On March 29, the directors of Fanjiazhuang's No. 1 and No. 2 ordinary foundries stood nervously on the school grounds, watching Li Zhi's soldiers playing with the products produced by their factories.
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The samples produced by the two factories are a new type of artillery, which is very light and can be operated by two soldiers.
Different from advanced foundries, or artillery factories, that specialize in casting cannons, Fanjiazhuang No. 1 Ordinary Foundry and No. 2 Ordinary Foundry have always produced civilian products such as dragon tail trucks and water pipes. Of course, because the market demand for civilian products is extremely high
Large, these two ordinary foundries are much larger than the artillery factory, each with thousands of employees.
However, although they are civilian factories, stimulated by Li Zhi's patent system, these two factories also attach great importance to technological development in the production process. Even for the simplest water pipes, these two factories have to compete with Tianjin and Shandong.
competition among local small factories.
In order to produce better quality water pipes, both factories have researched a set of simple and efficient heat treatment methods and applied for several patents at the city hall.
However, the general managers of the two factories did not expect that an ordinary foundry like themselves would receive orders from the military.
Li Zhi wanted to produce new artillery to deal with the trench system that was increasingly abused by the enemy. But the current artillery factory was already producing twenty-four-pound naval guns at full capacity and there was no spare production capacity, so Li Zhi could only give the order to ordinary people.
foundry.
However, Li Zhi was not joking about the lives of soldiers by making shoddy products. In fact, the new artillery that Li Zhi needed to produce was indeed very simple.
What Li Zhi wants to produce is platoon mortars.
The mortar has a simple structure, light weight, and low power. It is a weapon specially used to kill enemies behind bunkers. In fact, the mortar was born to deal with trench warfare, which is as difficult as brown sugar after the popularity of rifled guns.
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The world's first mortar was born during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. The inventor was Russian artillery captain Nikolayevich. At that time, Tsarist Russia and Japan fought fiercely for the Lushun Pass in China. The Russian army occupied Lushun.
At the mouth of the fortress, the Japanese dug trenches and approached only a few dozen meters away from the Russian position. The Japanese artillery and rifles in the trenches could not hit them. So Nikolayevich tried to use an old-fashioned naval mortar
It was modified on a gun carriage with wheels and fired a long-tailed artillery shell at a high elevation angle. The result was that it effectively killed the Japanese troops in the trenches and repelled many Japanese attacks.
Nikolayevich's gun has a total shell mass of 11.5kg, a range of 50 to 400m, and a shooting angle of 45° to 65°. It can be said to be a sharp weapon against trench warfare. The shells are ejected and smashed into areas that ordinary artillery cannot hit.
In the trench, it can kill infantry hiding in the trench on a large scale. This new weapon is called "Lightning Cannon".
In the First World War, due to the development of trench warfare, various countries began to pay attention to the role of mortars. Based on the "thunder cannon", they developed a variety of special mortars. By the Second World War, mortars
Cannons have become the basic equipment for infantry in various countries.
Since both the Jiangbei Army and the Japanese had secretly learned Li Zhi's trench warfare, Li Zhi would have to bring out the mortar, an artifact, to let the enemy understand what technology was.
Of course, the mortars of later generations were very advanced and could automatically trigger firing when a shell was thrown into the barrel. This was something Li Zhi could not do. Li Zhi used an original method: there was a sharp needle at the bottom of the barrel.
, small blooming bombs and nitrocellulose propellant are usually wrapped together in a paper tube. After falling into the barrel by its own weight, the paper tube will be pierced by the sharp thorns, and the propellant will fall into the bottom of the barrel. If you are worried about it not being safe, you can still
Use a purge rod to poke it. When firing, the gunner will install the mercury fulminate primer on the fire door and pull the gun rope to trigger the shot.
Such a design allows a two-person mortar to complete a shot in twelve seconds. Although it is very crude compared to the two-second mortars of later generations, it can be used against armies such as the Jiangbei Army and the Shogunate Army.
