But there is no way. Time waits for no one. Since we have not caught up with the good times, we can only invest a large amount of money to purchase German artillery. Fortunately, we have made a lot of money from developing industry in the past few years, which can be used to maintain the existing
There is still a surplus of troops, and even if it is difficult to get a loan from a foreign bank, we can still get the money.
Once the news of the purchase of artillery was released, arms agents from various countries stationed in China sent telegrams one after another, and dispatched commissioners to come to Yuan Su in person in Luanzhou to present the latest drawings and related data of commercial artillery. No matter where it was,
Sometimes, even when there is an arms ban, as long as a corresponding price can be given, there will still be many middlemen who are enthusiastic and rushing to serve.
After some screening, some middlemen who were using old artillery as new products and selling ridiculously high prices were eliminated. Then the British Military Advisory Group was invited to come for reference and put forward some opinions, and other middlemen were eliminated. Finally,
The information sent by the remaining intermediaries was summarized in detail.
In the international arms market, a new type of artillery cannot be the latest model of artillery that the country's artillery has already deployed. Even the country's troops are not fully equipped with the latest model of artillery. Even if they have great skills and connections,
It is absolutely impossible to obtain weapons and equipment like this.
The latest information on commercial artillery that has been compiled so far is the model from the Krupp factory two years ago, and the quantity available for sale is extremely limited. After a series of discussions with the staff officers of the headquarters and the military advisory group, the purchase was finally decided
Eight heavy artillery pieces, fourteen fast-fired howitzers, and twenty standard-caliber fast-fired howitzers.
The model of the heavy artillery is the latest M1911 155mm steel cannon. The advantage of this model is that it combines many years of heavy artillery operation processes and makes some more scientific adjustments, which shortens the firing interval a lot and makes the operation easier.
Much simpler.
But strictly speaking, the 155mm caliber is not a mainstream caliber, and adding these five millimeters does not necessarily increase the power. The German active-duty troops were only equipped with this type of artillery for a few years, and it was immediately replaced by an updated, more scientific gun.
Replaced by this model. Only some partial divisions continue to use this model of artillery.
This is why even though the war has begun, these artillery can still be ordered.
The fourteen rapid-fire howitzers are Krupp factory m1908 artillery with a caliber of 100 mm. It was once the most favored medium-caliber rapid-fire horse artillery by the German artillery force. Its characteristic is that it is larger than other 100-mm caliber artillery.
It is lighter and faster, and is easy to disassemble and assemble. During wartime, it only needs a horse or an ox to drag it.
As for the standard caliber artillery, it refers to the small 70 mm caliber artillery developed by the Krupp Factory. After entering the 20th century, the Krupp Factory only had artillery with a caliber smaller than 70 mm among its export products.
Even most of the artillery on the European market maintains a caliber of more than 70 millimeters. Howitzers are also called mountain cannons in China and are more suitable for long-distance firepower output than cannons.
On China's domestic battlefields and in general foreign wars, 70-mm-caliber artillery is enough to provide considerable firepower. Yuan Su's idea is to temporarily use 70-mm-caliber artillery as the main artillery equipment. As for heavy artillery,
No matter how convenient it is to operate, it is still compared to other heavy artillery. For artillerymen, there is no such thing as easy operation of heavy artillery.
The heavy artillery force will indeed have extremely important strategic value in the next few decades, but this requires not only strong financial support, but also years of accumulated experience.
This batch of orders for a total of 56 artillery pieces has a total price of up to 850,000 yuan. Credit Agricole Bank will purchase and transport them on its behalf. It is expected to take about four months to be divided into three batches before they can be delivered to China.
.When the time comes, merchant ships will arrive directly at Nandaihe without having to go through Shanghai for transshipment.
After signing the order, Yuan Su immediately began to deal with artillery training. Since it will take four months to transport this batch of artillery, at least a foundation must be laid for the artillery in these four months.
First, grasp some data and theoretical knowledge firmly, and then start training with live ammunition after the cannon is delivered.
He discussed with He Qigong and Chen Wenian for two consecutive days and decided to open an artillery academy in Luanzhou.
