Lord of the House

The three warships, one big and two small, swelled their sails from the right wing, as if slung off the string and sailed into the exercise sea area in front of the Guanbo Platform.

Following the command to fire the flag issued by the watchtower next to the crossbow platform, the three warships quickly adjusted their orientations and pointed their broadsides to the waters of the shooting range. Yue Lengqiu discovered the benefits of the telescope, which can even be used ten miles away. Accurately accept the flag order and summons - in the field of vision that the telescope can see, the large ship is quite the size of the Jinhai-class warship of the Huaidong Navy. Zhang, heavier than ordinary Jinhai-class warships.

The large ship can only see the sail masts, but has no accessories such as oars, and there is no tail cabin. With the regulation of large ships, it is known that this is the main battleship that has given up close-side combat and purely uses ambushes to carry out long-range attacks.

The small ship is comparable to the current Jiyun-class warships of the Huaidong Navy. The hull bottom is short, and the stern cabin structure is still retained. In addition to the sail masts, there are also oars on both sides, which should be used as frigates.

Following the instructions of the flag order, the patch-like copper nail decks on the port side of the large ship were opened neatly and uniformly to both sides, revealing two layers of thirty firing ports on the entire side.

Immediately afterwards, the black cast iron crossbow bore protruded from the firing port, like the eyes of the **** of death. The lower level had the fewest firing openings, with only twelve, but the most massive crossbow bores could be seen through the binoculars; the upper firing openings were doubled, with a total of eighteen crossbow bores sticking out.

If the crossbow positions on the right wing were also arranged in the same way, such a new type of warship would be equipped with 60 new types of fire fighting crossbows - Yue Lengqiu, who had seen the performance of fire fighting crossbows on land, could also suppress his shock. , I couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Gunpowder and artillery technology have also been developed for seven or eight years, but the large-scale sea and land test exercises are only two years away, and the naval artillery tactics are not yet mature, so it was first at the end of last year. The largest model of the new warship that was built and delivered for testing in April is only two Jinhai-class.

The two Jinhai-class new warships were officially incorporated into the Jinghai Division in early October after nearly half a year of sea trials, test launches and tactical pondering; the two Linzhengjun-class new warships were also delayed until early August. After the technology is more certain, it will be officially opened at the Chongzhou Shipyard, and it will be delayed until February next year at the earliest before it is possible to test the voyage.

If the Northern Expedition wants to officially kick off before March next year, it will only take less than a month for the two Lin Zhengjun-class warships to test voyages, and then they will be incorporated into the Jinghai Division.

Initially, the military allocated 1 million silver dollars to build the first batch of new warships, but in the end it cost as much as 1.5 million silver dollars on two Jinhai-class main battleships and eight **** battleships. Taking into account the previous investment in the development of gunpowder and artillery, as well as large-scale land-sea exercises, the two Jinhai-class warships were built, and the resources that Huaidong had invested in succession were almost enough to fight another battle of Jingxiang.

Lin Bing has memories of later generations. It's not that he doesn't know the advantages of gunpowder, but he just needs too many resources to develop gunpowder from the field of alchemy to the stage of practical field artillery and naval artillery.

This is also the key factor why Lin Bie did not develop firearms at all in the Huaidong Army in the early stage; immature gunpowder and artillery technology not only had extremely limited advantages on the battlefield, but also might ask the enemy to follow up and study related technologies in advance.

The She family was beaten like a lost dog in the later period, but the determination to follow up on shipbuilding technology in the early stage was not weak; Yanhu's shipyard in Tieshan was supplemented by Shejia craftsmen, and he was able to build Jinhai-class warships.

In addition, the weapons used by the Huaidong Army on the battlefield, including the heavy catapult and scorpion crossbow, can be successfully copied afterwards as long as Yanhu has contact with them on the battlefield. It can be seen that although Yanhu is a savage alien, his pragmatic and solid learning ability is far from that of the scholars and officials in Jiangning City who regard themselves as lofty and look down on miscellaneous craftsmanship.

It can be said that Yanhu is only one step away from the Huaidong Army in the use of war weapons.

It's just that this step seems so far away at this time.

At this time, supporting the Huaidong Army's combat power is not simply a few new types of warfare, but a new industry and new learning system that surpasses the old era.

In the old days, the iron works under the jurisdiction of the Jiangning Ministry of Industry could only produce two million kilograms of iron materials a year, while the output of the official iron yard controlled by the Privy Council at this time was thirty times that amount. At this time, the total number of workers in the iron ore mining, smelting and casting industries in the south has reached 120,000.

It can be said that iron smelting together with the coal mining industry, which employs a total of 60,000 people, has become the representative of the heavy industry in the south.

