Chapter 286 The Army who does not want to equip machine guns
Just the cost of coal burning and artillery shells to support the landing is in the millions. Do you think our army is stupid? You still think our army does not understand naval warfare!
Besides, even if our army wants to land, it doesn't need your navy's support. Our army has its own ships for landing and supporting operations, so it doesn't need your navy's warships.
Not to mention, as far as the goods from the Ottoman Kingdom are concerned, the army can actually just bring a few civilian cargo ships over. Then just put a few mortars on the deck and so on, which will be regarded as fire support, and there is no need for those thousands of people.
Tons of naval battleships!
Also, even if your navy supports the landing, why do you want my army to pay for it? Do you think I am being taken advantage of?
In the final analysis, your navy still uses the Black Sea Strait the most. If our army is willing to send troops to garrison, it will be considered as giving face. If we don't give face, even the garrison expenses will have to be paid by your navy!
Also, the cost of subsequent operations after landing will have to be borne by your navy!
In short, the Army said that this is the entry and exit channel for your Navy, and it has nothing to do with our Army!
The navy said that our navy is only responsible for maritime security. We use the strait most, but there is land on both sides of the strait. It is your army's responsibility to fight, and your army will garrison the follow-up troops. In short, it is your army's money.
After several quarrels, the top brass of the army and navy broke down again.
The final result is, just spank, no spanking!
It can cost tens of millions at any time, and no one is willing to pay, so naturally there is no way to fight. Therefore, the battle plan formulated by the Imperial Army and Navy to capture the Black Sea Strait was shelved, and it is estimated that it will never see the light of day.
.
But even if the fight is stopped, the Black Sea Strait still needs to be captured, otherwise the safety of navigation cannot be guaranteed.
After subsequent discussions between the army and the navy, they directly pushed the matter to the cabinet, saying that the cabinet would take over this place. As for the subsequent naval escort and army garrison, the army and navy would do it separately.
The cabinet is actually eager for the military to give up the idea of military operations!
This war costs a lot of money. It can cost millions or tens of millions. How much would it cost if we directly financed the purchase? It would cost 1.8 million.
In recent years, the cabinet has been trying to find ways to reduce military spending!
The Tang Empire's annual military expenditure was more than 100 million Tang Yuan, which made countless civil servants feel sad. This is more than 100 million Tang Yuan gold coins. If it were used for people's livelihood, how many things could be done.
A large number of primary schools and technical secondary schools can be built to train more industrial workers.
Able to build more and better water conservancy and other infrastructure.
It can support the development of many industries at the same time.
However, now more than 100 million Tang Yuan has been thrown into the bottomless pit of military spending.
Although most of the military expenditures actually flow to defense companies through ordnance procurement, and finally flow into the manufacturing industry, even the salaries of military personnel will eventually flow into the social and economic cycle.
But the cabinet is still unhappy.
With the current situation of the Tang Empire, it is impossible to reduce military expenditures. To control so many overseas territories around the world, the number of troops required is very large, and military expenditures will naturally not be that low.
Therefore, the current goal of the cabinet is that the military can maintain its military strength and occasionally fight small wars, but it should not fight big wars.
It’s okay if your military insists on fighting. Anyway, the cabinet won’t give you extra military expenses. Your military saves money to spend on war expenses. The cabinet doesn’t talk nonsense, but if you want extra war expenses, just dream on it!
The military gave up the war in the Black Sea Strait and instead sought diplomatic support, which pleased the cabinet. Chen Lifu said: Those warriors finally understood the seriousness of the matter.
What is severity!
Naturally, things like fighting are light.
The most important thing, of course, is the domestic people's livelihood. Now the Tang Empire is working hard to improve the domestic economy and improve people's livelihood. In order to make everyone rich, it has reduced the food index to 40%.
This is the top priority of the Tang Empire in recent years, and everything else is irrelevant.
There is no point in occupying a little bit of indigenous land!
