Chapter 355: Technical Sergeant

After reviewing rifles and pistols, it was time for cannons.

This batch of arms orders from Guangdong came at a very timely time. If this order can be successfully completed, Liang Yao can invest less money in the Sacramento Arsenal this year, and the saved money can be used for other purposes.

The Sacramento Arsenal, which was officially established in 1851, was finally able to open and open up an overseas market.

This is a milestone for California's military enterprises.

Liang Yao asked the staff of the arsenal to select one of each type of artillery that the Sacramento Arsenal can currently produce and pull it to the test site for testing.

Accompanying the test were four Armstrong cannons obtained from special channels.

This test was not only to promote the artillery produced by the Sacramento Arsenal to Hong Mingxiang and others, but also to compare the performance of the Armstrong cannon with these old artillery and transitional artillery.

Finally, the focus of research and development and production of the artillery department of the Sacramento Arsenal will be decided in the future.

The guns involved in the test include 6-pound muzzle-loading smoothbore guns (small Napoleon guns), 6-pound muzzle-loading rifled guns, 6-pound breech-loading rifled guns, 10-pound muzzle-loading smoothbore guns, 10-pound muzzle-loading rifled guns, and 12-pound muzzle-loading smoothbore guns and 12-pound muzzle-loading rifled guns.

These are all the gun models that the Sacramento Arsenal can produce at present.

The main gun parameters of this test are range, rate of fire, and lethality.

The first to be tested are various types of 6-pound guns. The 6-pound gun is relatively light, flexible, and powerful, and is currently equipped with field guns in artillery companies.

According to the organization of the Federal Army Artillery, a 6-pound gun is served by an artillery team of 3 to 5 people.

1 to 2 soldiers hold the worm and the ramrod, responsible for cleaning the barrel and pushing the bullet, 1 to 2 soldiers are responsible for passing the loading of ammunition, and one soldier is responsible for pulling the fire.

Compared with the organization of the Federal Army Artillery Regiment, Liang Yao's 6-pound gun artillery team consists of 6 people.

Each gun is equipped with a sergeant with a T rank, who is responsible for the aiming and correction of the gun.

The so-called T means that there is a letter T on the rank insignia, which is the first letter of Technology.

The rank with T means technical sergeant, which is the rank system implemented by Liang Yao in his army with reference to the rank of the US military in World War II.

After the Pearl Harbor incident, the United States officially joined the war and began to expand its army in full swing, because the technical arms of the army needed a large number of relevant technical talents.

In order to attract engineers and technicians to join the army, on January 8, 1942, the US Army officially added three-level technical posts at the non-commissioned officer level, namely, the fifth-level technical sergeant (T-5), the fourth-level technical sergeant (T-4), and the third-level technical sergeant (T-3).

Driving skills, mechanics, radio use skills, medical skills, and military music-related skills can obtain the corresponding technical sergeant rank after passing the recruit training and technical assessment.

The most direct benefit that technical sergeants can get compared to ordinary sergeants is higher wages. While attracting more relevant technical talents to sign up for the army, this new rank system does not disrupt the original command system.

Taking ordinary soldiers as an example, the same recruits, the completed recruits with T, have a salary 25% higher than the completed recruits without T.

This system has been tested by war, and it has been proved that the third-level sergeant technical post system of the US military in World War II was very successful.

Of course, the basis for implementing this system is that the country has completed industrialization and has sufficient technical talent reserves in the country.

Even if an agricultural country implements this system, it may not achieve the same results as the United States.

This is why Liang Yao spared no effort to attract industrial workers from the East and even Europe to work in California.

These industrial workers can not only create a lot of real wealth in peacetime, but also represent greater war potential in wartime.

In Liang Yao's army, sergeants with T have a salary 25% higher than sergeants of the same level.

However, there are not many technical branches in Liang Yao's army at present. Only one artillery company and an engineering company have technical sergeants.

At the same time, Liang Yao is now considering setting up a special communication company.

The technical sergeants of the artillery company are equipped with very luxurious equipment. In addition to the sabers for self-defense and the Sacramento version of the Colt revolver, they are also equipped with a monocular telescope for observing the battlefield situation and the location of the artillery.

It can be said that the technical sergeants of the artillery company are armed to the teeth in terms of hardware and software.

Only Liang Yao's artillery company dares to be so arrogant in the whole United States to delegate such expensive equipment as telescopes to officers at the sergeant level.

In the three active artillery regiments in the United States, even the lieutenants at the company commander level may not have popularized telescopes.

The gunners of the three artillery teams responsible for testing three different types of 6-pound cannons first measured the distance of the target, and then commanded their soldiers to adjust the muzzle and elevation of the artillery.

After all parameters were adjusted, the soldier holding the worm and ramrod pushed one end of the worm into the barrel and cleaned the residue in the barrel according to the regulations in the training manual.

Kang Enze, who was watching from the side, was eager to fire the gun and see the power of the American cannon. At the same time, he also hoped that the visit to the Sacramento Arsenal would end soon so that he could return to San Francisco to ride a foreign horse earlier.

The seemingly unnecessary action of the artillery soldier made Kang Enze complain: "This is a newly pulled artillery, the barrel must be clean. Besides, if there is any foreign matter in the barrel, can't we just take a look with our eyes? Why go to so much trouble?"

"It's daytime now, and the foreign matter in the barrel may be visible to the eyes, but what if it's night? Do we need to see it with our eyes?" Liang Yao asked back.

"My artillerymen are very precious, and they are all fed with artillery shells. If they are damaged because of the explosion of the artillery, my heart will bleed!"

Liang Yao's words are not exaggerated. It is easy to find good brothers of infantry cannon fodder to fill the line, and it is also easy to train them into an army.

But experienced artillerymen with combat experience are not easy to find.

Liang Yao's artillerymen are all experienced artillerymen who have been searched from all over the place. He trained this only artillery company as a future artillery sergeant or even a lieutenant.

As long as there is this elite artillery company as the team, he can quickly expand an artillery company into an artillery regiment at the fastest speed in wartime.

An improper operation caused casualties in an artillery team. It seemed that only one artillery team was lost, but in fact, an artillery company was lost. How could he not feel distressed? How could his heart not bleed?

Liang Yao's soul-searching question made Kang Enze speechless.

"Don't talk too much here and embarrass yourself!" Hong Mingxiang kicked Kang Enze unceremoniously, and then swept his eyes over the confidants who accompanied him, "Take a good look at how General Liang's artillery fired the cannon, open your eyes and watch, I brought you to California not just to ride foreign horses, learn some real skills and go back, don't waste my money!"

Hong Mingxiang's entourage and confidants were silent after being scolded by Hong Mingxiang, and had to cheer up and watch how Liang Yao's artillery operated and fired the cannon.