Heavy infantry, or heavy infantry, in addition to covering soldiers with sophisticated armor with high coverage, also pays more attention to coordinated operations in dense formations, which is by no means a new thing in today's world.
When Dai Viet established its dynasty, it lacked war horses, so it focused on developing heavy armored infantry.
At this time, the troops of the Western Qin, Dongchuan, Huaidong, and Huaixi were all built on the basis of the previous Gyeonggi Forbidden Army and the Western Army. Their elite combat capabilities were basically heavy armored infantry.
Several dazzling achievements in the early days of the rise of Chushan can also be said to be a model for heavy armored infantry assault operations.
However, after falling in Hehuai and other places, facing the powerful and highly mobile Red Hussars, Chushan focused on developing light armored infantry tactics centered on light weapons such as shield vehicles that facilitated flexible maneuvers on the battlefield.
Even if a limited number of elites are gathered together to develop the forward-selecting army, they will sometimes dismount to fight and still belong to the category of heavy infantry, but such combat opportunities are few and far between.
Of course, one of the most critical reasons is that Chushan has risen too fast, and Chushan's supply of sophisticated armors can no longer keep up with the pace of military expansion.
Even though Xu Huai attached great importance to the forging of soldiers and armors, and his ability to prepare soldiers and armors ranked first among all other methods, Chushan was too embarrassed in the early stage and had to put a lot of
Some of the fine soldiers and armor prepared were traded in exchange for scarce food, salt, cloth, horses, herbs and other supplies.
Even though Chushan has produced nearly 30,000 sets of armor and scale armor to equip the army in recent years, in addition to the rapid expansion of Chushan's troops and horses in recent years, the losses in the war are also astonishing. At this time, the army
The generals were mainly equipped with leather armor captured from many great victories over the years and various other old armors.
This also destined that Chushan's early development of light armored infantry tactics centered on light weapons such as refined iron shield vehicles was more economical and practical, and more in line with Chushan's reality.
However, the battlefield situation and environment are not static.
As the scale of the war expands and the defense lines of both sides in the confrontation buffer zone are gradually improved, the mobility of soldiers and horses is greatly weakened. At this time, whoever can control the local battlefield can often determine the direction of victory or defeat.
For example, both sides have invested 500,000 to 600,000 soldiers and horses in the Rucai battlefield at this time, and both sides are doing everything possible to build strong forts near mountains and rivers. It is very difficult to rely on mobile warfare or rely entirely on strategy to win in a short period of time.
At this time, Jingxiang needs to develop heavy infantry as the core of the entire army to enhance its dominance on the battlefield, and cooperate with cavalry and mobile light armored infantry to assist in flank operations. This is at least more in line with the confrontation in Guangcheng, Xiangcheng and other places.
Actual battlefield.
The development of heavy infantry certainly cannot be spread across the entire army at once.
Even though new water turbines and hydraulic forging hammers have been put into use one after another, and the ability to prepare sophisticated armor has been greatly improved, the gap will be larger in a short period of time, and many things still have to be done step by step.
On the one hand, Chen Zixiao and Wang Xian are currently on the battlefields of Guangcheng and Xiangcheng, concentrating some heavy armor soldiers for use. On the other hand, the production department will concentrate the sophisticated armors newly supplied to the army in the next phase and prioritize equipping some elite combat camps.
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Now Xu Pang is directly given the command of a heavy armored infantry battalion.
Of course, heavy infantry is not a rare thing, and the production company is very clear about its advantages and disadvantages.
Taking the armor currently equipped by Selection Front Army Jianrui as a standard, the weight of the heavily armed infantry will exceed 80 kilograms. This is still due to the high level of armor making in Beijing and Xiangzhou. The weight of the armor is greatly reduced, but this still makes the heavy infantry heavy.
Their maneuverability on the battlefield is greatly reduced, and the terrain requirements for access to and from the battlefield are also extremely high. No matter how elite soldiers are, they cannot be expected to carry nearly a hundred kilograms of weight and climb ten miles of dangerous slopes or mud.