The rate of fire is sufficient.
The mortar designed by Li Zhi has a caliber of 65 mm, a barrel length of 110 cm, and a barrel material of bronze. It has a designed effective range of 700 meters and uses a small explosive shell weighing three kilograms and five taels. The mortar
There is a large iron plate at the tail that touches the ground as a recoil buffer.
There is some difference between the samples produced by the two foundries. The total weight of the sample produced by the first foundry is fifty-two kilograms, while the total weight of the sample produced by the second foundry is forty-seven kilograms. Although the gun weight is smaller than that of later mortars,
It is relatively heavy, but it is still very convenient to put it on a carriage and run.
Two ordinary foundries for civilian use are producing artillery for the first time, and there are still deficiencies in heat treatment technology. If the artillery factory is allowed to produce the barrel, it is estimated that the weight can be reduced to about 40 kilograms. However, for Li Zhi, the barrel weighs more than 10 kilograms.
The weight is not a big problem either.
Five hundred meters away from the two mortars, a two-meter-deep trench had been dug on the ground. Some scarecrows were placed in the trench to simulate soldiers of the Jiangbei Army.
Two mortars began test firing.
The soldier loaded the ammunition and pulled the rope, only to hear two muffled pops, the muzzle flames of the two mortars flashed, and two black figures shot out of the muzzles and flew towards the target.
In the first shot, both mortars missed their target and hit the ground outside the trench.
However, Li Zhi has improved the accuracy of the fuses over the years. Now the fuses produced by Fanjiazhuang Gunpowder Factory burn more uniformly. Artillery can cut the fuses on the outside of the shells according to the shooting distance and control the explosion time more accurately. Therefore, the shells can only hit the ground within more than one second before they are bombed.
Ringed.
According to the impact point of the first shot, the artilleryman adjusted the elevation angle of the mortar and started the second shot.
"Poof!" "Poof!"
There were two muffled sounds again, and two mortar shells were fired into the trench in the distance. This time, the shells from the Second Foundry were fired into the trench, and sparks exploded in the trench with a bang.
The artillery of the First Foundry failed to hit its target, and the shells exploded outside the trench.
The general manager of the Second Foundry glanced at his competitor excitedly, with a proud look on his face.
The artillerymen again adjusted the firing angle and started firing for the third and fourth times. Both times, both mortars hit the target.
The artillery stopped firing, and everyone went to the trench to see the effect of the shooting. They found that the scarecrow at the impact point of the artillery shell had been blown into pieces of grass. The trench two or three meters nearby was filled with iron fragments shot out from the artillery shells.
, some scraps of iron were still inserted into the scarecrow's body three or four meters away.
When Li Xing saw this scene, he laughed loudly and said, "Brother Wang, this little cannon is powerful. Now the enemy in the trench has nowhere to hide!"
Li Zhi nodded and said: "The first and second foundries won the bid at the same time. The first foundry ordered 3,000 doors, and the second foundry ordered 5,200 doors. The production period is three months."
When the general managers of the two foundries heard that the order had arrived, they were all overjoyed. Especially the general manager of the second foundry, who had received the order of 5,000 doors, was already smiling from ear to ear.
The profit of producing cannons is more than ten times higher than that of producing water pipes. Now the workers in the factory can get a lot of bonuses.
Li Zhi looked at the two managers and smiled.
At this time, Tianjin's industrial strength was revealed. As long as there are design drawings, the factories in Fanjiazhuang and Tianjin Acropolis can immediately turn the drawings into physical objects and start mass production. However, the Jiangbei Army and the Shogunate Army, which use manual work, may cost a lot of money.
We won't be able to build so many artillery pieces for several years.
"As soon as the eight thousand two hundred artillery pieces are produced, they will be transported to the front line! Let the Jiangbei Army and the Shogunate Army see what firepower is."
