guide, ziyou bolt and semi-ziyou bolt were invented one after another. Compared with these single-tube automatic weapons, the advantages of Gatling machine guns no longer exist, but their disadvantages are more obvious. For example, Gatling machine guns are quite large compared with automatic machine guns such as Maxim, and the corresponding transportation capacity is limited and inconvenient for maneuvering. When Richard Jordan Gatling's long life came to an end in 1903, the multi-tube hand-cranked machine gun had basically disappeared.

However, these past shortcomings are fine if they are left to this day.

Too large? Not suitable for infantry use? It doesn't matter, so don't use it for infantry.

At the end of World War I, the threat from the air to the ground forces was becoming more and more serious, and this was beyond doubt. In the face of air threats, the only thing ground forces can use self-defense are air defense artillery or machine guns that can carry out high-shès.

Of course, like ground troops, naval ships also face such problems.

Moreover, the threat faced by the Navy is even greater than that of the Army.

However, most of the machine guns during this period were only about 7 mm, so there was no problem with dealing with infantry without protective measures. However, they were somewhat unable to deal with general armored targets and threats from the air.

It is also for this reason that new air defense weapons are constantly being developed.

For example, Germany once developed a 77mm high-shè cannon, and the National Social Security and Government also developed a 30mm caliber machine cannon for use on ships.

However, the 30mm caliber machine cannon is still a little weak in firepower after all...

It was at this time that Yan Guang turned his attention to Gatlin in the United States...

The earliest hand-cranked Gatling machine guns did have the problem of being too large, but this problem is obviously not a problem for the Navy.

Not to mention anything else, even a small boat with hundreds of tons in later generations could be equipped with a 6-barrel Gatlin gun. It is impossible for a giant ship with more than ten thousand tons in this era to be unable to be equipped, right?

Especially after using electric motors as power systems instead of hand-cranking in the past, the multi-barrel Gatling gun has already surpassed the general automatic machine guns. This kind of surpassing is enough to make people forget the shortcomings of Gatling guns in volume.

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Although the artificial Gatling machine cannon is definitely not as dense arrays equipped by later warships, such as 730 or Russian Kashtan, Gatling needs to intercept the target, which is not later anti-ship missiles.

During this period, the air force's method of attacking seas was mainly to drop bombs or torpedoes, which also made enemy aircraft have to fly to the top of the warship's head or very close to each other. In order to deal with this attack, artificial close-defense guns were sufficient, and the high speed of the close-defense guns themselves can also make up for the shortcomings of the insufficient degree of the machine guns themselves...

"It's not just to tear the target apart, if equipped on a specialized tow vehicle, this new near-defense gun can even provide ground troops with a certain degree of field air defense capabilities..."

“Ground Force…”

Looking at the 6 30mm gun barrels in front of him, the Gatling machine cannon with a total length of about three meters, Yan Guang smiled bitterly.

"It's not an easy thing to build a vehicle equipped with such a cannon..."

That's right, at least I don't have to think about it in recent years.

Whether it is a length of nearly three meters or a weight of six or seven tons, it is not a small burden for current towing vehicles, so it is better to use it as a special anti-aircraft gun for ships in a short period of time...

However, in addition to the 30mm caliber Gatling cannon that Yan Guang personally requested, Liu Huixue and others are also manufacturing 8mm caliber and 20mm caliber cannons.

Especially the caliber cannon, like the 30mm caliber cannon, it will be combined into the Navy's standard near-defense equipment. At the same time, with the three caliber of 20mm, while the volume is smaller than the 30mm Gatling cannon, it also has the possibility of equipping the army or even the air force fighter jets...

"Then, President, should you do a round of trials first?"

Yan Guang came for this purpose, so he nodded after hearing Liu Huixue's words.

"Okay, let me see it with my own eyes, too..."

After obtaining Yan Guang's permission, Liu Huixue brought Yan Guang and others to the side of the shooting range, and then waited for the staff to equip the Gatling machine cannon that was originally used for display on a special gun stand.

Because the staff had already prepared, the entire installation work took only more than ten minutes. After more than ten minutes, the six-barrel Gatling machine cannon, which was nearly three meters long and weighed six or seven tons, was ready to open fire.

The target of the Gatling machine gun is a suspended aircraft that has been retired in the Defense Air Force but is still in service in other European countries. Of course, this aircraft was suspended after all the fuel was emptied.

"Open fire!"

As Liu Huixue's voice returned in the shooting range, the staff member who was working on the cannon pulled the trigger that acted as the motor button.

The moment the staff pulled the trigger, the Gatling machine cannon started to rotate slowly, but in less than a second the speed of the machine cannon barrel flew like a gyro...

"Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da..."

In just a few seconds, I was afraid that nearly a thousand shells had been vented.

However, when the cannon made a "double" sound, Yan Guang also heard a sound of the barrel rotation that seemed to be a chainsaw when sawing wood.

As for the targeted Folk aircraft? It was broken in the first few seconds after the cannon fire.

Although it is still just the test results of the cannon itself, if you want to get on the ship, you need to do another test, but the results in front of you are already very satisfied with Yan Guang.

"Okay, you can continue the experiment. I'm looking forward to your results..."

"Thank you, President..."

Next, Liu Huixue also introduced a lot of information about the Gatling machine cannon to Yan Guang, such as the length of the cannon itself is more than 2.7 meters and a weight of six or seven tons, and a theoretical maximum shè speed of 5,000 rounds per minute, etc.

In the end, Yan Guang even sat on the test seat and pulled the trigger to experience the power of a cannon himself.

With Yan Guang's experience, there was another missing Folk target machine in stock in the base.

Liu Huixue and others didn't care about the cost of a target aircraft, because the base had conducted dozens of tests in the past, and even tested the ability of the cannon to face multiple targets at the same time at one time. During these dozens of tests, the base not only had enough information, but also had more than 100 Folk aircraft. Therefore, it was not a pity to spend more than one more flight of Liu Huixue and others.

"It's really a good shot..."

After personally doing it and experiencing the pleasure of destroying everything and crushing everything, Yan Guang gave a high evaluation of the Gatling machine cannon that had just been set.

Although this Mén machine cannon cannot reach the level of later generations of dense arrays, seven-three zero or cashtan, at least it is completely sufficient during this period.

Besides, there is enough time to improve it before World War II...

"This trip is worth it..."

After jumping out of the cannon's seat, looking back at the Gatling cannon with metallic luster all over his body, Yan Guang nodded with satisfaction.

However, just as Yan Guang was about to test the sample guns of several semi-automatic rifles, Yue Chang suddenly ran to Yan Guang's ear and said a few words to change Yan Guang's god.

"What?"

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1923 may have been a good year for Yan Guang.

Because in this year, the three oil fields discovered in the Middle East the previous year had already brought China nearly 100 million pounds of profit, and the more than 1,000 tons of gold sponsored by General Kolchak to Yan Guang, the country, social and political affairs were extremely financially affluent.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Finance in 1922, in 1922, the fiscal revenue of the State Social and Political Department had reached more than 3 billion silver dollars, second only to the UK's 914 million pounds and the US's 420 million US dollars.

It is almost twice as much as Ri's fiscal revenue in the same year.
To be continued...