Chapter 707: The Soaring Datang Ordnance Production
At present, there are many kinds of artillery that are officially mass-produced in the major arsenals of the Tang Dynasty. There are two-pound and three-pound shotguns, five-jin, seven-jin, and nine-jin field cannons. In addition, there are twenty-four
A 48-pound heavy-duty short-barreled howitzer.
Among them, the two-pound shotgun, five-pound field gun, nine-pound field gun, and forty-eight-pound heavy short-barreled howitzer are the main artillery models that guarantee production!
There is a reason why the Tang Dynasty currently focuses on the production of the above four types of artillery!
First of all, because the two-pound shotgun is light in weight and is a cast-iron artillery piece, it is widely attached to the army infantry units as direct support firepower. It is also attached to a large number of naval ships as auxiliary killing firepower. Basically every ship is equipped with at least one.
Two pounds of artillery.
Although the five-pound artillery is less powerful, one thing is irreplaceable. That is, the Tang Dynasty has overcome the material technology and successfully used iron casting, which greatly reduced the cost and freed up precious copper materials.
Produces nine-pound field guns, so this cast-iron five-pound field gun is also a general-purpose artillery piece currently equipped on a large scale by the Tang Army and Navy, and its output is quite large.
As for the seven-pound cannon, it is because it continues to be unable to be cast in iron, and the copper materials of the Tang Dynasty have to give priority to the production of the nine-pound cannon. Therefore, the large-scale production of this artillery has been suspended, waiting for technology
After improvement, it will be mass-produced when it can be cast with iron.
As for the Jiujin artillery, it is currently fully guaranteed by the Tang Dynasty, and it is also the only artillery still made of bronze. Its output is continuing to rise. It is currently positioned in the Tang Dynasty as the main long-range field artillery in the artillery regiment.
The main medium-caliber gun used by naval battleships.
As for heavy-duty short-barreled howitzers, because they are made of iron, the cost is relatively low, and the grenade technology these days is not very good. In order to ensure the power, super-large-caliber grenades must be used. Therefore, both the army and the navy currently tend to use large-caliber grenades.
The scale is equipped with a heavy-duty short-barreled howitzer of the 48-pound level.
The 24-pound short-barreled howitzer is not light in weight, but its performance in actual combat can only be said to be half. At present, the Army has reduced its orders and has switched to the 18-pound short-barreled howitzer.
Order.
Because the 18-pound short-barreled howitzer recently produced by the Zhaoqing Arsenal is not powerful, but its weight is greatly reduced and the cost is also cheaper. The Army has already planned to use this short-barreled howitzer that weighs only more than 100 kilograms.
Replacing the existing two-pound shotguns and three-pound shotguns, they will be directly assigned to infantry battalions for use.
The output of the above-mentioned various artillery is not small. The monthly output of various artillery can reach more than a hundred. Although most of them are two-pound shotguns and five-pound shotguns, this output
Not too small either.
In addition to the above-mentioned large-scale mass-produced artillery, there are also some artillery that are in small-scale trial production. For example, the fourteen-pound naval gun imitating Folangjiren has now entered the trial production stage. Zhaoqing Arsenal has also produced two
The door-like cannon came out.
However, I found that the technical difficulty is still too great. It is quite difficult to produce large-scale machinery. At present, it can only be built by hand in small quantities, and the performance of the machine is worse than that of the Foran robot, but a little worse is better than nothing.
The warships that are under construction in the Navy and will be launched next year are eagerly waiting for the 14-pound artillery.
Therefore, although large-scale production is not yet possible, it is still produced manually on a small scale and can be made one by one.
In addition to guns, there are naturally various types of ammunition, and the production of gunpowder is the main one. Since capturing Lianzhou and Guangzhou and gaining a window for trade with the outside world, the Tang Dynasty basically has no worries about sulfur and saltpeter.
Raw materials are available. As long as they have money, many maritime merchants will send these raw materials to Guangzhou and Lianzhou.
At the same time, the gunpowder manufacturing machinery designed by Youjunying was widely distributed to gunpowder branches affiliated to major arsenals, and these gunpowder branches also began to adopt unified new gunpowder standards.
Ammunition production has been greatly improved compared to before. Otherwise, when the Tang Army was fighting, it would not have the luxury of firing tens of thousands of artillery shells in a battle!
As for cold weapons, they focus on the production of plate armor. Although swords and shields are also produced, the production tasks are not difficult.
Anyway, the Tang Dynasty had never lacked swords, spears, even bows and arrows and other cold weapons, and they actually didn't make many of them themselves, and quite a few of them were captured from the Ming army.
The production of ordnance has always been Li Xuan's focus. After hearing that the arsenal in Ganzhou had begun to supply ammunition to the front line, Li Xuan instructed to continue to increase the production capacity of the Ganzhou arsenal. At present, it is not enough to manufacture ammunition.
Need to be able to make muskets and artillery.
After all, the Second Army is now fighting deep into northern Jiangxi. The guns, artillery and ammunition need to be transported from the Guangdong and Guangxi areas, which is too far away, puts too much pressure on logistics, and is too troublesome.
