Three warships, one large and two small, sailed from the right wing with their sails swelled, as if they were arrows off the string, and sailed into the practice sea area in front of the crossbow viewing platform.♀:♀Piao Tianwen Net♀网♀
Following the drill flag order issued by the sentry tower next to the crossbow viewing platform, the three warships quickly adjusted their positions and pointed their sides towards the sea area of the shooting range - Yue Lengqiu discovered the benefits of the telescope.
Externally and accurately received the flag order summons - in the field of view visible through the sight glass, the big ship was quite the same size as the Huaidong Navy's Jinhai-class warship. The sight glass could only see the left wing of the battleship, and the hull above the water was high.
Nearly two feet, it is thicker than an ordinary Jinhai-class warship.
The large ship only has sails and masts, but no accessories such as oars and sculls. It also has no poop cabin. Based on the regulations of a large ship, we know that this is a main battleship that has given up on nearside combat and purely uses fire crossbows for long-range attacks.
The small ship is comparable to the current Jiyun-class warships of the Huaidong Navy. It has a low cabin floor and retains the aft cabin structure. In addition to the sails and masts, it is also equipped with oars and oars on both sides. It should be used as a frigate.
Following the instructions of the flag order, the patches of copper-studded decks on the left side of the ship were neatly opened to both sides, revealing two layers of thirty shooting ports in total on the entire side.
Immediately afterwards, the black cast-iron crossbow barrel protruded from the shooting port, like the eyes of the god of death. The lower floor has the least shooting ports, with only twelve, but through the looking glass, you can see that the protruding crossbow barrel is the largest; the upper floor has the smallest shooting port.
The firing ports were doubled, with a total of eighteen crossbows sticking out.
If the crossbow positions on the right wing were arranged in the same way, such a new warship would be equipped with sixty new fire-fighting crossbows. Yue Lengqiu, who had seen the performance of the fire-fighting crossbows on land, could also suppress his shock.
I couldn't help but take a deep breath at this time.
Gunpowder and artillery technology have been developed for seven or eight years, but large-scale sea and land test exercises have only been conducted for two years, and naval gun tactics are not yet mature, so the first launch at the end of last year
The largest models of new warships that were started for construction and delivered for testing in April are only two Jinhai-class ships.
The two new Jinhai-class warships were officially incorporated into the Jinghai Navy in early October after nearly half a year of sea trials, test firings and tactical considerations. The two new Linzhengjun-class warships were also delayed until early August.
Only after the technology is more certain, construction will be officially started at Chongzhou Shipyard. The trial voyage will not be possible until February next year at the earliest.
If the Northern Expedition wants to officially kick off before March next year, the two Lin Zhengjun-class battleships will have less than a month to trial, and then they will be incorporated into the Jinghai Navy.
Initially, the military allocated 1 million silver dollars to build the first batch of new warships, but in the end it spent up to 1.5 million silver dollars on two Jinhai-class main battleships and eight frigate warships. Including the previous development of gunpowder and artillery,
The investment in large-scale land and sea exercises has resulted in the construction of these two Jinhai-class battleships. The resources Huaidong has invested can almost fight another Jingxiang Battle.
Lin Fu has the memory of later generations. It's not that he doesn't know the advantages of gunpowder. It's just that to develop gunpowder from the category of alchemy to the stage of practical field artillery and naval guns, too many resources need to be invested.
This was also the key factor why Lin Fu did not develop firearms at all in the early days of the Huaidong Army; immature gunpowder and artillery technology not only gave him extremely limited advantages on the battlefield, but also might cause the enemy to follow up and research related technologies in advance.
The She family was beaten like a lost dog in the later period, but their determination to follow up on the research on shipbuilding technology in the early stage was not weak; Yanhu's shipyard in Tieshan was able to build Jinhai-class warships after being supplemented by She family craftsmen.
In addition, the war weapons used by the Huaidong Army on the battlefield, including heavy sling crossbows and scorpion crossbows, can be successfully copied by Yan Hu as long as they have contact with them on the battlefield. It can be seen that although Yan Hu is a wild and alien race,
His pragmatic and solid learning ability is far beyond the reach of those scholars and officials in Jiangning City who regard themselves as noble and look down on miscellaneous scholars and craftsmen.
It can be said that Yanhu was only one step away from the Huaidong Army in the use of war weapons.
However, this step seems so far away at this time.
At this time, what supports the Huaidong Army's combat power is not simply a few new types of war weapons, but a new industry and new learning system that transcend 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 a year, while the output of the government-run iron yards controlled by the Privy Council at this time was thirty times that amount. At this time, the south focused on iron ore mining, smelting and casting.
The total number of employees in such industries 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 southern heavy industry.
Of course, this also relies on the consumption market of hundreds of millions of kilograms of iron materials each year formed by southern and foreign maritime trade.
