Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1667 Main Gun
The Imperial Guard's air assault force entered Cybernia.

They didn't enter from the outskirts, because Cybernia couldn't be entered directly. However, as before, they could first enter Aru and then exit through the gate that had been blown open earlier.

Because they didn't have any heavy equipment, and their supplies were all in their backpacks, they could simply walk to transport the entire rapid reaction force through the two-person-wide blast door from the studio's basement to Cybernia.

Victoria herself was in the studio, watching these Aurora air assault troops enter her capital.

Lu Huaiyang saw her as he passed by and saluted her. However, there was no need for the others in the march to salute individually; he, as the commander, could do it on their behalf.

These rapid reaction units of the air assault force walked past him, carrying the “20mm autocannons that anyone could use” that she had seen before.

Only then did she fully understand that Wen Yuan, who had been in charge of the introduction, was indeed telling the truth—hundreds of people could use it, and hundreds of machine guns were deployed on the streets. If calculated by the number of firepower units, this was already a division-level firepower.

These soldiers could easily suppress the entire armed forces of Cybernia.

This doesn't mean the Romans will lose—in fact, because they are virtually invincible, they are unstoppable. But if Rome has to swarm like insects to win, that's a defeat in itself, as it's no different from rolling on the ground in defeat.

This also presents another problem: if Rome manages to escape even after resorting to tactics like lying on the ground and rolling around, it will face utter defeat. This scenario is quite plausible, as the firepower of these "machine guns" is enough to vaporize anything that gets close. Even a real swarm of Zerg could be suppressed by the powerful metallic storm, creating a kill zone that would allow the Zerg to retreat safely.

“I think it’s all over now that it’s over.” Victoria shook her head. “But I have a question. What equipment do you have next?”

"This..." Shang Luo pondered for a moment. He had indeed offered many suggestions and personally oversaw some equipment improvements.

For example, he modified the Lianshan into a space battleship himself. At that time, he was in dire need of a combat force that could provide support globally, and the Dao Ancestor happened to give him a ship, so he made the most of it and modified the equipment he had on hand.

What would truly future equipment designed from scratch look like?
"I really don't know. After all, I'm not a professional designer. I can only offer some solutions and planning suggestions based on the current situation. As for how to implement them, that depends on the government's plan. Wait a moment, I'll ask around for you."

Lu Huaiyang hadn't gone far when Shangluo invited him back.

"Want to ask about the progress? Hmm?" Lu Huaiyang thought for a moment.

This was classified. However, as the commander of the emperor's trusted personal guard, his daily work revolved around classified matters. In some things, he even knew more about them than the emperor himself.

In principle, these secrets cannot be revealed. However, as a high-ranking decision-maker, he judged that appropriately disclosing some information would help resolve the problem. "I can indeed tell you one," Lu Huaiyang turned around, "So, Her Excellency Victoria has seen the Lianshan in the sky, right?"

“Yes.” Victoria nodded. “There are very powerful cannons up there.”

The Lianshan is equipped with relativistic kinetic energy weapons, capable of projecting mass onto Earth at near-light speed. If the bombardment is precise enough, this pure kinetic energy attack can even penetrate the Earth's crust.

To achieve this, Shangluo carried out a complete overhaul of the Lianshan's weapon system, replacing the original cannons with launch rails for a relativistic kinetic energy weapon system.

"So, here's the question," Lu Huaiyang began, "Does a turret really need to fire shells?"

"Ok?"

“Look,” Lu Huaiyang explained, “the Lianshan is in its current state because it was designed and built as a battleship that floats on water. Looking back at the development of the battleship, it has always been a type of ship whose main weapon is cannons. Initially, the black powder smoothbore cannons were placed on the broadside, which was a natural approach. Because the ship was long, using the broadside to aim at the enemy allowed for the placement of more cannons. But times have changed. With the advent of ironclad warships and the development of artillery technology, the engagement distance in naval battles has become increasingly longer.”

At that time, naval battles reached the limits of visual range for the first time. Both sides began to rely on observation and aiming equipment to engage in combat, and sometimes artillery duels would extend beyond visual range. If the caliber of the cannons was too small, their range often could not meet the requirements for engagement distance in naval battles at that time.

At the same time, with advancements in engine and shipbuilding technology, warships can be equipped with increasingly heavy armor, making them difficult for small-caliber cannons to penetrate.

The combination of these two factors led to a change in warship design. Larger cannons replaced more numerous cannons. Given the naval warfare environment of the time, it was pointless to deploy a large number of small and medium-sized cannons on the sides. Those cannons could at best serve as secondary armaments.

In the era of ironclad warships, warships needed actual main guns to fight, and sometimes an entire warship was designed to carry a gun of a specific size. This gave rise to the concept of "main guns".

When a few main guns hold a crucial position on a warship, space should be provided on the deck for them to rotate. This is because without rotation, aiming is impossible in long-range combat. Thus, the rotating platform was developed to house the cannons.

Naturally, to protect against shell fragments, gun shrouds were then added to the turret, eventually leading to armored gun emplacements capable of withstanding direct shell impacts. Once the entire turret was enclosed, the turret itself appeared. Inside the sealed turret, the entire gun barrel and ammunition feeding mechanism began to rotate with the turret, allowing the loading mechanism to be integrated with the hull for greater efficiency, rather than simply placing the gun on the deck.

This led to the emergence of the ironclad warship's successors—the dreadnought and the super-dreadnought.

The Lianshan belonged to the category of "super-dreadnoughts," a fully modernized battleship. However, as construction progressed, the navy astutely realized that aircraft would dominate the battlefield in the next era, and the Lianshan was repurposed for a more important purpose.

(End of this chapter)