I want to be emperor

Chapter 606 The cloud of war

Flintlock guns, in fact, are now equipped with military equipment in Europe, and even Sweden began to use flintlock guns on a large scale in the 20s, but the technology of flintlock guns at that time was not good, and the firing rate was relatively low.

The Swedes used this early flintlock gun purely because they lacked excellent matchlock guns and matchlocks in their country. They were forced to use early flintlock guns...and at that time they did not engage in line combat and did not have bayonets This thing, so the early flintlock guns actually had no advantages over matchlock guns, but had a lot of disadvantages.

So after the 30s, after the Swedes solved the source of matchlock guns, they did not hesitate to abandon the early flintlock guns that were originally equipped. Most of the musketeers reinstalled matchlock guns, and only a few special arms remained. currently using.

However, after entering the 40s, technology continued to improve, and today’s European countries have begun to use flintlock guns on a large scale. At the end of the 30-year war, the armies of many European countries have been equipped with flintlock guns, but they still have not completely replaced the matchlock. gun.

In Europe during this period, flintlock guns and arquebus guns were mixed, and a complete unification could not be achieved. The main reason was that the Europeans’ craftsmanship was flawed, and the firing rate of the flintlock guns produced was still relatively low.

At the same time, it failed to introduce bayonets and line tactics on a large scale, which had a greater impact on the popularization of flintlock equipment.

The bayonet and line tactics are the key to embody the advantages of the flintlock. Without these two things, the flintlock is actually not as easy to use as the matchlock
In this period, Europeans still used flintlock guns as arquebuses, and continued to mix them with spearmen, but the number of spearmen has been greatly reduced. From one to one in the 20s, it has grown to Now it's two to one or even three to one.

As Zhungeer, who has frequent exchanges with the outside world, has direct contact with Russia, and has received support from Russia, they naturally also obtained flintlock guns through some channels, not to mention some flintlock guns equipped by Europeans with a low firing rate. Even the two-year-style flintlock guns equipped by the Chu army, they actually obtained a little through some underground channels.

In fact, they also tried to imitate the flintlock guns of the Chu army, but they couldn't imitate... Other details can be improved, such as windproof covers, bayonets, rulers, butts, etc. can actually be like this copy.

Back then, both the Ming army and the Dongyao people could copy the matchlock guns of the Chu army. Now it is not surprising that Zhungeer copied the flintlock guns of the Chu army.

But there is one thing they cannot copy, and that is the spring!

In fact, the biggest difference between the flintlock guns of the Great Chu Empire and the European flintlock guns is in the action, and the biggest difference in the action is the spring.

The Great Chu Empire used short springs, and the bolts on the flintlock guns of European countries used long springs...

Why is there one long and one short... because of the material problem.

The Great Chu Empire spent huge sums of money and used countless manpower and material resources. The spring specially developed for the flintlock gun was tougher, so that a relatively short spring could be used as the firing power, and enough sparks were generated to ignite the gunpowder.

As for European counterparts, there is obviously no country or large enterprise that spends huge sums of money and recruits technical personnel to develop better springs, so they can only use springs with lower performance. In order to ensure the strength of the spring as much as possible, their Springs also tend to be longer.

It was such a small difference that directly led to a huge performance gap between the flintlock guns of the Great Chu Empire and Europe, and the difference in firing rate was relatively large.

This also caused the Chu army to dare to fully install flintlock guns, while European colleagues could only hesitate and struggle, and did not have the courage to fully replace flintlock guns.

Even if the European army is like this, let alone Zhungeer, it is even more impossible for them to solve the technical problems of flintlock guns, and it is impossible for them to fully deploy flintlock guns on the same scale as the Great Chu Empire.

If they really installed immature flintlock guns on a large scale, they really haven't used matchlock guns directly to fight.

This... is also the reason why the Manchu and Qing dynasties did not have large-scale equipment of flintlock guns in history. It is not that they did not want to, and they are not stupid.

The reason for not using it is actually very simple, that is, the technology is too sloppy, and the flintlock guns made are not easy to use.

This was reflected in the Qing-Myanmar War and the Zhungeer Counter-Insurgency War. The Qing army actually tried to use flintlock guns on the front line several times. However, the performance was too poor and the actual combat performance was even worse. Front-line generals would rather use matchlock guns than use them. Flintlock!
In fact, the Qing army also knew that flintlock guns were good, but it was useless to make them... Coupled with the advantages of artillery or cavalry, and the huge population of Chinese money and food behind them, it is also possible to fight with matchlock guns. win.

Once the war is over... Now that the war is over, why bother with flintlock guns, without money?Wouldn't it be nice to go home and sleep with your little wife in your arms?
As a result, the research and development of the flintlock gun and the refitting have been delayed time and time again...

