Although it was determined that he would join the feudal clan, considering the education and safety issues of the emperor's son, Li Xuan did not let King Qi and King Zhao immediately leave for the fiefdom to join the feudal clan.
They will continue to study at the Royal School, and Li Xuan is planning to wait until they graduate from college before letting them go to the fiefdom. Now, it is still a bit early.
In addition, if this is the case, there will be a time buffer. By the time they reach adulthood, Australia and Fuso will probably have almost solved the problem. It will be just right to go directly to the feudal clan. There is no need to worry about actually going to Osumi Prefecture or Banten and stay in that crappy place for several years.
After learning that their son did not have to go to the fiefdom for the time being, their biological mother and Queen Mother Bai were relieved. At least they could stay for a few years and did not have to leave the country and go to overseas territories at the age of sixteen.
After dealing with the issues of establishing a prince and establishing a vassal state, Li Xuan once again turned his attention to the development of armaments.
Now that domestic development in all aspects is on the right track, Li Xuan doesn't need to worry about it.
Now he is beginning to put more energy into the development of armaments to prepare for subsequent expansion wars.
As for the Army, Li Xuan didn't pay much attention to other matters. Most of the Army affairs were developed step by step. Judging from the current technological development, there won't be much change in a while.
Although Li Xuan has already asked the Royal Institute of Technology to start developing a new generation of rifles, the new generation of rifles are rifled rifles. Whether it is the Mini rifle of later generations or the breech-loading rifle, these are
Category of rifled rifles.
However, there are still many technical problems when using rifled rifles, the most critical of which is the issue of processing accuracy.
Because whether it is a front-loading rifled rifle such as the Mini rifle, or a metal bullet breech-loading rifle such as the Mauser, there is a very critical technical problem here, and that is the issue of processing accuracy.
The Mini rifle, which has been praised by many people in later generations, is not easy to mass-produce. It is definitely not something that can be mass-produced by a few craftsmen using primitive tools, because this thing requires a lot of processing during mass production.
The accuracy requirements are very high.
Even the requirements for the entire industrial base are very high!
As for the industrial base for manufacturing Minie rifles, it is actually possible to directly mount a breech-loading rifle with metal bullets.
This is also why the Mini rifle has only been equipped for more than 20 years in history before being eliminated, because when this thing can be made, it can basically be used as a breech-loading rifled rifle.
According to the current industrial level of the Tang Empire, it is still somewhat difficult to mass-produce rifled breech-loading rifles.
As for artillery, it is basically the same. The technology of breech-loading rifled artillery still only exists on drawings. It is not difficult to make it, so we can only continue to use front-loading smoothbore guns.
Since the two main weapons, guns and artillery, equipped by the Army in a short period of time have not undergone fundamental changes, the tactics will not change too much.
Therefore, the army's military expansion and preparation can basically be carried out step by step, without Li Xuan paying too much attention.
Nowadays, the army things that Li Xuan can personally pay attention to are steam armored trains and steam tanks.
There is nothing special about the armored train. It is just a weaponized train. It is covered with armor and can hit the artillery. People in the Army are very interested in this and plan to build a few of them for fun after the railway network is completed.
But the steam tank thing is not easy to get. Although high-pressure steam engines have been developed now, and the size is much smaller than the previous low-pressure steam engines, but if you want to achieve a certain power, the size and weight still cannot be small.
When Li Xuan asked the technicians to develop steam tanks, many people were dumbfounded.
We really need to build a steam tank according to Li Xuan's requirements. The weight and size are insignificant, and to protect the body, it has to be armored, which makes it heavier and requires a more powerful steam engine.
In addition, this does not include the coal and fresh water carried with the vehicle.
Later, these technicians calculated and found that this thing might not be able to run on flat roads, let alone cross-country.
Then the army generals also have great doubts about steam tanks. Although according to the drawings and other things, this thing will be covered with steel plates and equipped with artillery. Its protection and firepower are absolutely amazing!
But the problem is that the maneuverability of this thing is too poor. Not to mention that it will become a living target on the battlefield. What the army generals are more worried about is whether this thing can reach the battlefield smoothly.
With just the power of a steam engine, can it drag such a large pile of steel around?
Maybe I can still take two steps on the smooth official road, but if I leave the official road, can this thing move?
The army generals did not express doubts about this, because the relevant designers from the Royal Institute of Technology told them clearly: No!
This thing is immature, and the army also has cavalry, regardless of whether it is heavy cavalry or light cavalry, the army has them, and the cavalry combat effectiveness of the Tang Army is not weak now, at least in the same number of large-scale cavalry battles, the Tang Dynasty
Most of the time, the cavalry can beat the Tatars severely.
