Li Xuan looked at the huge airship in front of him, and actually felt a little scared.
What are you afraid of!
I'm afraid this thing will explode!
Because this airship, which is fifty meters long and more than ten meters in diameter, uses soft airbags, and the gas inside is still hydrogen!
Hydrogen is a flammable and explosive gas, and it will explode if there is a spark.
What's more important is that there is a steam engine hanging underneath this thing!
The operators were adding coal to the coal-fired boiler in the steam engine!
After Li Xuan read it, his first reaction was to ask a professor from the Royal Institute of Technology next to him: "Aren't you afraid of this thing exploding?"
The professor's expression was very embarrassing. Obviously, he himself knew that the safety of the hydrogen airship was not very good, and the safety of the steam airship that was hoisted with a steam engine as forward power was even worse.
So he could only say: "Your Majesty, I have taken safety measures as much as possible. There were no accidents during the previous tests!"
Li Xuan was too lazy to pay attention to him. If an accident happened, he would have known it. If such a large steam airship flew into the sky and exploded, the huge fire would be visible to most of Jinling City.
Seeing that Li Xuan's expression was not very good, the professor in charge of airship research continued: "But we have already begun to study a safer airship structure, and are trying to switch to other gases. In terms of power, we also plan to switch to more mature gas.
machine!"
"In the later stage, if the gasoline engine matures, we can also switch to a gasoline engine!"
This person quickly stated the planned follow-up improvement plan, because he was afraid that Emperor Sheng would kill the airship research in one fell swoop after seeing the current immature product.
However, his idea was obviously superfluous. Li Xuan would naturally not allow scientists to conduct research just because the current steam airships were extremely dangerous.
Nowadays, airships are still very valuable.
Before airplanes are developed or even become practical on a large scale, airships can still play a huge role.
For example, the army and navy have now begun to introduce tethered balloons as reconnaissance balloons and artillery launch balloons.
Let the observation soldiers sit on the balloon with high-power telescopes, and then rise to an altitude of tens or even hundreds of meters for observation. In addition to observing the enemy's situation, it is more important to guide the artillery troops to conduct long-range coverage shooting.
As the range of artillery gets older and farther, especially after the maximum range of long-barreled cannons has exceeded ten kilometers, it has become difficult to directly aim, and other means must be used for indirect aiming.
Although the Army has begun to equip wired telegraph machines, the number is too small, and it is impossible to send reconnaissance soldiers dragging a wire and carrying the telegraph machine to the enemy's hinterland to provide artillery guidance.
At this time, artillery's balloon shooting appeared in line with the trend of history.
Balloons have actually appeared for a long time. Not to mention the Kongming Lanterns in the past, hydrogen balloons have also been around for more than ten years. However, in the past, some people only conducted research on it as a personal hobby. The real practical research was the Army’s proposal.
It started after observing balloons from high altitude.
At present, a small number of troops in the army and navy have been experimentally equipped with a few balloons for reconnaissance and shooting.
However, large-scale equipment has not yet been formed. This is not a question of whether it is easy to use or not, but a question of demand!
how to say.
There are no enemies yet, so the army and navy of the Tang Empire are needed to hide a few kilometers away and carry out artillery bombardment.
In the past many years, when the Tang Army and some indigenous armies fought, they always fought within visual range. In order to pursue shooting accuracy, artillery fire was often carried out between 3,000 and 4,000 meters.
You can actually fight if it's too far away, but it's not necessary because it's impossible for the natives to fight over.
Moreover, the accuracy of long-distance shooting will inevitably decrease, and more shells will need to be wasted to achieve the same results.
You know, artillery shells are very expensive!
The three major black-hearted weapons companies have made these new artillery shells extremely expensive, and neither the army nor the navy feel they can afford them...
Now, whether it is the army or the navy, there is a voice, that is: the most advanced weapons are not necessarily the most useful.
On the basis of this theory, some generals have proposed a new idea of building an army, which is to retain only a small number of advanced breech-loading rifled guns in the army, paired with a large number of cheap front-loading rifled weapons or even smoothbore weapons.
Anyway, with Datang's technology, even smoothbore cannons can achieve extreme performance today.
However, in the face of this kind of business, the three major arms companies are very consistent, that is, they strongly oppose it and will never allow the situation of reversing the course of history to occur.
You want a smoothbore cannon?
Well, the performance of the smoothbore guns we export now is already very good, with an effective range of more than 1,400 to 5,000 meters.
If you still want to surpass these exported smoothbore guns, you can also use the most advanced alloy steel to make the barrel. Such an alloy barrel smoothbore gun can also give you an effective range of 1,800 meters or even 2,000 meters.
But the cost, sorry, is more expensive than a breech-loaded rifled gun...
As for the smoothbore gun, it can also give you an effective range of 150 meters or even 200 meters. It also uses the most advanced alloy steel barrel and is processed with the highest precision mechanical equipment. Even the bullets are specially made with high precision.
Processed by equipment, it is guaranteed to outperform all existing smoothbore rifles. As for the cost, sorry, it is more expensive than the Li Fu rifle.
The root cause of the lack of support from the three major weapons companies is actually the lack of support from the upper echelons of the empire, and it is not the generals but the civil servants.
After all, the three major arms companies are directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises. The Minister of State-owned Enterprises directly issued an administrative order: The national defense industry will not reverse the course of history!
Although civilian officials do not interfere in military affairs, but!
Our Tang Empire is so powerful that our soldiers actually use the same smoothbore guns as the natives, which is a disgrace to the empire.
You must not give up advanced weapons just because the indigenous weapons are backward, and use the same backward weapons as the indigenous people.
Your military doesn't want lives, but our empire wants shame!
As for being expensive, the Ministers and Ministers of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises believe that being expensive also has its advantages!
At least it can stimulate the continuous upgrading of related industries. Without the military's so many high-priced orders every year, where would they get the profits to maintain and upgrade production lines, develop more advanced weapons and equipment, and promote the overall technological upgrading of domestic industries?
Also, after decades of waiting and the development of supporting industries becomes more mature, costs can always be reduced.
Anyway, there are no real enemies now. Even though ammunition is a little more expensive, you can save a little in other ways.
Your military spends so much military expenditure every year to purchase weapons and ammunition. Most of it is not spent randomly.
If it doesn't work, just use less.
The intensive training in gunnery and marksmanship that your army and navy have carried out in recent years is very good.
When trying to fight a war, it doesn't take many bullets to kill an enemy with one bullet and wipe out the whole of Europe.
The same is true for artillery. If you try to kill a hundred enemies with one shell, it won't take many shells to kill the entire Indian Peninsula.
In response to these shameless statements from the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises, the Army and Navy can only vomit blood!
Since you are so good, come here and I will give you a gun and a cannon.
I want to see if you can kill one enemy with one bullet and a hundred enemies with one cannonball.