November of the third year of Xuanping was generally spent in peace. The Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty was accumulating strength and planning to launch a new round of offensive. As for the Tang Dynasty’s autumn and winter offensive this year, it was not over yet.
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Before next year's rainy season, the Datang King's Division will have about four months of fighting time on the northern front, and these four months are enough for the Datang King's Division to do a lot of things.
Zhang Yue was not idle in November. He faced, or rather ignored, the impeachment of many people, and unswervingly eliminated the guards under his command, expanded the supervision standards, and reorganized local military training to strengthen Huguang.
, the defense line in northern Jiangxi.
When the front line seemed to be calm again, other places were not calm. For example, on the Fujian side, a battalion sent by the Sixth Infantry Division tried to cross the mountains from Jianchang Prefecture in Jiangxi Province to Shaowu Prefecture in Fujian Province, but failed.
They were attacked head-on by Yu Dayou's bandit-breaking army, and an infantry battalion was blocked in Shaowu Mansion and was not allowed to enter.
Because the main response direction of the Sixth Infantry Division is in Fuzhou, it is impossible to send too many troops in the direction of Shaowu, so in the end it can only switch from offense to defense. As long as it blocks the Fujian rebel army from entering Jianchang Prefecture, it will be considered a success.
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In order to retaliate, and also to contain Yu Dayou's rebel army, the First Mixed Regiment stationed in Chaoshan Prefecture finally launched an attack in the direction of Fujian after a long period of silence.
Although there are nearly ten thousand Ming troops and naval forces on Nan'ao Island, after a long confrontation, the First Mixed Regiment found that the Ming troops on Nan'ao Island had no willingness to take the initiative, so they took the risk of deploying the main force to launch an attack.
A surprise battle.
After a short raid, they almost entered Zhangzhou Prefecture. Unfortunately, Yu Dayou urgently dispatched more than 5,000 people from the rear to quickly reinforce Zhangzhou Prefecture.
The Ming army on Nan'ao Island also made some changes, and seemed to have plans to land in Chaozhou Prefecture.
Later, the First Mixed Regiment had to give up its plan to attack Zhangzhou Prefecture, and retreated as soon as it was ready!
In this battle, the First Mixed Regiment had about 2,500 troops, killing and injuring hundreds of Yu Dayou's bandits and nearly 3,000 local guardsmen. Although it was not a great victory, it could be regarded as containing Yu Dayou.
part of the energy.
At least with the first mixed regiment here, Yu Dayou's bandit-breaking army could not mobilize too many troops to march westward to Jiangxi.
On the western front, after fighting countless small-scale battles, the 11th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division finally advanced to Kunming Prefecture in Yunnan Province, captured Kunming, and led directly to the largest fortress of the Ming Dynasty in Yunnan: Dali.
A good start for the Fourth Infantry Division's battle in Yunnan!
But when it marched into Yunnan, the Fourth Infantry Division suffered too much non-combat attrition. After more than a year of fighting, the direct combat attrition was less than a thousand people, but the non-combat attrition exceeded 3,000 people.
When the Fourth Infantry Division entered Yunnan, it had a total strength of 12,000 troops. However, after more than a year of fighting, it had already lost 4,000 troops, with a battle loss rate of 30%.
This caused the morale of the Fourth Infantry Division to be extremely low. Even if they could not defeat the enemy, they could continue to win battles, but too many troops were lost directly due to injuries and illnesses.
Although the Fourth Infantry Division still maintains a strength of nearly 10,000 people, the more than 2,000 soldiers in it are actually new recruits.
Not only the non-combat casualties were serious, but also the local chieftains were quite unfriendly to the Tang Dynasty. The Dali Mu Prince's Palace had such strong control over the chieftains that although the chieftains did not dare to oppose the Tang Dynasty King,
But secretly there are all kinds of mischief going on.
The war on the Western Front almost came to a standstill. Although it continued to win one victory after another, these tactical victories could not be transformed into strategic advantages.
It was difficult to supply supplies, serious injuries and illnesses were encountered, and it was also troublesome to replenish soldiers. In short, it was all kinds of troubles.
The entire Fourth Infantry Division is almost stuck in the quagmire of Yunnan. Every time it wants to organize a large-scale offensive, it is very difficult, and Li Xuan is powerless about it. He wants to send soldiers and guns up.
It's too difficult, and the Western Front is not currently the main front of the Tang Dynasty. Whether it is the recruitment of soldiers or the supply of materials, it is not a priority, so the Fourth Infantry Division is actually having a very difficult time fighting in Yunnan.
Fortunately, the war on the Western Front was not the main front of the Tang Dynasty, and the slow progress of the Fourth Infantry Division would not have any impact. Li Xuan's order to the Fourth Infantry Division was very simple: capture the difficulties, and then capture Dali. As for other small places
You can ignore them. As long as those chieftains who are constantly rebellious don't threaten the safety of the 4th Infantry Division, don't bother with them first.
After the Tang Dynasty established the situation on the northern front and was able to free up its hands, it would have plenty of time and energy to deal with them.
Whether it is the Western Front or the Fujian side, the war for hegemony between the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty can only be regarded as a small fight. At this stage, the strategic focus of both sides is still around the fight for the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.