Chapter 63 Artillery (2)

"Does the metallurgical department have a way to solve this technical problem?" Tao Donglai looked at the camp of the Ministry of Industry. Today's visitors are all experts in related industries among the people in order to answer questions on the spot immediately when problems arise.

Eliminate some unachievable plans as soon as possible.

The technical director of metallurgy is called Liu Xingli. He graduated from the Iron and Steel Metallurgy Department of the School of Metallurgical Engineering and Technology of China Metallurgical University in 2007. Before crossing over, he worked as a field technician in Shougang. He has a serious academic background and is also one of the professionals that the Executive Committee attaches most importance to. Currently, Metallurgical

He was the one who took the initiative to set up the workshop. Such a small problem naturally could not trouble him, so he nodded and said: "Of course there is a way. In industrial production, this problem is usually solved by electroplating lead, but this requires chemical engineering.

The department must provide fluoroboric acid as the plating solution."

Chemical expert Qiao Zhiya raised his hand and said in half-baked Chinese: "To make fluoroboric acid, first we have to find borax ores. As far as I know, the main producing areas of that stuff in China are Qinghai, Tibet and Shaanxi. I want to be short

We probably won’t be able to capture those places within that time.”

There was a sigh in the crowd, and it seemed that the road was blocked. But Qiao Zhiya immediately continued: "But fortunately you met me, a professional, because I happen to know some alternatives, such as car batteries often

Potassium sodium tartrate lead plating and triethanolamine lead plating are used, as well as methanesulfonate lead plating, perchlorate lead plating, and sulfamate lead plating..."

"Stop, stop, stop talking about such detailed technical terms first, most people in this room can't understand." Tao Donglai quickly stopped Qiao Zhiya's showoff: "Just tell me if there is anything suitable for our current situation.

Is there a processing method that can produce lead-plated cannonballs on a large scale? Just say yes or no."

"Yes! But..."

"But what?" Tao Donglai was also a little anxious. Whether this technical problem could be solved would affect the development path of the future artillery through time. In the long run, it would even affect the lives of quite a few people. He had no choice but to do so.

feel nervous.

"But you have to build me a laboratory first so that I can perfect this process. After all, I have never actually operated it before. In addition, I must remind everyone that this electroplating process consumes an estimated 100% of electricity during large-scale processing.

It's very big, and maybe you will have to stop some other electricity production projects." Qiao Zhiya made his request unhurriedly.

"Okay, no problem. I have specially approved this matter on behalf of the Executive Committee." After a short discussion, Tao Donglai immediately announced the Executive Committee's decision: "The other issue is the lead. I remember that there seems to be lead mines in Hainan.

?”

Ning Qi immediately opened his laptop and connected to the large database: "Yes, there are two places in Ledong and Changjiang. The reserve of lead-zinc mine in Ledong alone is close to 100,000 tons, but the problem is that we have nothing to do in the short term.

Go mine there."

"If we can't go, we can hire people to go and offer a price, and let Yazhou organize people to dig for ore." Tao Donglai immediately thought of a solution: "And we also brought hundreds of kilograms of lead with us..."

"The lead must be reserved for making rifle bullets." Ning Qi reminded Tao Donglai softly.

Tao Donglai slapped his forehead and did not continue talking about this topic. The current plan to build cannons is only one aspect. The plan to manufacture flintlock guns and arm the local troops has also been put on the agenda. The executive committee has such a small lead reserve.

It really can't be used casually.

The discussions so far have only theoretically approved the possibility of manufacturing and equipping breech-loading cannons, and established the development route for artillery manufacturing in the future. However, in actual operation, it is basically impossible to achieve the goal of building the kind of artillery just discussed.

The reason is very simple, because among all the time-travelers, no one has actually made a cannon. Including the six-man North American gang who are weapons experts, at most they have personally fired old-fashioned front-loading smoothbore cannons and know some artillery.

Technical parameters, but he is also a layman about the cannon casting process. So after discussing for a long time, the topic returned to the beginning - it is still necessary to cast a few small-caliber front-loading smoothbore cannons with the least technical difficulty to practice the craftsmanship. If

If you can't even get a smoothbore cannon, let's not talk about fully equipping it with a breech-loading rifled cannon for the time being.

This was not the only reason for choosing to make smoothbore cannons in the first place. There were two other important reasons that prompted the Executive Committee to make such a choice.

The first reason is that the Ming Dynasty purchased a lot of arms due to frequent wars during this period. In history, the best example of making a fortune by selling arms to the Ming Dynasty was the Portuguese. Due to their backward cannon-casting technology

, Most of the Hongyi cannons equipped in the army in the late Ming Dynasty were traded with the Portuguese in Macau. Because the Ming Dynasty had a huge demand for artillery, the Portuguese's production capacity could not meet it, and they even acted as middlemen.

