In a barracks outside Vienna, the Bavarian Guards Regiment and two other Royal Cavalry Companies accompanied the prince to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The role of this force is not only to support the prince, but also a considerable number of them will carry weapons and ammunition as advance troops sent to Libya by Bavaria, and the commander of this force, Lieutenant Colonel Karl, is making the final mobilization before the strike! They will face a European power this time. Considering the difficulties in supply, their preparations must be quite meticulous!

Although the vehicles brought this time did not have heavy weapons such as tow artillery, they also carried a large amount of ammunition. At the same time, because the military-industrial systems of Bavaria and Austria were connected to a certain extent, some weapons could use Austrian ammunition and accessories. Although Fritz was indifferent to this war, after the prince expressed his willingness to buy them at the price, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also willing to provide ammunition for this expeditionary force.

"Along with the cavalry, we had a total of 1,500 people. Considering the difficulty of ammunition replenishment, the number of 75mm artillery we carried was very small, only 4. The main weapons were machine guns and mortars. We had a total of 120, together with the spare machine guns, as well as 20 60mm mortars, 20 82mm mortars and 12 120mm mortars." When Prince Ruprecht came to check the preparations in person, Lieutenant Colonel Carl reported the list of weapons he carried.

Naturally, the troops of his own regiment could not use so many weapons. In fact, at the beginning of the First World War, a German division did not have 120 machine guns. It is said that when the entire Western Front broke out, the number of machine guns concentrated by the German army would not exceed 2,000. These weapons were largely prepared for some Turkish troops.

"What about the relevant equipment?" asked the prince. According to the Italian-Turkish war in history, the two sides fought directly for more than a year. It was probably difficult for them to carry so many machine guns and mortars to rely on the ammunition transported before the war to hold on. So this time, Lieutenant Colonel Carl also had to bring a suggested bullet reload line, simple gun repair equipment and spare parts.

Why do you bring so many mortars? The reason is very simple. The production of shells is simple. Cheap pig iron can be made into shell shells. The shrapnel produced after explosion is no worse than copper shells. If there is no smokeless gunpowder, black gunpowder can be used as a medicinal product. The range is closer, just change to a set of cannon watches. Just use it as you please.

"According to your idea, we have designed two simple four-wheeled carriages to transport machine guns and mortars, and related orders have been issued. They will be produced in Egypt under the name of ordinary carriages and then transported over through special passages," said Lieutenant Colonel Carl.

In fact, this kind of carriage is not like an ordinary carriage. It actually consists of two parts: a front carriage loaded with ammunition and maintenance tools, and a rear carriage equipped with machine guns, which is mounted on the front car through a link equipment.

A new type of mg98 machine gun is fixed to the rear vehicle, and the machine gun is almost integrated with the body of the vehicle through the gun frame. Of course, it can also be removed when necessary and can be pressed on an ordinary tripod.

"Without the artillery, the rear car is a reliable point of fire." Lieutenant Colonel Carl walked forward and said. He opened a box on the right side of the machine gun and pulled out a link from it. "The ammunition box on the right side of the car body can hold at least 2,000 rounds of bullets.

"There is the cooling water tank on the left. We use a conduit to directly connect the cooling water bucket of the machine gun. There are about 50 kilograms of water inside." After that, Lieutenant Colonel Carl opened the cooling water tank on the left again. mg98 and the Germans in history used a large amount of mg08 machine guns to use the same size cooling pipe, and after filling it, 4 l of water is needed.

In addition to consuming a lot of ammunition, machine guns also consume a lot of coolant (can be water or urine...). The mg98 machine gun on this plane is a counterfeit British Wicks machine gun. While ensuring a lighter weight, it also inherits the problem of wasting water sources.

According to the experiments of Lieutenant Colonel Carl and others, when the temperature outside is not too high, continuous shooting of 500 to 600 bullets will make the water in the machine gun cooling water bucket boil, and the temperature is so high that it can boil eggs... If you are not willing to release the trigger at this time, then an average of 1.5 pints of water will evaporate for every 1,000 bullets. (1 pint is about 0.57l of water) and long-term shooting will cause firearm damage.

If it is in an ordinary environment, although the consumption of this water source will be very troublesome, it is still a certain gap between the fatal ones. But this time, the place where the Blue Legion is going to is North Africa! The water source problem is very serious. Why do you have to get this carriage? To a large extent, it is to ensure the water source of personnel and machine guns!

After understanding the situation, Lieutenant Colonel Carl was afraid that 50kg of fresh water was not enough, so he hoped that the water storage tank of the mass-produced machine gun carriage could be more than 80kg...... The cooling water of the mg98 machine gun can be re-entered into another water tank along a rubber conduit. This is a condensate collection box, which is used to minimize the waste of water sources.

"The baffle behind the car body seems to be able to be flipped upward?" The prince, who was close to the carriage, looked at a steel plate hanging behind the car body curiously and said.

"It's like this. After entering the combat position, this steel plate can be turned up as a shield for the machine gun shooter. Moreover, the rear car has independent brake equipment. Just pull up the brakes and then open the bracket, which will become a very stable design platform."

"Let me see your mortars." The prince was quite satisfied with this machine gun carriage.

"If it is a 60mm and 82mm mortar, just use the same carriage, and even the 60mm mortar can be easily removed from the car and fired. The bottom plate of the 82mm mortar is the vehicle itself. The gun body is also fixed to the car. The most troublesome thing is the 120mm mortar, which weighs more than 225kg. So we arranged this for it."

Lieutenant Colonel Carl pointed to the suggested cannon cart in the distance. Generally speaking, the so-called cannon carts are at least 4 to 6 horses. However, for maneuvering and flexible, all carts are based on double horses, which requires the weight of the entire cart to be as low as possible. The weight of the former plus the rear cart should be below 800kg. You should know that the weight of a 120mm mortar is 225kg. So Lieutenant Colonel Carl simply adds 2 wheels on both sides of the cannon and directly acts as the rear cart. A connecting rod in front is connected to the ammunition truck.

A 120mm mortar shell weighs up to 15kg. In addition to carrying a cannon, a double carriage also needs to carry 25 mortar shells and corresponding *******. This is almost close to the limit of carriage carrying. After all, you cannot expect the road conditions in Africa to be very good.

"Most of our weapons are ready, but overall, there are still some problems because I cannot get enough fire cover for the offensive troops." After hesitating for a while, Lieutenant Colonel Carl expressed his concerns.
Chapter completed!