The cavalry needs to be mobile and maneuverable, and it needs to have impact and impact, but it is not much better than a crappy thing like a steam tank.
But Li Xuan is unwilling to accept it!
How can a modern army function without tanks?
He also wants a tank powered by internal combustion engines such as gasoline engines and oil extraction engines, but the key is that he does not have these two things. Now he only has a steam engine on hand. Although this thing is inferior and has more problems, it is still a burning machine after all.
Those who eat coal, not those who eat grass.
Besides, as a time-traveler, it would be outrageous not to build tanks. Many time-traveling predecessors didn’t even have a steam engine, so they wanted to build tanks even if they couldn’t create the conditions. People dared to armour horse-drawn carriages and build horse-drawn tanks.
, Li Xuan now holds an entire empire at the beginning of the industrial revolution, and has high-pressure steam engines, so it is normal to build steam tanks.
Li Xuan calls himself a normal person, otherwise he would have built a horse-drawn tank in his early years. Although the steam tank is now more difficult and less practical, it is still good even if it is built!
When there is a war, just pull this kind of steam tank to the front line by train, and then slowly move it to the front line. Even if the battle is over by the time the steam tank arrives on the battlefield, you can also let the steam tank go to the front line.
The tanks swaggered into the enemy's city, allowing the locals to see the mighty war machines of the Tang Empire!
It is uncertain that the strategic deterrent effect of this thing will be stronger than its actual combat capability in the future.
To put it ten thousand steps back, even if this thing is useless, you will have no regrets if you try it.
As a time traveler, I have never even played with a steam tank. I will be embarrassed to say hello to other time travel seniors when I go out in the future: shame!
Therefore, at the insistence of Emperor Sheng, the Army had no choice but to launch the 'steam tank' project and sent design consultations to the three major domestic weapons companies and the Royal Institute of Technology.
When they saw the series of technical parameters seriously proposed by the Army, many people were speechless!
The technical parameters proposed by the Army are actually not many and not high. They can even be said to be the minimum standards.
They require that steam tanks can be transported by train, so there are restrictions on the width and certain restrictions on the length.
In addition, the steam tank must be able to reach a speed of ten kilometers per hour on a flat road, and a speed of five kilometers per hour on a generally flat field. The standards are basically based on the speed of people walking and trotting.
In terms of protection, the front of the steam tank is required to be able to withstand direct hits from the Jiujin artillery at a distance of 100 meters, the sides and rear can withstand the shooting of the Yuan Nian Suigun within 20 meters, and the top can withstand the projectile attack of bows and arrows.
The above protection requirements basically only require the installation of a relatively thick armor plate on the front, and a few millimeters of steel plates on the sides and back, and a steel plate on the top.
In terms of firepower, they require that this kind of steam tank should preferably be equipped with a nine-pound cannon. If the nine-pound cannon cannot be mounted, then at least a five-pound cannon must be equipped. If there is not enough firepower, then
Such a complicated steam tank has no meaning.
In terms of endurance, they require the steam tank to be able to travel continuously for 20 kilometers on its own power alone.
This requirement can be said to be not too high, but in the eyes of many designers, this is still an impossible goal.
Judging from the power of today's high-pressure steam engines, that is almost impossible, because it cannot move the car body at all.
Although this task seemed almost impossible to the technical staff, this was the requirement of the Holy Emperor, so naturally they could only grit their teeth and carry out the design.
It's a pity that despite all their efforts, they haven't come up with a solution that can allow steam tanks to run in the wild!
The Army began to develop steam tanks, while the Navy began to develop steam battleships.
Compared with the unreliable steam tanks of the Army, the Navy's steam battleships are much more reliable. Even a battleship of several thousand tons dares to be designed and built, because the hull of the battleship is much larger, and it is difficult to install the current steam unit.
There is no pressure, and the power of one steam engine is not enough, then two units are needed. If two units are not enough, then three units or even more.
It is said that there are some lunatics in the Ship Administration Department, and they have come up with a design plan for a 10,000-ton warship made of pure steel, and are frantically preparing to install more than 20 steam engines and boilers on the hull...
Li Xuan was almost scared to death when he saw it. These people were so imaginative that they didn't even think about the usefulness of this thing. Most of the load was given to the steel hull itself, and the rest was used to install the steam engine.
There were not even a few coal bunkers. It is estimated that the coal on the ship was burned as soon as it left the port and it had to be returned to the port for replenishment.
As for the artillery, sorry, they have no design at all!