Machine guns, like many high-tech projects that Datang has successfully developed or are currently developing, were developed under the instructions of the Emperor Sheng.
For example, the steam engine in the early years and the current gasoline engine, as well as the military's breech-loaded rifled weapons, as well as chemical fertilizers, hybrid rice, wired telegraphs, wireless telegraphs, trains, ships, etc. were all personally ordered by the Holy Emperor, and the Royal Institute of Technology
As the core, it organizes many talents across the country to conduct research.
All of them can be regarded as important national weapons that are developed with the whole country's efforts.
The same goes for the machine gun project. The breech-loading rifle using paper-cased ammunition had just been developed many years ago, that is, when the Joint Type 1 rifle was first put into service, Li Xuan had already started preliminary research on the machine gun.
It's just that the Tang Dynasty's military is basically invincible in the world. With a breech-loading rifle, it can defeat the world, so the demand for machine guns is not too urgent.
In addition, the early paper shell ammunition was not suitable for machine guns, so the progress of this research was relatively slow.
It was not until the Joint Type II rifle entered large-scale service that the progress of the machine gun project accelerated.
The machine gun project team changed the bullets from paper shell bullets to brass bullets. In this way, many problems of the machine gun project were solved. After many tests and minor problems were improved, the initial development was successful this year.
Several prototype guns were tested.
After the Army went to see the test, they directly reported that this thing is flashy and very powerful, but the Army cannot afford it...
The rapid rate of fire of the Combined Type II rifle has doubled the bullet consumption, which has already made the Army feel very strenuous, not only in terms of funding, but also in terms of the logistics system.
Especially considering that the army and navy of the Tang Dynasty traveled all over the world, with troops stationed in America, Europe, India, and Africa. Every cannonball and bullet used had to travel thousands of miles from the mainland. No, it was
Transporting it thousands of miles away is quite expensive.
Therefore, regardless of whether it is the army or the navy, any troops stationed overseas are very sensitive to ammunition consumption.
Relatively speaking, the troops stationed in the mainland do not care much about the consumption of ammunition. The troops stationed in the country do not go to war anyway. The transportation system is also perfect and the transportation cost is low, so some of them seem to consume a lot of ammunition.
Troops stationed at home will be equipped with supplies, but troops stationed overseas will not be equipped with them.
The most obvious example is mortars. The Army is actually equipped with a lot of these, but they are only limited to equipping troops stationed in the mainland. Anyway, the troops equipped locally do not fight in peacetime and cannot consume much ammunition. As for overseas troops,
But there is very little equipment, because wars often occur in overseas troops. Although they are small-scale wars, they are still wars. Once mortars are used on a large scale, the army says that the logistics system cannot support it.
The same goes for several other artillery units. Troops stationed in the mainland are equipped with many types of artillery, forming a multi-level fire strike, from 75mm howitzers, field guns, to 100mm cannons, howitzers, and then to a
They are equipped with 120mm cannons, howitzers, and 150mm cannons and howitzers.
However, overseas, there are basically only 75mm howitzers, and there are not even 75mm field guns. At most, there are a small number of 120mm howitzers.
Logistics, transportation and supply are difficult, and ammunition is expensive, which makes both the army and the navy sensitive to the consumption of ammunition.
A machine gun can fire hundreds of rounds of bullets in one minute, but the Army says it can't afford it!
Regarding this situation, Li Xuan did not go and say anything first, but first went to the machine gun project team at the Royal Institute of Technology to see a sample gun.
The prototype of this machine gun is much better than the machine gun design reported before.
Previously, the machine gun project team used paper shell ammunition, and the designed machine gun used a hand-fired multi-barreled machine gun, which was actually a Gatling-type machine gun.
It's just that paper shell ammunition has serious problems such as air leakage, making it very troublesome to use.
If the Datang military was under great pressure at that time, it would probably have been directly mass-produced and used. But the problem is that the Datang military was not under much pressure.
Therefore, there was no mass production, but continued improvement, and finally switched to metal bullets. At the same time, the energy of gunpowder gas was used to achieve automatic shooting. Because it used a single barrel, it used water-cooling for heat dissipation.
Therefore, in terms of basic principles, this machine gun is actually very similar to the early Maxim machine gun. Of course, the design of some small details is definitely different, but the basic principles are the same.
After completing the basic design, the machine gun project team made continuous improvements. For example, in order to stabilize the ammunition supply, they successively used oversized magazines to feed ammunition, also used funnels to feed ammunition, and finally chose to use ammunition belts to feed ammunition.
Considering that this machine gun is very heavy, in order to maintain mobility, the cannon is directly mounted on wheels. Horses can directly pull it, or people can push it when necessary.
In order to prevent enemy bullets and protect the shooter's safety, a small bulletproof steel shield was added in front of the gun mount.
Many small designs were finally combined to form the 43-year-old heavy machine gun that Li Xuan sees now.
When the technicians then conducted a test firing, there were no big mistakes. Although it jammed several times, it was harmless. The most important thing is that it fired eight millimeter bullets at a rate of 600 rounds per minute, targeting the front.
A thick wooden board was smashed into pieces.
After personally confirming that the machine gun was usable, Li Xuan still did not say that the Army would equip the machine gun on a large scale, because he also knew, just as the Army himself said, that this thing consumes too much ammunition, and the Army cannot use it now.
Large scale equipment.
Therefore, he just instructed the Guards to equip the machine guns first.
As for the Army, Li Xuan doesn't care, let them figure it out on their own.
The army took a look and found that the Holy Emperor had ordered the Guards to equip it. Although they still felt that this machine gun consumed too much ammunition, they thought that when this thing was not used at ordinary times, it actually did not consume ammunition. When the fighting started, when the time came,
If you use it again, it will be the same as a mortar.
As a result, the Army also purchased some first, equipped the local troops first, and then equipped the garrison troops in overseas territories with a small amount, and then issued a very interesting order: the troops must recycle the bullet casings!
Today's metal bullets are all copper bullets, and the cartridge cases are all made of brass. Recycling the cartridge cases can save a lot of money.
While the Army didn't care much about it, the Navy was very interested after learning about the machine gun!