The Army has spent a lot of money over the years to upgrade its troops, replacing the previous smoothbore and even front-loading rifled weapons with breech-loading rifled weapons.
After the efforts of the past few years, the change of equipment has almost been completed. Not to mention the main force, even the second-line garrison troops stationed in the country have been gradually changed.
At present, the troops with the official designation of the Army, regardless of whether they are first-line or second-line, have basically been equipped with breech-loading rifled weapons.
Even front-loading rifled guns are no longer visible, and can only be widely seen in militia units.
The rear-mounted weapons have been largely replaced, but the purchase of these new weapons will not stop. On the one hand, the equipment of the active troops will also be worn out and require continuous supply and replenishment. On the other hand, we also want to reserve some of these rear-mounted weapons.
ammunition.
Another reason that will not be announced to the public is that the military needs to continue to provide orders for major defense companies to ensure the production lines and continued research and development of major defense companies.
Therefore, when the Tang Dynasty military purchased certain weapons, it often lasted for many years.
For example, take the combined rifle. This type of combined rifle has been in production for many years. At the beginning, all major manufacturers produced it together. The annual output was very high, and could even produce two to three million units a year. But now the output has dropped.
, the annual output is about more than 100,000, which is used to replace regular losses and strategic reserves, and is also used to equip militia forces.
The Tang Empire's military, including the active-duty troops of the army, navy and militia, will have a demand for combined rifles of more than two million. This number refers to the inventory, not the total production.
Therefore, even though the military has completely switched to combined rifles, the production of combined rifles will continue until the army is ready to switch to new rifles.
But this time should not last too long, because with the maturity of technology, the cost of rifles with high precision, metal bullets, and magazines, represented by the Li Fu rifle, continues to drop. When it drops to a certain level
, the Army will consider replacing it with a new rifle equipped with metal bullets.
As for how long this time will last, it depends on the development of technology, especially how much the cost of new rifles can be reduced.
The cost issue is the most important issue, and the performance issue is relatively not a big issue.
Anyway, the current combined rifles can defeat the natives of various countries.
Therefore, the military, especially the Army, is not in a hurry when it comes to new rifles. They are very interested in several other new weapons, and they are eager to equip them.
On the outskirts of Jinling City, at the Jiangnan Weapons Company's shooting range, senior army and navy officials accompanied Sheng Tianzi to watch the live-fire tests of several new weapons.
"This time we have several new weapons that can be said to be epoch-making. Once mature and equipped with troops, the combat effectiveness will be greatly improved!"
"Yes, I have seen one of these continuous-firing guns before. Tsk tsk, its power is incredible. Once fired, it can directly break the target on the opposite side into pieces!"
"Yes, that is simply a powerful weapon against the enemy's intensive charge!"
The Holy Emperor Li Xuan stood on the observation platform. He naturally heard the whispers of the generals behind him, and he deeply agreed with the opinions of these generals.
Why, because what they are about to see will be a truly epoch-making weapon: the machine gun!
Although it is still a very primitive hand-operated machine gun, its terrifying rate of fire is still enough to make any enemy in this era unknown and fearful.
The emergence of machine guns was naturally inseparable from Li Xuan's guidance.
It was not done in the early years because of technical reasons, but now, even the Li Fu rifle can be built, so technically speaking, there is no technical problem in building a hand-operated machine gun.
The only thing missing is ideas.
Li Xuan had this idea. A few years ago, he asked the three major domestic weapons companies to develop a rapid-fire gun, which was required to be able to shoot continuously and form absolute fire suppression on the enemy.
Based on the development of contemporary technology, the research and development paths of the three major weapons companies are highly consistent. They all chose hand-operated multi-barreled machine guns, but the specific details of the design are different.
After the hand-cranked machine guns of these three major weapons companies passed preliminary tests by the military, the hand-cranked multi-barreled machine guns of Jiangnan Weapon Company were finally selected for improvement.
The reason is also very simple, mainly because the cost is low and the failure rate is relatively low.
More importantly, the designer considered the use of metal bullets from the beginning, so Jiangnan Weapons Company's hand-operated machine guns have two sub-models. One model uses paper-cased bullets, but there are also models that use metal bullets, and this
Most parts are common between the two sub-models.
This also means that even if a machine gun initially uses paper bullets, it will be able to use metal bullets after subsequent upgrades and modifications, and the cost of upgrades and modifications is not high.
This is very important, because metal bullets are the future, and all the military know this. The Guards are already fully equipped with Li Fu rifles and use metal bullets.
Although the Army still uses paper-cased bullets, it will definitely use metal bullets in the future. Therefore, in order to be able to integrate technology, this hand-operated machine gun must be able to use metal bullets.
Many advantages have allowed Jiangnan Weapons' hand-operated machine guns to win the favor of the army and navy, and then appeared on this occasion for the Holy Emperor to see.
Li Xuan looked at the hand-operated machine gun in front of him, and he didn't have much special feeling. He had seen this thing in the laboratory a long time ago, and even the general concept was formulated by him.
And he understands the importance and huge role of machine guns better than anyone present.
Moreover, Li Xuan is actually not satisfied with this kind of hand-operated machine gun. The main reason is that it is too heavy and requires a lot of people to operate it. It is just like a small-caliber artillery. It also has a gun mount and the kind with wheels.
, otherwise it will be impossible to maneuver.
This weight and maneuverability are incomparable to later heavy machine guns.
But for the current industrial technology level of Datang, it is not easy to produce this thing. It is too difficult to produce a heavy machine gun similar to the level of World War I in later generations.
After Li Xuan nodded, the test firing officially began. Amidst the exclamations of people, the hand-cranked machine gun directly smashed the target on the opposite side into pieces.
As for the Holy Emperor Li Xuan, he is still calm!
It's just that another new weapon that followed made Li Xuan uneasy!
Because he saw a tank coming slowly!
With the huge car body and crawler running mechanism, the strong soldiers waved shovels and added the coal in the rear compartment of the car body to the coal-fired boiler, allowing the steam engine to generate power to drive the crawler tracks forward slowly!