Greece to roman road

After several passing ceremonies for the train, Constantine went non-stop to the steel plant in the Piraeus Port Industrial Zone to participate in the Greek Army's technical weapons meeting.

In view of the fact that the artillery currently in service of the Greek Army has seriously fallen behind, Constantine decided to let the Military Technology Office and the machinery factory work together to carry out the preliminary research and development of advanced artillery.

Facing the Ottoman Turkish army, which quickly formed combat effectiveness with the help of the Germans, the pressure on the Greek Army was increasing day by day. The backward and bulky front-loading artillery seriously affected the combat effectiveness of the Greek Army.

Artillery is known as the "God of War" and has always played an important role in the army. Therefore, Constantine attached great importance to the preliminary research and development of this new artillery.

The encounter of the French army in the Franco-Prussian War vividly told the world what kind of misfortune would befall an army with backward artillery.

Hurrying to the conference room of the machinery factory, I saw that all the relevant personnel had already arrived. Nobel, who came at the invitation of Constantine, Tesla, who was also knowledgeable in machinery, Scaloy, the current manager of the machinery factory, and There are six researchers from the Metallurgical and Mechanical Laboratory of the University of Athens, Chaimiis, Director of the Military Technical Office.

It can be said that in order to develop new artillery, this office has gathered the most elite relevant personnel currently found in Greece.

"Everyone, the reason why we are called here, you should have heard about it, is to discuss the research and development of new artillery, and to discuss the feasibility of the research and development of rapid-fire guns." Seeing that Constantine was already in place, Chai Miyi As the head of the military technical department, Si was the first to speak.

"If a hydraulic retreat and return mechanism can be installed on the artillery, and the artillery can automatically return to its position after each artillery fire, then there is no doubt that the rate of fire of the artillery can be greatly improved," Nobel said.

As soon as these words came out, there was a buzz of discussion in the originally quiet conference room.

There is no doubt that Nobel's remarks are very inspiring and everyone can feel them.

Whether it is the famous Krupp cannon at this time, or the huge cannon used by the Ottoman Turks to bombard the walls of Constantinople in the 15th century, whether it is a front-loaded cannon, a breech-loaded cannon, a rifled cannon, a smooth-bore cannon, there are All these guns, without exception, have a common shortcoming - recoil.

The recoil when the artillery is fired will push the gun body back and away from the gun position. Not only does the soldier have to exert effort to push the artillery back to its original position, which limits the range of options for the artillery position, but also causes the original aiming of the artillery to be lost. , it is necessary to recalculate the ballistic elements, which is time-consuming and cumbersome.

Just like the scene that people often think of when a cannon is fired: the cannon roars, the smoke billows, the wheels of the gun body and gun mount retreat driven by the recoil, and the artillery team members work together to push the cannon back to its original position and re-aim. Then the cycle repeats.

In this cycle, pushing the gun back to its original position and re-aiming is the step that wastes the most time.

Now, the retreat and reentry mechanism that Nobel is talking about allows the artillery to save this step. If it can be successful, then it is obvious that the rate of fire of the artillery will increase dramatically.

This improvement from the original rigid gun mount to the elastic gun mount will be a revolutionary step in the history of artillery development.

"If Mr. Nobel's idea can become a reality, then there is no doubt that the rate of fire of the artillery will be greatly increased. However, the key to the problem lies precisely in how the hydraulic parking and retraction mechanism should be designed." Hearing Nobel After Bell's suggestion and careful consideration, Chamiis said excitedly.

"When it comes to rapid-fire cannons, I think of one person," Skarloi said.

"It was an underappreciated German engineer I met at my previous job named Conrad. I heard that he was looking for a buyer for his patent for a long-recoil hydraulic-pneumatic anti-recoil device," Skarloy told everyone said.

"If there are no problems with his design, then it can be said that the biggest difficulty of the rapid-fire cannon has been overcome. In this case, why don't the German artillery factories, such as Krupp, use it?" Constantine asked curiously road.

Anyone with some military experience can understand the importance of revolutionary technology like this. However, the Conrad Skarloy mentioned was actually promoting his own patented technology. In a traditional army like Germany, A big country ignores the advancement of artillery technology, which is problematic no matter how you think about it.

"I heard that the reason why it was rejected by Krupp was because of oil leakage in the hydraulic device. It was precisely because of this defect that no one was interested in Conrad's patent," Skarloy explained.

Everyone was relieved. There was indeed a problem, otherwise there would be no reason why the Germans would give up this technology.

Although this technology has flaws, if the professionals sitting here can see Conrad's technology in action, it will be of great reference value.

After all, there is a big difference between starting on someone else's shoulders and studying the artillery's hydraulic retreat and retraction mechanism almost from scratch.

As the meeting progressed, everyone turned their attention to Constantine. This decision could only be made by Constantine.

Frowning, Constantine thought carefully. If he conceived it from scratch, he didn't know when the rapid-fire artillery technology would be able to achieve a breakthrough, and the threat of the Ottoman Turkish army did not allow the Greek army to be slow.

"Mr. Scaloy, since you mentioned Conrad, it is up to you to go to Germany in person. You must bring Conrad to Greece and join us. At the very least, you must obtain permission from his technology patent." , the backward situation of the Greek army's artillery has become extremely urgent, and the only option is to buy time with money.

Seeing that Constantine has made the decision to invite Kalad, today's discussion on rapid-fire cannons can only end here.

Seeing Chamiis's quiet look, Constantine reminded: "Chamiis, have you forgotten something?"

After Constantine's reminder, Chamiis suddenly realized it, patted his forehead, and continued: "Oh, by the way, there is also a copy submitted by His Excellency the Duke, um." After saying this, Chamiis hesitated. I don’t know how to describe this weird design.

"Mortar," Constantine reminded him.

"Um, yes, mortar. This is a design submitted by Duke Constantine. Let's discuss it together." After saying that, Chamiis distributed the pile of drawings in his hand to everyone present.

Everyone will see a weird gun shape on the drawing, with the barrel pointing diagonally and a tripod underneath the barrel for support, but nothing else.

To be honest, this is very different from any current artillery, and looks weird. No one understands what role Constantine's artillery design can have.