On the test site, an improved Gatling machine gun is ready.≥,

Unlike the previous Gatling machine guns, the new Gatling machine gun already has ten barrels, and adopts more advanced and labor-saving air-guiding principles, and uses precision gear locking technology, which greatly increases the rate of fire. From 180 rounds per minute in 1861 in the early stage of the Civil War, after six upgrades, by 1865, the rate of fire had increased to 360 rounds per minute.

Of course, this rate of fire cannot be compared with the Gatling machine gun with a firing rate of tens of thousands per minute in later generations, but you should know that the Gatling machine gun in later generations has additional motor assistance. For the Gatling machine gun that currently relies on manual rocker, the rate of fire of 360 rounds per minute is a huge improvement.

Tattatatatatatatata...

The Gatling machine gun in the test site began to fire.

But he saw ten gun barrels spinning rapidly, and the flames spurted, and in the blink of an eye, a large number of bullets were shot, like streaming light, and heading towards the target area five hundred meters away.

In the target area is a wooden wall that is more than 500 meters long, made of layers of uniform wooden boards, and the outermost part is pasted with target paper to test the shooting accuracy and penetration of the gun.

After one minute, stop shooting and their own personnel report the target.

"The maximum radius of 43 meters is scattered, penetrating 3 layers of wooden boards!"

When the distance of five hundred meters and the radius of scattering has reached 43 meters, it means that this distance basically cannot hit the enemy, but the penetration is still acceptable. If it is probable to shoot, it will still have a deterrent effect on the enemy.

Li Weiguo watched the whole process, starting from a distance of 30 meters to 500 meters, and a total of twenty shots were performed in the middle. Among them, the number of tests within 200 meters was the most, and the hit spread rate was basically no more than 15 meters. Within 50 to 100 meters, the spread rate was within 5 meters, and the most powerful lethality was.

"Not bad! Not bad!"

Li Weiguo was satisfied with the result. He turned to Shen Baozhen next to him and asked, "How many models can be made now?"

Shen Baozhen replied: "This is the Gatling MK18 model, which is the latest model. It took us a month to complete the improvement. Our craftsmen can build 10 doors in one month. If you want mass production in the arsenal, you need to set up a production line first, and you can build 30 doors per month in three months."

Li Weiguo shook his head and said, "I don't have that much time, three months. I only give you three months. No matter what method you use, I want 100 Gatling mk18 machine guns!"

"This is a bit difficult!" Shen Baozhen hesitated for a moment, but agreed: "But it should be done. Only three thousand craftsmen need to be requisitioned, and there is no problem working overtime. However, what is the prince planning to do with ammunition issues?"

Li Weiguo asked back: "What's the problem with ammunition?"

"That's right!" Shen Baozhen explained: "The ammunition used by the Gatling machine gun is quite special. Although it is also 9mm caliber, we have extended the warhead and body to increase the power."

Li Weiguo suddenly realized that no wonder he could penetrate three layers of wooden boards at a distance of 500 meters. It turned out that he had lengthened the ordinary bullet and turned into special ammunition.

However, he soon realized a problem. The Gatling machine gun was too consuming and had no huge ammunition reserves. Even if he got 100 Gatling machine guns three months later, he would have been silent after just a few minutes of getting it on the battlefield.

He frowned and said, "How much have you prepared this kind of ammunition?"

Shen Baozhen replied: "Currently used for testing. Only 50,000 shots have been produced!"

"Not enough!" Li Weiguo said immediately: "In three months, there are five million bullets required to prepare! Within one year, another twenty million bullets are required!"

Shen Baozhen said with a bitter face: "Your Majesty. This may be difficult to do, because we have not set up a special production line yet! If there is a production line, five million ships can be supplied in one month."

"You can find a way to do this. Either you change the ammunition back to standard bullets, or you can find a way to create five million bullets. This is your business, I will only look at the results."

It is related to Wang Tu's hegemony, and Li Weiguo will not argue with Shen Baozhen and will directly issue a death order.

Shen Baozhen was stunned and wished he could slap himself.

I deserve it! I will make you talk too much!

But the road is done. Since Li Weiguo has already spoken, Shen Baozhen can only bite the bullet and find a way for himself.

Fortunately, Li Weiguo gave Shen Baozhen a green light in terms of human, material and financial resources. In this way, Shen Baozhen can also mobilize the greatest strength to complete the tasks assigned by Li Weiguo.

Li Weiguo asked again: "How many Gatling MK18 machine guns are there now?"

Shen Baozhen replied: "Ask the prince, there is only one Mk18 model at present, but there are three Mk17 model and two Mk15 model. The other Gatlin models do not meet the actual combat requirements."

Li Weiguo nodded and called Zhuang Jiuxia to tell him to convey the oral order, and ordered the General Staff to immediately select a thousand strong and high-fire soldiers to send them to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, so that they can learn to use Gatling machine guns at present, so that they will not be unfamiliar with the battlefield in the future.

A war is imminent, and Li Weiguo has to pay more attention to the construction of the army.

The entire Wu army, no, should be called the Nanyang Army, because the Wu army only represents the three Wu areas. Now Li Weiguo has controlled ten provinces and controlled the entire area south of the Yangtze River. He is also the Nanyang Minister. Therefore, the Wu army under his command has also been renamed the Nanyang Army by the outside world.

The scale of the Nanyang Army has reached one million, of which the original Wu army was 600,000. Together with the Taiping Army that destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Hunan Army that destroyed Zeng Guofan and obtained the Hunan Army, the total number is one million.

However, these million troops were not equipped with advanced Weiguo rifles and 59 infantry artillery like the Wu army. No matter how rich Li Weiguo is, he would not be able to take out all the weapons and equipment needed for 400,000 people in a short time. After all, the production capacity of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau can only meet 200,000 people per year. Besides, the original Taiping Army and Hunan Army, their loyalty to Li Weiguo is definitely not as high as that of the Wu army. If any monarch had no choice, it would be impossible to equip these newly-reduced troops with the strongest weapons.

Of course, it has been more than a year since the Taiping Army was destroyed. After a year of "education", the Taiping Army has a good sense of belonging to Li Weiguo. After all, Li Weiguo also wants to oppose the Qing Dynasty, which is the same as the Taiping Army's idea of ​​overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, it has a high acceptance. Today, the 200,000 Taiping Army will basically not rebel easily. Li Weiguo has begun to distribute new weapons and equipment to them one after another.

But for the Hunan Army, their sense of belonging to Li Weiguo was much worse. Because they had just surrendered, their morale was unstable, and the Hunan Army and the Taiping Army were deadly enemies, and the blood sea on the battlefield was too deep. These two armies were under Li Weiguo's account, and there were conflicts every day and conflicts often occurred, so it was even more impossible for Li Weiguo to distribute advanced weapons and equipment to the Hunan Army.

In this way, among Li Weiguo's Nanyang Army, the strongest combat power was the original 600,000 Wu Army, and the 200,000 Taiping Army would soon be equipped with new weapons and equipment, and the combat power would be greatly improved. The Hunan Army was still the original Hunan Army, with combat power, but Li Weiguo dared not use it.

Therefore, Li Weiguo could actually mobilize only 800,000 troops.

With these 800,000 troops, there is no problem in fighting against the 800,000 troops of the Qing court, but there are still 300,000 British and French coalition forces. This is a big problem, so if Li Weiguo wants to win in a short time, he must have powerful weapons and equipment to support him.

Li Weiguo has seen the Gatling machine gun and is ready to complete one hundred goals in three months. There is no doubt that he will achieve great results on the battlefield.

Next, Li Weiguo inspected the production lines of Weiguo-style rifles and Type 59 infantry artillery to check the production capacity of these two main combat weapons and equipment, because the next battle breaks out. The losses on the battlefield need to be replenished in time, otherwise the combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced and weakened. Whoever can reserve more weapons and equipment and ammunition will have one more chance of winning.

At this time, the Weiguo rifles and Type 59 infantry cannons have been continuously improved for four years. After all, the Weiguo rifle technology that year has been resold to Britain and France. Although the castrated version was given to Britain and France, with the industrial technology and talent reserves of Britain and France, I believe that all the technology will be restored soon. Now four years have passed, Britain and France have already equipped the Weiguo rifles on a large scale. So if Li Weiguo wants to maintain his advantages over Britain and France in rifles, he must continue to improve it.

The Weiguo rifle has undergone two major changes. The parts of the bolt are more precisely processed due to the advancement of lathe technology, and the damage rate has dropped significantly. It is completely comparable to the Mauser 98 rifle in history. However, the former has a caliber of 7.92 mm, while the latter has a caliber of 9mm. The weight of the entire gun after loading is higher than that of the Mauser 98.

However, although the improved Weiguo rifle was better than the Weiguo rifle used by the British and French troops, when it came to the battlefield, the gap between both sides was no longer obvious. If Li Weiguo's army won because of the decisive advantage of equipment in the last Battle of Shanghai, then if the Battle of Shanghai was in the Battle of Shanghai again, the British and French coalition forces, which were also equipped with Weiguo rifles, would not have a one-sided advantage.

It can be said that although the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has further improved the Weiguo rifle, the effect on the battlefield will not be very obvious. If we have to talk about the advantages, it will at most be a decrease in production costs and maintenance costs.

The Weiguo-style rifle has not been significantly changed, but the Type 59 infantry cannon has been greatly changed.

Previously, the life of the Type 59 infantry gun was only about 150 rounds and the insufficient chamber pressure, and the caliber was only 70 mm, the body tube was short, and the power and range were limited. Now these problems have been solved, and the rear-loading gun can also achieve large-caliber and long-body tubes.

The Type 59 infantry cannon was upgraded to Type 62, with a caliber that became 75 mm and a diameter that was extended to 15 times, making the body tube reach 1125 mm. However, such a long gun barrel undoubtedly sacrifices a certain high and low firing range, but the advantage is that its power is enhanced, and its penetration is twice that of the Type 59 infantry cannon, which can easily penetrate one meter of the thick city wall within 500 meters.

The Type 62 infantry cannon is used for direct aiming firepower support, unlike the Type 59 infantry cannon, which can be aimed directly or bending.

Youdao is a professional and specialized in the art. The Type 62 infantry cannon has no ability to bounce the high-elevation angle, but it highlights the ability to attack directly. Once it encounters the enemy's strong fortifications, it can be destroyed with one shot.

However, this does not mean that Li Weiguo gave up the bending fire supporting artillery.

On the contrary, from the huge achievements achieved by the Type 59 infantry artillery during the bending support operation in the Battle of Shanghai, Li Weiguo realized the battlefield support role of howitzers.

Especially in the future, ground wars may develop towards trench warfare, so howitzer firepower support is crucial.

The bending ability of the Type 62 infantry cannon was abolished, but Li Weiguo allowed the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to develop medium-sized howitzers with a caliber of 125 mm and heavy howitzers with a caliber of 155 mm.

Five years ago, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was still worried about the air tightness of the 80mm caliber artillery, and now it has been completely solved. Not only has the Type 64 125mm 10-diameter medium-sized howitzer successfully developed, but also recently developed the Type 65 155mm caliber 11-diameter heavy howitzer.

Li Weiguo was particularly happy to learn about this. He was about to equip his army with high, medium and low three-caliber artillery. The caliber of the Type 62 artillery was 75mm. It was used as direct firepower used by infantrymen in front-line troops to destroy the enemy's fortifications head-on. The Type 64 125mm caliber howitzer will be used as division-level infantry fire suppression weapons to suppress local artillery firepower.

The last type 65 155mm heavy howitzer is used for large-scale legion-level battles. Its powerful artillery fire will be used for carpet-style strikes against the enemy, smashing or disrupting the entire military deployment of the enemy in one fell swoop, and is a strategic firepower.

The combination of high, medium and low three-standard gears is a condition that the artillery troops must meet in the future. The equipment Li Weiguo has given him now will surely cause a new round of artillery tactical revolution in the world.

Li Weiguo no longer cares about the possible impact. He must do this because the enemy he faces is too strong. The Qing court, the Huai Army Group, and the British and French powers, together, Li Weiguo must pay attention to it, otherwise he will suffer a great loss.

With the three new artillery styles of Type 62, Type 64 and Type 65, Li Weiguo was happy, and the artillery regiment commanders of each town were happy, but it was a pain for the officers and soldiers of the logistics department and the officers and soldiers of the baggage battalion.

Why?

Haven’t you seen how much weight is the 125mm caliber howitzer shell? 45 kilograms. Fortunately, the warhead and ammunition are integrated, which is 20 kilograms heavier than the 75mm artillery shell.

Haven't you seen how much weight is a 155mm caliber howitzer shell? 50 kilograms, but the weight of the warhead. Including the launching medicine package, you have to increase by 20 kilograms. If you have another maximum range, you have to install thirty or fifty kilograms of launching medicine.
Chapter completed!