Then, several decades passed by accidentally, and he was taught to be a man by the British during the first Opium War.

This is also a common problem of the bureaucratic system of feudal dynasties: muddling along.

If you don't get beaten, you don't even think about improving your weapons and equipment in advance. When the war comes, oh my god, you just remember to update your weapons and equipment, and it's already too late.

And with the continuous advancement of technology, advanced weapons and equipment cannot be developed in a short period of time, so it seems to be falling behind step by step.

----

The Great Chu Empire has ambitions, so it has never lagged behind in weapon research and development. Even after the end of the domestic unification war and the destruction of Dongyao, domestic weapon research and development still has not stopped.

The 13-year-old flintlock gun was successfully developed and started to be installed. This is the result of years of continuous research and development.

In addition to the 13-year-style flintlock, the defense industry of the Great Chu Empire has also continuously launched a series of new weapons and equipped the military over the years.

The core of which is the artillery.

The artillery technology of the Chu army was not very good in the early days. Although the casting technology of the pile of field artillery was produced by a large number of machines, it was not much different from the previous technology in essence.

The real innovation is the successful development and use of the grenade. The grenade with a wooden bullet holder and a wooden fuze has become a big killer of the Chu army. It has been equipped and used during the Unification War. Now it has become an indispensable weapon for the Chu army. The missing important ammo weight.

On the other hand, certain breakthroughs have been made in the production process of artillery, especially in chemistry, which has made certain breakthroughs in the material technology and processing technology of the Chu army.

It is also a bronze cannon, but the performance of the bronze cannon produced by the Chu army has been greatly improved compared to before, mainly because of the progress in the bronze material and the process of processing the cannon.

Because bronze is essentially a copper alloy, and copper alloys with different proportions have relatively large differences in performance. According to years of repeated experiments, the researchers of the Great Chu Empire have found that the performance of the bronze alloy produced today has been greatly improved. The magnitude surpasses the old bronze alloy.

At the same time, the continuous prominence of high-strength ferroalloy materials has also led to great progress in mechanical equipment, which has enabled large-scale mechanical equipment for processing artillery to achieve higher efficiency and higher processing accuracy.

And these are finally reflected in the performance of the bronze artillery newly developed and produced by the Chu army, which is already a big victory over the bronze artillery during the domestic unification war. It has excellent range, end kinetic energy, shooting accuracy and weight. progress.

The most typical one is the 12-year 12mm field gun that Chengshun successfully developed in 115 and began to equip the Army.

This is also the first newly installed artillery after the military of the Great Chu Empire carried out a comprehensive reform of the artillery model and changed the distinction of artillery from the weight of the shell to the caliber.

Due to the large-scale equipment and use of grenades, it becomes complicated and unintuitive to continue to use the weight of shells as a standard to distinguish the types of artillery. For example, the [-]-pound howitzer actually fires a howitzer that is not [-]-pound...

Even if it is a solid shell, its weight will vary due to changes in the material.

Therefore, in the early years, there was a saying within the Chu army that artillery was divided by caliber. After Chengshun 12 years later, it began to adopt new serial numbers on newly developed artillery, and changed the old artillery to new serial numbers.

However, due to the problem of habit, many people still use how many catties of artillery verbally.

But in the official documents, the division method of year + caliber + type has now been used.

The 12-year-old 115mm field gun is the first new type of artillery with a new number. It is positioned as the main artillery of the division and is used to replace a large number of old nine-pound field guns. Well, the nine-pound field gun is also 115mm. They are actually the same gun.

The 12-year-old 115mm field gun uses a brand new bronze alloy material for the barrel, and uses a higher strength, lower weight iron-carbon alloy gun mount, well, it is actually steel.

In barrel processing, the inner wall is processed by a new type of hydraulic large-scale wagon, which makes the inner wall smoother and more precise.

Coupled with specially produced high-precision shells, the seal is better, the kinetic energy is more sufficient, the range is longer, the power is greater, and the accuracy is higher.

The most important thing is that because of the better performance of the new material, the weight can be made lighter while ensuring the same range and power.

So just looking at the surface, there is not much difference between the 12-year-style 115mm field gun and the nine-pound field gun that was produced and served in the early days. They are all a gun mount and a gun barrel, but the actual performance is quite different, and it is not one of the two. The performance gap, but the performance gap in all aspects.

Also produced and equipped with new materials and new techniques are the 12-year-style 90mm field gun and the 12-year-type 65mm field gun.

The above three types are also the current main field artillery of the Chu army.

In addition, there are howitzers, the 13-year-style 115mm light howitzer and the 13-year-style 150 light howitzer, which also use new materials and new technology.

It can be said that since the 12th year of Chengshun, the Chu army has begun to use a series of new bronze artillery. After all, breakthroughs in materials and technology can be quickly applied to all bronze artillery.

In addition to these conventional division-owned artillery, many heavy artillery of the Chu Army have also adopted these new technologies one after another.

Including the 14-year-style 130mm cannon, the 14-year-style 170mm howitzer, and the 14-year-style [-]mm howitzer used by the independent heavy artillery unit. These artillery are generally not used in field battles, and are mainly used for sieges.

However, the new bronze technology and technology are mainly applicable to the army. After all, bronze artillery is more expensive, and the army's artillery is in pursuit of light weight. At the same time, more army artillery is also some small and medium-caliber artillery. The material is not much, so it is used. Bronze cannon.

For the Army, before steel cannons appeared and used on a large scale, bronze cannons were the best solution, with no disadvantages other than being expensive.

As for the navy, iron-cast cannons are successively used, mainly the caliber of the naval cannons, and a lot of materials are used. If copper cannons are used, the cost is too expensive.

In addition, the naval guns used by the navy do not pursue lightweight, so it is acceptable to use heavier iron guns.

Therefore, the naval artillery of the Great Chu Empire is still mainly made of iron cast artillery.

The iron casting artillery of the Great Chu Empire has also made great progress in technology. It uses better iron materials for casting, with fewer impurities, and can cast more excellent barrels, and the large hydraulic boring machine is used for the inner wall. processing.

In terms of performance, it has already been able to beat the mud iron cannons equipped by the Chu army in the earliest period many years ago.

The progress of materials and processing technology has made the guns of the Great Chu Empire almost leapfrog development.

Not only on guns, but also on cold weapons.

Like armor!

Armor, in fact, has higher requirements on the performance of materials. After all, armor has a strict weight limit. How to get better protection within a limited weight is a test of the level of materials.

The progress made by the Chu army in materials has upgraded the armor of the Great Chu Empire several times. From the earliest cloth face armor made of ordinary iron sheets, to the first generation of plate armor, and now to the current new generation of plate armor, other Protection performance has come a long way.

The plate armor currently used by the Chu army on a large scale is mainly the light plate armor used by musketeers. This thing is actually very thin, but because it is made of relatively high-strength materials that are almost medium carbon steel, its protection ability is quite good. It is easy to resist all kinds of cold weapons or bows and arrows.

As for the bullets... they are all light plate armor, and they are expected to resist bullets. The armor equipped by the Chu army for infantry has never aimed at resisting bullets, which is too unrealistic.

If the opponent uses muskets on a large scale, and there are no cold weapons such as bows and arrows, the infantry of the Chu army will generally drop their armor directly, and line up muskets to fight volleys without using armor at all.

However, the breastplate used by the cavalry, because it is thick enough, can resist bullets at medium and long distances, but it can't stop bullets at close range.

In other words, the plate armor of the Great Chu Empire is not only equipped by itself, but also becomes an important weapon for export together with the matchlock gun, which brings huge overseas trade profits to the Great Chu Empire every year.

A set of heavy infantry full-body plate armor costing only more than 20 Chu Yuan, the FOB export price is directly hundreds of Chu Yuan. As for those trading companies that transport this set of plate armor to overseas markets for sale, the price will be several times higher.

To put it bluntly, the plate armor produced by the Great Chu Empire today basically represents the highest level of armor. Even if it is made of inferior materials and is specially used for export, its performance is far superior to armor from other countries. , no disadvantages...

If you think it is expensive, you can buy cheaper half body armor or even breastplate. It is almost enough for ordinary infantry to match a breastplate. Those full body armors are for elite heavy infantry or knights. You can use them for ordinary soldiers. , that is not stupid!

The advancement of technology has made the weapons and equipment of the Great Chu Empire Army, from guns to armor, to cold weapons, such as sabers, bayonets, individual waist knives, and to some auxiliary supplies, such as shovels, kettles, tents and even military rations. All kinds of messy canned food and so on.

They have all made great progress. Compared with ten years ago, the army of the Great Chu Empire is completely different in terms of equipment.

And these are the confidence of the Great Chu Empire to expand abroad.

Dealing with Zhungeer is no exception.

Luo Zhixue, who was in Jinling City, after listening to the reports from the army, navy and cabinet in detail, finally made up his mind that the chaos in the Northwest cannot continue, and Zhungeer must be voted for!
It's not that the Yarkand Khanate was originally a vassal state in name of the empire, and his younger brother was annihilated by Zhungeer, not to mention losing face, the high level of the empire has never cared much about the name of the vassal state.

Many indigenous countries want to take the initiative to come over and beg to be the vassal state of the empire, but the empire still refuses to agree. For example...the Ryukyu Kingdom, they want the empire to confer them...but the Great Chu Empire is more straightforward and directly sends troops to land The Kingdom of Ryukyu threw the family of the Kingdom of Ryukyu into the sea, and then established the Ryukyu Mansion in the Ryukyu Islands...and became an overseas territory of the Great Chu Empire.