Of course, this also depends on the annual consumption market of hundreds of millions of kilograms of iron materials formed by the south and foreign trade.

Why did Lin Fu grit his teeth and support Lin Jingzhong to build the Jinchuan Iron Bridge?

The Jinchuan Iron Bridge is created. After the iron bridge technology is mature, it will stimulate the consumption of iron materials, and will promote the development of iron smelting and slurry industry.

Today, the annual output of iron materials in the Southern Guanmin Iron Works is over 100 million kilograms, which seems to be a lot and is amazing. It is almost difficult to imagine that it can be digested by the traditional farming society. In fact, if thirty or fifty Jinchuan iron bridges can be built every year, only Relying on this item, hundreds of millions of kilograms of iron production can be consumed.

All new industries are mutually supportive. Without the entire new industrial system, the current Huaidong Army cannot be supported.

Lin Fu published the complete formula of gunpowder and the complete design drawings of artillery and new warships. Yan Hu also did not have the ability to install artillery on a large scale in the navy and army.

Although Yan Hu quickly recovered from the defeat of Jingxiang in the past two years, and it can even be said that the military equipment is still on the rise, it is practically impossible to make up for the gap of nearly an era with the Huaidong Army.

In the past few years, the scale of the Jinghai navy must be controlled at 30,000, and there has been no large-scale development; on the surface, the scale of Yanhu's navy in Dengzhou has grown to 30,000 in recent years. But the difference in strength between the two naval divisions cannot be measured in numbers at all.

Nowadays, in the shipyards of Chongzhou, Mingzhou, Quanzhou, Yizhou, Jiangning, and Haizhou, as long as Lin Fu orders the full burden of building warships, the old-style Jinhai-class and Linzhengjun-class warships can build sixty to eight warships per year. With ten ships, the size of the navy can be expanded to 200,000 or more within two years.

Lin Bing gave up the expansion of low-tech combat readiness, and used a lot of resources to upgrade new warships and artillery. In addition to strategic upgrades, he wanted to stimulate the development of new learning and new industries.

The initial cost of the two Jinhai-class warships was as high as 400,000 silver dollars each; considering that the two Lin Zhengjun-class warships were both newly built, the budget allocated by Lin Bian was even as high as 1 million silver dollars each—which was far more than The cost of the old Jinhai-class and Linzhengjun-class warships, but considering the strategic upgrade across the era, such a price is still worth it.

Jinhai-class warships have been incorporated into the Jinghai Division, and each ship is equipped with a total of 60 guns of 12 catties and 8 catties.

Naval artillery requires a long range, a low and flat firing angle, and has strong destructive power on enemy targets; the 12-jin naval gun built by the Ordnance Supervision is the main gun of Jinhai-class warships, with a barrel length of nearly three meters and a weight of nearly three thousand catties. The interior of the gun bay is a sliding rail structure, and it can shoot 12-pound solid lead bullets, which can effectively hit a long-range target two kilometers away; double the charge can shoot a long-range target six miles away, but the risk of exploding the chamber on a sudden increase; lead shot can be used instead for close combat.

Although Jinhai-class warships do not have overall armor, their relatively weak points are covered with copper armor, and their masts are also made of fine iron. Even if the hull is attacked by fire, it can still be put on new sails to continue sailing. The total weight of the sea-class warships is equivalent to 80% of the full-loaded merchant ships of the same class, weighing 500 tons, and the speed of full sails is about a quarter slower than that of the same empty sailing ships.

The frigate must ensure the capability of near-side and side-to-side operations and fast navigation, and only twelve eight-pound guns are installed.

Although the Linzhengjun-class battleship under construction in Chongzhou Shipyard has only 48 more guns than the Jinhai-class battleship, the guns installed are one level higher, and the lower cabins will be equipped with twelve 24-pound ships. Heavy artillery, with a range of 1,000 meters, is no less destructive to coastal fortresses than heavy catapults firing 100-pound stone bullets; Lin Zhengjun-class warships, the overall firepower is actually far above Jinhai-class warships .

Although the new battleship formation with two Jinhai-class warships as the core has only 1,000 people, Lin Fu gave the new formation of the town division, and appointed Yang Shi, the deputy commander of the Jinghai division, to lead the new town division army, and Yang Shi was also in charge of the new division. Prepare to build a new recruit command school in Haizhou; when the two Linzhengjun-class warships and the new four Jinhai-class warships are put into service next year, the new town division will only have 6,000 soldiers, but it will definitely be the main town of the Jinghai division in the future. division.

In contrast, the Army is currently only building two new crossbow battalions in the Denghai Town Division.

