New Ming Empire mixed in America

"Long live Lord, this is the mortar designed by our Royal Research Institute. It's just a small modification of your sample..."

Zhang Yu pointed to the mortar placed at the test firing range and introduced it to Li Mingqi.

Good guy, this is not a small modification.

If the gun barrel is flattened and a steel plate is added on top, it will be said to be Li Yunlong's Italian gun Li Mingqi Duxin.

"Its diameter and length were generally thickened, and a wheeled bracket was added to it."

As he spoke, Zhang Yu asked someone to slowly raise the mortar barrel upwards and adjust it to the standby firing angle.

The overall height of the mortar at this angle is already higher than that of Li Mingqi, about two meters.

At this time, Zhang Yu then introduced to Li Mingqi:

"Because its caliber reaches 130 millimeters, we named it the Empire 130 mortar. The longest range is 2,100 meters and the closest range is 340 meters."

After the introduction, Zhang Yu asked people to start preparing for the test firing.

I saw six big-bodied and round-waisted guards starting to play with the mortar.

Two ammunition handlers are responsible for supplying shells to the mortar from distant ammunition boxes.

A loader stands on a special pedal on the side of the mortar and is responsible for putting the shells sent by the ammunition hand into the barrel.

One main gunner is responsible for ranging and firing, while the remaining two are responsible for guarding the gun.

Because the caliber of the mortar is too large, the launch method does not use inertial excitation, but uses a towed launch.

That is to say, after the shell is fed into the mortar from the front by the loader, the main gunner is responsible for pulling the mortar's firing pin switch with the traction rope, so that the mortar can fire smoothly.

But what surprised Li Mingqi the most was that when the main gunner was taking aim, he actually held an atlas in his hand that was marked with shooting Zhu Yuan.

Seeing Li Mingqi staring at the piece of paper curiously, Zhang Yu explained with a smile: "That is a set of aiming tables that the Jinyi guards figured out by themselves during the test shooting. The effect is not bad."

The results were more than good. Li Mingqi was very satisfied with his results of 6 out of 10 in 1,500 meters and 3 out of 10 in 2,000 meters.

The shells filled with fertilizer and explosives have a killing range of more than 20 meters.

Of course, this is not the explosion range, it refers to the damage range of shrapnel.

In layman's terms, the current Xinming Empire's mortar shells have a killing range similar to that of later generations' defensive grenades.

But the cannonball was there with a body that was as thick as a thigh, and the steel balls filled inside were not comparable to those of a grenade.

There are at least 300 7mm steel balls ordered in batches from the system in each shell. Not counting other things, the cost of the steel balls alone is about six yuan!

But the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the effect is not obvious when bombarding city walls.

After seeing the Empire 130 mortar, Zhang Yu also took Li Mingqi to visit various experimental weapons in the Royal Research Institute.

For example, machine guns and submachine guns that use gunpowder recoil to achieve continuous firing.

However, the effect is not satisfactory, because there is too much residue after the black powder is fired, so it will jam after a few rounds.

However, these experimental weapons have laid a solid foundation for future firearms development.

The current improved Python revolver has been distributed to all soldiers. This pistol with a six-round ammunition capacity and a range of about fifty meters has become the standard equipment for soldiers.

The Xinming Type 60 rifle currently in service has also undergone several improvements. It has initially been semi-automatic, similar to the later Garand rifle.

But now this improved rifle is only equipped to Jinyiwei.

This kind of gun will not be equipped to the National Defense Force until Jinyiwei is equipped with a more advanced rifle.

After the National Defense Forces are equipped with new rifles, the replaced Xinming Type 60 rifles will be equipped to the second-line troops.

That's right, now the Xinming Empire has also formed a second line of militia troops, referred to as militia.

These farmers, who have been intensively trained for two weeks, are now using breech-loading Enfield rifles copied from Foxconn.

As mentioned in the previous article, in order to save money, people like Zhang Yu used breech-loading rifles modified from front-loading Enfields.

In addition to these conventional firearms in Li Mingqi's eyes, there are also many strange weapons like multi-barreled pistols.

Although there are weapon diagrams provided by Li Mingqi, there are always people who will not look back until they hit the wall.

For example, Lao Li, after he developed the new Ming-type rotary machine gun (hand-cranked Gatling) based on the drawings provided by Li Mingqi, he set his sights on mortars.

So now a mortar model that can automatically feed ammunition appeared in front of Li Mingqi.

After looking at Lao Li with expectation in his eyes, Li Mingqi rubbed his temples.

He searched for a long time but couldn't think of any good words to praise it. This was similar to the two-kick repeater used during the Chinese New Year.

I simply turned a blind eye to him and walked towards the artillery research area at the back.

There are already several breech-loading artillery pieces here that were copied (crossed out) based on the weapon illustrations.

However, they are all scaled down and have not been completely finalized. Especially the research on steel rifled guns is still in an exploratory state.

This process, which requires repeated experiments to determine which steel material is suitable for gun barrels, cannot be accelerated in a short time.

But the rocket gave Li Mingqi a big surprise.

This creative idea of ​​stuffing several one-meter-long rockets into a square iron frame can be said to be very amazing.

Although it is still not accurate, it should be useful in siege warfare. Because you only need to send these exploding rockets to the enemy's city.

Li Mingqi pointed to the crude-looking iron box and asked Zhang Yu next to him:

"Can this kind of equipment be used in actual combat and used by the National Defense Forces?"

Zhang Yu looked at the launch device and said awkwardly: "It's possible, but it's a bit dangerous."

"When it is fired horizontally, it cannot fly very far and may hit the ground. If it is fired diagonally, it is not accurate. It is really useless."

Li Mingqi thought for a while and then said: "Can you make a rocket that can be launched by soldiers on their shoulders?"

Because the weapon illustrations are all there, Li Mingqi only slightly mentioned the RPG style.

"You can't always set your goals too high. I heard that you are studying a barrel-retractable anti-recoil device for the gun barrel?"

"Even if that kind of device is researched, it won't be of much use to the current empire. You haven't even conquered the technology of steel barrels yet."

"So I think you should first study simple and practical weapons such as grenades, landmines, and sea mines."

After some explanation, Zhang Yu was asked to give him a drawing of the parts needed for the mortar.

If you want to quickly equip the National Defense Forces with this kind of mortar, placing an order on the system will definitely be faster than producing it from Foxconn.

By the time Sun Laifu arrived from the military camp, Li Mingqi had already finished placing the order.

As soon as Sun Laifu walked into the Container Royal Study Room, Li Mingqi couldn't wait to ask:

"How is the formation of the 1st Brigade of the Wehrmacht going?"

"Back to Your Majesty, the first brigade has just been reorganized, but most of them are new recruits..."

Sun Laifu already knew what was happening in San Francisco on the way here. So he knew exactly why Li Mingqi called him here.

But now that the new recruits have just entered the camp, even if he wants to start a war right away, he is powerless.