1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 63 No.60 Three Cannons ([-])

"Is the metallurgical department able to solve this technical problem?" Tao Donglai looked at the camp of the Ministry of Industry.The people who came here today are all experts in related industries from across the crowd, so that they can answer questions on the spot immediately when there is a problem, and clear up some unrealizable solutions as soon as possible.

The technical supervisor of metallurgy is Liu Xingli. He graduated from the School of Metallurgical Engineering and Technology, China University of Metallurgy in 2007, majoring in iron and steel metallurgy. Before crossing the road, he worked as a field technician in Shougang. The workshop was set up by him.Such a small problem naturally did not trouble him, so he nodded and said: "Of course there is a way, in industrial production, this problem is usually solved by electroplating lead, but this requires the chemical department to provide fluoroboric acid as a plating solution. Row."

Qiao Zhiya, a chemical expert, raised his hand and said in half-baked Chinese: "To manufacture fluoroboric acid, we must first find borax ore. As far as I know, the main production areas of that stuff in China are in Qinghai, Tibet and Shaanxi. We probably won't be able to capture those places within a while."

There was a sigh from the crowd, and it seemed that the road was blocked.But Qiao Zhiya immediately continued: "But it is fortunate that you have met a professional like me, because I happen to know some alternatives, such as potassium sodium tartrate lead plating and triethanolamine lead plating that are often used in car batteries, and methyl sulfonic acid. Acid lead plating, perchlorate lead plating, sulfamate lead plating…”

"Stop, stop, don't say such detailed technical terms first, most of the people in this room don't understand." Tao Donglai quickly stopped Qiao Zhiya's show off: "Just tell me, is there anything that suits our current situation? A process to mass-produce lead-coated shells? Say yes or no."

"Yes! But..."

"But what?" Tao Donglai is also a little anxious. Whether this technical problem can be solved is related to the development route of the Transcendent Future Artillery. In the long run, it will even affect the lives of quite a few people. feel nervous.

"But first, I have to build a laboratory for me to perfect this process. After all, I haven't actually operated it before. In addition, I have to remind you that this electroplating process consumes a lot of electricity when it is processed on a large scale. It's very big, maybe you will have to stop some other production projects that use electricity." Qiao Zhiya put forward his request without hesitation.

"Okay, no problem, I specifically approved this matter on behalf of the Executive Committee." After a brief discussion, Tao Donglai immediately announced the decision of the Executive Committee: "The other is the issue of lead, I remember that there seems to be lead mines in Hainan as well. ?"

Ning Qi immediately opened his laptop and connected to the big database: "Yes, there are two places in Ledong and Changjiang. The reserves of the lead-zinc mine in Ledong alone are close to [-] tons, but the problem is that we can't do anything in the short term. Go to mine there."

"If we can't go, we can hire someone and make an offer, and let Yazhou organize people to dig for stones." Tao Donglai immediately thought of a solution: "And we also brought hundreds of kilograms of lead..."

"The lead has to be kept for making rifle bullets." Ning Qi reminded Tao Donglai softly.

Tao Donglai slapped his forehead and did not continue talking about this topic.The current artillery building plan is only one aspect. The plan to manufacture flintlock guns and arm the local troops has also been put on the agenda. It is true that such a small amount of lead reserves in the hands of the Executive Committee cannot be used indiscriminately.

The discussions so far have only theoretically passed the possibility of manufacturing and equipping breech guns, and established the development route of artillery manufacturing in the future.But in actual operation, it is basically impossible to make the kind of artillery that everyone just discussed.The reason is very simple, because among all the transmigrators, no one has actually made a cannon.Including the North American Gang of Six, who exist as weapons experts, at most they have only fired old-fashioned front-loading smoothbore guns in person, and know some of the technical parameters of the artillery, but they are also laymen for the casting process.So after discussing for a long time, the topic returned to the beginning - it is still necessary to cast a few small-caliber front-mounted smoothbore guns with the least technical difficulty to practice their craftsmanship.If you can't even get the smoothbore gun right, then don't mention the fully equipped rear-loading rifled gun for the time being.

The first choice to make smoothbore guns, this is not the only reason, there are two other important reasons for the Executive Committee had to make such a choice.