Each new crossbow battalion of the Denghai Town Division is equipped with a total of 60 four-jin guns of twelve, eight or even smaller.

In addition to the axle wheels used by its own guns, each gun is also equipped with a towing auxiliary car. The artillery and the tractor can be combined into a four-wheeled cart. Considering that there will be no galloping road in the artillery battle, even if Huaidong's car-making skills are more developed, it will still be a problem to drag the heavy artillery in the wild. The difference is that each gun wagon is equipped with four to six horses.

Since the gun carriage itself can only carry a dozen solid bullets and shotguns, it also needs to be equipped with a special ammunition car group; in the end, a gun group is evenly spread out, requiring ten to twelve horses and fifteen soldiers. Keep up with the pace of the infantry's advancing battle.

Even if the manufacturing cost of artillery and ammunition is excluded, the resources to be invested in the establishment of a battle crossbow battalion are also worth the same amount of heavy armored cavalry; and the three cavalry divisions of the "Lu Lingyi" have only three cavalry divisions in total. A heavy armored cavalry.

The heavy armored cavalry battalion can develop a great role in the battlefield assault, but as long as the Huaidong Army sees the generals of the battle crossbow battalion exercise, all of them hope that they can have the same organization.

Soldiers and deceitful tactics boil down to one principle, which is to concentrate and re-concentrate one's own striking power, and to disperse and then disperse the enemy's striking power.

The 12-pound cannon fires lead shot shot, and one shot can hold up to two hundred lead shot. Between 200 meters and 400 meters, the conical barrage formed is no less than a salvo of 200 bows and crossbows. Even if two hundred bows and crossbows are fired in salvos in three columns, the battle line should be 60 meters wide; and within the width of 60 meters, it is enough to put ten 12-jin cannons.

Although the mobility of the artillery is relatively poor, in combination with the tight defense of the Huaidong Army, even if it may not have any advantages in mobile warfare, in positional warfare, it will gain a repressive advantage over the Yanhu Cavalry Corps.

Lin Bing gave priority to the development of naval guns, mainly with the help of new warships, to tear up Yanhu's sea-locked defense line - in fact, in the later stage, the Mabu Army really needs artillery to strengthen its combat power, and even consider dismantling the naval guns as field land artillery envoys .

"The bottom layer is a 12-jin heavy crossbow." Lin Bing did not hold his identity, and personally introduced Yue Lengqiu about the configuration of the fire crossbow on the new warship. "The 12-jin heavy crossbow is cast iron and weighs more than two thousand catties. , the force of the setback generated during the launch is extremely large. If these heavy crossbows are deployed on the upper floor, and several crossbows are accidentally fired together, it is likely to overturn the entire warship. At the beginning of the ship, it was necessary to think carefully, so the heavy crossbow was placed on the lower tier, and the eight-jin light crossbow was placed on the upper tier.”

Watching Yue Lengqiu, who was fighting the fire crossbow, UU read www.uukanshu. com whispered in his heart: Can this still be called a crossbow?

At this time, in the exercise area, the Jiyun-class **** ships also opened their muzzles, and together with the Jinhai-class main battleship, they used the artillery on one side to deceive the nearest target ship. Forty-two artillery pieces were fired quickly one after another, only to see white smoke that could not be concealed from the muzzle, and soon the broadsides were covered in the white smoke.

Due to the great distance, Yue Lengqiu and the others could clearly see the trajectory of the projectile in the air with the telescope on the crossbow viewing platform.

The closest target ship in the waters of the shooting range was about 500 meters away from the three warships.

The target boat is a refitted two-masted fishing boat. Although it is a fishing boat, it can also withstand offshore wind and waves. The hull is strong and comparable to non-inland lake and river ships. Some of the sides are covered with cooked cowhide. At this time, Yue Lengqiu also thought that in order to obtain accurate shooting data and more realistic shooting effects, Huaidong also invested a lot of resources in making targets, right?

Under an intensive attack of naval guns, the target ship on the edge of the sea area of ​​the shooting range was torn apart by the steel storm formed by solid bullets in almost the blink of an eye. Eight- or twelve-pound solid bullets, at a distance of 500 meters, can easily penetrate the sideboards made of three- or four-inch thick wood, and even break and hit the flanks and cabin wood. broken.

The second launch was after forty breath time. Under the second wave of blows, the target ship could no longer support it. It seemed that the keel was interrupted by chance, breaking from the middle, and slowly sinking.

Next, they tested 1,000-meter and 2,000-meter target ships, and also practiced tactics such as near-side **** and anti-enemy ship charge. At this time, Yue Lengqiu also understood that Huaidong's new fire crossbow had reached mass production. Side by side with the level of the battalion. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter