I want to be emperor

Chapter 491 The Security War of the Fifth Division

The new nine-pound light howitzer in the Chu army, compared with the previous light short-barreled artillery, this artillery has a curved trajectory, which can hit the enemy behind bunkers such as city walls and trenches.

But also higher accuracy, faster rate of fire!
Because it uses a new type of howitzer, its rate of fire is much stronger than that of the original short-barreled shotgun and mortar, and it can basically achieve the same rate of fire as a field gun.

Coupled with the advantages of light weight and convenient maneuverability, after the successful development of this nine-pound field gun in the summer, it was determined by the Chu army to replace the previous two-pound and three-pound light short-barrel shotguns as a battalion weapon. Regimental infantry supports the use of firepower.

Well, the reason why this thing was developed so quickly is that this thing is purely a scaled-down version of the [-]-pound light howitzer, and the R&D staff directly came to scale it down!
To be honest, in fact, the howitzers in the Chu army have no technical content!
The manufacturing process of the various new so-called howitzers of the Chu army is actually not difficult. In terms of craftsmanship, they are still in the era of Hongyi cannons, and at most they have higher processing precision.

But, it's not impossible to use less precision.

Therefore, any workshop that can manufacture field artillery like the Chu Army can basically produce the howitzers of the Chu Army.

It doesn't matter whether it's Ximing or Dongyao, if they want to do it, they can actually do it.

What is really technical is the new howitzer shell with a new fuze, to be precise, the new wooden tubular fuze and the prefabricated fragmentation process of the shell case. These two are really technical things.

Others, including wooden bullet holders, do not have any problems in craftsmanship. Just a wooden holder, how difficult can you say... If you don't know, it's fine, if you know, just find a carpenter who can give you Fiddle with a lot out ah.

But the prefabricated fragments of the cartridge case are not easy to do. It is no problem for skilled craftsmen to make a few by hand, but if you want to mass-produce, then you need a lot of mechanical equipment as the basis.

The wooden fuze sounds like a wooden pipe, but it is actually more difficult to get.

Its internal structure is relatively complicated, and it has relatively high requirements for machining accuracy and standardization. For example, the vent hole inside cannot be large or small. If it is too large, it will not be waterproof. It cannot be used in rainy days, and the shells will not explode after entering the water.

But if it is too small, it will not explode if you block it directly.

There is also a thread for tightness, don’t look at it as just a thread, but it’s not so easy to manually process it in batches, and then you have to give the shell a matching internal thread of the projectile body, that thing is iron... ...not so easy to process.

At the same time, it must be highly standardized. It cannot be said that after getting a bunch of fuzes, it would be funny to find that the fuzes cannot be installed before the battle.

Finally, even the selection and processing of wood is very particular. Hardwood must be used. The density of the wood should not be too small, and it must be treated with fire resistance to increase its fire resistance.

So don't look at it as just a wooden fuze, but this thing is actually quite technically difficult.

The Ammunition Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry of the Great Chu Empire has done dozens of selections for this thing. Hundreds of people have been thinking about how to make wooden fuzes practical all day long. All kinds of messy experiments have been done for a long time. Heap, this is still because Luo Zhixue stared at them and explained various fuze concepts to them.

If Dongbao or Ximing seized the wooden fuze of the Chu army and wanted to imitate it, unless they also have a research team with dozens or even more people who understand science and technology.

It will take several years to gradually analyze and research, and gradually solve the technical difficulties, otherwise don't expect to be able to do it.

To put it bluntly, in a short period of time, they can't even process the wood used for the fuze...

What, you just make fast wood and use it directly without professional processing, and it will explode in minutes for you to see.

If ordinary wood can be used directly, the people at the Ammunition Research Institute of the Great Chu Empire will only carry out various fire-resistant and flame-resistant treatments on the wood.

But on Dongyao's side, it is estimated that they don't even know what fire resistance is.

There are many seemingly simple things, but if you don’t tell them, you will figure out all the tricks in it all your life.

Only with these technical breakthroughs in details can the new type of grenade of the Great Chu Empire be produced, and the howitzers of the Chu Army can perform outstandingly on the battlefield, making the enemy howl.

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With the addition of four nine-pound light howitzers, the firepower of the regiment-level artillery of the new Chu army infantry regiment has also been greatly enhanced.

In addition to the regiment's artillery, there is also a heavy post with a large establishment of more than 200 people in the infantry regiment.

A more than 50 cavalry, responsible for reconnaissance, and also a reconnaissance post for the messenger.

There are also other members of the regiment, such as the medical team.

The entire infantry regiment has complete infantry, artillery, reconnaissance, ambulance and other personnel. The total strength is about 3000, two hundred people, a considerable number of mules and horses, and eight infantry artillery.

This infantry regiment can undertake conventional independent combat tasks.

If some cavalry and more than five catties of field artillery are strengthened, a mixed regiment can be formed to undertake combat tasks on one front alone.

It is equivalent to the fact that in the past, after strengthening the cavalry and artillery, the brigade-level troops of the Chu army formed a mixed brigade of 6000 to [-] people to undertake combat tasks on one front. Today's Chu army uses a mixed regiment of [-] people to undertake combat tasks in one direction.