Why did Lin Fu grit his teeth and support Lin Jingzhong in building the Jinchuan Iron Bridge?
The Jinchuan Iron Bridge was created. After the iron bridge technology matures, it will stimulate the consumption of iron materials and promote the development of the iron smelting and slurry industries.
Nowadays, the annual output of hundreds of millions of kilograms of iron materials from the southern government and civilian iron yards seems to be a lot and astonishing. It is almost difficult to imagine that a traditional farming society can digest it. In fact, if thirty to fifty Jinchuan iron bridges can be built every year, only
This alone can consume hundreds of millions of kilograms of iron production.
All new industries support each other. Without the entire new industrial system, the current Huaidong Army cannot be supported.
Even if Lin Fu published the complete formula of gunpowder, artillery, and complete design drawings of new warships, Yanhu would not be able to install artillery on a large scale in the navy and army.
Although Yanhu quickly recovered from the defeat of Jingxiang in the past two years, and it can even be said that its military preparedness is still on the rise, it is actually unable to make up for the gap of almost an era with the Huaidong Army.
In the past few years, the size of Jinghai Navy must have been controlled at 30,000 people, without large-scale development. On the surface, the size of Yanhu's navy in Dengzhou has also grown to 30,000 people in recent years. However, the two naval forces
The gap in strength between them cannot be measured by the number of people at all.
Nowadays, the shipyards in Chongzhou, Mingzhou, Quanzhou, Yizhou, Jiangning and Haizhou can build sixty to eighty old Jinhai-class and Linzhengjun-class warships every year as long as Lin Fu orders them to build enough warships.
With ten ships, the navy can be expanded to 200,000 men or more in two years.
Lin Fu gave up the expansion of low-tech combat readiness and devoted a large amount of resources to the upgrade of new warships and artillery. In addition to strategic upgrades, he also wanted to stimulate the development of new learning and new industries.
The cost of building the first two Jinhai-class battleships was as high as 400,000 silver dollars each; considering that the two Lin Zhengjun-class battleships were both newly built, the budget allocated by Lin Fu was as high as 1 million silver dollars each - which is far from the
It is more expensive than the old Jinhai-class and Lin Zhengjun-class warships, but considering the strategic upgrade across the ages, the cost is still worth it.
The Jinhai-class battleships that have been incorporated into the Jinghai Division are each equipped with a total of 60 12-pound and 8-pound artillery pieces.
Naval guns require long range, low firing angle, and strong destructive power against enemy targets. The twelve-pound naval gun built by the Ordnance Supervision is the main gun of the Jinhai-class battleship. The gun barrel is nearly three meters long and weighs nearly three thousand kilograms.
The inside of the gun cabin is a sliding rail structure. It can fire a solid lead bullet weighing 12 kilograms, which can effectively hit a distant target two thousand meters away. With double the charge, it can shoot a distant target six miles away, but there is a risk of exploding the barrel.
It will increase suddenly; lead shot shells can be used instead for near-side combat.
Although the Jinhai-class battleship does not have overall armor, the relatively weak points are covered with copper armor, and the masts are also made of fine iron. Even if the hull is attacked by fire, it can still be replaced with new sails and continue sailing - the same is true, so that
The total weight of the Jinhai-class battleship is equal to that of a merchant ship of the same class that is 80% fully loaded, weighing up to 500 tons, and its speed with full sail is about a quarter slower than that of the same unladen sailing ship.
The frigate must ensure the capability of near-border and boarding operations and fast navigation, and is equipped with only twelve eight-pound guns.
Although the Lin Zhengjun-class battleship under construction at Chongzhou Shipyard only has forty-eight more gun positions than the Jinhai-class battleship, the number of guns installed is one level higher. The lower deck has to install twelve 24-pound guns
Heavy artillery, with a range of one thousand meters, is no less destructive to coastal fortresses than a heavy catapult crossbow firing a stone bullet weighing a hundred kilograms; the overall firepower of Lin Zhengjun-class battleships is actually far superior to that of Jinhai-class battleships
.
Although the new battleship formation with two Jinhai-class battleships as the core only had a thousand men, Lin Fu gave the new town division the establishment and appointed Yang Shi, the deputy commander of the Jinghai Division, to also lead the new town division. Yang Shi was also responsible for the formation of the new town division.
Preparations are being made to build a command school for new recruits in Haizhou; when the two Lin Zhengjun-class battleships and the new four Jinhai-class battleships are put into service next year, the new town division will only have 6,000 soldiers, but it will definitely be the main town town of the Jinghai Division in the future.
division.
In comparison, the Army currently only has two new crossbow battalions in the Denghai Division.
Each new crossbow battalion of the Denghai Division is equipped with a total of sixty twelve-pound, eight-pound, or even smaller four-pound cannons.
