Chapter 985 Arrival
"Your Highness, the first batch of machine guns has been delivered to the army. Read М"
The study room of the palace.
When Zhao Xu was reviewing the memorials, Wang Ying came to report.
Hearing this, Zhao Xu stopped writing and said to Wang Ying, "Continue the production of the next batch of machine guns and deliver them to the Qinglong Army and the Suzaku Army. Once the war in the north is over, it is time to deal with Jiaozhi, the Barbarians and the Western Army entrenched in the southern region."
"Yes, Your Highness." Wang Ying bowed and replied.
Nodding, Zhao Xu thought of something and said, "By the way, the machine gun issue has been settled. You and Wang Chong should also go to Jinghai often and strive to build the first ironclad ship as soon as possible."
For the current war, the army has hand-cranked machine guns, which can temporarily meet the needs of battlefield firepower.
As for the next generation of gas-powered automatic machine guns, the structure is much more complex and sophisticated than hand-cranked machine guns.
This requires the Research and Manufacturing Institute under the Arms Department to continuously produce and test until it is qualified.
Moreover, since this machine gun can fire 600 rounds per minute, the quality requirements for the barrel are naturally very high.
The research institute must also conquer higher quality special steel.
Therefore, taking advantage of this window period, they can devote more energy to the construction of ironclad ships.
After all, compared with the replacement speed of the army's muskets and artillery, the replacement of naval equipment is relatively slow.
At the same time, the current problems facing the navy are much greater than those of the army.
Zhou Yi told him that the Westerners have learned to use shrapnel on their warships.
It's just that the opponent's shrapnel is not as technically advanced as the Dasong warships and the range is too short, so it does not pose any threat to the Dasong Navy.
However, for Zhao Xu, this is a bad signal.
Obviously, after suffering a loss, the Westerners are using their steam industry to close the gap between their muskets and artillery.
In terms of muskets, the Westerners have imitated the muzzle-loading rifled guns.
He believes that in terms of artillery, the opponent's round hollow bullets will soon transition to conical hollow bullets.
Once the conical shells are in place, the enemy's warship capabilities will be improved.
At that time, even if the enemy's naval gun range is still not as good as theirs due to steel quality problems, the gap will inevitably narrow.
With the number of sailing warships they have accumulated for hundreds of years, the pressure on the Dasong Navy will rise sharply.
The only way to solve this problem and allow the Dasong Navy to dominate the global ocean order in a short period of time is the steam ironclad ship.
"In this regard, I have been cooperating with Chen Zhushi. After overcoming the bearing problem, the rotating turret has also been in sight. As long as the main body of the warship is completed, it can be installed." Wang Ying replied, and then introduced the structure of the rotating turret.
Zhao Xu nodded with satisfaction. The most important part of this rotating turret is the bearing that fixes the turret.
Speaking of bearings, its structure is to fill steel balls between two steel rings.
In this way, the inner and outer steel rings can rotate freely.
This thing can be manufactured at the level of steam industry.
But the bearings used in artillery are naturally different from those used in ordinary machinery.
Due to the problem of recoil, there are higher requirements for its quality and larger specifications.
As for the shells, there will be a hand-cranked conveyor belt between the turret and the lower deck to deliver the shells in the cabin to the turret for soldiers to use.
In this way, when encountering enemy warships at sea, the ironclad ship will no longer need to use movement to adjust the muzzle to bombard the enemy warships.
Just rotate the turret to attack enemies in any direction.
After saying this, Zhao Xu asked Wang Ying to go back.
When Wang Ying's figure disappeared, Zhao Xu looked at the drawings on the wall and cast his eyes in the direction of Yongzhou.
This time, thirty machine guns were sent to the front line of the Yongzhou battlefield, which will greatly increase the firepower density of the Dasong army.
Some of the Beidi people suffered.
As he was thinking, Yang Susu suddenly came to the door of the study with an ambiguous expression, "Your Highness, the queen sent another bowl of red date porridge."
Zhao Xu couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard it.
When this man gets old, he seems to be addicted to holding his grandson.
Since he came back, Queen Mi not only said it, but also implemented it in action.
Every now and then, someone was sent to the palace, either to deliver a plate of peanuts or a bowl of red date porridge.
The implication was that he should have a baby sooner.
At first, Queen Mi only called Yang Susu to Wuji Palace, stared at Yang Susu and muttered, but now she often called Feng'er and Luan'er.
That meant that it didn't matter who came first.
"Let's go back to the bedroom to have a baby." Zhao Xu rolled his eyes, left the study, and walked towards the bedroom with his arms around Yang Susu's slender waist.
...
At the same time.
The steam locomotive to Yongzhou had already set off.
In the carriage, thirty machine guns stood quietly, and along with the machine guns, there were also special metal bullets for machine guns.
After running on the road for a day and a half, the train arrived at the east bank of Jinhe River.
After the machine guns were unloaded, they were immediately sent to Yongcheng.
Here, the thirty machine guns caused a commotion.
For the generals, this thing is a treasure.
"A total of thirty, great." Chang Wei's eyes lit up as he stroked the machine guns gently in Yongcheng Prefecture.
He had been waiting for the machine guns to arrive, and now his hope was not in vain. The Arms and Arms Department delivered the machine guns on time.
"Send the machine guns to Lingwu County immediately. It's time to kill Muller Hongzhen, the bastard." After Chang Wei was happy, his face suddenly became serious.
He received battle reports from all directions every day.
Naturally, he knew that Muller Hongzhen was so crazy that he even let the soldiers charge with gunpowder barrels on their backs.
Since the enemy continued to charge with large numbers of soldiers, their firepower suddenly seemed a little insufficient.
Now that the machine guns have arrived, this problem has been solved.
After receiving his order, the general in charge of transportation immediately called the soldiers to carefully carry the machine guns.
In a day and a half, the machine guns arrived at the battlefield of Lingwu County.
Seeing thirty machine guns and boxes of metal bullets, Bai Shang, Huo An and other generals were almost crazy with joy.
During this period, they have had soldiers learning how to use machine guns with the people of the Arms Department.
This batch of machine guns can be put into use immediately.
"Damn it, the Beidi people have been comfortable these days, and now it's our turn to be comfortable." Bai Shang said with red eyes.
Facing the Beidi's crazy charge, he dared not be careless.
These days, he and Huo An took turns to watch the battlefield, for fear of mistakes.
However, although the Beidi people used cavalry to cause them some trouble, they never destroyed the trench defense line and were responsible for a large number of casualties.
"Direct counterattack!" Huo An shouted, he was tired of passive defense.
Now that they had consumed a certain number of the enemy's soldiers, and with the arrival of the machine guns, he thought it was entirely possible to launch a counterattack.
Bai Shang nodded, and he meant the same thing.
Each machine gun sent this time was fixed on a separate two-wheeled vehicle, and there was a thick iron plate in front of the vehicle, with only a palm-wide gap to look forward.
This meant that the machine gun could be pushed, and the iron plate could also protect the machine gunner, which was very suitable for them to fight a counterattack.