Therefore, the cabinet asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take action and strive to use diplomatic means to win over both sides of the Black Sea Strait and control the strategic security of the Black Sea Strait.
When this series of things happened, the Tang people had not yet come into contact with the Ottomans.
The Ottomans had no idea that the Tang Dynasty had even formulated a battle plan. In the end, they vetoed the military action due to military expenditure issues and turned to diplomatic intervention.
This is a typical situation in the Tang Dynasty in recent years, where it is better to buy than to fight.
Many times, the military actually wants to go to war, but when they calculate the bills, they find that fighting to seize land is much more expensive than buying it directly. In the end, fighting often turns into buying.
This made many military generals sigh, saying that due to the lack of combat experience for a long time, the army's combat effectiveness will seriously shrink. If the indigenous people rebel, the empire will probably face a great crisis!
Faced with this statement, the people in the cabinet sneered!
We didn't ask you to fight a big war, and we didn't tell you to let go of the Nanshan Mountains. The military is not fighting with the indigenous people all over the world every day.
India is conducting various small and medium-scale military operations throughout the year, and is rotated to overseas deployments every day. You think our cabinet doesn’t know!
There is also the Navy, which has been conducting ocean training every two days for three days. If anything happens, it will catch the indigenous sailboats and beat them up. Sometimes, in order to conduct live-fire exercises, it even goes to the indigenous ports to conduct live-fire exercises.
Although the army and navy of the Tang Empire no longer have major battles, they still engage in battles all over the world, but the scale is generally very small, and most of them are battles at the battalion or company level.
The cabinet is well aware of this.
Under the current situation, the military's combat experience can still be accumulated and cannot be degraded.
Besides, even if it becomes difficult to deal with it by then, the Tang Empire still has a lot of trump cards left.
For example, mortars have not been equipped on a large scale, but they have a lot of mortars in reserve, but they are rarely used, because the mortars themselves are not expensive, but the shells are expensive...
The same goes for other artillery pieces, which are equipped and stocked a lot, but are rarely used.
In addition, the Tang Empire's research on advanced weapons has not stopped in recent years. Just because there is no equipment now does not mean that it has not been researched!
For example, in terms of rifles, three years ago, in the 40th year of Xuanping's reign, the Joint Type II rifles had just begun to be mass-produced and equipped for troops. Currently, the entire army is equipped with only about 300,000 units, and most rifles are still using single-shot rifles.
It is a joint-type rifle, but most of it has been improved to use full-metal bullets.
It is estimated that for more than ten years, the Joint Type 1 rifle that uses metal bullets will still be one of the main rifles of the Tang Dynasty military, and the Union Type 2 rifle is estimated to be equipped for more than 20 to 30 years.
However, in fact, research institutions affiliated to several major arsenals in Datang have already begun to research a new generation of rifles, trying to develop a new rifle with higher accuracy. Well, high accuracy is the priority requirement of the army, because accuracy
High, one bullet can kill an enemy.
Save bullets!
The same goes for artillery. Strictly speaking, the artillery used in large-scale equipment in Datang is still the first generation of steel breech-loading rifled artillery. However, using more advanced processing technology and new materials, the range is longer and the rate of fire is faster.
More powerful breech-mounted artillery is also available. Although the army and navy only purchase a small amount at will, if necessary, they can be mass-produced at any time.
Even the machine gun that Emperor Sheng had personally paid attention to in the early years was actually developed this year!
However, Army observers reported: This machine gun is very powerful, but its ammunition consumption is also very high. It can fire hundreds of rounds of ammunition per minute...
After the top army officials learned about this, their first reaction was: Damn, our army now promotes the spirit of hard training, and the slogan is: Sweat more in peacetime, save bullets in wartime!
Now you can get me a machine gun that can fire hundreds of rounds per minute. The bullets are free, right?
don't want!
After this matter reached the ears of the Holy Emperor, Li Xuan was quite speechless. The researchers finally developed a machine gun that could be used in actual combat, but the Army actually disliked the high ammunition consumption and did not want to equip it...