This college not only specializes in training artillery as its main teaching task, but also takes into account the qualifications of ordinary colleges and universities. It is completely run in accordance with the 21st century military academy. Since it is called a "college", it must be distinguished from
At this stage, China is a pure military “school”.
In the Artillery College, you not only need to learn military knowledge related to artillery, but also learn general cultural knowledge.
All students who apply for this college must have completed primary school, secondary school, and have served or studied in the army or other military schools for at least one year. Of course, the primary and secondary school stages can also be Army primary school or Army middle school. In short, it is not necessarily
Relevant academic qualifications are required, but equivalent academic qualifications are required.
According to Yuan Su, what he needs is to cultivate top-notch military talents with high quality. These talents can be officers during wartime, and can play a role in other aspects of society during non-wartime. Although on the surface,
, the requirements for entering this specialized college are very demanding, and it is really out of reach in terms of the current domestic education situation. However, the harsh conditions do not mean that there are not qualified candidates, and there are not many in Jing, not to mention that as long as they can enter the college's threshold,
You can enjoy a series of superior benefits.
Of course, the Artillery College is responsible for cultivating high-level comprehensive talents, and in order to adapt to the current situation of the times and the supply needs of military personnel, there must also be some extensive artillery training institutions.
Therefore, in addition to the Artillery College, Yuan Su also established the Tanghai Artillery Special Training Camp, which was similar to the battalion troops to train grassroots artillery in an assembly-line manner. The requirements for entering this special training camp are naturally lower than those of the Artillery College.
Many, the purpose of the special training camp is to quickly and continuously train artillery for the troops. It can be said that the artillery is separated from the recruit camp and used as a place to invest in artillery operation training from the beginning of the recruits.
After the plan was drawn up, the Office of the Military Affairs Council immediately allocated funds to establish a preparatory office and began preparations for the academy and special training camp.
To this end, Yuan Su put a lot of effort into hiring specialized talents at high salaries from home and abroad. He appointed He Qigong as the chief of the preparatory department of the Artillery College and immediately started construction work on all aspects of the college.
To a certain extent, it can share resources with the Artillery College, but the differences between the two are still separate.
In the plan submitted by He Qigong to Yuan Su, he decided to build the college in the mountainous area in the southern suburbs of Luanzhou. This mountainous area is a wilderness and wild forest. Although the construction project may be a little troublesome, it is very convenient because there are few people around.
Artillery live-fire training. Considering that the entrance requirements of this college are extremely high, there may not be many colleges trained in each period, so the school is not large in scale and it is expected that most of the construction period can be completed in three months.
In addition to artillery professional soldiers, the employed personnel also include some well-known cultural and educational scholars and lecturers and professors from other institutions of higher learning. Compared with building college campuses, hiring teaching talents is more difficult. In the end, we can only continue to improve
Due to the temptation of salary and benefits, the relevant personnel were gathered so quickly.
The Tanghai Artillery Special Training Camp is relatively simple. In addition to the military teaching instructors of the academy who can share human resources, the remaining instructors are mostly young officers who have just graduated from the artillery classes of domestic military academies. The recruitment work of the Artillery Special Training Camp
, and the recruitment work for the expansion of the 10th Division and the 1st Corps of the Central Army was carried out at the same time. Among the recruits recruited by the 10th Division and the 1st Corps, those with better quality were directly sent to Tang Hai to invest in artillery.
of learning.
For the cannons used in teaching, you can first order a few from China.
The fifty-six cannons imported from foreign countries are only used for daily live-fire training after they are officially put into service.
With artillery and cannons, the next thing to consider is the issue of logistical supply. Artillery shells are not as easy to mass-produce as rifle bullets. The most quickly consumed valuable materials in war are various cannon shells. One cannon shell
The price can be equal to the price of a thousand rounds of bullets. Especially for heavy artillery shells, not only are the production technology requirements strict, but the manufacturing cost is several times more expensive than ordinary artillery shells.
Yuan Su occasionally ordered a batch of artillery shells in the import order of fifty-six cannons, but he only ordered a total of one thousand rounds of three calibers of artillery shells. Naturally, he did not want to use imported artillery shells all the time. Once these shells arrived in China,
, a part will be sent to the 101 Factory, and this secret military factory will be responsible for the copycat copying.