In addition to the axle wheel used to mount the gun, each gun is also equipped with a traction auxiliary vehicle. The artillery and the tractor can be combined into a four-wheel vehicle. Considering that there will be no running road during the artillery war, even if Huaidong's
No matter how advanced the vehicle skills are, dragging heavy artillery in the field is still a problem. The war crossbow battalion equips each artillery carriage with four to six horses depending on the weight of the artillery.
Since the artillery cart itself can only carry a dozen solid bombs and shotguns, it must be equipped with an ammunition cart crew. In the end, an artillery crew is evenly divided and requires ten to twelve horses and fifteen soldiers.
Keep up with the pace of the infantry's advance in battle.
Even if the manufacturing costs of artillery and ammunition are excluded, the resources invested in the establishment of a crossbow battalion are equivalent to a battalion of heavy armored cavalry; and the three cavalry divisions of "Lu Lingyi" only have a total of three
A heavily armored cavalry camp.
Heavy armored cavalry battalions can play a great role in battlefield assaults, but as long as the Huaidong Army sees the generals practicing with the crossbow battalion, they all hope to have the same organization under their banners.
The deceitful conduct of soldiers boils down to one principle, which is to concentrate and re-concentrate one's own strike power, and to disperse and disperse the enemy's strike power.
The twelve-pound cannon fires lead pellets, and one round can hold up to 200 lead pellets. Between 200 and 400 meters, the cone-shaped barrage formed is no less than that of two hundred bows and crossbows.
Even if two hundred crossbows were fired in three rows, the battle line would be 60 meters wide; and in a width of 60 meters, it would be enough to place ten twelve-pound cannons.
Although the mobility of artillery is relatively poor, in conjunction with the Huaidong Army's tight defensive formation, even if it may not have any advantage in mobile warfare, it will gain a suppressive advantage over the Yanhu Cavalry Corps in positional warfare.
Lin Fu gave priority to the development of naval guns, mainly to use new warships to tear Yanhu's sea-locking defense line into pieces. In fact, in the later stages, the Ma Bu Army really needed artillery to strengthen its combat power, and could even consider dismantling the naval guns and using them as field land artillery.
make.
"The bottom level is a twelve-pound crossbow." Lin Fu, without revealing his identity, personally introduced to Yue Lengqiu the configuration of the fire-fighting crossbow on the new warship, "The twelve-pound crossbow is made of iron and weighs more than two thousand pounds.
, the backlash force generated when launched is extremely large. If such heavy crossbows are deployed on the upper level, and several crossbows are accidentally fired at once, it is likely to overturn the entire battleship. Battles at sea are ever-changing, with wind and waves blowing.
The ship must be carefully considered at the beginning, so the heavy crossbows are placed on the lower level and the eight-pound light crossbows are placed on the upper level."
As Yue Lengqiu watched the Fuhuo Crossbow rehearsing, he thought to himself: Can this still be called a crossbow?
At this time, in the exercise sea area, the Jiyun-class frigate also opened its gun muzzle, and together with the Jinhai-class main battleship, it used the artillery on one side to conceal the nearest target ship. As the flag order was issued, the three new warships were on one side.
Forty-two artillery pieces were fired rapidly one after another, and white smoke that could not be concealed was ejected from the muzzle, and the sides were soon covered in white smoke.
Because they were far apart, Yue Lengqiu and the others could clearly see the trajectory of the projectiles in the air using telescopes on the crossbow viewing platform.
The nearest target ship in the shooting range waters is about 500 meters away from the three warships.
The target boat is a modified two-masted fishing boat. Although it is a fishing boat, it can withstand offshore wind and waves. The hull is so strong that it cannot be compared with inland lake and river ships. Some of the sides are also covered with cooked cowhide. It is basically an imitation of Yan Hu in Dengzhou.
At this time, Yue Lengqiu also thought that in order to obtain accurate drill data and more realistic drill effects, Huaidong also invested a lot of resources in making targets, right?
Under an intensive attack from the naval guns, the target ship at the edge of the sea area of the shooting range was torn apart by the steel storm caused by the solid bullets in almost the blink of an eye. Only the wreckage was left. Eight pounds, twelve pounds
The heavy solid bullet, at a distance of 500 meters, almost effortlessly penetrated the side of the three- to four-inch thick wood, and even broke and shattered the ship's side and bulkhead wood.
The second launch was forty breaths later. Under the second wave of blows, the target ship could no longer hold up. It seemed that the keel was accidentally interrupted, broke in the middle, and slowly sank.
Next, they test-fired 1,000-meter and 2,000-meter target ships, and practiced tactics such as nearside escort and anti-enemy ship charge. By this time, Yue Lengqiu also understood that Huaidong's newly built Fuhuo Crossbow had reached a large scale.
The level of manufacturing and deployment of troops. @ya