After entering the battlefield through a narrow path, how powerful can it maintain its combat effectiveness?
This is also an important reason why Xu Huai decided to give priority to building an iron bridge over the Majian River.
If the Heluo enemy forces do not retreat from the Guangcheng front line after the spring, the main battlefield for the confrontation between the two sides will be concentrated on the flat area ten or twenty miles deep north of the main Guangcheng stronghold.
Ruzhou placed its most elite heavy armored infantry in the camp on the east bank. Every time it entered the west bank to prepare for or fight, it was necessary to build a spacious passage across the Majian River that was not easily destroyed by the enemy.
In the next few years, Rucai and other places will focus on interior defense, in order to fully utilize the advantages of heavy armored infantry and strengthen their dominance on the battlefield, and at the same time, in order to more closely connect the defense lines of Guangcheng and Xiangcheng, and facilitate
Heavy armored infantry quickly supported the two defense areas. Xu Huai planned to further renovate the post road north of the Beishui River and run through the entire Ruzhou Basin. In addition to widening the post road and laying gravel roadbed, there was also an iron bridge to replace Yi Wei
The wooden bridges destroyed by flash floods and the pontoon bridges need to be removed during the flood season.
"Majian Bridge is going to be built as a single-span iron bridge with a span of more than 12 feet. Can the construction institute be confident enough?" Wang Ju had not cared much about the construction method before????????????
This time, he led the armed merchant group south for nearly a year before returning. At this time, listening to Xu Huai describing the next stage of war deployment and the development direction of troops and horses, I couldn't help but wonder about such a long-span railway.
Will it be too difficult to build the bridge?
In addition, within the territory of Ruzhou alone, there are almost seven or eight tributary streams that originate from Jishan Mountain and merge into the Beishui River in the south. They are comparable in size to the Majian River. Other large and small rivers are characterized by the terrain difference after the flood season.
It’s big, the process is short, and the water is strong.
Even if we do not build larger iron bridges over the Beishui River, Lishui River and Nishui River, which are more than 30 to 40 feet wide, we can just completely open up the post road north of the Beishui River in Ruzhou with an iron bridge and pave it with gravel.
The roadbed facilitates the transfer of the heavy armor infantry battalion between Guangcheng and Xiangcheng, and integrates the Rucai defense area more closely, which Wang Ju seems to be unable to imagine.
Of course, the world had already had the technology to build a stone arch bridge with a single span of more than ten feet. However, including the mining of stone, the construction period was too long and the cost was extremely high, so it could not be considered at this time.
"The Construction Institute has already been able to cast arch ribs that weigh more than six thousand kilograms and are more than four feet long. The arch ribs are also the heaviest and relatively demanding components of the iron bridge. The construction institute has built the first one in Longtanling a few years ago.
This long-span iron bridge has preliminarily verified that the multiple arch ribs are assembled by riveting, and its bearing capacity is far higher than that of ordinary wooden bridges. The Majian River Iron Bridge is not technically difficult," Xu Huai said, "As for its cost,
For example, the Magian River Iron Bridge consumes about one million kilograms of iron material, and the manufacturer can bear it at this time. Not to mention that the total weight of 10,000 sets of armor is only six to seven hundred thousand kilograms, but it is enough to build dozens of armors.
Small and medium-sized iron bridges..."
The armor pieces and scale armor need to be repeatedly forged and formed, and must also be quenched, dehydrated, and embellished. The amount of effort required is so great that, of course, the molded components that are not cast in one go can be compared to - this
There is no way to compare simply the amount of iron consumed.
Shi Zhen also gave Wang Ju a specific budget of about 20,000 yuan for the Magian River Iron Bridge. The cost was much more expensive than an ordinary wooden bridge, but it was within the budget of the manufacturer.
Wang Ju asked worriedly: "Even if we can build it, will our strength be exposed to the enemy too early?"
"I wanted to hide my clumsiness, but it was useless," Xu Huai shook his head and said with a bitter smile, "Wulu Lie was determined to fight us in the middle, and now we are forced to ask them to give up this idea as soon as possible! There is another one,
Even if the iron is made in Yunyang, it must be used!"
