The four hundred and fortieth chapter has heavy artillery
Eighth Route Army Arsenal, Wang Ping was very happy looking at the busy figures outside the Arsenal.
The arsenal and factory buildings withstood such a high-intensity bombing. The arsenal will no longer need to be bombed by Japanese planes in the future.
At this moment, Zhou Yong, political commissar of the arsenal, suddenly rushed over and reported excitedly when he saw Wang Ping.
"Cannon, director, we have developed a heavy mortar! The prototype of the artillery was developed before the Japanese bombing, because there was no report on the Japanese air raid!"
"It's the 120mm heavy mortar we captured at the Taiyuan Arsenal!" Wang Ping asked with his eyes shining.
Now, the arsenal can already produce 82mm command mortars. However, for the Eighth Route Army, this kind of artillery can at most be called regiment-level fire support.
At the brigade level, or even the division level, the Eighth Route Army had no artillery to use.
Of course, since the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region was established, it has fought many great victories and captured a lot of equipment. Both brigade-level and division-level troops have established many under-strength mountain artillery and field artillery companies. However, these artillery pieces are from the Eighth Route Army.
The quantity seized was not only small, but also not replenished. Every door that was used out would be missing.
In this case, the mountain field artillery was regarded as a treasure by the brigade commanders and division commanders, and would never be used unless it was absolutely necessary.
In order to change this situation and once the arsenal could mass-produce light infantry weapons, Wang Ping asked the arsenal to develop as many production lines as possible for 120mm heavy mortars and mountain guns.
In Wang Ping's view, the range is more than three kilometers, or even four kilometers, and the power of the artillery shells is not as small as that of field guns. Moreover, the whole gun only weighs more than 500 kilograms. If it is disassembled, it is very convenient to transport, and there are no restrictions on the road surface and terrain.
As an Eighth Route Army brigade-level support firepower, it couldn't be better.
As for mountain and field artillery, since the Japanese army in North China rarely used large-caliber heavy artillery, each military region and base area of the Eighth Route Army could establish independent artillery battalions and artillery regiments as a stronger level of supporting firepower.
It is with this idea in mind that Wang Ping attaches great importance to whether the arsenal can produce large-caliber mortars and mountain guns.
What Wang Ping didn't expect was that the arsenal produced results so quickly, completely exceeding his expectations.
"Let's go and take a look now!" Wang Ping, a little impatient, immediately ordered.
Walking into the workshop specializing in the production of artillery, a mortar with a longer barrel and a thicker barrel came directly into Wang Ping's field of vision. It was set up in the open space of the workshop, with more than a dozen technicians surrounding it and pointing.
As soon as Wang Ping came in, they automatically moved out of the way, and the workshop director in charge of artillery production immediately introduced: "Director, political commissar, this 120mm command mortar was made by ourselves."
"Because there is no special steel for the production of artillery, and the performance of rail steel is worse than that of special gun steel. In order to ensure the safety and performance of mortars, when producing gun barrels, we specially strengthened the thickness of the gun barrel, especially for mortars.
The tail of the mortar is nearly five millimeters thicker than the mortar barrel made of special gun steel!"
"For this reason, the weight of the entire mortar is more than 80 kilograms heavier than the gun steel produced by Taiyuan Arsenal, and the total weight of the mortar reaches 325 kilograms!"
"However, transporting it with livestock and camels, or dismantling it and transporting it by manpower, will not have much impact!"
"No safety issues are the most basic guarantee for whether a mortar can be put into use. Director Zhang, you have done a very good job in this regard!" Wang Ping was very satisfied with the factory's changes to the mortars and said with a look of appreciation.
Then he stared at the opponent and asked, "Where's the range?"
"Not tested yet!" Director Zhang replied with an embarrassed look.
But soon, this embarrassment was replaced by confidence: "But I am sure that the performance will not be worse than the original mortar produced by Taiyuan Arsenal, and the longest range must be more than 3,500 meters, or even 4,000 meters."
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"Then what are you waiting for? Go test the cannon right away!" Wang Ping couldn't wait any longer and ordered without saying a word.
"Political Commissar, you make the arrangements, and you have to be quick! The sooner the firing parameters of the artillery are determined, the sooner the arsenal can start production!"
"Bang!" A dull explosion sounded from the mortar barrel in front of us. The twenty-kilogram shell, driven by the blazing flames, quickly flew out of the shell and flew towards the target one kilometer away with a scream.
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"Boom!" In less than five seconds, a violent explosion reached Wang Ping's ears.
Wang Ping held up his binoculars and stared at the spot where the smoke was rising, and said with great satisfaction.
"Yes, the error is only more than thirty meters! Inform the gunner to fire another shot!"
"Bang...boom..." Half a minute later, the sound of explosion reached Wang Ping's ears again.
This time, the smile on Wang Ping's face became even thicker: "This time the shot was good, the error was no more than ten meters. With the power of the cannonball, it can still cause damage to the target even if it does not hit the target directly. Not bad!"
"Notify the gunner to aim at the target two kilometers away and shoot immediately. There are three shooting opportunities in total!"
Three shells, the error of the last shell was directly reduced to five meters.
"Okay, good job. Keep shooting at the target three kilometers away. Shoot immediately. There are still three shooting opportunities!" The smile on Wang Ping's face had been replaced by excitement, and he shouted loudly.
"Boom, boom, boom..." After a series of violent explosions, Wang Ping jumped up because of excitement.
Whether it was good luck or the mortar's shooting accuracy was really high, the last shell hit the target directly and exploded loudly, with an error of no more than two meters.
Because Wang Ping had been staring at the battlefield with a telescope, he could see very clearly.
At this time, even if we do not continue testing, the large-caliber mortar in front of us still has a very high production value.
However, three consecutive rounds of test shooting made Wang Ping full of enthusiasm for this artillery.
Without a word of nonsense, he continued to order: "Continue the test and use all the shells we brought!"
"The next step is to test the mortar's ultimate range and shooting accuracy of three and a half kilometers, shooting accuracy of four kilometers, and shooting accuracy of the extreme range!"
"Don't be afraid of wasting artillery shells. If there are not enough artillery shells, I will personally go to the military area to apply for you!"
"And it won't be long before we can produce this kind of artillery shells ourselves!"
After an hour of intermittent bombardment, Director Zhang rushed to Wang Ping nervously and excitedly.
"Director, this is so unexpected! Perhaps because we thickened and lengthened the barrel, the range of the mortar we built is five hundred meters longer than the original one produced by Taiyuan Arsenal, reaching five kilometers. The only regret is that the range of the mortar is five kilometers.
The error is too large when targeting external targets, and there are many various influences.”
"However, within four kilometers, the mortar's shooting error is within our acceptable range!"
"Director, I suggest mass production of this mortar immediately!"
"With sufficient raw materials and sufficient personnel, how many doors can be built in a month?" Wang Ping agreed without thinking, and asked with expectation.
"One gun in two days, fifteen guns in a month. This is the production capacity of overtime work. If we don't work overtime, it will be ten guns in a month!" Director Zhang replied.
"Produce immediately, work overtime to produce!" Wang Ping ordered directly without saying a word!
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