In this regard, the Fusang side pretended not to see it...and voluntarily announced that it would give up its suzerainty over the Ryukyu Kingdom. In 1608, the Fusang people also forced the Ryukyu Kingdom to pay tribute to the Ryukyu Kingdom, and the previous Ming Dynasty also conferred on the Ryukyu Kingdom.

Therefore, the Ryukyu Kingdom was in a very special state of two genus in the first thirty years.

However, after the Chu army directly landed and took control of the Ryukyu Kingdom, this state naturally ended. As for the Fusang people... they dare not even talk nonsense.

It can also be seen from this that, in fact, the Great Chu Empire has no great interest in the vassal state in name. If it can be annexed directly, it can be annexed directly. , This is how the Great Chu Empire played in Southeast Asia.

The relationship between the Yarkand Khanate and the Great Chu Empire was a nominal vassal state relationship. It was said to be a vassal state relationship, but in fact it was mutual use.

The empire needed them to hold back Zhungeer's eastward advance, and the Yarkand Khanate needed the support of the empire to survive.

So the emperors and ministers of the empire don't care if they lose face or not
The most important Luo Zhixue can't just watch them annex the Yarkand Khanate and digest the fruits of victory peacefully.

The area controlled by Zhungeer before the Southern and Northern Wars, plus some other forces that were conquered and merged by them, now the territory controlled by Zhungeer is already very large.

After digesting the territory of the Yarkand Khanate, it will pose a real threat to the Great Chu Empire.

There will be no problems at Jiayuguan, with the Great Wall and fortresses on the side, and even if Zhungeer has a hundred courage, he will not dare to take the initiative to fight from this direction.

However, Monan Mongolia and Mobei Mongolia may be threatened. They are grasslands, Gobi and other terrains, but there are no city checkpoints to garrison troops for defense.

Once the Jungars invaded Monan and Mobei Mongolia, the situation would become complicated.

Both sides can only play cavalry combat, the battle line is too long, and there are too many unexpected factors.

In order to avoid this situation, Luo Zhixue decided to send troops to the Western Regions, not to mention other things, but to bring the battlefield to the Western Regions, the area of ​​the Yarkand Khanate.

In this way, the superior arms of the Great Chu Empire, such as infantry and artillery, can play a greater role.

It was Luo Zhixue's idea to send troops to the Western Regions and actively choose battlefields that are beneficial to him, but Luo Zhixue didn't think about sending hundreds of thousands of troops to destroy Zhungeer in one go.

It's not that it can't be done, but mobilizing too many troops to carry out an expedition will cost too much, and a lot of money and food will be consumed, which will seriously affect the development of domestic agriculture, industry and commerce!

Now the internal development of the empire is in a critical period, and it cannot be disturbed by external wars, especially wars that lose money.

Therefore, there will not be too many troops mobilized in this war, and the main force of the First Army on the front line will be the main force. As for how far it can be fought, it depends on the capabilities of the soldiers of the First Army.

If they can hit Kazakhstan in one go and destroy Zhungeer, Luo Zhixue will definitely reward them generously.

If you can't win the battle, as long as you don't lose Jiayuguan and don't lose a lot of soldiers and generals, then Luo Zhixue doesn't care.

In short, it is to fight first... to the extent that you can fight with limited logistical support.

Anyway, it is impossible for Luo Zhixue to suspend the rapid development of the country just for the sake of Zungar.

After Luo Zhixue made his decision, the civil servants were naturally satisfied, and he didn't care whether he beat the other civil servants, as long as he didn't spend extra military expenses.

As long as the military budget doesn't exceed the budget, those bastards in the military can do whatever they want, and they don't bother to care about it.

The navy has no objection either, as long as the ratio of military expenditure is not adjusted, the navy naturally has no objection either.

On the other side of the army...they responded with a bitter face.

This should not be done, the opportunity to fight for military exploits will be gone, and the so-called westward strategy will naturally disappear;
Let's face it, most of the war expenses have to be paid by the army itself, and Jinling will give an extra few million as temporary war expenses if it is struggling.

There is no way, the army can only once again play the slogan of hard work and self-reliance, and save military expenses in all aspects and the expenses of the Northwest War.

As for your saying that disarmament is used to save military expenses, just kidding, the Army will not disarm if killed.

Not only will it not disarm, but this year the Army is still expanding the No. 20, 29th, [-]th, and [-]th Divisions, a total of three first-class divisions. These three divisions are all prepared for the expansion of Southeast Asia and even the Indian Peninsula in the future. of.

Against such a background, the First Group Army also received combat orders to carry out counterattack operations to avenge the Yarkand Khanate.

The cloud of war hangs over the Western Regions once again!
(End of this chapter)