, reselling British ship-borne cannons to the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the Dutch also had a share of such arms transactions. However, after the Ming Dynasty had a bad relationship with the Dutch due to the Taiwan issue, the dispute between the two sides

The arms trade just stopped.

Although these red barbarian cannons imported from the Portuguese are bulky in appearance, their price is proportional to their weight, easily costing thousands of silver. With such a large arms business, the Executive Committee does not intend to give Portugal a cheap advantage in vain.

People. Whether it is military technology, tactical level, or grasp of historical trends and key events, Chuanchuangzhong has incomparable advantages. To be an invincible transnational arms dealer in this era, I am afraid no one can compare with this group of people from

The time-travelers in the 21st century are even more qualified. The Thirty Years' War in Europe is now in full swing, and there are still twenty years of war to be fought. There are people in the time-travelers who have long been clamoring to get their weapons out as soon as possible.

Exporting it to Europe will make the white-skinned people kill more fiercely, so that they have no time to worry about the struggle for control of the ocean in the East.

Since there is an intention to sell arms, this involves the second reason, which is also an important principle in the arms business - the most advanced weapons must not be sold. In the Executive Committee's long-term plan for arms exports, export-oriented weapons

There should be at least one generation gap between them and personal-use weapons. This way, in the event that a disloyal customer becomes an opponent, the army that has traveled through the masses can still maintain sufficient battlefield suppression capabilities by virtue of its weapon advantages.

This principle of generational difference is not only aimed at future arms export targets, but also must be appropriately applied to the armies that the time travelers themselves will build in the future.

The rapid pace of expansion in the coming decades will definitely be unprecedented in history, and it will be difficult for the military's organizational construction to be very solid in this accelerated development, even if the political work is done better.

Well, it is inevitable that some people in some marginal armies will have ambitions. But if the weapons gap is maintained, even if someone rebels, they will not have the ability to make a comeback. In addition, armies that use firearms are very dependent on logistics.

Seriously, as long as the supply of ammunition is cut off, the ability to continue fighting will drop sharply. Controlling the source of the manufacturing and supply of arms is also one of the ways to effectively control the army.

For this purpose of control, weapons of various technological levels will be manufactured simultaneously as planned and used separately. For example, if the Chuanchuanzhong has already built a breech-loading cannon, then the "Haihan Cannon" with lower technological content can be transferred to the Ming Dynasty.

The dynasty sells them. When the numerous indigenous troops are equipped with Minie rifles, the obsolete old-fashioned flintlocks can appear on the arms export list.

In fact, there is a relatively obscure purpose for exporting arms, which the Executive Committee has not publicly announced. In fact, this purpose was set by the Executive Committee after being inspired by the arms export policies of certain major powers in later generations, that is, through continuous targeted targeting.

The export of arms will weaken the weapons research and development capabilities of arms importing countries. If things go on like this, they will have to become strongly dependent on arms exporting countries. Whether it is the after-sales maintenance of weapons, the supply of ammunition, the training of personnel, etc., they will be severely restricted.

For arms exporting countries. For example, India, a large country in South Asia in later generations, was nicknamed the arsenal of all nations. Its major sea, land and air weapons were basically imported from different countries. The disadvantages are self-evident. It often takes decades to develop its own weapons.

After a long time, when the prototype is finally ready, the arms exporting country will "timely" launch weapons of the same level with much lower production costs, so that this kind of laborious weapon research and development will have to be abandoned halfway.

After this kind of control over arms technology reaches a certain stage, it will be easy for the arms exporting country to establish a military alliance with its customers. From time to time, they can also find excuses such as "joint research and development of weapons" to allow the importing country to

The money is used as scientific research funds for the exporting countries. Of course, the weapons that the people who pay the money will still get in the end will only be castrated versions with generation differences. The Executive Committee believes that this kind of soft suppression of military technology is more difficult to achieve than on the frontal battlefield.

A hard confrontation is more cost-effective. You don’t have to fight all the time while making money. When you really want to fight, you can also recruit a bunch of young men to serve as cannon fodder. It’s more cost-effective no matter how you look at it. And these weak countries that contribute money are often very active.

He kneels and licks his father's country in various positions in exchange for being able to maintain his place in the powerful military alliance.

The reason why these ideas have not been publicly announced is that the Executive Committee has considered that the number of naturalized citizens will increase in the future. Once this theory spreads, it will not be conducive to internal unity on the one hand, and it will also affect future armaments.

Exports are adversely affected.

After discussing the broad development direction, the next step is to deal with some technical details.
Chapter completed!