The first reason is that the Ming Dynasty was very aggressive in purchasing arms due to frequent wars during this period.And the example in history who made a fortune by selling arms to the Ming Dynasty is undoubtedly the Portuguese.Due to the backwardness of its own cannon casting technology, most of the red barbarian cannons equipped in the army in the late Ming Dynasty were traded with the Portuguese in Macau. Because the Ming Dynasty had a huge demand for artillery, the Portuguese production capacity could not be satisfied. They even acted as middlemen, reselling the British ship-mounted cannons to the Ming Dynasty.In addition, the Dutch have also had a share in such arms deals. It was only after the Ming Dynasty had a bad relationship with the Dutch over the Taiwan issue that the arms deals between the two sides stopped.

Although the appearance of these Hongyi cannons imported from the Portuguese is clumsy, the price is also proportional to the weight, often costing thousands of silver.With such a large amount of arms business, the Executive Committee does not intend to take advantage of the Portuguese for nothing.Whether it is military technology, tactical level, or the grasp of historical trends and key events, all the people who travel through have incomparable advantages. The time-travelers are more qualified.The 21-year war in Europe is now in full swing, and there are still 30 years of war to be fought. There have been people clamoring for the export of arms to Europe as soon as possible, so that the white skins can kill more brutally. Let them have no time to worry about the struggle for control of the ocean in the East.

Since there is an intention to sell arms, this involves the second reason, which is also an important principle in the arms business-the most advanced weapons must not be sold.In the executive committee's long-term plan for weapons exports, there should be at least a generation gap between export-type weapons and self-use weapons, so that in the event of a ripped-off customer becoming an opponent, the army of Transcendence can still maintain sufficient battlefield suppression capabilities by virtue of its weapon advantages. .

This generation difference principle is not only aimed at the future arms output objects, but also applies this principle appropriately to the army that the Transcendents will build in the future.

The rapid pace of expansion across the next few decades will certainly be unprecedented in history, and the organizational construction of the military is difficult to achieve in this accelerated development. Well, some militaries on the fringes will inevitably have ambitions.But if the weapon generation difference is maintained, even if someone makes a mess, there will be no ability to turn around.In addition, the army using firearms is very dependent on logistics. As long as the supply of ammunition is cut off, the ability to continue fighting will drop sharply.Controlling the source in the manufacture and supply of arms is also one of the ways to effectively control the army.

For this control purpose, weapons of various technology levels will be manufactured synchronously as planned and used separately.For example, Chuanzhong has already built a breech gun, so he can sell the "Haihan Cannon" with lower technical content to the Ming Dynasty.When the indigenous troops passing through the crowd are equipped with Mini-style rifles, the outdated old-fashioned flintlock guns can appear on the list of arms exports.

In fact, the export of arms also has a relatively obscure purpose, and the Executive Committee has not publicly announced it.In fact, this purpose was set by the Executive Committee after being inspired by the arms export policies of some major powers in later generations, that is, to weaken the arms research and development capabilities of arms importing countries through continuous and targeted export of arms. There is a strong dependence, whether it is the after-sales maintenance of weapons, the supply of ammunition, the training of personnel, etc., will be severely constrained by the arms exporting countries.For example, India, a major South Asian country in later generations, is dubbed the arsenal of all nations. The main weapons of sea, land and air are basically imported from different countries, and its drawbacks are self-evident.It usually takes decades to develop weapons by yourself. When you finally see that samples are about to be produced, the arms exporting countries will launch weapons of the same level with much lower production costs in a "timely" manner. The laborious weapons development had to be abandoned halfway.

After the technical control of this kind of arms reaches a certain stage, it is easy to reach a military alliance between arms exporting countries and their customers. Take money out as research funding for exporting countries.Of course, the weapon that the person who pays the money will still only be the castrated version with a generation difference.The Executive Committee believes that this kind of soft suppression in military technology is more cost-effective than hard confrontation on the frontal battlefield. You don’t have to fight all the time while you are making money. cost-effective.And these weak countries that pay for their money are often very active in kneeling and licking the father country in various poses in exchange for being able to retain their place in the powerful military alliance.

The reason why these concepts have not been publicly released is because the Executive Committee considers that the number of naturalized citizens will increase in the future. Once this theory spreads, on the one hand, it is not conducive to internal unity, and on the other hand, it will also affect future munitions. Exports are adversely affected.

After the general development direction is discussed, the next step is to deal with some technical details.

(End of this chapter)