Greece to roman road

Seeing everyone's puzzled expressions, Constantine explained: "This kind of gun has a relatively high elevation angle, a short range, a fast rate of fire, and is not heavy. In an emergency, it can be moved by infantry. , mainly used to accompany the infantry as they advance and as a support weapon for the infantry, especially suitable for the mountainous areas of the Balkan Peninsula."

Obviously, mortars are also a rapid-fire weapon. Compared with the large number of artillery guns with a firing rate of about two rounds per minute, mortars with a firing rate of up to 20 rounds per minute are also weapons that make our own logistics personnel gnash their teeth.

After Constantine intervened in the reorganization of the Greek army, new rifles, rapid-fire cannons, and mortars can be said to be the best in firepower among all countries, adhering to the concept of firepower first.

As for the ammunition supply problem caused by the fast rate of fire, in fact, this was the least of Constantine's worries.

Most of the previous wars in Europe were fought quickly and no country wanted to engage in a long-term war of attrition.

Especially in the Balkans, due to weak industrial capacity, once a war breaks out, the leaders of the military in various countries aim to conduct a quick decisive battle, because almost all their weapons and ammunition are purchased from outside, and the country's independence is short-lived. The family is weak and has no material basis to sustain a long-term war of consumption.

Therefore, in the future expected wars in the Balkans, such as the border conflict between Greece and Ottoman Turkey, in Constantine's view, the weapons and ammunition consumed are basically the strategic reserves of the two countries before the war, and the military command of the two countries Anyone will take the initiative to seek out the enemy's main force and engage in a decisive battle.

In other words, no one will allow the war between the countries in the Balkans to become long-term, either subjectively or based on actual conditions.

In this case, the top brass of the military are more concerned about how to defeat the opponent in a decisive battle. Before that, there is no need to consider the issue of outsourcing weapons and ammunition.

As for after the decisive battle, both warring parties will either surrender or win. The overall situation has been decided. In order to maintain the balance of the situation, European countries will definitely intervene after the decisive battle determines the winner: the losing party will cede territory and pay money, and the winning party will also I can only accept it as soon as possible.

Of course, since it is equipped with a large number of rapid-fire weapons, the Greek army must have sufficient material reserves before the war. Based on the estimated ammunition consumption level before the war, it must prepare materials sufficient to sustain a short-term war.

Chaimiis and other military leaders generally understand this, so they do not object to Constantine's behavior of equipping a large number of rapid-fire weapons to help the Greek army gain a technological advantage in weapons, but the poor Greek government's finances will be spent again. .

"But Your Highness, I have never heard of any country's military equipping this kind of weapon. What I mean is, can this kind of weird weapon be used in war?" Chamiis asked.

It was a weapon that had never been heard of before. Chamiis really doubted whether it was necessary to spend the already insufficient funds on research and development.

After all, the weapons equipped in the armies of various countries, such as artillery, rifles, etc., have been baptized by blood in previous wars and have proven their value, so they will be widely recognized and equipped by various countries.

For example, artillery. In Constantinople's final swan song, Muhammad II relied on Urban's cannon to deal with Constantinople's impregnable and impenetrable city walls in the cold weapon age. From now on, no one will question whether artillery should be equipped in the army.

Now Constantine suddenly asked to design an unprecedented weapon, and Chamiis, the military technical director, disagreed from the bottom of his heart.

"Mr. Chaimiis, judging from the Duke's drawings, the technical requirements for this kind of artillery are simple, and the cost may not be high. It's just research and development. It doesn't matter much," Skarloey looked at the drawings carefully and said to Chaimiis.

The reason why Constantine urged the development of mortars was because at the end of the 19th century, the development trend of weapons technology was to increase firepower. Whether it was artillery or rifles, the rate of fire was increasing rapidly, not to mention the Maxim. The machine gun is such a big killer.

This status quo leads to the fact that among the two warring parties, the defensive side will gain a huge advantage after having complete fortifications. After all, the attacking side, before the appearance of tanks and armored vehicles, has to expose the flesh and blood of its soldiers to the enemy. In the hail of bullets, the casualty rate is higher than that of the defending side.

In this case, a paradox arises: the war cannot be won through defense, and the offense must face the attack of the defensive side with unprecedented firepower density.

Military commanders will be in conflict.

Therefore, Constantine hoped that the Greek army's offensive capabilities would be enhanced and that it would be more likely to break through the Ottoman army's defense lines in the expected battle with the Ottoman Turks.

Although the army commanders of various Antarctic countries wanted a quick victory, once due to the existence of paradox, the war would inevitably fall into a stalemate and become protracted. There is no doubt that it would be even worse for Greece, which is a small country and a weak people.

Small-caliber mortars can be directly handed over to grassroots organizations at the army platoon and squad levels for use. After soldiers find obstacles that hinder their progress, such as machine gun positions or simple fortifications, they can directly use mortars to solve them.

However, before the emergence of mortars, a companion weapon for infantry, if the infantry encountered difficulties and wanted artillery support, they had to ask for help from artillery, such as divisional artillery regiments.

For example, people see this scene: a soldier picks up the phone and calls loudly: "Requesting fire support, requesting fire support, target XX, bearing XX", and then the artillery fire covers the target area to solve the problem for the infantry.

In the process of communication between frontline soldiers and rear artillery, time will obviously be wasted and the efficiency of the artillery will be affected.

After the soldiers are equipped with mortars, there is no need to waste the artillery's time on easily destroyed targets such as machine gun positions. They can directly solve them themselves.

Moreover, the elevation angle of the mortar is high, so some targets that cannot be hit by direct fire, such as enemies in trenches and reverse slopes, are more suitable to be left to the mortar.

It was precisely because of these factors that Constantine hoped that the Greek army would boldly break the rules and first equip the grassroots infantry with mortars to increase the attack capabilities of the Greek army so that it could have an advantage in subsequent wars and increase its winning rate.

Therefore, when Chamiis questioned the mortar, he still said patiently: "The cost of this kind of artillery is not high, and it is definitely only a small amount of equipment in the early stage, so that the army can verify it in actual use. Therefore, what is the value of this kind of artillery?" Let’s wait and see.”

"The structure of this kind of artillery is relatively simple, and the machine factory can quickly make a batch of samples," Skarloi said to everyone.

After the meeting, Scaloy, who received instructions from Constantine, went directly to Germany to find Conrad, the underappreciated rapid-fire artillery engineer in Germany. The expert team hoped to get inspiration from it and speed up the development of Greek rapid-fire artillery.