In this way, one division can form three regiment-level battle groups. Usually, two regiments fight on the front line, and one regiment acts as a reserve team. When necessary, three regiments can go to the front line at the same time and launch attacks from three directions at the same time. .

This is more flexible than in the past where a division could only have two brigade-level combat groups, and most of the time only one mixed brigade-level combat force could be dispatched to perform side missions.

Three large-scale regiments, plus the divisional artillery regiment with 36 field guns, the divisional cavalry regiment with more than 600 cavalry, the divisional delivery regiment with more than 2000 people, the divisional light infantry regiment with more than 800 people and For other types of divisional units, the size of the entire division is about [-] people.

When the No.20 Infantry Division was being reorganized, because there were some shortages before, and some soldiers were transferred to the second-class division or retired, so the No.20 Infantry Division also accepted a batch of recruits.

However, this group of recruits had completed three months of complete training before, and during their recruit training period, they used flintlock guns for training, and they received various new line tactical training.

Therefore, they are actually more adaptable to the tactics of the new army than the original soldiers in the No.20 Division.

When the No.20 Division began to reorganize and change their outfits, several other old-style first-class divisions also began to change their outfits one after another. In addition, some of the old-style first-class divisions on the front line were too late to be reorganized, but the front line urgently needed new-style firearms. Fire the gun.

Therefore, Gao Ce of the Chu army could also be transferred to the front line with a batch of flintlock guns, which were directly used by the musketeers in the old first-class division.

After all, there were also a large number of musketeers in the old first-class divisions. Although they used matchlock guns before, it would be okay if they were replaced with flintlock guns, and the effect would even be better.

At least you don't have to worry about not being able to fire in wet and light rainy weather.

At the same time, when necessary, these musketeers can also be drawn out individually, and then form a line of flintlock infantry to fight alone.

This is what the Fifth Division in the Yunnan-Guizhou frontline is doing now.

As the main force of the Chu Army that first entered Yunnan from Guangxi, the Fifth Division has always been at the forefront of the Yunnan-Guizhou battle. Because the terrain on the Yunnan-Guizhou line is complex, there are many local chieftains, and the situation is extremely complicated. Although there is not much high-intensity combat, but Low-intensity and small-scale battles are very frequent. Many chieftain troops saw the foreign Chu army, and they will shoot you a few arrows without saying a word...

This also requires a relatively high number of troops invested by the Chu army. When tens of thousands of troops were thrown in, it seemed as if they disappeared without any splash.

Later, the Chu army simply stopped engaging in the traditional combat mode of opening and closing, and instead started to clean up gradually.

He was not in a hurry to fight in directly, but chose to take his time, along the main traffic routes, one city after another, one village after another, and gradually wiped out the past.

The remnant soldiers of the Western Ming Dynasty are the enemy, as are the local chieftains, all kinds of recalcitrant gentry, and bandits and thieves.

The Chu army was like a comb, and the army pulled a net to clear the past. Although the progress was slow, the effect was very good.

But all the places newly occupied by the Chu army are basically peaceful. What kind of gentry, bandits and hooligans, chieftains and other stubborn enemies have all disappeared in the long river of history.

After fighting like this once, even the follow-up battle to eliminate bandits will be saved!

It's just that although this style of play is safe, it has also led to the fact that the Fifth Division of the vanguard has never been able to get the opportunity to retreat to the rear areas such as Guangxi for a rest. Kill a wave of bandits tomorrow, and copy a gentry later.

Many generals of the fifth division complained that they are a first-class main division capable of fighting tough battles and large-scale battles, but now they have all become small-scale security and bandit suppression divisions...

Because of their self-deprecation, the low-intensity, but extremely slow-moving wars in the army against Yunnan and Guizhou are also called security operations.

Although the fifth division, which was deeply involved in the security battle, could take a break from time to time, it didn't have the opportunity to be transferred to the rear as a whole for a rest.

Now the top leaders of the Chu army feel that the troops in the direction of Yunnan and Guizhou are insufficient, and they are thinking about increasing troops in the direction of Yunnan and Guizhou. How can they transfer the fifth division, which is the main force.

Based on this situation, the top leaders of the Chu army did not rotate the southwest front, but chose to consolidate the logistics line and gradually reorganize the front-line troops.

It will not be a division that will reorganize and reorganize directly in one go, but a battalion, and a battalion will do it slowly.

Dress up while playing.

The No.18 Infantry Regiment under the Fifth Division was one of the first units in the Fifth Division to be equipped with flintlocks.

At the same time, under the infantry regiment, there is also a new infantry battalion, the third battalion, which is experimental in nature and can be regarded as a model for the whole division.

Now this infantry battalion, after a three-month reorganization and re-equipment, ushered in actual combat for the first time, capturing a small pass city guarded by the Ximing army, providing a strategic channel for the next step of the army's purge operation, and defending the logistics Wire.

Major Gan Xinrong, the commander of the [-]rd Battalion, was quite satisfied with this task. After all, it was a Guancheng with hundreds of Ximing regular officers and soldiers.

This time he had to fight hard, he didn't want to go back to the way he was before, where he was transferred every day to carry out some purge operations, fighting with a group of bandits, thieves, recalcitrant gentry, and chieftains.

He had had enough of that kind of life.

(End of this chapter)