The core factor that can truly promote the continuous advancement of technology is by no means a few simple military orders, but the ever-increasing demand.
The Yunyang Iron Works achieved an annual production capacity of 25 million jins at the end of last year. This year, all smelting furnace renovations have been completed, and the annual production capacity will reach 40 million jins.
However, the expansion of iron trade outside Beijing and Xiangzhou requires a process.
At present, including traditional iron tools, farm tools, and armor, plus direct export of iron materials, Beijing and Xiangzhou are expected to export about 20 million kilograms of iron materials this year, which is a figure that was unimaginable before.
This is mainly due to the fact that the iron smelting in Jingnan, Huainan, Huaidong and other places suffered devastating damage during the war. No matter how much the monarchs and ministers in the DPRK and ministers rejected the goods from Beijing and Xiangzhou, as long as they could not openly ban it, the iron materials needed in these areas would be temporarily
And it could only be purchased from outside, and the demand was suddenly occupied by the Chushan Railway produced by Jingxiang.
Even if Huainan established a pacification department, they would have to hold their noses and buy iron bars and iron ingots produced in Beijing and Xiangxiang to forge soldiers and armor.
It smells so damn good, just measure it enough, and the iron quality is so good.
If Huainan and other places organize people to mine and smelt iron, they may not be able to produce such good iron even if they spend two or three times money and grain. What's more, the new organization to mine and smelt iron is a complicated process.
However, except for Jingnan, Huainan, Huaidong and other places, the official and private metallurgical industries in other areas have a certain scale and have always occupied the local market.
Considering the closed nature of commercial trade at that time, no matter how cheap and high-quality the iron materials in Beijing and Xiangzhou were, it would take a relatively long process to conquer these areas.
Under such circumstances, if the iron industry in Yunyang and other places is to continue to flourish, Beijing and Xiangzhou need to consume a large amount of iron materials to ensure that there will be no serious backlog in the iron yards in Yunyang and other places.
Otherwise, if we spend so much effort to mine and smelt iron, and end up with iron ingots piled up like hills in the warehouse, how can we get thousands of craftsmen and engineers to have the energy to study technology?
The current annual demand for iron materials in Jingxiang Road is about 14 million kilograms of traditional farm tools, ironware and armor casting. Even if the casting of new equipment such as hydraulic turbines is included, it is only a new increase.
The annual demand for two to three million kilograms of iron materials.
This scale of demand is already three or four times that of the Tianxuan period.
This was mainly stimulated by the large-scale construction of embankments, dikes, fortresses, post roads and other projects promoted by the production department in prefectures and counties.
However, there is still a huge gap between supply and demand that needs to be filled.
The current method is to use angle iron and I-shaped iron to replace wood on a large scale in the construction of defense lines, fortifications and camps.
Since people are accustomed to using firewood for cooking and heating, Ruzhou and others burned charcoal on a large scale to make porcelain in the early years, and the jungles in the surrounding areas that were easy to exploit had long been cleared.
Therefore, in Guangcheng and other places, it is cost-effective to use angle iron and I-shaped iron to replace wood.
Another thing is that Xu Huai has been interested in building some small iron bridges for a long time. The year before last, he proposed to explore the casting construction of long-span medium-sized iron bridges——
The durability and maintenance of long-span iron bridges may be much worse than stone arch bridges, but their construction difficulty and cost are much lower than stone arch bridges.
Taken together, iron bridges are located between stone arch bridges and wooden arch bridges in all aspects.
As a result, the demand for iron materials has surged to a level where it is feared that it is not cheap enough.
For this reason, the production department also built an iron bridge foundry in Lu County, on the upper reaches of the Shuishui River (Shahe). It was affiliated to the construction institute. It was to facilitate the use of water transportation to transport iron bridges weighing more than several thousand kilograms or even tens of thousands of kilograms.
Bridge components are shipped to various places in Rucai...